Software businesses are built solely on documents before they are ever built into a product. As part of the product development process, an internal product team produces several documents such as a product vision document, product requirements document, software documentation, release notes, test plan, API documentation, etc. They’re endless.
When there are countless documents to streamline internal product building, imagine having an external knowledge base that would be significantly more comprehensive.
Thankfully, we have free knowledge base software that can help you organize, retrieve, and share information faster and more efficiently. It is necessary to have a knowledge base at each step. For customer support agents, the knowledge base provides the information they need to answer questions, while for existing customers, it serves as a guide.
For example, if a customer needs help integrating an API, they can resolve their issues without contacting support.
The best part is that we have access to free knowledge-base software that facilitates the sharing of information and problem-solving.
Before we jump to the meat of this blog, i.e. best free knowledge base software, let’s understand what knowledge base software is and what it does.
What is knowledge base software?
A knowledge-based software is a central repository of information. You can create, share, and manage information using a Knowledge base software. You can set up a knowledge base for your internal teams or set up a customer knowledge base to publish FAQ pages and user guides. With self-help guides, your customers don’t need to wait longer for an executive to be assigned to solve even a simple issue and your customer support team can focus on only complex issues, while your users can troubleshoot problems whenever they want using best practices, tips, and step-by-step guides.
8 Best Free Knowledge Base Software
Here is the list of the 8 best free knowledge base software that includes the main features of the product and what to expect from these features in an ideal tool.
1. Document360
Document360 is an AI-powered enterprise-grade knowledge base tool for all types of businesses. It allows you to build a private or public knowledge base to serve your internal teams and customers. It enables you to increase your organization’s productivity and efficiency.
Listing out a few of its key features that make it stand out in the market:
Get started with Document360’s 14-day free trial and explore all its capabilities.
- Editors: Document360 has two advanced editors so you can create customized documents to suit your organizational needs.
- Category manager: It enables you to reduce information silos by categorizing your documentation into six categories and sub-categories.
- Knowledge capturing and retention: A central hub for all organizational knowledge makes knowledge sharing and capturing easy. It also ensures knowledge retention, as all the teams continuously collaborate and contribute their knowledge within the central hub.
- Localization: The platform supports translation in more than 30 languages with crowdin and Phrase app integrations, supporting your teams and customers globally.
- SEO: Create SEO-friendly knowledge base articles to provide answers to customers looking for help on search engines.
- Enhanced customer support: With efficient knowledge management, customer support teams can provide quicker and more accurate answers to customer queries improving customer satisfaction. With a public self-service knowledge base, Document360 gives 24/7 support to your customers so they feel empowered to find answers to their queries as and when they want it.
- Security: Document360 has data safeguards such as encryption, perimeter security, and SOC2 certification. It also offers SSO login, IP restriction, and audit logs, so your knowledge is completely private and secure.
Paid plans come with a lot more features like AI-powered features, Integrations and analytics, version history, customization, and more.
Take a quick look to learn how a knowledge base can benefit you
To build your AI-powered knowledge base and integrate it with any application, try Document360 for free!
GET STARTED2. Hiver
Primarily designed for Google Workspace, Hiver is a Gmail-based knowledge base platform wherein one can manage internal plus external knowledge bases.
It can have-
- Teams collaborate on shared inboxes and access, manage, and respond to emails from a single email address.
- Assignments to be assigned directly within Gmail to delegate tasks and track responsibilities with easy hands.
- Users can add private notes and tags to emails within Hiver to help teams collaborate on specific emails effectively.
- Email template functionality to allow users to save pre-written responses for commonly asked questions or standard inquiries.
3. Freshdesk
Yet another cloud-based customer support software solution, Freshdesk, lets businesses manage customer queries, respond to their issues, and deal with raised tickets efficiently. It offers problem-solving content where customers can locate policies or troubleshooting workflows.
Here are the key aspects of Freshdesk-
- Offers a robust ticketing system that allows businesses to centralize & manage customer queries & issues through email, phone, chat, social media, & web forms.
- The software has a knowledge base feature for businesses to maintain a repository of articles, FAQs, and self-help resources for customers.
- It puts forward a system of advanced automation for ticket routing, responses, follow-ups, and escalations based on predefined rules and triggers.
- Facilitates knowledge sharing and problem-solving by allowing agents to collaborate on tickets, share internal notes, & communicate through built-in chat and collaboration tools.
4. Flowlu
The know-all & comprehensive free knowledge base software, Flowlu lets businesses manage projects, track finances, simplify operations, & get together within teams. They say they help business processes flow smoothly. Know how-
- It runs past fully customizable CRM support to manage sales funnels, keep track of your customers, & store email communication all in one place.
- The software lets you manage projects and know the revenue, cost, and project profitability beforehand.
- Plan, measure, and analyze your tasks in time with Flowlu which has an in-built task management working to refine work productivity.
