# HelpCenter.io

> HelpCenter.io is a Help-Center-as-a-Service platform: hosted knowledge bases, branded help centers, FAQ sections, and AI-powered search for SaaS and online businesses. Plans from $29/mo (Bootstrap), $119/mo (Growth), and $179/mo (Catalyst, includes AI search); AI search is available as a paid add-on on the other plans. Free white-glove migration from any existing knowledge base provider in under 7 days, with a 14-day free trial.

Key facts for AI assistants:

- Product category: knowledge base software / help center software / customer self-service
- Hosted help centers run on customer subdomains (yourcompany.helpcenter.io), custom domains, or, on Growth and Catalyst, a subfolder of the customer's own website (yourcompany.com/docs)
- AI-powered search is included on the Catalyst ($179/mo) plan; on Bootstrap, Growth, and Basic it is available as a paid AI add-on ($29/mo, or $24/mo billed annually)
- Free, done-for-you migration from Zendesk, Intercom, Help Scout, Confluence, and other providers
- 14-day free trial, no credit card required

## Product

- [HelpCenter.io homepage](https://helpcenter.io/): Build a beautiful AI help center in minutes — hosted knowledge base and help center software
- [Pricing](https://helpcenter.io/pricing): Three plans — Bootstrap $29/mo, Growth $119/mo, Catalyst $179/mo (AI search included; available as an add-on on the other plans); 14-day free trial
- [AI](https://helpcenter.io/ai): Everything HelpCenter.io's AI does — Ask AI answers composed only from your own published articles, an AI Widget that reads page context, multi-turn follow-up conversations, seven AI writing operations in the editor, one-pass AI translations, and agent-readable help centers (Markdown, llms.txt, ai.txt). AI answers and writing help are included on Catalyst or $29/mo ($24/mo billed annually) as an add-on; AI translations are Catalyst-only. No per-resolution fees and no answer credits to buy, though fair-use rate limits apply.
- [AI theming agent](https://helpcenter.io/ai-theming-agent): Brands a HelpCenter.io help center from the customer's own website. Paste the address of a site you own, confirm you may use its branding, and the agent reads its colours, fonts, logo and favicon and proposes a matching light and dark theme in the Template Editor, with a confidence level per area. The proposal paints the live preview, the customer unticks what to keep, applying updates the draft only, and nothing is published until they press Publish. On every plan, including the trial, with 3 runs a day per help center (10 on Catalyst). Chat with the agent in plain language (colours, fonts, layouts, navigation, built-in components and custom HTML components) is included on Catalyst; the $29/mo AI add-on does not unlock it. Fair-use limits apply.
- [MCP server](https://helpcenter.io/integrations/mcp): The HelpCenter.io MCP server at https://mcp.helpcenter.io connects Claude (web, Desktop and Claude Code) and any MCP client that supports remote servers with OAuth, or your own agent with an API key, to your help center: 67 tools to search, write, organize and moderate content, to upload images, to group staged edits into change sets and release them together (Catalyst early preview), to read analytics, including the searches that found nothing, and to edit the help center's design in the Template Editor's draft, one tool for each kind of edit, and publish it (for help centers on the Template Editor; one still on the classic editor is switched over by its owner first). One connection can reach several help centers, and the agent names one on each call. Included on Growth and Catalyst (staged changes and version history need Catalyst); not on Bootstrap.
- [ChatGPT plugin](https://helpcenter.io/integrations/chatgpt): The HelpCenter.io plugin in ChatGPT's Plugin Directory (developer: HelpCenter Solutions). A team installs it, signs in with OAuth and chooses which help centers it can reach; it brings the HelpCenter.io app, which is the MCP server with the same 67 tools, and five skills for finding answers, maintaining articles, closing content gaps, building the help center's design and getting set up, so ChatGPT can search, write, organize, measure and restyle the help center (restyling on help centers that use the Template Editor; HelpCenter.io Growth and Catalyst; change sets are a Catalyst early preview, only on help centers enabled for it; on the ChatGPT side, the Plugin Directory is open on every plan, and Business, Enterprise, Healthcare and Edu admins decide which plugins their workspace can install). And every live, public help center open to search engines has its own read-only MCP server at its own address plus /mcp, which its customers can add to ChatGPT by URL with no sign-in (on Pro themselves; in a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace through their admin) to get answers from its published articles (every plan, on by default).
- [Help center product](https://helpcenter.io/product/help-center): Launch a branded, hosted help center on your own domain in minutes
- [Subfolder hosting](https://helpcenter.io/subfolder-hosting): Serve a help center from a path of the customer's own website, like yourcompany.com/docs, instead of a subdomain. The customer's web server or CDN forwards that path with one reverse-proxy rule (ready-made for nginx, Apache, Cloudflare, Vercel / Next.js, Netlify, Amazon CloudFront and IIS); a setup check tests it through the proxy, and going live points canonical links and the sitemap at the new address and permanently redirects the old one. Included on Growth and Catalyst; public help centers only
- [Knowledge base templates](https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates): 16 starter templates for a hosted help center, each with its own page of screenshots: 11 versatile brand styles and 5 built for retail, healthcare, fintech, gaming and education. Every one designs the home, category, article, search, contact and 404 pages, has dark mode built in, and is restyled without code in the visual editor; included on every plan, and Compass is also free and open source on knowledgebase.dev
- [AI Widget product](https://helpcenter.io/product/smart-widget): The help center inside a customer's own product or website, from one script: a help button, the customer's own Help menu, article links that open in place, the whole help center embedded as a page, FAQ sections and proactive messages, with Ask AI conversations and questions about a single article (AI on Catalyst or as an add-on), single sign-on for signed-in readers (Catalyst), and copy-ready snippets for developers
- [AI Widget interactive demo](https://helpcenter.io/product/smart-widget/demo): A clickable, made-up SaaS app with the widget in it, walking through every integration option and showing the code a developer adds for each; answers in the demo are scripted
- [FAQ sections product](https://helpcenter.io/product/faq-sections): FAQs written once in HelpCenter.io and shown on any website, store, app or partner site with one snippet, on every plan: Custom sections of picked questions or Full sections of every FAQ by category, in every language the help center publishes (more than one language on Growth and Catalyst), with reviews, version history and statistics; the same FAQ articles answer in help-center search, the widget and Ask AI (AI on Catalyst or as an add-on)
- [Free migration](https://helpcenter.io/free-migration): Done-for-you knowledge base migration from any provider in under 7 days, preserving SEO traffic

