Best 20 knowledge base software in 2023

Modern-day consumers expect to see relevant articles that can help them complete basic tasks. Over 59% of customers will try to resolve an issue themselves before asking a service representative.

To that end, this guide will show the best solutions for a customer-centric knowledge base for all users.

What is knowledge base software?

Knowledge base solutions help business organizations build, manage, and distribute internal and external content in a user-friendly, searchable, and convenient format.

Companies use knowledge management solutions as self-service portals to help customers and employees access valuable company knowledge.

A knowledge base is a unified directory of company-related knowledge base articles for distributing information about policies, processes, and systems.

Comparison chart of the top 5 knowledge base software

Here’s our comparison chart of the five best knowledge base software tools. Check their Capterra rating, number of integrations, pricing range, and other relevant information to make an informed decision and select the best solution.

The 20 best knowledge base software providers

Here’s our comprehensive list of the top 20 knowledge base software providers in 2023.

1. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is among the leading names in the customer support software industry. The company provides a user-centric knowledge base software solution with an intuitive user interface, versatile features, and an impressive range of customization and integration options.

Users can customize their knowledge bases according to their specific needs without excessive training and resources. LiveAgent can help you manage your institutional knowledge and make your knowledge base accessible to unlimited users.

Key features

• Knowledge base;
• Search widgets;
• WYSIWYG editor;
• Customer forum;
• Internal knowledge base;
• Multi-knowledge base;
• Customer feedback and suggestions;
• Article attachments.

Main benefits of LiveAgent software

Thanks to its intuitive interface, ease of use, 24/7 support, and various third-party integrations, LiveAgent can cater to businesses of all sizes and shapes. The provider offers a flexible, scalable, and reliable knowledge base solution with various personalization and customization options. Because of that, LiveAgent is an ideal solution for all-size businesses across various industries.

Main drawbacks of LiveAgent software

A minor drawback of LiveAgent is the location of the company’s technical and support teams. Since they are in the EU, clients outside Europe may have to wait a little to get feedback, but note they will receive a response in a timely manner.

Recommended for

LiveAgent is a go-to solution for companies of all sizes, from start-ups and small businesses to enterprises and large corporations. LiveAgent can help teams from sales, IT, HR, contact center, automotive, or any other industry.

LiveAgent pricing plans include:

• Free trial – Yes;
• Small – $9 per agent per month;
• Medium – $29 per agent per month;
• Large – $49 per agent per month;
• Enterprise – $69 per agent per month.

Expert’s opinion

LiveAgent is on top of our list because the company offers an all-in-one knowledge base solution that streamlines the process of building, configuring, and personalizing your knowledge base. It empowers users to seamlessly build and deploy multiple knowledge bases.

More importantly, their pricing structure is subscription-based, meaning the company provides flexible, scalable, and customizable solutions for companies of all sizes.

Customer review

“I really like the automation features that LiveAgent offers. Being able to set certain “rules” and have them applied across the board helped reduce the number of tickets to solve, and the addition of canned messages and predefined answers helped me resolve many redundant customer issues.

It’s also intuitive and very user-friendly, and I thoroughly enjoy using LiveAgent. LiveAgent is helping me resolve redundant issues that occur in the guest experience, so I can focus on the more pressing issues at hand.” – Nicole K., Small Business Owner

Source: g2.com

2. HelpCrunch

HelpCrunch is an excellent knowledge base solution for users looking to build centralized self-service portals. The company provides solutions for centralizing institutional knowledge and bringing all relevant documents, files, and articles under one roof.

Key features

• FAQ chatbot;
• Multilingual knowledge base;
• Search suggestions;
• Smart search engine;
• 24/7 self-service portal;
• Real-time chat support widget;
• Custom CSS/JavaScript use cases;
• Customization.

Main benefits of HelpCrunch software

HelpCrunch caters to companies from various industries like fitness, food and beverage, and data science. The company’s knowledge base software is easily customizable to fit your specific needs, focusing on improving customer service and support experiences.

In addition, HelpCrunch provides everything you need to enhance your internal knowledge base management processes.

Main drawbacks of HelpCrunch software

Though HelpCrunch excels in almost every area, they miss some integration options and training resources.

Recommended for

Business organizations that fit into small-to-large categories. Some of the most popular users of HelpCrunch include companies like Statcounter, Hurma, and Fitlap.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (14 days);
• Basic – $15 per user per month;
• Pro – $25 per user per month;
• Unlimited – $620 per month.

Expert’s opinion

HelpCrunch is the perfect knowledge base software for companies of all sizes, regardless of the industry they come from. It makes sharing knowledge as simple as possible and can get your knowledge base online effortlessly.

In addition, HelpCrunch offers essential software features at competitive prices and tosses in multilingual support to sweeten the deal.

3. Notion

Notion’s knowledge management system is perfect for business organizations with already established knowledge base portals. Notion provides all-encompassing knowledge base systems compatible with a wide range of procedural tasks, project management solutions, and knowledge management tools.

Because of that, Notion empowers you to seamlessly centralize your existing company knowledge into a unified platform.

Key features

• Drag and drop functionality;
• Intuitive search filters;
• Page linking;
• Third-party integrations;
• Powerful analytics;
• Domain management;
• Advanced role-based permissions;
• Admin and security settings.

Main benefits of Notion software

Notion can easily cater to business organizations of all sizes due to its flexible pricing plans, incredible scalability, and impressive suite of tools and features. The company empowers you to automatically prioritize and organize knowledge base content based on customer value, urgency, and use cases.

In addition, Notion offers over 100 customizable templates your team can use to create and categorize your customer support content according to your specific needs.

Main drawbacks of Notion software

Notion’s knowledge base software comes with a steep learning curve. The company could use more tutorials and user guides to help customers learn how to use their knowledge base platform.

