How to Migrate Confluence to SharePoint Without Losing Your Macros (and Why Most Migrations Fail)

15.01.2026

At some point, Confluence starts costing you twice: more license fees as your team grows, and more time because knowledge becomes harder to trust. Pages get outdated, structures break, and people stop knowing what’s “the right source.”

And when you’re already working on Microsoft 365 anyway, the question becomes obvious: why keep knowledge in a separate system when SharePoint is already there?

That’s usually when the migration conversation starts. Not because SharePoint is trendy, but because you want one system for your employees to use, and one place where knowledge doesn’t get lost. But here’s where most migrations go wrong: They move pages, but they lose macros and with them, they lose the way people work. If you migrate without a macro plan, you don’t just move content. You move a pile of pages… and lose the experience that made people use Confluence in the first place.

This guide shows you how to migrate Confluence to SharePoint without losing what users rely on most, especially macros, and how to rebuild the same knowledge experience (often better) with SharePoint + a modern wiki layer.

The Real Risk: Losing Confluence Macros Means Losing Trust

Confluence macros aren’t decoration. They’re how teams keep order. They use macros to:

• navigate pages (Table of Contents)
• build knowledge structures (Children Display)
• reuse content (Include Page)
• keep documentation consistent (Page Properties)
• show status and ownership
• connect tickets and work (Jira macros)
• make long pages readable (Expand)

When those macros disappear, people don’t say: “Oh no, the macro is missing.” They say:

“This intranet is confusing.”

“I can’t find anything.”

“I don’t trust what I’m reading.”

“I’ll just ask someone instead.”

And once that happens, adoption collapses, no matter how good the migration was technically. As a result:

• everyone creates pages differently
• macros get used inconsistently
• navigation grows randomly
• nobody knows what’s still valid
• ownership disappears
• search becomes a guessing game.

So, the real goal is not “move Confluence to SharePoint.” The real goal is to move Confluence to SharePoint without losing the experience Confluence gave your teams.

Macro-to-SharePoint Mapping

Below is a practical mapping that works in real intranet migrations, not theory.

Confluence Macro / Function	What users need it for	SharePoint Equivalent	What makes it work long-term
Table of Contents	Page navigation	Page sections + anchors / TOC web part	Templates + consistent headings
Children Display	Hierarchy / structure	Hub navigation + page structure	Wiki tree structure
Labels	Discovery	Managed metadata	Microsoft tag cloud + popular tags
Page Properties / Report	Structured documentation	Lists + metadata views	Templates + mandatory fields
Status Macro	Draft/Approved visibility	Choice columns + formatting	Governance + owners
Include Page	Reuse content	Web parts + linking	Single source of truth blocks
Expand Macro	Scannability	Collapsible sections	SPFx webpart
Mentions / ownership	Trust & accountability	Page authors + version history	Contributors + ownership displayed

This is the difference between “migrating content” and “migrating a usable knowledge system.” 

The Migration Plan: 7 Steps That Protect Your Macros (and Your Adoption)

Step 1: Pick the Spaces That Actually Matter (and Start There)

Don’t start with “what’s easiest.” Start with what’s most used. Choose:

• spaces with daily traffic
• spaces with heavy macro usage
• spaces tied to onboarding, policies, operations, IT, HR

Those are the spaces that decide whether people trust the new intranet.

Quick Win: Start with one “high impact” space (e.g. HR policies or Operations handbook). If people can find and trust that content in SharePoint, adoption momentum starts naturally.

Common Mistake: Migrating low-usage spaces first because they’re “cleaner.” It looks good on paper, but it doesn’t build trust or prove value.

Step 2: Run a Macro Inventory (Don’t Guess)

Most teams underestimate macro usage because they don’t see macros as functionality until they’re gone.

Inventory:

• Include Page / Excerpt Include
• Page Properties / Report
• Labels
• Children Display
• TOC
• Status macros

This becomes your migration risk map.

Quick Win: Start with the top 3 macros across your most important spaces and decide how they will be rebuilt (SharePoint native, SPFx webpart, or wiki layer).

Common Mistake: Exporting everything and hoping “we’ll fix macros later.” Later never comes and adoption drops immediately.

