Introduction
Have you ever gotten stuck on a particular step while setting up a new appliance or using a new software program? Or trying to figure out how to turn on a specific setting? I know I have — and that's where I turn to a user manual to save me.
If you're looking to improve the user experience and increase product adoption, user manual software can help you streamline the user manual creation process.
Whether you're looking for a simple, easy-to-use user manual tool or a powerful, feature-rich solution, we've got you covered.
TL;DR: Top user manual software in 2024
- Scribe
- ClickHelp
- Document360
- ProProfs Knowledge Base
- HelpDocs
- Stonly
- Docsie
- Whatfix
- Dozuki
- Nuclino
- Notion
- Speach.me
- GitBook
- Paligo
- Madcap Flare
What is user manual software?
User manual software is used to create, edit and publish user manuals. It's a valuable tool for creating clear and concise user manuals for your products and services.
User manual tools typically include features like:
- Text editors create user manuals without having to know how to code.
- Template library with a variety of customizable user manual templates.
- Collaboration tools: If you need multiple users to work on the same manual at the same time, look for a tool with this functionality.
- Version control to track changes.
- Customization features allow you to use your brand colors, logos and fonts.
- Export capabilities, including the ability to publish in a variety of formats for easy sharing.
User manual software benefits
User manual software can help you save time and money, reduce your churn rate and create a positive user experience.
- Streamline customer onboarding.
- Help customers find quick answers and learn how to use your product or service.
- Improve user experience and customer satisfaction by providing in-depth support.
- Keep your manuals up-to-date with the latest changes.
- Save time by automating the user manual creation process.
- Save time and money.
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Choosing the right user manual tool
Here are a few key factors we think you should consider when buying user manual software:
Features
Look for features to help you create structured, customizable, searchable, and responsive online user manuals.
Ease of use
User manual tools can be complex. Look for one that's easy to use with a user-friendly interface, especially if you don't have a ton of experience.
Free trial version
Choose user manual software that offers a free 15 to 30-day trial to test the features.
Price
User manual creation software can range in price from free to hundreds of dollars per month — make sure it fits your budget and the size of your team.
Support
Make sure the vendor offers good support in case you and your team need help.
Scalability
As your business grows, so will the number of user manuals. The software you choose should scale with your needs.
15 best user manual software tools
Good user manual creation software is packed with features that will make your life easier. If you're tired of scrolling through hundreds of websites to find the perfect user manual tool, we've researched the top vendors to put together this list. Here are our top picks:
1. Scribe
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Capterra user review rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
Scribe pricing plans:
- Free basic plan.
- Pro Personal: $23/seat/month.
- Pro Teams: $12/seat/month (starts at 5 seats).
Scribe's key features:
Scribe is my favorite AI-powered tool for simplifying documentation — all I have to do is turn on the extension and walk through the steps of my product, software or workflow.
Scribe captures my web and desktop processes, auto-generating a step-by-step user guide in seconds with:
- AI-generated text and titles.
- Text outlining each mouse movement and keystroke.
- Annotated screenshots to demonstrate each click.
- An automatic link to any tool I accessed.
Scribe's key features:
- Web and desktop capture that automatically creates user guides with text and annotated screenshots — in seconds.
- Customize by annotating your screenshots, adjusting steps and adding text.
- Add additional tips, hints or alerts.
- Use Scribe Pages to combine multiple guides and ask the AI to write user manuals with a simple prompt.
- Multimedia integration: Add videos, images, GIFs, and more.
- Share your user guides in multiple formats:
- Quick extract and link share.
- Easy embed in any third-party extension, knowledge base or support platform.
- Add teammates to your workspace.
- Create and share an automatic link.
- Use the HTML output option to create an HTML file.
- Export as a Markdown file.
Pros:
- Library of 100+ free, customizable templates — including this user manual template you can try for free!
- Use Scribe's generative AI tools to automatically generate manuals for any process.
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- Built-in feedback features allow your teammates to add comments and collaborate.
- See who views and completes your Scribes with document insights.
- Automatically redact sensitive employee or customer data from your screenshots (Pro and Teams).
- Add your company logo and colors to create on-brand, professional-looking guides (Pro and Teams).
- Integrates with hundreds of popular platforms like SharePoint, Notion, Confluence, and more.
