HelpDocs vs Notaku (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, HelpDocs and Notaku share a 2.2 GPA, and only Notaku has a free plan.
Checked Oct 6, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
HelpDocs grades higher on features. Notaku grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
HelpDocs
Hosted knowledge base software priced by editor, not by reader
Notaku
Docs, blog, changelog and roadmap sites published from Notion
Which one is for you
Pick HelpDocs if
- Fits if you want to buy a help center today without a sales call
- Works for products that need help content inside the app, through the Lighthouse widget
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need a free plan, because after 14 days the lowest-priced plan is $99 a month
- Tight if you publish in many languages on Sprout, which covers 3 and 10 machine translations a month
- Pricey if you need single sign-on, as that only comes with Harvest at $399 a month
- Pricey if you need an audit trail or advanced permissions, which start on Bloom at $239 a month
- Tight if you need more than 25 editors or long analytics: only Harvest adds editors, at $25 each, and Sprout keeps 90 days
Pick Notaku if
- Fits if your team already writes its docs in Notion and wants them on a public site
- Works for small help centers under 50 pages
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 20 pages on a notaku.site address
- Pricey if you want password protection or user feedback, which start on Business at $37
- Skip it if you need hosting under a subdirectory like /docs, which is Business Plus at $97
- Watch out: there is no free trial of paid features, only a 30-day refund window per the FAQ
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAHelpDocsFair | 2.2GPANotakuFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DSprout is $99 a month billed annually, or $129 monthly, where this category's middle is $15 and even its dear quarter starts at $75. Five editors are included, readers are unlimited. The audit trail and permissioning wait on Bloom at $239, SSO on Harvest at $399. | C$17 a month for Basic, with the category's middle at $19. Features like password protection sit on Business at $37 for 150 pages. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan. Every plan has a 14-day trial that asks for no card, which is the ordinary arrangement, and after that the cheapest way in is $99 a month billed annually. | CFree plan with 20 Notion pages on a notaku.site subdomain, a cap you will reach quickly. No free trial of the paid features. |
| Features | BIt covers the whole help-centre job: reusable Clips and Variables that update everywhere at once, AI drafting and Ask AI answers, the Lighthouse in-app widget, machine or hand translation, a REST API, a Slack app and an MCP server. | CHosts Notion pages with search, versions and feedback. The listing shows gaps: page caps on every plan and custom domain only from Basic. |
| Ease of use | CNo app rating on record, and there's a site to stand up: a domain to point, templates to fill, articles to write and a widget to embed, with AI credits to keep an eye on. No sales call to sit through, at least. | CNo store rating on record. You build the content in Notion and then connect it, so there is setup. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web app with a browser extension, integrations with Slack, Intercom, Front, Crisp, Gorgias and HubSpot, a REST API that returns JSON and an MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT. No phone apps on record. | BWeb product that connects to Notion, with Cloudflare and Next.js named, and a public API. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | a customer help centre without a sales call | turning Notion pages into a docs site |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: HelpDocs and Notaku. How we grade
Price against what you get
HelpDocs starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Notaku starts at $17 a month and scores 2.3.
HelpDocs scores higher, and starts $82 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other docs and wiki tools on the chart, 11 score higher than HelpDocs for less, and 20 score higher than Notaku for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- HelpDocs also covers templates and reports.
- Notaku also covers AI search and documents.
At a glance
| HelpDocs | Notaku | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $99 per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly) | $17 per month, billed monthly |
| Free plan | None | 20 Notion pages on a notaku.site subdomain. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial on every plan, no credit card required | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | HelpDocs Ltd. | Notaku |
| Price read from | helpdocs.io | notaku.so |
| Checked | Oct 6, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
HelpDocs
- There is no free plan: after the 14-day trial the cheapest plan is $99 a month billed annually, or $129 billed monthly.
- Plans include 5, 15 or 25 editors. Only Harvest lists extra editors, at $25 each per month.
- Sprout is limited to 3 languages and 10 machine translations a month, and has no audit trail, advanced permissioning or SSO.
