Best Knowledge Management Tools: Reviews and Pricing
Looking for the best knowledge management tools? Then you came to the right place.
Organizational knowledge is a critical asset. Knowledge management tools help safeguard this asset and make it available to every employee.
Easy-to-use and effective knowledge management tools foster a culture of knowledge transfer and sharing, which leads not only to knowledge retention but also to knowledge creation.
Knowledge management tools are, therefore key to the success of corporate knowledge management initiatives.
In this article, we have compiled a list of the best knowledge management software tools that you can use to implement effective knowledge management in your organization.
Best Knowledge Management Tools
There are various categories of software-based knowledge management tools. These include:
- Learning management systems
- Decision support systems
- Document management systems
- Knowledge base software
- Corporate wikis
- Lessons learned software
We have focused on the key features, advantages, and some known disadvantages for each tool. Where possible, we have also included the pricing.
Let’s jump to the detailed review of the best knowledge management tools.
Trainual
Trainual is a cloud-based learning management system. It serves various industry verticals and allows organizations to automate training and onboarding processes. This knowledge management software solution helps in organizing training modules in a centralized system.
Trainual helps you automate onboarding processes by associating content and processes with roles, departments, or locations. Employees are notified whenever content for subjects they have worked on is updated. Users can also add videos and tests. Trainual also supports integration with Zapier for workflow automation.
With Trainual, you can prevent your best people from leaving, retain and nurture great talent, and ensure everybody does things the right way every time by spending the time to document how you do what you do in simple step-by-step sequences.
Key Features
- Content delivery and tracking
- Compliance management
- Course authoring:
- Course builder
- Quizzes and assessments
- Customize learning paths
- Assignment scheduling
- Gamification
- Feedback
- Recruiting and onboarding:
- Interview scheduling
- Onboarding notifications
- Multimedia support for training content.
- Customer training
- Self-service portal
- Customization
- Dashboards
- User, role, and access management
- API integration
- Zapier integration for workflow automation
- Mobile access
Pros
- Intuitive and easy to use
- Clean user interface
- Strong support
- Security
Cons
- Lack of administrator-level access
- Limited functionality in some testing options
- Lack of training schedule system
- Implementing type form style surveys
- Live feedback from users entering the portal
Pricing
Trainual offers a 7-day free trial and the following subscription options:
- Build: at $49 per month, with two seats, unlimited documentation, customizable templates, org chart & directory, roles & responsibilities builder, Loom screen recording, and GIF & stock photo libraries.
- Train: at $99 per month, with 10 seats, all features included in the Build plan, unlimited tests, completion tracking, custom branding, user reports, iOS & Android mobile apps, Chrome browser search extension, Slack integration, and Zapier workflows automation.
- Scale: at $199 per month, with 20 seats, all features included in the Train plan, HRIS integrations, training time estimates, public subject sharing, content due dates, and Single sign-on (SSO).
Tableau Cloud
Tableau Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence (BI) platform from Salesforce.com. The platform is optimized for mobile access and data visualization.
Tableau also provides an on-premise solution for businesses.
Key Features
- Advanced Visualizations: You can understand data in new ways and discover trends. With Tableau, you can create different charts and graphs to help you see data in new ways.
- Data Sources: You can import data from Excel, CSV, JSON, and databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and Amazon Redshift.
- Live and In-memory Data: To track down and debug problems you can connect to real-time data sources.
- Collaboration: You can share your workbooks and collaborate on projects.
- Dashboards: You can see all your data in one place. You can create a dashboard from scratch or customize a ready-made template.
- Data Stories: Adds automated plain-language explanations to your dashboards in seconds. Break down your data by relevant dimensions and present insights as bullet points for easy comprehension. Save analysts’ time and make analytics easy for everyone with this new consumption experience built for business users.
- Ask Data: This feature allows you to use natural language to interact with data through a fast, powerful interface—it’s as simple as typing a question with guided search suggestions to get instant answers. Results come in rich data visualizations that enable business users to get the insights they want from their data.
