Compare the Top Free Software Documentation Tools as of November 2025

What are Free Software Documentation Tools?

Software documentation tools are designed to help developers and technical writers create, manage, and share documentation related to software applications. These tools facilitate the writing of user guides, API references, installation instructions, and other types of technical content. They often include features like version control, templates, collaborative editing, and integration with code repositories to streamline the documentation process. Some popular tools offer support for various output formats, such as HTML, PDF, and Markdown, making it easier to distribute documentation to different audiences. By using these tools, teams can ensure that their documentation remains accurate, up-to-date, and accessible throughout the software development lifecycle. Compare and read user reviews of the best Free Software Documentation tools currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.

  • 1
    Interfacing Enterprise Process Center (EPC)

    Interfacing Enterprise Process Center (EPC)

    Interfacing Technologies Corporation

    Interfacing’s Integrated Management System (IMS) is an AI-powered platform that unifies BPM, QMS, Document Control, and GRC into one platform. Organizations use IMS to model and automate processes, control documents, manage risks, and maintain regulatory compliance with full traceability and audit readiness. Built for highly regulated sectors such as aerospace, life sciences, finance, and government, IMS provides real-time visibility, automated workflows, and AI-driven insights that improve quality and reduce operational risk. The platform is ISO 27001 certified and fully validated for 21 CFR Part 11, making it suitable for mission-critical environments requiring strong governance, security, and control. IMS also includes low-code automation, process mining, audit management, training tracking, CAPA workflows, and dashboards to help teams streamline operations and continuously improve. AI strengthens governance, improves accuracy, and reinforces regulatory control.
    Starting Price: $10/month/user
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  • 2
    FlowShare

    FlowShare

    miraminds GmbH

    FlowShare® documents every step you take in any software, then delivers a branded process manual you can use to train your staff. FlowShare is a one-of-a-kind documentation tool that runs in the background, automatically documenting every action you take, creating step-by-step guides for your staff to train themselves on complex tasks and processes. It's fast, gets your documentation done in just hours, instead of days or weeks, works with any type of software on Windows and saves time and money training staff. You get easy to distribute accurate information with all of your guides looking great - no matter who creates them! FlowShare AI-Powered assistant provides 24/7 instant help, ready to guide your end-users through troubleshooting and problem-solving independently and enhances your team's ability to adapt and grow with your tech stack. FlowShare Portal provides a Central Knwoledge Hub, making the solutions and step-by-step guides readily accessible.
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    Starting Price: €39/month/user
  • 3
    Visual Studio Code
    Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is Microsoft’s open-source AI code editor designed to make coding faster, smarter, and more collaborative. It supports thousands of extensions and nearly every programming language, offering developers a lightweight yet powerful environment for writing, testing, and debugging code. With AI-powered features like GitHub Copilot, Next Edit Suggestions, and Agent Mode, VS Code helps you code with precision, automate complex tasks, and streamline development workflows. It integrates seamlessly with cloud services, remote repositories, and tools like Git, Docker, and Azure. The editor is fully customizable, allowing you to personalize your layout, color themes, and keyboard shortcuts. Whether coding locally or in the browser, VS Code delivers a complete development experience for individuals and teams alike.
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    Starting Price: Free
  • 4
    WackoWiki

    WackoWiki

    WackoWiki

    WackoWiki – Small, lightweight, handy, expandable, multilingual Wiki-engine. It's designed for speed and extensibility. WackoWiki is completely free and open source, and it is BSD licensed. Includes a WYTIWYG editor, easy installer, section edit, thumbnail creation, many localizations, RSS autodiscovery, Links can be CamelCase or freely formed links using an intuitive two-character markup. Compatible with PHP 8.0 - 8.4 and MariaDB / MySQL. On-the-fly correction of punctual typos & spec. characters. Access control through per-page access control lists. Automatic table of contents generation. Page watching & email notification on changes/comments. Powerful diff between revisions.
    Starting Price: $0
  • 5
    HelpSmith

    HelpSmith

    HelpSmith

    Complete help authoring tool to create CHM HTML Help files, Web Help systems, printed manuals, Adobe PDF documets, Microsoft Word documents, and ePub eBooks from a single source. If you are looking for a help authoring tool to create a CHM help file, online Web Help system, or PDF manual, you can consider HelpSmith which provides a rich feature-set from the powerful word processor to write help topics, to the built-in screenshot tool with the possibility to create help for dialog windows automatically. Using HelpSmith, you can create a CHM help file, a fully responsive Web Help system compatible with desktop computers and mobile devices, Printed Manual, PDF document, ePub eBook, and Microsoft Word document from a single source help project. You can write topic content using a built-in word processor that includes a spell checker with dictionaries available for many languages.
    Starting Price: $199 one-time payment
  • 6
    Tango

    Tango

    Tango

    Catch up on your documentation, cut down on meetings and interruptions, and save hours every week. We’ll automatically create a step-by-step guide with perfectly cropped screenshots, links, and annotations. Blur out sensitive information, add annotations, draw freehand, or customize your logo and colors. Publish your guide to multiple knowledge bases with one click, share a direct link, or export to PDF, HTML, or Markdown. You click through your process. Tango does the documenting. Create 10 how-to guides in the time it used to take to do one. Say goodbye to long videos and walls of text. Tango turns any process into a beautiful, shareable how-to guide. Document steps on any website or software. Tango with all your favorite tools. Highlight what's important with an arrow, rectangle, circle, or text. Or draw anything you can imagine with the freehand pen. Resize images to focus on what matters and cut what doesn’t.
    Starting Price: $16 per month
  • 7
    Dr.Explain

    Dr.Explain

    Indigo Byte Systems

    Create effective help documentation for your users by next week. Dr.Explain is a help authoring software to easily create help files, end user documentation and on-line help manuals in CHM, PDF, WORD & HTML formats automatically. You have a great product, but users keep asking the same questions every single day. Your email inbox is full, and your support team is overloaded. Your product is polished, but you have to spend all your time on calls. You receive constant requests for online demos. Create user-friendly help docs for your customers with Dr.Explain in just a couple of days and cut your support team’s workload by up to half. Help your customers make the most of your product without needing help from you, saving you time, money, and effort. Create help documentation just once with Dr.Explain and then publish it in various formats, from a help center built into your desktop or mobile app to an online repository integrated with your website or SaaS solution.
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