A knowledge base is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s a mission-critical tool for employee efficiency, customer support, and internal enablement. Yet, many companies still treat knowledge sharing as an afterthought, relying on scattered documents, buried email threads, or inaccessible portals.
According to a report, 88% of employees feel demoralized when they can’t find the information they need to do their work. It’s even worse for younger workers.
This guide is built for organizations looking to build a scalable, modern knowledge base that accelerates employee performance across the board. Whether you’re creating internal documentation, customer self-service portals, or onboarding materials, this article will walk you through what a knowledge base is, why it matters, and how to do it right.
What Is a Knowledge Base?
A knowledge base is a centralized digital repository that stores and organizes information, resources, and documentation to help users find answers independently. It supports self-service and improves operational efficiency by making critical information easy to find.
Knowledge bases typically include:
- How-to guides
- Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
- Troubleshooting articles
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- Policy documents
- Product and process documentation
Benefits of a Knowledge Base
For HR & People Ops Teams
A centralized knowledge base transforms the employee experience, especially during onboarding, offboarding, and key lifecycle moments.
- Streamlined onboarding: Provide new hires with self-serve access to training guides, company policies, benefits documentation, and more, reducing dependency on HR staff.
- Reduced repetitive queries: A well-organized knowledge base reduces redundant emails about leave policies, payroll schedules, or performance processes.
- Compliance & policy management: Ensure employees always access the latest HR documents, from DEI policies to updated handbooks, with version control and role-based visibility.
- Remote employee enablement: With distributed teams, centralized digital documentation becomes essential for consistent communication and alignment.
For IT Service Management (ITSM) Teams
An internal knowledge base is a core component of any scalable IT support strategy.
- Ticket deflection: Employees can resolve common IT issues like VPN setup, password resets, or software installation on their own, without submitting a ticket.
- Improved first-time fix rates: Level 1 and Level 2 agents can quickly access up-to-date troubleshooting steps and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
- Faster onboarding of new agents: Knowledge bases reduce ramp time for new service desk agents by providing searchable guides and incident playbooks.
- Documentation of known errors: Centralized issue-tracking and workarounds reduce duplication of effort and promote consistent resolution methods.
For Support & Customer Experience (CX) Teams
Customer-facing knowledge bases reduce support volume and enhance self-service experiences.
- 24/7 self-service: Customers can resolve issues without waiting for live agents, improving satisfaction and reducing ticket backlogs.
- Improved agent efficiency: Support teams can pull from the knowledge base during live chats or calls, improving response time and consistency.
- Fewer escalations: Accurate, easy-to-navigate articles help resolve issues at the first contact—reducing the need for tiered support.
- Support content as enablement: Help content also serves as product education, guiding customers to adopt more features and use cases.
Types of Knowledge Bases
Not all knowledge bases are created equal. The right type depends on your audience, whether they’re employees, customers, or both. Below are the three most common types, with use case-driven context to help teams choose the best fit:
1. Internal Knowledge Base
The purpose of an internal knowledge base is to empower employees with centralized access to company knowledge, policies, and tools. Used primarily by employees across departments, an internal knowledge base acts as a self-service hub for HR documents, IT support content, process guides, and training resources.
Ideal for:
- HR teams managing onboarding materials, PTO policies, benefits info
- IT teams storing SOPs, troubleshooting guides, service catalogs
- Operations teams organizing procedural documentation
Example: An HR team creates an internal knowledge base for onboarding new hires. It includes company values, role-specific training guides, and links to performance management policies, reducing manual guidance and speeding up time-to-productivity.
2. External Knowledge Base
An external knowledge base helps customers find answers on their own and reduce support ticket volume. These are customer-facing libraries that include how-to articles, product documentation, FAQs, and video tutorials. They’re often hosted on public help centers or embedded in SaaS platforms.
Ideal for:
- Customer support teams creating scalable self-service portals
- Product teams publishing user guides and release documentation
- Success teams enabling customers with learning paths
Example: A SaaS company launches an external knowledge base that explains how to integrate their platform with third-party tools, customize features, and troubleshoot issues, reducing Level 1 tickets and boosting product satisfaction.
