Maybe you’ve heard of knowledge management software, but you’re unsure about the best one, and how choosing a high-quality tool can benefit you.
Don't worry. We've got the answers. We'll tell you everything you need to know about these handy tools designed to help organize information and make it easy to find — from the different types to key features that make them worth it.
Let's dive in and explore the 12 best options in 2024.
We’ll go over:
What is knowledge management software (KMS)?
What can it do?
The different types of KMS software
What to look for in KMS software
The 12 best KMS options in 2024
A detailed breakdown of each tool
FAQs
Let’s get started!
What is knowledge management software?
If you're running a business, you've probably noticed that your team spends a lot of time searching for information they've seen before. Wouldn't it be great if all that knowledge was in one place? That's exactly what knowledge management software does.
Knowledge management software, or KMS, gives your team a centralized hub to store and find information. Think of it like a company-wide library that's open 24/7. Your team can store documents, videos, images or any other information that might be useful.
KMS can help make the process of knowledge management much easier and more efficient.
Use cases and benefits of knowledge management software
So, what can knowledge management software actually do for you? Quite a bit, as it turns out!
Let’s go in a bit deeper:
Keep your team in the know. You know that feeling when you have a question but don’t know who to ask? With knowledge management software, you’ll always know where to find the answers. A knowledge base stores information from experts in your company and makes it available whenever your team needs it.
No more chasing people down or waiting for responses — the info you need is right at your fingertips!
Onboard new employees faster. Bringing new team members up to speed has always been a pain. Knowledge management software acts as an “institutional memory” that preserves critical information, processes, and best practices.
New hires can tap into this wealth of knowledge to get a better understanding of their role, responsibilities, and key systems.
Capture knowledge from experienced employees. Let’s face it, your expert employees won’t be around forever. Knowledge management software allows you to capture their hard-won knowledge, experience, and skills before they head off into retirement.
With tools like knowledge bases and wikis, they can document key processes, insights, and best practices to share with the rest of the team.
Improve collaboration. Knowledge management software gets your whole team on the same page by giving them one source of truth for important information. This can help eliminate version control issues, minimize redundancy, and encourage more collaboration.
Your team will work together more efficiently by building on shared knowledge rather than creating from scratch each time.
The different types of knowledge management software
Before you start shopping around, you’ll need to figure out what type of KMS will work best for you.
There are a few options to choose from:
Knowledge base: A structured collection of your company's critical knowledge, including processes, best practices, troubleshooting guides, project summaries, and more. It's easily searchable and accessible, so anyone can find what they need fast.
LMS (Learning Management System): A flexible platform for building and delivering custom training programs. It supports various content formats (videos, presentations, quizzes) and can track employee progress, making it ideal for onboarding and ongoing development.
KCS (Knowledge-Centered Service): A framework that prioritizes knowledge sharing within customer service teams. It encourages capturing and documenting solutions as they're found, creating a self-improving system that benefits both customers and employees.
AI knowledge management: These tools leverage the power of artificial intelligence to analyze vast datasets, uncover hidden patterns, classify content, and surface insights that would be difficult to find manually.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management): A comprehensive system for managing customer interactions across all touchpoints. CRM software tracks contact details, purchase history, support requests, and more, enabling personalized experiences and targeted marketing.
Content management: Software that makes the process of creating, editing, and publishing website content significantly easier. It often includes workflow tools, version control, and easy collaboration features.
Workplace search: A powerful search engine tailored to your organization's data. It indexes documents, conversations, and other content across different systems, providing a unified way to find the information you need quickly and accurate.
What to look for in knowledge management software
Now comes the tricky part — choosing a platform that fits your needs. There are tons of options out there, so how do you know which one is right for you?
Let’s take a look at the must-haves:
Ease of use. You want a system that’s intuitive to navigate so employees will actually use it. Look for a simple, streamlined interface without a steep learning curve. If people find it tedious to login and search for what they need, you’ll end up with a very expensive digital paperweight.
