Nearly 81% of customers attempt to find answers themselves before reaching out to a company’s support service. So, if you are getting an overwhelming number of support tickets, your self-service system is lacking or inadequate.

Many companies in this situation turn to a self-service knowledge base to help them create a digital library that contains answers to frequently asked questions, product specs, video tutorials, and more in an effort to enable both customers as well as employees the ability to solve their problems independently.

Essentially, with knowledge base software, you’re able to organize your institutional knowledge into informational content that can be shared in a searchable database.

The software can help you create both employee-facing and customer-facing knowledge bases. 

An employee-facing knowledge base, also known as an internal knowledge base, holds informational content that employees can access to help them better do their jobs.

On the other hand, a customer-facing knowledge base, also known an external knowledge base, typically has helpful content that customers can access to help them solve problems independently.

A knowledge base software is crucial to any business, as it offers solutions that help users solve problems speedily. Because of the high demand, there is now an abundance of these tools.

This article will make it easier for you when choosing knowledge base software. We’ll look at the best knowledge base software for 2023.

The list is carefully curated and has only platforms with all the essential features of a knowledge base software platform. These features include a search engine, content analytics, content management, and artificial intelligence. 

That said, the best knowledge base software platforms in 2023 are:

• Helpjuice
• Guru
• Zendesk
• Zoho Desk
• Bloomfire
• Intellum Platform
• Notion
• ProProfs
• Wix Answers
• Confluence 
• HelpCrunch
• Document360

1. Helpjuice

Helpjuice is one of the most powerful (yet easy-to-use) knowledge base software in the market.

Helpjuice is excellent for organizing informational articles and content for customer support agents, select customers, or the public. So, it helps create internal knowledge bases, external knowledge bases, or both.

Helpjuice is a simple knowledge-base software

The best knowledge base software platforms have good content management features that make it easy to create and publish content to the knowledge base. 

Helpjuice leads the pack in this regard because it offers easy authoring and content formatting.

With Helpjuice, you can instantly author articles with absolutely no training required. It is an intuitive knowledge base software, so you can use it without needing to sit down for a 45 minutes demo to learn about it.

Everyone will be able to use the powerful editor. You can publish multiple versions of the same article. It offers amazingly easy-to-use categories and folders for structuring your content. 

Helpjuice store article history, so you can easily go back to a previous one if you change your mind about the state of your article. 

Also, Helpjuice lets you set articles to Private, Internal, or Public. That is, you can limit access to articles to only users who log in, to specific people or groups, or everyone. So, Helpjuice knowledge base software gives you the power to control who sees what article in the knowledge base.

Helpjuice offers intelligent analytics

The best knowledge base software not only provides helpful content but also analytics that help you know how people use the content. Helpjuice has robust analytics.

The analytics feature lets you see what users search, measure what topics people consume, measure the impact of your articles, and more. In fact, Helpjuice’s analytics feature is one of the best in the industry.

For example, other knowledge base tools tell you what people are searching for and not finding. But Helpjuice goes a step further to tell you who the people searching are. 

It also offers suggestions about what articles need improving and what you should be writing in your knowledge base.

Helpjuice offers limitless customizations

You can customize Helpjuice to basically anything you want it to be. It comes with 12+ themes to install. It also offers expert customization of your knowledge base at no cost. So, Helpjuice is perfect for teams with limited developer support.

Helpjuice has a powerful Google-like search

While knowledge bases have well-structured categories, people often prefer to use search bars to call up the content they need. So, a good knowledge base solution should have a powerful search bar.

Suffice it to say that Helpjuice’s search bar is as powerful as Google’s. It instantly furnishes instant the information your users need. 

To make it even easier for users to find the information they need, Helpjuice allows them to search PDFs and even content from inside images.

Helpjuice supports numerous integrations 

Helpjuice integrates with your favorite tools, including Slack, Salesforce, Zapier, Olark, Freshdesk, etc. Thus, you can pull articles from Helpjuice to improve your regular service. 

For example, consider integrating Helpjuice with Olark Chat. When a user is chatting with you, Helpjuice will smartly find knowledge-base articles that match what the user is talking about. 

