35 Knowledge base tools for developers in 2023

In 2023, there should be no debate about the added value of great documentation in software projects. Software engineers should have access to the appropriate knowledge base, depending on the resource type and when they need it. Technical documentation for software developers can take many forms, including evergreen documentation (e.g., procedures for setting up a project), architectural principles that developers should follow in their projects, release documentation, coding standards and guidelines, onboarding guides, and more.

Documentation for technical audiences is a tough challenge for many reasons: it requires a rigorous organization to be kept up-to-date. It can quickly be put aside by engineers who often dislike spending time on maintaining documentation. One common mistake is to consider all categories of documentation at the same level: an ever-green procedure to install software is not the same as a coding standard, for instance, which regularly evolves. You don’t need this knowledge at the same time and frequency. Once you understand that, you can define different processes and channels to manage your technical documentation

In this post, we provide an overview of 35 existing tools for managing technical knowledge, which can be scattered into these main categories:

• Wiki-like tools where engineers write documentation in the tool’s UI (ex: Notion, Confluence, …)
• Living knowledge tools, where knowledge emerges from developers’ tools and become then dynamic, are used for instance, in code analysis and onboarding sessions (ex: Promyze);
• Communication tools, such as Questions/Answers platforms (ex: StackOverflow for Teams, …)
• Generated-wiki tools where developers will typically write documentation in markdown, and then all the magic will happen (ex: ReadTheDocs, …)

This post does not consider tools that provide end-user documentation, such as self-service portals (Zendesk, Intercom, etc.). We focus on documentation made by developers for developers. We also exclude API documentation tools, which belong to a specific domain that deserves its article.

GitBook

Where software teams break knowledge silos. (We use it at Promyze for our public documentation)