According to research conducted by Statista, 88% of customers expect companies to offer an online self-service portal. A knowledge base software can help businesses meet customer expectations and create an excellent self-service experience. We have created a go-to guide for you to find answers to all your questions around a knowledge base software. Continue reading to know more.

What is knowledge base software?

Knowledge base software is a tool that helps you document tutorials, do-it-yourself guides, and answers to frequently asked questions in one place.

Let’s say you are an online retailer selling sportswear on your website. You probably get a lot of queries from customers - questions regarding size issues, what materials the clothes are made of, shipping costs, and so on. Instead of answering the same questions again and again, you can compile answers for these frequently asked questions by publishing a knowledge base or creating a self-service portal.

What is a knowledge base (KB) platform?

A knowledge base platform is a self-serve online repository of information about a topic, service, product, or department. It contains helpful important that customers and employees can use to find answers to commonly asked questions. An efficient knowledge base platform supports multiple learning formats, including solution articles, FAQs, product manuals, tutorials, videos, and troubleshooting guides, all categorized into distinct folders or themes.

What are the benefits of knowledge base software?

A knowledge base software can be used by companies of any size to improve their self-service experience. Start-ups and small businesses can publish a well-stocked knowledge base that customers can use to find answers whenever they run into issues around the products/services offered. Whereas enterprises can use an extensive self-service portal to cater to customers across countries and languages without hiring more agents. Here’s a detailed look at the benefits of using a knowledge base platform:

Deflect repetitive questions

The best knowledge base software will help you avoid answering the same questions again and again and just direct the customers automatically to the right tutorial or guide.

Reduce average resolution times

With support tickets being instantly deflected to the right answers in your knowledge base, agents will have more time to answer a fewer number of requests, thus bringing down the resolution time.

Deliver 24/7 customer support

A knowledge base software helps customers find instant resolutions regardless of the time of day and is the best investment you can make to deliver round-the-clock support if your team operates within fixed business hours.

Increase customer happiness

With wait times vastly reduced, thanks to a comprehensive knowledge base software, your customers will be happier to get their queries answered in no time.

Improve your search engine discoverability

A good knowledge base software will have extensive search engine optimization capabilities, so people googling questions related to your field will automatically discover you.

Essential features of a knowledge base software

Now that we understand the importance of a knowledge base software, let’s take a look at the essential features you need for effective knowledge base management: 

What are the types of knowledge base tools?

In addition to creating knowledge base articles, tutorials, and guides, here are a few more knowledge-base tools to win over your customers.

Help widget

Enable a help widget to offer immediate customer self-service options when they start showing visible signs of frustration by displaying FAQs or a contact form.

Community forum

Empower customers to help themselves and assist one another by fostering an active community using community forums or discussion boards.

AI-enabled chatbot

Launch no-code, easy-to-build AI-enabled bots that can engage with customers in real-time and recommend the best articles from your knowledge base.

Now that you understand the need for a knowledge base and the benefits of deploying a knowledge base software, let's learn how to create a knowledge base.

How to create a knowledge base

To create a knowledge base that is consistent with your brand, easily browsable, and always up-to-date, follow the step-by-step guide below:

 

Step 1: Choose the right knowledge base software

When picking a knowledge base system, you shouldn’t just choose the first free option you can find. Identify the features you need to power an easily usable customer portal and ensure you invest in the platform that offers these functionalities.

 

Step 2: Choose knowledge base topics

You can get started with the selection of topics for your knowledge base by doing a quick search for trends in the customer queries you usually receive. Here’s a quick 2-step formula to do this:

 

Step 3: Develop the knowledge base articles

Once you’ve identified your customer needs and lined up your topics, it’s time to start planning and writing your knowledge base articles. Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind while developing content: 

 

Step 4: Structure your knowledge base

If you don’t structure your knowledge base documentation, your customers won’t be able to find what they need quickly (or at all). Try using a home page layout for your knowledge bases to host all of their support-based articles.

You can use these four simple steps to categorize your knowledge base the right way:

 

Step 5: Maintain your knowledge base

Your knowledge base is always a work in progress. You need to constantly manage your content to keep the information up to date.

