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Knowledge base software allows employees to solve a problem without bugging their manager.
It also answers any doubts users have before they become paying customers. And once they sign up, new users have all the information they need to get the most out of your product.
By choosing the best knowledge base software, you can establish a loyal customer base and more efficient workforce.
Each question someone uses your self-service knowledge base to answer saves time for your customer service reps. With content that's easy to navigate, your company sure looks like an expert in the field.
These tools have changed a lot over the years, especially with customers and employees expecting to get help on their phones. If you aren't providing the answers quick enough, people will find them somewhere else.
Here are my top picks for the best knowledge base software you can start using today. After reviews of each product, I've included a short guide to help you figure out which one is right for you.
#1 – LiveAgent Review – The Best for Handling Multichannel Support
LiveAgent is a software that combines communication from email, calls, and social media into one unified dashboard, making it easily accessible by your whole customer support team. It also offers knowledge base support as part of its larger support software program.
Gmail, Facebook, Slack, Twitter–no matter where the conversation started, your help desk team has a complete picture. In terms of future-proofing your support, there's hardly a better option than LiveAgent.
After logging into your LiveAgent account, you can start creating your knowledge base by adding articles, FAQs, videos, suggestions, and feedback. You can also have community forums in your system.
Moreover, it’s fully customizable, so you have full creative freedom. You can change themes, upload logos, modify colors, or edit the HTML to keep your knowledge base in sync with your company’s website style-wise.
LiveAgent is an excellent option for all businesses, irrespective of industry niches and sizes, and can integrate with over 40 third-party applications.
Pricing
LiveAgent has four feature-rich plants available at affordable prices:
- Free
- Ticket – $15 per agent per month
- Ticket + Chat – $29 per agent per month
- All-Inclusive – $39 per agent per month
The free version is limited to basic reporting, as well as a single chat button, phone number, and email address. It might work for a really small company, but it will definitely give you a sense of how easy the platform is to use–without spending a dime.
Upgrading to one of the paid plans gives you a lot more features, greater reporting and auditing capabilities, integrations, and a whole lot more.
Head over to the LiveAgent site now to learn more, sign up for the free version, or take advantage of a free 14-day trial of a premium subscription.
#2 – Document360 Review – The Best for Internal Use
Document360 is one of the most powerful knowledge base tools with a wide range of collaboration features that makes it perfect for internal use, especially for bigger teams.
For instance, it has a markdown text editor that makes editing and styling easy. You can add links, videos, images, tables, code samples, and call outs.
It's very similar to Google Docs. You can add the members with different roles like owner, editor, admin, reader, and draft writer–each having the right to leave comments on articles and mention other co-workers. They also have access to the complete history of particle revisions and can restore previous versions.
There are two levels of access for external and internal knowledge bases. Plus, you can also create multiple knowledge base sites for different projects.
Document360 offers a performance overview and searches reports to users. While the former reports on how every article performs and what percentage of customers still reach out to your support team after reading your knowledge base, the latter gives you information about popular and failed searches.
Over 10,000 people from 80 countries have used Document360, including big companies like Microsoft, Harvard University, Mambu, and Customer.io.
Pricing
Document360 has a subscription plan for every preference and budget. You can choose from four tiers:
- Startup – $49 per project per month
- Business – $149 per project per month
- Enterprise – $299 per project per month
- Enterprise Plus – Request a quote from the company
A 14-day free trial is also available to see if it is right for you.
#3 – Zendesk Review – The Best for Larger Businesses With Technical Setups
Zendesk lets you set a feature-rich knowledge base system while simultaneously managing customer support and creating support ticketing systems. All of this can be done using the same platform, which is both time-saving and convenient.
You can create articles in the text editor and personalize your help center with custom themes. Other features include a Google Docs importer, content history and re-storing, publishing permissions, and access control.
Zendesk Support can be useful for large enterprises that find themselves dealing with hundreds of customer requests daily thanks to its knowledge base, ticketing, and chat features. Still, there are subscription plans for every need and business size, making it a great option in general.
With its multi-language support, you can offer your knowledge base in several languages, allowing customers from other locations to easily switch between them.
Pricing
It used to be the case that you could get Zendesk Guide, which was stand-alone knowledge base software. Now, you can get it as part of the Zendesk Support.
For small to midsized business, there are three plans to choose from:
- Suite Team – $49 per agent per month
- Suite Growth – $79 per agent per month
- Suite Professional – $99 per agent per month
There are also plans aimed at enterprise, which start at $150.
Zendesk is the total customer service package. There's definitely cheaper options you can pursue, but if you are trying to set up your agents for success, Zendesk gives them way more than just knowledge base software.
Head over to Zendesk to see how deep of a product it is. Get a free demo today.
#4 – Helpjuice Review – The Best for Detailed Analytics
Helpjuice is a renowned SaaS platform that provides excellent knowledge base solutions, especially for companies with big teams.
The text editor comes with various advanced and intuitive features. It also has relevant collaboration features that enable multiple authors to work on articles simultaneously without bothering each other.
