best app for internal use knowledgebase/faq/articles?

[humptydumpty]

I've always wanted to create my own personal knowledge base of sorts that I can refer to. What apps would you recommend?

my preferences/requirements:

• App from the Cloudron store only (requirement)
• CMS based - static page builders aren't ideal cz of their complexity for my tiny brain (requirement)
• desktop app would be nice but (optional)
• app stability - app that won't disappear in a year (requirement)
• limit access to pre-approved users only (requirement)

My first choice would be Ghost w/ a KB oriented theme. If all fails, Wordpress but meh. Maybe the membership feature in Ghost could be used to limit access. Does anyone have experience with that?

[jdaviescoates]

Apache Answer could potentially fit your use case?

[timconsidine]

Outline is very functional if you’re happy with the layout / structure

[girish]

I use mediawiki for the past decade for this. Somehow, even after a decade, I have not learnt the mediawiki syntax properly

For our company stuff, we use HedgeDoc. There is a massive caveat with HedgeDoc that it does not have functioning search. So, you have to tag and pin things. If you are OK with this, it's a really good functional app.

app stability - app that won't disappear in a year (requirement)

mediawiki is never ever going away it's what powers wikipedia.

limit access to pre-approved users only (requirement)

I guess you can do this with Cloudron auth (mediawiki has oidc)

[humptydumpty]

Thank you everyone for the recommendations. I'm in the process of testing them and will report back.

[eddowding]

+1 to Outline. Example: https://guide.southpole.one/s/3b5705ae-66d8-4a13-8ef8-3637a25fcead/doc/create-an-account-I4gr62gszD

[humptydumpty]

Okay, so here's what I've reviewed so far.

Apache Answer: Clean look. Easy to use. Made for a community with a reputation, upvote/downvote, and best answer features. As a single user, it feels like I'm hosting a party, but I'm sitting there alone talking to myself. It sure is a beautiful app and works great out of the box. Contender #1

Documize: I got fooled by the screenshots. It's not for my use-case. Pass

Outline: Another amazing recommendation. It looks and works great out of the box. Very smooth experience. I wish the home and collections pages had a grid view. Contender #2

Hedgedoc: The search caveat is a deal breaker since it's a core feature when browsing through a knowledgebase. Pass

Mediawiki: This loses based on aesthetics alone, it's an eyesore and it's here to stay. Just great! Pass

Ghost: I have this installed on my personal domain, so I'm familiar with it. I haven't considered it as a KB before so here's how it could work. If you're not familiar with Ghost, it's a beautiful blogging CMS with great features out of the box. For instance, there's a setting "make this site private". You toggle it on, set a password, and the blog is pass-protected now. That easy. But locking a blog behind a pass is a shame, so I'm thinking of using the membership feature to have public and private posts. You can have a single tier (free) unless you set up Stripe and then you can add more "paid" tiers. I can use this free tier (which I can rename to Inner Circle, lol) to create a private section for my knowledgebase. Subscription access can then be limited to invited people. When creating a post, you can specify the post visibility and limit it to my membership tier or leave it as public. I can keep my existing theme, or use the KB oriented theme. I would be killing two birds with one stone using Ghost. The only con I can think of is if I ever forget to change the default public post visibility and I share sensitive info. Contender #3

Joplin: I've been using this on and off but only on my local device as a note app and never looked into all the bells and whistles it has to offer. Let me share some of the plugins that caught my eye:

• search & replace
• alarm
• email to notes (create notes by sending an email to a pre-defined address)
• save note as markdown & commit to git (this is for you devs)
• markdown / rich markdown (maybe I'll learn markdown once and for all)
• OCR
• Kanban
• Language Tool integration
• calendar
• journal
• freehand drawing

Some of Joplins built-in features:

• Offline access
• E2EE
• Nextcloud Storage
• Local Periodic Backups -- Not only will it sync to the cloud but having periodic local backups (e.g. your D : drive is a huge bonus)
• Web Clipper plugin for Firefox & Chrome -- save snippets, full pages as HTML or markdown, URL, screenshot, or selection to Joplin with a single click.
• Desktop & Mobile apps

Joplin is definitely the most work to set up and I'm bound to experience bugs/crashes if I start using all those plugins. It's hard to ignore the pros though so this makes it Contender #4

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I usually stick to the KISS principle, my choices would be:

• Apache Answer
• Outline

If I want KISS++ that would be:

• Ghost (already use it for my personal domain)

If I want flexibility, a plethora of plugins, and unmatched built-in features:

• Joplin

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Sigh. I'm in the same place I started.

[eddowding]

@humptydumpty said in best app for internal use knowledgebase/faq/articles?:

personal knowledge base

Just re-read this. The answer is Obsidian.