We recommend you update your support portal with every new product release, process change, or feature you introduce. Track customer feedback and make changes accordingly. Ensure your knowledge base always reflects answers to FAQs and incoming support tickets. You can schedule weekly or monthly checks to ensure you’re covering trending issues.

How do you choose the right knowledge base software?

Choosing the right knowledge base software can be critical for your business. We have identified the three key aspects you need to assess before evaluating at a feature or functionality level.

Support Style

How do customers try to reach you? Do they prefer email and support portals or social media? Do you want a minimal self-service portal that hosts only answers to your frequently asked questions, or do you want a fully customizable solution capable of hosting videos and other guides? Choose the style of self-service you want to provide to your customers.

Usability

User experience is an important aspect of a good cloud-powered knowledge base solution. For instance, Freshdesk’s knowledge base has a user-friendly interface that helps agents publish tutorials and articles with little to no effort. Alternatively, you can use an on-premise or an open source knowledge base software, which means you will also be responsible for maintenance, site performance, uptimes, etc. Check what you need and choose the right knowledge base system accordingly.

Your ideal helpdesk Venn Your ideal helpdesk Venn
Price

See what others in your field are using, compare features, and then decide which knowledge-base software will help you deliver an excellent self-service experience. As with most other software, higher prices do not automatically mean a better knowledge base and a complicated UI does not necessarily imply it’s rich in features.

Why choose Freshdesk as your knowledge base software solution?

The key to creating an effective knowledge base lies in using a reliable knowledge base tool. Choosing a subpar tool can result in significant losses in terms of time, effort, and customer experience. Thankfully, with a solution like Freshdesk that offers exceptional content management functionalities, creating a knowledge base becomes a breeze for your team of support agents and technical writers.

With Freshdesk, you can:

Top 15 knowledge base software

1. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a cloud-based knowledge base and helpdesk software that helps businesses offer effortless customer experiences. Freshdesk also helps businesses to collaborate better across the globe and enables more efficient business processes for better customer experiences. Freshdesk combines the functionalities of a ticketing system, a knowledge management solution, and more to boost agent productivity and improve customer experience.

Rich text editor

As basic as this feature might seem, Freshdesk knowledge base software comes with a ready-to-use rich text editor for free. This functionality is an absolute must-have if you want to make your support life easier. Rich text editors will have a wider variety of formatting options allowing you to structure your content and answers better, better support for embedding images to show rather than tell, and will be easier to create and use than a software with just a plain text editor.

rich text editor rich text editor
Seamless article creation process

Freshdesk streamlines the process of creating a knowledge base solution article by enabling technical writers and agents to: 

  • Create self-help resources like articles, videos, images, or attach files from a single panel.

  • Save time by creating templates for different types of solution articles such as how-tos, user guides, and FAQ pages with pre-filled or formatted content.

  • Collaborate with team members for article reviews and feedback.

  • Convert ticket responses into solution articles in only a few clicks.

Effortless solution article creation process Effortless solution article creation process
Versions and translations

Not all customers will use the same version of your product. Some customers might even prefer accessing your information in a different language. A good knowledge base software, such as the one offered by Freshdesk, allows you to maintain different versions of a knowledge base article and host the same article in multiple languages so your customers can access the one they want.

knowledge base versions and translations knowledge base versions and translations
Content management

With Freshdesk, you can effortlessly update knowledge base articles across multiple products and languages. You can save time by making changes to multiple categories, folders, or articles at one go using automation instead of repeating the same processes over and over again. Freshdesk also enables you to monitor your overall knowledge base performance, drill down on each article, improve the content based on customer feedback, and gauge each writer's performance.

Knowledge base software analytics and reporting Knowledge base software analytics and reporting
SEO capabilities

Make sure the knowledge base software you use is optimized for SEO. The knowledge base software you use should have the capability to embed meta tags and titles that improve search engine discoverability. This will help you rank better when people search for answers and drive traffic to your knowledge base.

