"SSR is the best platform to discover top 1% HR tools. Their 10 years of HR Tech experience makes their reviews the best in the industry! Every time I speak about HR technology, SSR is my number one recommendation to for people pros."
"SSR is my go-to place when it comes to researching HR tools. Their product reviews are real time-savers and trustworthy, and the online community is fantastic for bouncing questions and ideas off of others in the Talent space!"
"I trust SSR's HR Tech Reviews because they talk to so many experts, know the right questions to ask and uncover during in-depth product demos to come up with their best picks"
We spend all day researching the best HR software so you don’t have to. We never take money from vendors during our research phase and rely heavily on experts to refine our recommendations. We may earn a fee if you click on vendor links on this page. Learn more about SelectSoftware Reviews
In this Guide
- Best Knowledge Management Software
- Introduction and Criteria
- Our Reviews of the Top Vendors
- Common Use Cases of Knowledge Management Software
- Pitfalls: Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Knowledge Management Software
- Benefits and ROI of Knowledge Management Software
- Estimated Cost of Knowledge Management Software
- Features of Knowledge Management Software
- Questions to Ask During Your Knowledge Management Software Demos
- Implementing Knowledge Management Software
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Final Advice on Buying Knowledge Management Software
Hand picked by our HR Technology experts after product testing, user research, and much debate - enjoy!
Can you explain what your business does in less than 20 seconds? For those who can’t, it may be due to a lack of experience or knowledge of their roles. Company knowledge is a must-have, and you want everyone on the same page.
Knowledge bases contain a variety of company information, such as onboarding processes and workflows. With knowledge management software (KMS), employees spend less time gathering information from multiple sources and can focus on more essential tasks. Overall, companies investing in KMS can save over $300,000 annually.
A robust knowledge management software can help create, build, and store the correct information you need. If you need a system that works as a central source of company knowledge, here are the 12 best KMS systems that you can use.
Our criteria: How we chose the best vendors
We take research seriously. To make sure we’re offering our readers the very best solutions in a given software category, we are methodical, rigorous, and expansive in our research. We consult with HR professionals, vendors, and industry experts. We cut through the noise to bring you a carefully curated list of vendors, along with other essential information, to help you find the right software platform for your business.
Here’s how we chose who makes the cut:
Product: We believe in gaining a comprehensive understanding of a product before we recommend it, so we start by getting to know the software. Whenever possible, we meet with a senior executive (CEO or Head of Product) for a demo and Q&A. We also test the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best-in-class offering.
User feedback: We go straight to the source and compile feedback on user experience. Real-world input supports our commitment to diligence in our software evaluation methods and the products we recommend. Keeping up with the everyday experience of HR pros also puts new vendors on our radar, and it keeps us close to our community so we can better connect the right products to the right people.
Financial metrics: We are certified finance nerds, so we use all the data we can get our hands on to make selections for our guides. We comb through data for concrete statistics like retention rates, growth, profitability, and scalability. We evaluate the bottom line of each product because we know making a software purchase can put your reputation on the line.
Best for a use case: Software is never a one-size-fits-all product. Sometimes the best solution is free or cheap. Other times it’s the one that is best for global companies or the one that’s sized right for early-stage startups. Keeping this in mind, we include solutions across the spectrum so our readers can find the best fit for their unique needs.
Here's more detail if you want to read more about how we research vendors. Our dedicated staff writers rely on hard data, impartial experts, and user feedback to ensure our reviews are helpful, truthful, and hopefully a pleasure to read!
Top Knowledge Management Software
We track thousands of HR Tech solutions. Based on our research and expert council, these are the best knowledge management software options available for companies as of April 2022.
Why we love it
:
Freshdesk is known as the gold standard for cloud-based customer support software. Their knowledge base is fantastic for small businesses that need a consistent user interface and a natural language discovery tool for easy search.
- Freshdesk enables your customer service team to offer proactive support across multiple channels, including Facebook, Twitter, email, and website, to engage your customers.
- Freshdesk is incredibly user-friendly. Your agents don’t need any specialized coding or technical knowledge to use it. Plus, it offers diverse templates with formatting components to simplify ticketing.
- Freshdesk's free plan is comprehensive, offering you all the features you would need as a small business and then some.
- With Freshdesk, your team can collaborate with each other and resolve issues faster.
- The platform comes with a mobile app that enables agents to provide support on the go. It’s available for both iOS and Android devices.
- In addition to a generous free plan, Freshdesk's paid plans provide great value for money. It gives you several advanced features like gamification at affordable rates.
- Freshdesk’s marketing is slightly confusing. Most of its advanced features require an upgrade to the highest pricing tears, which users don’t realize until after signing up. Here’s a free vs. paid plan breakdown, so you don’t find yourself making wrong decisions.
- You cannot provide temporary access to seasonal hires, part-time workers, or other team members in the Free plan. While this feature is available, you’ll have to upgrade to the premium plans.
- Freshdesk doesn’t offer dedicated technical support. As a result, complicated issues take longer to resolve.
