Creating effective user manuals is easier than ever. Whether you’re explaining how to assemble a rocket ship or navigate a new software, the right user manual software can have your audience saying “Aha!” instead of “Huh?”
Using the right tool, you can create comprehensive user manuals that guide customers through every step of their product journey, from onboarding to adoption. These manuals combine written text and visuals to ensure customers have a fun and interactive experience when using your product.
At the same time, I understand how difficult finding the right tool can be. That’s why I have created this list of the best user manual software—some I have used myself, while others I discovered on product review platforms like G2, Gartner, Capetrraa, Softwareadvice.com, etc.
But first, let’s discuss some basics for those new to the concept.
What Is User Manual Software?
User manual software helps you create online user manuals and product guides. It provides holistic features, from developing and designing the manual to managing and publishing it across devices.
With a rich authoring system and complete customization, this software allows you to write, edit, and design content for your unique needs.
Such tools come with a systematic categorization system, which means you can have a table of contents with topic-wise sections and subsections. This helps your customers navigate multiple pages and get the necessary information quickly.
What Are the Top Features of User Manual Software?
User manual software empowers businesses to create comprehensive, user-friendly guides that enhance product understanding and adoption. Here are the top 9 features you should watch out for:
AI-Powered Content Authoring & Editing
It lets you create engaging content with a user-friendly editor. You can use multimedia elements, templates, and version history to streamline content creation and ensure accuracy.
Team Collaboration
It lets you collaborate seamlessly with your team. You can utilize real-time editing, role-based permissions, and workflows to enhance productivity and maintain content consistency.
Document Version Control & Tracking
It lets you track changes, revert to previous versions, and ensure content accuracy with robust version control.
User Management
It enables control of your knowledge base with role-based permissions and custom user roles.
Customization
It lets you brand your help site with custom logos, colors, and layouts for a professional and consistent look.
Multi-Branding
It lets you create separate knowledge bases for brands or products with unique branding and content. Here’s an example of how you can create different knowledge bases.
Usage Analytics
It enables insights into your help site usage, identifies content gaps, and optimizes your content strategy with analytics.
Integrations
It lets you extend the functionality of your knowledge base by integrating it with other tools, such as CRM, help desk, and analytics platforms.
Security
It lets you protect your help data with robust security features, including data encryption, secure login protocols, and compliance with industry standards.
List of 10 Best User Manual Software & Tools in 2025
A user manual creation platform simplifies the creation, management, and delivery of clear and effective user manuals, improving product understanding and user satisfaction. Here’s a quick summary of my top 3:
| Best User Manual Software | Best For | Pricing |
| ProProfs Knowledge Base | Easily creating help sites, manuals & private knowledge bases | Forever Free Plan with all the premium features for small teams. Paid plan starts at $49/author/month |
| Whatfix | Creating interactive help content | Offers custom pricing, starting from $199/project/month |
| ClickHelp | Creating & publishing context-sensitive help documentation | Offers a free trial. Paid plans start at $55/month/user |
1. ProProfs Knowledge Base – Best for Easily Creating Help Sites, Manuals & Private Knowledge Bases
ProProfs Knowledge Base has been our go-to knowledge management platform and manual creator for two years now. It is a user-friendly platform with an AI-powered WYSIWYG editor, which simplifies the content creation process. It allows us to insert images, videos, and links directly into documents, enhancing the instructional value and making the content more engaging for our teams.
The platform also offers internal commenting for collaborative editing, allowing team members to provide feedback and make suggestions directly within the document. Role-based workflows help outline member responsibilities, ensuring that each contributor knows their specific tasks and deadlines.
What You Will Like:
- Powerful search functionality with auto-suggest and advanced filters, enabling users to locate relevant content quickly
- Allows administrators to set up roles and permissions, ensuring that only authorized users can view, edit, or manage specific documentation
- Provides valuable insights into how the documentation is being used.
What You May Not Like:
- No downloadable or on-premise version
- Dark user interface option is not available.
Pricing:
Forever Free Plan with all the premium features for small teams. Paid plan starts at $49/author/month.
2. Whatfix – Best for Creating Interactive Help Content
Whatfix offers an interactive, in-app guidance platform that helps users learn and adopt software applications more effectively. Instead of static manuals or help centers, it provides contextual guidance within the application, guiding users through processes, explaining features, and offering support exactly when and where it’s needed.
I love how the platform enables users to create various forms of interactive guidance, including walkthroughs, tutorials, and self-help resources. These can be tailored to specific user roles and needs, ensuring a personalized and efficient learning experience.
