Free knowledge base software and free trials

Technological advancements have made storing, retrieving, and sharingorganizational information through knowledge bases easier and more efficient. However, while businesses rarely (if ever) store hard-copy data in filing cabinets these days, many agents still struggle to find basic company information online.

Spoiler: You don’t have to spend a fortune to provide your staff and customers with a streamlined resource for data organization and access. Many free knowledge base software and free trial options are available to businesses, helping improve customer experiences (CX) and employee experiences (EX).

Using our guide, dive into the best free knowledge base software and free trials to discover their benefits and features.

More in this guide:

• What is free knowledge base software?
• Types of knowledge base software
• Benefits of free knowledge base software
• Features of free knowledge base software
• How to build a free knowledge base from scratch
• The 12 best free knowledge base software and free trials
• How to choose the right free knowledge base software
• Frequently asked questions
• Try knowledge base software for free

Free knowledge base (KB) software is a tool that enables organizations to collect, organize, and share information from a centralized storage space. This free software makes information easily accessible to all users, improving customer self-service and employee self-service.

There are three types of knowledge base software designed to improve knowledge-centered service and allow users to seek out individual answers. Dive into each type of KB below.

Internal knowledge bases

An internal knowledge baseis an operational library filled with every database, document, procedure, file, and policy that dictates businessoperations.

Internal knowledge bases support:

• Standard operating procedures (SOPs): Detailed instructions that cover safe task completion

• Employee handbooks: Written documents outlining procedures, policies, and other information

• Process and project documentation: Materials capturing important project and process data, including timelines, goals, and risks

• Sales documentation: Written materials facilitating communication and action between buyers and sellers

These knowledge bases (KBs) are employee self-service portals, helping agents access information themselves rather than running to a colleague or superior.

External knowledge bases

An external knowledge base is a resource customers can use to find moreinformation on a company, product, or service. These KBs simplify customer relationship management (CRM) and provide access to:

• Software documentation: Detailed materials describing the goals and expectations of a software solution

• Product documentation: Written materials covering how a product works and its intended use

• FAQs: Consistent answers to common questions

• Guides and manuals: Documents offering step-by-step instructions on how to set up, use, or disable services and products

To enhance external KB capabilities, businesses may use additional solutions like FAQ software and customer self-service portals.

Open-source knowledge bases

Open-source knowledge bases use source code that is publicly available and customizable. These types of KBs provide:

• Centralized repositories for storing data
• Internal and external sharing options for customers and employees
• Personalization, including specifications for data storage and structure updates

Due to their code-heavy structure, these KBs can require additional technical know-how to customize and deploy.

Free knowledge base tools and client portal software help agents and customers solve their own problems on their own time. Dive into the additional benefits of free KB software options below.

Enhanced customer experiences and retention

By providing customers and agents with a verified source of truth where they can find answers to their problems, knowledge bases quickly answer FAQs, solve repetitive problems, and more. KBs with knowledge base chatbots also help teams free up human agents to handle complex problems, improving CX by reducing wait times. 

Plus, free KB software allows organizations of any size to adopt a general or AI knowledge base for streamlining processes and data organization. This makes it easier for agents and customers to find information, which increases loyalty and customer retention.

Increased team collaboration 

Every department plays its role in building and maintaining strong customer relationships. Ensuring that each department has access to the most accurate and up-to-date company information allows teams to prioritize internal collaboration and move joint projects forward with greater speed.

Improved productivity and training

Free internal knowledge base software provides a cost-effective way for new hires to seek out answers individually, regardless of their manager’s availability during employee onboarding. This results in faster-paced customer service training, where new hires are empowered to independently problem-solve. This skill can then be carried into an agent’s daily responsibilities, helping teams improve agent productivity and efficiency from the start.

Customized code modification

Free knowledge base software, sometimes referred to as an open-source knowledge base, should offer users the flexibility to build unique KBs based on organizational needs and preferences. Customizable hierarchies, drag-and-drop rearrangement capabilities, and the ability to create distinct sections or categories are essential. Plus, its adaptability to data categorization, tagging, and structure is an important metric when evaluating a service’s potential.

Whether your knowledge management tool is free or offers a free trial, these are the key features you should consider:

• User-friendly interface: Choose an adaptable but easy-to-navigate solution and consider a system with a conversational interface for intelligent KBs.

• Integrations: The Zendesk Marketplace offers more than 1,800 integration options, allowing businesses to connect free knowledge bases to existing tech stacks.