- Visualize your financial plans like never before. Flowlu gives you graphs to gain insights into your expenses: and generated revenue.
5. myBase
A class in itself PIM, Personal Information Manager, myBase lets the users organize and manage various types of information, including notes, documents, tasks, bookmarks, & etc. As a free knowledge base software, all of its aspects extend its utility for personal organization, research, knowledge management, & a lot more. Know below in detail-
- myBase allows users to create and organize notes in a hierarchical structure so users can create categories, subcategories, and nested folders to organize their notes.
- It offers rich text editing capabilities, allowing users to format their notes using fonts, colors, styles, and multimedia elements for visually appealing content.
- The software supports the storage and management of various document types, including text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs, and more.
- Users can create tasks, to-do lists, and reminders within myBase wherein tasks can be organized by priority, due date, status, and other parameters.
- Users can encrypt their database or individual notes to prevent unauthorized access and ensure data privacy.
6. Bookstack
An open-source platform, BookStack is used to organize and produce documentation. It’s comparable to a wiki system, but its main objective is to help create documentation in an orderly and systematic way.
Mapping out the best of Bookstack’s knowledge base features-
- BookStack is organized hierarchically, allowing users to create chapters, sections, and pages to structure their content logically.
- The software includes version control features, allowing users to track changes to documentation over time & know who made changes & when,
- Ensures that sensitive information is protected & only accessible to authorized users with its granular permissions & access control settings.
- Furthermore, BookStack’s AI-powered search functionality & customization options for branding & styling are what make the software a stand-alone knowledge base platform.
7. Documize
As they say, a simple and delightful way to share knowledge management, Documize is yet another powerful multi-featured knowledge base software. It is a documentation platform with features that help you create, organize, and maintain data efficiently.
With Community as its open-source knowledge base solution, it intends to manage data internally as well as externally. Both technical and non-technical users can benefit from this self-hosted software. Know how-
- Documize allows users to create structured documentation in a navigable manner using a hierarchical system of pages, folders, and categories.
- The platform provides a rich text editor that allows users to format their documentation with text styles, images, links, tables, and other multimedia elements.
- Documize tracks changes to documentation over time & provides a detailed revision history for each document including who made the changes, when the changes were made, and what changes were made.
- The software can quickly find relevant information within the documentation so users can search by keyword, tag, or content type.
8. Bitrix24
A customer relationship management software with a free and extremely strong knowledge base, Bitrix24 is here to offer an open book for businesses and their teams to meet their respective customer service requirements. It lays out exceptional features like self-service portals, mind maps, SEO management, cataloging, content delivery, & much more.
Below are the features of its knowledge base approach-
- Helps manage customer interactions, sales pipelines, leads, contacts, and customer communications.
- Offers a social intranet platform that enables employees to collaborate, share knowledge, and stay connected within the organization.
- Includes time and attendance tracking tools that allow businesses to monitor employee working hours, absences, and overtime.
- A versatile and feature-rich platform that provides tools like instant messaging, group chat, video conferencing, document sharing, and task commenting.
Also Read: Importance of Having A Credit Union Knowledge Base
Conclusion
Where do all these recommendations bring us? Out of all the free knowledge base software in the market, it is really difficult to choose the best one for your workspace and workflow.
How you get to hit the trail by starting to try out the free trials provided by the platforms. You can test drive a few of the top platforms that are going to fulfill your business’s needs and are the strongest match to your workflows. The right one will proactively manage various projects & will guarantee that it best aligns with all your requirements. Because when it comes to creating and sharing knowledge effectively and efficiently, the right plug-in makes all the difference.
Interested in Document360 AI-Powered Knowledge Base Software? Schedule a demo with one of our experts
Book A DemoFrequently Asked Questions
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What is free knowledge base software?
Software platforms or tools that enable companies to create, arrange, and double up knowledge and information both internally and externally without charging for basic features are referred to as free knowledge base software. These technologies are intended to assist companies in effectively centralizing and managing their resources, paperwork, and expertise.
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Key features of free knowledge base software
Consider the following points as a must-have in your free knowledge base software. Tools for creating and editing all types of content, segregation, organization, and easy navigation of content & folders, a robust AI-powered search capability, internal collaboration, and external integration, detailed customization options, access control within the knowledge base, and analytics features to track key metrics & measure the knowledge base’ effectiveness.
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What is the best free knowledge base software for small businesses?
Want to create external and internal documentation altogether for free? Document360 is what we suggest. It is a free knowledge base platform that offers features such as a WYSIWYG editor, version control, content organization with categories and tags, advanced search, and integrations with tools like Slack and Jira. For a deeper dive, you can explore the public knowledge base, multiple team accounts, and efficient working cloud space for larger scalability with its subscription plan that can further help your business stay efficacious.