The days of businesses keeping hard copies of their documents in filing cabinets are long gone. Advanced knowledge management software has made storing, retrieving, and sharing valuable data much faster and simpler.
You do not need to break the bank to provide your employees and customers with a streamlined knowledge resource. Thankfully, there are several free knowledge-base software solutions to choose from. Also, some premium knowledge management solutions offer free trials. This guide covers the top 10 free knowledge management software to watch out for in 2023.
Let's dig in.
Top 10 free knowledge management software of 2023
Document360
Bitrix24
Guru
Confluence
Zoho Desk
Volumize
Zendesk Guide
myBase
Zoho Wiki
Bonus software: Scribe
What is a knowledge management software?
There's no denying that a knowledge base is an organization's biggest asset.
Want to empower your employees with access to the correct information at the right time? Or do you want to provide better and more timely customer support? Make informed business decisions? A finely-tuned knowledge management system can make all the difference. It helps control how information and knowledge flow within and through your organization.
The primary role of knowledge management software is to help curate powerful knowledge bases. It makes collecting, organizing, storing, and accessing information faster and more efficient. So, the top management, employees, and customers can spend less time getting important info and more time doing what adds value. The sky is the limit because it holds valuable information about your organization's business operations, hierarchy, products, and services.
Key features of free knowledge management software
Here are the key elements you should look for in free knowledge management software:
An easy-to-use dashboard that provides all data at a glance.
Scalability.
Smart reporting.
Free to use, or at least free trials.
Why do you need free knowledge management software
There are various ways a knowledge management system can add value to your organization.
A single, intuitive platform for employees to access all critical data whenever they want – This helps cut down the time to seek out information and improve productivity.
Facilitates customer self-service – Allows employees to spend less time catering to customer queries and more time doing what is more important.
Faster onboarding and training – Save more time training your employees. The knowledge management software allows for adding courses, tutorials, and guides.
Improve customer satisfaction – Improve customer service efficiency to boost customer satisfaction.
10 Best free knowledge management software of 2023
#1: Document360
G2 Rating: 4.7 Capterra Rating: 4.7 Document360Pricing: Free with 5 team accounts and Knowledge Base version; Premium plans start from $99 per project, per month – billed annually.
Document360Overview:
Document360 allows you to create insightful knowledge bases for employees and clients. It also enables the creation of technical documentation, product help docs, user guides, SOPs, and FAQs. The software is a versatile and responsive tool. You can use it from any device and platform, helping you access the correct information at the right time. A good feature is it facilitates centralized management of the entire knowledge base.
A simple search option makes the software easy to use and manage. The free plan allows you to create only 50 articles and add 5 team accounts.
#2: Guru
G2 Rating: 4.6 Capterra Rating: 4.6 GuruPricing: Free starter plan for teams of up to 3 users; Premium plans start from $10 per user per month with a 30-day free trial
GuruOverview:
Guru is free knowledge management software that allows you to create knowledge bases directly on the platform. You can also sync the knowledge base from your intranet, internal wiki, or web-based applications. A nice feature is combining your existing external and internal knowledge bases in one place. It allows storing, retrieving, and sharing all data from different sources in a single, intuitive platform.
The software has a powerful search feature that makes it easier to find your needed knowledge. Choose from various templates and frameworks to create your internal knowledge base. The templates are fully customizable.
#3: Zoho Desk
G2 Rating: 4.4 Capterra Rating: 4.5 Zoho DeskPricing: 15-day free trial period available with all paid plans
Zoho DeskOverview:
Zoho Desk is a knowledge management platform for creating insightful and intuitive help desks. It is most suitable for call centers that serve multiple brands. The software allows you to customize the Help Center for each business you support. Furthermore, you can create unique knowledge bases for every brand.
It functions as a repository of community forums and articles. It aids in customer self-service, boosting satisfaction and improving help center productivity. Customers can also directly submit tickets from the Help Center platform. The portal customization feature allows you to create the look and feel of a website. You also get access to detailed Help Center reports. It enables you to optimize and improve the functions.
#4: Documize Community
G2 Rating: 4.3 Capterra Rating: 4.5 Volumize Community Pricing: Free for the first five users; paid plans start at $900/year for up to 100 users
Volumize Community Overview:
Documize Community is a self-hosted knowledge management software. It is a feature-packed, enterprise-ready platform, but simple and easy to use. The software is an ideal resource for both technical and internal documentation. It helps improve the workflow of how you create documents, access them, and share them. In addition to self-hosted installations, you can choose a hybrid or cloud-based facilities.
Use the tool to capture and share your knowledge bases. These may include anything from manuals to guidelines and processes. It allows you to organize your documents enterprise-wide without setting up any folder. Choose from various customizable snippets and templates to create your knowledge bases. The software also allows the request, approval, or publish changes in the draft.
You can add up to 5 users and enjoy a host of features for free. These include unlimited content & and storage self-hosting—analytics & reporting, etc.
#5: Zendesk
G2 Rating: 4.3 Capterra Rating: 4.4 ZendeskPricing: Free trial available; after that, the basic plan starts from $49 per agent per month, billed annually
ZendeskOverview:
Zendesk is a comprehensive customer service solution that provides advanced knowledge management features. It streamlines the customer support workflow by helping create an intelligent knowledge base. It allows your team to cater to customer inquiries, fast and efficiently. The software provides for building a customer help center. It enables your customers to connect easily to your agents and get prompt support services.
