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Top 57 Knowledge Base Platforms Compared

Welcome to the definitive source for comparing and selecting knowledge base platforms. Here you will find our master list of every platform and tool we could find that can be used to create customer support documentation.

A support center can go by many different names: Knowledgebase, FAQ, self-service portal, help center, support portal, help desk, help authority tools (HAT) and more. But they all serve the same purpose: to inform and educate users.

We won’t be listing platforms that merely enable team collaboration on writing projects. The end results must be for end users in order to be included in our list. Any website creation tool could also be used for eventually building a help center, but since they aren’t a special purpose, we won’t be listing any Static Site Generators (SSG). These help center platforms are primarily free-standing, independent solutions. We typically did not include knowledge base solutions that are dependent such as Word-Press KB Plugins.

Our purpose in creating and maintaining this list is to help anyone responsible for deploying a support system to quickly and painlessly identify which platforms and tools are the very best fit to meet their particular support experience design goals within their budgetary constraints.

We reached out to a cohort of industry experts to get some initial feedback on what features are most important in knowledge base platforms. We’ve ranked the top ten tools in our research according to their responses. This top ten list is continually updated as we get more feedback. But we highly suggest you participate in our custom knowledge base platforms survey so you can layer in your own importance prioritization for each feature:






Top Ten
knowledge base platforms
as of April 2021

  1. Confluence
  2. Freshdesk
  3. MindTouch
  4. UseResponse
  5. RoboHelp
  6. Teamwork Desk
  7. HelpScout
  8. ReadMe
  9. Madcap Flare
  10. Help and Manual

Note: If we mark a specific solution as not having a particular feature, that only means we did not see that feature advertised in their public marketing content. We focus almost exclusively on publicly verifiable facts in our research.

If you are trying to build or rebuild an online customer-facing support platform for your company and need help navigating through all these options, feel free to leave a comment below.

Our analysts have done comprehensive research on 59 knowledge base tools. They collected over 800 data points, and more than 3000 feature points. We put together a scatter plot that ranks each knowledge base platform based on two dimensions: Knowledge Base Feature Strength and Knowledge Base Business Strength.

Knowledge Base Feature Strength is a number that was calculated by looking at how many features each knowledge base tool had, and the relative, subjective importance of each feature. You’ll definitely want to take our survey to layer in your own feature importance scoring before deciding on a solution.

Likewise, Knowledge Base Business Strength is a number that was derived from certain business-related qualities of each company, and our own (subjective) scoring of the importance of those qualities. There too, you’ll want to give your own importance rating to derive your own, custom scatter plot:

Any company looking for a technical documentation support solution or knowledge base platform should consider going through each item on this list one by one to determine how important each feature is for their particular use case. We highly recommend scheduling several 1-2 hour-long meetings with cross-department representation from your support teams, marketing teams, security teams, or sales teams for the purpose of evaluating each feature and its importance in your organization.

Of special importance is the field titled, Top Five Other Knowledge Base Platforms with Most Similar Features, in Order. For each tool, we looked at the feature sets of competitors to come up with their top closest competitors from a data-driven, feature-focused perspective.

You can also click here to jump straight to the list of features that we’ve uncovered for each knowledge base platform.

We want this research report to be mobile-friendly, so we’ve nested five different methods of ranking these knowledge base tools. Click on each to expand the ordered list:

ToolAge
HotDocs24.5 Yrs
Intercom24.5 Yrs
Help and Manual20.8 Yrs
Web Help Desk20.4 Yrs
Kayako19.6 Yrs
Madcap Doc-To-Help18.7 Yrs
Knowledge Powered Solutions18.6 Yrs
Spiceworks17.9 Yrs
Confluence17.8 Yrs
Vivantio5 Yrs
MindTouch16.3 Yrs
WinCHM16.2 Yrs
Slite16.0 Yrs
Dr.Explain15.9 Yrs
PHPKB15.5 Yrs
Madcap Flare15.1 Yrs
HelpNDoc14.9 Yrs
Screensteps14.4 Yrs
KBPublisher14.3 Yrs
Bloomfire11.3 Yrs
KnowledgeOwl11.1 Yrs
Freshdesk11.0 Yrs
Read the Docs10.8 Yrs
Help Scout10.4 Yrs
RoboHelp10.4 Yrs
Papyrs10.4 Yrs
Helpjuice9.8 Yrs
Happy Fox9.7 Yrs
UseResponse9.4 Yrs
Microsoft Sandcastle8.9 Yrs
HeroThemes10.3 Yrs
ReadMe7.8 Yrs
Cayzu7.3 Yrs
Helprace23 Yrs
Moxie Knowledge Base6.8 Yrs
Support Hero6.8 Yrs
Teamwork Desk6.3 Yrs
HelpSite5.8 Yrs
Help Crafter5.4 Yrs
Corilla5.4 Yrs
ComAround5.3 Yrs
Nuclino5.3 Yrs
SlimFAQ5.3 Yrs
Paligo5.1 Yrs
HelpDocs4.8 Yrs
Service Cloud4.8 Yrs
AllAnswered4.8 Yrs
KocharSoft4.8 Yrs
Zoho Desk4.6 Yrs
Whatfix4.3 Yrs
RightAnswers3.7 Yrs
Zendesk3.4 Yrs
Crisp3.3 Yrs
Sabio3.2 Yrs
Document3603.0 Yrs
Desk3.0 Yrs
Helpie WP2.9 Yrs
Timelapse2.8 Yrs
Koho2.8 Yrs
Knowmax9 Mo





What elements do you find important when deciding on a customer support center platform? Let us know in the comments below!

You can click on the images below to see an introduction video for the tool, if one is available.


