Knowledge base software

Customer service teams face the challenge of delivering more value to customers quickly while reducing costs. Knowledge base software has long been a valuable tool for streamlining operations, enhancing efficiency, and boosting customer satisfaction. With the advent of AI-powered self-service tools, these benefits are further amplified. AI enables richer, more accurate knowledge bases and highly efficient AI agents—AI-powered bots that can connect to your knowledge base to autonomously resolve customer requests. In fact, 44 percent of CX leaders identify enhancing self-service portals with AI tools as a top priority this year.

In this guide, we'll explore how to choose the right knowledge base software for your service needs, the benefits of using one, and how AI-powered knowledge base tools can significantly enhance your self-service operations.

More in this guide:

• What is knowledge base software?
• What are the different types of knowledge base software?
• Who uses knowledge base software?
• Benefits of using a knowledge base solution
• Features of knowledge base systems
• A comparison chart of best knowledge base software
• The 15 best knowledge base software
• How to design a knowledge base
• How to choose the right knowledge base system
• Should you consider open-source knowledge base software?
• Should you choose a hosted or a self-hosted knowledge base solution?
• The difference between help desks and knowledge bases
• What is the difference between knowledge management and knowledge base software?
• Frequently asked questions
• Try knowledge base software for free

Knowledge base software is a tool that helps organizations create, manage, and share information internally or with customers. It centralizes FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and other helpful content, enabling users to find answers quickly and efficiently.

Businesses without a knowledge base often rely on shared Google Drives to store customer and business information. However, as the business grows, this approach can lead to issues with security, searchability, and accessibility. Here are the common types of knowledge base software that are essential for implementing an effective self-service strategy.

FAQ pages

An FAQ page (Frequently Asked Questions page) is a section of a website dedicated to addressing common questions and concerns that customers or users might have. It provides concise answers to typical inquiries about a company's products, services, policies, or procedures, helping to improve user experience by offering quick and accessible information.

AI agents and bots

These advanced AI agents use generative AI to find and summarize answers within your knowledge base. They can also integrate with conversation flows and backend systems to provide personalized and accurate responses to more complex questions. For example, Zendesk AI agents can be extensively customized, allowing admins to determine which inquiries receive generative responses and which are routed to self-service articles.

Generative AI

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content, such as text, images, or music, based on patterns and data it has learned. Businesses can leverage generative AI to quickly write and enhance knowledge base content. For instance, Zendesk's generative AI tools can transform a few bullet points into a complete article, adjust the tone to better align with your brand, and refine the copy for clarity.

Community forums

Community forums are online platforms where users can engage in discussions, share information, ask questions, and collaborate. They enable customers to assist each other and foster a sense of connection.

Internal knowledge base

Internal knowledge bases are help centers that employees can use to reference company information, such as HR FAQs about benefits, leave, life events, and other company policies. This enhances your employee service operations by reducing ticket volume for internal service teams while providing employees with 24/7 access to essential resources.

Self-service portals

Self-service portals are personalized hubs that allow customers or employees to independently access information, manage support requests, and perform tasks without needing direct assistance.

Organizations can use knowledge base software to empower several different audiences to self-serve, such as:

• Customers: Knowledge base software helps customers find important information and resolve issues independently. This can result in a better customer service experience and a reduced workload for your support team.
• Employees: Employees can use knowledge base software to find HR and IT resources, access company information, and more. It can also aid in employee onboarding by helping new hires find the information they need to improve their skills.
• Business partners: Knowledge base software can include company product information, in-depth product tutorials, and advanced guides. Business partners can use this information to streamline their product adoption and quickly get the help they need.

A knowledge base solution can enhance your organization in several key areas. Here are some of the most impactful benefits.

Enables teams to scale and lower costs while maintaining high customer satisfaction

A knowledge base empowers customers to self-serve, enabling you to handle more inquiries without additional resources. This enhances customer satisfaction (CSAT) by providing immediate resolutions, eliminating the need to wait on hold for an agent. AI agents can further boost CSAT by leveraging your knowledge base to deliver personalized 24/7 support across popular channels like chat and social messaging. Additionally, knowledge bases and AI agents ensure consistent support during demand surges, allowing you to scale effectively even with a lean team.