• Content and revision history: This feature allows users to access old versions of articles and reinstate the original content, ensuring transparency and accountability.

• Help center search engine: Typically the first point of contact, these search engines can decipher meaning despite spelling or incorrect language usage and help optimize KBs for SEO.

• Analytics and reporting: Reporting and analytics features help users gauge the effectiveness and relevance of their content. They use help desk metrics to provide insights into page views, most-read articles, and search terms used.

• Templates: Pre-built knowledge base article templates give users an easy, structured, and consistent starting point to create their content and get the knowledge base live more quickly.

These features help free knowledge base software provide an accessible point of entry for businesses to offer self-service options.

To build a KB from scratch, you need to choose the right AI-powered knowledge base with pre-designed, customizable templates that enhance content discovery and align with your brand. To start:

1. Determine the type of KB you need, as some free software providers only provide one type.
2. Identify your must-have features, as free KBs often have limitations, and there are no universal features across providers.
3. Set a budget and compare which plans best match your goals.
4. Integrate your chosen software with your current tech stack.
5. Create and upload content optimized for search engines.
6. Regularly update and maintain your knowledge base articles for accuracy and relevancy.

Additionally, consider these KB design best practices when creating your knowledge base:

• Aesthetics: Be intentional about using colors, fonts, spacing, shapes, and white space.

• Formatting: Prioritize the strategic application of call-outs, hyperlinks, warnings, headers, and tables.

• Navigation: Design a well-organized menu with hierarchical categories that support seamless browsing.

• Optimization: Leverage relevant keywords and smart tagging to enhance search functionality.

When investing in free software, ensure your selected solution has these capabilities, or consider upgrading to a free or extended trial of a paid KB.

Guide your customers and employees toward self-sufficiency by considering what the free knowledge base software and free trial providers offer below.

• Zendesk: Best for AI-powered knowledge management
• Bitrix24: Best for no-code authoring
• Zoho Desk: Best for community forums
• Confluence: Best for Atlassian users
• BookStack: Best for self-hosted knowledge bases
• Freshdesk: Best for website widgets
• ProProfs Knowledge Base: Best for micro businesses
• Flowlu: Best for medium-sized businesses
• Notion: Best for knowledge wikis
• Nuclino: Best for simple knowledge management
• XWiki: Best for open-source enterprise knowledge management
• MediaWiki: Best for text-based knowledge

1. Zendesk

Zendesk knowledge base software provides a simple yet powerful system for creating and managing your company’s help center content. Instead of scouring search engines and wading through external tech blogs, this powerful search interface makes it easy for customers to find the answers they need when they need them.

Zendesk software lets you boost customer experience by supplying them with self-service options and knowledge at every touchpoint, including during initial outreach, first sale, renewals and upgrades, and more. The Content Cues feature uses AI to analyze articles and identify where content gaps exist. Zendesk has a partnership with OpenAI that builds on Zendesk’s proprietary system that evaluates missing support articles and creates articles instantly, helping businesses scale their self-service offerings.

Qualifying startups can access the software for free by joining the six-month Startups Program. Established businesses can use a free trial to access the knowledge base software and give their customers the autonomy they crave.

Zendesk offers many advantages over other providers. Our software is fast to implement, allowing businesses to set up and deploy it easily. It’s scalable, with a large apps marketplace, ensuring you have a long-term partner. All of this works together to deliver our users a high return on their investment.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Analytics and reporting
• Templates
• User feedback
• AI-powered content suggestions
• 1,500+ apps and integrations
• Approval and publishing workflows

Pricing:

• Support Team: $19 per agent/month
• Support Professional: $55 per agent/month
• Support Enterprise: $115 per agent/month
• Suite Team: $55 per agent/month
• Suite Growth: $89 per agent/month
• Suite Professional: $115 per agent/month
• Suite Enterprise: Contact sales
• Suite Enterprise Plus: Contact sales
  *Plans are billed annually.

• Start a free trial
• View pricing
• Request a demo
• Learn more about the Zendesk customer service solution
• Evaluate the ROI of Zendesk

Free trial:

Free plan:

2. Bitrix24

Bitrix24 is a customer relationship management (CRM) software with a free knowledge base solution with on-premise or cloud capabilities. It offers open-source knowledge base options for teams looking to modify their code to meet specific customer service needs.

The free Bitrix24 plan provides one company knowledge base that centralizes information to aid employee onboarding and help everyone stay on the same page. Bitrix24 also has the option to create a knowledge base for a specific project or work group.