Knowledge Base Platforms are listed below in no particular order:

Koho

Koho


Koho

Koho Comparison Details

Free trial: Limited

Pricing: $65 / License / Month

Feature summary: Service Management, Request Portal, Service Desk

Age of Software/Company: 3.0 Yrs

Distinctive features:

Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

Best Koho Alternatives

  • Adobe Sign
  • Alexa
  • API
  • AWS SageMaker
  • DocuSign
  • ERP
  • External System Adapter
  • TensorFLow



  • Help Crafter

    Help Crafter


    Help Crafter

    Help Crafter Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Help Authoring Tool for Mac only

    Age of Software/Company: 5.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Help Crafter Alternatives



    Moxie Knowledge Base

    Moxie Knowledge Base


    Moxie Knowledge Base

    Moxie Knowledge Base Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: $119 / Month / Author

    Feature summary: Knowledge Base Software Management and Reporting

    Age of Software/Company: 6.9 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Moxie Knowledge Base Alternatives

  • Adobe Omniture
  • Google Analytics



  • Paligo

    Paligo


    Paligo

    Paligo Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: $1,428 / Year

    Feature summary: The Next Generation of Technical Documentation

    Age of Software/Company: 5.3 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Paligo Alternatives

  • Algolia
  • Amazon S3
  • Bitbucket
  • DeltaXML
  • Disqus
  • FreshDesk
  • FTP
  • GitHub
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Intercom
  • MemSource
  • Mixpanel
  • Oxygen
  • Salesforce
  • Swiftype
  • Zendesk
  • Zoomin


  • What makes Paligo Unique:

    Here are some of our outstanding features that, when put together, make quite a unique system in this industry, providing power with simplicity: XML-based cloud solution that offers powerful features with a friendly interface – normally these two are polar opposites in this market. Integrated server and database architecture in the background, is available for a simple monthly license fee. Enterprise-level functionality for companies of any size, from the smallest to the largest enterprises. All the tools needed in one platform – authoring, collaboration, publishing, translation management, and version management. Cloud-based so no need to install applications. It works on any operating system and updates are immediately available to everyone. Awesome reuse features like reuse text fragments, multi-dimensional variables and filters, etc. They allow your content to be reused in many different publications and outputs. Highly customizable output to create modern results that match a customer’s styling requirements. Management appreciates the great efficiencies that Paligo provides such as reduced translation costs, quick multi-channel publishing and inherent consistency within the writing team, due to structure authoring.



    Document360

    Document360


    Document360

    Document360 Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: $49 / Project / Month

    Feature summary: Self Service Knowledge Base Software

    Age of Software/Company: 3.2 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Document360 Alternatives

  • Disqus
  • FreshDesk
  • Google Analytics
  • Intercom
  • Olark
  • Segment
  • Slack
  • Webhooks
  • Zendesk


  • What makes Document360 Unique:

    The most important or popular features of Document360 are as follows:
    Rich Editor: Document360 comes with a clean Markdown editor (built pretty much from scratch) giving seamless experience for the authors to focus purely on the content and not worry too much about formatting.

    Category Manager: Organising your articles is the core of any knowledge base solution. Document360 comes with an intuitive treeview-based category manager with options like drag & drop, unlimited hierarchy, hide and rename.

    Backup & Restore: Ability to roll back to any previous version like a time machine. Accidents do happen when multiple people are involved in your knowledge base. Document360 backup/restore will help you restore to previous good copies.

    Version Control: Your knowledge base articles are not static. It requires regular enhancements. Traditional knowledge bases just overwrite the content without any history. Document360 however maintains the full history and gives the option to restore to any previous versions if required.

    Real time Search: These days people want to quickly search and find relevant content. Document360 comes with super powerful real-time search capability.



    Corilla

    Corilla


    Corilla

    Corilla Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Collaborative publishing tools for technical writers

    Age of Software/Company: 5.6 Yrs

    Best Corilla Alternatives

  • Slack



  • KBPublisher

    KBPublisher


    KBPublisher

    KBPublisher Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: $198 / Individual License

    Feature summary: KB with Search, Mobile Support, Security and Automation

    Age of Software/Company: 14.4 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best KBPublisher Alternatives

  • Amazon S3


  • What makes KBPublisher Unique:

    KBPublisher’s unique, stand-out features are: Easy and intuitive to use. Fast, lean and mean. Those are the keywords for KBPublisher.

    Convenient Article Drafts. Modify existing published articles without interfering with live publications.

    Automated Workflow. Automate processes for reviewing, approving, and publishing articles.

    Single Sign On LDAP authentication, SAML integration, Social authentication.



    Helpie WP

    Helpie WP


    Helpie WP

    Helpie WP Comparison Details

    Free trial: 7 Days

    Pricing: $69 (1 site)

    Feature summary: WordPress Knowledge Base Plugin

    Age of Software/Company: 3.1 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Helpie WP Alternatives

  • Elementor
  • Woocommerce
  • WordPress


  • What makes Helpie WP Unique:

    Helpie knowledge base stands out from the crowd because, in addition to having most important features, it gives you more power-packed and useful features like:

    Front-end Editor – You could Add and Edit contents from the Front-end of the knowledge base with a text and media rich editor.

    Multi-tier Content Restriction – You can restrict access, not only to logged in users and topics, but also for every single page and to every single user.

    Revision System – Reviewers can go through current and previous revisions and publish any of the available revisions.

    Powerful search – The search bar should be visible and should perform a quick search matching all the words.

    Navigation – Users can easily navigate their way in and out of the knowledge base. You could use widgets like Table of Contents, Breadcrumbs etc.,

    Branding and Styling – Use your creativity to customise your Brand’s styling and change template layouts.

    Insights – It provides useful insights, like which users are searching, which content is Most Liked, Most Read, Most Disliked etc., so that you know if your knowledge base contents are useful or not.



    AllAnswered

    AllAnswered


    AllAnswered

    AllAnswered Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: $5 / User / Month

    Feature summary: All-In-One Knowledge Base System for Teams (Communities, Notifications, Dashboards)

    Age of Software/Company: 4.9 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best AllAnswered Alternatives

  • AD FS
  • Autho
  • Azure Active Directory
  • Bitbucket
  • CodePen
  • Draw.io
  • Figma
  • G Suite
  • GitHub
  • Google Docs
  • Google Forms
  • Google G Suite
  • Google Sheet
  • Google Slide
  • Invision
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Okta
  • OneLogin
  • Pastebin
  • Rest API
  • Slack
  • Slideshare
  • Spotify
  • SSO
  • Vimeo
  • WISTIA
  • YouTube
  • ZEPLIN


  • What makes AllAnswered Unique:

    AllAnswered offers an all-in-one Knowledge Management System (KMS). It is your team's collective brain. Our customers report more than 18% productivity boost on average after using AllAnswered.

    AllAnswered is optimized for capturing both explicit and tacit knowledge. It supports advanced Wiki pages for documenting explicit knowledge, and Questions & Answers (Q&As similar to Quora and Stack Overflow) to capture tacit knowledge. With the built-in workflow and AI assistant, AllAnswered keeps your knowledge content always up-to-date. AllAnswered organizes your team knowledge by communities. You can create communities for groups, departments, products, projects, or any common interest. A community can be either an open community or a private community.