Boosts productivity

A knowledge base boosts productivity by centralizing information, enabling employees and customers to quickly find answers without contacting support. By providing easy access to essential resources, users can perform tasks more efficiently. This reduces repetitive inquiries, freeing up support teams to focus on more complex issues, deflecting tickets, and maintaining a manageable queue.

Increases search engine discoverability

Knowledge bases can improve a company’s online visibility via search engine optimization (SEO). When you create a large volume of specialized content, you create a wealth of assets with relevant keywords, data, and links that will attract more organic traffic to your website. This increases website visitors and positions your brand as an authority in your industry.

Streamlines agent training

With information a single click away in your knowledge base, agents can efficiently and accurately help customers without needing to memorize every detail. A knowledge base acts as a hard drive for your agents, allowing instant access to internal processes, FAQs, and articles for quick answers on demand. This also accelerates agent onboarding and gives new hires access to training materials.

Unlocks AI capabilities

AI agents represent the next generation of AI-powered bots, pre-trained on billions of real customer interactions to respond just like human agents. Establishing a knowledge base allows you to implement an AI agent quickly and cost-effectively. These AI agents can independently assist customers by searching your knowledge base, summarizing relevant information, and sharing help articles if the customer wants to learn more.

To see this in action, look no further than online fashion retailer Motel Rocks. The company uses Zendesk AI agents to encourage customers to self-serve—resulting in a 50 percent reduction in ticket volume and a 9.44 percent increase in customer satisfaction.

Beyond connecting to your knowledge base, Zendesk AI agents also integrate with backend systems such as e-commerce tools or billing platforms, enabling them to fully resolve even the most complex customer issues.

There are several types of knowledge base systems on the market: some prioritize internal use cases, while others take a customer-focused approach. That said, you should consider eight key features—no matter the product.

AI-powered content creation and management

Generative AI can accelerate and enhance help center article creation. It can transform a few bullet points into a complete article, adjust the tone to be more friendly or formal, and refine the copy for clarity. Additionally, it can flag outdated content and identify missing topics based on your ticket data.

AI agents

AI agents are the next generation of AI-powered bots capable of independently resolving complex customer and employee service requests. By connecting an AI agent to your knowledge base, you can quickly implement it and start automating over 10 percent of your customer interactions.

While traditional knowledge base chatbots search your help center for keywords and surface articles to answer FAQs, next-generation AI-powered bots offer much more. They respond like human agents and can complete tasks from start to finish, such as processing refunds or facilitating password resets.

Generative search

Generative search uses AI to help give customers and employees instant answers to search queries in your help center. AI can do this by scanning related articles and delivering quick, direct answers—thereby eliminating users having to click through endless search results.

Article multiplacement

Article multiplacement allows knowledge managers to create and update articles in multiple sections in a knowledge base all at once. This streamlines content creation, making creating and maintaining your articles effortless.

Customizations for branding

Choose a knowledge base system that offers customization options to align it with your branding. This includes the ability to customize colors, logos, layouts, and themes, ensuring a consistent look and feel.

Multilingual capabilities

For global businesses or those with customers who speak different languages, offering multilingual support is essential. Knowledge base software can provide content in multiple languages, ensuring accessibility for users from various regions.

Reporting and analytics

Finally, knowledge base software should include robust reporting and analytics features that provide insights into user behavior and content performance. These tools can help businesses track metrics like article views, search queries, user feedback, and more to determine the effectiveness of their knowledge base.

Discover more about knowledge base software with our comprehensive table detailing pricing, free trial options, and key features.

Now, let’s explore an in-depth overview of the software options on our list to help you make the best choice for your needs.

1. Zendesk

Best for AI-powered customer and employee self-service

Zendesk offers AI-powered knowledge base software that is fast to set up, easy to use for both customers and internal teams, and scalable. Our generative AI tools can turn a few bullet points into a complete article, adjust the tone to match your brand guidelines, and refine the copy for clarity, enabling you to create a comprehensive help center quickly and cost-effectively.

