The 11 Best Guru Alternatives (Top Knowledge Bases)

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Josh Spilker
October 23, 2023
The 11 Best Guru Alternatives (Top Knowledge Bases)

Has the Guru hype not met your company expectations?

Guru has been an innovative alternative to other inefficient knowledge management solutions. But their card/collection system and more expensive pricing may have you looking for something else.

If that’s the case, then below you’ll find several time-tested knowledge management software solutions, including Tettra which is one of the best Guru alternatives based on price and ease of use.

We’ll break down each of the potential Guru alternatives below.

What are the best Guru alternatives for an internal knowledge base?

1. Tettra

Tettra is the best Guru alternative in 2024.

It’s an internal knowledge base, wiki and knowledge management solution especially catered towards customer support teams. It’s similar to Guru, but much easier to use.

Its notable features include an intuitive UI and Slack integration, allowing users to utilize the knowledge base without leaving the popular messaging app.

With this, you can search for answers within Tettra even though you’re using the Slack interface.

The AI auto-generated FAQs also helps customer support teams anticipate questions and answers, making it a great internal knowledge base for support-enablement.

Tettra has a question and answers feature, as well as content verification which keeps knowledge base content up-to-date. You’ll be able to link to help docs, product release notes, and more within a single place.

There’s also Tettra’s ability to designate “knowledge experts”, who can serve as the resident expert for certain topics and verify information.

tettra feature image

“I’ve used Confluence in the past, but I find it a bit clunky. I checked out competitors like Guru, but I really liked Tettra best from the start. Because we use Slack as well, it adapts really well to our existing channels for communication.”

Luis Hernandez, VP of Customer Success at Geckoboard

How Does Tettra Compare to Guru?

Tettra has Kai, your AI assistant to help your team get instant answers from your company knowledge.

The Tettra UI is easier to navigate because all the business categories show up in one sidebar versus clicking into individual collections. You can then organize everything into easy-to-find subcategories, compared to the collection, board, card management system.

Tettra also has draft sharing, so everything can be verified and checked before publishing.

Based on a G2 comparison, reviewers found that Tettra is easy to set up, use, and administer. It also scored higher for templates, permissions, and technical support. Tettra boasts a 4.5 / 5 star rating.

Why choose Tettra over Guru?

  • Instant answers with AI. Fewer questions get asked to your knowlege managers and experts
  • Q&A workflow to capture questions
  • Knowledge base to document answers
  • Knowledge management features to keep content up to date.
  • Integrations with chat tools to make sure your team actually uses Tettra
  • Built as an internal knowledge base for customer-facing teams

G2 Comparison Guide of Guru vs Tettra

GuruTettra
Meets Requirements9.2
8.8
Ease of Use9.1
9.1
Ease of Setup8.8
9.7
Ease of Admin8.9
9.1
Quality of Support9.3
9.3
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?9.4
9.5

Pros of Tettra:

  • Intuitive interface
  • Native Slack integration
  • Less learning curve
  • Unique knowledge management features, such as expert verification, update requests, and question/answers

Cons of Tettra:

  • Lacks support for forums / discussion boards
  • Limited document formatting

Pricing:

  • Basic: Starting at $4 per user/month
  • Scaling: Starting at $8 per user/month
  • Professional: Starting at $12 per user/month

Click here to check out Tettra as your Guru alternative.

2. Nuclino

Containing both an internal knowledge base and wiki solution, Nuclino is known for its clean interface and intuitive navigation. It looks like an easy to use doc, with embeddable spreadsheet options, and various other views. Like a blend of knowledge management plus project management. Another good feature is its real-time editing support, enabling multiple users to work on the same document without missing progress like Confluence. 

All these make it a good potential alternative to Guru.

G2 Comparison Chart of Guru vs Nuclino

GuruNuclino
Meets Requirements9.2
8.9
Ease of Use9.1
9.3
Ease of Setup8.8

Ease of Admin8.9

Quality of Support9.3
8.9
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?9.4

Product Direction (% positive)8.8
10.0

Pros:

  • Intuitive UI and navigation
  • Real-time collaboration, no need for manual refresh
  • Hotkeys
  • 40+ integrations

Cons:

  • No access controls for individual folders or pages
  • No Excel integration, only Google Sheets

Cost:

  • Standard – $5 per user / month with 10gb allocation
  • Premium – $10 per user / month with 20gb allocation, team insights, and advanced security controls

Click here to check out Nuclino.

3. Zoho Learn

Zoho Learn (formerly Zoho Wiki) is an internal knowledge management software part of the larger Zoho suite of workplace apps and products. It uses workspaces, which act like mini wikis. Each has its own admin controls, formatting and customization options, which are great for customers learning for custom branding.

With the rebrand from Zoho Wiki to Zoho Learn, the tool also expanded to online training programs for companies to assess the progress of their teams on learning and retaining information.

Zoho Learn has a lot of document capability and formatting support. For companies looking to put their own spin on their software, Zoho can be extensively personalized for corporate branding. These features give it a 4.1 out of 5 G2 rating. 

Notable weaknesses include a lack of templates as well as no built-in reports.

