Start with who reads your articles. If customers do, you need a public help centre with good search. If colleagues do, an internal wiki or Q&A tool fits better, and if you want full control of the data, a self-hosted wiki is the route. The eight options below cover all three, in no particular order.
The same question lands in your support queue for the fifth time this week, and you know the answer is already written down somewhere. That's the moment most teams start looking at knowledge base software, or start doubting the one they have. If you're moving away from HelpDocs, here are eight alternatives for support and product teams, with a plain look at how they differ.
How articles get written, sorted and found
HelpDocs describes itself as knowledge base software that uses AI to deflect support tickets, with a customer help centre and team docs kept in sync. Whatever you move to, the thing to test is the everyday mechanics: how help articles are written, how they're organised, how readers find them, and who's allowed to edit them.
Those four jobs matter more than any headline feature. A beautiful help centre is wasted if writers hate the editor and stop updating it. AI search won't help if the articles underneath are out of date. And an internal wiki falls apart quickly when anyone can edit anything with no review. Tools in this category split by who they're built for and how much you set up yourself, so take one real article and one real search through each shortlisted tool before you decide.
Knowledge base software side by side
| Tool | Kind of tool | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Archbee | Documentation portal | User guides, API docs and SOPs in one place |
| BookStack | Self-hosted wiki | A simple open source wiki on your own server |
| Document360 | AI knowledge base | Customer docs with AI search and writing help |
| Helpjuice | Knowledge base software | Support teams wanting a knowledge base staff will use |
| HelpKit | Notion help centre | Turning Notion pages into a public help centre |
| Papyrs | Intranet and wiki | A company intranet that doubles as a wiki |
| Slite | Team knowledge base | Connected internal docs your team and AI can rely on |
| Tettra | Internal Q&A knowledge base | Answering repeat questions from colleagues |
All eight, alphabetically
In no particular order beyond the alphabet. Each line reflects how the vendor describes its own product.
Archbee
Best for: Product and developer teams publishing user guides, API docs and internal SOPs in one portal that, the vendor says, is easy to search and contribute to.
BookStack
Best for: Organisations happy to host their own software that want a simple, free, open source wiki for storing and organising information.
Document360
Best for: Support teams wanting AI search, an AI chatbot and writing tools built into their documentation, which the vendor frames as humans and AI working together.
Helpjuice
Best for: Customer support teams hoping to cut repeat tickets with a knowledge base the vendor says gets used, rather than one that gathers dust.
HelpKit
Best for: Teams who already write in Notion and want those pages turned into a hosted help centre with no code; a free plan is named.
Papyrs
Best for: Smaller companies wanting an internal intranet, wiki and knowledge base in one site that's quick to build, per the vendor.
Slite
Best for: Teams whose knowledge is spread across many apps; the vendor says it connects to them to keep answers reliable for people and AI alike.
Tettra
Best for: Internal teams fielding the same questions every week, with AI answers drawn from company knowledge that, in the vendor's words, used to be scattered.
Customer-facing, internal or self-hosted
For a public help centre
Document360 and Helpjuice are built around customer-facing documentation, with search and AI tools to help people answer their own questions. Archbee covers similar ground with a developer slant, adding API docs and SOPs to the mix. HelpKit takes a different route: if your team already writes in Notion, it turns those pages into a hosted help centre without code.
For answering colleagues
Tettra and Slite are aimed inward. They're for the questions people ask in chat every day, and both lean on AI to pull answers from what the company already knows. Papyrs sits nearby as a company intranet that doubles as a wiki and knowledge base.
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For full control
BookStack is open source and self-hosted, so your content sits on your own server. That's ideal if you have someone to look after it, and extra work if you don't.
Whichever camp you're in, plan the structure before you move anything. Group articles by the task a reader is trying to finish, not by your internal teams, and give every article one clear owner who reviews it on a schedule. Teams that skip this step usually rebuild their old mess in a shiny new tool, and readers notice within weeks.
Advice for support and product teams
Pick the audience first and the tool second. A customer help centre and an internal wiki look alike in a demo, but they're judged on different things: customers want fast search and clear answers, while colleagues want quick edits and fewer interruptions. Trying to make one tool do both jobs is possible, but be honest about which job comes first.
Look hard at the editor, because that's where the work happens. If writing and updating an article feels slow, your content will drift out of date within months, and no amount of AI search will hide it. Ask your writers to draft one real article in each shortlisted tool and listen to what they say.
Then think about where help shows up. Many support teams now pair a knowledge base with a chat assistant on the website, so the same articles answer questions in two places. My guides to streamlining online customer support and choosing an AI chat tool for your website cover that side. Before you move, export every article you have, check how images and internal links come across, and keep your old help centre live until the new one is ready.
Do you make knowledge base software? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
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Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a knowledge base and a wiki?
A knowledge base is usually organised for readers, often customers, with search and categories. A wiki is usually written and edited by a team for its own use, with more open editing.
Can a knowledge base reduce support tickets?
It can, when articles answer the questions customers ask and are easy to find. Track which searches return nothing and write those articles first.
How do I move articles from one knowledge base to another?
Export your content, usually as HTML or Markdown, then import it into the new tool. Check images, internal links and redirects from old article addresses before you switch off the old site.
Should our help centre and internal docs live in the same tool?
They can, if the tool lets you keep public and private content apart. If your internal docs are sensitive, a separate internal tool is simpler to manage.
What does self-hosted mean for a wiki?
It means you run the software on your own server. You keep full control of the data, but you're responsible for updates, backups and security.