Cons:
- While Scribe's free plan offers quick customization, branding is only available for the Pro and Teams plans.
- Redactions are also only available for Pro and Teams plans.
Why do millions of teams love Scribe?
"Shoutout to @ScribeHow for making User Manual creations a breeze.
Plenty of hours saved in creating How-to Guides and User Manuals in the last 2 working days!
Thanks ScribeHow for making such a useful product!" — Vivek Agrawal
Build user manuals in seconds with Scribe ➜
2. ClickHelp
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Capterra user review rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
ClickHelp pricing:
- Starter: $175/month.
- Growth: $285/month.
- Professional: $580/month.
ClickHelp offers an intuitive user guide software that creates online user manuals to meet the needs of your clients and team. I was able to set up a free trial to use it, and the portal includes handy links to relevant knowledge base articles.
ClickHelp's key features:
- Deep analytics and reports with insights into your team’s productivity and how customers interact with your user manuals.
- Publish manuals online or in PDF format.
Pros:
- Quick and easy updates to existing user manuals.
- Your team can work in the same workspace, saving comments and changes in the portal.
- Single-sourcing and content reuse features let you create multiple versions of a manual and keep the initial user manual content in one location.
Cons:
- Adding .mp4 files and other video formats can be difficult.
- Customizing existing templates can be time-consuming.
- Documentation access rights are at the project level, not articles.
G2 review:
"Since we started with ClickHelp in October 2022, I have been impressed with ClickHelp. Their training was fantastic. Our trainer Ian is knowledgeable in all facets of the product. The Customer Service team is quick to respond patiently and pleasantly." — Barb B.
3. Document360
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Capterra user review rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
Document360 pricing:
- Free plan.
- Standard: $149/project/month.
- Professional: $299/project/month.
- Business: $399/project/month.
Document 360 is a knowledge base software you can use to create a self-service knowledge base, product help documents, and user guide manuals.
Document360's key features:
- Rollback and versioning tools.
- Simple tree-view navigation helps customers easily move from one section to another.
- The software includes an AI-powered search engine that helps you quickly find job aid examples.
Pros:
- Knowledge base site can be customized to your brand.
- Multilingual support to serve and create user manuals for global customers.
Cons:
- Some features (like multilingual support) are only available in higher-tiered plans.
- Only one person can edit a document at a time.
- No in-line feedback.
- Limited customization options.
- The setup process is complicated compared to other tools.
G2 review:
"Document360 is an exceptional platform that utilizes the way teams manage documentation. As a user, I have found Document360 to be a great tool for organizing and sharing knowledge." — G2 Verified User
📌 Related resource: 8 Free Training Manual Software to Supercharge Your Team
4. ProProfs Knowledge Base
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Capterra user review rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
ProProf Knowledge Base pricing:
- Free plan (25 pages).
- Business plan: $49/author/month.
If you create, manage and share internal or external knowledge bases, ProProfs Knowledge Base's knowledge base software is a good option.
ProProf Knowledge Base features:
- User-friendly interface.
- Supports text, images, videos, documents, and PDFs.
- Branding customization with your logo and colors.
- Integrates with popular tools like Zendesk, Google and Freshdesk.
Pros:
- Multi-language support.
- Collaborative authoring.
- Built-in search functionality.
- Analytics and reporting.
- Mobile-friendly.
Cons:
- Limited design and customization flexibility.
- Some users have reported formatting issues with content.
G2 review:
"ProProfs Knowledge Base lets me create and edit content using a simple and intuitive editor. I can also use templates, fonts, colors, logos, and more to customize the look and feel of my knowledge base." — Uttam Kumar S.
5. HelpDocs
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Capterra user review rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars
HelpDocs pricing:
- Start: $69/month.
- Build: $139/month.
- Grow: $279/month.
If you're looking for a way to help customers find your user manuals, HelpDocs' customizable knowledge base platform offers SEO-focused templates.
HelpDocs's key features:
- WYSIWYG editor features drag-and-drop functionality for creating and rearranging content.
- Custom formatting options like headings, call-outs, code blocks, and ordered and unordered lists.
- Third-party integrations with tools like Lighthouse, Slack and LucidChart.
