Free alternatives · Customer support and knowledge
HelpCenterKit
Run a public help center, an internal knowledge base and API docs in one place, with AI answers that cite your articles.
A free alternative to Document360, built by Surge Software. Free. You pay only what third-party services cost us, at cost.
Live at helpcenterkit.com
Walkthrough
See HelpCenterKit in action
The problem
What it solves for a business
For: SaaS and product companies (about 10 to 500 staff), support leads and technical writers who run a public help center and an internal knowledge base.
- Knowledge base tools hide their price behind a sales call and charge extra for readers, languages and AI.
- AI answers stop working when the monthly credit cap runs out.
- Approvals, private knowledge bases, SSO and audit logs are kept for Enterprise plans.
How it works
HelpCenterKit, step by step
- 01
Import or start fresh
Import from Document360, Zendesk, Confluence, Notion, GitBook, Word files or a ZIP of Markdown/HTML, or start from templates.
- 02
Write and review
Write in a block editor or Markdown, reuse snippets and variables, and send articles through review and approval.
- 03
Publish the portal
Publish a themed help center with search, AI answers with citations, SEO, llms.txt and a page per article in Markdown.
- 04
Control access
Keep some knowledge bases private with reader lists, groups, email-code sign-in or JWT/OIDC single sign-on.
- 05
Keep it fresh
Analytics, content gaps and a stale-article detector show what to write or fix, and the AI writer drafts it.
Comparison
HelpCenterKit vs Document360
| HelpCenterKit | Document360 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. You pay only what third-party services cost us, at cost. | Quote only (checked 25 Oct 2026) |
| Price published on the website | Yes | No; a quote form |
| AI answers after a usage cap | No monthly cap; fair use 20 questions a minute per visitor | Eddy AI pauses at the monthly credit limit until a top-up through support |
| Private KB readers | Included | Readers billed extra (competitor source) |
| Reader SSO | OIDC and JWT included | SAML, OIDC, SCIM and JWT offered |
| Approvals and audit log | Included for everyone | A reviewer says a new review role costs extra |
| Indian-language publishing | Publish in 12 Indian languages (team-written; AI is English-only) | Machine-translation list includes Punjabi only (Document360 docs) |
| SAML, SCIM, SOC 2, co-editing | Not yet | Yes |
Document360 details are taken from its public website and may have changed since (Quote only; no plan prices on its pricing page (checked 25 Oct 2026)).
Why switch
Advantages over Document360
A price you can see
HelpCenterKit is free, and the pricing page lists the only thing that can cost money today: an optional Claude add-on for reading screenshots.
AI that does not stop at a cap
AI answers run on Surge's own AI server with no monthly cap, only a published per-minute fair-use limit.
Basics included
Approvals, private knowledge bases, reader groups, OIDC/JWT SSO and an audit log need no Enterprise plan.
Ready for AI agents
Each portal serves llms.txt, a Markdown copy of every page and an MCP server, like Document360 and GitBook.
Features
What it does today
- Block editor and Markdown mode, drag-and-drop media, snippets, variables, glossary, templates, revisions with diff and restore, and product versions.
- Review and approval workflow, scheduled publish and unpublish, and review-due reminders.
- Portal with search (typo correction), AI answers grounded in your articles with numbered citations, feedback, SEO, sitemap, llms.txt and Markdown per page.
- Private knowledge bases: reader lists, allowed domains, reader groups per category, email-code sign-in, JWT and OIDC SSO.
- AI writer from a prompt, tickets, transcripts or screenshots; FAQ generation; knowledge base bootstrap from a ticket export.
- Analytics, content gaps, AI answer quality and a stale-article detector.
- Imports from Document360, Zendesk, Confluence, Notion, GitBook and Word (.docx); exports to PDF (print page), Markdown ZIP and JSON, with daily automatic backups.
- In-app widget, OpenAPI import to API reference pages with a try-it console, REST API, webhooks, MCP server, team roles and an audit log.
Use cases
How teams use HelpCenterKit
Moving off Document360
A SaaS team imports its Document360 project, keeps images in the media library and gets a CSV of old to new URLs.
Public help center plus internal wiki
A support lead runs a public help center and a private staff knowledge base in one account.
API docs next to guides
A developer team imports its OpenAPI spec and publishes reference pages with a try-it console beside the how-to articles.
Deflect tickets in the app
A product team adds the widget so users see articles and AI answers for the page they are on.
Under the hood
Where AI is used, and where it is not
The model
Surge's own vLLM server running Qwen3.8-27B. Claude (claude-sonnet-5-5) only as an opt-in add-on for reading screenshots, or when explicitly configured; no silent fallback. AI output is English only.
Rules and code
Retrieval is Postgres full-text plus trigram search on heading-based chunks. Answers are built only from retrieved chunks, with numbered citations, and the AI says it does not know when retrieval confidence is low (logged as a content gap). Publishing through the API or MCP still obeys the approval rule.
People in the loop
AI writer output and AI translations are saved as drafts. Staff review and approve articles before they go live when approval is required.
Book a working session
A working session with our architects on one of your use cases. You bring a process and sample documents; we leave you with a scoped plan: model, hosting, integrations, timeline and cost range.