AI-powered Content Cues provide insights into trending support topics, helping you fill content gaps. They can also flag underperforming articles, allowing you to update or archive them to keep your knowledge base current.

Once your knowledge base is established, enhance your self-service offerings with Zendesk AI agents. These industry-leading bots are pre-trained on over 18 billion real customer interactions and can be set up in minutes without technical expertise by connecting them to your knowledge base. They reference your knowledge base to answer questions, direct users to relevant articles, or connect to a conversation flow.

Zendesk is highly customizable, allowing you to create language-specific versions of articles and develop multiple help centers for different audiences or brands. Team Publishing simplifies managing updates by enabling collaboration, review, approval, and publishing workflows. The Content Blocks feature lets you add and place text, images, and videos in relevant articles.

Additionally, our semantic search capabilities improve search results by understanding the meaning of queries even without exact keywords. Generative search provides AI-generated answers within your help center, so users don't have to sift through multiple search results to find the information they need.

Finally, our knowledge base software is integrated into our comprehensive customer service solution, providing everything you need to deliver exceptional CX from day one, including omnichannel support and an AI-powered Agent Workspace.

Pricing: Plans start at $55 per agent/month. A 14-day free trial is available.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

2. Helpjuice

Best for single-purpose knowledge base software

Helpjuice offers knowledge base software that can help businesses manage content. The solution features a search engine designed for knowledge bases to help users find what they need. Users can create articles using the native What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor and publishing interface to add content.

The platform employs AI-driven algorithms to recommend article topics and generate suggestions for content improvements. Analytics highlight which articles get the most views and which users search for them. Additionally, Helpjuice offers customization options. The customizable themes allow you to create a tailored brand experience, and multilingual support lets you switch languages from the authoring panel.

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Customizable
• Responsive customer support

Cons:

• Interface can have pop-ups
• Can be difficult to navigate

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $120 per month for up to four users. A 14-day free trial is available.

Learn about the Helpjuice integration for Zendesk.

3. Bloomfire

Best for internal knowledge sharing

Bloomfire helps teams organize company knowledge in a centralized platform. The platform mimics social media with capabilities for users to engage with the content with likes, shares, comments, or follows. Bloomfire’s AI technology can also understand the user's queries and provide suggestions.

The reporting features and feedback loops can help management teams understand if the content is engaging or if there are any opportunities for improvement. Moreover, Bloomfire's platform supports the creation of crowd-sourced FAQs so teams and communities can collaboratively build a repository of best practices.

Pros:

• Versatile product
• Easy to use
• Excels in inter-departmental communication

Cons:

• Indexing can be clunky
• Navigation can be confusing
• Customer onboarding may be difficult

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Contact Bloomfire for pricing. A 30-day free trial is available.

Learn about the Bloomfire integration for Zendesk.

4. Guru

Best for creating an employee intranet

Guru’s knowledge base system enables teams to create, share, access, and update information. It can unify contextually relevant information with existing tools like chat, email, and your customer relationship management (CRM) system. Businesses can set user permissions and view revision history.

Guru uses AI to surface information in the knowledge base to improve suggestions based on customer and employee search patterns. Guru also lets businesses compare their engagement analytics to performance benchmarks. Though Guru is an internal knowledge base, you can use its application programming interface (API) to publish content externally.

Pros:

• Easy customer onboarding
• Features are accessible
• Keyword search makes it easy to find information

Cons:

• Document layouts are lacking in customizability
• Search function can be problematic
• Generative AI could give unrelated results

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $10 per user/month, billed annually. A 30-day free trial is available.

Learn about the Guru integration for Zendesk.

5. Zoho Desk

Best for companies using Zoho products

Mostly known for its ticketing system and help desk solutions, Zoho Desk also offers knowledge base software. The customizable structure allows you to form separate categories for how-to articles, FAQs, and other self-service options. Users can also create separate categories if they have different brands and sub-categories for brand-specific topics.