It’ll suggest these articles to you so you can use them to better respond to the user.

Helpjuice main features 

• Easy authoring and content formatting
• Intelligent analytics
• Limitless customizations
• Powerful search system
• Amazing integrations
• Effective customer support

Helpjuice pricing

Helpjuice has simple pricing, with four plans starting at $120/ month to $499/ month. Interestingly, unlike the starter plans of other knowledge base tools with many restrictions, Helpjuice’s starter plan offers all features. 

Also, Helpjuice offers a 14-days free trial. Plus, you’ll get access to full features during the trial period.

2. Guru

Guru advertises as “a company wiki that works in your workflow, so the information you need to do your job is always at your fingertips.” So, it is a knowledge management solution for internal use. 

Guru helps you capture the information you need wherever it exists and make it available to other team members. It has a powerful (yet simple) editor that makes it easy to create content. 

You can import and format information in the editor or write from scratch. You can then organize the information using collections, boards, groups, and cards.

One of the best features of Guru is its verification system. This helps you transform your company information into knowledge. 

Not only does Guru surface information, but it also allows experts within your organization to verify the authenticity of the information. Thus, you’ll not have to worry whether a piece of information is out-of-date or inaccurate. 

When creating new content or editing existing content, Guru intelligently suggests the person within your organization who is most likely to help you.

Guru also has analytics that helps you track and improve your knowledge. The insights will show you what content your team uses and offer suggestions for improving content.

The best part of Guru is that it fits within your team’s existing workflow to make the correct information available to your team as they work. 

The solution’s AI provides helpful suggestions in chats. Based on the conversation in your chat with a user, it’ll suggest articles that can help you provide better service. 

Guru also has a powerful chrome extension that lets you harness the power of your knowledge base everywhere on the web.

Guru can help you do the following:

• Share critical product information. Guru helps you create a database of expert-verified information, providing a single source of truth for every step of your product delivery process. Your team will be on the same page with product information they can access within their workflow.
• Streamline employee onboarding and onboarding. It helps you automate onboarding so new hires across every team can find the information they need to do their work. You can also use it to document your critical resources knowledge, so you never lose company knowledge when critical employees leave.
• Streamline internal communications. You can easily take a Guru link and share it in a channel for your real-time messaging needs. The Guru announcement feature also helps you share important updates with your team.
• End meeting and repeat questions. Guru helps you keep your company’s knowledge in one place, reducing the need for regular meetings and repeat questions.

Guru main features

• Fits into workflow
• A simple editor for creating content
• Categorization of information
• Expert verification of knowledge 
• Announcements allowing you to share company updates
• Intelligent AI tools 
• Powerful analytics 

Guru pricing  

Guru is a low-cost knowledge management system. Its starter plan is free for teams of up to 3 users but is $5 for larger teams. However, the plan is barebones. 

Guru also offers Builder and Expert plans costing $10/ month and $20/ month, respectively. Also, you can try the lower-tier plans for free for 30 days.

3. Zendesk

Zendesk is a champion in customer service as it builds software to meet customer needs. Zendesk offers knowledge base software known as Zendesk Guide. It helps you organize company knowledge to empower your customers and agents with the necessary information.

The Zendesk knowledge base solution is easy to use, allowing you to create content without breaking a sweat. It has rich formatting features which you can use to freshen up content and make it easy to read.

One of its best features is the “Content Block,” which helps you create content that lives across multiple articles. You can organize content using “content blocks” and place these blocks in articles across your help center. When you revise a block, the changes reflect wherever the content appears. 

When building an internal knowledge base, you can choose who sees what by restricting access to specific groups.

Another good feature of the Zendesk knowledge base software is its Content Cues which helps keep content fresh and relevant. It uses AI to identify gaps in your knowledge base and suggest actions to make your content more relevant. 

Content Cues gives you AI-powered article suggestions based on trending support topics your customers are searching for but not finding.

Zendesk Guide is highly customizable. It gives you full control over your help center’s appearance. You can choose from various themes. 

You can create more than one help center to cater to different audiences. You can also localize your content by translating it into over 40 languages.

One feature that sets Zendesk apart from other knowledge-base solutions is its integrated CRM system. The integrated system lets you engage customers via email, Tweets, and Facebook and easily convert them into tickets.