Pros:
- Customize your user manuals with HTML, CSS and Javascript.
- Monitor user manual performance, traffic and usage with analytics.
- Translate 100 articles per month in different languages using the HelpDocs bot.
Cons:
- Limited file import and export options — PDF or Excel.
- HelpDocs requires attribution on your knowledge base, so you can't remove their branding from your manual.
- A single article can't appear in multiple categories.
- No third-party integrations.
Capterra review:
"This is the best help authoring tool I found ever. It is a very user-friendly software in the industry. We can create CHM, HTML, PDF or Word documents using this. We can classify the help manual easily in topics and sub-topics and add keywords for search indexing." — Amit G.
6. Stonly
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Capterra user review rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Stonly pricing:
- Basic: free.
- Starter: $124/month.
- Business: 14-day free trial. $249/month.
Stonly is a knowledge management and decision tree software, focusing on creating user guides, interactive help centers and knowledge bases.
Stonlys's key features:
- Create and manage interactive guides, articles, FAQs, and other knowledge base content.
- User-friendly drag-and-drop interface.
- Analytics to track user activity and knowledge base performance.
- Integrates with tools like Zendesk, Salesforce, and Zapier.
Pros:
- Brand your knowledge base and guides.
- Interactive elements like decision trees and in-app guides enhance user engagement.
Cons:
- Limited no-code features: Some advanced functionalities might require coding knowledge.
- View-based pricing: Costs can increase based on the number of people who view your knowledge base content.
G2 review:
"The interface is easy to use, it is intuitive and allows us to offer knowledge to our customers. I recently just used it today and have trained many of my team members on how to use it." — Jaqulyn K.
7. Docsie
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Capterra user review rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
Docsie pricing:
- Free plan.
- Standard: $89/month.
- Premium: $170/month.
- Business: $242/month.
Docsie is an all-in-one knowledge management system with a focus on internal communication and knowledge sharing.
Docsie's key features:
- Create, edit, and manage a comprehensive knowledge base.
- Organize information logically using folders and subfolders.
- Drag-and-drop functionality for easy navigation.
- Build content with media formats like text, images, videos, and documents.
Pros:
- Version control to track changes and revert to previous versions.
- Built-in search functionality.
- Define user permissions to control who can access and edit information.
Cons:
- Focuses primarily on internal knowledge management, with limited options for external knowledge base sharing.
- May not offer advanced analytics features for detailed user behavior tracking.
- Some users report issues with search accuracy.
G2 review:
"I find Docsie to be a valuable tool due to its highly adaptable page layout and diverse range of functions available. With such flexibility, the possibilities for content creation are virtually limitless." — Jose T.
8. Whatfix
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Capterra user review rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
Whatfix pricing:
- Custom pricing.
Whatfix is a digital adoption platform designed to simplify user onboarding, training, and support by providing contextual guidance within software applications.
Whatfix features:
- Create step-by-step guides to walk users through tasks and functionalities.
- Provide contextual help through pop-ups, tooltips and overlays.
- Customize the look and feel to match your branding.
Pros:
- A/B testing to see which content is the most effective in driving user adoption.
- Analytics and reporting to track user engagement.
- Create content in multiple languages to cater to a global audience.
Cons:
- Limited mobile capabilities, although it performs well on desktops.
- Pricing can be higher compared to some competitors.
- Some users have reported difficulty organizing a large amount of content within the platform.
G2 review:
"I love that Whatfix can help our customers when we are not able to be there for them since the tool is available 24/7." — Cecilia R.
9. Dozuki
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Capterra user review rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
Dozuki pricing:
- Custom pricing.
Dozuki is an online manual software for creating standard work instruction and training software for industrial and manufacturing companies.
Dozuki features:
- Add images and videos to your user manuals.
- Track content quality and improvement feedback from frontline operators.
- Granular-level control to manage access and edit permissions.
Pros:
- Choose from over 100 languages.
- Real-time in-app and email notifications keep user manuals up-to-date.
- Integrates with your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Quality Management System (QMS), and Learning Management System (LMS) systems.
Cons:
- Fixed-templated format limits customization and flexibility.
- Existing documents can't be edited without creating another version.
- Only allows 3 images per step with limited image customization options.
- Formatting problems when exporting to PDFs.
