The Best Technical Documentation Software for 2024

You’ve likely heard the phrase “knowledge is power” before, right? While this statement, on its own, elicits an impactful mindset your enterprise or business should focus on, it’s true that it’s the process of attaining, optimizing, and analyzing that knowledge that makes the real difference.

That is to say, acknowledging that knowledge is power is one thing—obtaining and maximizing that knowledge is another. 

This is precisely where the technical documentation—as a process and as a fine-tuned software—comes into play, ultimately acting as that defining difference between acknowledgment and action. 

Making the decision to invest in technical documentation software is a big step in itself, but the larger one comes in the form of the exact technical documentation software you and your company should invest in. 

For most companies—no matter their niche or industry, access to a powerful, intuitive technical documentation software can make all the difference in the process of creating, publishing, and optimizing their technical documentation. Without a fine-tuned system or software, this process can be tedious, overwhelming, and inefficient. 

But how do you get from point A—deciding you need technical documentation software to help empower your enterprise—to point B—choosing the perfect-for-you software that’s going to streamline your technical documentation efforts?

The short answer: plenty of research. The longer (and better) solution: read through this article, we’ve done the dirty work to provide you with the knowledge, reviews, and answers you need to choose the technical documentation software that’s going to change the way your business handles its technical documentation. 

Want to skip the foundational knowledge, answers to frequently asked questions, and reviews? Please feel free. Here’s our list of the best technical documentation software on the market for 2024,

• Helpjuice
• KnowAll 
• ClickHelp 
• HelpDocs 
• KnowledgeOwl 
• Confluence

What Is Technical Documentation Anyway? 

First and foremost, let’s have a quick recap on the term technical documentation before we dive into choosing the right software.The term varies across industries and contexts, so it's not confined to a single definition. However, for clarity, let's consider a broad yet concise description:

Technical documentation is a type of content that details how a product functions. It encompasses the features, functionalities, and methodologies of a product. Such documentation is typically crafted by technical writers in collaboration with subject matter experts who possess in-depth knowledge of the specific topics and products being described.

This form of documentation finds its application across numerous industries and is the product of professionals from diverse backgrounds - including engineers who design and build products, product developers, stakeholders reliant on product information, and end-users who are the ultimate consumers of these products.

The essence of technical documentation lies in its ability to distill complex concepts into clear, comprehensible guides. When done correctly (and well), technical documentation can simplify and streamline complex ideas into easy-to-understand guides that, ideally, even non-experts would be able to read and understand. 

Technical documentation can be used for purposes such as:

• Explaining how products are designed to work
• Documenting internal processes
• Putting all internal documentation into a single, cohesive place 
• Discussing how a particular piece of software works 
• Capturing correct information that’s valuable for team productivity
• Making information easy to find and easier to reference 

Ultimately, the goal of technical documentation is to simplify complex information, thereby making processes more efficient and user-friendly.

Knowing this, understanding the definition of technical documentation software is relatively intuitive: technical documentation software is designed to make technical documentation simpler and more streamlined. 

What is Technical Documentation Software?

At its most basic definition, technical documentation software is a uniquely designed program that supports, streamlines, and optimizes your technical documentation processes or strategies. 

Technical documentation software should allow your technical writers to do their best writing, make it feasible for your team to contribute, and have optimized functionality that helps you write better technical documents. To fully leverage this optimized functionality, it's crucial to understand the intricacies of technical writing itself. For a deeper dive into this subject, our guide on technical writing software offers valuable insights and practical tips

Ultimately, high-quality technical documentation software should offer factors like streamlined writing experiences, seamless editing, good access control, optimized organization, and affordable pricing plans.

The Different Types of Technical Documentation You Should Know About 

Understanding the types of technical documentation out there is going to play a key role in determining the type of software you ultimately choose. Remember, technical documentation isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. 

Project-Based Technical Documentation

This type of technical documentation is primarily used internally by your development team and should explain how you made the product. This typically includes:

• Project timelines: Chronological outlines of the project's progress and deadlines.
• Internal meeting notes and reports: Documentation of discussions, decisions, and action items from team meetings.
• Product requirements: Detailed descriptions of product specifications and customer needs.
• Process documentation: Step-by-step guides on the processes and methodologies used in development.

Product-Based Technical Documentation

This type of documentation is usually external, focusing specifically on your end-users or the public. It typically includes:

• FAQs: Answers to commonly asked questions about the product.
  
• Tutorials: Step-by-step instructions to guide users in using the product.
• Installation guides: Detailed processes for installing and setting up the product.
• User documentation: Manuals and guides that provide comprehensive information on product features and usage.
  

Software Documentation

Software documentation is integral to the development and usage of software products, crucial for both internal teams and end-users. This category includes:

• User manuals: Instructions on how to use the software effectively.
• System architecture documents: Descriptions of the software's design and architecture.
• Code documentation: In-line comments and notes within the codebase.
• Technical specifications: Documentation of software functionalities and requirements.
• Development guides: Insights on how to extend or customize software.