Freshdesk
Review:
Freshdesk is great at helping companies deliver personalized customer support. It is an affordable, easy-to-use customer service platform with a fantastic knowledge base that offers several high-quality features that benefit companies to support their customers.
The system brings together a ticketing system, a knowledge management solution, and other tools to boost customer experience. It unifies support channels like email, phone, chat, and social media and adds specialized features like time-tracking, ticket templates, satisfaction surveys, and consistent analytics.
Freshdesk
Customers:
Freshdesk boasts thousands of customers worldwide, with clientele like Bridgestone, Pearson, Fiverr, Exabytes, Synergy, Clarity, Bensons for Beds, and Springer Nature.
Freshdesk
Stats:
- Trusted by 50,000 businesses
- 84% resolution SLA (Hindawi)
- 95% CSAT scores (Multichoice Group)
- 98% ticket resolution within SLA (7-Eleven)
Freshdesk
Pricing:
Freshdesk differentiates between Support Desk and Omnichannel pricing, with the knowledge base system included in all tiers. Support Desk offers a free version that can be used for an unlimited number of agents and includes a public and private knowledge base and email to knowledge base feature.
Omnichannel pricing is slightly higher than that of Support Desk.
- The Growth plan is priced at $15/agent/month for Support Desk and $29/agent/month for Omnichannel, billed annually. It includes all free features as well as auto suggest, automatic article reordering, interlinking articles, and advanced article filtering.
- The Pro plan is priced at $49/agent/month for Support Desk and $59/agent/month for Omnichannel, billed annually. It offers all Growth features plus automatic sitemap generation, advanced article bulk actions, multiple-product content management, article versioning, knowledge base analytics, and templates.
The Enterprise plan is priced at $79/agent/month and $99/agent/month for Omnichannel, billed annually. It provides everything in Growth plus approval workflows.
Best For:
Small to mid-sized businesses that get more workflow traffic than the number of people doing the job.
Why we love it
:
Helpjuice offers a smart knowledge base to help companies deliver exceptional customer support. The system is cloud-based, so you don’t need to invest data center resources to power your knowledge base.
Helpjuice
Review:
Helpjuice is quite easy to use, with a robust UI and customizable HTML and CSS framework. Its knowledge base automates support processes, such as onboarding, FAQ management, and more.
Its general layout and design are perfect for those looking for speedy access to company knowledge. In addition, its dynamic search engine is also ideal for displaying much-needed results very quickly.
Helpjuice
Customers:
Helpjuice works with different clients from different industries, niches, and regions. Their customers include Amazon, the World Health Organization, TCL, Zeiss, Virgin Mobile, and Hertz.
Helpjuice
Stats:
- Reduced phone calls by 25% (Touch Systems BV)
- Increased QA scores by 25% (DSI Telecoms)
- 26 times faster ticket completion with 85% fewer writers (Assurant)
- 20% less customer churn (Hack The Box)
Helpjuice
Pricing:
Helpjuice offers four pricing plans which include all features, customer care, and free expert customization:
- Starter is available at $120 per month for up to four users.
- The Run-Up plan goes at $200 for up to 16 users.
- The Premium Limited plan is available at $289 for up to 60 users.
Their best bundle is the Premium Unlimited bundle, offering unlimited users for $499 per month.
Best For:
Mid-size businesses that need a simple, easy-to-use KMS that won’t break the bank. While small businesses can take advantage of its bundle options, its middle to upper-tier plans offer the best value for money if needed.
Why we love it
:
Bitrix24 is a budget CRM suite that offers a valuable knowledge base solution. It’s free for small businesses and primarily low-cost for enterprise users, making it an excellent pick for small teams and startups.
Bitrix24's
Review:
Bitrix24 is relatively brand new with its KMS solution, introduced in late December 2019. They specialize in building corporate knowledge centers, providing everything from multimedia content, documentation, and everything in between.
As a proclaimed all-in-one platform for CRM, collaboration, HR solutions, and more, Bitrix24’s KMS is included in all of its plans. They enable organizations to build company knowledge bases for projects and social knowledge sharing for employee information. It also has a unique, collaborative mind mapping feature to let teams visualize relationships from their knowledge bases.
Bitrix24's
Customers:
Bitrix24 has different customers from various industries, mostly focused on small businesses. These include K-Webs, CaloryFrio, MoSaiK, MobilBlitz, Properters, and more.
Bitrix24's
Stats:
- Over 10,000,000 organizations have chosen Bitrix
- Saves $2,500 - $3,500 a month (Domrnr.ru)
- 63.2% of clients feel well-informed (MyFRoSTA)
Bitrix24's
Pricing:
As an all-in-one platform for CRM, collaboration, and other tools, Bitrix24’s knowledge management system is included in all of its plans, including the free version. In addition, all plans come with smart search capabilities.
- The free version offers a single knowledge base and other limited features, including chats and 5 GB of online storage.