You get several access levels, such as public, internal, URL-based, and specific users. Plus, there are many customizable templates for you to choose from.
We would highly recommend Helpjuice if you want insightful analytics to improve your operations. Its powerful knowledge base analytics gives you insights into article performance in all kinds of numbers and graphs, author activities, and common search terms that people use, among other benefits.
The platform is more suitable for big companies and enterprises. But if you’re a startup that can afford to spend a few hundred dollars monthly, then you should definitely consider Helpjuice’s knowledge software features and very detailed analytics.
Pricing
Helpjuice offers leading standalone knowledge management products, which also reflects in their pricing. There are four subscription plans you can choose from:
- Starter – $120 monthly up to 4 users
- Run-Up – $200 monthly up to 16 users
- Premium Limited – $289 monthly up to 60 users
- Premium Unlimited – $999 monthly for unlimited users
A 14-day free trial is available for all subscription plans.
#5 – ProProfs Knowledge Base Review – The Best Free Knowledge Base Software for Beginners
A free internal knowledge base software that’s been around since 2006, ProProfs enjoys a loyal customer base that consists of Dell, Sony, DHL, and Cisco.
It’s a powerful tool with several unique features, robust integrations, and smart settings that can help you create an online knowledge base, manuals, documentation, FAQs, help sites, and more. You also have anytime-anywhere access to information through the public or private knowledge base.
You can use the platform to streamline all aspects of knowledge management from content authoring and designing to customizing and publishing–everything you want.
ProProfs is like your English teacher from high school who grades your staff. It goes through all your knowledge base content and provides you with a readability score to improve your writing and make it more informative for future use. You can also analyze your most popular documents to gain insights.
Moreover, the software is as user-friendly as a tool can be. You don’t have to worry about HTML or coding skills thanks to its compatibility with a host of powerful tools like Freshdesk, Salesforce Desk, Google Analytics, and Wufoo.
Pricing
The pricing system for ProProfs users is different from all-in-one customer service solutions. Instead of charging per user, the company charges per page. The plans are as follows:
- Free
- Essentials – $.30 per page per month
- Premium – $0.50 per page per month
You can try any plan for free for 15 days.
What I Looked at to Find the Best Knowledge Base Software
Before we discuss the options, you should know the methodology behind choosing our top picks and the factors we used to narrow down our decision. You should apply the same logic when determining the right choice for your business.
Data Security and Privacy Implementation
You can deploy solutions on the cloud where the data is hosted on third-party or vendor servers, or on-premise where it's hosted on your personal servers. Both are legitimate options. So you should review the measures for each and choose the one that suits your business better.
Verify the security provider's compliance certification, too, just to be safe. If you choose to opt for third-party servers, make sure the company has a good reputation.
Business Objective Alignment
Every software vendor offers solutions with distinct features to cater to different business needs. You’ll find tools that are designed to be customer help desks, while others are collaborative tools to manage projects and ideas.
Make a list of your business needs, and then match your solutions to determine their suitability before making a purchase decision.
Alignment also includes how well the knowledge base software meshes with other processes and information systems already existing in your system. We’d suggest creating a roadmap for integrating the software into your systems with minimal downtime.
Configurability with Enterprise-Grade Back-Up Support
A good knowledge base software solution should be configurable and come with enterprise-grade backup support. Easy configurability will ensure the software meets your business requirements. You can customize your data in the form of searchable, shareable, and collaborative documents.
Developing content and documents is a very time-consuming process. Precisely why losing all that would be a total nightmare–something having a backup can prevent. You'll have greater peace of mind knowing all private and crucial data is stored safely.
Reporting Analytics and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Software with reporting metrics and analytics can tell you how users interact with the knowledge base. You can even figure out ways to optimize the content better to maintain an effective and informative online knowledge base.
Speaking of optimization, having SEO tools in a solution would make your knowledge base easily accessible. Plus, users and prospects across the globe can find your database easily, too.
Also, look for multi-language support if you want to maintain all your knowledge base articles better. That said, this feature may not be as important for a business that doesn’t offer services and solutions in multiple regions.
We used these criteria to choose the best knowledge base software. Use them to identify a vendor that can give you a clean and hassle-free user experience, and you’ll be all set to scale.
Conclusion
Now more than ever there’s absolutely no reason for businesses to compromise on customer support services.
With solutions like knowledge base software available, everyone has tremendous opportunity to provide the best possible customer service and make the most of contemporary business practices to streamline employee training and business operations.
Let's take one last look at the reviews of my recommendations:
- LiveAgent – Best for handling multichannel support
- Document360 – Best for internal use
- Zendesk – Best for larger businesses with technical setups
- Helpjuice – Best for detailed analytics
- ProProfs Knowledge Base – Best free knowledge base software for beginners
You can select any tool from my top picks depending on your business requirements. Regardless of what you choose, knowledge base software will help you shorten training times, safely store crucial company data, and supplement your service desk.
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By: Neil Patel
Title: Best Knowledge Base Software
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/best-knowledge-base-software/
Published Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2021 13:00:00 +0000