Zendesk features

• Industry-leading ticketing system
• Offers AI-powered article recommendation 
• Organize content using Content Blocks for easy revision
• Offers article categorization and a robust search bar
• Highly customizable 
• 100+ integrations 

Zendesk pricing

Zendesk starter pack (Suite Team) starts at $49/ month. However, it comes with many restrictions. To access more features, you need higher plans. Its Suite Growth plan costs $79/ month, while the Suite Professional plan costs $99/ month.

Zendesk has a 14-days free trial that lets you take the software for a spin free of charge.

4. Zoho Desk

Like Zendesk, Zoho Desk provides solutions to simplify customer service operations. The knowledge base software is just one part of its customer support suite.

With the Zoho Desk knowledge management system, you can easily build a repository of articles. You can categorize these articles so users can easily find what they are looking for. 

Zoho Desk lets you create separate help centers for each brand you support and customize them how you please. 

Zoho-Desk empowers your customer support team with its Auto-Suggest feature. It helps agents answer questions faster by pulling relevant articles from your knowledge base based on keywords in the ticket. 

Zoho also has impressive analytics and reporting features. It monitors customers’ self-service patterns and generates insightful reports, which help you understand how your users use your content.

In addition to a knowledge base, Zoho Desk also lets you build forums and communities. This creates a common platform space where your customers can engage in discussions with each other and with your company. They can ask questions and share ideas on these platforms. 

Zoho Desk’s integrated ticketing solution makes getting help easier. If the customer requires a more elaborate solution, they can submit a ticket and get a reply on the same interface.

Zoho Desk features

• Content management
• Portal customization
• Domain mapping
• Integrated ticketing system
• Helps you build forums and communities 
• Secure access

Zoho Desk pricing

Zoho Desk offers three plans, which start at $14 per month. However, you can try out the tool for free as it has a 14-day trial.

5. Bloomfire

Bloomfire advertises as “the knowledge management platform to grow your collective intelligence.” Bloomfire is an internal knowledge management tool catering to knowledge sharing. 

Bloomfire can help you: 

• Democratize information by allowing everyone to access the same knowledge
• Prevent knowledge loss by documenting the tacit knowledge and expertise of team members leaving the company or moving to another role
• Increase content confidence by providing solutions for keeping content up to date 

It provides a single space for your team to access the information they need to do their work. Bloomfire makes it easy to organize your organization’s knowledge. The rich text editor makes it easy to convey your knowledge in whatever form, including text, charts, audio, and video.

Bloomfire offers easy customization options allowing you to create an experience that feels familiar and aligns with your brand. You can create custom categories to arrange content. 

To optimize the knowledge base platform for your business, you can set different user permission levels and control who sees what.

Bloomfire allows you to keep employees engaged in a social media style. Users can engage with content through comments, likes, and personalized feeds. 

Another excellent feature of Bloomfire is its AI-powered search, allowing users to find what they want easily. The Bloomfire search engine indexes every word in every file. 

It even transcribes words spoken in videos, allowing you to jump to the exact point in a video where the keyword is used. It also features customizable filters, automated tagging, and search suggestions. So, users have multiple ways to find content.

Bloomfire has built-in analytics that gives you a better understanding of user engagement. You’ll see the articles users are searching for and those they use the most. This can help you spot knowledge gaps and identify important information to create articles about.

Bloomfire also integrates with the tools you already use, such as Salesforce, Slack, Tableau, Box, etc. You can also use its open API to add customer integrations.

Bloomfire features

• Easy customization options
• Content management
• Social media style engagement via comments, likes, and personalized fields
• AI-powered search function
• Auto-tagging content
• Built-in analytics
• Robust integrations and API access 

Bloomfire pricing

Bloomfire offers pricing that scales with your needs. The pricing is flexible, depending on your scale needs. You’ll have to call Bloomfire and provide your capacity to know how much the solution will cost you. 

However, its plans start at $25/ month. Bloomfire allows signing up for a demo, letting you use a stripped-down version of the tool for free.

