Cloud-based Help Authoring Tools (SaaS)
Market overview of recommendable cloud-based help authoring tools (SaaS help authoring tools). This includes tools for creating online help (help sites), knowledge bases, and documentation wikis.
On this page:
Web-based help authoring tools and online documentation tools
Tools with a special focus on building knowledge bases for customer self-service and FAQ
MadCap Central Cloud-based platform for content and project management of documentation projects authored with the desktop-based help authoring tool Flare. Also provides a simplified, web-based editor for subject matter experts and other contributors to review and edit content written in Flare (requires AMS license). Price: approx. $99 per month per user https://www.madcapsoftware.com Description supplied by vendor: Powerful but rather simple to use CMS for technical documentation, including translation management. Follows a structured, topic-based authoring approach based on a built-in DTD. Price: starting at approx. $49 per month Document360 Easily creates help centers and self-service knowledge bases (no printed documentation). Provides a markdown editor, support for team authoring, versioning, analytics, access restriction, and more. Price: starting at approx. $49 per month ClickHelp Modern online help authoring tool in a web browser. Created manuals can be hosted in the vendor’s cloud. Content management and single-sourcing functionality to produce online and printed documentation from the same source (PDF, DOCX, EPUB, ODT, RTF, MHT, HTML). Can import existing help files from the CHM format, preserving styles and scripts. Supports both WYSIWYG and source code editing of topics. Price: starting at approx. $43 per month HelpConsole Web-based help authoring tool with full support of conditional content, context-sensitive help, and PDF output. Price: starting at approx. $299 http://www.browselab.com/helpconsole_com.htm DeveloperHub Hosted documentation portal for product and API documentation. Price: starting at approx. $39 per project per month Manula Easy-to-use manual authoring tool. Creates public and private online manuals that look great on desktops, tablets and phones. Also generates downloadable PDF manuals. Price: starting at approx. $10 per month HelpServer Web-based CMS for help and documentation. Supports structured authoring and team authoring. Creates various output formats, such as HTML, video, and PDF. Price: not published ReadMe.io Hosted online documentation solution with a special focus on API and developer documentation. Price: staring at approx. $59 per month and per project 3Rabbitz Book Simple server-based authoring platform that can create various types of output files. Price: free “Personal” version; “Standard” version approx. $2000 tomehost Specialized content management system for creating and publishing online user manuals. Price: free Docmenta Web application for creating online and printable documentation from a single source. Price: free (open source) |
The following wikis are especially recommendable for technical documentation and user assistance purposes. Commercial wiki that, in particular in combination with the SCROLL add-ons of K15t Software meets the requirements of a professional help authoring tool. There are also some plugins available for code and API documentation. Enlite is essentially a preconfigured, bundled version of Confluence plus some of the plugins. Price: starting at approx. $10 https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/net.meixxi.confluence.docs.docs-plugin/server/overview MindTouch TCS Collaborative help system for creating product help communities with a wiki-like interface. Also has an option to provide context-sensitive information. Price: not published Dokit Based on MediaWiki. Can use templates, forms, and metadata to structure and organize content. Built-in translation features, version management, rights management, semantic search, social functions, PDF export. Price: not published Dozuki Guidebook Price: not published BlueSpice Price: free (open source); there is also a more powerful commercial version available MediaWiki Price: free (open source) https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org dokuwiki Price: free (open source) Tiki Wiki Price free (open source) TWiki Price: free (open source) Ponydocs MediaWiki-powered documentation platform. Price: free (open source) http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Ponydocs/latest/Content/WhatisPonydocs |
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This page was last updated 02/2020
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