Writers and editors can create content using Zoho’s collaboration tools. Businesses can control access to their knowledge base by requiring users to create accounts. Additionally, Zoho lets users customize their knowledge base themes and branding with logos and color schemes. Community forums also allow customers to collaborate and interact with your team.

Pros:

• Can aid in customer communication
• Easy to use
• Intuitive features

Cons:

• There can be technical issues in the login process
• Sorting and assigning content can be difficult
• Notifications and alerts are sometimes lacking

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $7 per user/month, billed annually. A 15-day free trial is available.

Learn about the Zoho CRM integration for Zendesk.

6. Document360

Best for free public knowledge base access

Document360 lets you create public knowledge bases for your customers and private knowledge bases for your team. Common features include real-time search, version control, and category manager. Plus, writers and editors can collaborate in discussion platforms while creating or reviewing drafts.

This knowledge base software includes markdown and WYSIWYG editors, so authors can create content using their preferred method. Document360 allows you to create how-to guides, tutorials, and technical documents for your teams. The software also offers article view permissions, which keep data private and secure by requiring a login to access information.

Pros:

• Easy-to-use folder structure
• Wealth of customizability
• Integration capabilities

Cons:

• Character limits to new pages
• Occasional technical difficulties
• Limited product support

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $149 per project/month. A 14-day free trial and free plan for up to two users are available.

Learn about the Document360 integration for Zendesk.

7. Notion

Best for team collaboration

Businesses can use Notion as a database, notepad, project management tool, and collaborative writing space. Its wiki software enables companies to organize knowledge in a searchable format, and permission settings can determine what users can access and do.

Notion lets you customize your customer knowledge base and organize content by adding tags, labels, and owners to your articles. It has pre-built templates and drag-and-drop tools to help build and structure pages.

Pros:

• Extensive tutorials and startup information
• Easy to build
• Several integration options

Cons:

• Collaboration can be clunky
• Missing some advanced article writing features
• Occasional glitches

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $10 per seat/month. A seven-day free trial and free plan are available.

Learn about the Notion integration for Zendesk.

8. HappyFox

Best for social sharing

HappyFox provides help desk software with knowledge base solutions for businesses across various industries. Its knowledge base offers self-service options and helps organizations collect customer feedback. The tool also has branded client portals and separate internal and external knowledge management systems.

Users can utilize HappyFox’s search engine to find relevant and top-ranking articles for their queries. Auto-suggest and structured index features guide customers through their self-service journey. HappyFox also allows businesses to share content over social media channels.

Pros:

• Good product support
• Customizable content options
• Flexible use cases

Cons:

• Software can be overly technical
• Occasional bugs
• Some difficulty exporting information

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $9 per agent/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

9. Confluence

Best for Jira users

Confluence is a document collaboration and sharing platform by Atlassian (which owns Jira) that businesses can use for internal or external knowledge base purposes. The software can keep track of document changes for content auditing and lets teams collaborate on drafts.

The analytics tools in Confluence allow teams to track content performance, monitor user engagement, and identify areas that may require additional attention. Confluence also supports real-time co-authoring and editing of articles, as well as user comments and permissions management. This can help teams collaborate and maintain their knowledge base.

Pros:

• Easy to learn
• Promotes employee development
• Easy to collaborate with team members

Cons:

• Can be difficult to export information
• Page editing can seem lacking
• Text-based search can be hit or miss

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra

Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month for 10 users.

Learn about the Confluence integration for Zendesk.

10. Knowmax

Best for learning management

Knowmax provides AI-powered knowledge management resources that allow agents to retrieve articles using natural language queries. The platform integrates with a learning management system, enabling businesses to create and deliver training materials directly within Knowmax.

The product also offers functionalities to manage the presentation of information. Decision trees guide agents through troubleshooting procedures step by step. Picture guides provide visual aids alongside written instructions to add clarity for both agents and customers.

Pros:

• Easy to create content
• Intuitive design
• Decision trees are easy to navigate

Cons:

• Lacking in some features compared to other options
• Can be a high initial investment
• Could be better features related to content scraping and tone detection

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Contact Knowmax.