G2 review:
"I love that Dozuki can be organized into discrete step-by-step tutorials for our machine shop. It makes training machines easy for new hires and provides a quick reference for when we need a refresher." — Catherine Rose D.
10. Nuclino
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Capterra user review rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
Nuclino pricing:
- Free plans.
- Standard plan: $5/user/month.
- Premium plan: $10/user/month.
Nuclino's unified workspace acts as a “collective brain” where teams can organize knowledge, manage projects and share ideas in a single location.
Nuclino's key features:
- Top features include auto-saving, instant search, and a keyboard-first design that works with slash commands and hotkeys.
- Create manual content with markdown commands.
- Add text, images, code blocks, videos, and files to your manuals.
Pros:
- Real-time document collaboration with the ability to add comments and track changes.
- 40+ third-party integration with apps like Slack, Figma, Google Calendar, YouTube, and Microsoft Teams.
- Mobile-friendly—Android and iOS versions.
Cons:
- Pricing is expensive for large teams.
- Mobile version can be buggy and lag, according to user reviews.
- Limited font and color options.
Capterra review:
"My experience with Nuclino has been exceptional really enjoyed how easy it is to navigate through, and really a good platform. I really struggled with other platforms, but since I knew Nuclino it's been a life saver." — Debis M.
11. Notion
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G2 user review rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
Capterra user review rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
Notion pricing:
- Free plan.
- Plus: $8/user/month.
- Business: $15/user/month.
Notion is an AI-powered workspace that combines features for project management like note-taking, wikis, databases. Here at Scribe, I use Notion daily to organize projects, take notes, collaborate and more.
Notion's key features:
- Drag-and-drop interface to create pages and subpages, and organize them to meet your specific needs.
- Create structured content with various media formats, including text, images, videos, code snippets, and tables.
- Real-time collaboration allows multiple users to work on the same page simultaneously.
Pros:
- Library of pre-made templates for various use cases, from project management to meeting agendas.
- Connects with popular tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Calendar.
- Free plan with generous storage limitations.
Cons:
- While user-friendly, there is a learning curve with the feature set.
- For larger teams with many users, the cost can add up quickly.
G2 review:
"Very easy to use once you learn the basics. I love the data tables and how I can organize and connect different pages." — Carolina S.
📌 Related resource: Get started with Notion using these step-by-step guides
12. Speach.me
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Capterra user review rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Speach.me pricing:
- Custom pricing.
Speach is a video creation platform for creating video user manuals for employees and customers.
Speach.me features:
- Record, annotate and edit your video through the platform's 10+ tools.
- Customize videos by adding interactive features like quizzes, voice-overs, images, slides, documents, and CTAs.
- Version control.
Pros:
- Translate your video content and add subtitles in 30+ languages.
- Embed videos in your existing tools and LMS systems.
- Meets GMP and FDA compliance requirements.
Cons:
- To add filters and interactive features like spotlights, links, quizzes, CTAs to your videos, you'll have to sign up for Weet by Speach. Weet's free plan only offers 10 tweets.
Capterra review:
"I love that Speach makes it easy to create, share, and store video tutorials for our entire organization. Employees can access training videos anywhere and when they need it most." — Verified Reviewer
🎓 Related resource: How to Create a Training Manual (+ Free Template)
13. GitBook
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Capterra user review rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
GitBook pricing:
- Free personal plan.
- Plus: $6.70/user/month.
- Pro: $12.50/user/month (plus $82.50 monthly platform fee).
GitBook's technical documentation platform is designed for creating and publishing documentation and knowledge bases.
GitBook features:
- Markdown editing: Use Markdown to write your technical documentation.
- Version control: Leverages Git for version control, allowing you to track changes, compare versions and revert to previous versions.
- Collaboration tools: Multiple users can work on the same project simultaneously, ensuring efficient content creation.
Pros:
- Publish your content online directly on Gitbook or export as a PDF or ebook.
- Integrate your Gitbook project with a custom domain.
- Embed multimedia content like YouTube videos, CodePen snippets, or external web pages to enhance user experience.
- Built-in search functionality helps users find specific information.
Cons:
- Free plans have limited built-in analytics, making it harder to track user engagement.