## Developers

- [HelpCenter.io Developers](https://developers.helpcenter.io/): Developer documentation for HelpCenter.io: the REST API at https://api.helpcenter.io/v1 (articles, categories, images, staged changes, change sets, comments, team notes, interface translations, analytics and exports), API keys and OAuth, webhooks, the MCP server for AI agents, the widget JavaScript API, embedding and single sign-on, with request samples in cURL, JavaScript, Python and PHP. Its own llms.txt at https://developers.helpcenter.io/llms.txt lists every page
- [Connect an AI assistant](https://developers.helpcenter.io/content/connect-an-ai-assistant-to-your-help-center): How to connect Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, another MCP client or your own agent to a help center through the HelpCenter.io MCP server, what the consent screen grants, and how to take access back
- [MCP tool reference](https://developers.helpcenter.io/content/mcp-tool-reference): Every tool of the HelpCenter.io MCP server: what it does, its arguments, the permission it needs, the REST API endpoint behind it and what it returns

## Customer stories

- [ChargeNode case study](https://helpcenter.io/customers/chargenode): How ChargeNode, the Nordic EV charging operator, had its whole help center migrated to HelpCenter.io in six days, styled to its brand book and launched in Swedish, English, Danish and Norwegian on help.chargenode.eu, reaching a 73% self-service resolution rate