Excellent search capabilities. What good is storing all your company’s information if you can’t find it again? Robust search functionality is key. Look for a platform with smart search filters that allow you to refine results by content type, date, author, keywords, etc.
AI-powered search is even better — it can suggest related content you may not have thought to look for.
Flexibility and customization. Every organization has unique needs, so you want a system you can tailor to your requirements. Look for a platform that lets you create customized templates, fields, and workflows for your different content types. It should also integrate well with the other software you use, like your CRM, project management, and communication tools.
Room to grow. Your company's knowledge and needs will evolve over time. Look for a system designed to grow with you, with unlimited storage, users, and integrations so you're not locked into a rigid framework. Scalability is key to avoiding the costs and hassle of migrating to a new platform down the road.
Data security. Knowledge management software contains some of your company’s most sensitive data, so security should be a top priority. Look for a platform with robust access control, encryption, and user authentication to keep your content safe.
It should also have strong backup and redundancy measures in place to avoid any loss of data.
The top 12 knowledge management software recommendations for 2024
After testing every knowledge base, learning management system, and workplace search tool under the sun.
Here are our top picks for 2024:
Lindy: Lindy is coming in hot with AI assistants that learn from your company's knowledge, automate tasks, and offer a no-code approach to create custom workflows.
Glean: Glean acts as an AI-powered search engine across your company's data, turning files, conversations, and more into a centralized and easily searchable knowledge hub.
Stack Overflow for Teams: Stack Overflow for Teams offers a private space for Q&A and code-related knowledge sharing.
Notion: Notion provides a flexible all-in-one workspace where you can build knowledge bases, wikis, project trackers, and more with its customizable building blocks.
ClickUp: ClickUp consolidates project management, docs, team chat, and other tools into one platform, aiming to replace some of your current toolkit with its extensive features.
Vectara: Vectara offers next-level search, powered by the latest AI to understand your queries naturally and find answers across websites, internal knowledge systems, and chatbots.
Confluence: Confluence excels at collaborative workspace creation and knowledge sharing, particularly for structured documents, meeting notes, and project plans.
Coda: Coda blends the power of documents, spreadsheets, and lightweight apps, allowing you to build interactive and actionable knowledge hubs.
Guru: Guru proactively delivers easy-to-find knowledge straight into your workflow, with AI that tailors answers based on your role.
Workstream: Workstream helps data teams manage all their assets, knowledge, and workflows in a centralized hub, providing insight into how data is actually used.
Trainual: Trainual streamlines scaling your business by turning processes and know-how into a well-structured system with built-in training and progress tracking.
Document360: Document360 provides a robust platform to create both customer-facing knowledge bases and internal documentation for teams, covering a wide range of use cases.
Lindy is, without a doubt, the most revolutionary knowledge management software on this list.
Lindy allows you to create interconnected AI agents tailored to your specific business needs. Lindies can be your "AI employees" who can draw knowledge from your company docs, follow your processes, and automate tasks proactively, or provide instant customer and agent support and knowledge.
Lindy accomplishes this with a focus on ease of use — no coding required!
Software type: AI-powered workflow automation platform, with so many knowledge management applications, they’re hard to count. If it’s on this list, Lindy can do it. It can do Enterprise Search, Knowledge Management, Workplace Search, CRM Management, Project Management, etc.
Why does it stand out?: Full emphasis on customizable AI assistants for different business functions, the "no code" approach, and the concept of "societies" of AI assistants working together.
What else can it do?: Integrate with over 3,000 tools (like Slack, any CRM system, etc.) and act as an intelligent layer on top of existing knowledge bases. It has a marketplace for pre-built, all-purpose AI assistants. If it’s not there, you can easily create a template for it.
Glean is an AI assistant designed to help your whole team find information fast. It analyzes your company's data — files, conversations, you name it — and organizes it into an easy-to-search knowledge hub. It can act as your company's very own search engine for internal knowledge.
