You’ve probably heard it a million times: it’s important to keep the customer happy. And it’s never been easier than now, thanks to knowledge base software.
Imagine: you’re a customer support manager for a SaaS company, and your team constantly needs information from other departments to help your customers solve their issues. Then, your customers have questions about various aspects of your product… These inquiries can be solved by simply implementing a knowledge base in your product.
Knowledge base software cuts the middleman and creates the best experience for both customer and employee. But how? The technology arranges and gains access to your data, and keeps it all in one place ready to be used! It’s essential for the efficiency of your company, but don’t worry if you’re on a budget: there are tons of great free knowledge base software out there.
In this article, you’ll learn what knowledge base software is, what are the best ones available, how can you implement it to make your life easier, and more importantly, our top picks for the best free knowledge base software for 2023. Keep reading to find out.
Dive in to answer the following questions:
- What is free knowledge base software?
- Benefits of free knowledge base software
- Features of great knowledge base software
- Best free knowledge base software for 2023
Book a demo with FROGED today to have an all-in-one knowledge base solution to optimize your customer experience.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
What is Free Knowledge Base Software?
But first, let’s understand what knowledge base software is and what it’s actually used for.
Knowledge base software (KBS) is a central location of data that enables organized information storage and allows users (be they customers or employees) to browse and retrieve this data freely. There are two types of knowledge base software, and they serve two different purposes: to solve internal and external issues.
When dealing with customers’ needs to access company data, it’s super important to have an external knowledge base that documents all the information your customers will need in the future. These can include things like: frequently asked questions (FAQs), tips, general practices, and company background. It’s an easy and fast way of helping your customers and clients find the answers they need on their own.
When it’s your employees that need to access information, it’s best to have an internal knowledge base that has every document, file, permit, procedure, and policy that will impact whatever question they need to keep working without interruption, or having to inquire to other team members.
This process involves developing and revising documentation, organizing your knowledge base’s architecture, and finding and analyzing it. But once it’s done, you’ll have created a seamless database that will save time for both your clients and team members and will boost their productivity tenfold. Knowledge base software is all about self-sufficiency.
Benefits of Free Knowledge Base Software
Here’s a detailed list of the benefits of using knowledge-base software:
- Helps you deliver 24/7 customer support: Your customers and clients will get instant resolutions, no matter what time of day.
- Improves resource allocation and deflects repetitive questions: No more time wasted in phone calls answering the same questions over and over again. This way your employees will have time to work on other, more pressing issues, making the use of your resources worthwhile.
- Gets higher customer retention: Customers want quick responses, and they value having a reliable source of information that gives them the answers they need without having to speak to another person.
- Reduces average resolution times: Time will be used more efficiently having all the right answers in your knowledge database, ready to be accessed, ultimately resolving queries quickly.
- Improves your search engine discoverability: If you have a solid knowledge base software with SEO capabilities, people who are searching for information in your field will immediately find you.
- Increases customer satisfaction: Your team will have more time to respond to fewer requests since most support tickets will divert straight to the answers in your knowledge base.
- Speeds the training process of new employees: Having a knowledge base results in a speedy training period, and is a huge factor when it comes to having a successful employee onboarding process.
Features of Great Free Knowledge Base Software
Your knowledge base should cover the following elements in order to solve your customers’ and employees’ needs:
- Feedback, reporting, and analytics
- SEO Optimization
- Collaboration tools
- Content management
- Multi-channel communication
- A fast search engine
- Tools for gathering and analyzing feedback
- Multilingual capabilities
You can use the above as a checklist when building your own knowledge base with KBS!
Best Free Knowledge Base Software for 2023
There are so many different knowledge base software available today. Let’s take a look at our top 6, perfect for your business.
1. Flowlu
Flowlu is a reliable, all-inclusive business management solution that handles your projects, CRM, billing, team collaboration, and knowledge base, all in one place. It’s all about collaboration, having a single database designed for your team to share what they know and benefit from each other.
The best features:
- Access the knowledge base in one place
- Improve employee skills and productivity
- Support your customers
- Collaboration tools
- Manage your content
- Collaborate with ease
2. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is a collaboration tool including management and communication functions, assisting you in organizing all the information and data you have.
The best features:
- Company knowledge base
- Workgroup knowledge base
- Support with FAQs, chat, email, how-to videos…
- Collaboration tools
- Mind maps
3. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk acts as a help desk, allowing you to customize your portal and set up different knowledge base articles, making it a true extension of your brand. It will allow you to create a collection of solutions to your customers’ most regular issues.
The best features:
- Domain mapping
- Portal customization (HTML and CSS)
- Forums and communities
- SEO friendly
- Ticket management
- Self-service
- Security
4. Document360
Document360 allows you to create knowledge-base portals and knowledge-base sites. The former are advanced portals for content producers and the latter for content consumers. It also gives you the option to customize your site and make it public or private, depending on your target audience.
The best features:
- Technical documentation
- Online user guides
- FAQs
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Reduce customer wait times
- Reduce support cost
5. Guru
Guru compiles all the information it has collected into a single location that anyone can access to find solutions to their problems. It provides businesses with improved internal communications thanks to its AI and integrations. Additionally, it helps with a quicker onboarding process and ensures better employee retention.
The best features:
- Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations
- Knowledge management
- Customizable templates
- Categorization
- Self-service portal
6. FROGED
FROGED is a customer support toolkit built by customer success experts and designed for customer success teams. Its knowledge base system is human-powered, and its services range from in-app messages to a robust widget that lets your customers access support on their terms and their needs.
FROGED’s knowledge base is more proactive and less reactive, which means that it’s capable of anticipating your customer’s needs, thus reducing your employees’ workflow. And most importantly, it empowers its users to be the first ones to find the solution they need, for ultimate self-sufficiency.
Ways you can use it:
- In product launches: FROGED lets you onboard new features and products with ease, creating a combination of models and tool tips personalized based on user behavior to ensure engagement is at your customer’s speed.
- To educate and upsell: FROGED provides educational articles within your knowledge base that can be attached to a powerful widget, allowing users to explore new features, advance their skills and see the value in add-ons.
- To build your power user base: It allows you to set the standard by breaking it – with a variety of easy and accessible tools from NPS surveys, behavioral segmentation, email campaigns, and more. These help to drive personalized product knowledge and build loyal highly active users.
The best features:
- Product flows
- In-app messages
- Educational tools
- Easy customization
- Auto messages
- Email campaigns
Best Free Knowledge Base Software for 2023
We know that understanding what knowledge base software is and how to use it to its full potential is not an easy task, but once you’ve got the gist of it, it’s undeniable that it’s a game-changer. Having all the essential information stored (both for your employees and your customers) in one place is key to having a high-functioning business and work environment. And it has many benefits: it helps to deliver 24/7 customer service, get higher customer retention and satisfaction, improve your search engine discoverability, and much more.
We suggest you at least try one and see for yourself, given that there are so many options out there! Why not try out FROGED’s all-in-one-based solutions, using our free trial and plan?
Are you interested in learning more? Head over to our solutions page, or book a demo with FROGED today.