Wikis and knowledge bases are some of the most popular methods of providing information. They’re especially popular for the first line of support. Knowledge bases and wikis are great for articles, documents, and FAQs. With the right tools, it’s not difficult to integrate a wiki into your WordPress website. In this article, we’ll look at 8 options to help you decide which is the best WordPress wiki plugin for your needs.
1. BetterDocs
BetterDocs is a popular WordPress wiki plugin that makes it easy to create a knowledge base to expand your support. It comes with several templates to get you started. A table of contents is created automatically as you type. You can make the TOC sticky. The advanced live search makes it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for. A pro version is available that adds analytics, an instant answer bot, and it allows you to create multiple knowledge bases for different products.
To help you get started, the quick setup option steps you through creating the pages, content, and customizing it.
The settings screen gives you lots of control over the docs including the design, layout, and more. Settings are intuitive and simple.
Features:
Price: Free, pro version starts at $49 | More Information
2. Knowledge Base for Documentation and FAQs
Knowledge Base for Documentation and FAQs includes a frontend editor with 26 templates and 500 icons. It has multiple tabs, allowing you to organize the documents by team, product, and service. Create articles that include a table of contents. The search bar provides listed results. Order the articles alphabetically, by time, etc.
The configuration screen is easy to follow and gets you set up quickly.
Analytics is built-in and provides insights into your categories and articles.
It’s easy to create and manage multiple knowledge bases.
A new widget sidebar area displays on the Echo pages.
The frontend editor lets you build the main page, articles, and category pages.
The frontend builder is limited, but it includes visual tools to create the design and style it.
Features:
Price: Free, pro starts at $46 | More Information
3. WP Knowledgebase
WP Knowledgebase is simple but effective. The search is fast and includes predictive text. You can customize the colors and layouts. Customize the order of articles and categories with drag and drop. Enable breadcrumbs for the documentation. Enable comments for the articles. The pro version adds search analytics and content restrictions.
It includes detailed lessons on how to use the plugin.
Use the classic editor or Gutenberg. The classic editor can build the page for you.
It adds a new sidebar area and 4 widgets to display articles, categories, tags, and a search box.
Features:
Price: Free, pro version starts at $74 | More Information
4. Yada Wiki
The Yada Wiki WordPress wiki plugin creates a new post type. It includes an index and a table of contents. Display the categories, index, and table of contents with shortcodes. A wiki listing button displays them. It also adds two sidebar widgets to display activity and the table of contents.
The settings are simple. Enable the features you want by checking the boxes.
Manage the wiki pages, categories, and tags.
The plugin adds two widgets to show the activity and the TOC.
Features:
Price: Free | More Information
5. Encyclopedia / Glossary / Wiki
Encyclopedia / Glossary / Wiki adds a new post type that allows you to label it any way you want. Create an encyclopedia, lexicon, glossary, dictionary, knowledge base, wiki, directory, etc. It will automatically generate an index page with all your items. The index is sorted alphabetically and includes a prefix filter. Every item has its own page. It’s limited to 12 items and many of the settings are locked, so the pro version is the better option.
The settings screen lets you adjust the labels, appearance, features, taxonomies, archives, search, prefix, related items, cross-linking, and tooltips. The items are easy to adjust and print an explanation for each. Those only available in the pro version are marked with a lock.
View and edit the encyclopedia articles and the tags as with any post type.
The five included widgets display related entries, entries, search, taxonomies, and a taxonomy cloud.
Features:
Price: Free, pro version starts at $49 | More Information
6. BasePress
BasePress is a powerful WordPress wiki plugin that lets you build unlimited independent knowledge bases. It comes with three themes and you can customize them with simple adjustments and CSS. It builds an entry page where users can choose the knowledge base they need. The unlimited section hierarchy makes the knowledge bases easy to organize.
The setup wizard steps you through to get started quickly.
The settings screen includes general settings, appearance, breadcrumbs, search, comment, and import and export tools. They include examples and default settings.
Another setting lets you enable the theme, which includes settings for the fonts, sticky sidebar, custom colors, and custom CSS.
The icon manager lets you select the icons to use. Choosing them or changing them is as easy as clicking on them.
It comes with 4 widgets including an accordion menu, knowledge base selector, related articles, and sections.
Features:
Price: Free, the pro version starts at $59 | More Information
7. Very Simple Knowledge Base
Very Simple Knowledge Base is this simplest WordPress wiki plugin. It displays your content using shortcodes. The shortcode can be placed within your content to create any type of design you want. You can refine the shortcode to include or exclude categories, post types, set the number of columns, sorting order, labels, etc. You can also include custom CSS that the shortcode will link to.
Create a page and add the shortcode based on what you want it to display. Use shortcodes to specify which categories to include, exclude, the number to display, the order to display them in, etc.
The page then displays articles automatically. The shortcode I’ve used shows all of my categories in a single column.
The widget lets you add the title, text to appear above the articles, the number of columns to display, and the attributes to display.
Features:
Price: Free | More Information
8. Knowledge Center
Knowledge Center is an enterprise-level knowledge base wiki WordPress plugin. The free version is limited, but it does include a Panels post type to create and display the wiki or knowledge base articles. It also includes editors for groups and tags. It includes a custom commenting system that allows for private comments.
Settings include tabs for entities, taxonomies, tools, etc. Each tab presents simple settings with explanations of how to use them.
It uses the classic editor. A new set of tools are added to the editor to set it as a featured article, choose the color, and select the initial state.
Groups work the same as categories. It also includes an editor for tags.
A new widget area and 2 widgets are added: Featured Panels and Recent Panels. They let you add a title and enter the number of panels to display.
Features:
Price: Free, pro version starts at $99.99 | More Information
WordPress Wiki Plugin Ending Thoughts
That’s our look at the 8 best WordPress wiki and knowledge base plugins. They include a range of features and most can be expanded with a premium edition. Whether you need a simple WordPress wiki plugin or an enterprise-level platform for a complete knowledge base, you’re sure to find what you need on this list.
We want to hear from you. Have you tried any of these WordPress wiki plugins for your website? Let us know what you think about them in the comments.
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This content was originally published here.