In today’s world, everyone wants information at their fingertips. Nobody wants to go through an entire manual or document just to find one key point. The same goes for customers of any business, be it in retail, IT, pharmaceutical, or other sectors.
Hence, a published collection of documentation, usually called a knowledge base, is a vital part of day-to-day operations for any successful business. It mainly consists of how-to guides, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and troubleshooting manuals.
However, most small businesses consider the knowledge base a non-essential component due to the complexities required to create it and stay up to date. The solution to this issue is choosing an affordable knowledge management system or KMS system that can help you create and manage knowledge bases easily.
Knowledge management system is a type of content management software that enables an organization to organize and centralize information in the form of documents, articles, guides, and more. It provides:
Information stores or knowledge bases continue to grow and get updated as the company grows via expert inputs. It serves as a single source of truth and helps prevent the data related to your offerings or internal policies from getting isolated or lost.
Knowledge management system software helps in improving collaboration and aligning every department toward achieving organizational goals.
A knowledge management system can help create a thorough knowledge base so that customers can find answers to certain common queries on their own. Different ways in which a KMS knowledge management system can improve the customer service experience are:
Customers do not have to wait for customer support agents to address their queries at any time of the day. They can simply access the knowledge information system online or on your dedicated mobile app.
The number of tickets will be lower as most customers can find answers to common issues independently. Agents can focus on answering and resolving more complex issues quickly. This will reduce support expenses and improve customer satisfaction.
Knowledge management systems contain videos, images, and exact text-based instructions for any query. This helps customers understand how to resolve an issue better without opting for email or mobile communication.Even if customers contact the support agent, they can get direct help links to the right resource in the knowledge base for better understanding.
There are numerous ways in which a knowledge management system can benefit small businesses.
Small businesses can reduce the costs and save time answering calls and emails from customers by using an affordable knowledge management system. A knowledge base can help customers find solutions for common issues themselves.They do not have to wait for long. In other cases, employees can quickly search for a solution to help customers.
You can save time in training new and old employees by involving experts to create department-wise knowledge bases. By adding relevant solutions, guides, tutorials, and courses, every employee can be trained easily. Even if employees forget something, they just have to search quickly through the knowledge base.
By improving the efficiency of customer service, you can improve customer satisfaction and drive growth. Other capabilities of a knowledge management platform like multi-lingual support, regular updates, and scalable operations can further improve customer loyalty.
Organizations can capture customer interactions across all channels and use them to understand their concerns. Knowledge management systems provide reports, analytics, and more to help better decision-making to improve the customer experience.
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There are several types of knowledge management systems based on the types of knowledge bases you want to create. Some of the major ones are:
These knowledge management systems make large volumes of organization-wide data accessible to everyone across teams and departments. These can create multiple knowledge bases with customization options for categorization, formatting, and more.
Coding is not required to update the content. Repetitive bulk maintenance processes are automated to save time. These systems come with an advanced search engine to quickly find the nested information.
This helps in better collaboration and higher efficiency among different business divisions. If there is sensitive information, access control allows only permitted users to view or change it.
Knowledge Work Systems focus on varying systems to help knowledge workers like scientists and engineers who find and create knowledge. It helps with a central repository of people across different departments who can be approached for fetching any information.
The knowledge work system uses a knowledge database, knowledge graph, knowledge repository, among others. These tools from the knowledge work system help in better collaboration among groups for knowledge sharing.
These systems use artificial intelligence (AI) based techniques like data mining to find information, generate optimal solutions, and store the information. Answers to new issues are found by examining similar cases in the past.
This type of knowledge management system open source solution is useful when the existing information base is complex and huge, making it difficult for the management to extend the organizational knowledge readily.
With so many options available, how do you select the best free and open source knowledge base tools for your needs? Well, let us guide you through the process that we adopted to make an informed decision.