What You Will Like:
- The analytics dashboard provides valuable insights into user behavior and engagement with the platform
- Provides contextual support and real-time feedback
- Seamlessly integrates guidance within the application’s workflow.
What You May Not Like:
- I noticed occasional issues with integrating Whatfix with other platforms or software systems
- Its mobile support is not as robust as its desktop offerings, which can limit mobile user engagement.
Pricing:
Offers custom pricing, starting from $199/project/month.
3. ClickHelp – Best for Creating & Publishing Context-Sensitive Help Documentation
ClickHelp’s intuitive interface and robust feature set enable technical writers and documentation teams to produce high-quality, topic-based content efficiently. By offering a centralized portal, it facilitates seamless collaboration among team members, ensuring that documentation is consistent, up-to-date, and easily accessible to end-users.
I think one of ClickHelp’s standout features is its support for multi-format publishing. Users can create content once and export it to multiple formats, including online web help, PDF, and ePub, catering to diverse audience preferences.
What You Will Like:
- Single-sourcing capability saves time and maintains uniformity across different documentation outputs
- Responsive design ensures that content is accessible and readable across various devices
- Allows multiple authors to work on the same project simultaneously, and features like version control and user permissions help manage contributions effectively.
What You May Not Like:
- Sometimes, handling large documentation projects can impact the platform’s performance
- I felt that the interface could be cluttered and not as intuitive for new users.
Pricing:
Paid price starts at $175/unlimited projects/month.
4. Notion – Best for Creating Internal Wikis for Teams Sharing Informal Knowledge
I have used Notion before for its flexible structure, collaborative features, and multimedia support. These allow teams to create, organize, and share user-friendly documentation. Notion also allows for making structured and interconnected pages, ideal for organizing complex information within a user manual.
You can create pages for different sections, link related content, and embed various media types, such as images, videos, and interactive elements. This enables you to build a dynamic, engaging user manual that caters to different learning styles.
What You Will Like:
- User-friendly interface and easy to learn
- Allows multiple users to edit and contribute to the same document simultaneously
- Version history allows you to track changes and revert to previous versions if necessary.
What You May Not Like:
- As your databases grow, there could be slowdowns and lags in performance
- I found the hierarchical structuring of pages somewhat confusing.
Pricing:
A free plan is available for up to 10 guests. Paid plan starts at $10/seat/month.
5. Scribe – Best for Generating Visual How-To Guides
I love how Scribe automatically generates step-by-step guides from your actions, with screenshots and instructions. This can be a huge time saver, as you don’t have to document every step of a process manually. It automatically captures all steps involved in a process, even if they are complex or involve multiple software programs.
The platform helps create highly visual and interactive guides. These guides can include screenshots, annotations, and even videos, which can help users better understand and follow the instructions. It can help you to save time, improve accuracy, and create more engaging content.
What You Will Like:
- AI-powered automation to streamline the creation of SOPs and training manuals
- Allows for branding and tailoring of guides to specific company needs
- Enables exporting content to various formats, enhancing accessibility.
What You May Not Like:
- Once you’ve recorded your content, it becomes difficult to delete each slide one by one manually
- There should be an easier way to omit multiple mistakes for a 40+ step scribe.
Pricing:
Paid plan starts at $12/seat/month.
6. Document360 – Best for Creating Online Documentation
With Document360, you can create dynamic and engaging user manuals that are easy to navigate and search. Its intuitive editor, coupled with customizable templates and various formatting options, allows you to present information in a clear and visually appealing manner.
The platform’s real-time collaboration features allow multiple team members to work on the same document simultaneously, ensuring accuracy and consistency. Its version control system tracks changes and will enable you to revert to previous versions if necessary, providing peace of mind and facilitating seamless updates.
What You Will Like:
- Multi-language support empowers you to cater to a global audience
- Intuitive editor with customizable templates
- Enables smart file management, which makes it easy to organize and manage files.
What You May Not Like:
- I felt that the customization options for styling and layout were limited
- New users may find the interface and certain features overwhelming without sufficient onboarding.
Pricing:
Document360 offers custom pricing starting from $149/project/month.
7. GitBook – Best for Creating Smart Technical Documentation
GitBook provides a collaborative environment where teams can quickly write, manage, and publish high-quality documentation. Its intuitive and collaborative editor allows multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously, enabling teamwork and ensuring everyone is on the same page.
The platform also supports various content formats, including Markdown and rich text, making creating well-structured and engaging documentation easy. Moreover, its version control system tracks changes and allows you to revert to previous versions if necessary, providing peace of mind and facilitating seamless updates.