Learn about the Knowmax integration for Zendesk.

11. Nuclino

Best for project management

Nuclino’s knowledge base solutions offer AI that can assist users in creating structured, interconnected documents. The AI sidekick can generate ideas, write content based on provided keywords, and summarize notes.

With Nuclino, companies can set access restrictions to control who views, edits, and contributes content. Multiple users can work together, editing and commenting on documents in real time. The platform also includes an article version history tool, allowing users to track changes and revisions over time. Additionally, Nuclino provides a collection of templates that give users a starting point in designing wikis, product roadmaps, and handbooks.

Pros:

• Wealth of integrations
• Easy to create and edit content
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Pricing structure can be problematic for some businesses
• Initial product integration can be difficult
• Can be convoluted if managing large databases

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month with limited features. A 14-day free trial is available.

12. ProProfs Knowledge Base

Best for individual authors

ProProfs Knowledge Base lets businesses view reports on article views, user interactions, and content performance to understand how readers are engaging with articles. Companies can also define workflow processes so everyone knows how to create, review, and approve content.

ProProfs lets users create conditional content, and it can hide or display content based on the reader’s viewing device or customer segment. Additionally, its WYSIWYG editor lets teams customize content templates and add images or videos.

Pros:

• Helpful related features like workflow templates
• Cost-effective
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Can be lacking in automation
• Lack of integrations
• Occasional bugs

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month for one author and up to 25 pages. A 15-day free trial is available.

13. Help Scout

Best for teams using a shared inbox

Help Scout provides knowledge base software as part of its help center solution. Businesses that use it can maintain a consistent look that aligns with their brand identity. Customization options include color schemes, logos, and layouts.

Businesses can control access and user permissions to protect sensitive information while allowing collaboration and content management between teams. AI-powered tools can guide users to resources and provide recommendations for content creation. Additionally, its analytics can help teams track metrics like article views and search trends.

Pros:

• Clean interface
• Several integrations
• Core features are easy to use

Cons:

• Occasional glitches
• Advanced capabilities can be difficult to learn
• Few customization options

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $22 per user/month, billed annually. A 15-day free trial is available.

14. HelpCrunch

Best for chat widget integration

HelpCrunch offers knowledge base software as part of its broader customer support solutions. This allows businesses to integrate their knowledge bases within chat widgets to promote self-service. The AI-powered editor assists in creating content for search engine discoverability. It can translate articles, change the tone, and expand text.

The software also provides insights through its "failed searches” feature. This report identifies search queries that don't yield relevant results within the knowledge base, highlighting potential content gaps and areas for improvement.

Pros:

• Macro systems can be useful for customer support
• Helpful product support
• Cost-effective

Cons:

• Occasional bugs
• Product design can be lacking
• Could use additional access features

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Plans start at $12 per team member/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

15. Whatfix

Best for user onboarding

Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that helps businesses with user support and in-app guidance. While this product is not a traditional knowledge base software, it can help teams embed their internal and external resources directly into third-party applications and digital workplaces.

Organizations can utilize guided flows, product tours, and helpful pop-ups to aid user onboarding and product adoption. Teams can gather engagement and user data to determine task completion rates, common self-help questions, knowledge gaps, and more.

Pros:

• Easy initial setup
• Wealth of customizations
• Users can grow capabilities without needing developer help

Cons:

• Customer support can be hit or miss
• Advanced flows can be difficult to implement
• Analytics capabilities can be lacking

Pros and cons sourced from Capterra.

Pricing: Contact Whatfix for pricing. A free trial is available.

The process of designing and building a knowledge base is crucial. A good design can get users the answers they need fast, while a poorly conceived interface could leave users with more questions than answers. Some aspects you should consider when building one include:

• Placing a search bar at the top of the page or other prominent area
• Ensuring your FAQ section is easy to find
• Adding a contact number to your pages in case the user wants to speak to human support

Overall, the key is to design your knowledge base to make it easy for visitors to find answers—and this will depend on your customer base and your product or service. For example, at Zendesk, we categorize our knowledge base based on solutions. So, users can go to the relevant resource if they have a question about our Agent Workspace.