    AllAnswered integrates with tools that you use on a daily basis so you will have the information you need at your fingertips without jumping between tools. The featured, 3rd party integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Github, G-Suite, and many more. Check out our integration page for details.



    Vivantio

    Vivantio


    Vivantio

    Vivantio Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: $48 / User / Month

    Feature summary: Flexible Software, Focused Solution | Scalable ITSM Software (Task Management, Service Management, SLAs)

    Age of Software/Company: 5 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Vivantio Alternatives

  • Azure
  • JIRA
  • Okta
  • Salesforce
  • SCIM Provisioning
  • TFS



  • HelpSite

    HelpSite


    HelpSite

    HelpSite Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Make a Knowledge Base Support Center – for Free (Knowledge Base and Support Center Software)

    Age of Software/Company: 5.9 Yrs

    Best HelpSite Alternatives

  • Gmail
  • Groove
  • Help Scout
  • Olark
  • Salesforce
  • Tawk.to
  • Zendesk
  • Zopim


  • What makes HelpSite Unique:

    HelpSite users love that we are the simplest way to get a hosted knowledge base online. Unlike our main competitors, who often focus on help desk ticketing and a thousand other features, we exclusively focus on helping you create a knowledge base.

    Our users also love our user interface, how well our WYSIWYG editor works, and that the help sites they can publish are mobile friendly and have a very fast and effective search. Finally, we offer a smart contact form, which helps reduce customer support queries by suggesting relevant articles as the user is typing their message.

    We are also affordable, even offering a completely free plan that supports custom domains.



    Nuclino

    Nuclino


    Nuclino

    Nuclino Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: The easy knowledge base for teams (Version Control, Markdown, Search, Mobile Documents)

    Age of Software/Company: 5.4 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Nuclino Alternatives

  • Autho
  • CodePen
  • Draw.io
  • Dropbox
  • Figma
  • Gliffy
  • Google Docs
  • Google Drawings
  • Google Drive
  • Google G Suite
  • Google Map
  • Google Sheet
  • Google Slide
  • JSfiddle
  • Loom
  • Lucidchart
  • Microsoft Active Directory
  • OneDrive
  • OneLogin
  • Plunker
  • Prezi
  • Slack
  • SoundCloud
  • Spotify
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube



  • Timelapse

    Timelapse


    Timelapse

    Timelapse Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: $29 / Month

    Feature summary: Knowledge Base & Help Center Software

    Age of Software/Company: 3.0 Yrs

    Best Timelapse Alternatives

  • Google Analytics



  • ComAround

    ComAround


    ComAround

    ComAround Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: $45 / User / Month

    Feature summary: Knowledge Management Software, Self Service & KCS (Tools for Knowledge Management, Video Recorder)

    Age of Software/Company: 5.4 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best ComAround Alternatives

  • Avaya
  • BMC
  • Cherwell
  • Dropbox
  • Firefox
  • Genesys
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Chrome
  • Google Drive
  • Manage Engine
  • MarVal
  • Microsoft Office
  • PureService
  • Salesforce
  • ServiceNow
  • WordPress



  • Whatfix

    Whatfix


    Whatfix

    Whatfix Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Support Platform, Onboarding, Reduce Support Overhead

    Age of Software/Company: 4.5 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Whatfix Alternatives

  • Firefox
  • Google Chrome
  • Salesforce



  • Madcap Doc-To-Help

    Madcap Doc-To-Help


    Madcap Doc-To-Help

    Madcap Doc-To-Help Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: $1,098 / Perpetual License

    Feature summary: Authoring and Publishing using Microsoft Word

    Age of Software/Company: 18.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Madcap Doc-To-Help Alternatives

  • Disqus
  • Microsoft Office
  • Microsoft SharePoint



  • Papyrs

    Papyrs


    Papyrs

    Papyrs Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Company Intranet and Wiki Software

    Age of Software/Company: 10.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Papyrs Alternatives

  • Google Analytics
  • Google Docs
  • Google Drawings
  • Google Drive
  • Google G Suite
  • Google Sheet
  • Google Slide
  • Slack
  • YouTube


  • What makes Papyrs Unique:

    What makes Papyrs stand out as unique? As mentioned above, improving engagement and encouraging people to contribute to knowledge systems is how they grow. Having an easy to use editor was an important part of the design for Papyrs. Everybody can create all kinds of pages with drag & drop features, from text-heavy documentation pages in the style of a wiki, to interactive pages with widgets like polls, discussions, videos, and custom forms (for structured data and collecting requests). There is also a complete version history, so people can always roll back changes, or get notified when content has been updated.

    In terms of finding data quickly, Papyrs has find-as-you-type search (incremental search) which looks through all content in pages, discussions, and uploaded document files. People can also customize the site’s navigation and menu bar for quick access to the most popular content.



    SlimFAQ

    SlimFAQ


    SlimFAQ

    SlimFAQ Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Easy FAQs with Integrations and Customization

    Age of Software/Company: 5.3 Yrs

    Best SlimFAQ Alternatives

  • Intercom
  • iOS
  • Shopify
  • Turbolinks
  • WordPress
  • Zapier



  • PHPKB

    PHPKB


    PHPKB

    PHPKB Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Article Management, Multilingual Support, User Groups Access

    Age of Software/Company: 15.7 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best PHPKB Alternatives


    What makes PHPKB Unique:

    Accelerate the power of Knowledge Management with PHPKB Software, a product that’s been designed and built with 18+ years of experience, building software. Create and manage knowledge base documentation effectively, to reduce support tickets, increase productivity, improve user experience and scale your customer support operations.

    PHPKB is perfect for any team, department, company or organization looking for a useful way to securely, easily and meaningfully share knowledge. PHPKB allows teammates to quickly and securely share information in a dynamic and social environment. When every piece of content is centralized and searchable, teams can access information when they need it, from any device. Employees spend upwards of 20% of their time looking for information. PHPKB reduces that time to increase productivity and efficiency. Upgrade your knowledge management software today and see what PHPKB can do for you.

    What makes PHPKB Unique?

