Apps to make a Confluence group watch a space or page, compared

By Kayabyte · Updated 1 November 2026

Short answer: Confluence Cloud only lets individual people watch a space or page, and an admin script that adds watches for a group is a one-time snapshot. Three Marketplace apps keep a group watching: Group Watchers and GroupFollow both sync every hour, add people who join, remove watches they added for people who leave, and don’t re-add people who unwatch; Group Notifications is free, syncs daily and can also @mention a group in a comment. GroupFollow lets space admins and page editors assign groups themselves, while Group Watchers is set up by a Confluence admin in one place. Group Watchers costs less than GroupFollow for 11 to 100 users; Group Notifications costs nothing.

Disclosure: Group Watchers is the app I make. I’ve tried to describe every option fairly, including where another one is cheaper or does something mine doesn’t. Competitor facts come only from each app’s public Marketplace listing, its pricing data and its public documentation. Where they don’t mention something, the table says “not described” instead of guessing.

Checked on 1 Nov 2026; prices and features change, check each listing.

Comparison table

	Watching (built in)	Admin script (REST API)	Group Watchers (mine)	GroupFollow for Confluence	Group Notifications for Confluence
Makes a group’s members watch a space	No, each person clicks Watch	Yes, once	Yes	Yes	Yes, with a sync rule
A single page	Each person	Yes, once	Yes	Yes, and blog posts	Yes, from the page menu
Who sets it up	Each person	Confluence or space admin with an API token	Confluence admin, in the app’s settings	Space admins for a space; anyone who can edit a page for that page	From the page menu; the listing says permissions are checked first
New group members start watching	No	Only when you run it again	Yes, every hour and right after a change	Yes, every hour and on demand	Yes, daily or on demand
Removes watches when people leave	No	No	Yes, only watches it added (can be switched off)	Yes, only watches it added	Yes, only watches it added
People who unwatch are not added back	n/a	No, the next run adds them back	Yes	Yes	Not described
Also @mentions a group in a comment	No	No	No	No	Yes
Runs on Atlassian badge	n/a	n/a	Yes	Yes	Yes
Price, 11 to 100 users (per user per month)	Included	Included	USD 0.70	USD 1.10	Free
Up to 10 users	Included	Included	Free	Free	Free
Installs (Marketplace count)	n/a	n/a	1	1	1
Last update	n/a	n/a	30 Oct 2026	14 Oct 2026	17 Sep 2026

All three apps are Forge apps for Confluence Cloud. None has a review yet, and all are new, so installs don’t tell you much. Watches made by any of them are ordinary Confluence watches: updates arrive through each person’s own notification settings, and page edits go into the daily digest email by default.

The built-in options

Each person watches

Anyone can select Watch on a space or page. Watching a space covers its pages and blog posts. It’s free and needs no setup, but nobody can do it for a whole team, and new joiners only watch if someone tells them to.

Fits when: a few people need updates and will click Watch themselves.

An admin script

Confluence’s REST API lets a Confluence Administrator, or a Space Administrator on that space, add a watch for someone else, one person at a time. A short script can read a group’s members and add a watch for each. It’s free, but it’s a snapshot: joiners aren’t added until you run it again, leavers keep watching, and people who unwatched are added back on the next run. The script and its limits are in How to make a Confluence group watch a space or page.

Fits when: a one-time rollout to a team that rarely changes.

The apps

Group Watchers: Auto-Watch Spaces & Pages for Confluence

Group Watchers is the app I make. A Confluence admin maps one or more groups to a space or a single page. Every member becomes a watcher, people who join start watching, and for people who leave it removes only the watches it added (removal can be switched off). It runs right after a rule changes and every hour. People who unwatch are not added back, watches people already had are never touched, and members who can’t see the space or page are skipped and shown in the rule status. It stores only its rules and the account IDs it has handled, and makes no calls outside Atlassian.

What it doesn’t do: rules are set up by a Confluence admin in the app’s settings, not by space admins or page editors from the space or page. A page rule covers one page, not its child pages. Limits are 100 rules, 10 groups per rule and 10,000 members per group.

It’s on the Atlassian Marketplace.

Fits when: a Confluence admin wants every team’s spaces and pages managed in one list, kept in sync every hour.

GroupFollow for Confluence

GroupFollow for Confluence assigns a group as a watcher of a space, a page or a blog post. Its documentation says space admins assign groups to a space under Space settings → Integrations, and anyone who can edit a page can assign a group to it from the page’s Apps menu. Membership is re-checked every hour and with Sync now. When someone leaves, it removes only the watch it created, and anyone who unsubscribes stays unsubscribed. The settings screen shows how many people it subscribed, how many watch on their own, and how many opted out.

It works much like Group Watchers. The main practical difference is who can set it up: with GroupFollow, space admins and page editors can do it themselves, without a Confluence admin. It costs more than Group Watchers for 11 to 100 users.

Fits when: space owners should manage their own group watches.

Group Notifications for Confluence

Group Notifications for Confluence is free. From a page’s menu you pick a group and add every member as a watcher, post one comment that @mentions them, or both. Sync rules per page or space run daily or on demand: people who join start watching, and people who leave stop. Only watchers it added are removed. It keeps an action log that admins can see, and has caps of 250 watchers per action, 50 mentions per comment and 500 members per rule.

It does two things Group Watchers doesn’t: it costs nothing, and it can @mention a whole group in a comment. Its sync runs daily rather than hourly, and its listing doesn’t say whether people who unwatch are added back.

Fits when: you want this for free, or want to notify a group about one page with a mention, and groups have up to 500 members.

Other apps you may find

Searching the Marketplace for “watch” also brings up apps that watch or unwatch many pages at once, such as Bulk Action Tools, Bulk Actions: Labels, Watchers & Page Trees, Tree View and Simply Watches. Their listings describe watching or unwatching page trees or spaces in bulk, not making a group watch, so they solve a different problem.

How to choose

A few people who will click Watch: the built-in Watch button.
A one-time rollout to a stable team: the admin script.
No budget, groups up to 500 people, daily sync is enough: Group Notifications.
Space admins and page editors should set it up themselves: GroupFollow.
One admin managing every team’s spaces and pages in one list, synced every hour: Group Watchers.

Whichever you pick, try it on one space first, and tell people that page edits arrive in the daily digest unless they change their email settings. See Confluence watching but no email? 5 things to check.

FAQ

Can Confluence Cloud make a group watch a space without an app? No. Only individual user accounts can watch. An admin can add a watch for each member with the REST API, but joiners and leavers aren’t handled.

Which of these apps is free? Group Notifications for Confluence is free. Group Watchers and GroupFollow are free for up to 10 users and paid above that.

Which is cheaper for 11 to 100 users, Group Watchers or GroupFollow? Group Watchers, at USD 0.70 per user per month, against USD 1.10 for GroupFollow.

Do these apps add people back after they unwatch? Group Watchers and GroupFollow don’t: someone who unwatches stays unwatched. The Group Notifications listing doesn’t say.

Can a space admin set this up without a Confluence admin? With GroupFollow, yes: space admins assign groups to their space, and page editors to their page. Group Watchers rules are set up by a Confluence admin.

Does a group watch give people access to the space? No. A watch never grants access, so members who can’t see the space or page don’t get its updates. Group Watchers shows them in the rule status.

Confluence and Atlassian are trademarks of Atlassian. Other app names are the property of their owners. Kayabyte is an independent developer and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Atlassian.