## Comparisons

- [Best Zendesk Alternatives 2026](https://helpcenter.io/vs/zendesk): Flat-priced, self-service-first alternative to Zendesk; nine options compared on price and help-center focus
- [Intercom Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/intercom): HelpCenter.io vs Intercom, a purpose-built help center instead of a knowledge base that mainly feeds an AI agent, priced per seat plus per AI outcome
- [Front Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/front): HelpCenter.io vs Front, a purpose-built help center instead of a knowledge base attached to a shared inbox, with a purpose-built Front migrator
- [Help Scout Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/helpscout): HelpCenter.io vs Help Scout, a branded help center without paying per agent seat for a shared-inbox help desk
- [Confluence Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/confluence): HelpCenter.io vs Confluence, a customer-facing help center instead of an internal wiki with an anonymous-access toggle, at flat per-workspace pricing
- [Notion Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/notion): Turn your Notion docs into a branded public help center with categories, article states, SEO controls and an AI Widget
- [Document360 Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/document360): HelpCenter.io vs Document360, published pricing from $29/mo with no sales call required
- [Helpjuice Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/helpjuice): HelpCenter.io vs Helpjuice, AI Widget and custom domain from $29/mo instead of a $249/mo entry plan with no AI
- [HelpDocs Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/helpdocs): HelpCenter.io vs HelpDocs, flat per-workspace pricing with no per-seat charges and no monthly AI credit ceiling
- [Slite Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/slite): HelpCenter.io vs Slite, a customer-facing help center instead of an internal team wiki, at flat per-workspace pricing
- [Wix Answers Alternative](https://helpcenter.io/vs/wix-answers): HelpCenter.io vs Wix Answers for a branded, hosted customer help center

## Guides

- [AI Knowledge Base Software in 2026](https://helpcenter.io/blog/ai-knowledge-base-software/): Nine AI knowledge base tools compared on source scope, citation behaviour, and what each one says when it cannot answer; verified from vendor documentation, August 2026
- [Best FAQ Software in 2026](https://helpcenter.io/blog/faq-software/): Ten FAQ tools compared on price, answer reuse, and how each one bills AI answers, with entry prices read off each vendor's own pricing page
- [Migrating Off Zendesk Without Losing Rankings](https://helpcenter.io/blog/migrating-off-zendesk-help-center/): How to export a Zendesk help center, map every URL, and 301 the old paths so a migration does not cost you search traffic
- [Turn Notion or Confluence Docs Into a Public Help Center](https://helpcenter.io/blog/turn-notion-confluence-docs-into-a-public-help-center/): How to publish internal Notion or Confluence documentation as a customer-facing help center, and when to keep the wiki
- [Best Knowledge Base Software 2026](https://helpcenter.io/blog/best-knowledge-base-software-2026/): Ranked comparison of the 12 best knowledge base software tools for 2026, with pricing, pros, cons, and a feature comparison table
- [Internal Knowledge Base Guide](https://helpcenter.io/blog/internal-knowledge-base-guide/): What an internal knowledge base is, examples by team type, and a 7-step setup guide
- [Customer Self-Service Guide](https://helpcenter.io/blog/customer-self-service-guide/): Complete guide to customer self-service — channels, industry examples, 7-step implementation, metrics and benchmarks
- [FAQ Templates: 5 Free HTML Templates](https://helpcenter.io/blog/5-faq-section-templates-for-your-next-project/): Five free, open-source HTML/CSS FAQ templates plus FAQ copy examples and how to choose the right format
- [15 Open Source Knowledge Base Solutions](https://helpcenter.io/blog/10-open-source-knowledge-base-software-solutions/): Ranked list of free and open-source knowledge base software options
- [4 Free Help Desk Documentation Templates](https://helpcenter.io/blog/4-free-help-desk-documentation-templates-to-streamline-your-support-process/): Free templates for help desk and support documentation
- [Knowledge Base SEO Guide, 2026 Edition](https://helpcenter.io/blog/the-knowledge-base-seo-guide-how-to-optimize-your-help-center-for-search-2026-edition/): How to optimise a help center for search and for AI answer engines, covering llms.txt, ai.txt, Markdown for agents, and Content Signals
- [3 Internal Wiki Examples](https://helpcenter.io/blog/3-internal-wiki-examples-the-essential-business-tool/): Real-world company wiki examples and what makes them work