- Explain Data: Provides automatic AI-driven explanations for the value of a data point with a single click. Based on advanced statistical models, explanations are integrated into existing workflows, saving users’ time and unearthing new understandings about their data that they may not have found otherwise. The interactive feature offers analysts and business users a jumping-off point to fuel deeper data exploration.
- Tableau integrates with Slack, helping everyone across your organization make smarter, faster decisions.
- Tableau Exchange: Gives you access to trusted resources built by Tableau and third-party partners. You can see faster time to value, address a large variety of use cases, and realize a greater return on your Tableau investment.
Pros
- Integration with a wide range of databases
- Seamless integration with other Salesforce products
- A wide range of visualization options
- Strong data analytics and statistical modeling capabilities
- Intuitive user interface
- Strong customer support
- Customizable dashboards
- Extensive customer resources
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Building dashboards and reports can be difficult and complex, depending on the data source
- Slow processing speed for filtering large datasets
- Limited export capability
- Requires SQL knowledge
- No version control
Pricing
Tableau offers a free trial and the following pricing plans for its cloud-based service:
- Tableau Viewer: at $15 per user per month, view lineage and impact, interact with visualization and dashboards, download visualizations, summary data, and data-driven alerts.
- Tableau Explorer: at $42 per user per month, manage users and permissions, author from curated data, create and share custom views, download full data, data quality warnings, edit existing workbooks and visualizations, and schedule flows.
- Tableau Creator: at $70 per user per month, create and share data sources, create and publish a new workbook with a new data source, create and publish new data sources, create new data flows, edit and modify a data flow, export data, and monitor flow performance and health.
For the on-premise Tableau solution, please view the pricing here.
Microsoft SharePoint Online
Microsoft SharePoint Online is a cloud-based enterprise document management system. It helps organizations share and manage content, knowledge, and applications to empower teamwork, find information, and collaborate seamlessly across the organization.
Sharepoint supports seamless integration with Microsoft office to enhance productivity for teams of all sizes.
The Sharepoint mobile app is available for iOS and Android. Users can access documents and collaborate from the office, home, and on the move.
Key Features
- Comprehensive document management features for all types of businesses: collaboration tools, file sharing, version control, access control, and security.
- Team sites for project teams, departments, and divisions.
- Powerful search and intelligent ways to discover information, expertise, and insights to inform decisions and guide action.
- With Power Automate you can implement automation for business processes through complex automated workflows.
- Power Apps, a suite of apps, services, and connectors, provides you with an environment to build custom apps for your business needs.
- A rich set of tools to help you create and maintain your organization’s intranet.
- Seamless integration with the entire suite of Microsoft business applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The solution also supports greater compatibility with key web browsers such as Firefox, Edge, Chrome, and Safari.
Pros
- A wide range of customization options, including branding for sites and workflow automation. You can also make programmatic changes to your SharePoint environment through Office Developer Patterns and Practices APIs, the Microsoft 365 CLI, the Microsoft Graph API, and the SharePoint Framework.
- Support for a wide range of third-party apps and solutions
- Sharepoint migration tool (SPMT) is a free and easy-to-use migration solution that helps you migrate content from on-premises SharePoint sites to Microsoft 365.
- Robust technical support
Cons
- No free-trial option
- Requires developers for complex customization, which might not be feasible for small businesses
- Employees need training to get the most out of the platform
- As it is a cloud-based solution, the bandwidth requirement will increase in proportion to the number of users
Pricing
Sharepoint is available as an independent solution or as part of Microsoft 365 / Office 365 subscription plans.
Microsoft offers three pricing plans for SharePoint Online:
- Plan 1: This plan is suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. Microsoft Office applications are not included in the plan. The monthly subscription is $5 per user. The free is paid on an annual basis and auto-renews. Users get 1 TB storage on OneDrive. Services included in the plan are SharePoint, OneDrive, and Lists.
