The Stonly alternative with AI included, not locked to Enterprise
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reads the pull requests you merge, your support tickets and your live product, and drafts the fix when an article goes out of date.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, the widget and your own domain come on one plan, with a price you can see.
Book a demo - 7-day free trial
- No credit card
- Import from Stonly, URLs kept
Ferndesk Stonly- Built for
- Help centers for software teams Interactive guides for customer service teams
- Keeping articles current
- Fern drafts fixes from PRs, tickets and the live product Knowledge Agents draft fixes from tickets, on Enterprise
- AI
- Included on Pro Enterprise plan, mostly as add-ons
- Price per month
- $149, or $124 billed yearly Quote only, priced by guide views
Stonly keeps AI for Enterprise. Ferndesk includes it from day one.
If you run a contact center that lives on interactive guides, decision trees and agent scripts, Stonly fits. If you want a help center that stays accurate as your software ships, with AI and a public price, Ferndesk fits.
When to choose Ferndesk, and when to choose Stonly
Choose Ferndesk if
- You want AI answers and upkeep included, without an Enterprise contract.
- You want to get started today, without weeks of sales calls and quotes.
- Your software ships every week, and code changes are what make articles wrong.
- You want API reference docs next to your help center.
Choose Stonly if
- You run a contact center that relies on decision trees and agent scripts.
- You want interactive guides and product tours inside your app.
- Your agents need guidance that fills ticket fields and triggers macros.
- You want AI answers in WhatsApp, Slack or Teams as well as the help center.
Stonly saves AI and the basics for Enterprise.
Teams move when every AI feature needs an Enterprise contract, and the price depends on how many people read the guides.
Every AI feature is Enterprise
AI Answers, the AI writing assistant and Knowledge Agents all need the Enterprise plan, most of them as add-ons you request.
Priced by guide views
Stonly publishes no prices. Plans are quoted by team members and monthly guide views, and going over your views two months running moves you up a tier.
Code changes go unseen
Knowledge Agents draft fixes from support tickets, but nothing reads the pull requests you merge or checks articles against your live product.
Ferndesk and Stonly, side by side
| Feature | Ferndesk | Stonly |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping docs accurate | ||
| Drafts doc updates from merged pull requests | Yes | No |
| Drafts articles from support tickets | Yes | Enterprise add-on |
| Checks every article against the live product | Yes | No |
| Retakes screenshots when the UI changes | Yes | No |
| 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 | Yes |
| AI answers from your docs | Yes | Enterprise add-on |
| Host on a /help subfolder of your domain | Yes | Enterprise plan |
| Private docs behind SSO | Yes | Enterprise plan |
| Remove the vendor’s branding | Yes | Enterprise plan |
| Interactive step-by-step guides | No | Yes |
| Developer docs | ||
| API reference from OpenAPI | Yes | No |
| MCP server for AI tools | Yes | No |
Stonly’s agents read your tickets. Fern also reads your code and your product.
Fern watches all three 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.
Bring your knowledge base across
Ferndesk imports from your public Stonly knowledge base. Articles and images come across, links between pages are rewritten, and your old URLs redirect to the new pages. If something will not import cleanly, we do it with you.
What comes across
- Your knowledge base articles
- Images and formatting
- Links between pages, rewritten to the new pages
- Your URLs, with redirects from the old paths
Interactive guides and decision trees don’t carry over as interactive flows.
One public price, with AI included
Stonly shows no prices. Its plans are quoted by team members and monthly guide views, and every AI feature is on Enterprise.
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
Quote only
Small Business, for companies under 100 people, includes 1 knowledge base, 5 team members and 4,000 guide views a month, with higher tiers as views grow. AI Answers, Knowledge Agents, SSO and help desk integrations need Enterprise.
From Stonly’s pricing page, checked 25 September 2026.
Ferndesk vs Stonly: common questions
Something we missed? Write to us, a human answers.
Yes, for software teams that want a help center kept accurate as they ship, with AI and a public price. If your support runs on interactive guides, decision trees and agent scripts in a contact center, Stonly is built for that.
More on Stonly and the alternatives
The tools teams weigh against Stonly.
Automated screenshotsHow Fern keeps every screenshot in step with your product.
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.
IntegrationsThe support tools, code hosts and chat apps Fern reads from.
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