Step 3: Design Your SharePoint Structure Before Migrating Anything

If you migrate first, you import chaos. Define upfront:

• hubs and sites
• navigation and naming rules
• permissions model
• metadata taxonomy
• page templates

Quick Win: Create one “knowledge hub” with a clean tree structure. Even a simple tree makes SharePoint feel familiar to Confluence users. Rocketta Easy Wiki tree structure is a natural way to replicate the Confluence space tree experience and keep navigation predictable.

Common Mistake: Using folders instead of metadata because it “feels familiar.” Folders don’t scale for knowledge; you’ll recreate the same mess.

Step 4: Build a Macro Replacement Strategy (Not Everything Needs Custom Code)

For each macro decide:

• SharePoint-native replacement
• wiki-layer replacement
• SPFx replacement
• retire it (some macros aren’t needed anymore)

Quick Win: Solve navigation + discovery first:

• tree structure
• metadata + tag cloud
• popular tags

Those three remove most friction instantly. Rocketta Easy Wiki helps by providing:

• Microsoft tag cloud
• popular tags
• contributors (ownership visibility/responsible)

Common Mistake: Trying to rebuild Confluence 1:1 with custom development. That turns migration into an endless project. Focus on user outcomes, not pixel-perfect replication.

Step 5: Build Templates + Governance Rules (So Your New System Doesn’t Rot Again)

This is where SharePoint becomes better than Confluence if you set it up right. Define:

• mandatory metadata
• page templates (policy, process, how-to)
• ownership rules
• review cycles
• retention rules

Quick Win: Add contributors and owners visibly to every knowledge page. People trust content faster when they know who maintains it.

Rocketta Easy Wiki helps show contributors clearly, so ownership isn’t hidden, and you see who is responsible for what page.

Common Mistake: No owner = no maintenance. Without ownership and review cycles, your new SharePoint knowledge base will become outdated fast just like Confluence.

Step 6: Pilot One Space and Test With Real Users (Not IT)

Real users will tell you what’s broken in 2 hours, faster than any test script.

Validate:

• navigation logic
• macro replacements
• search quality
• readability
• permissions
• how content looks inside Teams

Quick Win: Let users test by doing real tasks:

“Find the latest travel policy.”

“Show me onboarding steps.”

“Find the correct project status template.

Common Mistake: Testing only with administrators. Admins already know the structure, but employees don’t. If employees can’t find things fast, they will say the intranet is “too hard” and stop using it.

Step 7: Scale Migration and Stop the “Old System Fallback”

Once pilots work, migrate in waves. But there’s one rule: don’t keep Confluence open for new content.

Quick Win: Switch Confluence to read-only once the SharePoint replacement space is live. That prevents knowledge from splitting and makes SharePoint the default.

Common Mistake: Leaving both systems active “for a while.” That creates two sources of truth. Trust collapses and people stop following standards.

Bonus: Make SharePoint Feel Like a Knowledge System (Not Just Storage)

This is where migrations become exciting because SharePoint stops feeling like “files and folders.” Here’s what makes the experience feel like Confluence (or better):

• Tree structure → predictable navigation
• Dictionary → definitions & translations directly where needed
• Microsoft tag cloud + popular tags → topic exploration like Confluence labels
• Contributors → visible ownership and trust
• Promoted Content → key updates and pages don’t get buried
• AI Chatbot → knowledge becomes accessible by asking, not searching

This is the layer that helps employees say: “This is easier and way cheaper than Confluence.”

Final Word: Don’t Move Content, Protect Knowledge

A Confluence replacement only works if people don’t feel like they lost something.

If users lose:

• navigation
• macros
• reusable content
• discoverability
• trust and ownership

…they won’t adopt SharePoint, even if the migration is technically complete.

But if you migrate with:

• macro mapping
• structure first
• metadata + discovery
• governance + ownership
• a wiki layer that restores usability.

…SharePoint becomes a real knowledge platform, not a storage dump. The best migrations are the ones where employees open the new intranet on day one and think: “Good. Everything still works and it’s easier now.” That’s the goal.

FAQ: Confluence to SharePoint Migration (Macros, Structure, and Adoption)