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.
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!
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
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:
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 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:
Helpjuice
Pricing:
Helpjuice offers four pricing plans which include all features, customer care, and free expert customization:
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
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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:
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.
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
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
Atlassian Confluence
Pricing:
Confluence offers three pricing plans:
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:
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 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
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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.
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:
Zoho Desk
Pricing:
Zoho Desk offers four pricing plans:
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:
Zendesk
Pricing:
Zendesk Guide is a part of the Zendesk Suite and is included in all Suite plans:
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:
Document360
Pricing:
Document360 offers a pricing model billed either monthly or annually, paid per project or month. All bundles include migration support.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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 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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Download our Excel HR tech buying organizer to help you get prepared for your next demo.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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