- Bitrix24’s Basic plan is priced at $39 a month for five users. This offers everything in the free version, with three company knowledge bases, custom fields, contact center features, and 24 GB of online storage.
- Bitrix24’s Standard plan is priced at $79 a month for 50 users. This includes everything in the Basic plan, with five company knowledge bases, announcements, polls, and 100 GB online storage.
Bitrix24’s Professional plan is priced at $159 a month for unlimited users. This offers everything in the Standard plan, with unlimited knowledge bases, premium customer support, and 1,024 GB of online storage.
Best For:
Small businesses and startups that need to have a KMS and CRM up and running without much cost. Even the premium paid options are still generally cheaper than most picks, which can help your organization until you’re ready to scale further.
Why we love it
:
LiveAgent is a favorite among customer service teams, letting them answer a ticket immediately by quickly referencing a knowledge base. The system records everything on the ticket from start to finish, and it integrates well with third-party team apps.
- LiveAgent’s modern user interface looks aesthetically pleasing while being easy to navigate.
- LiveAgent is super easy to implement and use. Even if your team isn’t tech-savvy, the time to productivity is quick.
- LiveAgent empowers small support teams to easily handle large volumes of queries. Critical features like a universal inbox, a live chat widget, and a knowledge base enable you to address all tickets with greater efficiency.
- For LiveAgent, every user is a valuable client. Expect 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, or email. The support agents are also in-house and not outsourced, which further ensures you’re given accurate answers to all your queries.
- LiveAgent takes feedback seriously and is constantly trying to improve the software, so you’re assured of a reliable tool.
- LiveAgent needs to work on its mobile app interface. While convenient to work with, it isn’t as at par with the competitors.
- LiveAgent offers limited integrations, which may be a hindrance for companies wanting to significantly boost support effectiveness and visibility.
- LiveAgent’s Free plan doesn’t allow for integrations with social networks like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Viber — you’ll have to upgrade to the paid plans to get access. Therefore, you can’t offer customers omnichannel support and have to stay limited to email, live chat, and call center support.
LiveAgent
Review:
LiveAgent KMS enables companies to centralize, organize, and share their IT knowledge. It collects and manages knowledge assets from disparate sources into a single knowledge base. Support agents prefer LiveAgent because they can research and resolve technical issues without requiring escalations.
LiveAgent also allows users to access and update the knowledge base according to the support team’s findings. The built-in chat function makes it easy to streamline collaboration, end-user information, and more. Users can also deploy LiveAgent KMS on-premise or on the cloud.
LiveAgent
Customers:
LiveAgent KMS boasts thousands of customers across different niches and industries. These include Forbes, Airbus, Nascar, Webmaster, and XperienceHR.
LiveAgent
Stats:
- 30,000+ businesses trust LiveAgent
- 96.5% customer satisfaction (Aquasprouts)
- Resolves 300+ complex tickets monthly for 140 countries (Areto Systems)
- 98% CSAT score (Cotswold Web)
LiveAgent
Pricing:
LiveAgent offers three paid plans, with a knowledge base provided at every price point. Additional knowledge bases can be purchased for $19/month/account for all tiers.
- Ticket ($15/agent/month) offers a knowledge base along with unlimited ticket history, unlimited email addresses, advanced reporting, customer portal + forum, rules and time rules, and white-glove setup.
- Ticket+Chat ($29/agent/month) offers everything on the Ticket bundle, together with unlimited chat buttons, feedback management, real-time visitors monitor, proactive chat invitations, chat satisfaction surveys, social networks, time tracking, and audit logs.
- All-Inclusive ($49/agent/month) offers everything on the Ticket+Chat bundle, together with call center support, video call, call routing and transfers, and unlimited call recordings.
Best For:
LiveAgent works best for support-centric businesses, from small to medium-sized businesses. Telcos, eCommerce, SaaS, startups, and businesses where the entire goal is to provide excellent customer service from top to bottom.
Why we love it
:
ProProfs Knowledge Base is an easy-to-use, low-cost, and intuitively-designed knowledge base perfect for small teams and businesses. It is reliable, with almost no downtime, and fast and consistent improvements.
ProProfs
Review:
ProProfs Knowledgebase is a cloud-based KMS that makes it simple to create, store, and share knowledge. This scalable software is a great tool for documentation, training, and customer support.
It’s also one of the cheapest KMS solutions available, making it an excellent choice for small businesses.
ProProfs
Customers:
ProProfs Knowledge Base has thousands of customers, including companies like Acer, Cisco, Adobe, HP, Standard Chartered, and SAP. Its customers range in size from small startups to large corporations.
ProProfs
Stats:
- Promises 80% ticket reduction
- Trusted by 15 million users globally
ProProfs
Pricing:
ProProfs Knowledge Base offers separate pricing tiers for a public help center and a private knowledge base. Public help center plans are for companies who want to build documentation and guide resources for customers:
- Essentials is priced at $30/author/month for three authors, for a total of $90/month billed annually. This provides unlimited public views, 500 maximum pages, one knowledge base, revision history and version control, and professional templates.