Recommended for

Since Notion’s knowledge management system can easily scale with your operations, any company can use it, regardless of the size or industry. Some of the clients include names like Headspace, Pixar, and MatchGroup.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (7 days);
• Plus – $8 per user per month;
• Business – $15 per user per month;
• Enterprise – contact sales.

Expert’s opinion

Notion is so high on our list for a good reason. The company provides an all-in-one knowledge base management system that helps users bring all organizational knowledge under one roof.

Because of that, Notion is an excellent choice for both small businesses and large corporations. In addition, we like the fact that the company provides reliable multilingual support across multiple online communities.

4. Document360

Document360 empowers users to build internal and external bases and self-service portals for both employees and target audiences.

Aside from knowledge base essentials, the company tosses in some extra functionalities, including a file manager, top customization options, version control, and a real-time search box.

Since their KB software has an intuitive interface and user-friendly navigation, you can expect an easy learning curve and a seamless user experience.

Key features

• Community forums;
• Secure file management;
• Content management;
• Knowledge base search;
• Self-service portal;
• SEO;
• Customer feedback;
• Analytics;
• Markdown editor;
• Category manager.

Main benefits of Document360 software

The Document360 knowledge base system helps you streamline your knowledge base and content management. Thanks to the software’s intuitive features, you can empower your employees’ productivity with technical documents, tutorials, and how-to guides.

Each user must first log in to view documents and access information. Aside from boosting your knowledge distribution efforts, Document360 also keeps your data safe and secure.

Main drawbacks of Document360 software

Document360 software is really great, with the only drawbacks being expensive pricing plans and a difficult setup. Aside from that, we don’t have any complaints.

Recommended for

Since Document360 provides a flexible and scalable knowledge base software solution, it can easily cater to small businesses, mid-sized organizations, and large enterprises. It can be beneficial for SaaS organizations that aim for high levels of customer-centricity.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (14 days);
• Standard – $199 per project per month;
• Professional – $399 per project per month;
• Business – $529 per project per month;
• Enterprise – $599 per project per month.

Expert’s opinion

We picked Document360 for our list because of its fantastic knowledge base features, user-friendly and intuitive interface, and responsive support. Though it’s a bit pricier than other solutions, Document360 offers fully scalable KB solutions for companies of all sizes. If your company is still growing, Document360 is an ideal option for you.

5. HelpJuice

HelpJuice is a top-grade knowledge base software provider for growing business organizations. The company offers scalable knowledge base solutions that seamlessly scale your operations without requiring additional infrastructure investments. Though HelpJuice offers many vital KB features, its intuitive search engine is one of its strongest highlights.
Users can rely on this search engine to fetch any piece of information in a heartbeat. In addition, HelpJuice tosses in a native WYSIWYG editor, comprehensive article database, content manager, publishing interface, and more.

Key features

• Reporting and analytics;
• Customization options;
• WYSIWYG editor;
• Advanced search engine;
• SEO optimization;
• Multilingual support;
• Analytics;
• Drag and drop tool;
• Search filters.

Main benefits of HelpJuice software

HelpJuice knowledge base software has a user-friendly interface with built-in real-time capabilities and remote features. Whether you manage in-house or remote teams, you can count on HelpJuice to reliably and consistently share information on demand.

HelpJuice also streamlines collaboration and communication to empower seamless teamwork, history tracking, request revisions, commenting, task assignments, and more.

Main drawbacks of HelpJuice software

During our HelpJuice software review, we noticed some problems with image storage and knowledge sharing. Since the software doesn’t have a folder system for images, visual content easily gets lost in countless conversation threads. We also noticed constant pop-ups that show up with each log-in session to the dashboard.

Recommended for

HelpJuice is a perfect solution for every company looking to streamline knowledge-sharing and management experiences. Moreover, the company offers scalable pricing plans to ensure seamless scaling as your knowledge base grows. These qualities make HelpJuice ideal for small businesses, mid-size organizations, and large enterprises.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (14 days);
• Starter – $120 per month;
• Run-Up – $200 per month;
• Premium Limited – $289 per month;
• Premium Unlimited – $499 per month.

Expert’s opinion

We love that HelpJuice software allows you to instantly add content to your knowledge base. The company offers solutions for consistent content improvement, advanced analytics, and accurate reporting.

However, the range of customization options is a real win here. HelpJuice offers so many customization options to empower users to build custom-tailored brand experiences according to customer expectations.

6. Stack Overflow for Teams

Stack Overflow has been one of the leading names in the tech industry. This powerhouse of a company is an excellent option for brands looking to build private knowledge bases.

Stack Overflow for Teams offers access to a vast dev community, an exclusive and intuitive question-and-answer interface with an answer-ranking mechanism, and everything else users need in a single knowledge base solution.

Your team gets everything they need to know in a centralized location, from coding FAQs and technical documentation to HR information.

Key features

• Create collections;
• Smart notifications;
• Filter by tags;
• Third-party integrations;
• Company announcements;
• Q&A;
• Onboarding guides;
• Article categorization;
• Permission control;
• Content editor;
• Knowledge base management.

Main benefits of Stack Overflow for Teams software

Stack Overflow for Teams can boost team collaboration in your organization by seamlessly integrating with the leading communication solutions.

The brand offers knowledge base software with content management options and gamification features to make their tool available to companies of all sizes and shapes.

The company focuses on internal collaboration and communication and is ideal for IT teams and software developers from various industries.

Main drawbacks of Stack Overflow for Teams software

Stack Overflow for Teams software comes with tagging filters to streamline search and make it easier to fetch information effortlessly. However, the tool doesn’t do very well when you launch a search query with multiple tags.

Recommended for

All IT teams and software development companies can benefit from using Stack Overflow for Teams knowledge base software. Since the tool can boost internal collaboration and communication, it can help companies of all sizes from various industries. Some of the most notable clients include BarkBox, Intercom, and Philips.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes;
• Basic – $6.50 per user per month;
• Business – $13.50 per user per month;
• Enterprise – contact sales.

