Best Helpdesk Knowledge Base Shortlist
Here’s the shortlist of the best tools that I’ll cover in this article.
A helpdesk knowledge base is an invaluable resource for any customer service team, providing agents with all the information they need to answer questions effectively. In fact, according to Forrester, customers now prefer knowledge bases over all other customer service channels.
That’s why I’ve spent some time investigating the market and researching the best helpdesk knowledge base tools for the job. I’ve evaluated the main contenders in the helpdesk knowledge base sector in search of standout candidates.
I’m summarizing the results of my findings here, so you can shortcut the process of finding the best software for your purposes. I’ll show you what’s great about each tool, the top features, and the major pros and cons.
How I Selected the Best Helpdesk Knowledge Base
Perhaps you're wondering how I selected the best helpdesk knowledge base tools for this list. To build this top 10 list, I evaluated and compared a wide range of helpdesk knowledge bases with positive user ratings.
After determining my long list of top choices, I further honed my list by using the selection criteria below to see how each platform stacked up against the next one. I also drew on my years of customer service experience to pinpoint the features that add a lot of value.
If you have general questions about helpdesk knowledge base software or how to pick the best helpdesk knowledge base for your organization, take a look at our frequently asked questions section below. Or, you can skip directly to my detailed software summaries, if that's what you need the most.
Selection Criteria
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best helpdesk knowledge base for this article:
User Interface (UI):
I look for helpdesk knowledge base software that’s easy to get to grips with, even for non-technical users. Both customer service agents and their managers should be able to use the interface intuitively.
Usability:
I expect the best software in this sector to be easy to navigate, with the important features ready to hand. Busy agents need to be able to surface required information quickly while chatting with customers.
Self-Service Portal:
I’m seeking software that reduces the customer service load by offering an effective self-service portal. This must be easy to use, so customers can find the information they need quickly and easily.
Software Integrations:
In today’s world, helpdesk knowledge base software should integrate readily with key applications relating to both customer service and general business management.
Pricing:
The best helpdesk knowledge base SaaS software is affordable on a per-user basis for organizations of all sizes.
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Overviews of the 10 Best Helpdesk Knowledge Bases
Here’s a brief description of each helpdesk knowledge base to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
Groove
Best for simple but effective knowledge bases
Groove is committed to providing organizations with a fresh alternative to popular customer service and knowledge management solutions.
Why I Picked Groove: The software gives agents a shared inbox that helps them organize, prioritize, and solve customer requests. Conversation assignments make it clear who is responsible for each inquiry, while collision detection prevents double replies.
Groove aims to instill customer confidence by offering instant help on any website or app page. Round-robin assignment spreads the workload, and unattended message logic ensures customers get a fast response. When customers drop offline, conversations can continue by email.
Groove Standout Features and Integrations
Features include private knowledge bases, @mentions and notifications, mobile optimization, and embeddable widgets.
Integrations include Slack, Stripe, Shopify, Recharge, HubSpot, Trello, ConstantContact, Github, Instagram, and Salesforce.
Pros
- Comprehensive ticket tracking
- Support for multiple inboxes
- Excellent canned replies system
Cons
- Searching for closed requests is difficult
- No bulk import
Slite
Best for a knowledge base with structure documents
Slite is an advanced knowledge base solution that drives action through the effective use of structured documents, meaningful collaboration, and informed decision-making.
Why I Picked Slite: This tool helps people brainstorm ideas, create notes, and share files. Team members can track document versions, maintain activity logs, comment on files, and generate recurring documents. They can also organize ideas, create project handbooks, store private notes and manage image galleries.
In Slite, decision-making and async discussion are built into documents. The software replaces scattered conversations and long email or Slack threads.
Slite's composer tool enables team members to organize ideas, create project handbooks, store private notes, and manage image galleries. The built-in sketch tool allows employees to create workflows and visualize ideas, whilst maintaining compliance with SOC2 guidelines. Additionally, administrators can schedule data backups, create user groups, set up single sign-on protocols, and configure permission rights to ensure user and data security.
Slite Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a sketch tool, workflow visualization SOC2 compliance, data backups, user groups, single sign-on protocols, document authoring, and permission management.
Integrations include Airtable, Google Workspace, Slack, Figma, Loom, Trello, Asana, Github, Google Docs, and Okta.
Pros
- Helpful notification features
- Appealing free plan
- Super-intuitive
Cons
- Confusing navigation
- Can be slow
Help Scout
Best for creating knowledge-based articles quickly
Help Scout sets out to offer you a better way to talk to customers, managing all conversations in one platform that feels like your inbox.
Why I Picked Help Scout: The knowledge base software is built for discovery, encouraging customers to find their own answers through a self-service portal. It’s easy to create articles quickly, with the option to include text, images, hyperlinks, tables, and videos.
