Many employees in organizations across various industries spend a significant amount of time researching internal information. In fact, according to a McKinsey report, on average employees spend nearly two hours every workday searching and gathering information they need to do their job effectively. For a 40-hour workweek, that means employees are spending 20% of their time doing something other than their job.

The same McKinsey report also estimated that with the right tools in place for finding information, employees could improve productivity by 30 to 35%. This is where internal knowledge base software comes into play.

An internal knowledge base helps small and large organizations make their information available to their employees, bringing a range of benefits to everyone involved. The reason businesses implement an internal knowledge base software is the tremendous reduction of the overall research time.

However, an internal knowledge base is a relatively new concept to most organizations, so businesses leaders are just now starting to realize the immense potential of unified data storage that enhances organization productivity on all levels. 

What Is an Internal Knowledge Base?

For those hearing about knowledge base software for the first time, it’s best to think of a knowledge base as a centralized library that can house all of a company’s knowledge assets. When used internally, this digital library is only accessible by employees.

A few examples of things that you might find in an internal knowledge base:

• Standard operating procedures
• HR policies regarding training, onboarding, etc.
• Marketing collateral
• Sales scripts
• User documentation to help customer support agents with support inquiries

These company resources can be in various formats, yet their common objective is to provide answers to any question an employee might have.

Internal knowledge databases typically are divided into two main categories:

• Human-readable internal knowledge bases: These knowledge bases are formatted so that humans can read them. They are used for internal and external purposes and can implement new technologies (AI, machine learning) at different stages.
• Machine-readable knowledge bases: These knowledge bases are created for programs and bots to retrieve instructions or any other valuable piece of information.

Organizations use human-readable internal knowledge bases to improve productivity while serving and assisting employees in daily operations. 

Benefits of an Internal Knowledge Base

As already mentioned, an internal knowledge base has numerous benefits for your organization, from making more informed decisions to enhancing your customer satisfaction. Companies will seek to implement an internal knowledge base when their existing approach for gathering all relevant business information is insufficient or to build the first system. 

For those still uncertain whether an internal knowledge base is the right solution for them, find below all the benefits other businesses are reporting:

• Improving confidence and certainty in employees: Having all relevant information in one centralized place eliminates the need to ask colleagues for help, enables the person to have more confidence in tasks they are performing, and uses that time for something more valuable. 
• Enhancing employee onboarding: An internal knowledge base will reduce the number of questions a new employee might have and also ensure they have access to all the important information they need when they start working in the company.
• Better internal communication: Employees will communicate more efficiently among themselves by streamlining all pieces of information and eliminating unnecessary noise in your internal communication channels. 
• Reducing training time: Organizations used to spend a lot of time on training employees, but now a knowledge base software can help with teaching new skills or upgrading the existing knowledge.
• Boosting customer satisfaction: The more efficient the engagement and communication between your employees, the better the customer service, which leads to higher customer satisfaction. 

7 Best Internal Knowledge Base Tools

Depending on your needs, you can implement an internal knowledge base in different sizes and complexity levels. Some solutions are detailed encyclopedias, while others are refined problem-solving systems that serve employees for most of their daily operations. 

The problem your organization is solving will be one of the determining factors when choosing an internal knowledge base tool. Ensure you review each software solution carefully before you decide to implement it.

Helpjuice

Most organizations look into internal knowledge bases to improve their team collaboration and customer support. Helpjuice offers a potent knowledge base software that helps all-sized businesses to scale their customer support, while also enhancing the way your team members work together. 

Helpjuice will host your knowledge base in a centralized hub, providing your customers and employees with easy access to essential information. This tool helps heads of customer support, product, training, marketing, and sales teams grow sustainably by scaling customer support processes with a self-service internal knowledge base. 

Regarding functionality, Helpjuice enables multiple users to edit articles in their company knowledge base simultaneously. That is quite beneficial for organizations where multiple employees need to work in the same document at the same time. 

Also, users can add tags and categories to documents in their knowledge base, which simplifies the search for a piece of information both for employees and customers. By browsing manually or using robust search capabilities, the tool helps users find answers to their questions. 

As a customer service tool, Helpjuice also provides organizations with in-depth reports and analytics about what your customers are searching for in the knowledge base. That allows your customer service team to detect which area is key to achieving customer success and improve content and documentation around it. 

Notion

This all-in-one workspace allows your entire team to collaborate, collect ideas, and successfully manage all your projects. It’s a valuable solution for those who are tired of using multiple work apps every day as it combines them all in one internal knowledge base. Notion aims to facilitate supporting and creative organizational processes with customizable dashboards and systems, beneficial for any business type. 

Organizations looking to skip the customization step can choose from a range of templates and adjust them to fit the business requirements. Another reason why we strongly recommend using Notion is that you can use it on the go. Like the Notion desktop version, the mobile app is intuitive and dynamic, while also providing users with better communication and project management constantly.