Expert’s opinion

We believe that Stack Overflow for Teams does an excellent job of sharing knowledge across all organizational verticals. The tool can modernize knowledge access in your company and keep all your teams up-to-date with the latest events and information updates.

7. Zendesk

Zendesk knowledge base software is an all-encompassing solution for teams looking for user-friendly and easily customizable agile tools.

Zendesk software supports multiple use cases and empowers your team to build customer-centric FAQ pages, agent support knowledge platforms, IT databases, and internal knowledge repositories.

In addition, Zendesk can keep your content up to date and lend you the power of AI to help you get ahead of your customer needs and expectations.

Key features

• AI-enabled content cues;
• Publishing scheduler;
• Team organizer;
• Content blocks and tags;
• Add content;
• Customization;
• Reporting and analytics;
• Community forums;
• AI-powered chatbots;
• ChatGPT integration;
• Mobile SDKs;
• Web search widget;
• Ticketing system.

Main benefits of Zendesk software

Zendesk is one of the leading help desk software solutions in the market. The company equips brands from various industries with help desk and contact center solutions to help companies organize institutional data.

With Zendesk, users get all the tools they need to organize and manage multiple knowledge bases. Thanks to AI chatbots and the ChatGPT integration, customer support companies and contact centers can take their operations to the next level.

Main drawbacks of Zendesk software

Aside from offering pricey services, Zendesk is surprisingly inefficient in providing customer support, which is quite odd for a help desk software provider.

Recommended for

Zendesk’s help desk solutions can cater to small businesses, mid-size companies, and enterprises. Though their pricing plans may be a bit pricey, their multi-tier pricing structure can easily adjust to budgets of all sizes.

That’s why Zendesk attracts companies from various industries, including Mailchimp, Uber, and Siemens.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (14 days);
• Suite Team – $69 per user per month;
• Suite Growth – $115 per user per month;
• Suite Professional – $149 per user per month;
• Suite Enterprise – Contact sales.

Expert’s opinion

Zendesk is among the best knowledge base solutions on our list. The tool quickly distributes information on demand and ensures your knowledge base is accessible to all departments in your organization.

Zendesk is particularly useful to customer support agents and customers as it gives them user-friendly, always-available self-service portals to help them find the data whenever needed.

8. Help Scout

HelpScout is a dominant force in the help desk software industry. The company offers intuitive, modern, and reliable knowledge base software solutions to empower clients to enhance customer self-service.

All companies aiming to provide target audiences with better support should consider Help Scout’s help desk solutions. In addition, Help Scout provides KB solutions for internal and external users.

Key features

• Built-in SSL encryption;
• Customization;
• Multiple knowledge bases for internal and external use cases;
• SEO customization;
• FAQs;
• Chat-style Beacon widget for wide web access;
• Shared inbox;
• Multi-device compatibility.

Main benefits of Help Scout software

Help Scout caters primarily to customer support agencies and contact center companies. However, the company can extend its services to various industries and companies of all sizes.
In addition to highly customizable internal and external knowledge management systems, Help Scout can boost your SEO efforts, which is an extra benefit for a knowledge base tool.

Main drawbacks of Help Scout software

Though Help Scout offers various customization options, most solutions focus on SEO. Because of that, we feel like Help Scout could use more customization options for companies that need more than high search engine rankings.

Recommended for

Help Scout can help business organizations of all structures and business models across various industries. Their knowledge base solutions are trusted by thousands of reputable companies, such as Spikeball, Compass, and Honey.

Pricing

• Free trial – No;
• Standard – $25 per user per month;
• Plus – $50 per user per month;
• Pro – Contact sales.

Expert’s opinion

Help Scout simplifies the creation of internal and external knowledge bases. You can use their software to set up a knowledge management system in mere minutes.

Because of that, we feel Help Scout deserves a spot in the top 10 knowledge base software providers.

9. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a cloud-based help desk and knowledge software provider that empowers users to create multiple knowledge bases effortlessly. Freshdesk’s intuitive knowledge base management and content creation features streamline gathering agent responses under one hub and converting them to customer-friendly articles.

Key features

• Rich text editor;
• Content formatting;
• Image embedding;
• Self-help article generator;
• FAQ pages;
• Article reviews and feedback;
• Content management;
• SEO capabilities;
• Branding and customization;
• Storage space.

Main benefits of Freshdesk software

Freshdesk is a knowledge base powerhouse that helps you streamline knowledge base management, content sourcing, and article publishing. The tool makes your knowledge base articles SEO-friendly for maximum visibility and enables you to share your company knowledge with a global audience.

Main drawbacks of Freshdesk software

Though Freshdesk provides top-grade knowledge base software features, the search and content management functionalities need significant improvement. The company should also invest more effort in the contact and support system.

Recommended for

Freshdesk is the go-to solution for over 50,000 clients from all kinds of industries worldwide. Some of their most notable clients include names like Webbeds, Oceanic Catering, Styli, Crocus, Jupiter Money, Flash, and JCAA.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (21 days);
• Growth – $15 per user per month;
• Pro – $49 per user per month;
• Enterprise – $79 per user per month.

Expert’s opinion

Though there’s room for improvement, we feel like Freshdesk is doing a good job providing knowledge base support to small, mid, and large companies.

Users get multi-channel support and comprehensive training options to get started with the Freshdesk knowledge base software. All in all, Freshdesk offers an excellent software solution for all-size companies from various industries.

10. Confluence

If you need a user-friendly knowledge base software for both internal and external use cases, Confluence should be on your radar.

The company caters to businesses of all sizes looking for easily manageable, accessible, and reliable content and knowledge base management systems.

The Confluence KB software solution helps you track all document changes and streamlines content auditing to empower team collaboration across all departments.

Key features

• 24/7 support;
• Analytics;
• User permissions;
• Team calendars;
• Third-party integrations;
• Structured page tree;
• Knowledge base and content templates;
• Page history tracking;
• Unlimited knowledge base pages;
• Content management;
• Full-text search functionality.