    • WCAG 2.1 AA, ADA, Section 508 Compliance
    • Content Approval & Workflow Engine
    • Document Version Control
    • Knowledge Base API
    • Responsive Design & SEO Friendly
    • Event Log of all user actions
    • Clean & Secure Code



    HotDocs

    HotDocs


    HotDocs

    HotDocs Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Document Assembly Software: Automation & Compilation

    Age of Software/Company: 24.7 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best HotDocs Alternatives

  • Business Process Management (BPM)
  • CRM systems
  • Enterprise Content Management (ECM)



  • Madcap Flare

    Madcap Flare


    Madcap Flare

    Madcap Flare Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Help Authoring Tool (HAT) – Online Help Software & More (Technical Documentation Software)

    Age of Software/Company: 15.3 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Madcap Flare Alternatives

  • Salesforce
  • ServiceNow
  • Zendesk



  • KocharSoft

    KocharSoft


    KocharSoft

    KocharSoft Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Mobile Knowledge Management Solutions

    Age of Software/Company: 4.9 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best KocharSoft Alternatives

  • Ameyo
  • Freshchat
  • FreshDesk
  • Next in Queu
  • Salesforce
  • Zendesk



  • Support Hero

    Support Hero


    Support Hero

    Support Hero Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Self Help Knowledge Base to Educate Clients

    Age of Software/Company: 6.9 Yrs

    Best Support Hero Alternatives

  • Salesforce
  • UserVoice
  • Zendesk



  • Spiceworks

    Spiceworks


    Spiceworks

    Spiceworks Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: IT Help Desk Software

    Age of Software/Company: 18.1 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Spiceworks Alternatives

  • Azure
  • Dropbox



  • UseResponse

    UseResponse


    UseResponse

    UseResponse Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: $39 / Month

    Feature summary: Feedback, Knowledge Base, Help Desk, Live Chat Software

    Age of Software/Company: 9.6 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best UseResponse Alternatives

  • Google Analytics
  • JIRA
  • Salesforce
  • Slack
  • Zapier


  • What makes UseResponse Unique:

    The main features that sets UseResponse apart are: Multilingual: ability to create a separate knowledge base for each language.

    Multi-brand: can create a separate knowledge base for each product from your company.

    Internal and External: create a public knowledge base for your customers, or a private one for your internal teams.

    Self-hosted: has a self-hosted package which is helpful for strict data storage requirements or custom development use cases.

    All-in-one solution: knowledge base by UseResponse is a part of an ecosystem along with feedback, live chat and feedback modules that could be used separately or in combination with any other modules.



    HelpDocs

    HelpDocs


    HelpDocs

    HelpDocs Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: $49 / Month

    Feature summary: Self-Service Knowledge Base to Educate Your Customers

    Age of Software/Company: 5.0 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best HelpDocs Alternatives

  • Belco
  • Chatra
  • Crisp
  • Disqus
  • Doorbell
  • Drift
  • Elevio
  • Feedier
  • Front
  • FullStory
  • Gainsight PX
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Chrome
  • Gorgias
  • GoSquared
  • Hotjar
  • Hyperping
  • Intercom
  • Kommunicate
  • Lighthouse
  • LiveChat
  • Lucidchart
  • Segment
  • Slack
  • Smooch
  • Statuspage



  • Dr.Explain

    Dr.Explain


    Dr.Explain

    Dr.Explain Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: $250 / Multi-User License

    Feature summary: Documenting User Interfaces, Generating Help Files

    Age of Software/Company: 16.1 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Dr.Explain Alternatives



    Helpjuice

    Helpjuice


    Helpjuice

    Helpjuice Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: $120 / 4Users / Month

    Feature summary: Easy Editing, Analytics, Knowledge Base, Dashboard

    Age of Software/Company: 9.9 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Helpjuice Alternatives

  • Google Chrome
  • Olark
  • Salesforce
  • Slack
  • Zapier
  • Zendesk


  • What makes Helpjuice Unique:

    Analytics, Search, Customizability is absolutely key. Without those 3 you may as well use WordPress, which is a good solution for under 100 searches per month, but if you plan on actually getting usage, want to understand how to make it better, and have a good user experience, those 3 features are key.

    Our pricing is dead-simple and affordable as we only have 2 plans: Limited and Unlimited. Finally, our Support is rockstar status, as we personally onboard every single client and help them by importing their existing content, as well as customizing it – all free of charge, to make sure they are more successful with their knowledge base goals.



    Help and Manual

    Help and Manual


    Help and Manual

    Help and Manual Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: $499 / User / For Life

    Feature summary: Multi Author Editing, Multi Channel Publishing, Single Source Projects

    Age of Software/Company: 21.0 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Help and Manual Alternatives

  • Google Analytics
  • Microsoft Office


  • What makes Help and Manual Unique:

    Help and Manual stands out from the crowd because of the following features: Ease of use: Most users praise Help+Manual for ease of use, compared to other systems.

    Reliability and support: Help+Manual is a mature application that authors have depended on for over twenty years. Support is fast and personal, delivered by the people who developed the program and wrote the documentation. When problems do arise they are generally solved very quickly, often overnight.

    Output formats: All bases are covered with support for WebHelp, CHM, PDF, DOCX, Kindle, ePub, Windows eBooks and Visual Studio documentation formats.

    Flexibility: Users love the ability to publish to any output format at any time, including support for multiple tables of content including and excluding content on any level.

    Team support: Team members can collaborate on the same projects both in the same office and remotely, thanks to both native multi-user editing and active support for version-control-based collaboration.

    Localization and translation: Plain text 100% XML projects that can be processed directly by translation memory.



    Helprace

    Helprace


    Helprace

    Helprace Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: $10 / Agent / Month

    Feature summary: Tickets & Email Management, Community & Feedback, Docs & KB

    Age of Software/Company: 23 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Helprace Alternatives

  • Google Analytics
  • WordPress


  • What makes Helprace Unique:

    Helprace is a very simple and intuitive customer service software. What really sets Helprace apart is the lengths we've taken to integrate the knowledge base with the email-based help desk. Our software is also very popular with small businesses and startups – those who want to collect feedback or build an audience around their product.



    HelpNDoc

    HelpNDoc


    HelpNDoc

    HelpNDoc Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Word Processor, WYSIWYG, Multiformat

    Age of Software/Company: 15.1 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best HelpNDoc Alternatives


    What makes HelpNDoc Unique:

    HelpNDoc is a single source help and documentation authoring environment. While working and updating the documentation project, HelpNDoc provides powerful features to simplify the process: an advanced project analyzer to fix common mistakes, a live spell checker, conditional content generation based on topic status, output format or custom tags.