Pros:

  • Feature-rich text editor
  • Tailor-made style sheets
  • Access controls for each workspace and page 
  • Online training program and assessments
  • Lesson analytics

Cons:

  • Lack of templates
  • No built-in reports
  • Mobile version is quite clunky to use

Cost:

  • Basic – $49 for 3 users / month, with support for 500 customers
  • Standard – $99 for 5 users / month, with support for 2,000 customers, domain branding and web tabs
  • Professional – $249 for 10 users / month, with support for 5,000 customers, custom schedulers, and live chat support 

4. You Need a Wiki

With YNAW, there’s no need to learn a new software with a steep learning curve – YNAW integrates seamlessly with Google Drive, so you can start using it right away. Plus, its intuitive design means you won’t have to deal with the clunky UI of most other software.

This Google Drive add-on provides a drop-down category navigation for Google docs. It’s simply an add-on for the Google Drive API.

Of course, there are a few things to keep in mind when using YNAW. For one, it assumes that you’re using Google Drive as the repository for all of your company information. If you’re not already doing this, you may need to spend some time transferring documents and processes over. Additionally, while YNAW is great for navigation and search, it may not have all the advanced features you’re used to in other knowledge management software.

Pros:

  • Fast setup
  • No learning curve

Cons:

  • Limited to Google Drive
  • Harder to link to other tools
  • No Slack or Teams integration

Cost:

  • 1 user – free
  • 10 users – $10 / month
  • 25 users – $49 / month
  • 75 users – $99 / month

5. Slite

With Slite, you can organize all of your documents into channels that can be set to public or private. Plus, it’s very easy to stay on top of all your updates – any channels with new posts are bolded. They’ve made a pivot recently to focusing on internal knowledge bases, rather than trying to be an all-in-one system like Notion.

G2 Comparison Chart of Guru vs Slite

Guru

Slite
Meets Requirements9.2
8.8
Ease of Use9.1
9.4
Ease of Setup8.8
9.4
Ease of Admin8.9
9.2
Quality of Support9.3
9.3
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?9.4
9.0
Product Direction (% positive)8.8
8.6

One of the best things about Slite is its company wiki template. Instead of starting from scratch, Slite provides you with an example of what your wiki page could look like. This way, you can hit the ground running and structure your wiki in a way that makes sense for your team. And with Slite’s collaboration editor, you can work together seamlessly while keeping track of revisions and restoring previous versions.

Pros:

  • Track changes, suggest edits, and restore previous versions of documents.
  • Wide variety of templates
  • Integrations with Slack, Trello, Google Drive, and others

Cons:

  • No API support
  • Lacks cataloging / categorization functionality
  • Limited formatting options

Cost

Standard – $6.67/user per month

Premium – $12.50 /user per month 

6. Bloomfire

Bloomfire is a good choice for internal knowledge management system for organizations with lots of audio-visual resources. It has an AI-powered Deep Search function that can transcribe videos, so you can search for specific words or phrases within the video itself. Bloomfire can also index every single word in all your documents, making them super easy to search through. And it even generates tags for you, so you can optimize your content for search without having to do any extra work.

Another great feature of Bloomfire is its bulk import and export function. This is helpful for replacing out outdated or irrelevant content. With Bloomfire, you can easily export all your content and go through it to make sure everything is up to date and relevant.

Pros:

  • Advanced video transcription powered by machine learning
  • Content supports likes and shares, ala social media

Cons:

  • Search function can be challenging to use
  • No free version, expensive

Price

  • Starts at $25/user per month for a multi-year subscription

7. Notion

Notion is a flexible project management and document tool with a lot of use cases. That means you can keep personal task lists, write it in it, create tables, or even publish small microsites.

One of the most helpful features of Notion for knowledge management is its ability to link pages and databases. This means you can create relationships between different pieces of information, making it easier to find what you’re looking for. (By the way, Tettra does something similar with links, embeds, and quick finds).

It supports drag and drop, page nesting, and mentions. Additionally, you can embed over 50 apps inside your Notion documents, turning your wiki into your company’s go-to-source for all types of knowledge. Finally, you can assign tasks and due dates to users, making it a wiki and project management tool in one.

In 2023, Notion added several top features, including:

With that flexibility, though you may be losing one of the key aspects of knowledge management: locating the right documents when you need them.

G2 Comparison Chart of Guru vs Notion

Guru

Notion
Meets Requirements9.2
8.9
Ease of Use9.1
8.4
Ease of Setup8.8
8.4
Ease of Admin8.9
8.5
Quality of Support9.3
8.6
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?9.4
8.9
Product Direction (% positive)8.8
9.5

Pros:

  • Very flexible – can build almost anything with it
  • Recently added API & AI functionality
  • Lots of integrations

Cons:

  • Free plan is only for personal use, less scalable
  • Overwhelming customization and optionality
  • No draft mode, Q&As or verification processes

8. ClickUp

ClickUp is naturally a project management software that has expanded into lots of other workplace needs. With its docs and embed features along with project management tools, it just depends on your personal preference for how you want to structure your information.