What goes into designing the information architecture of a knowledge base?

Designing the information architecture of your knowledge base involves organizing and structuring your content logically, making it easy for users to navigate. A few ways you can do this include:

• Understand your user needs to determine what they are looking for and how they want to search for and find information.
• Define your content types like we organize our content based on solutions, but find a way that works for your business.
• Create consistency through design and search function locations, and make it easy for users to find answers no matter what page they are on.

During this process, it’s key to prioritize the user experience and design your information with them in mind.

Here are a few considerations when picking the best knowledge base software and system for your business.

Ensure it has AI tools

If you aren’t harnessing artificial intelligence, your knowledge base won’t be as effective as it could be. Look for solutions that feature AI agents, generative AI, and other forms of technology to boost efficiency and take your customer and employee support to the next level.

Make sure it’s secure

The best knowledge base software has safeguards in place to protect sensitive data. With up-to-date software compliance certifications, businesses demonstrate that they abide by industry restrictions and regulations to keep data secure. Zendesk gives businesses user authentication options, data encryption, device management, and more.

Vet how easy it is to set up and maintain

Pick software that deploys quickly and offers the tools you need for easy maintenance. It’s also wise to choose a tool that requires minimal onboarding and training so you can get up and running swiftly. A fast time to value means you start seeing the benefits of the software sooner rather than later.

Consider the total cost of ownership

With any software, you want a quick return on investment (ROI), but those gains can be delayed by unforeseen costs and endless add-ons that inflate your budget. Ideally, your chosen solution won’t require a large technical team or development resources to maintain it. Look for software that prioritizes automation and built-in efficiency, allowing your team to focus on creating valuable content and not getting bogged down by technical complexities.

Prioritize scalability

Choosing scalable knowledge base software is paramount for businesses seeking a long-term solution. As your company grows and your information needs evolve, a scalable platform will seamlessly adapt to advancing needs. This ensures your knowledge base can accommodate an expanding content library and integrate with future systems without requiring a costly and disruptive software overhaul down the line.

Open-source knowledge base software can help you develop a knowledge base quickly, but if you intend to implement an open-source model in the long term, you should weigh the pros and cons.

The greatest benefits of open-source software are that it’s typically free to download, and users can access and customize the source code.

The cons of open-source knowledge base software include:

• Technical expertise: Setting up and maintaining an open-source knowledge base often requires some technical expertise. This can be a challenge for businesses without in-house IT resources.
• Limited support: While some open-source projects offer paid support options, technical support will typically be less readily available compared to commercial software with dedicated customer service teams.
• Security risks: While transparency can be an advantage, it also means potential vulnerabilities are exposed for anyone to exploit. Businesses must be vigilant about keeping their software updated and securing their servers.

Choosing between a hosted and self-hosted knowledge base hinges on your technical resources and budget. A self-hosted solution offers more control if you have a strong IT team and prioritize customization. However, a hosted knowledge base is likely the better fit for businesses seeking a user-friendly, low-maintenance option with ongoing support.

Knowledge base systems and help desks can sometimes be confused because they are both support tools and serve distinct purposes.

Knowledge base systems are self-service libraries that empower users to find answers to frequently asked questions, troubleshooting guides, and how-to articles.

Help desks are centralized teams within a company that often use software to deliver customer and employee support. They use tools like knowledge base systems to facilitate self-service and streamline support interactions between users and agents. To promote knowledge sharing and self-service, you must ensure your help desk uses knowledge base software.

Knowledge management is the practice of creating, sharing, and using an organization's collective knowledge effectively. It encompasses capturing valuable information from employees, organizing it in a user-friendly way, and ensuring it's readily accessible to those who need it—typically made possible by knowledge management software.

Knowledge base software helps businesses create and manage knowledge bases and important information. In other words, knowledge base software is the tool, while knowledge management is the strategy.