You can surface help articles across your site or app, address commonly asked questions, and reduce incoming email requests. If customers can’t find the answer they need in your knowledge base, they get clear contact options for reaching out to agents directly.
Customers can also reach out via email or chat. The Beacon widget tracks which web pages and articles customers are reading, helping you to understand trends and problem areas.
Help Scout Standout Features and Integrations
Features include real-time reporting, email integration, document knowledge base, conversation metrics, productivity data, and happiness metrics.
Integrations include Pipedrive, Jira, ChannelReply, Salesforce, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Magento, Infusionsoft, Google Workspace, and Slack.
Pros
- Simple to assign conversations
- Great for email interactions
- Easy and natural to use
Cons
- No mobile app
- Limited customization options
Sprinklr
Best for an AI-driven knowledge base solution
Sprinklr is an enterprise-level customer experience management solution that handles customer service, content marketing, social media management, and social listening.
Why I Picked Sprinklr: The software turns AI-powered listening into competitive advantage, offering a better understanding of feedback on your products and services. It transforms customer opinions into actionable insights, then shares this across your entire organization to drive innovation.
Sprinklr helps protect your brand by empowering your customer support team with critical knowledge before problems become critical. This allows managers to make proactive, informed decisions about owned media strategies and tactics.
Sprinklr Standout Features and Integrations
Features include keyword tracking, scheduling, marketing automation, and social media integration.
Integrations include AppsFlyer, BazaarVoice, Corezoid, Discourse, Esko, Form Assembly, Freshdesk KB, Okta, Google Analytics, and Mailchimp.
Pros
- Extensive reporting options
- Fast, accurate, and efficient
- Combines all social media feedback
Cons
- Significant investment required
- Disorganized user interface
Helpjuice
Best for knowledge base software with advanced team collaboration features
Helpjuice is a cloud-based knowledge base solution that includes applications for creating and managing both internal and external knowledge bases. The software can be hosted on-premises or accessed online.
Why I Picked Helpjuice: Designed with flexibility in mind, the software includes customized design and styling tools for building out knowledge bases. The overall look and feel can be modified to match the organization’s branding.
To provide additional insights, Helpjuice tracks all searches. The data can then be analyzed to show which topics are most frequently searched and referenced.
Helpjuice Standout Features and Integrations
Features include dragging and dropping files to Helpjuice articles, troubleshooting multiple answers based on interaction, and copy/pasting from document editors.
Integrations include Salesforce, Slack, Olark, Freshdesk, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, and Sharepoint.
Pros
- Simple to use
- Easy to customize
- Many theme options
Cons
- Formatting can be challenging
- Limited image storage capabilities
Stonly
Best for guiding people to success at scale
Using Stonly, you can create self-serve guides that adapt to each individual and help them along the optimal path toward effective onboarding, issue resolution, or adoption.
Why I Picked Stonly: The interactive guides created on this platform adapt automatically to every situation, offering a more satisfying and meaningful user experience. In-app guides reduce tickets, while website guidance helps people find the content or features they are seeking.
Stonly guides and forms employer customer support agents by providing them with rich ticket data, so they can get to the point and resolve issues quickly. A fully interactive customer help center can be created in minutes.
Stonly Standout Features and Integrations
Features include personal attention at scale, proactive support in every channel, customer insights, multiple language support, and no-code integration.
Integrations include Zendesk, Front, Freshdesk, Intercom, Segment, HubSpot, Helpshift, Salesforce, Gorgias, and Help Scout.
Pros
- Intuitive and easy to use
- Simple setup
- Multiple ways to trigger help
Cons
- Expensive compared to other options
- Limited attachment options
Notion
Best for a user-friendly knowledge base
Notion is a sophisticated note-taking app capable of efficiently handling knowledge base management.
Why I Picked Notion: Using this tool, you can centralize your most important information and make it accessible to everyone. It’s perfect for collecting data from everyone on the team and creating a single source of truth on any topic.
Each team member can also have their own space for tools, docs, and processes. Within the knowledge management system, you can create smaller systems for each team. Every department can have its own dedicated space for specific information.
Notion Standout Features and Integrations
Features include customization options, collaboration tools, search functionality, and shared access to resources.
Integrations include ClickUp, Asana, Box, Github, Jira, Slack, Trello, Figma, Dropbox, and Zoom.
Pros
- Good range of templates
- Well-designed user interface
- Fun and easy to use
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Limited fonts and styling
Shelf.io
Best for complete lifecycle management of knowledge
Shelf helps businesses provide on-demand answers to questions from customers and employees.
Why I Picked Shelf: The software is based on the three core concepts of Answer, Learn, and Improve. Using proprietary AI software, Shelf listens for questions and instantly suggests the best answers in search, chat, IVR, and forms.
Shelf automates the entire knowledge life cycle, including content creation, review, approvals, announcements, ratings, and comments. In addition, the agent assistant helps agents deliver a better customer experience.