API Documentation

API documentation is essential for software products offering an Application Programming Interface. It includes:

• Technical specifications: Descriptions of API requests and responses.
• Code examples: Examples of API use in various programming languages.
• Authentication guidelines: Instructions for secure API authentication.
• Error handling: How to handle errors while using the API.

Troubleshooting Guides

Troubleshooting guides help users solve problems with your product. These guides typically include:

• Common issues: Frequently encountered problems and solutions.
• Step-by-step troubleshooting: Instructions to diagnose and resolve issues.
• Diagnostic tools: Tools or methods to identify problems.
• Contact information: Where to get further help.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

SOPs provide detailed, written instructions for specific functions, particularly in regulated industries. SOPs typically include:

• Process steps: Instructions for routine operations.
• Safety protocols: Guidelines for safety and compliance.
• Quality standards: Criteria for maintaining quality.
• Revision history: Records of updates and changes.

Policy and Procedure Manuals

Policy and procedure manuals outline rules and guidelines for business operations, including:

• Company policies: Guidelines on company ethics, conduct, and standards.
• Operational procedures: Instructions on company processes.
• Compliance directives: Adherence to legal and regulatory standards.
• Employee responsibilities: Clarification of roles and duties.

Training Manuals

Training manuals facilitate learning for new users or employees, offering:

• Learning objectives: Goals of the training.
• Instructional content: Detailed explanations of tasks or features.
• Interactive elements: Quizzes, exercises, and tasks.
• Evaluation criteria: Metrics to assess training effectiveness.

The Top 6 Reasons Your Business Should Invest in Technical Documentation Software

Creating consistent, reliable technical documentation is important for its own reasons—it’s crucial for stakeholders, saves time, cuts costs, records all the necessary information for products and projects, and acts as a rule book for those involved.

Technical documentation software is a way to optimize these processes for even more benefits. Without organized, intuitive software, the technical documentation process can be messy, outdated, clunky, and make the strategy more difficult than it needs to be.

With a program specifically designed to streamline your technical documentation process, your strategy can be more seamless and straightforward than ever. But in what ways, exactly? 

1. Improve the Customer Experience Through Better Writing

As we’ve discussed, a good portion of technical documentation ends up in the hands of the end-user. Because of this, it’s important that your customers and the public are able to digest and understand the technical documentation in a way that makes sense—much of this depends on the quality of the content and how the documentation is written. 

Software is designed to help ease the writing process, edit clunky texts, and create streamlined, easy-to-understand content that’s not just readable, but actionable.

With better documentation, you can better guide users on using a particular product, thus improving the overall customer experience.

2. Cut Costs, Save Time

Though many technical documentation software programs will come with a price tag, it’s likely that this investment will save you money and time in the long run. 

Think of the substantial cost that goes hand-in-hand with incorrectly written technical documentation—from both the internal and external facets. Improperly written documentation can result in inordinate wastes of time from your internal team, frustration from your end-users, and user error, too. 

Technical documentation software that enables you to write clearer, better documentation can save you money and effort in the end. 

3. Improved Documenting of Internal Processes

Technical documentation software helps you create, edit, and optimize documentation in more clear-cut, convenient ways. While this benefits end-users and external factors, it also heavily impacts your internal team and their processes. 

By utilizing technical documentation software, your team will be able to more easily document internal processes in a more cohesive, concise, and formulaic way, ensuring a streamlined process that’s followed correctly. These standard operating procedures result in a better internal system and a better internal process.  

4. Optimize Team Alignment & Collaboration

Documentation is rarely a one-man show—it takes a lot of effort from many different parties to create concise, easy-to-understand documentation that does its job well.

That means collaboration is vital. Without a cohesive system to manage this collaboration in a single place, deadlines can be lost, work can be mismanaged, and the process can be more tedious and clunky than needed.

Software for technical documentation is designed to ease the burden of collaboration to ensure the focus remains on the work itself—not the hard-to-understand process. 

5. Streamline Process

With dedicated technical documentation software, your documentation process follows a set workflow and timeline, ensuring that nothing gets lost in the process, deadlines are met, teams are able to collaborate, and work is able to be reviewed on time. 

In other words, any haphazard, non-regulated processes are things of the past when you implement a software system that’s specifically designed to streamline your strategy and follow a dedicated workflow. 

6. Capture & Organize Correct Information in a Single Place

Without a dedicated software option, simple acts like filing and storing information to be referenced later can be a struggle. 

As simple as it might sound, software for technical documentation ensures a comprehensive, organized space where it’s easier than ever to find, locate, and reference your technical documentation files. 

The Best Technical Documentation Software on the Market

Now that we've explored the various types of technical documentation and their significance as well as the benefits of making use of technical documentation software, the next step is actually selecting the right tool to create and manage these documents. 

The market offers a plethora of software options, each with unique features and capabilities, which is why we've curated a list of the best software solutions for 2024. We chose these tools for their ability to streamline the documentation process, enhance collaboration, and provide intuitive interfaces to accommodate the diverse needs of technical documentation.