- Premium is priced at $40/author/month for a maximum of ten authors. It has everything from Essentials, plus three knowledge bases, roles and collaboration, merge tags and content snippets, reports and analytics, multilingual support, help widget, and workflow approvals.
- Enterprise (custom) has everything from Premium, together with single sign-on, custom license, and enterprise security and ownership.
On the other hand, private knowledge base plans are for organizations that opt to have KMS solutions for their employees and partners. All tiers provide unlimited knowledge bases, private sites, revision history and version control, and professional templates.
- Essentials is priced at $2/user/month for a minimum of 25 users and a maximum of 75 users. It has a limit of 500 knowledge base pages and five groups or teams.
- Premium is priced at $3/user/month for a minimum of 25 users and a maximum of 150 users. It provides 1,000 knowledge base pages, unlimited groups or teams, roles and collaboration, merge tags and content snippets, conditional content, help widget, and workflow approvals.
- Enterprise is offered at custom pricing. It includes everything in Premium as well as single sign-on, custom license, and enterprise security and ownership.
Best For:
ProProfs Knowledge Base is best for small teams and businesses seeking an intuitive, user-friendly KMS. The most famous “Premium” bundle has a limit of up to 10 users.
Why we love it
:
Atlassian Confluence is a KMS solution that encourages collaboration. Its analytics tools empower businesses to track pages accessed and help employees use knowledge within the organization.
Atlassian Confluence
Review:
Confluence is a knowledge management software that provides a single place for teams to manage and share content. It lets users create knowledge bases with advanced search capabilities and intuitive page hierarchies with over 75 customizable templates.
Its biggest strength comes from its bevy of collaboration tools, including real-time editing, notifications, and rich comments. Confluence also helps manage permissions granularly while providing a feedback loop that optimizes how the team can access the information they need.
Atlassian Confluence
Customers:
Atlassian Confluence has several major customers, including the US Department of Defense, NASA, Redfin, National Bank of Canada, and Sprout Social. Companies like Zoom, AirFrance, Audi, and Amadeus are also among their many success stories.
Atlassian Confluence
Stats:
- 83% of Fortune 500 companies use Atlassian products
- 10 million monthly active users using Atlassian cloud products
- 180,000 Atlassian customers in over 190 countries
- 66% time to resolution improvement (Telegraph IT)
Atlassian Confluence
Pricing:
Confluence offers three pricing plans:
- The Basic plan (free) includes unlimited spaces and pages, structured page tree organization, page versioning, best practice template library, domain verification & account capture, community-based support, and 2GB file storage.
- The Standard plan ($5.50/user/month) includes everything in Basic, together with page and space permissions, archive and unarchive pages, page insights, anonymous access, audit logs, 250GB file storage, and local business hour support.
- The Advanced plan ($10.50/user/month) includes everything in Standard, together with analytics, bulk archive pages, team calendars, external collaboration, automation, sandbox, unlimited storage, 24/7 premium support, and 99.9% guaranteed uptime SLA.
The Enterprise plan (custom pricing) is available to companies with over 800 users. It includes everything in Advanced, together with Atlassian cloud access with enterprise-grade security, 24/7 enterprise support, 99.95% SLA, and unlimited sites up to 20,000 users.
Best For:
Organizations that value collaboration as the center of their business goals. If you want strong integration options together with robust analytics, this is for you.
Why we love it
:
The HubSpot Knowledge Base is a part of their Service Hub, which helps businesses facilitate and improve customer self-service. It offers a great set of tools that leverage ticketing and knowledge base optimizations for various customer-facing teams.
Hubspot
Review:
While it may provide limited customization options, HubSpot Knowledge Base (KB) offers a simple but robust company knowledge tool. It does its job well, focusing more on performance than aesthetics.
The knowledge base works nicely with the bundled service ticketing, which simplifies customer response. It offers a great way to direct customers to the correct information without a ton of hassle.
Hubspot
Customers:
HubSpot KB has hundreds of thousands of customers due to the different types of products they provide. These range from small businesses and agencies to companies like Suzuki, WPEngine, Monday.com, Casio, Zildjian, and more.
Hubspot
Stats:
- 25% reduction in support tickets (InspectionXpert)
- 1,000 emails and tickets deflected per month (Yoga International)
- 1377% rise in web traffic (Aermec North America)
- $300k increase in revenue (WyreStorm)
Hubspot
Pricing:
HubSpot KB is included in Service Hub Professional and Enterprise plans. Both tiers include a multi-language support knowledge base with single sign-on:
- HubSpot Service Hub Professional starts at $360 per month for five paid users and charges $72 per month for each additional user. This tier also includes live chat, meeting scheduling, simple ticket automation, basic bots, and many more.
HubSpot Service Hub Enterprise starts at $1,200 per month for ten paid users and charges $120 per month for each additional user. This includes everything in Professional, plus permission sets, custom objects, conversation intelligence, goals, and playbooks.