    Once the documentation is written, it can be exported to multiple documentation formats without additional effort, thus providing plenty of options for the end-user: responsive HTML web-sites, Word or PDF documents, ePub or Kindle eBooks, CHM or Qt help files. All those generated formats can be fully customized thanks to the powerful template system built into HelpNDoc, allowing seamless integration of the knowledge base with an existing product or web-site.



    Crisp

    Crisp


    Crisp

    Crisp Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Live Chat, Integrations, Knowledge, Campaigns

    Age of Software/Company: 3.5 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Crisp Alternatives

  • Chatbot
  • Cloudflare
  • Hubspot
  • Joomla
  • Line
  • Mailchimp
  • Messenger
  • Pipedrive
  • Prestashop
  • Salesforce
  • Segment
  • Shopify
  • Slack
  • Telegram
  • Twilio SMS
  • Twitter
  • Whatsapp
  • WHMCS
  • Zapier
  • Zendesk
  • Zoho



  • Knowledge Powered Solutions

    Knowledge Powered Solutions


    Knowledge Powered Solutions

    Knowledge Powered Solutions Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Knowledge Management Software

    Age of Software/Company: 18.8 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Knowledge Powered Solutions Alternatives



    WinCHM

    WinCHM


    WinCHM

    WinCHM Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: $129 / User

    Feature summary: Help Authoring Software, Templates, WYSIWYG

    Age of Software/Company: 16.3 Yrs

    Best WinCHM Alternatives

  • Microsoft Office



  • Web Help Desk

    Web Help Desk


    Web Help Desk

    Web Help Desk Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: Starts at $367

    Feature summary: Service Request Fulfillment, Help Desk Management

    Age of Software/Company: 20.5 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Web Help Desk Alternatives

  • Azure
  • Dameware
  • Gmail
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Chrome
  • Google G Suite
  • JIRA
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • OpsGenie
  • PagerDuty
  • PerfStack™
  • Slack
  • Zapier



  • RightAnswers

    RightAnswers


    RightAnswers

    RightAnswers Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Enterprise-Ready Software Platform for Knowledge Management

    Age of Software/Company: 3.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best RightAnswers Alternatives

  • BMC
  • Google Docs
  • Google Drawings
  • Google Drive
  • Google G Suite
  • Google Sheet
  • Google Slide
  • NetSuit CRM
  • ServiceNow
  • Slack



  • KnowledgeOwl

    KnowledgeOwl


    KnowledgeOwl

    KnowledgeOwl Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: $79 / Month

    Feature summary: API, Help Articles, Feedback Systems, Glossaries, Reporting, Search

    Age of Software/Company: 11.3 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best KnowledgeOwl Alternatives

  • FreshDesk
  • Google Analytics
  • Hotjar
  • Salesforce
  • Zendesk


  • What makes KnowledgeOwl Unique:

    One Product, One Focus. A lot of knowledge bases are add-ons to other products, like help ticketing software, where it’s clear the primary product and development focus is not on the knowledge base. At KnowledgeOwl, this is our only product, so we solve a lot of the problems directly, while other tools prompt you to find workarounds.

    Aside from that, some of our favorite features are our customizability (you can add custom CSS and custom HTML to your knowledge base overall as well as individual articles/categories); our embeddable widget; our customizable administrative roles and content restrictions; our flexible architecture (we won’t limit you to a set number of hierarchical levels in organizing your content); defining search synonyms; our built-in glossary with highlighting; integrations with SSO/SAML for easier access management; and our transparent pricing structure.



    HeroThemes

    HeroThemes


    HeroThemes

    HeroThemes Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: $149 / Year

    Feature summary: Popular Customizable WordPress Knowledge Base

    Age of Software/Company: 10.3 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best HeroThemes Alternatives

  • Slack
  • WordPress



  • Teamwork Desk

    Teamwork Desk


    Teamwork Desk

    Teamwork Desk Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Ticket Management, Reports, Help Docs

    Age of Software/Company: 6.4 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Teamwork Desk Alternatives

  • Chatify
  • ChurnZero
  • Easy Insight
  • Elevio
  • Float
  • FreshDesk
  • Google G Suite
  • Hubspot
  • Integromat
  • PieSync
  • Slack
  • Zapier
  • Zendesk
  • Zoho



  • MindTouch

    MindTouch


    MindTouch

    MindTouch Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Smart Knowledge Base, Reliable Reporting

    Age of Software/Company: 16.5 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best MindTouch Alternatives

  • Adobe Omniture
  • Five9
  • Gainsight PX
  • Genesys
  • Hotjar
  • Mixpanel
  • Pendo
  • Salesforce
  • SAP
  • Zendesk



  • Happy Fox

    Happy Fox


    Happy Fox

    Happy Fox Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: Request Pricing

    Feature summary: Help Desk Software, Self-Service Knowledge Base

    Age of Software/Company: 9.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Happy Fox Alternatives

  • Aircall
  • Azure
  • Baremetrics
  • Batchbook
  • Big Commerce
  • Chargify
  • ChartMogul
  • Clearbit
  • Delighted
  • Facebook
  • FreshBooks
  • FullContact
  • GitHub
  • Highrise
  • Hubspot
  • Infusionsoft
  • Insightly
  • JIRA
  • LogMeIN
  • Magento
  • Mailchimp
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365
  • Mixpanel
  • NiceReply
  • Okta
  • OneLogin
  • Pipedrive
  • RingCentral
  • Salesforce
  • Shopify
  • Slack
  • SmartSignin
  • Stripe
  • SugarCRM
  • SurveyMonkey
  • Twitter
  • WordPress
  • Zapier
  • Zoho



  • Sabio

    Sabio


    Sabio

    Sabio Comparison Details

    Free trial: Limited

    Pricing: $8 / User / Month

    Feature summary: Knowledge Management Software Solutions

    Age of Software/Company: 3.3 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Sabio Alternatives

  • CX Company
  • FreshDesk
  • HelpLine
  • Inexso ERM
  • NovoMind
  • Optimise-it
  • Salesforce
  • Sematell
  • Zendesk



  • ReadMe

    ReadMe


    ReadMe

    ReadMe Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Enterprise ReadMe for Complex Projects

    Age of Software/Company: 7.9 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best ReadMe Alternatives

  • Google Analytics
  • Intercom
  • Localize
  • Slack
  • Transifex
  • TypeKit
  • Zendesk