## Product updates

- [Template Editor v2](https://helpcenter.io/blog/introducing-template-editor-v2-thousands-of-designs-no-code-required/): No-code Template Editor v2 with flexible themes, dark mode, true live previews, mobile management, and a redesigned dashboard
- [FAQs.me, a free FAQ builder](https://helpcenter.io/blog/faqs-me-free-faq-builder/): Free standalone FAQ builder with six live templates, your brand colours, and FAQPage schema built in; copy-paste anywhere, no signup
- [HelpCenter.io + Intercom integration](https://helpcenter.io/blog/intercom-fin-helpcenter-integration/): Search HelpCenter.io articles from the Intercom Messenger and Inbox, and sync published articles (each translation as its own entry) to Intercom Fin as training content; available on all plans

## HelpCenter family

- [HelpCenter.chat](https://helpcenter.chat/): Free human live chat and shared inbox from the makers of HelpCenter.io (2 team seats and 100 new conversations per monthly usage period on the free plan), with optional Orelvi AI that answers from published HelpCenter.io articles and hands over to your team; a HelpCenter.io subscription is not required for human chat
- [knowledgebase.dev](https://knowledgebase.dev/): Compass, a free open-source (GPL-3.0) knowledge base template and launch kit with 20 HTML pages, six Markdown article blueprints, and a launch checklist
- [FAQs.me](https://faqs.me/): Free FAQ section builder with ready-made templates; exports one self-contained snippet with FAQ structured data built in, no signup

## Optional

- [Blog](https://helpcenter.io/blog/): All articles on knowledge base management, customer self-service, and help center best practices

---

# HelpCenter.io — full text

This is the full-text companion to https://helpcenter.io/llms.txt, following the
llms.txt convention. The index above lists every cite-worthy page; the sections
below restate the key facts in prose so an assistant can answer from this single
file.

## What HelpCenter.io is

HelpCenter.io is a Help-Center-as-a-Service platform for SaaS and online
businesses: hosted knowledge bases, branded help centers, embeddable FAQ
sections, and AI-powered search. Each help center is hosted on a customer
subdomain (yourcompany.helpcenter.io), on the customer's own custom domain, or,
on Growth and Catalyst, in a subfolder of the customer's own website
(yourcompany.com/docs).
There is a 14-day free trial and no credit card is required to start.

## Plans and pricing

Three plans: Bootstrap at $29/mo, Growth at $119/mo, and Catalyst at $179/mo.
AI-powered search is included on Catalyst. On Bootstrap, Growth, and Basic it is
available as a paid AI add-on at $29/mo, or $24/mo billed annually. There are no
per-resolution fees and no answer credits to buy; fair-use rate limits apply.

## AI

Ask AI composes answers only from the customer's own published articles. An AI
Widget reads page context, visitor behaviour, and prior searches to recommend
the right article in the moment, and supports multi-turn follow-up
conversations. The editor offers seven AI writing operations and one-pass AI
translations (translations are Catalyst-only). Every help center is
agent-readable — clean Markdown on every page, plus llms.txt and ai.txt.

## AI theming agent

The AI theming agent styles a help center after the customer's own brand, inside
the Template Editor. From a website: the customer pastes the address of a site
they own or control and confirms they may use its branding; the agent reads its
colours, fonts, logo and favicon (a one-colour SVG logo becomes a light and a dark
version) and proposes a matching light and dark theme, with a confidence level
per area. The proposal paints the live preview, the customer unticks anything
they want to keep, applying it updates the draft only, and the help center
changes when they press Publish. Every publish is a version that can be
restored. This is included on every plan, including the trial, with
3 runs a day per help center (10 on Catalyst).