Features:

• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Templates

Pricing:

• Basic: $49 per month (5 users)
• Standard: $99 per month (50 users)
• Professional: $199 per month (100 users)
• Enterprise: starts at $399 per month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Free plan:

3. Piggydb

Piggydb is a completely free and scalable open-source knowledge base building platform that lets you start small, with a simple note-taking tool. As your database grows, the platform allows you to expand on your existing content to include more knowledge and features.

To get started, Piggydb users must have a Java Runtime Environment (Version 8 or later). The standalone package lets users run Piggydb as a desktop application, and you can choose to run it individually or collaboratively with a team.

Features:

• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• User feedback

Pricing:

• Not applicable

Free trial:

Free plan:

4. Mybase

This free-form database software is a no-frills platform that uses a word processor format to build a knowledge base. It allows users to upload text, images, documents, emails, and other files regardless of format and length.

Using Mybase will require additional plugins and add-on programs, but it has many features that can store and manage large amounts of information. The current version offers features like data compression, attachment support, fast load speed, hierarchical labels, and more.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Templates

Pricing:

• Not applicable

Free trial:

Free plan:

5. Guru

Guru is a knowledge management software platform that leverages AI and integrations to provide companies with streamlined internal communications. Guru allows users to create a wiki employees can turn to if they need critical information to deliver speedy resolutions to customers.

The free plan has an AI-driven search feature so users can get accurate results. Plus, Guru provides free templates so employees can create consistent content across the organization.

Features:

• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Analytics and reporting
• Templates
• User feedback

Pricing:

• Builder: $10 per user/month
• Enterprise: Contact Guru
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Free plan:

Learn more about the Guru integration for Zendesk.

6. Documize Community

Documize aims to help businesses manage internal and external documentation using Community, its open-source knowledge base solution. This self-hosted software was built to suit both technical and non-technical users.

Businesses can organize their documents without using folders by assigning labels and categories to group-related content. Documize Community also lets users archive old publications, publish changes, and manage different versions of the same articles. Users can also access reporting and analytics tools to gauge where content needs further refinement.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Analytics and reporting
• Templates

Pricing:

• Essential: $900 per year
• Enterprise: $1,800 per year

Free trial:

Free plan:

7. Flowlu

The Flowlu knowledge base platform helps teams manage their content using collaboration tools for capturing up-to-date information and dispersing it to the people who need it the most. Designed for technical and non-technical users, Flowlu provides a single database where your team can share their expertise and benefit from others’ experience.

The free plan only allows for one knowledge base, so businesses must choose between targeting internal or external use. Businesses can customize how knowledge gets organized and add brand colors and logos to create a familiar user experience.

Features:

• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• User feedback

Pricing:

• Team: $29 per month (8 users)
• Business: $59 per month (16 users)
• Professional: $119 per month (25 users)
• Enterprise: $199 per month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Free plan:

8. phpMyFAQ

As its name implies, phpMyFAQ provides specialized FAQ software with more focused applications than broader customer service software. It is an open-source knowledge base tool that is compatible with mobile apps. Users can use its search tool to locate answers quickly by entering specific terms or searching by category, as well as view the most popular searches to lead them to the most commonly referenced issues.

The software also comes with community support, letting users generate and share their own entries, and can also automatically surface existing FAQs to answer new user submissions.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Analytics and reporting
• User feedback

Pricing:

• Not applicable

Free trial:

Free plan:

9. ZohoDesk

Zoho Desk is a help desk solution that provides a free knowledge base with its Basic plan. Users can customize knowledge bases to match the look and style of the company website, creating a unified branded look across all customer-facing interfaces.

Along with its knowledge base, Zoho Desk provides community forums for customers to ask questions and collaborate in finding answers. When users can’t locate the information they need in the knowledge or forum, they can submit requests from the help center and monitor the status of their tickets.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• User feedback

Pricing:

• Standard: $14 per user/month
• Professional: $23 per user/month
• Enterprise: $40 per user/month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Free plan:

Learn more about the Zoho app for Zendesk.

10. Document360

The Document360 knowledge base software was designed for growing companies, enabling them to create a help center with simple end-user interfaces and third-party integrations. Although its paid plans support internal knowledge bases, its free plan only allows for an external knowledge base.

Document360 offers a knowledge base portal for editors and reviewers to manage content (up to 50 articles). The free knowledge base site lets customers search for and read articles across various devices. Businesses can fill their knowledge bases with user guides, tutorials, FAQ pages, playbooks, and more.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine

Pricing:

• Standard: $149 per project/month
• Professional: $299 per project/month
• Business: $399 per project/month
• Enterprise: $599 per project/month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Free plan:

Learn more about the Document360 app for Zendesk.

