Knowledge base tools can be quite useful and handy for large corporations and small companies alike. Nowadays, with all the tools and platforms available on the internet, companies can make a lot of their day-to-day tasks, especially the repetitive ones, smooth and easy.

Knowledge base software falls in the same category, as they can help make organizational information sharing quicker and easier.

But, as is the case with many valuable resources on the internet, knowledge base tools often come with a subscription charge. As a small startup owner, you could be contemplating whether it’s worth it to get one for your team or not.

In this post, that is the question that we’ll be answering. We will mention all the various benefits of these tools, along with the drawbacks set against them. This will help you understand how practical or otherwise they are in the long run.

Comparison Table for the Upsides and Downsides of Knowledge Base Platforms

Here is a brief table that we’ve created to give you a quick overview of the upsides and downsides of knowledge base platforms. In the coming sections, we will explain these pros and cons in more detail.

Benefits of KBPs	Downsides of KBPs
Offer a central information-sharing space that a collective group of people can access at any time they need	Can be pricey and costly
Make customer support easy by giving users and clients access to helpful articles	Can be difficult to manage and maintain
Simplify the onboarding process for employees	Can overcomplicate things in simpler company setups

What Exactly is a Knowledge Base Tool?

A knowledge base tool, also called a knowledge base platform, is a place where articles are created and shared amongst a specific group of people.

These are used particularly to share articles and data amongst a team so that the files don’t have to be individually sent to each person. Rather, the members can access the articles any time they need and simply peruse them on the cloud instead of downloading and storing them on their devices.

Knowledge base tools are also used for customer support. For example, an online service provider company or SaaS platform could upload articles on its online knowledge base and share them with all of its clients and customers.

General, repetitive information, such as return policies, terms of service, and other support-related data, such as account restoration guidelines, can be shared via this method. Clients/customers can search the articles to find solutions to their problems.

This type of arrangement benefits companies/brands that have a lot of support information to give to their clients. Normally, moderate amounts of data are provided on the company’s website pages. But, if there is a lot of data to share, doing it on the website can slow the latter down, hence the need for dedicated knowledge base tools.

• A knowledge base that is accessible to only a specific team or group is known as an internal knowledge base.
• One that is accessible to users in general, such as clients and customers, is known as an external knowledge base.
• And finally, a knowledge base that everyone on the internet can access is known as an open knowledge base.

Benefits and Advantages of Knowledge Base Platforms

Moving on, let’s take a look at some of the main advantages and benefits of using KBPs. After that, we’ll look at the possible downsides and then conclude whether using these platforms is a smart choice for small startups.

Knowledge base platforms offer a centralized space for information sharing

In an organization, various types of information have to be shared among the members/employees on a regular basis. This information can include project updates, guidelines announcements, troubleshooting steps, and so on.

Sharing this information via a knowledge base platform can be very efficient. The link for the knowledge base can be sent to the chatting platform’s main channel, where everyone can access it. Then, they can view the data in the form of neatly structured and formatted articles in the knowledge base.

Many people could think that the same can be done with cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive. What makes knowledge base platforms different from these services is that they have specific and dedicated features for creating and sharing articles.

For example, with a knowledge base platform, you can set the access limits for specific articles and categories, embed interactive content elements, track engagement metrics, etc.

So, this is one of the main benefits of using these platforms for a small business. They offer a centralized space for data and information sharing, which makes things easier and smoother for everyone in the team.

Knowledge base platforms make customer support smooth and easy

A common use of knowledge base platforms is in customer support. An “external” knowledge base can be used to contain articles that clients and customers can refer to find solutions to their problems.

For example, if a company expects its users to face certain confusion or issues when using their product/service, they can create an article for it and publish it on their knowledge base. The customers can then search for it when they need and find the solution to their problem without opening a support ticket.

This can help the customer save time by not having to deal with the hassle of opening a ticket, describing their problem in detail, and then waiting for a reply. Similarly, it can help the company save time and resources by not having to allocate a customer support agent to every other person who has a few simple questions to ask.

For companies that run online SaaS platforms and e-commerce stores, this can be very useful.

Knowledge base platforms can make onboarding very easy

Another benefit of knowledge base platforms is that they can make the onboarding process for new employees very quick and easy.

During employee onboarding, standardized information about their roles and the company is provided. There is typically an orientation phase where the new members are directly educated about their jobs and the company’s mission/vision by their higher-ups. However, even after that, the onboarding material should be kept available to the employees so that they can refer to it whenever they need in the future.

Knowledge base platforms can be excellent for this purpose. “Internal” knowledge bases can be configured to be accessed only by the members of an organization. The new employees can be granted access to them, where they can find the basic rules of their workplace, the tasks that are expected of them, and so forth.

This benefit is essentially an extension of what we mentioned in the first point, i.e., central information sharing.

What are the Challenges and Downsides of Knowledge Base Platforms?

Now that we are done looking at the benefits of these platforms, let’s take a look at some of the challenges they present and the downsides they come with.

Knowledge base platforms can be pricey

One of the main downsides that you have to deal with when using knowledge base platforms is their recurring (and often steep) pricing. If you’re using the best knowledge base platform out there, the prices can go as high as $100+ for a month.

For a startup company, making these recurring payments can be difficult. 

Knowledge base platforms can be difficult and arduous to manage

It can be difficult and time-consuming to manage and maintain a knowledge base platform. Editing the articles, updating their access limitations, etc., can be quite a time-consuming task. Bigger companies may actually have an individual or a team specifically for this job.

However, for a startup, dealing with all this can be a hassle they’re not yet ready for. 

Knowledge base platforms can sometimes overcomplicate things

Although knowledge base platforms can be great for companies that have to deal with customer support on a regular basis or those who have a lot of employees, in smaller and simpler startups, they can end up overcomplicating things.

For example, for a small startup providing B2B services to select clients, a knowledge base platform won’t be very useful. If anything, it would just be an unnecessary hassle.

Answering the Question: To Get or Not to Get?

Now that we’ve looked at all the benefits and drawbacks of these platforms, we can answer the main question: should startups use them or not?

• If a startup has to deal with customer queries and questions regularly, or if they have a lot of employees amongst whom large amounts of data have to be shared, they should utilize a knowledge base platform. In this situation, the drawbacks of these tools are heavily outweighed by their usefulness.
• On the other hand, if a startup has none of these needs, then a knowledge base platform can be unnecessary.

Another factor to keep in mind is the pricing and costs. If the startup has a comfortable budget to spend on online tools and utilities, only then should they invest in a knowledge base platform.