With Confluence moving to the cloud, I wanted a self-hosted solution. I looked at many alternatives, but none met my needs or offered a migration process that I was happy with for my existing Confluence content. So I decided to build my own.
The result is Simbioza, a wiki/CMS hybrid with calendars, tasks and content organized into workspaces. Each workspace can have its own theme, and the application supports different authentication methods.
The HTML editor was developed specifically for Simbioza. It supports dynamic content elements that provide native equivalents for supported Confluence macros. This helps imported content become part of the application rather than just a static copy. The editor also includes advanced editing features tailored to Simbioza, beyond basic rich-text editing.
Simbioza is written in PHP using the HeartPhrame framework. During development, a range of reusable modules was also created for the framework, many of which are integral parts of Simbioza.
I believe the result is a capable wiki/CMS and a practical solution for preserving existing Confluence content. But it is not only a migration tool: it is also a standalone, self-hosted application for anyone who wants to build a wiki, a knowledge base or a CMS without starting from Confluence.
The name “Simbioza” means “symbiosis” in Croatian. I chose it because the application is a collection of modules working together: calendars, meetings, tasks, notifications and HTML content all contribute to a shared experience.
You can explore the project here:
- Try the public demo — demo accounts and access instructions.
- Source code and documentation on GitHub.
- Watch the Confluence import walkthrough.
The public demo resets every five hours, so please use test data only.
This article was translated from my original Croatian text with AI assistance.
Top comments (0)