Based on the weeks of evaluation and testing, here’s a comparison table of the top 12 best free and open-source KMS:
| Product | Purpose | Notable features | Best For | Additional Features | Pricing |
| Zoho Wiki | Private Knowledge Bases | – Customizable workspaces – Portal branding – User-based access – Storage options – Instant updates | Small teams, companies | – Third-party widget integrations – Branding control | Free for up to 3 users Business plan: Starts at INR 162/user/month (annual) |
| Documize | Content Authoring & Automation | – Snippets catalog – Templates – Nested structure – Workflow control – Content archiving | Product, project, and service documentation | Team and project collaboration | Free for up to 10 users Monthly plans vary based on users |
| PhpMyFaq | FAQs | – Automatic XML sitemaps – Revision system – Password protection – Multi-language search – Permissions | Open source web app for FAQs | SSO support, user tracking | Completely free and open-source |
| LogicalDoc | Paperless Document Management | – Multilingual text editing – Automatic indexing – DICOM support – OCR – Digital watermarking | Secure document organization | Drop spot for file uploads | Community edition is free and open-source |
| OpenDocMan | Robust Document & User Management | – Metadata-based search – Document workflows – Automated management server | Hassle-free document management | Multiple language support | Free and open-source with no additional cost |
| KnowMax | AI-Powered Knowledge Management | – Unlimited articles – Custom branding – Feedback reports – Channel-based user management – API support | Enterprises across various industries | Auto-tagging, regular auto-saving | Pay-per-module pricing |
| Proprofs | Internal Knowledge Base | – Dynamic content – Version control – Integration with various platforms | Employee training and internal knowledge bases | Help Widget embedding, integration options | Pricing varies by plan |
| Freshworks | Omnichannel Customer Support databases | – Omnichannel dashboard – Bulk changes – Article versioning – Custom reports | Customer support teams | Instant article updates, multilingual support | Starts at INR 999/agent/month |
| Document 360 | Public or Private Self-Service Knowledge Bases | – Clean UI – Migration tools – Multiple versions – Chat integration | Startups and businesses | Automatic scheduled and manual backups | Pricing varies by plan |
| HelpJuice | Public Knowledge Base | – SEO-optimized articles – Bulk upload via CSV – Role-based access | Startups and small businesses | Article planner, customizable themes | Pricing varies by plan |
| Hubspot Service Hub | Customer Service Knowledge Management | – SEO optimization – Usage data tracking – Branding components – Feedback surveys | Customer service teams | Multilingual support, integrated with other HubSpot features | Free plan available Paid editions start at INR 3323.385/month |
| Zendesk Guide | Scalable IT Knowledge Base | – Easy-to-use interface – Pre-built templates – Omnichannel support – Custom branding | Startups to enterprises | Automated answers via AI, full-text search | Part of Zendesk software suite (annual pricing) |
Best for: KMS system for creating private knowledge bases
Zoho Wiki KMS system lets small teams and companies set up wiki-style knowledge bases. You can easily organize content by building hierarchies, adding tags, linking pages, and adding word documents.
Its WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor lets users add tables, formatting, URLs, and more. You can embed videos, images, presentations, Zoho, and other third-party widgets.
It’s a free KMS Knowledge management system for up to 3 users with 50 MB of storage. The Business plan starts at INR 180 per user per month when billed annually.
Additional Wiki Unlimited Workspace plan costs INR 3240 annually. There is a 15 percent annual discount for non-profit organizations.
Best for: Content authoring & automation
Documize is a free knowledge management platform ideal for external and internal documentation of products, projects, and services. The KMS software deploys automated content authoring for quickly organizing all content.
Documize offers snippets catalog and content archiving as well for business documentation purposes.
Documize is a free knowledge management software for up to 5 users. Monthly plans vary based on the number of users. Paid plan starts at $9 per user per year.
Best for: Open source web app for FAQs
phpMyFAQ open source & free knowledge management system offers automatically generated XML sitemaps for listing the FAQ articles alphabetically. This KMS system provides a built-in revision system for switching back to the older entries of FAQs.
phpMyFAQ working is based on the smart answering system that automatically answers the given set of questions by doing a full-text search of all existing FAQs.
phpMyFAQ is a completely free and open-source knowledge management system.
Best for: Paperless document management through eForms
LogicalDOC free & open source knowledge management software offers a secure and reliable platform for organizing your digital documents. The document management platform provides intuitive tools for creating, co-authoring and coordinating all your document files.
The KMS system further provides access to version controls, workflow management, and event subscriptions.
LogicalDOC community edition has an open-source code and is available for free download.
Best for: Robust document & user management
OpenDocMan is an OIE standard-based, free and open-source KMS software for hassle-free document management. The knowledge management platform offers a centralized document storage system and easy user management to delegate documentation responsibilities.
OpenDocMan provides access control over files and a minimalist interface for delegating document management responsibilities.
This KMS system is free and open-source with no additional cost.
Best for: Remote working in enterprises
Knowmax is an AI-powered knowledge management platform that provides solutions for healthcare, automobiles, telecom, e-commerce, and banking.
It helps ensure consistency across all channels and improves the discovery rate through the auto-tagging feature. The content gets auto-saved regularly to prevent data loss.
There is also a pay-per-module pricing system for this free and open source KMS system so that you pay only for the features you use.
Best for: Internal knowledge base for employee training
Proprofs knowledge management system lets users quickly get started with knowledge bases, help documents, manuals, and more. You can also add dynamic content to avoid repeating same information on different pages.
In case of data deletion, you can easily recover content from recycle bin. It provides multilingual support based on user location and preferences.
This knowledge base management system offers a 15-day free trial. Paid plan starts at $49 per month. If you choose a yearly plan, you will have to pay $49 per month.
Best for: KMS system for omnichannel customer support
Freshworks offers a Freshdesk knowledge base management system for teams to create and promote their knowledge base via SEO optimization.
Answers to frequent queries by agents can be converted to articles in a few clicks. It is easy to navigate to different categories, and you can add pictures, videos, and other files anytime.