In chat, the customer asks in plain language for colours, fonts, corner radius,
density, page layouts, navigation, built-in components (a contact call to
action, FAQs, article lists) or custom HTML components whose CSS follows the
theme in light and dark mode. It does not connect to live data or a backend,
and says so when asked. Every proposal is validated and sanitised on the
server and scoped to that help center, and accepting one keeps the help
center's translations.
Site owners and admins can also have it write the small script an interactive
component needs; the code is shown for review, never runs before it is
accepted, and editors cannot add scripts.
Chat is included on Catalyst; the $29/mo AI add-on does not unlock it. Details:
https://helpcenter.io/ai-theming-agent

## MCP server

The HelpCenter.io MCP server lets an AI assistant work on a help center, not
just read it. Claude on the web, Claude Desktop and Claude Code connect to
https://mcp.helpcenter.io as a custom connector and sign in through
HelpCenter.io's own OAuth 2.1 consent screen, where the owner chooses which help
centers the connection can reach; any MCP client that supports remote servers
with OAuth works the same way. An agent you build can use an API key from the
help center's Settings instead, sent as a bearer token to the same URL. It
exposes 67 tools in ten groups: articles, images, staged changes and version
history, change sets, design, categories, comments, editorial notes, analytics
(including the searches that found nothing, ranked by demand) and sites. The
design tools edit the Template Editor's draft (themes, colours, fonts, page
layouts, components, navigation and custom CSS), each kind of edit as a tool of
its own, under a design permission of their own, and nothing reaches visitors
until the draft is published. They work on help centers that
use the Template Editor; one still on the classic editor is refused until its
owner switches it over in the dashboard. One connection can reach several
help centers, and the agent names the one it means on each call. It is included
on the Growth and Catalyst plans and their trials; staged changes and version
history need Catalyst, change sets are a Catalyst early preview, and Bootstrap
does not include it. Details:
https://helpcenter.io/integrations/mcp

## ChatGPT

HelpCenter.io has a plugin in ChatGPT's Plugin Directory, listed by
HelpCenter Solutions. A team on Growth or Catalyst finds HelpCenter.io under
Plugins in ChatGPT, installs it, signs in through HelpCenter.io's OAuth 2.1
consent screen and chooses which help centers it can reach. The plugin brings
the HelpCenter.io app, which is the MCP server at https://mcp.helpcenter.io
with the same 67 tools (change sets are a Catalyst early preview, only on
help centers enabled for it), and five skills that guide ChatGPT through the
work:
helpcenter-find-knowledge, helpcenter-maintain-articles,
helpcenter-improve-content, helpcenter-build-templates and
helpcenter-get-started. ChatGPT uses the plugin when a request needs it, or
when the user mentions it with @, and by default asks before each action that
writes. OpenAI's Plugin Directory is open on every ChatGPT plan; installing a
plugin depends on the plan, the workspace's settings and the region, and on
Business, Enterprise, Healthcare and Edu admins decide which plugins the
workspace can install. ChatGPT cannot send an API key, so it always signs in. Separately,
every live, public help center open to search engines is its own read-only
MCP server at its own address plus /mcp, offering search, fetch and
list_categories over its published articles with no sign-in, on every plan and
on by default; the help center's customers add it to ChatGPT by URL (Plugins,
Add custom MCP server): on Pro themselves, since it only reads, and in a
Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace through their admin, who publishes it
for everyone. The plugin's design tools work on help centers that use the
Template Editor; one still on the classic editor switches over first. Developers can use the same
https://mcp.helpcenter.io URL from the OpenAI Responses API's MCP tool with a
HelpCenter.io API key, or from Codex. Details:
https://helpcenter.io/integrations/chatgpt

