Organizations often rely on knowledge-sharing tools to help employees collaborate, learn, and access information efficiently.
In fact, a Forrester study found that employees spend 29% of their week just searching for information if no proper system is in place.
Below, we explore leading internal knowledge-sharing apps (both free and paid) across three key categories: collaboration tools, knowledge management platforms, and training/learning solutions.
For each, we highlight key features, pros and cons, ideal use cases, and comparisons to guide you in selecting the best tool for your needs.
First, let’s cover an often-overlooked tool…
Where TextExpander Fits in Knowledge Sharing
TextExpander is a text expansion and automation tool that helps with knowledge sharing through reusable text snippets.
While it’s not a full-fledged knowledge management system, it complements many of the tools we discuss by streamlining how frequently used information is shared.
Some of its key benefits and features include:
Internal FAQs & Quick Responses
Teams can create standardized snippets for commonly asked questions (e.g., “How do I reset my password?”). This is useful for IT help desks, customer support, HR, and any role that frequently answers the same questions.
Consistent Documentation & SOPs
Employees can use predefined templates for internal documentation, ensuring consistency. For example, a technical team writing Confluence pages can have a snippet for API documentation templates.
Faster Communication in Slack, Email, and Support Chats
Instead of retyping common answers, employees can insert them instantly using keyboard shortcuts. Sales and customer support teams benefit from quick access to pre-approved responses.
Knowledge Sharing via Team Snippets
Organizations can create a shared snippet library where employees access and use the same set of standardized responses. This ensures that knowledge is up-to-date and consistently used across teams.
While TextExpander doesn’t replace a traditional knowledge base, it’s a great productivity booster for frequently used text, making knowledge more accessible in daily workflows. It works best when paired with a structured knowledge-sharing tool (e.g., use Confluence for long-form documentation and TextExpander for quick answers).
Communication & Collaboration Tools
Effective collaboration tools facilitate real-time communication, file sharing, and team coordination – which in turn supports knowledge sharing by allowing employees to ask questions and exchange information quickly.
Slack
Slack is a widely-used team messaging platform for real-time collaboration. It organizes conversations into channels (by topic, team, etc.), supports file sharing, and integrates with countless other apps.
Slack offers text chat, voice/video calls (via huddles or integrations), and robust search of past messages. Additional features include: channel-based messaging, direct messages, file sharing, app integrations (project management, Google Drive, etc.), and voice/video huddles.
Slack is easy to use due to its chat interface. It supports a large number of third-party integrations and bots, allowing knowledge from other systems (like calendars or wikis) to surface in Slack.
On the other hand, important information can get lost in message threads over time if not documented elsewhere. The free plan limits searchable history (only recent 90 days of messages are retained), which can hinder knowledge retrieval unless you upgrade. Slack’s built-in video meetings are basic (only lightweight huddles); you’ll need integrations (Zoom, etc.) for full conferencing.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is an all-in-one collaboration platform combining chat, video meetings, and document sharing. It’s part of the Microsoft 365 suite, so it seamlessly ties into Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and other Office apps.
While Slack is often praised for its friendly UI and rich integration ecosystem, Microsoft Teams is more tightly integrated with Microsoft Office apps. So if you already use Microsoft 365 heavily, Teams might fit better; if you want a standalone chat tool with lots of plugins, Slack is a strong choice.
Some of the key features in Teams include: persistent team chat (with channels similar to Slack), built-in video conferencing for up to hundreds of participants, screen sharing, file storage via SharePoint, and deep integration with Office 365 tools.
Teams is included in many Office 365 business plans (and has a free version for up to 100 participants), making it cost-effective for enterprise users.
That said, the interface can feel overloaded, as Teams packs chat, channels, files, and meeting tabs together. Users often comment on how difficult it is to keep track of conversations.
Teams may also be less intuitive for new users compared to Slack’s simplicity. And finally, Teams has fewer community-built integrations (most integrations revolve around Office 365), so it’s less flexible if you rely on many non-Microsoft apps.
Knowledge Management & Internal Wiki Tools
Knowledge management platforms serve as a central repository for organizational knowledge – from documentation and FAQs to project plans and SOPs.
They allow teams to create, organize, and search for information, ensuring that knowledge is not trapped in individual silos. Below are top tools in this category.
