I need a solution to keep track of important information (links, reference info) for my family and to try to remove tons of paper that we have around the house with information. I would expect my wife and my kids to use this as well but my guess is that I will do most of the publishing.
Which would be a better solution for this:
Of those two choices I would definitely go for Evernote. Evernote solves the problem of a single user's (or a single user's family's) little-evolving asset storage (driver's licenses, passports, etc), as well as some note-keeping on the side. It'll hold a bunch of different document types and will also be available everywhere (Web/Desktop/Mobile).
Confluence solves a similar but actually distinctly different problem: Collaborative efforts to evolve living documentation, with some asset storage / attachment handling (which is often abused and thus actively discouraged) on the side. Confluence doesn't have good options for Desktop/Mobile either, and unlikely to rush there feature wise.
Although either could probably be used, they are really focused on two different concepts.
Confluence is more of a team focused multiuser editor to document ideas, build consensus, and generate documentation either internally or in a blog. It does have ability to search for information that has been generated previously.
Evernote is more of an extended brain to keep everything you feel is, or may be, important. It can clip and record anything from text, webpages, photos, pdf's, graphics, and even sound and video. You can also generate new notes, either typed or hand written. It's unique stack/folder/tag structure allows for easy finding material so indexed, as well as fast keyword searching through the whole stored database. It is both web based, as well as on your local PC, and accessible from a multitude of hand held devices. So, review your needs and choose accordingly.
I am having the exact same dilemma and found this article. Without knowing what sort of technical capabilities you have (I'd assume more than average since you are posting on superuser), or what kind of money you'd like to spend--confluence has a 7-user setup for a 1-time payment of 10$, money goes to charity, where Evernote is ~45$/yr I believe. Here are a couple of thoughts on it:
1) If you are thinking of loading tons of images (scanned papers), I would probably recommend Confluence since Evernote's free version caps uploads at 60MB/month. Premium Evernote is ~45$/yr but upgrades the uploads to 1 GB/month at that point. 2) Evernote is widely available on just about every smart-mobile device you and your family may have, as well as most computers. It's a great place to jot down notes. I did notice a month ago though that Confluence has a Mini Confluence plug-in which may offer mobile support allowing easy on-the-go note taking.
For collaboration between family members (like a family message board), I would probably swing towards Confluence over Evernote though. I have tested Evernote on a PC/iPhone/iPad and like it, but haven't completely begun setting up and attempting to use confluence though, so I'll try to pop back and update after I test it.