## Subfolder hosting

A help center can answer from a path of the customer's own website, like
yourcompany.com/docs, instead of its own subdomain, so its pages, links and
search visits stay on the customer's main domain. The customer's web server or
CDN forwards that path, with the path, method, cookies and headers intact, to
the help center; Settings hands out a ready-made rule for nginx, Apache,
Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify, Amazon CloudFront and IIS, and any other reverse
proxy works the same way. A setup check tests the whole route through the
proxy before the address goes live. While it is being tested, pages under the
subfolder ask search engines not to index them; once it is live, canonical
links, the sitemap and shared links use the new address, and every page on the
old subdomain or custom domain redirects permanently to the same page under
the subfolder. It can be switched off again at any time. It is included on the
Growth and Catalyst plans and their trials, for public help centers only
(private, password-protected and single sign-on help centers keep their own
address). Details: https://helpcenter.io/subfolder-hosting

## Knowledge base templates

A new help center starts on one of HelpCenter.io's starter templates (Compass
unless another is picked at signup), and can switch to another at any time from
the theme gallery in the editor without touching its articles or categories. Each template designs the home, category,
article, search, contact and 404 pages, has dark mode built in (visitors get it
from their device setting), and is restyled without code: logo, colours, fonts,
spacing, sections and custom CSS. All of them are included on every plan.
Compass, the default, is also a free, open-source (GPL-3.0) template on
knowledgebase.dev for teams that would rather host a knowledge base themselves.
The templates, each with its own page:

- Compass: The Compass template from knowledgebase.dev, with hosting, team editing, and search built in. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/compass
- Aurora Support: A modern support home lit by a soft gradient hero, with search front and centre. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/support-aurora
- Support Classic: A warm, familiar support hub with a hero search customers reach for first. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/support-classic
- Stripe Clean: A crisp, documentation-first layout that suits product and developer teams. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/stripe-clean
- Notion Airy: Calm, spacious pages that make even long guides easy to read. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/notion-airy
- Apple Minimal: Understated and premium, with the focus entirely on your answers. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/apple-minimal
- GitHub Dense: Information-dense reference docs built for a technical audience. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/github-dense
- Docs Classic: Structured guides and reference, organised for quick scanning. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/docs-classic
- Docs Focus: Centred navigation, grouped topics, and a comfortable reading column. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/docs-focus
- Minimal Classic: A coloured header over a clean grid, the timeless help-center look. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/minimal-classic
- Support Columns: Categories beside your most-read articles in a tidy two-column home. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/support-columns
- Boutique (Retail): Order tracking, returns, and styling help, ready for your storefront. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/retail-boutique
- Vital (Healthcare): Clear, reassuring answers for appointments, billing, and care. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/health-vital
- Ledger (Fintech): A trustworthy layout for payments, security, and compliance questions. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/fintech-ledger
- Arcade (Gaming): Bold, playful support that matches the energy of your community. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/gaming-arcade
- Campus (Education): Course help and getting-started guides that welcome every learner. https://helpcenter.io/knowledge-base-templates/education-campus

## Migration

Migration is free and done for you: HelpCenter.io moves an existing knowledge
base from Zendesk, Intercom, Help Scout, Confluence, or any other provider in
under 7 days, preserving existing SEO traffic.

One customer story: ChargeNode, the Nordic EV charging operator, had every
category and article moved in six days, launched a help center styled to its
brand book in Swedish, English, Danish and Norwegian on help.chargenode.eu, and
reached a 73% self-service resolution rate. Details:
https://helpcenter.io/customers/chargenode

## Products

- Help center: a branded, hosted help center on the customer's own domain,
  launchable in minutes.
- AI Widget: an embeddable widget that reads page context, visitor behaviour,
  and prior searches to surface the right help article.
- FAQ sections: embeddable FAQ sections for any website, powered by the
  knowledge base.

## Contact

ivanpenchev@helpcenter.io