Do you build your knowledge base yourself or use a third party tool?

Question

My team and I are looking to set up a knowledge base to answer FAQs & write support articles. We're thinking to either use a tool like Stonly/GrooveHQ or build it ourselves.
Curious what others have done/if there are pro's & cons in either option.
If you use paid tools, are there any that you would recommend?

Lior Galante Cohen (Vaza) · Accepted Answer

Hi David! 
At the moment, we've decided to do so ourselves, main reason being budget :)

Pradeepa Somasundaram · Answer

Note: I work for Document360, so my answer may be biased.
If you are looking for a reliable solution, I would recommend any SaaS tool rather than taking the pain of building it.
Document360 is an excellent alternative to Stonly or GrooveHQ. It has more niche features that help you build your knowledge base instantly. you can customize your Knowledge base to match your brand. It has multilingual support, knowledge base assistant, bulk operations, version control, etc.
Take a free trial and explore the benefits. https://document360.com/

David Abaev · Answer

@lior_galante_cohen Makes sense! I was thinking there's less upfront cost of using a third party tool since you don't need to use the developers' time, but in the long run it's probably better in-house

Kamila Klavíková · Answer

We use OrgPad, a tool we're developing. It's unusual because it's not traditional blocks of text, but rather interactive pinboards.

This has three big pros:
🔹 We use tool that suits our needs and have it under control.
🔸 We test our product a lot.
🔹 And of course no extra cost.

This thread on Reddit explains loosly how we organize our knowledge base: https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/roh07x/for_your_notetaking_application_of_choice_how/hpyl369/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

I'm not sure what are costs of these system, but your manpower will be used elsewhere than where is your core business. Also, it probably won't be as fine-tuned. But you can make it to suit your needs.

Using the third party tool is quick, but can be costly and time-consuming to integrate with other tools.

Sum up, it depends on your goals and budget.

Do you build your knowledge base yourself or use a third party tool?

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