The Archbee alternative with the whole help center included
Fern, our AI agent, reads the pull requests you merge, your support tickets and your live product, and drafts the fix when an article goes out of date. The widget, AI answers and white labeling come on one plan, not as add-ons.
Book a demo - 7-day free trial
- No credit card
- Import from Archbee, URLs kept
Ferndesk Archbee- Built for
- Customer help centers, with API docs alongside Product and developer docs, with a knowledge base option
- Keeping docs current
- Fern drafts fixes from PRs, tickets and the live product Verification reminders, then a person checks
- Widget, AI and analytics
- Included Each one an add-on
- Price per month
- $149, or $124 billed yearly $550, or $470 billed yearly, for 5 members with the widget and AI add-ons
Archbee sells the help center in add-ons. Ferndesk includes it.
If engineers write your docs in Git and API reference comes first, Archbee fits. If customers are the readers and you want the widget, AI answers and upkeep included, Ferndesk fits.
When to choose Ferndesk, and when to choose Archbee
Choose Ferndesk if
- Customers are your main readers, and support or product people edit the docs.
- You want the widget, AI answers and analytics without add-ons.
- Your product ships every week and nobody owns keeping the articles current.
- You want merged pull requests and support tickets to drive doc updates.
Choose Archbee if
- Your engineers want docs synced both ways with GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket.
- API reference and developer guides are most of your docs.
- You want a CLI and reusable content blocks for a docs-as-code workflow.
- You need your docs hosted in your own AWS account.
Archbee starts with developer docs. The help center parts cost extra.
Teams move when their readers are customers, and the widget, AI and analytics each arrive as an add-on.
The help center comes in add-ons
The in-app widget and Insights analytics are $80 a month each, billed yearly, and AI is a separate add-on with a monthly token allowance.
Branding and languages start on Scaling
Removing “Powered by Archbee”, language localization and the review system start on Scaling, at $350 a month billed yearly.
Verification is a reminder
Document verification reminds an expert to check a page on a schedule. Nothing reads your pull requests, tickets or product to find what changed.
Ferndesk and Archbee, side by side
| Feature | Ferndesk | Archbee |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping docs accurate | ||
| Drafts doc updates from merged pull requests | Yes | No |
| Drafts articles from support tickets | Yes | No |
| Checks every article against the live product | Yes | No |
| Retakes screenshots when the UI changes | Yes | No |
| Flags stale articles | Yes | Scheduled reminders |
| Help center | ||
| Every help center feature on one plan, no add-ons | Yes | Split across plans and add-ons |
| Visual editor | Yes | Yes |
| In-app help widget | Yes | $80-a-month add-on |
| AI answers from your docs | Yes | AI add-on |
| Remove the vendor’s branding | Yes | Scaling plan and up |
| Several languages in one help center | Yes | Scaling plan and up |
| Private docs behind SSO or OIDC | Yes | Enterprise plan |
| Developer docs | ||
| API reference from OpenAPI | Yes | Yes |
| Interactive API playground | Yes | Yes |
| Two-way sync with GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket | No | Yes |
| llms.txt and an MCP server for AI tools | Yes | Yes |
Archbee syncs the docs you write. Fern drafts the ones you didn’t.
Fern watches the places docs go wrong: merged code, support conversations and the live product. The fixes arrive drafted, and nothing publishes until someone on your team approves it.
Every merged PR, checked for doc impact
Fern reads each pull request you merge, finds the help articles it made wrong, and drafts the edit with a link to the change it came from.
Support tickets turned into articles
She reads resolved conversations in Intercom, Zendesk, Help Scout, Crisp and other inboxes, spots the questions your docs do not answer, and drafts the missing article.
Every article checked against the product
Verification reads each article claim by claim and checks it against your codebase, your website and the live product. Anything that is no longer true becomes a drafted fix, and scheduled audits repeat the check.
Screenshots retaken from your real UI
When a screen changes, Fern recaptures the screenshot from your product, so articles stop showing last year’s design.
Move your docs in minutes
Ferndesk has a dedicated Archbee importer. It rebuilds your doc tree and page order, brings content blocks and API pages across, and redirects your old URLs to the new pages so links and search rankings survive the move. If something will not import cleanly, we do it with you.
What comes across
- Your doc tree, folders and page order
- Callouts, tables, code, cards, columns and embeds
- API pages, turned into a Ferndesk API reference
- Internal links, rewritten to the new pages
- Your URLs, with redirects from the old paths
The importer reads published spaces. Protected portals move from an export, or we import them with you.
Ferndesk costs $4,150 less a year
Ferndesk Pro against Archbee Scaling for 5 members with the widget and AI add-ons, both billed yearly: $1,490 against $5,640.
Ferndesk Pro $149a month
Or $124 a month billed yearly, $1,490 a year. Includes the help center on your own domain or /help, the in-app widget with 1,000 AI conversations a month, private help centers, white labeling, 5 languages and 5 seats, with Fern keeping every article accurate. 7-day free trial, no card.
Under $1M ARR? The first 12 months are half price: $745 for the year. Early-stage rate
$550a month
Or $470 a month billed yearly, $5,640 a year. Scaling is $350 a month billed yearly, or $400 month to month, with 5 members. The widget adds $80 and AI $40 a month, billed yearly, and Insights analytics is another $80.
From Archbee’s pricing page, checked 25 September 2026.
Ferndesk vs Archbee: common questions
Something we missed? Write to us, a human answers.
Yes, when customers are the main readers and you want the widget, AI answers and upkeep included. Fern keeps every article accurate from your pull requests, tickets and live product. If engineers write most of your docs in Git and API reference comes first, Archbee is a good fit.
More on Archbee and the alternatives
The docs tools teams weigh against Archbee.
API docs in FerndeskRender your OpenAPI spec next to your help center.
Self-updating help centerHow Fern keeps every article accurate as your product changes.
Help center softwareWhat a modern help center does, and how Ferndesk compares.
Code to docsHow Fern turns merged pull requests into accurate documentation.
How migration worksWhat comes across, what redirects, and how long it takes.
Your docs have been stale for months. Fix them in ten minutes.
Import your help center and Fern checks every article against your product, drafts the fixes, and keeps them current from then on. You approve, she publishes.
- 7-day free trial, no card
- Import in 10 minutes, URLs preserved
- Your support tool stays where it is
- Nothing publishes without you