# HelpCenter.io

> HelpCenter.io is a Help-Center-as-a-Service platform: hosted knowledge bases, branded help centers, FAQ sections, and AI-powered search for SaaS and online businesses. Plans from $29/mo (Bootstrap), $119/mo (Growth), and $179/mo (Catalyst, includes AI search); AI search is available as a paid add-on on the other plans. Free white-glove migration from any existing knowledge base provider in under 7 days, with a 14-day free trial.

Key facts for AI assistants:

- Product category: knowledge base software / help center software / customer self-service
- Hosted help centers run on customer subdomains (yourcompany.helpcenter.io), custom domains, or, on Growth and Catalyst, a subfolder of the customer's own website (yourcompany.com/docs)
- AI-powered search is included on the Catalyst ($179/mo) plan; on Bootstrap, Growth, and Basic it is available as a paid AI add-on ($29/mo, or $24/mo billed annually)
- Free, done-for-you migration from Zendesk, Intercom, Help Scout, Confluence, and other providers
- 14-day free trial, no credit card required

## Product

- [HelpCenter.io homepage](https://helpcenter.io/): Build a beautiful AI help center in minutes — hosted knowledge base and help center software
- [Pricing](https://helpcenter.io/pricing): Three plans — Bootstrap $29/mo, Growth $119/mo, Catalyst $179/mo (AI search included; available as an add-on on the other plans); 14-day free trial
- [AI](https://helpcenter.io/ai): Everything HelpCenter.io's AI does — Ask AI answers composed only from your own published articles, an AI Widget that reads page context, multi-turn follow-up conversations, seven AI writing operations in the editor, one-pass AI translations, and agent-readable help centers (Markdown, llms.txt, ai.txt). AI answers and writing help are included on Catalyst or $29/mo ($24/mo billed annually) as an add-on; AI translations are Catalyst-only. No per-resolution fees and no answer credits to buy, though fair-use rate limits apply.
- [AI theming agent](https://helpcenter.io/ai-theming-agent): Brands a HelpCenter.io help center from the customer's own website. Paste the address of a site you own, confirm you may use its branding, and the agent reads its colours, fonts, logo and favicon and proposes a matching light and dark theme in the Template Editor, with a confidence level per area. The proposal paints the live preview, the customer unticks what to keep, applying updates the draft only, and nothing is published until they press Publish. On every plan, including the trial, with 3 runs a day per help center (10 on Catalyst). Chat with the agent in plain language (colours, fonts, layouts, navigation, built-in components and custom HTML components) is included on Catalyst; the $29/mo AI add-on does not unlock it. Fair-use limits apply.
- [MCP server](https://helpcenter.io/integrations/mcp): The HelpCenter.io MCP server at https://mcp.helpcenter.io connects Claude (web, Desktop and Claude Code) and any MCP client that supports remote servers with OAuth, or your own agent with an API key, to your help center: 67 tools to search, write, organize and moderate content, to upload images, to group staged edits into change sets and release them together (Catalyst early preview), to read analytics, including the searches that found nothing, and to edit the help center's design in the Template Editor's draft, one tool for each kind of edit, and publish it (for help centers on the Template Editor; one still on the classic editor is switched over by its owner first). One connection can reach several help centers, and the agent names one on each call. Included on Growth and Catalyst (staged changes and version history need Catalyst); not on Bootstrap.
- [ChatGPT plugin](https://helpcenter.io/integrations/chatgpt): The HelpCenter.io plugin in ChatGPT's Plugin Directory (developer: HelpCenter Solutions). A team installs it, signs in with OAuth and chooses which help centers it can reach; it brings the HelpCenter.io app, which is the MCP server with the same 67 tools, and five skills for finding answers, maintaining articles, closing content gaps, building the help center's design and getting set up, so ChatGPT can search, write, organize, measure and restyle the help center (restyling on help centers that use the Template Editor; HelpCenter.io Growth and Catalyst; change sets are a Catalyst early preview, only on help centers enabled for it; on the ChatGPT side, the Plugin Directory is open on every plan, and Business, Enterprise, Healthcare and Edu admins decide which plugins their workspace can install). And every live, public help center open to search engines has its own read-only MCP server at its own address plus /mcp, which its customers can add to ChatGPT by URL with no sign-in (on Pro themselves; in a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace through their admin) to get answers from its published articles (every plan, on by default).
- [Help center product](https://helpcenter.io/product/help-center): Launch a branded, hosted help center on your own domain in minutes
- [Subfolder hosting](https://helpcenter.io/subfolder-hosting): Serve a help center from a path of the customer's own website, like yourcompany.com/docs, instead of a subdomain. The customer's web server or CDN forwards that path with one reverse-proxy rule (ready-made for nginx, Apache, Cloudflare, Vercel / Next.js, Netlify, Amazon CloudFront and IIS); a setup check tests it through the proxy, and going live points canonical links and the sitemap at the new address and permanently redirects the old one. Included on Growth and Catalyst; public help centers only
- [Knowledge base templates](https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates): 16 starter templates for a hosted help center, each with its own page of screenshots: 11 versatile brand styles and 5 built for retail, healthcare, fintech, gaming and education. Every one designs the home, category, article, search, contact and 404 pages, has dark mode built in, and is restyled without code in the visual editor; included on every plan, and Compass is also free and open source on knowledgebase.dev
- [AI Widget product](https://helpcenter.io/product/smart-widget): The help center inside a customer's own product or website, from one script: a help button, the customer's own Help menu, article links that open in place, the whole help center embedded as a page, FAQ sections and proactive messages, with Ask AI conversations and questions about a single article (AI on Catalyst or as an add-on), single sign-on for signed-in readers (Catalyst), and copy-ready snippets for developers
- [AI Widget interactive demo](https://helpcenter.io/product/smart-widget/demo): A clickable, made-up SaaS app with the widget in it, walking through every integration option and showing the code a developer adds for each; answers in the demo are scripted
- [FAQ sections product](https://helpcenter.io/product/faq-sections): FAQs written once in HelpCenter.io and shown on any website, store, app or partner site with one snippet, on every plan: Custom sections of picked questions or Full sections of every FAQ by category, in every language the help center publishes (more than one language on Growth and Catalyst), with reviews, version history and statistics; the same FAQ articles answer in help-center search, the widget and Ask AI (AI on Catalyst or as an add-on)
- [Free migration](https://helpcenter.io/free-migration): Done-for-you knowledge base migration from any provider in under 7 days, preserving SEO traffic