Main benefits of Confluence software

Aside from bringing content and knowledge management, and document collaboration under one platform, Confluence brings you a suite of tools and integrations with other Atlassian services. In addition, Confluence offers over 3,000 integrations.

There’s virtually nothing you can’t do with their software solutions.

Main drawbacks of Confluence software

Even though Confluence may seem like an all-powerful business solution, it has a couple of downsides. First, their permission management system needs a serious upgrade.

Then, their mobile functionality offers limited options, which may present a problem for mobile-based operators.

Recommended for

With clients like Slack, Jira, and Trello, we can safely recommend Confluence to every digital business, regardless of their size or industry.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (7 days);
• Standard – $5.75 per user;
• Premium – $11 per user;
• Enterprise – Contact sales.

Expert’s opinion

In addition to all the benefits and advantages of using Confluence mentioned here, we choose this software provider based on incredibly cost-effective pricing plans. Each pricing plan offers impressive capabilities, including 24/7 premium support, advanced analytics, and an uptime guarantee.

11. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk made its name by providing cutting-edge help desk and ticketing system solutions. The company also offers knowledge base tools to help business organizations reduce waiting times, cope with high ticket volumes, and deliver more customer-centric support.

Aside from streamlining content creation and management, Zoho Desk provides customizable knowledge base platforms for seamless implementation of self-service options, FAQs, how-to articles, tutorials, troubleshooting guides, and other support categories.

Key features

• Auto-suggest
• Help Center reports
• Portal customization
• Domain mapping
• Secure access;
• Forums and communities;
• Knowledge repository;
• Help Center ticketing;
• Text search;
• Customer feedback;
• Chatbots;
• Portal customization.

Main benefits of Zoho Desk software

Zoho Desk is an affordable knowledge base software solution for businesses from all industries. Users get an intuitive dashboard with plenty of customization options at the most competitive prices in the market.

Aside from promoting self-service, Zoho Desk allows clients to upgrade customer service and support operations according to their specific needs.

Main drawbacks of Zoho Desk software

Though Zoho Desk software has a user-friendly interface, its appearance is a bit outdated compared to top competitors like LiveAgent and Confluence. The navigation could be better, and their search feature needs an upgrade.

Recommended for

Zoho Desk is home to over 100,000 clients from various industries worldwide. Some of the company’s most loyal clients include Daimler, Intel, and Sears. We recommend Zoho Desk to companies of all sizes, especially to organizations looking to improve customer support.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (15 days);
• Standard – $20 per user per month;
• Professional – $35 per user per month;
• Enterprise – $50 per user per month.

Expert’s opinion

We picked Zoho Desk because we believe the company does a splendid job in providing comprehensive knowledge base software at competitive prices. Clients can count on Zoho Desk to build internal and external knowledge bases and self-service portals and improve customer satisfaction and team collaboration.

12. HappyFox

HappyFox is a trustworthy cloud-based CRM software provider offering knowledge management tools for companies across various sectors and business niches.

The company mainly caters to clients looking for the best, most effective branded self-service portals for internal and external use cases.

Aside from catering to knowledge base needs, HappyFox streamlines customer feedback collection for driving actionable insights from customer interactions.

Key features

• Customer feedback;
• Team collaboration tools;
• Analytics;
• Community forums;
• External/internal search;
• Auto-suggest;
• Self-help portal;
• Knowledge base customization;
• Categorization;
• Rich text editor;
• Social sharing;
• Search suggestions;
• Article tagging;
• Mobile optimization;
• SEO-friendly URLs;
• Real-time reports and analytics.

Main benefits of HappyFox software

After testing HappyFox software, we can say that easy customization, feedback collection, progressive surveys, and SEO optimization are the company’s strongest feats.

The tool helps you build comprehensive internal and external self-service portals that are highly compatible with mobile devices. Your teams and customers won’t have any problems with searching and finding the information they need.

Main drawbacks of HappyFox software

HappyFox excels at pretty much everything but email notifications. We also found their interface and pricing structure quite confusing.

Recommended for

Since HappyFox offers flexible pricing plans, clients get the flexibility to scale their knowledge bases according to their needs. Thanks to that, HappyFox can handle the needs of companies of all sizes. Some of their most notable clients are Jabra, Sennheiser, and Whirpool.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (14 days);
• Mighty – $39 per user per month;
• Fantastic – $59 per user per month;
• Enterprise – $79 per user per month;
• Enterprise Plus – $99 per user per month.

Expert’s opinion

HappyFox deserves a spot on our list of the best knowledge base software providers for providing exceptional product quality to the target audience. The company caters to the knowledge base needs of countless companies across numerous industries.

Their software helps users locate information with a few clicks, and the auto-suggest and search engine functionalities assist customers at every step of their self-service journey.

13. Guru

Guru provides comprehensive, all-encompassing knowledge base software solutions for gathering, updating, sharing, and accessing customer-facing data.

Whether you need a self-service portal for customers or a centralized help desk for HR information, Guru can cater to your needs.

Guru brings all your knowledge under one hub to connect your teams and centralize relevant data without disrupting your current workflows.

Key features

• Built-in text search;
• ML-enabled bots;
• Community forums;
• Categorization;
• Content management;
• AI-powered suggestions;
• Customization;
• Q&A;
• Analytics;
• AI search;
• Custom dashboard;
• Pre-built templates.

Main benefits of Guru software

Guru uses the power of AI to regularly inspect and update the information in your knowledge base. The software constantly improves information suggestions to better match employee and customer search patterns. It also removes redundant articles to keep your knowledge base accurate and up-to-date.
Main drawbacks of Guru software

Though Guru’s AI-powered knowledge base software works like a charm, it could improve its content organization efforts. We also noticed minor issues when working with tables and sheets.