3. Hybrid Knowledge Base
A hybrid knowledge base serves both internal and external users with segmented, role-based content. They typically feature content access controls to ensure that sensitive internal documentation remains secure, while public help content is available to customers or partners.
Ideal for:
- Companies supporting both internal employees and external users
- Global teams requiring tiered access to region- or department-specific knowledge
- Organizations managing multiple product lines or business units
Example: An ITSM platform builds a hybrid knowledge base with internal documentation for IT agents and a public-facing portal for end users. Admin guides, escalation procedures, and security policies are restricted to internal users, while customers see only approved support articles.
Key Features of an Effective Knowledge Base
To ensure your knowledge base is truly usable (and not just another content dump), it needs the right foundational features:
- Robust search functionality: Lets users quickly find answers using keywords, natural language queries, and smart auto-suggestions.
- Role-based access controls: Restricts or grants access to content based on user roles, departments, or permission levels, critical for internal HR or IT documentation.
- Content categorization and tagging: Organizes articles into folders and applies tags for easy navigation, especially useful in large, multi-team environments.
- Version control: Tracks edits, maintains historical versions, and ensures users always see the most current and accurate information. Usage analytics: Measures which articles are viewed most, where users drop off, and what search terms return no results so you can continuously improve content.
- Collaboration and editing tools: Enables multiple team members to contribute, edit, and approve content without needing technical skills.
- Integrations and embedding options: Seamlessly connects with tools like Slack, MS Teams, CRM systems, or ITSM platforms, keeping help content accessible within daily workflows.
How to Create a Knowledge Base
Creating a knowledge base may seem like a big lift, but most organizations already have the content they need. The key is consolidating, organizing, and delivering that knowledge in a way that’s intuitive and accessible. Here’s how to get started:
1. Identify common questions and how-to topics
Start by identifying recurring issues, FAQs, and knowledge gaps. Use internal support tickets, help desk queries, and employee surveys to gather insights.
Think: Where do users struggle most? What information do they repeatedly ask for? Prioritize these for your initial content rollout.
2. Create, collect, curate, and organize your content
Audit existing documents, emails, wikis, and training decks. Keep what’s still relevant, revise outdated pieces, and fill in gaps with new how-tos and process guides.
Don’t limit yourself to static content. Repurpose long documents into short videos, GIFs, annotated screenshots, or interactive walkthroughs to support diverse learning preferences.
3. Define a clear writing process
Effective knowledge base articles are clear, concise, and actionable. Use a consistent tone and format that matches your audience’s needs.
Quick guidelines for a clear writing process:
- Use descriptive, searchable titles
- Avoid jargon and internal lingo
- Break content into short paragraphs with headers
- Include links to related resources
- Make it easy to skim using bullets, tables, or checklists
4. Choose the right knowledge base software
Now that you know the basics of how to create a knowledge base, it’s time to choose the right tool to get the job done. Upgrade your knowledge management by using a program designed specially to help your users learn more effectively. Choose a platform that allows for easy maintenance, real-time updates, and intuitive editing, no code required. This ensures content stays current as your business evolves.
The best knowledge base software will allow you to:
- Create a searchable hub that contains your various company knowledge and policies
- Connect with both internal and external users
- Easily incorporate new changes and processes
- Track user activity
- Provide contextual and immediate support
- Ask for feedback
5. Promote and embed your knowledge base
Once your knowledge base is ready, it’s critical to ensure employees and customers know how to access and use it. Promote it actively during onboarding, internal announcements, and product communications to drive awareness and engagement.
Equally important is where users access that knowledge. The best experience happens when support content is embedded directly into the tools people use without leaving their workflow or search elsewhere.
With Whatfix, you can integrate your knowledge base into any digital application (internal or customer-facing) using native widgets, tooltips, and self-help overlays. This delivers contextual, on-demand support right within the user’s flow of work, empowering employees and customers to resolve issues independently, without delay or disruption.
6. Design for discoverability
A knowledge base is only useful if users can find what they need fast. Beyond good writing, strong content architecture is essential.