AI-powered tools allow responding to customer needs via bots when human agents are busy. The platform also allows you to capture the entire customer service experience. Team managers can use this data to remove bottlenecks and improve efficiency.
#6: Confluence
G2 rating: 4.1 Capterra rating: 4.4 ConfluencePricing: Free plan available; supports ten users or three agents and 2GB of storage
ConfluenceOverview:
Confluence allows you to create and edit documents to build knowledge bases for your teams. You can organize attachments, pages, and keyword labels for better documentation. The advanced search feature lets you find and label valuable documents in a page tree.
The free knowledge base software provides access to 75+ templates to create the documents. The templates are fully customizable.
Confluence also allows seamless collaboration with your team to access and work on the documents. By comparing different versions of the documents, you can track and view the history of changes made. It is primarily web-based software but has mobile apps for iOS and Android.
#7: Bitrix24
G2 rating: 4.1 Capterra rating: 4.1 Bitrix24Pricing: Free plan with unlimited users and 5GB memory; Premium plans start from $46 per month – billed annually
Bitrix24Overview:
Bitrix24 is a robust knowledge management software that helps store and retrieve information, fast and efficiently. The company knowledge base allows for storing and accessing the entire organization's data and documents. The workgroup/project knowledge base provides access to only employees involved in the workgroup or project. The fully-featured solution is available in two versions.
The free knowledge management software provides more tools to facilitate seamless information sharing. It allows free integration with the Mind Map app.
It will enable visualization teams and personal objectives.
Mybase is a free-form database program for practical knowledge and information management. The free knowledge management software allows you to capture and store data in any form, length, or format. It keeps the data in the form of a tree-structure outline. Once you catch the data, the software will compress it using the integrated zip utility function. It makes it faster and simpler to access the correct information at the right time.
Create full-text research databases or knowledge bases that contain texts, web pages, graphics, documents, or binary files. The software is easy to use and does not require programming skills. It allows storing all your data in one place for seamless accessibility and sharing. The tool also provides for securing your documents in local databases to prevent data transmission over the network.
For improved data capturing, Mybase allows importing data from different sources. You can also export data in various file formats.
#9: Zoho Wiki
G2 Rating: 4.1 Capterra Rating: Not available Zoho Wiki Pricing: up to three users are free; Free for up to 3 users; paid plan starts from $2.7/user per month, billed annually
Zoho Wiki Overview:
Zoho Wiki is a simple and intuitive knowledge management software. It allows small businesses and teams to create secret knowledge bases in wiki style. The software can be tailored to meet all your needs. So, you can assign users, create pages and workspaces, or customize the portal through a single platform. Set up a centralized knowledge repository where teams can document their ideas and curate content.
For quick content creation and access, the user-friendly editor provides various tools, such as widgets. Use layouts, logos, or banners to brand your wiki-style knowledge base. It is an ideal software for small creative teams, HR professionals, educators, or online manual creators.
#10: Bonus Free Knowledge Base Software: Scribe
G2 rating: 4.9 Capterra Rating: 4.3 Scribe Pricing: Available for free
Scribe Overview:
Scribe is a powerful tool for knowledge management and process documentation. It allows you to easily create internal and external process documents for any task or procedure.
Whether it's for customer training, new hire onboarding, technology rollouts, or any other process, Scribe gives you the ability to create professional-looking and organized documents. Like this one:
One of the key features of Scribe is its ability to share these documents with anyone, anywhere. With the option to share the process documents and knowledge bases with external team members, clients and customers you can give them quick access to vital process information anytime and from anywhere.
The software also allows exporting the document in PDF format or embedding it in your existing wikis or knowledge-sharing tools, which provides a seamless integration of the process information into your internal and external knowledge bases. This feature is particularly beneficial if you are working on large-scale projects, with numerous teams and clients that require easy access to the information, therefore it helps in improving communication, collaboration and efficiencies.
Conclusion
"Knowledge applied is power and knowledge unused is worthless."
You must apply all the knowledge your organization has to reap the profits. Deploying knowledge base software can empower your employees and customers with the correct information at the right time. Arm your organization with the power of knowledge to improve productivity, reduce costs, and grow your profits. Make your customers self-sufficient with access to all the data they need whenever.
A knowledge management solution also ensures your people quickly and efficiently cater to customer inquiries. It means they can focus more time on adding value to the organization. It helps improve customer support efficiency, ensuring better customer satisfaction. The software solutions listed above are the best in the industry. They allow you to create powerful knowledge bases and do not cost a dime.
Based on our review, here is a summary of the top free knowledge management software:
Best overall knowledge base software – Document360
Best software for content management – Documize
Best software for data capturing – Mybase
Best software for Help Desk management – Zoho Desk
Best software with mobile app accessibility – Confluence
Determine the type of knowledge base you want to create – for customers, employees, or both. Several factors determine which knowledge-base software is best for you. Is the software easy to use, or does it require expert programming skills? Does the tool offer a free plan or a free trial period? Compare different solutions, and check reviews and pricing to make an informed choice.
With this data handy, get started with creating and sharing insightful knowledge bases, both external and internal.
Save 20+ hours a month explaining, training & answering quick questions. Send a Scribe instead.