1. Helpjuice

Innovative, streamlined, and well thought through, Helpjuice is a knowledge base platform that makes it easy for employees to write technical documentation. Moreover, with Helpjuice's live commenting feature, technical writers can collaborate directly with each other, in real-time, on any technical document that's being created. 

A SaaS solution, Helpjuice makes it easy to create a knowledge base that can be used to store and organize all of your technical documentation and allow it to be easily accessible regardless of a user's location or device. Additionally, Helpjuice also comes with privacy features so that you can control who sees what, whether your technical documentation is for public consumption, internal only, or just for a specific team or set of employees.

Highlights 

• Easy authoring with markdown editor support as well as WYSIWYG 
• Ability to easily collaborate in real-time with live commenting feature
• Google-esque search and autosuggest features to make it easy for users to find the right technical documentation
• Powerful analytics to give direct insight into content consumption
• Unbelievably customizable with multiple themes to choose from
• Privacy controls 
• Multiple integrations
  
  

2. KnowAll 

(Source)

KnowAll is an ideal knowledge base theme for anyone using WordPress that can be used to create a repository for storing technical documentation. With a robust content management system designed to make creating your content easier than ever, KnowAll is considered to be one of the more popular full-featured WordPress knowledge base themes. 

Highlights 

• Strong search features
• Equipped with popular WordPress editor for seamless creation 
• Widgets and shortcodes included 
• Complex structures supported
• Translation-ready for multiple languages 

3. ClickHelp 

(Source)

Considered one of the most comprehensive technical documentation software tools out there, ClickHelp is often coined the “online help authoring tool” that’s designed specifically for creating and hosting technical documentation. It’s a SaaS tool, so no install or configuration is required, making the process pretty easy to jumpstart. Further, with a focus specifically on technical documentation, this program isn’t bogged down with additional initiatives or tools non-conducive to technical documentation.  

Highlights 

• Easy facilitation of editing and workflows, allowing multiple authors and editors in a single documentation 
• 20+ integrations designed for technical documentation process 
• Easy to customize and change 
• Access control and password-protected documents 
• Reporting and content analysis are available 
• Readability reports available 
• Patented search engine & popular documentation templates available 

4. HelpDocs 

(Source)

This one-piece software enables you to build, host, and monitor your knowledge base in a cohesive swoop. Focused on self-serve content, HelpDocs comes packed with the tools you need to personalize your support, your technical documentation, and your workflows. Though not designed primarily as a technical documentation software, its host of features available help to create and maintain helpful, up-to-date documentation. 

Highlights 

• Supports multiple roles for optimum collaboration on a doc 
• Offers extreme options for customization 
• Formatting tools that enable rich technical documentation that’s easy to understand 
• Advanced search functions available 
• Insights into document performance 
• Equipped with templates that are easy to modify and customize 

5. KnowledgeOwl 

(Source)

Easy to use and feature-packed, KnowledgeOwl provides users with a knowledge base solution that works wonders for creating and maintain technical documentation. Designed as a SaaS solution, the setup is easy, streamlined, and grants the user full control of how the technical documentation content is displayed and viewed. Its tagline, “everything in one place” holds true, offering a variety of integrated features that help companies manage a multitude of knowledge base offerings. 

Highlights 

• Equipped with an advanced search feature that offers autosuggest for easy searching 
• Features to display related content 
• Supports access control and a fil library with advanced user permissions 
• Displays optional, helpful feedback for analysis on how content is performing 

6. Confluence

(Source)

Another knowledge-sharing platform with a keen focus on collaboration, Confluence describes itself as a remote-friendly team workspace where knowledge and collaboration meet. 

With a focus on building, organizing, and collaborating on work in a single, cohesive space from anywhere and everywhere, Confluence saves time by harnessing your team’s collective knowledge into easy-to-find processes and easier-to-use templates. Confluence focuses on streamlining processes, cutting time, and maintaining consistency. 

Highlights 

• Equipped with almost 100 available templates, some for technical documentation specifics 
• Seamless collaboration processes similar to Google Docs
• Simple control access process for all documentation 
• Open, connected structure allows information to flow freely among everyone at the organization 
• Advanced search features for easy-to-locate function 
• Variety of plans and pricing with a free version available 

Technical Documentation Software and Knowledge Base Software, a Match Made in Heaven 

Technical documentation is a crucial part of any business and is largely considered to hand-in-hand with knowledge sharing processes. Finding software that works to integrate your needs all one, cohesive place can ultimately be the modern innovation your company needs to improve workflow and enhance processes effectively and efficiently. 

With comprehensive knowledge base software like Helpjuice, knowledge sharing on a personal and organizational level isn’t just simple and streamlined, it’s easily integrated into your technical documentation goals.

From recognizing hard work to maximizing the efficiency with which information is shared, stored, and accessed, Helpjuice’s comprehensive approach to technical documentation and knowledge sharing is the ultimate key to your company’s success. 

Ready to transform your technical documentation and knowledge sharing processes? Experience the difference firsthand with Helpjuice. Sign up now for our 14-day free trial and unlock the full potential of streamlined documentation and efficient knowledge management. No credit card required, no strings attached.