To be honest, ClickUp seems to be waging a war on two fronts — the doc and knowledge management side (think Notion and Confluence) and on the project management side (think Asana and Monday).

Because of these things, ClickUp does a lot of things. You can keep your process docs alongside your task list, though it may be difficult to sort through permissions.

One unique feature that a lot of users love is ClickUp’s organizational hierarchy, which empowers users to customize their content organization.  

Another plus for ClickUp is the real-time collaborative editing, allowing more than one user to work on the same document simultaneously, much you like can do in Google Docs.

Text editing is also a step up over traditional knowledge management software, with a wide range of formatting options and the ability to tag team members in comments. The Embed view even allows multimedia embedding in documents, like videos, trackable tasks, and bookmarks.

ClickUp also delivers a lot of bang for the buck. Its lowest tier boasts unlimited storage, unlimited dashboards, and agile reporting. All these features enable it to achieve a 4.7 out of 5 rating on G2. 

G2 Comparison Chart of Guru vs ClickUp

Guru



ClickUp
Meets Requirements9.2

9.0
Ease of Use9.1

8.5
Ease of Setup8.8

8.2
Ease of Admin8.9

8.6
Quality of Support9.3

8.9
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?9.4

9.1
Product Direction (% positive)8.8

9.5

Pros:

  • Unique hierarchical feature
  • Content and formatting rich editor
  • Real-time collaborative editing

Cons:

  • Mobile dashboard suffers from bugs
  • UI can be a bit overwhelming
  • A bit of a learning curve for new users

Cost:

  • Unlimited – $5 per user / month
  • Business – $12 per user / month, with Google SSO, custom exporting and unlimited teams 
  • Business plus – $19 per user / month, with team sharing, custom roles and permissions, and increased automations and API

9. Quip

This team collaboration solution is designed for enterprise-level use and is mostly known for its Salesforce integrations.

If your company relies heavily on Salesforce for record keeping and sales, this is probably a knowledge management solution worth checking out.

However, it does more than typical knowledge management — really it’s trying to be a Google Docs or Microsoft Office replacement. It has documents, slides, and chat.

But all of that is reflected in its higher price beyond the typical Guru alternative. If your company is all-in on Salesforce, then the price tag may not matter.

Pros:

  • Full Salesforce integration
  • Familiar UI

Cons:

  • Expensive
  • Syncing issues
  • All-in-one can be daunting

Cost:

  • Starter – $12 per user / month (down to $10 for annual subscription) 
  • Plus – $25 per user / month with custom live apps, SSO, and enterprise API
  • Advanced – $100 per user / month Salesforce live editing, 2-way data syncing, and service use cases

10. Document360

Document360 is designed for creating internal knowledge bases or self-service bases. Notable features include IP address restriction, localization, and in-depth analytics. It also has support team add-on to automate some of the support conversations, much like Intercom or Drift.

Pros:

  • Intuitive interface and search
  • Robust security features

Cons:

  • Lacking in integrations
  • Expensive

Cost

  • Starts at $99/month for 2 team accounts and 1 knowledge base
  • Additional $19/month for each team account, and $39/month for additional knowledge bases

11. Confluence

Confluence is a wiki software platform designed for knowledge management. It is one of the oldest wiki solutions, having launched in 2004 but still remaining strong today.

Because its part of Atlassian, it has strong ties to JIRA and Trello making Confluence the top choice for companies that already use those tools.

Confluence uses “spaces”, which are essentially workspaces for teams. Each space can house its own knowledge base, documents, project trackers, and more. 

As of 2023, Confluence has four price tiers: free, standard, premium, and enterprise.

G2 Comparison Chart of Confluence vs Guru

Confluence

Guru
Meets Requirements8.5
9.2
Ease of Use7.9
9.1
Ease of Setup7.9
8.8
Ease of Admin7.9
8.9
Quality of Support8.0
9.3
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?8.4
9.4
Product Direction (% positive)7.3
8.8

Overall, Confluence is very difficult to use across the whole organization because of its clunky UI and navigation. Also, it has a few drawbacks in knowledge creation, especially around edit and update tracking. If you need more information, try this comprehensive list of Confluence alternatives.

Finding the Right Guru Alternative for You: What to Consider

When choosing knowledge management software, do your research, determine what your needs are, and which vendor best fits your requirements.

  • Do you need an internal knowledge base, a customer self-help portal, or an all-around productivity tool?
  • Who will own the content and what will the primary teams using it?
  • How large is your team, and how much of the budget can you devote to knowledge management?
  • Which product possesses the functions and integrations that are critical for your business?
  • Does it have a good search function?
  • Can contributors submit and edit content quickly and be verified by admins or experts?
  • What are its permission controls?
  • Does it integrate with tools that you need like Slack?

Why Choose Tettra for Your Knowledge Base

tettra feature image

Tettra has strong search and content management functionalities; it has good access and permission controls; it integrates with popular enterprise apps like Slack and Google Docs; all wrapped up in an easy-to-use interface that is intuitive even for non-technical users.

“Tettra had a great mix of features. It was just powerful enough and just simple enough to meet our needs.”

Kristina Getty at TechStars

Create your knowledge base with Tettra today.