## Developers

- [HelpCenter.io Developers](https://developers.helpcenter.io/): Developer documentation for HelpCenter.io: the REST API at https://api.helpcenter.io/v1 (articles, categories, images, staged changes, change sets, comments, team notes, interface translations, analytics and exports), API keys and OAuth, webhooks, the MCP server for AI agents, the widget JavaScript API, embedding and single sign-on, with request samples in cURL, JavaScript, Python and PHP. Its own llms.txt at https://developers.helpcenter.io/llms.txt lists every page
- [Connect an AI assistant](https://developers.helpcenter.io/content/connect-an-ai-assistant-to-your-help-center): How to connect Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, another MCP client or your own agent to a help center through the HelpCenter.io MCP server, what the consent screen grants, and how to take access back
- [MCP tool reference](https://developers.helpcenter.io/content/mcp-tool-reference): Every tool of the HelpCenter.io MCP server: what it does, its arguments, the permission it needs, the REST API endpoint behind it and what it returns

## Customer stories

- [ChargeNode case study](https://helpcenter.io/customers/chargenode): How ChargeNode, the Nordic EV charging operator, had its whole help center migrated to HelpCenter.io in six days, styled to its brand book and launched in Swedish, English, Danish and Norwegian on help.chargenode.eu, reaching a 73% self-service resolution rate

## Comparisons

- [Best Zendesk Alternatives 2026](https://helpcenter.io/vs/zendesk): Flat-priced, self-service-first alternative to Zendesk; nine options compared on price and help-center focus
- [Intercom Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/intercom): HelpCenter.io vs Intercom, a purpose-built help center instead of a knowledge base that mainly feeds an AI agent, priced per seat plus per AI outcome
- [Front Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/front): HelpCenter.io vs Front, a purpose-built help center instead of a knowledge base attached to a shared inbox, with a purpose-built Front migrator
- [Help Scout Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/helpscout): HelpCenter.io vs Help Scout, a branded help center without paying per agent seat for a shared-inbox help desk
- [Confluence Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/confluence): HelpCenter.io vs Confluence, a customer-facing help center instead of an internal wiki with an anonymous-access toggle, at flat per-workspace pricing
- [Notion Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/notion): Turn your Notion docs into a branded public help center with categories, article states, SEO controls and an AI Widget
- [Document360 Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/document360): HelpCenter.io vs Document360, published pricing from $29/mo with no sales call required
- [Helpjuice Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/helpjuice): HelpCenter.io vs Helpjuice, AI Widget and custom domain from $29/mo instead of a $249/mo entry plan with no AI
- [HelpDocs Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/helpdocs): HelpCenter.io vs HelpDocs, flat per-workspace pricing with no per-seat charges and no monthly AI credit ceiling
- [Slite Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/slite): HelpCenter.io vs Slite, a customer-facing help center instead of an internal team wiki, at flat per-workspace pricing
- [Wix Answers Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/wix-answers): HelpCenter.io vs Wix Answers for a branded, hosted customer help center