Best For:
Hubspot Knowledge Base can work for any organization that focuses on solid customer service. Business process outsourcing, call centers, and CS teams can take full advantage of the knowledge base and how easy it is to use.
Why we love it
:
Zoho Desk is a comprehensive customer support software that assists companies in setting up an organized help center. It helps you build and maintain a deep knowledge base with everything a support team needs to do business.
- With Zoho Desk, you get one of the most extensive feature lists of any help desk and ticketing system in the market.
- Zoho Desk is very flexible when it comes to pricing, as you can switch plans as you go if your team member count or necessities grow.
- It’s available in 22 languages.
- Lets you provide support across multiple channels.
- With Zoho Desk, you get one of the most extensive feature lists of any help desk and ticketing system in the market.
- Zoho Desk is very flexible when it comes to pricing, as you can switch plans as you go if your team member count or necessities grow.
- It’s available in 22 languages.
- Lets you provide support across multiple channels.
- Some of the product customizations can be hard to figure out, according to some users.
- The UX/UI can seem dated at times.
- Several users have reported that integrating the tool with several apps can be problematic.
- Some of the product customizations can be hard to figure out, according to some users.
- The UX/UI can seem dated at times.
- Several users have reported that integrating the tool with several apps can be problematic.
Zoho Desk
Review:
Zoho Desk is famous for its SEO-friendly multi-brand help center and knowledge base with multiple language support. In addition, the platform provides several customizable templates to make help centers look like natural extensions of company websites. Zoho Desk also offers built-in reports and integrates with Google Analytics to help businesses track customer interaction with their knowledge bases.
In addition, customers can submit tickets directly from within the knowledge management system. When agents receive these tickets, they can use Zoho Desk’s auto-suggest feature to pull up relevant articles from the knowledge base based on the tickets’ keywords, thereby speeding up the process.
Zoho Desk
Customers:
Zoho Desk has thousands of customers and many enterprise-level clients. The most notable include McAfee, Daimler, LycaMobile, and Rogers.
Zoho Desk
Stats:
- Improved mobile-first service delivery to 1 million users (5Paisa)
- Cut down agent response time by 70% (EPNE UK)
- 50,000+ businesses around the world trust Zoho Desk
- Zoho Desk offers 24/7 support without a global team
Zoho Desk
Pricing:
Zoho Desk offers four pricing plans:
- The Free version is available for three agents, with features that include email ticketing, customer management, help center, private knowledge base, predefined SLAs, macros, multi-language help desk, mobile apps, and 24x5 email support.
- The Standard bundle ($14/user/month) includes everything on the Free bundle, plus social and community channels, product-based ticket management, help center themes gallery, public knowledge base, SLAs & escalations, customer happiness ratings, 24x5 phone support, and more.
- The Professional bundle ($23/user/month) includes everything on the Standard bundle, plus multi-department ticketing, team management, telephony, automatic time tracking, round-robin ticket assignment, ticket templates, ticket sharing, and more. This is Zoho Desk’s most popular plan.
- The Enterprise bundle ($40/user/month) includes everything on the Professional bundle, plus live chat, an AI-powered assistant, help center customization, multi-brand help center, advanced process management, global reports & dashboards, and more.
It is worth noting that Zoho Enterprise is on par with most top-tier plans by other providers in terms of features and goes for a significantly low price. Also, you can try any plan for free for 15 days.
Best For:
Zoho Desk is a good fit for companies of all sizes looking for a comprehensive yet affordable customer support solution. Customer service-centric teams can take advantage of the integrated ticketing system, together with companies looking for a more cost-friendly knowledge management solution. If your organization uses other Zoho products, this should be an easy addition.
Why we love it
:
Zendesk Guide offers a ton of configurability and an easy-to-use yet efficient document management platform that offers a built-in ticketing system. It also gives users several ways to customize the knowledge base’s design, look, and theme.
Zendesk
Review:
Zendesk Guide is an enterprise knowledge base that helps organizations create, organize, and share documentation. It is among the most well-known knowledge management solutions available and works as a robust, scalable system.
Much of Zendesk Guide is designed for customer support teams and companies that need to handle large amounts of documentation for internal use. The ticketing system is also a fantastic way to simplify the work of company support teams.
Zendesk
Customers:
Zendesk Guide has a variety of customers in every industry and region. Their biggest customers include Polaris, Siemens, Grubhub, Shopify, and Mailchimp.
Zendesk
Stats:
- Lowers handle times by 40% (Tile)
- Helps teams support 30% more accounts per agent (Polaris)
- 12% self-service deflection (Evernote)
- 92% average CSAT (Shopify)
- 200% increase in CSAT survey response (Mailchimp)
Zendesk
Pricing:
Zendesk Guide is a part of the Zendesk Suite and is included in all Suite plans:
- Guide Lite is included in the Zendesk Suite Team plan priced at $49/agent/month, billed annually. This offers a single help center with no knowledge management system.
- Guide Professional is included in the Zendesk Suite Growth ($79/agent/month) and Professional ($99/agent/month) plans. This provides multiple help centers and AI-powered knowledge management systems with customization options.
