A list of the most efficient, reliable free, and open source knowledge base software solutions to build an online knowledge management system in 2022.
If you want to start with a basic knowledge base, and want to create a custom one, one of these free and open-source knowledge base software can work the best for you.
These free and open-source knowledge base applications are a great way to create a feature-packed online knowledge base website.
Whether it is an internal knowledge base or an external knowledge base, one of these open source solutions for knowledge base will help you get started quickly and provide you with an interface to add knowledge base articles easily.
MediaWiki – Free open source Knowledge base software
MediaWiki is a platform to create online wiki websites. It is free and open source and you can use it to create almost any kind of company wiki, internal knowledge base, external knowledge base, online documentation, and so on.
It provides you with a platform to create multilingual and highly customizable knowledge base websites. There are options to help you collect and manage the knowledge.
Wikipedia is based on MediaWiki and therefore it is safe to say that it is safe and highly scalable. Built on PHP, it is one of the most reliable ways to create awesome wiki or knowledge base websites.
This tool is one of the most reliable and popular open source knowledge base platform and can be downloaded and used for free. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia of resources uses Mediawiki.
MediaWiki supports over 65 languages and can be modified for even more languages. It also includes a WYSIWYG editor to create the knowledge base. You can also find its documentation to help you with knowledge base creation.
WordPress + BasePress – For Awesome Knowledge Bases
WordPress is a free and open source knowledge base solution for creating almost any kind of website. You can create a knowledge base easily with the help of WordPress as it is a CMS that is specifically built for creating content-based sites.
The beauty of WordPress is that it is highly flexible and very easy to use. It offers you multiple ways through which you can create an open source knowledge base. If you are a programmer, you can download a simple theme and turn it into a fully functional online knowledge base.
For those who are not developers and programmers, there are ready-to-use WordPress themes that are built for the niche. These premium themes are easy to use and designed professionally to create an online knowledge base.
For example, the knowhow theme is one of the most popular WordPress themes for online knowledge base creation. You can download this theme, and use it to create an online kb, along with other WordPress plugins to create an advanced knowledge base website.
Similarly, you can use WordPress and the free BasePress plugin to create a simple but awesome and highly manageable information repository. Whether it is an internal or external knowledge base you want to create, the WordPress and BasePress plugin can be used to achieve it easily and quickly.
BasePress can be downloaded for free and used to create a knowledge base attached to your WordPress website. It can be used to create single or multiple knowledge base websites.
There are simple and intuitive options, and it follows a simple structure to create a knowledge base. Therefore, even if you are totally new to website building and content management on the knowledge base, you can use this tool to build a professional-grade open-source knowledge base.
eXo platform for Workspace management & collaboration
Exo platform is a collaboration and workspace software that can be used for company wikis, or as an internal knowledge base. It helps the workers of the organization collaborate and share knowledge about the projects.
This highly extensible system is flexible and based on open standards. Therefore, you can use it as a knowledge base platform, or a documentation centre, or a workspace collaboration medium. Even thought the eXo platform is not completely free, it is an open source solution.
It is also a great communication channel for the team mates to share and discuss their ideas. It has a documents management system that makes it one of the best open source knowledge base solution with many features like rollback, votes, versioning & history as well as commenting on the articles.
What makes eXo platform different from the other open source knowledge base solutions is the fact that it will allow you with community option where the team members can share the ideas and better collaboration through
eXo is one of the best platforms to create an internal knowledge sharing portal. It is a knowledge sharing and communication platform that has adaptive features and is very easy to use.
PHPmyFAQ Free Open source FAQ Platform
While the others in this list are open source knowledge base, this is a free, easy, and open source solution for creating online FAQs. However, you can turn it into a beautiful KMS easily with the available features.
This is a database-driven tool, which will need a little bit of technical understanding to be used. But, a little study into the usage and requirements of the tool will give you an idea of how you can use it as a free and open source knowledge management software.
It was launched in 2001 and since then has been properly maintained and updated. It comes with multiple language support, and a WYSIWYG editor to create your knowledge base/FAQs content.
The features also include an image manager and a new system, user tracking, and PDF support. Therefore the knowledge base can have data in any form that you wish. For user access control, there is an advanced user and group permission-based management system.
There are other features including a revision system, FAQ statistics, backup, and restore option. It allows user comments and extended site map support on the online FAQs as well as the content. It also comes with extended site map support.
The phpMyFAQ system supports a wide range of databases like MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and MS SQL server. It also requires PHP 5.3.3 or higher to function. It has an advanced search system to help your visitors find the information they are looking for easily.
To create the content, you can rely on a user-friendly HTML editor. There are options and widgets to help you display the results by categories and tags.
Documize – Documentation & Knowledge Sharing Tool
This is a free open source and modern knowledge base software to create a knowledge base website. It is a lightweight solution to create an enterprise-wide, or external knowledge base site.
It has all the features to manage and organize the documents. The inbuilt features will allow you to easily add and edit the knowledge base documents. Moreover, there are advanced search features to help the readers find the documents.
You can add up to 10 people with the free version to edit and manage the documents. Many people can edit the same document at the same time. There is an inbuilt feature to help you discover the edit history and who edited which part. There is a WYSIWYG editor too.
There can be many applications of this software. It is also a secure platform to create a system where you want to limit the access or keep it open.
It also has a pro version that comes with advanced features. It also allows you to create, edit, save as a draft, review as well as approve the documents. Documize also supports a lot of file formats.
There is a premium version too if you need advanced features. The software is easy to use and manage. It also has many elegant features to customize and control the access of the documents.
You can use it as a simple document manager or a multi-article knowledge management system.
OpenKM – Open Source Knowledge Management System
This is an open source knowledge base and document management system that has many features to let you create a corporate setup share knowledge and store it.
It can also be used as a workflow management system that allows you to store the processes or the work procedures, schedule tasks, and let the employees communicate with each other through a centralized system.
Therefore, the OpenKm is much more than just one of the open source knowledge base solutions. It allows task automation which can help you get more productivity, accuracy and better performance for your organization.
It also includes a workflow module to help you document the workflows, assign groups and tasks, and keep track of the status of the work procedures. It also helps you keep records. Whether it is lifecycle management, and manage content.
OpenKM’s development tool suite allows you to create a custom app according to your requirements to that your open source knowledge base platform can be accessed and data can be added or managed on the go.
Conclusion
Choosing one of these open source knowledge base programs will help you to build a very flexible and adaptable online kb for your organization.
You can choose a platform of your choice based on your requirements. For example: There are a few open source knowledge base software fit for internal knowledge base and workflow management of an organization, whereas the others are fit for open knowledge base platforms where anyone can access the data.
It is very important to choose a knowledge management system that has all the features that you require for your knowledge base.