Why does it stand out?: AI-powered understanding for natural language queries, permissions-aware search (shows you only what you're allowed to see), and proactive recommendations.
What else can it do?: Capture verified answers to common questions, manage company announcements and directories, enhance data governance.
Pricing: Custom pricing. Contact Glean for details.
If you're a software developer, you’ll love Stack Overflow. It brings that familiar Q&A format right into your company's private space. Got a coding question? Stuck on a bug? Your teammates have probably got the answers, and you can find them all in one spot.
Software type: Knowledge Management, with a strong focus on developer Q&A
Why does it stand out?: Built on the familiar Stack Overflow model, seamless integrations with developer tools, features for organizing and sharing code-related knowledge.
What else can it do?: Help attract and retain developer talent, reduce interruptions for your senior devs, and even build cross-team communities.
Pricing: Starts from $6.50 per teammate per month, includes a free plan for up to 50 users.
Notion is an all-in-one workspace that can be anything you need it to be. It acts like a set of super-powered building blocks for creating notes, wikis, project trackers, etc. It's perfect for teams that want flexibility and a tool that can grow and adapt as their needs change.
If you're tired of switching between different tools, ClickUp wants to bring everything under one roof. We're talking project management, docs, team chat, time tracking, etc. As it stands, It's got a ton of features and customization options to fit how your team likes to work.
Software type: Project Management, Collaboration, with knowledge management features.
Why does it stand out?: "Replace your other tools" focus, highly customizable, offers a massive array of features.
What else can it do?: Built-in time tracking, AI assistant for automating tasks, robust project management tools.
Pricing: Starts with a free plan. Paid plans begin at $7 per user per month.
Vectara is all about next-level search powered by the latest AI. It understands your questions like a human would, making it super easy to find answers across websites, internal knowledge bases, and even chatbots! If you want to upgrade your search experience, Vectara's got some impressive tech under the hood.
Software type: Search-focused with knowledge management and generative AI capabilities.
Why does it stand out?: LLM-powered search for natural language queries, API-first for developers, speed, and precision.
What else can it do?: Generate summaries, power conversational AI experiences, works across multiple languages.
Pricing: Starts with a free plan. Paid "Scale" plan requires contacting sales for custom pricing.
Confluence is all about creating a collaborative workspace for your team's knowledge. It's ideal for storing long-form documents, project plans, meeting notes — the kind of stuff that needs structure. Think of it as a shared digital notebook with strong organization features and a focus on team-wide information access.
Software type: Collaborative workspace and knowledge-sharing platform, with a document focus.
Why does it stand out?: Templates for common uses, deep integration with Atlassian tools (ideal if you use Jira, Trello, etc.), and fine-grained permissions to keep information secure.
What else can it do?: Turn into a project management hub, facilitate brainstorming and retrospectives, and it even has basic diagramming tools.
Pricing: Starts with a free plan for up to 10 users, then scales up with paid plans starting at about $6 per user per month.
Coda intends to break down the barriers between documents, spreadsheets, and lightweight apps. It lets you build super-charged docs with buttons, tables that talk to each other, and even automation, turning information into something you interact with. Imagine a doc that can also calculate stuff for you or send out updates.
Why does it stand out?: Unique blend of docs and app-like features, its focus on action (not just storing info), and maker-friendly pricing where you mainly pay for creating, not just viewing content.
What else can it do?: Replace a bunch of niche tools for task tracking, OKR planning, even simple surveys — it all depends on how you design your Coda workspace.
Pricing: Free plan with core features, paid plans start around $10 per "Doc Maker" per month.
Guru is laser-focused on making company-wide knowledge easy to find, no matter where it lives. It connects to tools like Slack and pulls answers right into your workflow, saving you from context-switching and hunting through multiple apps. Guru is also big on keeping information accurate with built-in verification features.
Software type: Enterprise knowledge management, search, and intranet replacement.