11. Confluence

Confluence by Atlassian is collaboration software that lets employees share information throughout the company. It has a free knowledge base with up to 2GB of file storage. Teams can create unlimited content spaces to keep knowledge organized.

Employees can track page history so they know what’s changed and revert the content to a previous version if needed. Confluence also provides templates for businesses to promote best practices across documents.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Templates
• User feedback

Pricing:

• Standard: $580 per year
• Premium: $1,100 per year
• Enterprise: Contact Atlassian
  *Prices increase after 10 users.

Free trial:

Free plan:

12. BookStack

BookStack provides free open-source knowledge base software that businesses can self-host to store their information. Users can control whether the knowledge base is public or private and also choose from dozens of languages, like German, Japanese, and Italian.

BookStack lets businesses customize the platform with their name and logo. Users can separate content into books, chapters, or pages, and can connect different documents by linking to specific paragraphs within a page.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine

Pricing:

• Not applicable

Free trial:

Free plan:

13. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a customer support platform that provides a free knowledge base to its users with limited features. Businesses can build and manage problem-solving content to promote self-service, so customers can view document tutorials, DIY product guides, and FAQs. Freshdesk also offers an internal knowledge base where customer support agents can locate policies or troubleshooting workflows.

Freshdesk lets teams select their approach to self-service. Choose from creating a minimal self-service portal that only addresses the most commonly asked questions, or customize a full knowledge base of solutions, including videos and tutorials. Users can also create personalized looks for their self-service portal that match the style and feel of their brand. Features like analytics, templates, and revision history are only available with paid plans.

Features:

• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• User feedback

Pricing:

• Growth: $15 per agent/month
• Pro: $49 per agent/month
• Enterprise: $79 per agent/month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Free plan:

14. Whatfix

Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that connects a business’s various applications and provides in-app guidance to assist in onboarding new users. Whatfix doesn’t offer a free knowledge base, but businesses can test its self-service features through a free trial.

Businesses can create guided workflows, articles, and videos accessible to users in an embeddable wiki. Smart Tips provides users with in-app information on how to use specific elements on the web page. Businesses can also gather feedback from users by supplying in-app surveys.

Features:

• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Analytics and reporting
• User feedback

Pricing:

• Contact Whatfix

Free trial:

Free plan:

15. ProProfs Knowledge Base

ProProfs provides dedicated knowledge base software to help businesses create and manage their content. The service has a free option that lets teams manage up to 25 articles. It has options for both internal and external knowledge bases.

Users can create their self-service center with pre-built templates or create their own. The software has SEO tools that allow writers to optimize articles for search engines, to show information on internal or external search engines. Users can also track up to 30 changes to the knowledge base and restore old versions if needed.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Analytics and reporting
• Templates
• User feedback

Pricing:

• Annual plan: $19.99 per month

Free trial:

Free plan:

16. Helpjuice

Helpjuice is a knowledge base software that lets users experience its service with a free trial. Businesses can customize their knowledge base's look and layout to align with their brand and processes.

Helpjuice analytics provide insights on what users are searching for and the impact of specific articles. Writers and editors can create article templates and organize posts so they’re easy to find, and teams can collaborate on articles and send email notifications when they make changes.

Features:

• Content and revision history
• Custom organization
• Help center search engine
• Analytics and reporting
• Templates

Pricing:

• Starter: $120 per month (4 users)
• Run-Up: $200 per month (16 users)
• Premium Limited: $289 per month (60 users)
• Premium Unlimited: $499 per month (unlimited users)

Free trial:

Free plan:

Explore these additional answers to commonly asked questions regarding free knowledge base software.

Before deciding on a software, you need to understand your organization's needs and the role your knowledge base will play. Here are a few useful criteria to help you decide:

• What are your knowledge base requirements? Many free knowledge bases lack the advanced features you’ll receive with a free trial. For instance, free solutions likely won’t have important security features that keep your company data safe.
• What is your use case? Some free knowledge bases are only available as an internal resource, or they only allow you to create one knowledge base. If you need multiple knowledge bases and want them to serve customers, you might need to sign up for a free trial.
• Can the software scale as your company grows? When you first create a knowledge base, its basic features might be all you need. But as your company grows, having a software that can grow and scale with you and support operations is essential. If you start with an open-source solution, you might need to migrate to paid software to support you down the road, which might inhibit your agility.