- Plan 2: This plan is geared towards larger enterprises. Microsoft Office applications are not included in the plan. The per-user monthly subscription is $10. The subscription fee is payable on an annual basis and auto-renews. If there are at least five users, each user gets unlimited storage. Services included in the plan are SharePoint, OneDrive, and Lists.
- Plan 3 (part of Office 365 E3 plan): This plan is aimed at enterprises that require advanced services for messaging, document sharing, compliance, and management features for IT. The monthly subscription for each user is $23. The free is paid on an annual basis and auto-renews. Services included in the plan are Exchange, Skype for Business, Yammer, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Delve, and Lists.
Document360
Document360 is a SaaS platform that helps you to build a knowledge base for your customers and internal users.
You can use Document360 to build technical documentation, online user guides, standard operating procedures, FAQ pages, product help docs, and a knowledge base.
Key Features
- Knowledge base portal for content producers, with a state-of-the-art editor and analytics.
- Markdown text editor
- Category Manager for creating a well-structured hierarchy of all the knowledge base content,
- Landing page customization
- Access permissions
- Versioning rollback and advanced features allow you to see the change history for each article within your knowledge base.
- Backup and restore for automatic project backup. You can also manually back up and restore your project at any time.
- Integration with other tools to create multi-channel support for end-users.
- Extensions to utilize your knowledge base in external systems like help desk and chat.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Seamless migration
- Home page builder with customization
- File base management for PDFs, Word docs, and video tutorials
- Excellent support
- Analytics dashboard
- Third-party software integration
Cons
- Weak article comments management
- Lack of support for Swagger/Open API files and Auth0
Pricing
Document360 offers five pricing options:
- Free: Five team accounts, public knowledge base, a limit of 50 articles, 1GB storage, customer branding, and home page builder.
- Startup: at $99 per project per month, with five team accounts, public knowledge base, unlimited articles, 50GB storage, customer branding, and home page builder.
- Business: at $249 per project per month, with all features in the Startup plan, 20 team accounts, public or private knowledge base, analytics, API access, backup and restore, notifications, and knowledge base assistant.
- Enterprise: at $499 per project per month, with all features in the Business plan, 20 team accounts, public and private knowledge base, IP restriction, audit logging, security groups and roles, localization, workflow, and customer email domain.
- Enterprise Plus: Enterprise-grade knowledge base for large-scale deployments. Mission-critical performance, scalability, and high availability. The Enterprise Plus plan supports everything in the Enterprise plan, plus private hosting, data residence, premium support, control on compliance, and additional security. To get pricing for this option, you need to contact Document360.
Nuclino
Nuclino is a simple and fast wiki that allows teams to organize information and collaborate in real-time. It is easy to use: even non-technical users can use it.
Nuclino is a lightweight application with an uncluttered interface. It focuses on the essentials: a distraction-free interface, intuitive navigation, fast search, and seamless real-time collaboration.
Key Features
- Easy to use editor: You can create and edit content with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor
- Real-time collaboration: Teams can edit together at the same time
- Instant search: Search and filter everything by title or content
- Views and visualizations: The graph view and others help you explore and organize information
- Markdown: Format content with your keyboard with Markdown commands
- Version control: Undo unwanted or accidental changes by restoring versions
- Export: Export content in multiple formats, including Markdown, PDF, and Word
Pros
- Desktop and mobile apps
- Integration with more than 40 apps
- Dark mode support
Cons
- Lack of support for reminders
- No API
- No integration with Excel
Pricing
Nuclino offers the following plans:
- Free: with a limit of 50 items, 2GB of total storage, real-time collaboration, app integrations, list, board and graph views, and web, desktop, and mobile apps.
- Standard: at $5 per user per month, with unlimited items, 10 GB storage per user, priority email support, two-factor authentication, editing restrictions, access restrictions, default workspaces, private workspaces, and version history.
LessonBridge
LessonBridge is a lessons learned database software. You can use it to build a repository of lessons learned and best practices from projects, events, or operations for future use.