  • Help Scout

    Help Scout


    Help Scout

    Help Scout Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: $25 / User / Month

    Feature summary: Personalized: Knowledge Bases, Live Chat, & Support Tickets

    Age of Software/Company: 10.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Help Scout Alternatives

  • ActiveCampaign
  • Aircall
  • AppFollow
  • BriteVerify
  • Bronto
  • Campaign Monitor
  • Campfire
  • Capsule
  • ChannelReply
  • ChargeDesk
  • Chatra
  • Churn Buster
  • Clockify
  • Close
  • CloudTalk
  • Constant Contact
  • ContactUs
  • Copper
  • Custom Apps
  • Cyfe
  • Databox
  • Drift
  • Elevio
  • Facebook
  • Fivetran
  • Fleep
  • Flowdock
  • FormKeep
  • FreshBooks
  • FullContact
  • FullStory
  • Geckoboard
  • Gmail
  • Google Sheet
  • Gravity Forms
  • Help Desk
  • Heymarket
  • Highrise
  • Hively
  • Hubspot
  • iCloud
  • Infusionsoft
  • Integromat
  • Intercom
  • Iorad
  • JIRA
  • Justcall
  • KissMetrics
  • Klaus
  • Klaviyo
  • LemonStand
  • LiquidPlanner
  • Magento
  • Mailchimp
  • Metorik
  • Mixpanel
  • MySQL
  • NiceReply
  • Olark
  • OnePage CRM
  • Paperform
  • PieSync
  • Pipedrive
  • PipelineDeals
  • Plecto
  • Process Street
  • Pushover
  • Salesforce
  • Salesmachine
  • SamCart
  • Savio
  • Segment
  • Shopify
  • Slack
  • Smooch
  • SnapEngage



  • Kayako

    Kayako


    Kayako

    Kayako Comparison Details

    Free trial: Limited

    Pricing: $15 / Month

    Feature summary: Self-Help, Live Chat, Automations

    Age of Software/Company: 19.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Kayako Alternatives

  • Autopilot
  • Chargebee
  • Hubspot
  • Mailchimp
  • Marketo
  • Paypal
  • Recurly
  • Shopify
  • Slack
  • Stripe
  • Trello
  • Webhooks
  • Wootric
  • Zapier



  • Read the Docs

    Read the Docs


    Read the Docs

    Read the Docs Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Multiple Format Technical Documentation

    Age of Software/Company: 11.0 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Read the Docs Alternatives



    Intercom

    Intercom


    Intercom

    Intercom Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: $87 / Month

    Feature summary: Modern business messaging at scale

    Age of Software/Company: 24.7 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Intercom Alternatives

  • 24 Sessions
  • Acute Feedback
  • Aircall
  • Ask a Question
  • Calendly
  • Campaign Monitor
  • Chili Piper
  • Clearbit Reveal
  • Coview
  • Facebook
  • Get a Demo
  • Google Analytics
  • Google G Suite
  • Hubspot
  • JIRA
  • Keap
  • Live Session
  • Mailchimp
  • Marketo
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365
  • Mixpanel
  • Noora
  • Nuacom
  • PieSync
  • Pipedrive
  • Prodsight
  • Productboard
  • Qwick Links
  • Salesforce
  • Segment
  • Shopify
  • Slack
  • Statuspage
  • Stripe
  • Tribe
  • Twitter
  • Typeform
  • Upvote
  • Wootric
  • Zapier
  • Zendesk
  • Zoho
  • Zoomin



  • Freshdesk

    Freshdesk


    Freshdesk

    Freshdesk Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Customer Support Software and Ticketing System

    Age of Software/Company: 11.2 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Freshdesk Alternatives

  • Dialstreet
  • Ebay
  • Google Analytics
  • JIRA
  • Mailchimp
  • Microsoft Office
  • Olark
  • Shopify
  • SurveyMonkey
  • Whatsapp
  • Zapier
  • Zoho



  • Zoho Desk

    Zoho Desk


    Zoho Desk

    Zoho Desk Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: $0 / 3 Free Agents

    Feature summary: Support Tickets, Dashboards and Knowledge Bases

    Age of Software/Company: 4.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Zoho Desk Alternatives

  • Clearbit
  • Google G Suite
  • Hubspot
  • Intercom
  • JIRA
  • Mailchimp
  • Microsoft Office
  • Pipedrive
  • Salesforce
  • Screen Magic
  • Slack
  • Trello
  • Zapier



  • Confluence

    Confluence


    Confluence

    Confluence Comparison Details

    Free trial: Fully Free

    Pricing: Free

    Feature summary: Internal and External Content Collaboration

    Age of Software/Company: 17.9 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Confluence Alternatives

  • Amazon S3
  • Bitbucket
  • Facebook
  • JIRA
  • OpsGenie
  • Zapier
  • Zendesk



  • Service Cloud

    Service Cloud


    Service Cloud

    Service Cloud Comparison Details

    Free trial: Limited

    Pricing: $25 / Month

    Feature summary: Customer Service and Customer Support Software

    Age of Software/Company: 4.9 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Service Cloud Alternatives

  • Active Campaign
  • ActiveCampaign
  • Code Science
  • DocuSign
  • Dropbox
  • Google G Suite
  • HelloSign
  • JIRA
  • LinkedIn
  • Mailchimp
  • Quickbooks
  • Slack



  • Bloomfire

    Bloomfire


    Bloomfire

    Bloomfire Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: $25 / Month

    Feature summary: AI Powered Knowledge Management

    Age of Software/Company: 11.5 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Bloomfire Alternatives

  • Azure
  • Dropbox
  • Google Chrome
  • Google Drive
  • LinkedIn
  • OneDrive
  • Power BI
  • Salesforce
  • Slack
  • Tabeau
  • Zendesk



  • Desk

    Desk


    Desk

    Desk Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Cloud Computing Solutions for Every Business

    Age of Software/Company: 3.2 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Desk Alternatives



    Zendesk

    Zendesk


    Zendesk

    Zendesk Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: $5 / Agent / Month

    Feature summary: Help Desk and Support Tickets

    Age of Software/Company: 3.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Zendesk Alternatives

  • Aircall
  • Dropbox
  • Five9
  • Intercom
  • JIRA
  • Klaus
  • Mailchimp
  • Slack
  • Trello