Notion Pros

Notion goes beyond being a customer service tool. It’s a productivity app with great features for any organization type. One of these features is their robust note-taking which allows users to create lists, add text, videos, audio messages, code snippets, etc. The rich text formatting also lets you comment and craft meeting notes that can serve later for assigning new tasks and creating to-do lists. 

Users can easily drag and drop tasks and lists or connect them as processes to guide your team to reach the common objective. Also, one of the advantages of using Notion is the possibility of integrating it with any other tool your team is currently using – Asana, Google Drive, Dropbox, Typeform, Campaign Monitor, Twitter, and more. 

Notion Cons 

Although it is the leader of internal knowledge base tools, Notion has a few limitations organizations need to be aware of before spending their money. Yes, Notion will impress you as a multi-functioning workspace, but it might leave you a bit disappointed with its project management features. 

Notion doesn’t allow its users to track time, set objectives, OKRs, performance estimates, etc. Businesses hoping to improve their project management processes with a quality internal knowledge base tool might consider Notion a waste of money that harms their overall business results. 

Confluence

Confluence is a remote-friendly team workspace by Atlassian that joins knowledge and collaboration in one place. It is an open and shared workspace connecting users to business ideas and information necessary for building momentum and doing their best. Confluence is not your regular document and file-sharing tool because it’s open and collaborative, allowing team members to collaborate on any project. 

Confluence is well-designed and organized, and users can easily connect across the team and work seamlessly with each other on different tasks and projects. It even has department-sorted templates to ensure you find everything you need with just one click. The tool provides a secure and reliable way for team collaboration and knowledge management, making it perfect for organizations that manage sensitive data.

Confluence Pros

Confluence makes it easy to create spaces and collaborate with teammates to finish design and documentation processes. Many users recommend Confluence as the best internal knowledge base software because it is easy to use and quick to share documentation across all teams. 

If you need to share a document with someone without direct access to a certain page in the tool, you can export the page as a pdf document. Also, their templates have a step-by-step guide that helps users with content writing by suggesting them headers, subheaders, and the content itself. 

Confluence Cons

As it’s a well-thought tool, Confluence doesn’t have as many downsides as other internal knowledge base tools. However, those used to using Microsoft Office will find it quite challenging to format their documents. It’s confusing and time-consuming as it will require time to find all buttons and understand the workflow.

It is created for Jira users, making it only beneficial for software and not hardware engineers. The default-enabled ‘Notify Watchers’ option leads to all watchers receiving an email notification. That will soon result in a flooded inbox, which can be annoying and require additional time to delete emails and get your inbox in order. 

HelpCrunch

HelpCrunch introduces itself as an all-in-one customer communication platform, making it a prominent solution for small and medium businesses that seek a simple, cost-effective customer help center. Unlike its competitors, HelpCrunch goes one step further with its customer service features such as ticketing, email marketing, pop-ups, and live chats. 

The tool aims to simplify how users navigate to find what they need, while also offering a customizable, engaging appearance. It’s also worth noting that this software solution can provide smaller enterprises with basic knowledge base functionalities, but keep in mind they are fairly basic. 

HelpCrunch Pros

Maybe HelpCrunch’s knowledge base software is not as robust as others, but its powerful features make up for it. Users can customize the SEO settings of their articles and other knowledge management content, making it convenient when working on SERPs. ‍The software is also simple to categorize and offers extra access control features. 

Another advantage of HelpCrunch is its incredible email marketing abilities. It is easy to build it into any customer communication platform, distinguishing HelpCrunch from its competitors. With the email marketing software, users can send automatic and manual emails and integrate chat. For those who don’t have a lot of time to create a creative campaign, HelpCrunch offers a decent selection of pre-made email templates.

HelpCrunch Cons

‍As mentioned above, HelpCrunch is designed for small and medium businesses, making it insufficient for larger organizations. If you’re looking for a comprehensive company knowledge base tool, HelpCrunch will provide you with only basic features. These features will not bring value to your organization, regardless of using them for internal or external purposes.

Many HelpCrunch users have also reported bugs, which you want to avoid, especially when utilizing a paid tool. Although it offers a mobile app, HelpCrunch still needs to improve significantly to become an equivalent alternative to the desktop version. Also, its reporting features need improvement to deliver the same value as other tools on our list. 

Document360

Document360 is a cloud-based solution designed for companies looking to use the tool internally and externally. Many large organizations are already making the most of Document360, such as Microsoft, Stackinfy, and Reggora. The reason why it works so well with big companies lies in its wide range of collaboration features and comprehensive analytical and reporting capabilities. 

That said, unlike HelpCrunch, Document360 doesn’t aim to solve your customer service issues, so expect little from it in that area. A few of its praised features are markdown editor, intelligent search functions, different access levels, and collaboration tools. Even with so many features available to their users, Document360 maintains a minimal, easily digestible design that simplifies the tool usage.