Why does it stand out?: Emphasis on proactive knowledge delivery, AI that understands your role for tailored answers, and a focus on preventing outdated information.
What else can it do?: Act like a company-wide wiki, reduce noisy internal chat, and help streamline onboarding processes for new team members.
Pricing: Starts with a 30-day free trial. Paid plans begin at $15 per user per month with an 'Enterprise' tier for advanced needs.
Workstream is specifically tailored to the needs of data teams. It wants to organize all those data assets (reports, dashboards, etc.) and combine knowledge sharing with managing the various processes around your data — think incidents, access requests, and tracking how data is actually used.
Why does it stand out?: Focused on a niche within knowledge management, strong insights on data usage to help teams work smarter, and it connects to a whole range of analytics tools.
What else can it do?: Help with data quality issues, facilitate collaboration between data teams and the business users they support.
Pricing: Has a free tier, paid plans start at $800 per month, with enterprise options available.
Trainual is about making your business run smoother by getting processes and know-how out of people's heads and into an organized system. It lets you easily document step-by-step instructions, build training courses, and even track who's completed what. Think of it as a way to scale your team without chaos.
Software type: Process documentation, training, and knowledge sharing, specifically for scaling operations.
Why does it stand out?: Beyond just storing info, it ties documentation to training & accountability, ease of use, and a strong focus on the 'why' behind documenting your business.
What else can it do?: Define roles and responsibilities clearly, help retain top talent, and reduce the time spent explaining the same things over and over.
Pricing: Starts with a ‘free forever’ basic plan. Around $250 per month for small teams, with scaling options.
Document360 is all about creating a powerful knowledge base for your customers and your internal teams. Whether it's in-depth product documentation, user manuals, step-by-step guides, or even company-wide SOPs, Document360 provides the tools to get it organized and make it easily searchable.
Software type: Knowledge base platform with a focus on various documentation types (technical, product, internal guides, etc.)
Why does it stand out?: Breadth of documentation use cases, features for self-service support, AI tools to assist with content creation.
What else can it do?: Generate API documentation for developers, integrate with numerous tools, and it allows for both public-facing and private (internal) knowledge bases.
Pricing: Starts with a free plan, paid tiers scale based on the number of "projects" and starts at $149/project/month.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get started with knowledge management software?
The first step is identifying your core pain points — what type of knowledge is hard to find, or which processes are slowing you down? Once you know what to solve for, choosing the right type of KMS becomes much easier. Start with a small project, focus on getting a few key pieces of knowledge into the system, and then make sure people can actually find it.
What about the cost? Isn't knowledge management software expensive?
There are plenty of free or affordable options for smaller teams. Paid plans typically scale based on features, number of users, or storage needs. The key is weighing the cost against the ROI. Calculate how much time is wasted searching for information or answering the same question over and over, and compare that to the monthly cost of the software. Often, a KMS quickly pays for itself in saved time and productivity gains.
What is the best knowledge management software?
The truth is, it depends. Every company has slightly different needs, so let's quickly recap a few top picks and what makes them shine:
Lindy: If you want to build AI-powered assistants and knowledge management workflows, Lindy is the way to go, with interconnected agents “Lindies” that tackle every task with ease.
Glean: For teams needing powerful enterprise search and a way to tap into knowledge across multiple tools, Glean is a strong contender.
Confluence: If your focus is on structured documents, collaboration, and you're already using Atlassian tools, Confluence is a great fit.
Guru: For making existing knowledge findable, and getting answers directly into your workflow, Guru's focus on proactive delivery sets it apart.
Document360: When you need both a customer-facing knowledge base and internal documentation tools, Document360's flexibility is a major advantage.
Summing up
That’s the inside scoop on picking the best knowledge management software for your needs.
Simply put, you can’t go wrong with any of the KMS tools on our list, as we took the criteria from the “What to look for…” section and applied it to every single one.
But if we had to put our money on a single contender? That would be Lindy.