- Use clear H1 and H2 headings, searchable keywords, and simple article titles.
- Add anchor links and tables of contents in long articles to help users jump to relevant sections.
- Categorize content using folders, tags, or topic-based hubs to improve browseability.
- Conduct basic keyword research to align with how users are searching – internally and externally.
7. Maintain and expand continuously
A knowledge base is never “done.” To keep it relevant and valuable, you must continuously update and expand content as your tools, policies, and processes evolve.
When organizational changes occur, such as new product features, updated policies, or shifted workflows, ensure your knowledge base reflects those changes in real time. Outdated content erodes trust and creates friction.
To stay ahead of user needs, combine analytics with qualitative insights. Track what users search for, which articles go unread, and where support tickets still arise.
With Whatfix Guidance Analytics, you gain visibility into high-frequency search terms, content gaps, and drop-off points. This allows you to proactively identify which knowledge articles to create or improve. This turns your knowledge base into a living system that evolves with your users and supports them at every stage.
15 Best Knowledge Base Software
Selecting the right knowledge base software defines how effectively your organization captures, organizes, and delivers information—both to employees and customers. The best tools make it easy to create, maintain, and scale structured knowledge systems that improve support efficiency, onboarding, and self-service.
In this section, we’ll explore the top knowledge base software solutions for different use cases: internal knowledge sharing, customer support, developer documentation, and help desk integration. Each tool has distinct strengths—from AI-powered search and automation to collaboration and customization—that help teams build reliable, easy-to-navigate information hubs.
1. Guru
- Review Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $15 per month
- Type: Internal knowledge base for employees
Guru is a low-cost knowledge base platform for internal use that lets you combine existing internal and external knowledge bases. It can capture information from Slack or the internet and convert it into “cards” that are accessible to other team members.
Guru’s most unique feature is an AI that helps you find people in your company who are most likely to have the answer to a question. Guru offers a free trial, and paid plans start at $15 per month.
2. Zendesk Knowledge Base
- Review Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $19 per month
Zendesk offers a knowledge base as part of its customer service platform. It allows easy creation and organization of help articles. It features a powerful search function and customizable design options. It also integrates with other customer support tools. Plans start at $19 per month.
3. Confluence
- Review Rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $4.89 per month
Software company Atlassian offers a robust knowledge base software called Confluence. Atlassian describes its software as a team workspace that delivers dynamic pages to allow teams to collaborate on projects.
It works for teams of all sizes, and it’s available on the cloud, through the Confluence data center, or you can set it up on your own server. If you require a high level of security for your documents and have your own development team, Confluence is a good option. The platform has a forever free plan and paid plans starting at $4.89 per month.
4. Help Scout
- Review Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $22/user per month
Help Scout is an all-in-one customer support platform that provides teams a help desk, support inbox, and self-service knowledge features. Its knowledge base features enable organizations to create and organize knowledge articles into a self-service help center that deflects support tickets. It also uses GenAI to learn from your knowledge base content, allowing its AI answers chatbot to intelligently solve customer issues.
5. Notion
- Review Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $10 per month
Notion calls itself “the all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.” The platform offers a collaborative workspace with customizable components that connect to create a knowledge management system.
Notion’s flexibility makes it popular for creating internal-facing wikis and knowledge systems, and it offers certified consultants who can help you set up your knowledge base. There’s a free plan available, and paid plans start at $10 per month.
6. Document360
- Review Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $199 per month
Document360’s specialty is its knowledge base feature. It offer plans for small teams up to enterprises, and its software provides a file comparison tool for viewing older drafts against current versions. If your team has several people accessing the content, you can see which version is the most recent and who edited that version.
Document360’s software is known for being user-friendly and having powerful features that require little to no customization. Its free plan is available, and paid plans start at $199 per month.
7. ProProfs Knowledge Base
- Review Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Contact for pricing details
ProProfs knowledge base is another suite of tools that includes a knowledge base where teams can create secure internal resource centers and customer-service help options.
ProProfs state its software will let you create a knowledge base in minutes using their templates or from scratch. In addition to knowledge base creation, you can use ProProfs to design training manuals and product guides.