- Analytics history covers 90 days on Sprout, 180 days on Bloom and 365 days on Harvest.
Notaku
- Plans cap Notion pages: 20, 50, 150 or 2,000; empty pages are not counted.
- Custom domain starts on Basic; password protection and user feedback need Business.
- Subdirectory hosting, versions and auto sync need Business Plus.
- The refund window is 30 days after purchase, per the FAQ; there is no free trial of paid features.
Key features
HelpDocs
- Editor with reusable content
- Clips are reusable blocks that update in every article they sit in, and Variables store a value such as a product name once so a change reaches every mention.
- HelpDocs AI
- AI credits pay for drafting and rewriting articles, generating meta descriptions, alt text and search tags, and Ask AI answers. Bloom adds AI style enforcement.
- Lighthouse widget
- An embeddable help widget lets customers find answers from the knowledge base inside a website or product, and is set up without writing code.
- Connections to AI tools and Slack
- An MCP server connects Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other clients to the knowledge base, a Slack app brings articles into a workspace, and a REST API returns JSON.
- Multilingual knowledge bases
- Articles are translated by machine or by hand. Sprout covers 3 languages, Bloom 20 and Harvest unlimited, each with a monthly allowance of machine translations.
- Permissions and governance
- Advanced permissioning and an audit trail start on Bloom. Single sign-on, IP restriction and custom HTTP headers come with Harvest.
Notaku
- Notion as the CMS
- Content is edited in Notion and published to a site on a custom domain.
- Several site types
- Docs, help desk, blog, changelog and roadmap sites with voting.
- Search and Ask AI
- Built-in search, plus questions answered from the site's Notion content.
- Feedback and emails
- Collects page ratings and text feedback, and visitor emails for summary mailings.
- Versions and languages
- Multiple versions of a site connect to different Notion pages; languages go in separate pages.
Plans
HelpDocs
Sprout$99
per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly)
5 editors, 1,000 AI credits a month, 3 languages, unlimited viewers, the Lighthouse widget and custom CSS and JavaScript.
Bloom$239
per month, billed annually ($299 billed monthly)
15 editors and 5,000 AI credits, adding advanced permissioning, an audit trail, embedded SSO (JWT), 20 languages and custom HTML templates.
Harvest$399
per month, billed annually ($499 billed monthly)
25 editors and 10,000 AI credits, adding SSO with anonymous mode, IP restriction, unlimited languages and 2 additional domains.
Notaku
Free$0
20 Notion pages on a notaku.site subdomain.
Basic$17
per month for up to 50 pages, billed monthly
1 seat, custom domain, basic customization and basic search.
Business$37
per month for up to 150 pages, billed monthly
5 seats, custom JavaScript and CSS, user feedback, password protection, full-text search and an embeddable widget.
Business Plus$97
per month for up to 2,000 pages, billed monthly
Unlimited seats, versions, auto sync and hosting on a subdirectory such as /docs.
Ways to pay less
HelpDocs
- Annual discount
Save 20% with annual billing
The pricing page marks annual billing as saving 20%: Sprout is $99 a month instead of $129, Bloom $239 instead of $299 and Harvest $399 instead of $499.
- Startups
Greenhouse: 50% off for two years
Startups under 3 years old with 5 or fewer employees can apply for 50% off Sprout, Bloom or Harvest for 24 months, plus 3,000 bonus AI credits.
Notaku
- Annual discount
Yearly billing
The site's billing data lists yearly prices of $180 for Basic, $396 for Business and $1,044 for Business Plus, against $17, $37 and $97 a month. The page shows a Yearly billing toggle.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, HelpDocs or Notaku?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Notaku is cheaper to start with: $17 a month, against $99 a month for HelpDocs. HelpDocs starts at $99 per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly), and Notaku starts at $17 per month, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, HelpDocs or Notaku?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Notaku has a free plan. HelpDocs does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do HelpDocs and Notaku run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only HelpDocs lists a browser extension. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.