What You Will Like:
- Offers customizable themes and branding options to reflect your brand identity
- Powerful search functionality ensures users quickly find the information they need
- Integrates with various third-party tools and services, allowing you to streamline your workflow and connect your documentation with other business systems.
What You May Not Like:
- Shows the “Unexpected Error Occurred” message often when writing on a page with multiple images and media files
- Cannot resize drawings.
Pricing:
Paid plan starts at $8/user/month.
8. HelpDocs – Best for Markdown Text Editor
HelpDocs’ intuitive interface and powerful editor offers a clean and distraction-free writing environment, allowing you to focus on creating clear and concise documentation. Features like Markdown support, a WYSIWYG editor, and customizable themes make it easy to format and style your content to match your brand.
I like how you can categorize articles, create a table of contents, and build a comprehensive knowledge base that is easy for users to navigate. Its built-in search functionality ensures that users can quickly find the information they need, while features like version control and analytics help you track changes and measure the effectiveness of your documentation.
What You Will Like:
- User-friendly interface and intuitive editor
- Integrates seamlessly with popular help desk and CRM tools
- Customizable themes and branding options to reflect your brand identity.
What You May Not Like:
- It has a limited number of sign-in options
- The app refreshes very frequently, which gets distracting.
Pricing:
Paid plan starts at $55/team/month.
9. Helpjuice – Best for Creating FAQ Articles
Helpjuice offers a seamless and user-friendly experience for both content creators and end-users. My favorites are its powerful WYSIWYG editor, customizable themes, and multi-language support, which make it easy to create and manage user manuals that align with your brand and cater to a diverse audience.
The platform’s powerful search functionality ensures that users can quickly and effortlessly find the information they need within your manuals. Its step-by-step tutorial creator empowers users to create interactive guides that simplify complex processes and enhance knowledge absorption.
What You Will Like:
- Integrates seamlessly with various other software applications, such as CRM and help desk tools
- Customizable themes and multi-language support for branding and accessibility
- Enables step-by-step tutorial creator for interactive guides.
What You May Not Like:
- I have noticed occasional issues while storing images – there is no folder system for images, so they quickly get lost in an endless feed
- No feature to manage article comments and tasks in the platform.
Pricing:
It offers a single pricing plan starting at $120/month/4 users.
10. HelpCrunch – Best for Creating a Structured Help Center
HelpCrunch has a user-friendly interface for creating and organizing articles. Its WYSIWYG editor allows easy formatting and content structuring, while features like categories and tags help users quickly navigate and find relevant information.
The platform’s AI-powered features, such as automatic content summarization and translation, can streamline the creation and maintenance of user manuals. It lets you personalize your knowledge base with your branding, domain, and CSS styling, creating a seamless and professional user experience.
What You Will Like:
- Auto-suggestions and filters for an advanced search
- Seamless integration with HelpCrunch’s live chat, email, and messaging services
- Analytics reports to track which articles are most viewed and where users might be dropping off.
What you may not like:
- Lacks multilingual capabilities
- Cannot edit the message after it has been sent on the app.
Pricing:
HelpCrunch offers a free trial. Paid plan starts from $12/user/month.
Evaluation & Selection Criteria
The evaluation of products or tools chosen for this article follows an unbiased, systematic approach that ensures a fair, insightful, and well-rounded review. This method employs six key factors:
- User Reviews/Ratings: Direct user experiences, including ratings and feedback from reputable sites, provide a ground-level perspective. This feedback is critical in understanding overall satisfaction and potential problems.
- Essential Features & Functionality: The value of a product is ascertained by its core features and overall functionality. Through an in-depth exploration of these aspects, the practical usefulness and effectiveness of the tools are carefully evaluated.
- Ease of Use: The user-friendliness of a product or service is assessed, focusing on the design, interface, and navigation. This ensures a positive experience for users of all levels of expertise.
- Customer Support: The quality of customer support is examined, considering its efficiency and how well it supports users in different phases – setting up, addressing concerns, and resolving operational issues.
- Value for Money: Value for money is evaluated by comparing quality, performance, and features. The goal is to help the reader understand whether they are getting their money’s worth.
- Personal Experience/Expert’s Opinion or Favorites: This part of the evaluation criteria draws insightful observations from the writer’s personal experience and the opinions of industry experts.
How to Choose User Manual Software
Choosing the right user manual software ensures your manuals are easy to create, visually appealing, and effective in helping users understand your product. Here are some factors to consider:
Evaluate the core features
Explore the software’s core features, focusing on AI content creation capabilities, content management functionalities, publishing options, and search functionality.
