I feel like SharePoint and Google Docs are fundamentally different products that Confluence.

Looking for a Confluence competitor with permissions, version tracking, templates, and search but don't feel like I have found a good alternative.

I don't think we use version tracking, templates are not really used (but they should be!) and search could be better.

We basically use confluence like a wiki, but it's abnormally hard to put info into it.

Hard in what way?

by spending a lot of time in the confluence editor doing things the confluence way.

Yeah, it can definitely feel like a time-suck sometimes. What "confluence way" things would you do differently? And how?

XWiki is the closest thing I've found to Confluence.

Sharepoint? <spits out glass of water>

ok i take that one back personally, but somehow microsoft stuff keeps getting chosen by the decision makers.