let's search Atlassian comunity for posts about guest account
answer questions from users looking for alternatives to the limited functionality of the guest account in confluence
https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/what-can-guests-see-and-do-on-confluence/
Apps - Guests are restricted from using Confluence’s system apps
Marketplace apps - guest account have free access to all Marketplace apps you’re using on Confluence. Marketplace app developers can block guests from accessing their apps. read more
https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/invite-guests-for-external-collaboration/
Guests are free of charge (up to 5 guests per paid user). Total number of users (paid + guests) can't exceed the current Confluence site user limit.
Important policy information
You may not convert current or former paid users to guests. The purpose behind the guest feature is to invite users outside of your organization.
Atlassian reserves the right to restrict your access to the feature if you’re not using it in compliance with this purpose and the guidelines outlined in Atlassian documentation. Atlassian also reserves the right to change the ratio of guests to paid users.
Guests are not currently supported in Confluence mobile apps. For more information, see https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-76382.
Only organization or site admins can invite guests to Confluence.
How to give access to guest account
Give guests full access to Confluence - atlassian has left itself a gateway to convert a guest account to a full access account
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Guests-in-Confluence/qaq-p/2572946
We have teammates that are using Confluence only for reading purposes, they dont create or edit Spaces and Pages. That would be great to somehow decrease the billing amount for such kind of users.
Would it be possible to convert those user into the Guests. Or at least new hires, who dont need full access and will just be reading the content in our Confluence, register as Guests and not pay for them.
As per the documentation regarding Guest Users for Confluence, you cannot convert users who have a paid license to Guest users.
https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/invite-guests-for-external-collaboration/
Also note that a Guest user would have access to only one Space in Confluence, and you would have to individually add a Guest user to a space. Access to Spaces for Guest users cannot be managed by setting up user groups of Guests and granting access to Spaces based on the groups.
Note also on the above page that Atlassian has said the intent of the Guest user is to grant access to people who are external to your company.
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Guest-access-any-restrictions/qaq-p/2558403
Let's say that there is a company that has 20 licensed users in Confluence Standard. These 20 people mainly fill 2 spaces: An internal space and an anonymous shared space for customers (FAQ etc).
If I understand it correctly, then one could create 100 (free) Guest users (20 x 5).
There are also 80 warehouse workers. These warehouse workers only need to have access to the internal space and check a few things there from time to time.
My question now is: Would it violate any rules or restrictions to give the 80 warehouse workers guest access (as they work in the same company as the 20 licensed users) or would that be ok?
So, if the warehouse workers were ever licensed subscribers, you wouldn't be able to add them as guests. If they were never users in your instance, then it likely will fall into this grey area. If Atlassian detects that the Guest users are all in the same domain as the paid users, you'll likely get a message from them stating that the behavior is not in the spirit of the feature