Atlassian Confluence
Confluence is a team workspace and wiki tool for creating and organizing content in a collaborative way. Teams can write pages, attach files, comment, and track version history in Confluence’s hierarchical page structure.
To be specific, it is often used to document company policies, engineering docs, how-to guides, and FAQs – any content that needs to be shared and updated by multiple people.
It is especially useful for medium to large teams and those already using Atlassian tools. For a small startup or very simple needs, it might be overkill, but for complex projects and cross-team knowledge sharing, it’s very effective.
Additional features include Wiki-style pages with rich text editing, page trees for organization, powerful search, and real-time co-editing of pages. It offers templates for meeting notes, product requirements, etc., and integrates tightly with other Atlassian tools like Jira (linking project tickets to documentation).
Notion
Notion is an all-in-one workspace that blends note-taking, wiki pages, task management, and databases. It’s flexible and customizable, allowing teams to build their own structures for organizing information.
Notion offers support for a variety of content types – you can create pages, nested sub-pages, tables and databases, lists, Kanban boards, calendars, and more. Its template library and drag-and-drop editing make it easy to design pages for things like wikis, project trackers, or onboarding manuals. It also has collaborative editing, comments, and basic permission settings for sharing pages with the team or externally.
Notion vs. Confluence is a common comparison. Notion is more flexible and visually appealing, whereas Confluence is more structured and geared toward larger-scale documentation with heavy integration to dev tools. In practice, smaller organizations or those without a pre-existing system often gravitate to Notion for its all-in-one capabilities.
Guru
Guru is an internal knowledge base tool that delivers verified information to employees within their workflow. It’s known for its browser extension and Slack/MS Teams integrations, popping up relevant knowledge cards while you work.
Guru uses a system of cards (Q&A or notes) that can be grouped into boards. Its standout features include a browser extension that surfaces knowledge contextually (e.g., show a sales script when you’re in Gmail) and an “expert verification” workflow – content owners regularly confirm that knowledge cards are up to date.
It integrates with tools like Slack, Teams, CRM systems, and more, so you can search your knowledge base without leaving those apps. There’s also AI-powered suggestions and analytics to identify knowledge gaps.
Guru vs. traditional wikis? Guru focuses on real-time, verified knowledge in the flow of work, whereas a wiki like Confluence is more of a reference library. Some companies use Stack Overflow for Teams (below) for a similar purpose – Q&A knowledge sharing – especially for technical knowledge. Guru is more curated (you push knowledge out to people), while Stack Overflow is more about crowdsourcing answers.
If you need a proactive knowledge solution integrated with daily tools, Guru is a top choice.
Microsoft SharePoint
SharePoint is a web-based intranet and content management platform by Microsoft. It enables organizations to create internal websites, document libraries, and knowledge portals for employees.
Extremely feature-rich, SharePoint allows for document storage with version control, internal websites/pages (for departments, projects, etc.), lists and databases, and even enterprise social features. It tightly integrates with Microsoft Office (you can co-edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint in SharePoint).
SharePoint can serve as a central knowledge hub with wikis, discussion boards, and search across the organization’s files. Permissions are highly granular, and you can customize sites extensively (with workflows, forms, web parts, and more).
It is best for large organizations or those with formal intranet needs. For example, if you want an internal portal where each department has its own site for knowledge and documents, and you need strict access control (finance docs only visible to finance, etc.), SharePoint is ideal.
It’s also a fit if you require integration with Microsoft Office files and want to manage everything in one place. Many companies use SharePoint to store company-wide procedures, to host internal news, and as the backbone of their document management strategy.
Google Drive & Workspace
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) isn’t a single knowledge base app, but a suite including Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, and more, which together provide basic knowledge-sharing capabilities.
For companies that prefer not to formalize a knowledge base early on, Google Drive serves as a quick way to start accumulating information. Why?
- It’s easy to use and accessible; creating or editing a Google Doc feels as simple as writing an email, lowering the barrier to capturing knowledge.
- It’s also great for real-time collaboration. Multiple people can take meeting notes together in one doc.
- Permission sharing is straightforward (you can quickly share a doc with specific people or the whole company).