6. Intellum Platform

Intellum says it powers the most successful customer education initiatives. The Intellum Platform gives you everything you need to educate your customers, partners, and employees.

Intellum Platform is a learning management system that helps companies to host training programs and educational courses. However, it works well as a knowledge base system.

Just like Helpjuice, you can use Intellum Platform as an internal knowledge-base software and as a customer-facing knowledge-base software. 

Intellum Platform has a very powerful content authoring tool. The tool makes it easy to create e-learning courses and interactive educational experiences that work seamlessly across every device and browser.

The tool is intuitive. So, you can use it without the steep learning curve associated with many other tools. It has a Live Preview feature. So, as you build and edit, every change you make is reflected in real-time. Intellum Platform lets you use CMS-like permissions and versioning for better publishing controls. 

You can also customize the look and feel. You can choose from multiple homepage layouts or leverage Javascript and HTML for advanced customizations. 

Intellum Platform has a recommendation engine that uses AI to suggest content and topics based on users’ behavior. Thus, you get a personalized experience. 

It also has a robust analytics and reporting feature. You can generate custom reports for insights into how people use your content.

With powerful API and integrations, you can connect Intellum Platform to the other applications you use for your critical activities. These include authentication, web conferencing, CRM, BI, and project management apps.

Intellum Platform features

• Helps you create all kinds of content
• Offers content categorization
• Offers robust customizations
• Real-time collaboration
• Numerous integrations
• Analytics and reporting feature

Intellum Platform pricing

Unlike the other knowledge base software solutions on this list, Intellum Platform does not display its plans or prices. This is because it caters only to large enterprises. You’ll need to contact customer support to get a customized quote.

In the other knowledge base software platforms, enterprise-facing plans require custom quotes. 

7. Notion

Notion says it is more than a doc or a table, but a single workspace for every team. So, Notion is primarily a project management tool for teams.

It works as an internal knowledge base software for connecting teams and projects. You can use Notion to bust knowledge silos by capturing employees’ tacit knowledge and sharing it with everyone.

Notion helps you build a company home, creating a space to connect your teams and projects. It also enables you to log meeting notes and build workflows. 

Notion has a drag-and-drop editor for creating workflows that you can easily use to build docs, dashboards, systems, etc. The software offers thousands of pre-built templates which you can use to speed up your workflow-building process.

This software is perfect for people who want a single tool for knowledge management and work management. 

On the one hand, you can use it to capture institutional knowledge and make it available to everyone so they are on the same page. On the other hand, you can use it to manage high-level projects and specific tasks with custom Gantt charts and Kanban cards.

Notion also offers customizable permissions. You can set different permission levels on docs and projects. So, only specific team members can view or work on specific docs/ tasks.

Notion features

• Project management tools (Gantt chart, Kanban boards, etc.)
• Real-time collaboration
• API integration
• Easy drag-and-drop editing
• Customizable permissions

Notion pricing 

Notion has a free basic plan for individuals. There is also a PersonalPro plan for power users who want to do more. It costs $4/ month. Notion’s Team plan costs $8/ month. 

The platform also has an enterprise-facing plan. You’ll need to contact sales for the customized cost. 

8. ProProfs 

ProProfs Knowledge Base is a top knowledge base software for creating public and private knowledge bases. You can keep the knowledge base public for customer self-service or allow access to only internal employees who log in.

So, like Helpjuice, you can use ProProfs to create an internal and external knowledge base. 

As an external knowledge base, ProProfs will help you organize the knowledge base articles your customers need for self-help. 

As an internal knowledge management solution, ProProfs will help you provide the information your support teams need to answer customer questions. 

ProProfs is also easy to use. With its intuitive and user-friendly interface, you do not need coding knowledge to use ProProfs to create information-rich and visually-appealing knowledge management solutions.

ProProfs has an intuitive editing tool that virtually anyone can use to build robust knowledge bases from scratch. If you’ll rather not start from scratch, ProProfs Knowledge Base has a variety of templates to help you get started. 

It’s super-easy to import files and documents into your knowledge base. You can brand the knowledge base with your logo and color scheme to give it the appearance you want.

Using ProProfs as an internal knowledge base boosts team collaboration. It provides a shared place where teams can exchange information and collaborate on ideas. You can also assign permission levels to individuals and groups, defining who sees what. 