- Advanced features like analytics, custom domains, and increased storage come with paid plans.
G2 review:
"GitBook is an incredibly user-friendly tool. As an administrator, I employed it to generate team documentation, and the implementation process was remarkably straightforward. Teaching the team to use GitBook was a breeze, and its seamless integration with GitHub further enhanced our workflow." — Patryk K.
14. Paligo
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Capterra user review rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Paligo pricing:
- Custom pricing.
Paligo is a Component Content Management System (CCMS) for creating technical documentation, knowledge management, an internal knowledge base, and policies and step-by-step procedures.
Paligo features:
- Create, manage, edit, translate, and publish user manuals from a single space.
- Unique features include topics-based authoring, content sourcing, and content reuse to make it easier to create your manuals.
Pros:
- Provides an easy-to-use XML editor for structured authoring.
- On-demand scalability.
- Rollback, version history and version branching.
- Publish to HTML5, PDF and platforms with third-party integrations.
Cons:
- Users report issues when importing documents, including missing images and editing required for Word documents with tables.
- Steep learning curve if you're not familiar with structured authoring.
G2 review:
"I have used Paligo at two different companies, both of which have leveraged the Zendesk integration. It's been an exceptional CMS platform that's afforded me to be efficient and meet all content and publication requirements." — Julie L.
📌 Related resource: Dubble Alternatives to Try This Year
15. Madcap Flare
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Capterra user review rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Madcap Flare pricing:
- $195/user/month.
MadCap Flare is a technical writing software tool designed for single-source content authoring and multi-channel publishing.
Madcap Flare features:
- Create and manage your content once and publish it to various formats like online help, PDFs, mobile apps, and printed documentation.
- Advanced XML editor and conditional content features offer precise control over content structure and delivery.
- Advanced features like a responsive layout editor and analytics.
Pros:
- Single-source authoring and content reuse save time and effort.
- Integrates with source control systems and supports collaboration features for user documentation projects.
Cons:
- Has a steeper learning curve due to its advanced features and XML editing capabilities.
- Best suited for businesses with a significant volume of documentation needs.
- If you only need to create simple user manuals, MadCap Flare's features might be overkill.
G2 review:
"I love how easy it is to update my files and send them to my team for review. There are a ton of extra features that help me complete my work efficiently. I also really like their support team." — Christina M.
User guide best tips & practices
- Understand your audience. Who are they? What are their needs? What do they already know about your product or service? Once you understand your readers, you can tailor your manual to your users.
- Be clear and concise: Use simple language that is easy to understand. Keep your audience in mind when writing.
- Organize your manual: Use a table of contents, headings, subheadings, and lists to help users find the information they need.
- Add visuals: Add screenshots, diagrams, and illustrations to help explain your product and break up blocks of text.
- Use examples: Examples can be a great way to illustrate your points and make your manual more engaging. You can use examples from your own product or service, or you can use examples from other products or services.
- Test: Before you publish your manual, you should test it with users. You can get feedback by asking them to complete tasks using your manual.
- Stay up-to-date: Update your manual with any changes to your product.
FAQs
What are the benefits of using user manual software?
User manual software (like Scribe!) will help you create a well-drafted product manual, which will enhance customer experience by:
- Assist customers during onboarding with step-by-step processes and written instruction manuals.
- Increase user satisfaction: Well-written user manuals can help clients get the most out of your product or service.
- Reduce support costs: Reduce the number of support tickets you receive.
- Improve customer retention: Reduce churn rates by helping customers use your product or service effectively.
What types of user manuals can I create with user manual software?
With user manual software, you can create many types of manuals, like:
- Product manuals.
- Instruction manuals.
- User guides.
- Technical documentation.
- Software manuals.
- Hardware manuals.
- Online help.
- Helpdesk documentation.
- Tutorials.
- FAQs.
With Scribe's user manual software, you can use AI to write a variety of user documentation and turn them into online user manuals.
Conclusion: user manual software
So there you have it, our list of the 15 best online user manual software tools for 2024. By analyzing factors like personalization, team collaboration, and responsiveness, you can select the best user manual tool for your needs.
Ready to try user manual software that streamlines your documentation process, enhances customer satisfaction and makes your life easier? Build your user manuals in seconds with Scribe!