Document360 Pros

Document360 users enjoy its robust, intuitive knowledge base portal that can be utilized as a quality internal knowledge base solution for any larger organization. Users can create up to six levels of categories and subcategories with impressive categorization options, helping project managers handle various projects simultaneously.

Document360 is also praised because of its impressive security with SSL throughout the app, followed by database encryption, 100% cloud architecture, and enterprise SSO. Document360 also allows users to manage several different knowledge management tools from one centralized place which can be quite handy for companies with several domains and brandings. With all these advanced features, you can expect to pay more than you would for other mentioned tools in our knowledge base article. 

Document360 Cons

Besides being outside the price range of smaller teams, Document360 has a few limitations that even big organizations need to know about. For such a robust tool, it has limited integrations and lacks complete customer service functionalities, which is something you’d expect for the price between $179 and $359 monthly per project.

‍Another downside of this tool is the search functions. Compared to its competitors, Document360 still needs to improve its search capacity, so its users are not spending too much time searching for a piece of information within the tool. 

ZenDesk‍

As one of the first solutions aimed at helping businesses provide better customer support, Zendesk is still standing strong. Used as an all-in-one helpdesk and service-first CRM, Zendesk will not leave you disappointed with all the features it provides, including its ability to create an internal knowledge base. If you’re looking for an exhaustive support system that will allow your customer support team to help your business’ customers succeed, then you may find everything you need with Zendesk. 

It also has some unique integrations and features that can serve you when building your knowledge base system, such as chat features, importing from Google Docs, offering multilingual content, AI Answer Bot, and more. The AI Answer Bot helps with automatically responding to emails which can be beneficial when building a knowledge base for your customers or employees.

‍Zendesk Pros 

Zendesk is one of the leaders in customer support tools because of its advanced customer support features that can be used for knowledge bases as well. Whether you want to set up a help center, create a community forum, or choose from numerous integrations, Zendesk goes above and beyond to impress its users. 

‍When talking about its many features, you will also find an advanced ticketing system, simple-to-set-up workflows and automations, messaging across your web, mobile, and social platforms, AI-supported automated answers, and a unified agent workspace. For those who don’t have time to learn how to use a tool on their own, Zendesk also offers excellent onboarding guidance. 

‍Zendesk Cons 

Zendesk is also one of the more expensive tools on the market, making it more suitable for larger organizations. Also, if you’re looking for a thorough internal knowledge base tool, Zendesk might not be the best solution. 

That said, the reason why we’ve added it to our list is that its wide range of features can serve many small and middle businesses in setting up company knowledge bases. Those seeking comprehensive knowledge base solutions might need to consider another tool.

Slite

This workspace for remote teams might be just what you need as it supports all working knowledge of a typical business – projects, discussions, updates, meetings, etc. Slite aims to help teams collaborate and work together more efficiently, regardless of their location. That makes it a suitable solution for any business that works in a remote environment. 

Slite has an impressive knowledge base software that is simple to use and the company is constantly updating it and providing enhanced functionalities. Slite separates itself from other knowledge and document management solutions by believing that knowledge base shouldn’t be something you only check on your first day. Instead, it should be dynamic, updated, and valuable to everyone at any given moment. 

Slite Pros

Slite is unlike any other classic knowledge base we’ve covered in our list. It allows you to store any type of company information, from meeting minutes to frequently asked questions (FAQs). The tool helps users place the knowledge where your team members or customers will look for it. 

‍Intuitive experience is another strong feature of Slite. As businesses differ in technological abilities, Slite’s intuitive user experience makes it easy to understand the logic of your knowledge base. Also, it reduces the time people would spend looking for a piece of information. Lastly, Slite’s discoverability functionalities will highlight what’s new and popular with other users, so your internal team or external customers can be informed at all times. 

Slite Cons

As much as Slite is comprehensive and provides you with almost everything you need for your internal knowledge base, it is far from perfect. The tool lacks onboarding guidance and simplicity as many new users get easily confused and lost within the tool. Because of its many features, it often takes more time to learn how to make the most of Slite, so you might enjoy its full potential only after a few weeks. 

Another thing we noticed with Slite is the limited features in their free plan. Many other internal knowledge base software pieces will give you a good idea of how beneficial the tool might be for you based on their free trial, but that’s not the case with Slite, so make sure you check it well before purchasing. 

Wrap Up 

With the business landscape constantly changing and the competition being stronger than ever before, organizations need to give their employees and customers easy access to any information. When choosing the best internal knowledge management solution for your company, check that the features fit your needs. 

There are many internal knowledge base software solutions available on the market. While we tried to make sure to provide you with the best options possible given our in-depth research, many of these tools may be limited in one way or another for what you need. Remember to make sure to do your research – ideally you work with a software provider that provides a free trial as getting locked into the wrong knowledge base software might cause more damage than good.

With that said, we have found that Helpjuice, Atlassian, and Notion are a tier above the rest of the solutions on this list, which is why we listed them in the top three positions. These software solutions are probably where you should look to start your search for knowledge base software that can be used internally.