Consider how it helps you organize and manage your user manuals, including version control, categorization, and content reuse. Explore the publishing options, such as generating PDFs, online hosting, and mobile responsiveness, to ensure they align with your needs.
A robust search engine is also vital, allowing users to find the information they need in your manuals quickly.
Ask about the pricing plan you prefer
Pricing is another important factor to consider. Understand the software’s different subscription tiers and pricing models.
Evaluate the features and functionalities of the price to determine the best value for your investment. A knowledge base tool with a freemium pricing plan offers much better value for money than others.
See how easy-to-use the platform is
Ease of use is paramount, especially if your team has varying levels of technical expertise. Choose software with a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and understand.
Consider the software’s learning curve and the availability of training resources or tutorials. Assess how easy it is to collaborate with others on creating and editing user manuals, as teamwork is often crucial in documentation development.
Evaluate the support provided
Support is essential for troubleshooting issues and maximizing the software’s potential. Evaluate the availability and quality of customer support, including options like email, phone, and chat support.
Check for comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and knowledge base articles to help you use the software effectively. Also, consider whether the software has an active user community or forum where you can seek help and advice from other users.
Check if the tool offers any unique feature
Finally, identify the software’s unique selling propositions (USPs) that differentiate it from competitors. These could include AI-powered features like content generation, advanced analytics capabilities, or the ability to create multi-branded sites.
Assess the software’s ability to integrate with other tools and platforms you use, such as help desk or CRM systems, to streamline your workflows.
How Can a User Manual Tool Improve Customer Experience?
A user manual tool helps you provide instant, 24×7 help to customers through online manuals that are well-structured, easy to search, and understandable. Let’s see how it improves customer experience:
It assists customers during onboarding
Onboarding is when customers expect assistance at every step since they are new to your product. If they do not know how to take their first steps, they will likely go off track and misunderstand the product.
Employing user manual software, you can create a robust online manual with step-by-step instructions clearly demonstrated using images and videos. Quality written text and relevant images can help customers quickly familiarize themselves with your product.
It makes problem-solving easier
While working with a product, customers encounter multiple problems that, if not dealt with on time, can ruin their experience. For example, they can have issues setting up or installing the product, or they might be confused about its features.
The right user guide tool equips customers to solve the issues they face. Over 60% of customers today prefer automated self-service for simple tasks, which makes a user manual all the more essential. With an informative user manual, your customers can solve problems without expert intervention and make the most of your products.
It helps agents solve tickets faster
While self-service makes customers self-sufficient to some extent, they still need human support for problems that a user guide can’t handle. That being said, customers prefer quick answers even when contacting an agent for help.
In fact, fast response time is a crucial aspect of a great customer experience for 75% of customers. A comprehensive user guide with a powerful search system helps support agents solve problems quickly without making customers wait long.
Generative AI & User Manual Software: How Do They Complement Each Other
Generative AI helps generate first drafts from existing product specifications, suggesting improvements to language and style and even translating content into multiple languages.
This frees up documentation teams to focus on strategic activities like content planning and user research while ensuring that users receive accurate, relevant, and personalized guidance.
The result is a seamless and empowering user experience that drives product adoption and boosts customer satisfaction. Here’s how generative AI complements user manual software:
- Automates content creation tasks, such as generating drafts and summaries
- Enhances content quality by identifying errors and improving language
- Personalizes the user experience with customized content and recommendations
- Improves efficiency by freeing up documentation teams for strategic activities
- Drives product adoption and enhances customer satisfaction.
Streamline Your Product Usage Experience With User Manual Software
Now that you know the features and pricing of the best user manual tools, comparing them shouldn’t be that difficult. All the tools mentioned above are similar yet unique. You have all the tools, but here is the tricky part. To make the right pick, you have to first figure out what you really want.
Jot down your specific requirements – what level of personalization do you want to provide? What kind of self-service do you want to offer? Should it be mobile-responsive or just desktop-friendly? What is your budget?
If an all-inclusive, simple-to-use, and feature-rich tool is your priority, ProProfs Knowledge Base can be a great option as it’s easy to use and comes with features like an AI text editor, reports, and more. You can request a demo to explore the tool and ask your queries.
FAQs
How do I create a user-friendly manual?
Focus on clear language, a logical structure, and helpful visuals. Use headings, bullet points, and whitespace to make information easy to scan and digest.
What is the user manual for software?
A software user manual is a guide that explains how to use a software application. It typically includes instructions on installation, features, troubleshooting, and FAQs.
What is the best tool to create a manual?
ProProfs Knowledge Base is a great option for creating user-friendly manuals. It offers templates, a built-in editor, and collaborative features to help you create and share professional manuals with ease.
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