For a delightful user experience, ProProfs provides a Google-like search function. It auto-completes questions as users start typing and surfaces knowledge-base articles instantly.

ProProfs also helps you get detailed reports on the performance of your knowledge base. You can track metrics such as searches made, articles read, etc. This enables you to measure your content’s effectiveness and identify poorly rated articles, failed keywords, etc.

The ProProfs knowledge base works seamlessly with other ProProfs tools – Live Chat and Help Desk. Thus, ProProfs is a good all-in-one solution to help you provide complete support to your customers. 

ProProfs features

• Easy authoring and publishing of content
• Highly customizable
• 100+ integrations
• Insightful reports
• Intelligent search
• Customizable permissions

ProProfs pricing

ProProfs pricing starts at $30/ month. Its Premium plan, which gives more costs $40/ month. 

ProProfs also has an enterprise plan with a  custom cost. You need to reach out to sales for the cost.

9. Wix Answers

Wix is a popular tool that allows small businesses without technical resources to build websites effortlessly. Wix has veered into the knowledge-base software solution market with Wix Answers. 

Wix Answers is one of the best knowledge base software as it helps you create customer-facing and internal solutions. It enables you to create a self-service center for your customers, an internal knowledge base tool for your support agents, and a go-to information hub for everyone in your company.

Like its sister web-builder tool, Wix Answers is easy to use. The content editor requires virtually no learning curve. It also lets you use images, videos, and GIFs to make articles visually engaging and easier to understand.

Wix Answers gives you different ways to organize your content. You can categorize content into how-to articles, feature articles, and more. You can also add labels to content to make them easier to find. It also comes with a powerful search tool that makes finding content easy.

Wix Answers is a top platform because it lets you control all aspects of knowledge management. It comes with advanced filtering. So, you can add different filters to fine-tune your search.

Wix Answers’ analytics and reporting features are some of the best in the industry. The built-in analytics provides clear insights that help you see the performance of your knowledge base. 

For example, it shows your “most viewed” articles, helping you understand whether your articles were helpful or not. 

It also shows you recurring terms in search queries, helping you know what keywords or phrases to include in your self-help content. 

Generally, Wix Answers reports will help you identify gaps in your knowledge base and areas for content improvement.

Wix Answers also comes with article versioning. It saves all the versions of your articles, so you can easily go back to a previous version of an article if you change your mind. 

The platform also has good privacy settings. You can decide who sees your content by setting articles to public, company-only, or signed-in customers.

Wix Answers features

• Easy to publish articles
• Robust content categorization features
• AI-powered search
• Fine privacy settings 
• Advanced filtering
• Robust analytics and reporting features 

Wix Answers pricing 

Wix Answer also offers simple pricing. Its most popular plan costs $24 per month, billed annually. 

However, it has another plan with more features, including a ticketing system. This plan costs $60 per month.

10. Confluence 

Confluence is one of the work management and collaboration tools in the Atlassian software suite. It is a workspace where knowledge and collaboration meet. Since it allows you to create, collaborate, and organize all your work in one place, it can be used as an internal knowledge base system.

Confluence helps you break down team silos. You can use it to capture your teams’ knowledge, converting tacit knowledge into easy-to-find answers for everyone. 

The platform becomes a single source of truth, giving everyone access to the same information. Its announcement feature lets you send notifications to team members in real time.

Confluence allows you to organize your content with well-structured categories, making articles easy to find. It complements this with a powerful search system that surfaces articles quickly.

It’s easy to publish your content in Confluence. Using the tool does not require any coding knowledge or experience. It also comes with the best-practice templates, so you do not have to start from scratch. You can easily post content into the template, ensuring consistency in your articles.

As a top collaboration tool, Confluence allows you to assign roles to team members and set different access levels. This helps you control what team members can do on articles. 

Confluence ticks all the boxes if you’re looking for a work management tool to manage knowledge. 

It also has amazing integration capability. Confluence connects with the tools you already use to amplify your team’s productivity. 

It works well with its sister tools (like Jira and Trello) and external tools (like Slack, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, etc.).