Recommended for

The Guru AI knowledge base software has various features, many integrations, a user-friendly interface, and cost-effective pricing. These qualities make it perfect for small, mid-size, and large companies. Some of the clients include names like Boldr, Intercom, and Shopify.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (30 days);
• Starter Free – Free for up to three users, $6 per month per user for teams of more than 3 users;
• Starter – $12 per user per month;
• Enterprise – Contact sales.

Expert’s opinion

Guru is one of the best knowledge base tools for remote teams. It makes gathering, storing, and accessing company knowledge easy. Guru can keep your team up to date anytime, any place.

14. Bloomfire

Bloomfire provides centralized knowledge base solutions to help teams gather and organize institutional knowledge in one place. Their software enables business organizations to find relevant information quickly and easily.

Since their tool offers high-end media compatibility, crowd-sourced FAQs, and AI-enabled search, Bloomfire is ideal for support teams looking to unify information across all departments.

Key features

• Customer feedback;
• Usage and content reporting;
• API access;
• AI-enabled search;
• Content management;
• Full-text search;
• Self-service portal;
• Customizable branding;
• Auto-tagging content

Main benefits of Bloomfire software

Bloomfire brings you all the knowledge base features you need to organize your information and make it easily accessible and shareable across popular communication channels.

The tool operates like social media allowing customers to interact with your content and engage with your brand through follows, comments, shares, and likes.

Main drawbacks of Bloomfire software

Though Bloomfire excels at streamlining knowledge sharing, the tool has issues with customizability, search results, video editing interface, password reset, and user management. We also didn’t like that we couldn’t find any pricing information on their website.

Recommended for

Bloomfire is perfect for remote teams, knowledge managers, and content creators. The company offers pricing plans that can cater to the needs of small businesses and large companies.

Pricing

• Free trial – No;
• Professional – Contact sales;
• Business – Contact sales;
• Enterprise – Contact sales.

Expert’s opinion

Bloomfire is an excellent knowledge base software solution for brands that like to stay in touch with the target audience. The tool provides a modernized approach to information collection and distribution to empower users to seamlessly access relevant knowledge content when needed.

15. Hubspot Service Hub

HubSpot Service Hub enables teams to create internal knowledge hubs and customer-centric self-service portals to empower users to find the information they need on demand. The tool saves time, effort, and resources by empowering self-service so your team can focus on complex customer queries.

Key features

• SEO search;
• Customization;
• Reporting and analytics;
• API and integrations;
• Community forums;
• Customer feedback;
• Drag and drop;
• Category management;

Main benefits of HubSport Service Hub software

HubSpot Service Hub streamlines content publishing and easily integrates with your current tech stack. The platform is simple to set up and can quickly scale up with your knowledge base.

Whether managing an internal knowledge management system or external customer support, HubSport fits the needs of all-size companies.

Main drawbacks of HubSpot Service Hub software
Aside from pricy pricing plans, we find HubSpot’s knowledge base templates difficult to modify and work with.

Recommended for

HubSpot Service Hub has a diverse and versatile pricing structure that can fit the specific needs of all-size business organizations. The company is home to over 160,000 clients worldwide, gathering the likes of Tumblr, Doordash, Reddit, and WWF.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (14 days);
• Starter – $20 per month;
• Professional – $890 per month;
• Enterprise – $3,600 per month.

Expert’s opinion

We feel like HubSpot deserves a spot on our list for the many features and scalable pricing plans it provides. However, we really liked the branded customization themes that allow you to personalize your knowledge base experience and match it with your brand voice, including high device compatibility and responsiveness.

16. Slite

Slite provides a comprehensive, centralized knowledge base tool for keeping your company knowledge up to date and easily accessible to all departments.

Your teams get 24/7 access to relevant information and knowledge management options that streamline internal knowledge management and content organization.

Key features

• Full-text search;
• Templates;
• Real-time collaboration;
• Unlimited documents;
• Categorization;
• Content management;
• Content editor;
• Visualization;
• Live editing;
• AI-enabled conversations;
• Document collection.

Main benefits of Slite software

Slite offers many knowledge base benefits, such as versatile formatting, flexible templates, an intuitive content editor, and AI-powered responses to customer queries.

The tool seamlessly integrates with solutions like Slack, GitHub, Google Drive, Trello, and Asana and offers affordable pricing plans to fit companies of all sizes.

Main drawbacks of Slite software

Slite isn’t the best option for creating external knowledge bases, as it solely caters to internal data management needs. Because of that, Slite’s software isn’t the best fit for customer service and support.

Recommended for

Affordable plans, ease of use, and top scalability make Slite perfect for all companies looking to boost internal knowledge management. Some of Slite’s most notable clients include Vanmoof, Agorapulse, and Spotify.

Pricing

• Free trial – No;
• Free – $0 for unlimited users (50 documents and Q&As);
• Standard – $10 per user per month;
• Premium – $15 per user per month.

Expert’s opinion

Slite’s knowledge base software is perfectly capable of matching the needs of all-size companies, from small teams with only a few members to large enterprises. If you need an intuitive, user-friendly knowledge base tool for managing internal databases, Slite is your go-to solution.

17. Slab

Slab helps digital businesses consolidate company knowledge into a single platform by finding and gathering information from all available communication channels and systems.

Armed with powerful third-party integrations, streamlined search, and a user-friendly editing interface, Slab is a knowledge base powerhouse that takes internal knowledge management to the next level.

Key features

• Real-time collaboration;
• Custom domains;
• Usage analytics;
• Private topics;
• Unified search;
• Third-party integrations;
• Modern editing capabilities;
• Content organization topics;
• Self-service portal;
• Content management.

Main benefits of Slab software

Slab streamlines knowledge base creation, management, organization, and distribution. It helps both IT professionals and users with non-technical knowledge manage internal and external content according to their needs.

In addition, Slab’s intuitive software interface makes your knowledge base always accessible and easy to navigate.