SEO Capabilities in Freshdesk's knowledge base software SEO Capabilities in Freshdesk's knowledge base software
Branding and customization

Freshdesk lets you personalize your knowledge base portal to match your branding by adding your logo, favicon, and brand colors. Freshdesk also offers free themes that you can use to design your customer portal. You can even design your support portal with Liquid, Javascript, and complete CSS customizations.

Knowledge base portal branding and customization Knowledge base portal branding and customization
Storage space

Freshdesk acts as a knowledge management software with permissions to access unlimited cloud space to host your tutorials, charging you for the number of users and portals you have. Other service providers may also charge you based on the space you use. If you plan on having many video tutorials or image-heavy guides, ensure you have adequate storage space to host it all.

 

 

Pricing starts from: $0 

Free trial period: 14 days

storage space in knowledge base software storage space in knowledge base software
Interested in evaluating Freshdesk?

2. Confluence by Atlassian

Confluence is the knowledge base software offered by Atlassian. Confluence is a remote-friendly team workspace where teams can collaborate and share knowledge. It comes with set page templates for teams of all sizes. If you need a highly secure content management platform and use Jira software, Confluence would be the right choice for your content development team. It also offers cloud storage, and you even have the choice to use the Confluence data center or host the workspace on your server.

Confluence is known for its project management capabilities and is mostly focused on internal knowledge bases. You’re also able to create team spaces to keep things organized and set permissions for different articles.

Pricing starts from: $0 

Free trial period: 7 days

 

3. Hubspot

HubSpot Service Hub offers customer service software that includes a knowledge base tool, helping you bring all your customer data in one place. Hubspot allows you to seamlessly convert your FAQs into a searchable library of solution articles, video tutorials, and guides.

Hubspot Service Hub also has a built-in reporting dashboard that helps you monitor your customer service metrics and answer incoming customer queries within SLA deadlines. If you are working with global teams, Hubspot helps you build a multilingual knowledge base that caters to your customers and teams in their native language.

Pricing starts from: $45/month 

Free trial period: 14 days

 

4. Document360

You can use a Document360 knowledge management solution to build an online self-service knowledge base for your customers and employees. It also allows you to set access permissions for your documents and optimize your content for your users to access your knowledge base from multiple devices.

Document360 is a user-friendly knowledge base software that comes with features like real-time search, remote access, analytics, and content categorization and customization. Its software provides version control functionality for your team to stay in control of changes and editors for your documents.

Pricing starts from: $99/month

Free trial period: 14 days

 

5. Proprofs

ProProfs knowledge base software empowers teams to create a comprehensive internal knowledge base, create and manage online documentation easily, encourage knowledge sharing, and improve internal collaboration across teams.

ProProfs online documentation software categorizes your content to make it easy for internal teams and customers to access files and guides easily. The additional features for ProProfs include ready-to-use templates, customization, privacy control, and reporting capabilities. 

Pricing starts from: $90/month 

Free trial period: 15 days

 

6. Whatfix

Whatfix is a robust digital adoption platform that offers native integration with your knowledge base systems/content management software, allowing you to embed your documentation directly into its apps.

Whatfix integration enables your teams to aggregate your existing documentation and display it in a self-help widget to help customers search for questions within the app. For example, if you have your content resources in Freshdesk and you use the Microsoft Teams app, the Freshdesk knowledge base articles would be shown as links in the self-help widget that appears in Microsoft Teams.

Pricing starts from: $$ custom pricing

Free trial period: 14 days

 

7. ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a more traditional solution that allows your team to build both team and customer-facing knowledge bases at scale easily. Its knowledge management platform supports the creation, categorization, review, and approval of knowledge base articles. Users can search and browse articles as well as provide feedback.

The best part about ServiceNow is that it integrates with Microsoft Word Online and helps team members seamlessly create reusable knowledge base articles, in turn speeding up productivity. If your organization requires KCS validation for its knowledge base, ServiceNow is a good choice.

Pricing starts from: $$ custom pricing 

Free trial period: 15 days

 

8. Bloomfire

Bloomfire centralizes company knowledge in a single, searchable self-service platform, helping support teams consistently deliver high-quality, contextually relevant service. Bloomfire features include AI-powered search functionality, user-generated FAQs, and rich media compatibility.