LessonBridge is a cloud-based solution that enables businesses to discover, capture, manage and reuse this valuable corporate intelligence.
Key Features
- You can find and upload relevant lessons already existing in your organization and leverage the value of this knowledge from day one.
- You can document lessons learned in a standard template and can customize the template to meet your needs. You can also add images, videos, and links.
- Categorization of lessons learned for ease of searching.
- Use LessonBridge’s automated review process to ensure knowledge consistency, completeness, and quality.
- Search for relevant lessons learned to reduce project risks, resolve issues and improve processes.
- Push lessons learned from earlier projects to the teams that need to know them today.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Simple setup
- Focused on lessons learned only
- Uncluttered user interface
Cons
- Lack of customization options
Pricing
LessonBridge offers the following plans:
- Lite: this free plan supports unlimited users, maximum of 10 projects, customizable categories, customizable forms, quality review process, and multiple search options.
- Pro: at $8 per user per month, with unlimited projects, customizable categories, customizable forms, quality review process, multiple search options, and advanced security and reporting.
- Enterprise: this plan offers everything in the Pro version, plus custom contracts, custom 3rd party integrations, custom API Access, custom onboarding, and priority support. Please contact Secutor Solutions Sales for Enterprise plan pricing.
What are the Types of Knowledge Management Tools?
Here are the six types of knowledge management tools:
Learning Management Systems
A learning management system or LMS is a software or web-based solution used to plan, implement and assess a specific learning process.
The most common use cases for an LMS in a corporate environment is employee training and onboarding. In this case, the LMS is used to help train new employees by providing opportunities to access training materials across various devices. New employees can add their own knowledge and feedback, which in turn helps employers understand the effectiveness of the training courses and identify opportunities for improvement.
You can also use the LMS for customer, partner, and member training. Customer training is common in software and technology companies where users need training on a new product before using it.
LMS software is used for
- Online Courses
- Training programs
- Certification classes
Decision Support Systems
A decision support system or DSS is a knowledge management tool that enables companies to improve their decision-making capabilities.
A DSS can sift through and analyze massive amounts of data, compiling comprehensive information that you can use to solve problems and in decision-making.
Information used by a DSS can include target or projected revenue, sales figures from different time periods, and inventory- or operations-related data.
Document Management Systems
A document management system is used to capture, store, share, and retrieve electronic versions of documents and digital images.
Lessons Learned Software
A lesson learned software helps to create a database that contains information from lessons learned during past projects and from business practices. The database includes information gathered from people who have tackled problems in the past. It includes defined problems or situations, actions taken, outcomes, and results.
Lessons learned help to
- Prevent people from repeating mistakes made by people in similar situations in the past.
- Optimize decision-making when current scenarios mirror scenarios faced by others in the past.
- View current problems from a fresh perspective.
Corporate Wiki
A wiki is a website or online resource that multiple users can edit. Organizations use corporate wikis to manage information in-house, enabling teams to share knowledge and work together.
Knowledge Base Software
A knowledge base is a library of information about your product or service. It can include answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), how-to guides, and troubleshooting instructions. Its purpose is to make it easy for people to find solutions to their problems without having to ask for help. Knowledge bases use a combination of text, image, and video-based content.
Knowledge base software is a tool that helps you create, organize, and manage self-service content for internal and external customers.
Conclusion
Organizations use knowledge management to capture and share explicit, implicit, and tacit knowledge.
Knowledge management’s benefits include improved organizational agility, better and faster decision making, quicker problem-solving, increased rate of innovation, supported employee growth and development, sharing of specialist expertise, better communication, and improved business processes.
Software-based knowledge management tools play a key role in implementing corporate knowledge management.
Depending on your needs, you can choose knowledge management tools optimized for learning management, decision support, document management, knowledge bases, customer relationship management (CRM), corporate wikis, and content management.
To make your job easier and to help you make an informed decision, we compiled a list of the best knowledge management software for each category mentioned above.
So go ahead, implement knowledge management in your organization, and take it to new heights of success.