Freshworks KMS system offers a 21-day free trial. You can get started for free regardless of the number of agents. Paid annual plans start at $13 per agent per month.
Best for: Public or private self-service knowledge bases
Document360 provides a clean user interface for creating knowledge bases for customers and internal teams in several languages. You can easily migrate the content from your existing platform to this knowledge information system without drastic changes to SEO traffic.
To avoid data loss, you can keep several versions of any article. It works with chat, helpdesk, analytics tools, and more.
You can access the KMS system through a 14-day free trial. The annual pricing for the Startup plan starts at $199 for every project per month. You can also go for Business, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus versions.
Best for: Public knowledge base
HelpJuice knowledge base open source software lets startups and small businesses create SEO-optimized articles and upload them in bulk via CSV. You can easily embed the knowledge base within your application and restrict access for different types of users.
There are automated and manual backups in this KMS system so that users can download or restore the content in a single click.
All plans of this knowledge management platform come with a 14-day free trial option. It is priced at $199 a month for up to 4 users. For more users, you can opt for Run-Up, Premium Limited, and Premium Unlimited plans.
Best for: Knowledge management system open source for customer service
HubSpot Service Hub is a knowledge management software that helps users create articles and documentation for FAQs. You can choose formatting and styling options for the knowledge base that suits your brand.
As the knowledge base is integrated with other features like live chat, help desk, and more, businesses get a centralized view of all customer data.
This knowledge management software free offers a free plan. Paid editions start at $20 per month.
Best for: Scalable IT knowledge base
Zendesk knowledge management software offers an easy-to-use interface for everyone, from startups to enterprises. It has an editor module with pre-built templates that can be used to create IT knowledge base, internal knowledge base, and FAQ tool for customers or support agents.
With an omnichannel dashboard, this knowledge management software free offers support for over 40 different languages.
This knowledge base open source management system offers a free trial and is a part of the Zendesk software suite. The basic paid plan starts at $19 per month.
There are numerous knowledge management tools in the market. To choose the best one for your business, consider the following:
Choosing the best knowledge management open source software means understanding your current business team requirements as well as the future scalability options. This way, you do not have to worry about the flexibility and reliability of your knowledge base when your business grows.
Create knowledge bases should not be time-consuming. With a good knowledge base open source management system, you should create any form of hierarchical structure you want. It should be easy to locate sub-categories nested deep within categories.
To streamline all activities, integration with existing systems like helpdesk and third-party applications is important. There is a single source of truth and thereby a consistent experience across all the tools.
Users do not have to do repetitive administrative activities like adding permissions for different systems.
If you deploy the right knowledge management (open source) system for your small business, it can reduce customer support expenses significantly while improving customer satisfaction. This can prove to be a game-changer and drive your growth.
A knowledge management system that helps manage the constant changes in data and processes of a small business as it grows. It can provide critical information to agents and customers quickly.
This can reduce ticketing and in-person support costs. With multilingual support, businesses can provide services globally in the future.
Organizing a growing huge amount of data can be challenging for enterprises, but a knowledge management system (open source) helps store it in a single location.
Self-service options allow customers to resolve most issues themselves. Service agents are more confident in providing support due to quick data access.
Common knowledge management system types include customer service knowledge bases, community forums, research libraries, knowledge management (open source) systems for enterprises, among others.
The four components are people, process, content/ IT technology, and strategy. With these elements, users can create or use the knowledge to manage their organization better.
The knowledge management should be such that the knowledge base stays relevant over time. The knowledge base must be scalable, accessible, secure, shareable, and stored in a central location. It should also align with the business.
The purpose of knowledge management is to organize documentation and be up to date with the organizational changes. Employees and customers can find the information they want on their own.
It can improve employee productivity and help in training new employees during onboarding. This can decrease both external and internal support tickets.
Free knowledge base software refers to software tools or systems that allow organizations to create, manage, and share knowledge bases or repositories without incurring licensing or subscription costs. These systems are typically open source and offer a free version with limited features, making them accessible to organizations, especially small businesses, looking to organize and centralize information.
Small businesses can gain numerous advantages from implementing a knowledge management system. These include time and cost savings by enabling customers to find answers independently, efficient employee training for consistent knowledge sharing, enhanced customer satisfaction through quick and accurate information, and the ability to analyze customer interactions for data-driven decision-making.
Enterprises rely on knowledge management systems to centralize vast knowledge, foster collaboration, boost customer support, streamline training, and empower data-driven decisions. It also enhances overall efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The four key components of knowledge management are typically considered to be people, process, content/IT, and strategy.
Some key principles of knowledge management include Knowledge Capture, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Organization, and Knowledge Transfer.
The purpose of knowledge management is to effectively capture, organize, share, and apply knowledge within an organization. It aims to improve decision-making, enhance productivity, promote innovation, and ultimately achieve business goals by leveraging the collective knowledge of employees and the organization as a whole.
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