  • RoboHelp

    RoboHelp


    RoboHelp

    RoboHelp Comparison Details

    Free trial: 30 Days

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Content Delivery and Authoring Productivity

    Age of Software/Company: 10.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best RoboHelp Alternatives



    Microsoft Sandcastle

    Microsoft Sandcastle


    Microsoft Sandcastle

    Microsoft Sandcastle Comparison Details

    Free trial: Not Available

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: MSDN style, Comprehensive Documentation

    Age of Software/Company: 9.1 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Microsoft Sandcastle Alternatives



    Cayzu

    Cayzu


    Cayzu

    Cayzu Comparison Details

    Free trial: Limited

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Self-Service Knowledge Base Portals

    Age of Software/Company: 7.4 Yrs

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Cayzu Alternatives

  • Capsule
  • Cookiebot
  • Dropbox
  • Facebook
  • FreshBooks
  • Google Analytics
  • Harvest
  • Highrise
  • Hubspot
  • JIRA
  • LiveChat
  • LogMeIN
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Okta
  • Olark
  • OneLogin
  • Quickbooks
  • Salesforce
  • ShareFile by Citrix
  • Skype
  • Slack
  • SugarCRM
  • SuiteCRM
  • SurveyMonkey
  • Tawk.to
  • Twitter
  • Zapier
  • Zoho CRM



  • Screensteps

    Screensteps


    Screensteps

    Screensteps Comparison Details

    Free trial: 15 Days

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: When It Comes To Creating Knowledge Transfer Plans, ScreenSteps Gives You Options

    Age of Software/Company: 14.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Screensteps Alternatives

  • Azure
  • Microsoft Active Directory
  • Okta
  • OneLogin
  • Salesforce
  • Zendesk



  • Knowmax

    Knowmax


    Knowmax

    Knowmax Comparison Details

    Free trial: Limited

    Pricing: Unknown

    Feature summary: Tame Your Knowledge Base Today

    Age of Software/Company: 11 Mo

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Knowmax Alternatives

  • Freshchat
  • FreshDesk
  • Talkdesk
  • Zendesk



  • Slite

    Slite


    Slite

    Slite Comparison Details

    Free trial: Limited

    Pricing: $6.67 / Member / Month

    Feature summary: Everything your team needs to find clarity. Minus the learning curve.

    Age of Software/Company: 16.2 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Slite Alternatives

  • Asana
  • Diagrams.net
  • Figma
  • GitHub
  • Slack
  • Trello






  • FEATURE DESCRIPTIONS

    Search Function

    Supports a knowledge-base wide search function.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 58

    Public Facing / Accessible Self Help

    This quality is part of our definition of what makes a customer knowledge base applicable to this list. So virtually every technical documentation platform that we evaluate will have this attribute. But there are some platforms that focus entirely on internal-only documentation.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 58

    Flexible Hierarchy

    A flexible hierarchy is one that allows you to decide how many layers of organization exist in the knowledge base. Some systems, like Zendesk, have three layers hard coded: Categories, Sections, Articles. Other systems are more flexible, and allow more (or fewer) levels of organizational depth.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 56

    Rich Text Editor

    Allows creation of documents containing text, charts, grids, videos, and images. Usually written in JavaScript, Rich Text Editors are effective programs used as standalone applications or as web-based elements.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 55

    Attach Files to Articles

    Allows article editors and authors to attach files to articles so that users can download those files.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 55

    Multiple Business Roles (SMEs, Developers, Admins, Editors, etc.)

    Different roles may have different access needs, and it can be important to restrict users to the proper content for security and usability reasons. If you run an organization with many contributing roles, make sure they are supported in the business access roles that exist in your chosen knowledge management solution.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 55

    Easy Article Linking

    In the article editor, this feature makes it very easy to insert links to other existing articles in the knowledge base.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 54

    Analytics for Providing Insights

    These are essential information to further help you evaluate which areas of your service or product customers need the most help with. Depending on the analytics capabilities, you can examine which authors are getting the most traffic or engagement on their content and you can see which topics are most frequently searched for.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 52

    Multi-Language Support

    Again, this feature is highly dependent on your target market. You may not ever need to translate out of English if you don’t plan on going global. But if you do, you’ll need to make absolutely sure your support content can handle many language versions.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 51

    Application Programming Interface Enhancement

    A RESTful application program interface allows you to develop your own extensions and applications on top of their existing platform.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 51

    Mobile Support

    It is becoming increasingly important to provide information and services to mobile users, comparable to what they would find on a desktop computer.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 51

    Version / Revision Control

    This is something Authors rarely think about in practice but it can be a critical part of a large database of support content with many authors. You’ll want a system of merging different changes from different sources, and tracking who is working on what content. There may even be version numbers associated with each article version, etc.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 50

    Viewer / User Controls

    Lets the end user/viewer control certain elements of the knowledge base presentation, format, etc.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 50

    Track Article Visits

    Has a method for reporting on how many visitors visit each article, and when those visits occurred.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 50

    Real Time Article Collaboration / Synchronous Editing

    Simultaneous editing, or live editing of the same digital document, computer file or cloud-stored data – such as an online spreadsheet, word processing document, database or presentation – at the same time by different users on different computers or mobile devices, with automatic and nearly instantaneous merging of their edits.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 50

    Internal Employee Knowledge Base

    This feature lets companies create support content that is not intended for public consumption. This is important when you have business processes you want to describe, or when your own support team needs some quick and dirty content that isn’t polished for the public.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 49

    Drag and Drop Building Tool

    Has a visual editor that allows dragging and dropping of elements in the articles.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 48

    Article Drafting After Publication

    Can you make changes to a published article? It’s a basic function. But the ability to save those changes and preview them before publishing is important. Some may even have a public preview feature (no login required) so it’s easier to share tentative versions with external stakeholders.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 48

    Saves History of Article Changes

    This is different from Version Control in that the changes are simply logged as they occur. With a change history, there is no ability to roll back or merge content. It is nice to see what happened when, and by whom. Change history systems are more straightforward and simply retain saved drafts or publications.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 47

    Workflow Management

    Creating and optimizing the paths for data in order to complete items in a given process. Workflow management includes finding redundant tasks, mapping out the workflow in an ideal state, automating the process, and identifying bottlenecks or areas for improvement.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 47

    Built-in Backup & Restore / Rollback

    It’s nice if you are able to create a restore point for your knowledge base so that if you do need to roll back to a previous version of your platform, you can roll back your help content as well. This shouldn’t be a replacement for off-site backups, but don’t discount the convenience of a built-in backup and restore function.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 46

    Incremental Search / Real-time Suggestions

    This is the next level of search. Why make your users hit enter when they can see the results as they type? Google implemented this a long time ago, and if you plan on having a moderately sized knowledge base then you’ll want to consider making this a feature of your help journey.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 45

    Built-in Revision Workflow

    This goes beyond version control and change history. Are you able to view, edit, collaborate, redraft, and publish older versions of a given article? You may not want to do this often, but it sure is nice to be able to refer to content that was removed from an older version. You never know how your interface may change over time, and old content can be a valuable source of inspiration or a good place to train new authors on the writing practices particular to your company’s knowledge base (training).