What makes Bloomfire user-friendly is the social media characteristic of the platform, which allows users to interact with posts by liking, sharing, commenting on, or following them. Bloomfire knowledge-sharing platform allows you to index every word in the system and transcribe videos, improving content discoverability and consumption. You can create custom questions and answers and turn both into searchable content.

Pricing starts from: $25/month

Free trial period: 14 days

 

9. Guru

Guru’s knowledge base platform is designed for internal use, and it captures information from your existing knowledge base, collaboration tools like Slack or picks up customer queries from the internet to help you convert that information into easily consumable “cards”, accessible to other team members.

You can use Guru’s AI capability to identify people within your company who are most likely to have the answer to a customer query. It also offers a browser extension and Slack integration to set up real-time notification triggers for teams when articles they own need to be updated.

Pricing starts from: $5/month

Free trial period: 30 days

 

10. Helpjuice

Helpjuice is a knowledge base software focusing on collaboration tools and customizable design. You can easily use the Helpjuice editor and edit the typeface, layout, and colors while building your knowledge base, so it looks like an extension of your brand.

Helpjuice allows multiple team members to collaborate on knowledge base articles, control versions, and editorial access. With search engine functionality and an analytics dashboard, HelpJuice identifies the top search queries from your customers for you to curate the relevant articles. It also helps you support your growing global base of customers by enabling a multi-language knowledge base.

Pricing starts from: $120/month

Free trial period: 14 days

 

11. Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service software solution that offers a knowledge base targeting employees or customers. It integrates with different apps and offers features like customizable branding, content management, reporting, customer feedback, and full-text search. Zendesk’s community forum allows customers to connect and discuss your product.

Zendesk‘s in-built style editor helps you author articles in a few easy steps, and you can also collect customer feedback directly after they read an article. It also allows multiple teams to work on a knowledge base article together.

Pricing starts from: $49 

Free trial period: 14 days

 

12. Zoho desk

Not only does Zoho Desk offer a knowledge base, but it offers a robust ticketing system/ helpdesk solution. You can still leverage Zoho Desk’s knowledge base as a standalone solution. Zoho Desk categorizes your content to improve discoverability and provides separate categories for how-to articles, step-by-step guidelines, FAQs, demo videos, customer feedback, and more.

Zoho Desk’s knowledge base software is a flexible solution for writers and editors, and they can customize knowledge bases for internal and external customers. Zoho Desk helps your team to collect, organize, analyze, and re-use existing company knowledge and boost customer support.

Pricing starts from: $0 

Free trial period: 15 days

 

13. Notion

You can use Notion as a project management tool and/or a collaborative workspace. Notion helps you design and create an internal knowledge base. Notion allows you to determine how your knowledge base is organized and labeled. 

Notion calls itself “the all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases” and offers customizable components that connect to create a knowledge management system. Notion also connects you with certified consultants who can help you create internal-facing wikis and knowledge management systems.

Pricing starts from: $0 

Free trial period: indefinite

 

14. Happy Fox

HappyFox, a cloud-based CRM solution, provides knowledge management systems for different industries. The knowledge base solution offers powerful capabilities such as multi-brand user portals, feedback collection, and separate internal/external knowledge management systems.

Features offered by the HappyFox knowledge management system include portal customization, content categorization, rich-text editing, integration with collaboration tools, analytics, and community forum, and make it a good choice for teams looking for a complete solution.

Pricing starts from: $26/month

Free trial period: 14 days

 

15. Docs

Docs is a part of the Help Scout customer service platform. Docs is a user-friendly, easy-to-use knowledge base software that lets you create relevant knowledge base articles in minutes using a text editor that offers multiple formatting options.

Docs allows support agents to share links to knowledge base articles directly via email without the hassle of copying and pasting answers separately, which reduces response times considerably. Docs supports SEO-driven content, so your customers are just a simple search away from your answers.

Pricing starts from: $20/month 

Free trial period: 14 days

FAQs about Knowledge Base Software

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