- Guide Enterprise is included in the Zendesk Suite Enterprise ($150/agent/month) and Enterprise Plus (starting at $215/agent/month) plans. This provides advanced knowledge management and collaboration features, such as scheduled publishing, unpublishing, and verification intervals.
Alternatively, Zendesk Guide Professional and Enterprise can be purchased as a paid plan in any Zendesk Support plan: Support Team ($19/agent/month), Support Professional ($49/agent/month), and Support Enterprise ($99/agent/month).
Best For:
Zendesk Guide is best-suited for medium to large companies that need a robust knowledge base, especially for their support teams.
Why we love it
:
Document360 offers a simple yet powerful KMS that works as a central knowledge base for any organization. It is packed with smart tools and integrations that make it easy for knowledge employees to create, share, and manage their documents.
Document360
Review:
Document360 enables users to create, organize, and share documents using the familiar Google Docs interface. Its smart search engine is among its best features, which makes it easy for workers to find what they need with a quick tip.
It offers dynamic document workflows, allowing users to define and customize their entire process. Document360 also enables organizations to set triggers and actions based on document properties and metadata.
Document360
Customers:
Document360’s customer list includes big names such as McDonald’s, Stackify, Harvard University, Porche, and Mambu.
Document360
Stats:
- Served 10,000 people from 80 countries and over 300 businesses
- 600+ articles authored within the system (WhatFix IDG)
Document360
Pricing:
Document360 offers a pricing model billed either monthly or annually, paid per project or month. All bundles include migration support.
- The Startup bundle starts at $99 and includes two team accounts, one knowledge base version, 50GB storage, public knowledge base, unlimited articles and revisions, customization and branding, article templates, and tag management.
- The Business bundle starts at $299 and includes ten team accounts and two knowledge base versions. It offers everything in Startup together with a private knowledge base, unlimited reader accounts, analytics, export to PDF, and a knowledge base assistant.
- The Enterprise bundle starts at $499 and includes 15 team accounts and two knowledge base versions. It provides everything in Business together with security groups and roles, enterprise SSO, audit logging, workflow, ticket deflector, and search within attachments.
- The Enterprise Plus bundle requires you to contact the Document360 support team. This tier includes everything in Enterprise together with private hosting, premium support, additional security, and more.
Best For:
Document 360 offers something different for every business size. Small teams can utilize efficient document management, while big enterprises can maximize their search options.
Why we love it
:
ServiceNow Knowledge Management (KM) is effortless to learn, easy to adopt, and provides a fantastic way to share knowledge within the organization. It’s a fully-featured managed solution with many bells and whistles.
ServiceNow
Review:
ServiceNow KM helps organizations build a self-service portal that makes it easy for their employees to find answers. One of its key features is capturing knowledge from employees, customers, and partners, making it available for people across the organization.
ServiceNow KM can help improve efficiency by cutting down service tickets by 30%. In addition, every issue resolution can be published on the KM software, saving time and effort.
ServiceNow
Customers:
ServiceNow works with different industries from various regions, including Delta Airlines, American University, T Systems, Qantas, and Experian.
ServiceNow
Stats:
- 52% faster relief time
- 30% resolution time reduction (Basware)
- 11% increase in CS score (Basware)
- 75% customer response times (Basware)
- 3,000 per month reduction in monthly service desk calls (Flight Centre)
ServiceNow
Pricing:
ServiceNow Knowledge Management does not have public pricing. They provide demos but no free trial, with a quote-based plan.
Best For:
ServiceNow Knowledge Management is best for enterprise organizations that revolve around core company knowledge. Due to its robust solutions, medium businesses and corporations can get the best value from this KMS.
Common Use Cases of Knowledge Management Software
There are many different use cases for knowledge management software, typically tied to specific industry verticals. Depending on the vertical, knowledge bases should contain essential company knowledge that should be available for use.
Knowledge base software (KBS) is often a tool for IT, but it's not just limited to this field. For instance, many companies use it to improve customer support.
The best knowledge management database should support several use cases. These include:
- Documentation: Knowledge management software is used to build knowledge bases for documentation or the creation of manuals. This helps customers and employees find information themselves. Alternatively, support agents can provide knowledge solutions to customers online, which can reduce first contact resolution time and increase customer satisfaction.
- Training: Training is essential to the success of any organization. A knowledge management system can support training by providing quick information without the need to refer to senior members of the company. It should also provide links to training content in the LMS so that employees can refresh their memories of past activities.
- Knowledge transfer: Knowledge management software helps capture knowledge generated by employees, transferred from other employees, or derived from customer support. Knowledge systems should also be easy to share through channels such as email and portals where employees can find and leverage knowledge quickly.
- Maintaining company culture: Knowledge management software helps in storing the company's values and culture. Employees empowered with knowledge tend to perform better, and knowledge base content should help employees stay in line with the company's mission and vision.
Legal compliance: Knowledge management software can store legal information needed by an organization’s legal department. KMS can also help meet compliance standards required for a variety of industries, from HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2, and more.