8. Helpjuice
- Review Rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $120 per month
Helpjuice specializes in knowledge base software for customer and internal use. It offers a user-friendly interface for content creation and management. The platform provides analytics on article performance. Helpjuice is known for its customer support and easy customization. Pricing starts at $120 per month.
9. KnowledgeBase
- Review Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $49 per month
KnowledgeBase is Text’s customer-facing solution for creating self-service knowledge centers. Its AI-powered search learns from your knowledge base, allowing for faster answers. It further leverages AI to write and publish new knowledge base articles based on your customer support issues. Text also has a familiar of customer support tools, including HelpDesk, Chatbot, and LiveChat, allowing you to easily integrate KnowledgeBase across your customer support technology stack.
10. Yext
- Review Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Contact sales
Yext offers both customer-facing and internal knowledge bases. Its AI-powered search ensures accurate and fast results. Yext excels at managing information across various digital touchpoints and its use of AI provides a unique solution that provides more intelligent knowledge base support for organizations. It provides an intuitive interface and in-depth analytics. Yext only offers annual pricing.
11. Shelf
- Review Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Contact sales
Shelf is an AI-powered knowledge management platform. It uses machine learning to understand search context and suggest relevant content. Shelf centralizes knowledge from various sources, including documents and videos. It’s useful for organizations with large, diverse knowledge bases.
12. SolarWinds Help Desk
- Review Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $39/user per month
SolarWinds Service Desk is a cloud-based service desk and IT asset management solution. It includes its Help Desk Knowledge Base add-on that enables organizations to create knowledge bases used by end-users and service agents alike. End-users can use the knowledge base to resolve issues quickly, and service agents use it as a two-way connection between its help desk tickets and incident management. It integrates GenAI to power its internal IT knowledge base to help users find answers and suggest new IT help content to write.
13. Hubspot Service Hub
- Review Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $20/user per month
Hubspot Service Hub enables organizations o provide self-service support with its suite of tools, including a help desk and knowledge base. Its knowledge base enables service teams to create a library of help articles that are organized based on taxonomies like categories and tags. HubSpot recommends SEO tips to help optimize articles for search. Track your knowledge base’s impact and usage to identify support trends and new articles to write.
14. Freshdesk
- Review Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $15/user per month
Freshdesk is an all-in-one help desk that includes a knowledge base management feature. It enables organizations to automate self-service with an easy-to-use editor to create and organize knowledge base articles. Create custom widgets and integrate multi-media to further enable end-users. It also uses GenAI to powered intelligence answers and to train its LLM on your organization’s knowledge.
15. HelpCrunch
- Review Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
- Pricing: Starts at $15/user per month
HelpCrunch is a complete customer service software that provides ticketing, live chat, chatbot, and shared inbox features. It also comes with a knowledge base add-on feature that allows companies to create a branded hub and write help articles with a no-code editor. Its taxonomy features allow service teams to tag and categorize knowledge articles to optimize SEO search appearance or embed its knowledge base directly into a help center wiki.
Performance Support Clicks Better With Whatfix
A knowledge base is only powerful if it actually helps people when they need it most, while they’re working. Whatfix transforms traditional knowledge management into real-time performance support, embedded directly into the applications your employees use every day.
Here’s how Whatfix makes it possible:
- In-app, contextual assistance: Surface the right knowledge at the exact moment of need, without switching tabs or digging through portals.
- Role-based personalization: Tailor content by user type, job function, or workflow stage so that each employee sees only what’s relevant to them.
- Embedded self-help widgets: Let users search for answers and resolve issues independently, within the flow of work, minimizing interruptions and support tickets.
- Product analytics for knowledge gaps: Understand which articles are being used, what users are searching for, and where friction occurs, then act on those insights to improve content and experience.
- No-code content management: Empower non-technical teams to create, update, and deploy guidance instantly across applications, without relying on dev teams or IT backlogs.
Whether you’re enabling HR teams to onboard new employees, helping IT teams deflect tickets, or supporting CX teams with up-to-date help content, Whatfix brings your knowledge base to life – embedded, dynamic, and measurable. Book a free demo with us to see Whatfix in action