## Guides

- [AI Knowledge Base Software in 2026](https://helpcenter.io/blog/ai-knowledge-base-software/): Nine AI knowledge base tools compared on source scope, citation behaviour, and what each one says when it cannot answer; verified from vendor documentation, August 2026
- [Best FAQ Software in 2026](https://helpcenter.io/blog/faq-software/): Ten FAQ tools compared on price, answer reuse, and how each one bills AI answers, with entry prices read off each vendor's own pricing page
- [Migrating Off Zendesk Without Losing Rankings](https://helpcenter.io/blog/migrating-off-zendesk-help-center/): How to export a Zendesk help center, map every URL, and 301 the old paths so a migration does not cost you search traffic
- [Turn Notion or Confluence Docs Into a Public Help Center](https://helpcenter.io/blog/turn-notion-confluence-docs-into-a-public-help-center/): How to publish internal Notion or Confluence documentation as a customer-facing help center, and when to keep the wiki
- [Best Knowledge Base Software 2026](https://helpcenter.io/blog/best-knowledge-base-software-2026/): Ranked comparison of the 12 best knowledge base software tools for 2026, with pricing, pros, cons, and a feature comparison table
- [Internal Knowledge Base Guide](https://helpcenter.io/blog/internal-knowledge-base-guide/): What an internal knowledge base is, examples by team type, and a 7-step setup guide
- [Customer Self-Service Guide](https://helpcenter.io/blog/customer-self-service-guide/): Complete guide to customer self-service — channels, industry examples, 7-step implementation, metrics and benchmarks
- [FAQ Templates: 5 Free HTML Templates](https://helpcenter.io/blog/5-faq-section-templates-for-your-next-project/): Five free, open-source HTML/CSS FAQ templates plus FAQ copy examples and how to choose the right format
- [15 Open Source Knowledge Base Solutions](https://helpcenter.io/blog/10-open-source-knowledge-base-software-solutions/): Ranked list of free and open-source knowledge base software options
- [4 Free Help Desk Documentation Templates](https://helpcenter.io/blog/4-free-help-desk-documentation-templates-to-streamline-your-support-process/): Free templates for help desk and support documentation
- [Knowledge Base SEO Guide, 2026 Edition](https://helpcenter.io/blog/the-knowledge-base-seo-guide-how-to-optimize-your-help-center-for-search-2026-edition/): How to optimise a help center for search and for AI answer engines, covering llms.txt, ai.txt, Markdown for agents, and Content Signals
- [3 Internal Wiki Examples](https://helpcenter.io/blog/3-internal-wiki-examples-the-essential-business-tool/): Real-world company wiki examples and what makes them work

## Product updates

- [Template Editor v2](https://helpcenter.io/blog/introducing-template-editor-v2-thousands-of-designs-no-code-required/): No-code Template Editor v2 with flexible themes, dark mode, true live previews, mobile management, and a redesigned dashboard
- [FAQs.me, a free FAQ builder](https://helpcenter.io/blog/faqs-me-free-faq-builder/): Free standalone FAQ builder with six live templates, your brand colours, and FAQPage schema built in; copy-paste anywhere, no signup
- [HelpCenter.io + Intercom integration](https://helpcenter.io/blog/intercom-fin-helpcenter-integration/): Search HelpCenter.io articles from the Intercom Messenger and Inbox, and sync published articles (each translation as its own entry) to Intercom Fin as training content; available on all plans

## HelpCenter family

- [HelpCenter.chat](https://helpcenter.chat/): Free human live chat and shared inbox from the makers of HelpCenter.io (2 team seats and 100 new conversations per monthly usage period on the free plan), with optional Orelvi AI that answers from published HelpCenter.io articles and hands over to your team; a HelpCenter.io subscription is not required for human chat
- [knowledgebase.dev](https://knowledgebase.dev/): Compass, a free open-source (GPL-3.0) knowledge base template and launch kit with 20 HTML pages, six Markdown article blueprints, and a launch checklist
- [FAQs.me](https://faqs.me/): Free FAQ section builder with ready-made templates; exports one self-contained snippet with FAQ structured data built in, no signup

## Optional

- [Blog](https://helpcenter.io/blog/): All articles on knowledge base management, customer self-service, and help center best practices