Pitfalls: Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Knowledge Management Software
Now that you understand most of the details, benefits, and advantages of buying knowledge management software, you must remember which pitfalls you need to avoid. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the amount of choices and features you can find, but there are several red flags when buying a KMS. These include:
- Not considering the features you need: Before you start your search, you should clearly define your business processes and goals. For example, is the KMS intended to be a training resource or more for customer support? Should the articles be search engine optimized? Do we need an integrated ticketing system? Determining these will help you decide what key features you need in a KMS.
- Not ensuring compliance: Knowledge bases can contain vital information that should be made secure. Hence, your KMS needs to meet compliance standards set by your organization's management.
- Lack of scalability: Many vendors offer plans with a limit on how many knowledge bases or article pages you can create. This can be a disadvantage, especially when it’s time for your business to scale. Subscription plans should at least be easily-adjustable to support future business growth.
- Not analyzing the cost: Knowledge management databases can range in cost, with free options to enterprise-grade solutions. Therefore, you need to consider your company’s financial capacity and balance it with the KMS features that you need to make a worthwhile investment.
- Not considering integrations: KMS solutions must integrate with other business systems you currently use or plan on using. For example, it should integrate with systems such as your CRM, document management, and collaboration tools.
- Not considering usability: Knowledge management databases must be easy to use, as their purpose is to provide instant information to customers or employees to resolve issues quickly.
Not considering support: Any issues that may arise within your knowledge management software can cause bottlenecks in customer support or other business processes, which can have costly consequences. Therefore, knowledge management databases must be supported by well-trained staff that is available around the clock.
Benefits and ROI of Knowledge Management Software
There are several benefits to using knowledge management software. Knowledge management can improve customer support and crucial metrics to increase ROI and productivity. It can also help employees find information quickly and improve internal organization.
Knowledge management systems have numerous benefits, including:
- Knowledge improvements and revisions: KMS helps your employees stay updated on any changes (even small ones) made to official company policies, processes, or procedures.
- Increased efficiency: Knowledge management improves efficiency by enhancing internal organization. For external support, it helps employees find information faster and reduce support costs because support agents have more knowledge while requiring less training.
- Knowledge sharing: Knowledge management allows employees to share knowledge quickly, which helps them understand each other's roles and reduces training costs. Some knowledge management software supports employee sharing through social media for branding and expertise, which also increases the visibility of the company.
- Improves customer support: Knowledge management improves customer service by giving employees knowledge about products, processes, and procedures. As a result, employees can provide better customer service due to quick access to the right information.
- Increases productivity: Knowledge management improves productivity by providing instant access to information, which can be used to complete work faster. It can help provide a quick guide through standard operating procedures (SOPs). Moreover, you can create specific resources or documents to help guide new employees in the system.
Calculating the return on investment (ROI) of knowledge management software can be tricky. The benefits of the software are often intangible, and it can be hard to put a value on things like improved communication or increased productivity. However, with the right data, you can come up with a good estimate of the ROI for your organization's particular needs.
Factors like the cost of software, how long it will take to break even, reduced training costs, and time saved can all come into play in determining the ROI for knowledge management systems. Some software providers like Freshdesk and ServiceNow offer ROI calculators to help you estimate the potential benefits of their products.
Estimated Cost of Knowledge Management Software
The price for knowledge management software varies greatly. You can find free products, but these are not customizable or premium. The prices are in the hundreds up to thousands of dollars, depending on what features you want and your company’s size. For example, the cheapest knowledge base is Bitrix24, charging $39 for five users per month, paid annually.
The pricing models of knowledge management software differ from vendor to vendor. Some charge by user, while others offer monthly or annual subscriptions. In addition, several offer a free version of their software but with limited features.
Features of Knowledge Management Software
Knowledge management software is a powerful tool that can support many business functions such as marketing, sales, HR, and customer service.
Here are some of the features we think you should know about before deciding on a KMS.
- Knowledge library: This is the core of knowledge management systems. The knowledge library can store important information, such as product information, contact details, training guidelines, and policies.
- Search function: The value of KMS solutions relies on having information readily available with only a few actions. A search option is necessary, especially if support teams need consistent access to information. The best knowledge management systems offer smart search capabilities. You want it to show as many relevant results as possible with several additional filters that can refine the number of possible results.
- Knowledge management analytics: Without analytics, you won’t be able to identify knowledge gaps. You’ll also find it hard to understand the impact of knowledge management on your organization. Knowledge management analytics provide real-time insights and tell you how well knowledge systems perform and where improvements are needed. It also shows which knowledge is more popular and needs updating.
- Solution management: The learning management system (LMS) is a core component of many KMS solutions. The LMS is a platform that supports solution discovery, both formal and informal. It should allow users to list all solutions they discover through the support process and improve on currently existing information.
- File management: File management includes the ability to create, edit, and store files. The KMS should support file versioning so that changes that are made are logged and tracked over time.