Main drawbacks of Slab software

Though Slab offers many content management organization features, their editing tool could use some extra functionality.

Recommended for

Though Slab caters to all-size organizations, it’s best suited for sales teams, operations, and engineering. Anyone looking to simplify knowledge management and content creation can rely on Slab to share professional articles. Some clients include companies like Benchling, Asana, and Glossier.

Pricing

• Free trial – No;
• Free – $0 for up to 10 users;
• Startup – $6.67 per user per month;
• Business – $12.50 per user per month;
• Enterprise – Contact sales.

Expert’s opinion

We believe Slab is ideal for you if your team struggles to gather all relevant company knowledge scattered across departments, channels, and systems. Slab gives you a centralized solution to consolidate your organizational knowledge into a centralized data hub.

18. ProProfs Knowledge Base

ProProfs knowledge base tool empowers companies to streamline collaboration and reduce customer waiting time and ticket volumes by making internal and external knowledge publicly available.

Whether creating user manuals, employee tutorials, help centers, or self-serving portals, ProProfs handles internal and external knowledge management needs professionally.

Key features

• Text editor;
• Multiple authors;
• History revision;
• File sharing;
• Image manager;
• Multilingual support;
• Custom reporting and analytics;
• Assign permissions and roles;
• Security control;
• Surveys;
• Customer feedback.

Main benefits of ProProfs knowledge base software

ProProfs focuses on team collaboration and integration to help business organizations address their diverse knowledge management needs. Clients can rely on ProProfs to build internal and external knowledge bases, file systems, help centers, and more.

Since ProProfs seamlessly integrates with the helpdesk and chat solutions, you can use it to meet the needs of your customers and employees across popular communication channels.

Main drawbacks of ProProfs knowledge base software
While ProProfs provides everything you need to create and share company knowledge internally and externally, their co-editing functionality needs more work. It’s not as intuitive or user-friendly as noted.

Recommended for

We recommend ProProfs for companies looking to boost customer service and support experiences, including streamlining internal data management. Some of the company’s most notable clients include LinkedIn, DHL, Dell, Sony, and more.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (15 days);
• Monthly Plan – $79 per user per month;
• Annual Plan – $588 (billed annually).

Expert’s opinion

ProProfs is a well-known software provider. Their user-friendly software solutions have helped countless companies accomplish their goals. With ProProfs, you can simplify knowledge management and distribution to improve team collaboration and ensure your target audience receives an unprecedented customer support experience.

19. Obsidian

Obsidian is an excellent knowledge base solution for professional and individual service providers. It empowers your knowledge management, content organization, and note-taking efforts for personal use.

The Obsidian knowledge base tool has a user-friendly interface, streamlined navigation, and features that you can custom-tailor according to your knowledge management and data storing needs.

Key features

• Graph view
• Backlinks
• Outgoing links
• Online/offline access;
• Multilingual support;
• Branded themes and custom styling;
• Versatile plugins.

Main benefits of Obsidian software

Obsidian is the perfect knowledge base if you need online and offline access to your data. Whether you need note-taking features, knowledge management, or document organization, Obsidian can handle all that and more for free.

Main drawbacks of Obsidian software

Despite so many good things about Obsidian, their knowledge base user interface is quite confusing. It’s difficult to navigate and use. We also had issues with the graph view that seemed to create more problems than it solved.

Recommended for

Obsidian is a go-to solution for business professionals, individual users, and small service providers. Though the company offers a commercial solution, it can’t cater to the needs of large enterprises.

Pricing

• Free trial – Yes (14 days for commercial users);
• Free – Free forever for personal use;
• Commercial use – $50 per user per year.

In addition, Obsidian offers add-on packages:

• Obsidian Sync –$10 per month;
• Obsidian Publish – $10 per month per site.

Expert’s opinion

Nowadays, there aren’t many software providers willing to cater to the needs of individual users. That’s why we like Obsidian. Instead of focusing on large organizations, Obsidian cares for individual service providers and business professionals.

The users get everything they need to boost knowledge management and document organization. We also love that individual users can tap into Obsidian knowledge base software without spending a dime.

20. BookStack

BookStack is an open-source, self-hosted knowledge base platform that helps users gather, manage, organize, and store company knowledge in a centralized location.

You get an easy-to-use and flexible software solution for consolidating different types of data under one platform for streamlined knowledge access and content organization.

Key features

• Integrated multi-factor authentication;
• Configuration options;
• Multilingual support;
• Page editor;
• Intuitive interface;
• Linking;
• Built-in diagrams.net.

Main benefits of BookStack software

Bookstack is more of a digital platform for storing, organizing, and managing documentation and information than a knowledge base. However, it can operate as any knowledge base software on the market.

Since BookStack offers a free, open-source knowledge base functionality, it has a massive online community contributing to the tool’s ever-evolving operability.

Main drawbacks of BookStack software

BookStack lacks proper operational scalability and advanced features to be an all-encompassing solution like LiveAgent or Zendesk. In addition, their tool comes with limited customization options and faulty pre-made templates that need more work.

Recommended for

Since BookStack can’t scale to fit the needs of large enterprises, it’s most suitable for startups, small businesses, and mid-size companies.

Pricing

Free and open source.

Expert’s opinion

BookStack deserves a spot on our list for its free knowledge base functionality. The company continuously invests time, effort, and resources to bring its open-source knowledge management platform closer to global audiences.

What are the types of knowledge base software?

Small businesses can do just fine with shared Google Docs of employee tutorials, customer FAQs and community forums, and product aspects. However, as your business operations grow, a small knowledge base can create issues with accessibility, searchability, and security.

Knowledge base software solutions solve these issues by lending you the flexibility to seamlessly scale your online knowledge base according to your needs. With that in mind, let’s discuss different types of knowledge base solutions.

Internal knowledge base

An internal knowledge base is a knowledge base for employees that helps your team members access data on demand and gather documentation and information with a minimum interruption to daily workflows.