Shelf eliminates knowledge silos, saving time and money by creating a simpler, more transparent infrastructure. Content only has to be created once, then it is delivered to the right place at the right time automatically.
Shelf Standout Features and Integrations
Features include knowledge management, AI tools, SDKs, APIs, and pre-built integrations.
Integrations include Genesys, Five9, NICE InContact, Kustomer, Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Chrome.
Pros
- Clean design
- Powerful search engine
- Easy document management
Cons
- Resource intensive
- Issues recognizing some document formats
Document360
Knowledge base management for enterprise
Document360 is a cloud-based knowledge base solution that helps businesses create, collaborate, and publish self-service knowledge bases.
Why I Picked Document360: Thanks to the Document360 category manager, users can easily maintain product documentation in a hierarchy-based structure. They can also create sub-categories, edit existing ones, and archive articles within categories.
The software features a built-in editor with markdown keyboard shortcuts. This allows you to create internal links to articles, add tables to documents, and get real-time, inline previews of content.
In addition, the security module enables users to assign role-based access permissions to different readers, redirect articles, map domains, and schedule automatic backups.
Document360 Standout Features and Integrations
Features include content management, guided problem solving, discussion boards, code snippet sharing, screenshot uploading, a self-service portal, text-to-speech functionality,
and product cataloging.
Integrations include Intercom, Segment, Google Analytics, Disqus, HTML 5, Olark, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Hotjar, Freshmarketer, and Drift.
Pros
- Easy to edit and publish article
- Short learning curve
- Customizable home-page builder
Cons
- Old-school interface
- No native mobile app
Zoho Desk
Best for knowledge base software with auto-suggest features
Zoho Desk Knowledge Base Software helps you achieve faster answers, fewer tickets, and happier customers.
Why I Picked Zoho Desk Knowledge Base: You can create a multi-brand help center, with different knowledge base articles for each of your brands. In addition, the customization features allow you to mimic the look and feel of your website in your self-service portals. Your help center can be mapped to your own domain, making it a true extension of your main corporate brand.
You can create a repository of articles and FAQs in the knowledge base system, so customers can find answers without waiting for an agent. The community forum feature allows customers to get answers and share ideas on a common knowledge base platform.
Zoho Desk offers a high level of security. Knowledge base content can be available to the general public, or only to people who have created accounts.
Zoho Desk Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a dashboard, data visualization, data import, ticket management, and a self-service portal.
Integrations include DocuSign, Outlook, Mailchimp, Slack, PandaDoc, RingCentral, Zoom, Shopify, Microsoft 365, and AWS.
Pros
- Powerful automation features
- Real-time chat option
- Highly customizable
Cons
- Setup can be confusing
- The user interface can be confusing
The 10 Best Helpdesk Knowledge Bases Summary
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Groove Best for simple but effective knowledge bases | 15 Days Free Trial | From $15/user/month | Visit Website |
2 | Slite Best for a knowledge base with structure documents | Freemium plan available (limited features) | From $8/user/month | Visit Website |
3 | Help Scout Best for creating knowledge-based articles quickly | Free trial | From $25/user/month | Visit Website |
4 | Sprinklr Best for an AI-driven knowledge base solution | Not available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
5 | Helpjuice Best for knowledge base software with advanced team collaboration features | 14-day free trial | From $120/user/month | Visit Website |
6 | Stonly Best for guiding people to success at scale | 14 days free trial. | From $99/month (billed annually) | Visit Website |
7 | Notion Best for a user-friendly knowledge base | Offers a forever free plan with limited features | From $8/user/month | Visit Website |
8 | Shelf.io Best for complete lifecycle management of knowledge | A free software demo is available. | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
9 | Document360 Knowledge base management for enterprise | 14-day free trial | From $119/user/month | Visit Website |
10 | Zoho Desk Best for knowledge base software with auto-suggest features | 15-day free trial available | From $20/agent/month | Visit Website |
Other Options
Here are a few more options that didn’t make the best helpdesk knowledge base list:
- Zendesk
Best for a knowledge base that boosts agent efficiency
- Freshdesk
Best for an intuitive, feature-rich knowledge base solution
- Confluence
A web-based corporate wiki and help desk solution with knowledge-base features.
- TeamSupport
Includes an area to store documents for your employees or customers to access anytime.
- monday.com
A comprehensive project management tool that includes features for building a solid knowledge base.
- Connecteam
Offers the ability to create a knowledge base for employees.
- HubSpot
A popular CRM that also allows you to create a knowledge base to assist customers and prospects.
- Shelf
A knowledge management software platform that uses AI to provide on-demand answers to customer and employee questions on-demand.
- KnowledgeBase
Helps you manage and share your team's internal knowledge and build a public help center for your customers.
- Elium
Offers a trusted and flexible source for knowledge sharing and enriching company information.