- Knowledge sharing: Knowledge sharing among employees allows them to collaborate and makes it easy for everyone to find the information they need. It can also help streamline customer support.
Social media sharing: Social media is another popular form of knowledge sharing. Not only does it help with customer education, but it’s also a powerful marketing tool.
Questions to Ask During Your Knowledge Management Software Demos
It's important to know what to ask during a knowledge management software demo so you can be sure the tool is a good fit for your business. Software vendors can be accommodating in walking you through their product but might just highlight their strengths, leaving you in the dark as to other features you might actually need.
It's important to come prepared with a few key questions:
- What kind of content can be stored within the system?
- Is the system customizable?
- How advanced are the search capabilities?
- Can the system be integrated with other apps?
- Is the software scalable?
- Can different teams or departments collaborate on content?
- Does the system have a dedicated support team?
- Does the system support mobile devices?
- Can you provide examples of how other businesses have used the software to manage knowledge? How has it benefited them?
- Is there a trial period or free version available so I can test it out before purchasing?
Download our Excel HR tech buying organizer to help you get prepared for your next demo.
Implementing Knowledge Management Software
Implementing a KMS should be straightforward for most products, especially cloud-based systems. First, do your research and identify the software that fits your needs. For example, if you’re implementing the KMS for internal use, you’ll need to identify the necessary resources you’ll provide, such as SOPs, directories, or training materials. Take advantage of demos and free trials to see if the system offers a UI/UX that works for your team.
Many KMS providers will have a self-service user guide for installation, while some plans offer onboarding services. Cloud-based systems are much simpler to implement in as little as a few minutes and may require minimal IT support. For these KMS, you simply need to purchase your desired plan, create an account, and follow their instructions for setting up.
Meanwhile, self-hosted KMS can take longer to deploy but offer more flexibility. IT staff will need to install and configure the software, and then manage updates and backups.
After the software is in place, train your teams, designate your knowledge managers, and assign roles for collaboration. Create a taxonomy, which is basically an inventory of all terms and topics related to your company’s business. This will help you structure and classify information so it can be easily located and retrieved when needed.
Then, it's time to start populating your KMS repository with content from across the organization. Keep in mind that a successful KM system is an ongoing process that needs to be constantly updated and refined, so make sure you have a plan for further content creation, customization, and management.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is knowledge management?
Knowledge management is the collection, organization, retention, and delivery of knowledge. It has many purposes in different fields, such as improving business performance, increasing employee productivity, and improving customer satisfaction.
What is knowledge management software?
Knowledge management software are powerful tools that support the entire knowledge lifecycle. These systems are designed to help employees create, find, organize, and use information, particularly company knowledge. Customers can also use it to resolve issues through self-service.
What is the difference between a knowledge management system and a CRM?
A customer relationship management (CRM) system provides a database for customer-facing operations, including contact management, sales optimization, and more. KMS focuses on an organization’s internal knowledge, providing crucial information for optimized customer support.
What are the benefits of using KMS?
Knowledge management software helps support teams by giving them access to crucial company information while providing high-quality and searchable content. KMS also increases employee productivity, collaboration, and communication. In addition, knowledge management systems intended for customer support can improve customer retention and reduce support costs.
What are the features I need for a knowledge management system?
The knowledge library should be able to store important information, such as product information, contact details, training guidelines, and policies. You also want the KMS to provide advanced search, with several additional filters that can simplify the number of possible results. Furthermore, analytics help you measure the effectiveness of knowledge bases and optimize them.
Final Advice on Buying Knowledge Management Software
Knowledge management software is an essential tool for any company, regardless of industry. The best knowledge management solutions support several use cases, including content creation, collaboration, training, and knowledge sharing. Knowledge management databases must also support compliance, scalability, and integrations.
Choosing a knowledge management system can be tricky, especially as the market is filled with different offerings. To make matters simpler, here’s what we recommend:
- Identify your needs and budget. This is the first step you should never overlook, as it will guide you throughout your decision-making process.
- Check out the best knowledge management software on the market based on your needs and budget. Don’t be tempted to buy a product just because of its premium price tag! Always go back to the features you truly need and try to demo and test each option.
- Read what users are saying about products you’re considering. Keep a close eye on recent reviews discussing usability, updates, and customer support experiences.
- Schedule demo sessions with the top vendors on your list, and be prepared to ask questions.
Thanks for reading our guide on knowledge management software. If you’re interested in similar software solutions that streamline customer support processes and improve customer experience, check out our guides on the top IT help desk ticketing systems and customer experience management solutions.
Best Knowledge Management Software
Stay on top of what really matters in HR and People Tech. Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up on the latest news, trends, and culture.
We put in the effort to make this guide awesome
50
Hours Researched
.svg)
2
Experts Consulted
.svg)
20
Vendors Reviewed
Featured in
Looking for HR Tech Advice? Join our community
Ask questions, share knowledge, find new job opportunities, network and more in our closed HR Tech Buyers Community
Join 20,000 HR Tech Nerds who get our weekly insights