- Google Workspace is also relatively affordable for businesses (starting around $6/user/month for basic Business Starter)
That said, Google Drive lacks the structure and specialized features of true knowledge management tools. Information can end up scattered across many Docs and Sheets unless you organize and tag them diligently. Additionally, formatting and linking between documents isn’t as seamless as a wiki (you can paste links, but there’s no automatic backlink or page tree). In short, it’s a good basic repository but not a purpose-built knowledge hub.
In summary, Workspace is great for collaborative content creation, whereas dedicated knowledge platforms are better for organizing and retrieving that content.
Stack Overflow for Teams
Stack Overflow for Teams is a private, internal Q&A platform modeled after the public Stack Overflow site. It allows employees to ask questions and get answers from colleagues, building a searchable knowledge base of Q&A over time.
Engineering and IT teams love this. For example, a developer can post a question about a build error and another developer answers, then the next person who hits that error finds the answer immediately.
It’s also useful for cross-team knowledge (say, a salesperson asks a technical question and a solutions engineer answers it on the platform, so everyone sees it).
Essentially, any organization that values a collaborative problem-solving culture can benefit. It’s particularly powerful in larger companies where finding “who knows the answer” is hard – instead, the question can be visible to all and the right expert can chime in.
When compared to wiki tools, Stack Overflow’s Q&A format is the main differentiator. Instead of writing an article, an expert might prefer to answer a direct question. Some companies actually use both: a Q&A platform for in-the-moment knowledge capture, and a wiki for more formal documentation.
Also, compared to Guru, which pushes curated knowledge, Stack Overflow uses a crowdsourced approach – better for organizations with a strong knowledge-sharing culture (often tech-focused).
Training & Employee Learning Tools
In addition to day-to-day collaboration and knowledge capture, companies often need tools to train employees and share knowledge in a structured way (onboarding programs, skill development, etc.).
Knowledge-sharing in this context can involve e-learning platforms and training content management. Here are a couple top options.
Trainual
Trainual is a platform specifically designed for creating and sharing training materials and standard operating procedures (SOPs) internally. Think of it as a digital training manual builder for your organization.
Small to mid-sized companies that are growing and need to rapidly train people will get a lot of value from Trainual. It ensures everyone is on the same page about “how we do X.” There’s also reporting to see who has completed which training.
When compared to a traditional learning management system (LMS), Trainual is simpler and more SMB-focused than enterprise LMS platforms (like SAP SuccessFactors or Cornerstone). It’s more akin to creating an interactive handbook than offering expansive course catalogs.
Because of its focus on training, it isn’t great for collaborative knowledge creation beyond that. Once people finish their onboarding or required training, Trainual might not be a daily-use platform (unlike a wiki or Slack). So, you may still need another knowledge-sharing system for ongoing Q&A or project-specific knowledge.
Trainual is a paid product (no free tier for full use; pricing is typically a flat rate for a certain number of users and goes up by tiers), so it’s an investment primarily for the HR/training benefit.
LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) is an online learning library offering on-demand courses on countless topics (business, technology, creative skills, etc.). Companies use it to upskill employees by giving them access to these courses.
A subscription provides access to thousands of video-based courses taught by industry experts. Topics range from soft skills (leadership, communication) to hard skills (Excel, programming, design tools).
It also allows organizations to curate learning paths (a series of courses) for their teams. There are quizzes and certificates for completed courses. And managers can monitor which courses are being taken.
It’s worth noting that LinkedIn Learning is about general knowledge and skills, not your proprietary company knowledge. So, it won’t house your internal processes or policies. It’s also not a replacement for an internal knowledge base.
While LinkedIn Learning is content-rich, it is also “generic” (whereas internal training platforms are custom to your business). Companies will therefore often use both: internal tools (LMS, Trainual, etc.) for company-specific knowledge, and LinkedIn Learning or similar for broader skill training.
Final Tips
When evaluating knowledge-sharing tools, consider your organization’s size, culture, and specific goals. Some companies use multiple tools in tandem (for example, Slack for quick questions, Confluence for official documentation, and LinkedIn Learning for skill training).
It’s crucial to get user buy-in – even the best tool delivers value only if employees use it. And whatever tool(s) you choose, ensure you organize content clearly and keep it up-to-date.
With the right platform (or mix), you can foster a culture where collaboration, continuous learning, and easy access to knowledge become the norm – boosting productivity and innovation across your business.
