The Helpjuice alternative that keeps itself accurate, AI 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reads the pull requests you merge, your support tickets and your live product, and drafts the fix when an article goes out of date. AI answers and drafting come on one plan, with no upgrade to unlock them.
Book a demo - 7-day free trial
- No credit card
- Import from Helpjuice, URLs kept
Ferndesk Helpjuice- Built for
- Help centers for fast-moving software teams Knowledge bases for support and internal teams
- Keeping articles current
- Fern drafts fixes from PRs, tickets and the live product Expiry dates, and AI drafts you start by hand
- AI
- Included on Pro AI Suite from the $449 plan
- Price per month
- $149, or $124 billed yearly $449 a month with AI, $249 without
Helpjuice sells AI as an upgrade. Ferndesk includes it and keeps itself accurate.
If you need 100 people logging in, deep design control and publish approvals, Helpjuice fits. If a small team ships fast and wants AI and upkeep included, Ferndesk fits.
When to choose Ferndesk, and when to choose Helpjuice
Choose Ferndesk if
- You want AI answers and drafting included, without a $200-a-month plan upgrade.
- Your product ships every week and articles go stale between reviews.
- You want merged pull requests and support tickets to drive doc updates.
- You want your first articles drafted from your codebase and tickets, not written from scratch.
Choose Helpjuice if
- You need up to 100 people logging in, or unlimited on the $799 plan.
- You want full control of the design, with HTML, CSS and Liquid templates.
- You need publish approvals with a set number of reviewers.
- You run an internal knowledge base with IP allow-lists and LDAP sign-in.
Helpjuice’s AI arrives as an upgrade. Upkeep stays manual.
Teams rarely leave Helpjuice over search or design. They leave when AI costs a plan upgrade and articles still go stale between releases.
AI starts on the $449 plan
Helpjuice’s pricing page puts the AI Suite, with the AI writer, AI search and the chatbot, on the $449 plan and up. The $249 plan has none of it, and machine translation is billed per character.
“Auto-updating” means drafts you start
Its Chrome extension turns text you highlight into a draft article. Nothing watches your code, your tickets or your product, and existing articles change only when someone edits them.
Expiry dates, not reviews
An article can expire on a date you set, with an email first. Someone still has to read it and work out what changed.
Ferndesk and Helpjuice, side by side
| Feature | Ferndesk | Helpjuice |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping docs accurate | ||
| Drafts doc updates from merged pull requests | Yes | No |
| Drafts articles from support tickets | Yes | By hand, via extension |
| Checks every article against the live product | Yes | No |
| Retakes screenshots when the UI changes | Yes | No |
| Flags stale articles | Yes | By expiry date |
| Help center | ||
| Every help center feature on one plan, no add-ons | Yes | AI and SSO from $449 |
| Visual editor | Yes | Yes |
| In-app help widget | Yes | AI plan and up |
| AI answers from your docs | Yes | AI plan and up |
| Private docs behind SSO | Yes | AI plan and up |
| AI translation | Yes | Billed per character |
| Developer docs | ||
| llms.txt for AI tools | Yes | No |
| MCP server for AI tools | Yes | Yes |
Helpjuice drafts what you highlight. Fern finds what needs fixing.
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 knowledge base in minutes
Ferndesk has a dedicated Helpjuice importer. It rebuilds your categories, brings article content and media 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 categories and articles
- Article content, images and media
- Your URLs, with redirects from the old paths
Private sections move from an export, or we import them with you.
AI included, not a $200-a-month upgrade
Helpjuice’s AI Suite starts on its $449 plan. On Ferndesk, AI answers, drafting and Fern come with Pro.
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
$449a month
Includes 100 users, the AI Suite and SSO. The $249 plan has 30 users and no AI Suite, and the $799 plan adds unlimited users and design credits. Machine translation is billed per character.
From Helpjuice’s pricing page, checked 24 September 2026.
Ferndesk vs Helpjuice: common questions
Something we missed? Write to us, a human answers.
Yes, when a small team wants AI and upkeep included without a plan upgrade. Fern keeps every article accurate from your pull requests, tickets and live product. If you need 100 or more people logging in, full template control or publish approvals with set reviewers, Helpjuice is a good fit.
More on Helpjuice and the alternatives
The knowledge bases teams weigh against Helpjuice.
Best AI knowledge base softwareWhich tools use AI to answer, and which use it to maintain.
Knowledge base maintenanceHow to keep articles accurate as your product changes.
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.
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