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 45

    Project Management Features

    Like with the ticketing system, some platforms will have additional project management features that go well beyond help articles. One example is Atlassian, who has the Confluence knowledge base product and Jira for project management. Not many help center companies will attempt to tackle the project management space, but some have grown in the opposite direction over time.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 44

    Track Searches

    To improve content, it helps to track what people search for on your knowledge base.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 43

    Article Tags

    Another method of organizing content is with tags that can be used in various ways inside the knowledge base platform. Some systems like HelpJuice use tags as categories, so that one article can be accessed via more than one user navigation path. There are pros and cons to this approach, but if you need maximum versatility, then you’ll want an optional tagging system.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 43

    Full HTML/CSS Customization

    Enables the editor or author to fully customize all HTML and Cascading Style Sheets attributes of the articles.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 42

    Article Public Comments / Discussion

    Can your customers leave comments on your support articles? This can be a great way to let users expand on the utility of a piece of support content. But it does require additional support resources to monitor and moderate the user generated discussion. There are pros and cons to this approach.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 41

    Allows Article Voting / Rating

    When a user is done reading a support article, it should be trivial for them to immediately leave feedback on whether or not the support article met their needs. This is more important for SaaS support centers, and less important for knowledge base content published in other formats (PDF, DOCX, etc.). This feedback can quickly draw the attention of support teams to deficiencies in an article or user interface.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 40

    Design Theme Library

    Allows creation of themes, a template, if you will, for your program, that will get your team up and running fast. Create, update and share themes from the theme library.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 40

    Single Sign-On Support

    It’s annoying when you have to sign on multiple times just to get where you need to. Single sign on support is convenient because it increases productivity of users (since they don’t have to fuss about passwords), and reduces help desk costs because only a few users will have to ask for help to remember their passwords.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 40

    Multiple Format Import / Export

    Different knowledge bases need different kinds of data to analyze, but to do this, they all need a similar feature: to be able to export information in multiple formats. It can be Excel, PDF, CSV, etc.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 40

    Self-Hosting Available

    It is possible to license the knowledge base platform and host it either on-premises or in a separate cloud environment.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 39

    Support Ticket System

    If a platform has a support ticket system, then it can more tightly integrate the self-help content with full email support. But this can also be a drawback if you don’t need the ticketing system. Companies that focus just on knowledge base systems often can dedicate more resources to perfecting that specialty. It all depends on what your SaaS company needs.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 38

    Domain Path White-Label Option

    This ensures consistent brand presentation, especially for the more tech-savvy customer base. In general, you don’t want to send your users to another web domain when they are consuming your support content. Some technical support documentation SaaS companies do have free versions of their software that comes with a sub-domain option (no white label domains on free accounts). Virtually all will let you use your own domain path (for example, support.example.com or www.example.com/support).

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 38

    Live Chat Feature

    Some SaaS platforms started out as live-chat-only then added in additional support content (Intercom for example). Depending on your customer expectations and company promise, you may need to include live chat support in your support landscape. Platforms that have this built in can be an advantage or a distraction depending on your company’s position.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 38

    Author / Editor Article Commentary

    Allows article comments, by Editors or Authors, to be visible or not visible.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 37

    Article Suggestions on Contact Forms

    Responding to support tickets takes time and money, and it can be drastically reduced by simply adding article suggestions on contact forms. Dropdowns and menus categorizing their inquiry will help with the suggestions to assist users even before they send a ticket.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 36

    XML Format Support

    Accommodates XML syntax for encoding web documents and web applications.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 35

    3rd Party Custom Widgets

    This feature lets other developers create their own custom widgets, and they can install the widget in their own knowledge base instance and/or share those widgets with others – either for free, or through a marketplace.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 34

    Social Media Integration

    Integrates with social platform(s) to expand support and content sharing capabilities.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 34

    Help Content Optimized for SEO

    What features does the platform support to ensure your help content is showing up in the SERPs? Many, many users jump straight to Google and drop in a help center name before entering their search query. You want to make absolutely sure that all of your on-page SEO elements are in place to rank for on-brand (and even off-brand) technical support searches.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 32

    Language Machine-Translation

    Automated translation plugin.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 32

    Search Synonyms

    Many customers don’t understand the correct terminology for the problems they are trying to solve. If your search feature supports synonyms then they’ll likely find what they need despite their own lack of technical vocabulary.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 30

    Multiple Brands in One Account

    If your company has a large or diverse set of offerings under one umbrella, it can be very helpful to have a technical documentation platform that supports multiple brand identities under one master account. The workaround for this would be creating separate accounts (one for each brand) with bespoke billing arrangements. So when you have the need, it’s nice to avoid those complexities with a platform that can handle different design variations and brands.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 30

    Built-in Glossary

    Users that lack the knowledge when it comes to terminologies will benefit from a glossary in your support base. They may scan or browse through the terms and find what they need with the correct word.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 25

    Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning

    Artificial intelligence uses machine learning, deep learning and other technologies to solve current problems. Knowledge bases with AI are capable of quickly searching information to deliver answers fast.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 23

    Remote Configuration and Support

    It is possible for support teams to remotely access the deployment environment to help install, configure, and/or troubleshoot problems.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 23

    Searchable PDF Attachments

    Allows searching of Portable Document Format content.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 18

    Voice Integration

    Has some capabilities that lets the author or viewers speak, and their audio will be automatically transcribed.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 15

    Optical Character Reader / Convert Images of Text

    Convert images of printed, or handwritten text into machine coded text electronically. Useful for passports, bank statements, invoices and other documentation.

    Number of Knowledge Base Platforms that have this feature: 8

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