Confluence features

• Offers work management capabilities
• Organize content into well-structured categories 
• A powerful search system
• Real-time notifications
• Amazing integrations

Confluence pricing 

If you’re looking for free knowledge base software, Confluence is worth considering. It offers a free basic plan. 

Its paid plans include a $5.75/ month Standard plan and an $11/ month Premium plan. There’s also an Enterprise plan with a custom price. 

11. HelpCrunch

HelpCrunch is a popular software that provides multichannel customer support. HelpCrunch offers a knowledge base platform as part of its customer support suite of tools. 

It advertises the knowledge base software as a tool that can help showcase your company documentation to ensure smooth customer self-service. 

Authoring is simple with the HelpCrunch WYSIWYG editor. Writing articles is easy-breezy, including images, videos, tables, and other elements. 

The platform makes it easy to organize your articles with categories and sections, making them easy to find.

Talking of finding content, HelpCrunch has a smart search tool. As users type queries, the tool auto-completes them with relevant real-time suggestions. This helps users quickly find the content that they need.  

HelpCrunch has everything you need to build a beautiful, information-rich help center that reflects your brand. You can use your own domain, logos, and color scheme that align with your brand. You can also use custom CSS and Javascript.

Another good feature of HelpCrunch is that it lets you add a chat widget to your help center for real-time Live Chat support.

HelpCrunch also lets you track actionable metrics to improve your knowledge base. You can see how many people viewed your articles and how these users rate the articles. This tells you whether or not your users are finding your articles helpful. 

Another crucial reporting metric of HelpCrunch is “failed searches,” which shows search terms for which your knowledge base has no content. With this insight, you’ll know what content to create to improve your self-help center.

HelpCrunch features

• Easy to author and publish articles
• Organize content nicely with categories and sections
• Smart search system
• Highly customizable 
• Great analytics and reporting 
• Add live chat widget to help center

HelpCrunch pricing

HelpCrunch offers three plans. It starts with a very basic plan that costs $12/ month. 

It follows this with the Pro plan, which costs $20/ month for a few more features. 

To get the best experience, you need the unlimited plan, which costs $495/ month.

12. Document360

Document360 advertises as “the knowledge base platform engineered for growing companies.”

Like Helpjuice knowledge base software, Document360 can help you create an online self-service knowledge base for your employees and customers. 

Document360 has a state-of-the-art editor and category manager. You can easily create how-to guides, tutorials, process documents, and more. 

To optimize content for search, Document360 allows you to arrange everything in nifty categories. 

Document360 has many customizable features, allowing you to customize the look and feel of your Help Center to your taste. You can use custom fonts, colors, and launcher icons to make your knowledge base perfectly reflect your branded SaaS app or website.

The platform also has a state-of-the-art search button for optimal surfacing of content. The Google-like search bar surfaces content instantly, giving users quick access to the content they need.

As one of the best knowledge base software, Document360 provides rich analytics to help you get actionable insights. 

These insights – consumer geography, article performance, and page not found – can help you improve your knowledge base. 

For example, Geography insights help you write content for your target audience. Performance insights show how your knowledge base articles perform, helping you know what content to improve. 

“Page not found” insights show you “search keywords” that your knowledge base does not address, helping you know what content to create.

Document360 supports many integrations, including Olark, Intercom, Freshdesk, and more. So, the knowledge base software works hand in hand with your existing tools to supercharge your service.

Document360 features

• State-of-the-art editor and category manager
• Extensive customization
• Google-like search bar
• Excellent analytics 
• Extensive integrations

Document360 pricing

Document360 is an option for people looking for free knowledge base software as it has a free plan. 

Its paid plans start from $79/ month and rise to $399/ month. 

Document360 also offers a 14-day free trial, allowing you to use the paid plans for free.

Takeaway

• Over 73% of customers prefer self-service. 
• A knowledge base software helps you organize company knowledge into helpful self-service articles for customers
• A knowledge base software can help you reduce support tickets

When looking for the best knowledge base software, you can’t go wrong with any of the twelve mentioned above. While different, they all have core knowledge base features, such as easy-to-use editors, a powerful search function, access controls, insightful analytics, and more.