You can view it as an internal resource for your team members that contains all relevant business data, including policies, documents, processes, and systems. All companies that strive to boost team collaboration, communication, cohesiveness, and productivity should consider using a source knowledge base software tool to build an internal knowledge directory.

Internal knowledge bases are centralized data repositories of company-related knowledge base content about your services or products and user guides. You can use an internal knowledge base software tool to build private knowledge bases for your internal teams across IT, HR, sales, marketing, and call center industries.

External knowledge base

An external knowledge base is a knowledge base for customers that help target audiences complete simple tasks on their own by tapping into reliable, convenient, and user-friendly self-service options, such as:

• Billing information;
• Contact information;
• FAQs;
• Troubleshooting guides;
• Shipping and tracking information.

Customer support agencies and contact centers rely on external knowledge bases to cope with high traffic peaks and ticket volumes. They can benefit from external knowledge management software solutions by empowering customers to find answers to basic questions independently. In addition, that allows them to boost the customer experience with every interaction.

The quality of your knowledge base content plays a vital role in keeping your customers and employees engaged. The best way to ensure both your consumers and customer support team receive relevant articles is to invest in the best knowledge base tools.

How does knowledge base software work?

A knowledge base software platform operates like an always accessible source of truth. Whether we’re talking about internal or public knowledge bases, these resources work by distributing information online on demand.

In addition to knowledge sharing, the knowledge base tools can help with data optimization, content management, analytics tools, collection, organization, and information sharing for consumers and employees alike. Let’s take a look at the most powerful features of knowledge base software solutions to better understand how they work.

Front-end website

You can compare the front end of the knowledge base to a regular website. The difference is that knowledge bases focus on documentation formatting, navigation, and information categories.

The front-end interface of the knowledge base platform typically includes the following advanced features:

• Main landing page –contains all available information categories and full-text search options;
• Navigation menu – a search engine or a dropdown menu with multi-layer groups of articles;
• Article call-outs –this section contains article metadata, links, warnings, code snippets, and other relatable search terms;
• Customization options – allow you to customize your self-service knowledge bases according to your needs and brand guidelines.

Customer-facing knowledge bases include interfaces that most resemble typical web pages. That gives customers a familiar feel and makes it easier to bridge knowledge gaps.

Companies usually categorize common questions, customer feedback, and process documentation in a knowledge base that target audiences can access via a user-friendly interface.

Back-end interface

The back-end interface of your knowledge portal should include content organization, document management, version control, and analytics dashboard capabilities.

Typical organizational knowledge base solutions contain the following features:

• Multiple role permissions and team accounts;
• The best software advice and guidelines;
• Easily searchable content;
• Permission to assign teammates to articles;
• Article lifecycle;
• Internal tagging;
• Workflow management;
• Editorial review.

As you can see, a knowledge base software tool is a centralized platform or a self-service portal that your employees and customers can use to find the desired self-service content they need.

Whether it’s a piece of information on custom pricing, a limited feature tutorial, or something else, self-service portals help users find answers to custom questions without the help of your customer service and support agents.

Let’s take the LiveAgent support portal as an excellent example to help you assess the usefulness of a collective knowledge base. LiveAgent is a customer support software company offering the target audience a user-friendly knowledge management platform.

The company’s support portal allows users to choose how they want to find the information they’re looking for:

• By browsing by category;
• By using a powerful search engine feature.

Their portal offers knowledge documents for new users, video tutorials, technical support, customization options, billing and payment support, and awards and certificates. Customers can rely on different knowledge categories to learn what they need to know or find answers immediately if they already know the question.

What are the benefits of a knowledge base platform?

Bringing all your institutional knowledge and knowledge management efforts under a centralized solution makes valuable data accessible anytime, anywhere. This increased accessibility gives you a significant competitive advantage. Additionally, 66% of customers prefer self-service over customer support, and 67% try to resolve their issues independently before contacting customer support. With that in mind, let’s delve deeper into the benefits of knowledge base software.

Improved productivity

The most effective knowledge base software solutions provide centralized locations for business organizations to make vital data easily accessible. Most companies use internal data silos to store data.

However, keeping sensitive data scattered across departments and storage systems makes it difficult for teams to fetch the required information on demand and deliver top-grade, personalized customer experiences that modern consumers demand. The McKinsey & Company research found that employees spend nearly 19% of their workweek searching for company information. Having to deal with it takes up a lot of time.

You can solve this issue by centralizing all your company knowledge and making data readily available.

As well as improving productivity, knowledge base software enhances team collaboration by providing 24/7 access to relevant and valuable information. Furthermore, employees from all business niches can automate answers to frequently asked questions to give consumers uniform responses across channels.

Reduced operational cost

Web-based knowledge base software keeps your vital data just a click away. It empowers your employees to accurately, reliably, and efficiently assist prospects without wasting time, effort, and resources. Most top knowledge base tools come with AI-powered search features that can fetch you any piece of information in mere seconds.

With instant access to company-related articles, FAQs, and internal processes, your employees can save time, while streamlining training and onboarding. Since you can integrate these tools with chatbots and help desk software solutions, you can free up your agents, automate repetitive tasks, and make customer support more productive and efficient.

In addition, these software solutions come with built-in security features to prevent knowledge loss and cyber-attacks. Keeping all sensitive data in one place makes it easier to protect your company’s secrets without exposing them to unnecessary risks.

Acquire and retain clients

Knowledge base software needs no sleep, rest, or time off. It can work 24/7/365, providing your target audience and staff with the information they need anytime, anywhere. Thanks to that, your customers and employees can count on 24/7 customer service and support on demand, even during off-hours and holidays.

It is important to remember that gaining a new customer can cost five to 25 times more than keeping an existing one.

The prospect doesn’t need to wait long for a solution to help them solve a problem. Instead, they can look for matching answers to try to resolve an issue on their own. This convenience and top response quality can boost customer experience and increase customer satisfaction.

Generate more revenue

Search engines like Bing and Google utilize ranking mechanisms to ascertain which search results should rank the highest on the search engine results page (SERP) for specific keywords and phrases. A managed knowledge base with a well-organized article structure can boost your SEO and help your brand rank higher across the leading search engines.

The more exposure you get, the more customers you can attract to your website to generate more revenue. In addition, this increased exposure allows you to boost your upselling and cross-selling efforts and attract new external users to your brand.

Offering easily accessible organizational knowledge empowers your target audience to solve problems easier. They can also establish streamlined communication with your brand across popular communication channels like phone, email, and chat. All these benefits lead to delivering better customer experiences and increased customer satisfaction.

How to choose the right knowledge base software

Choosing the key knowledge base software solutions depends on many different factors. You should look into the nature of the information you want to make available to your customers and employees.

You need a complete suite of tools to gather, organize, maintain, and distribute the correct information to your target audience at the right moment. Since there’s no all-in-one solution here, here are some considerations to help you select the tool with the best knowledge base software features.

Identify needs and objectives

Consider the needs and objectives you want to achieve with a knowledge management software tool. These insights will help you decide if you wish to support your target audience, staff, or both.

Once you ascertain this, identify the biggest knowledge gaps you want to eliminate by considering the following concerns:

• The most frequently asked questions your customers and employees ask;
• The most overwhelmed department with consistent requests for institutional knowledge;
• Your current response rate to customer and employee questions;
• How long it takes to respond;
• The areas that need continuous improvement;
• How many employees demand learning experiences.

These considerations will help you assess your current productivity and help you select the key knowledge base software that can share information across your organization more efficiently.

Evaluate features and functionality

The next step is to evaluate the essential features and functionality you need to accomplish your knowledge management goals. We recommend making a list of basic features you can build upon while researching compatible solutions.

The best knowledge base tools come with common features such as:

• Advanced search;
• User-friendly interface;
• News capability;
• Customer feedback function;
• Document and article version control;
• Decision tree functionality;
• WYSIWYG editor;
• Highlight new changes;
• Customizable search widget;
• Desk ticketing;
• Real-time collaboration features;
• Integrations with third-party apps like Google Drive, Salesforce, etc.;
• Article and document templates.

Remember that these are pretty much the basic features that all top-grade software solutions offer. If you have specific needs or goals you want to achieve, narrow your options by considering the following objectives:

• Fewer call transfers;
• Gather all your troubleshooting guides, contact forms, articles, and institutional knowledge into a centralized repository;
• Boost your first call resolution rate;
• Improve customer experience and satisfaction;
• Reduce prospect effort;
• Streamline onboarding and training;
• Deliver unprecedented and consistent customer service and support.

These goals and essential functionalities will help you select the best knowledge base tool with all the third-party integrations you need to meet your business needs.

Consider scalability and customization

You can have the best software in the world, but it won’t mean anything if it takes forever to set up, customize, and maintain. More importantly, your knowledge base must be able to scale with you as your knowledge base needs grow.

So, opt for a software tool with a user-friendly interface to ensure a quick setup and easy maintenance. Cloud-based knowledge base solutions are typically more scalable and come with various customizable components.

Assess vendor support and reliability

Since your knowledge base is also your customer support solution, you need a reliable tool that can keep sensitive business data and user information safe and secure. Today, businesses must abide by compliance regulations, data privacy rules, and industry restrictions to ensure data safety.

They must also hold up-to-date compliance certifications to minimize downtime and data leaks. With that in mind, prioritize reliability and vendor support to ensure maximum uptime and customer-centric support.

We’ve gathered a list of questions to cover during software demos with potential vendors:

• How long does the implementation phase take?
• Is there any support available during that time?
• What type of post-implementation support do you provide?
• How long does it take to activate my users?
• What are the basic implementation steps?
• Is there anything my IT staff should know?
• Are my knowledge base user licenses role-based?

Compare pricing and plans

Once you figure out the features, customization, scalability, vendor support, and reliability, shop around to compare pricing plans. Aim for a solution that can ensure a quick ROI to make the most of your investment. Another thing you should look for is a free trial since good software solutions tend to provide free options given that they are confident in their software.

We recommend choosing an easy-to-use software tool that doesn’t require excessive training and seamlessly integrates with your current tech stack.

What is the best knowledge base software for your company?

The best knowledge base software for your company is the one that empowers your teams to increase efficiency, improve customer support, and enhance the user experience for both your employees and customers.

The solution you opt for should enable you to:

• Seamlessly create, store, manage, and share company knowledge on demand;
• Reduce training time and provide your staff with 24/7 access to user guides, training resources, and operational data;
• Improve information consistency across all available communication channels.

In addition, the best knowledge base software solution should lend you the power of AI to learn from each customer interaction and make your organizational knowledge more searchable, customer-centric, and user-friendly.

Best knowledge base tools for small businesses

The best knowledge base software providers for startups and small businesses are LiveAgent, Zendesk, and HelpScout.

Best knowledge base software solutions for medium businesses

The best knowledge base software solutions for mid-size companies are LiveAgent, Document 360, and Confluence.

Best knowledge base platforms for large businesses

The best knowledge base platforms for large enterprises are LiveAgent, HelpJuice, and HubSpot.

Conclusion

This guide should help our readers select the best knowledge base software for their unique needs. Knowledge base tools are specialized tools that can help all-size business organizations efficiently gather, organize, manage, store, and distribute company knowledge to their internal teams and target audiences.

When choosing a knowledge base solution, consider factors such as scalability, flexibility, range of features, integrations, price, and customization options. Assess your needs carefully before purchasing to ensure you make an informed decision.

We recommend selecting a solution like LiveAgent. LiveAgent is an all-in-one knowledge base software that can streamline information sharing, automate internal communication, increase productivity, and boost customer service, among many other things. You can test it for free today to see if it matches your knowledge base needs.