15 Best Help Center Designs for SaaS [+Steps To Build Your Own]

Looking to get inspiration from the best help center designs out there? You are in the right place!

Designing help centers can be a tricky task. What elements should you include? How much information is enough? Where do you even begin with the self-service support model?

In today’s article, we will be listing some inspiring help center design examples that stand out and also show you how to build your own help center step-by-step.

Let’s get started!

Summary of 15 SaaS best help center designs

A help center is in-app self-service support built to solve common user problems.
The main difference between a help center and a knowledge base is that the latter is a section on your website, while the former is an in-app resource.
A well-designed help center guides the user and helps to reduce both customer churn and the cost of having many support agents.
Good help centers are interactive, easily identified, and searchable.
Create different types of content to cater to everyone’s learning style. This can include
blogs, case studies, webinars, video tutorials, checklists, and interactive walkthroughs.
Userpilot is a no-code solution that allows you to create, manage, and track help centers. Book a demo to learn more!

What is a help center?

A help center is a hub on your product where your user can find various helpful resources tailored to support learning and problem-solving.

The main goal of any knowledge base is to enable customers to access the help they need without having to contact your support team.

A help center tha was created with Userpilot.

Help center vs knowledge base

Both help centers and knowledge bases have similar functions, so people tend to confuse one for the other. But there’s a slight difference between them.

A knowledge base is a section on your website that provides customers with all the self-serve support they need. The tab for this is often located at the top section of websites to identify them easily.

The knowledge base is usually on the website.

A help center serves the same purpose but is located within the app instead. The advantage of this over knowledge bases is that users don’t have to leave what they’re doing on the app to find help.

They just click a button in-app and search for the solutions they need. This tends to reduce friction more.

A help center is directly within the app.

Types of resources you should offer through your help center

A SaaS resource center should include a variety of content to cater to different needs and learning styles.

Here are some essential resources to add when building your knowledge base:

Product documentation: Articles that explain how to use your product.
Video tutorials: Users retain a significant amount of video content. It is a great opportunity to connect with your customers and drive engagement.
FAQs: A collection of answers to the most frequently asked questions.
Embedded flows: This includes different types of in-app guidance such as checklists or interactive walkthroughs.
A link to contact customer support: While self-service is the goal, having a direct line to human support is necessary for more complex issues.
Feedback widget: A tool for collecting in-app feedback, allowing users to report issues or suggest improvements.
Product Updates: Keeping users informed with up-to-date information on new features, enhancements, and fixes.

Include different formats of resources in your help center.

What makes a good help center design?

Good help centers are catchy and properly organized. They’re built to reflect a brand’s overall philosophy while at the same time making life easier for the users.

The best help center designs are:

Easily identifiable: A best practice is to add an always-on widget, making it easy for users to spot your support center.
Easy navigation: To achieve this, start by grouping resources into different categories makes it easy for customers to find what they want. Taking it a notch higher by adding a search bar further speeds up the process for your users. All they have to do is search terms relating to the problem they have and boom…the answer pops up.
Interactive: Don’t try to provide tips when they don’t need them. For instance, this means not prompting a feature guide when the user logs in. Instead, allow them to find the resources in your help center themselves when they need them. That’s the true meaning of self-service.

15 of the best help center designs from popular SaaS companies

It’s time to get to the meat of this article.

We’ve outlined the best help center designs we found for SaaS.

Stay glued as we go over them, stating what’s unique about each design. Hopefully, you’ll get enough design inspiration for your own help center after going through this list.

#1 – Userpilot’s help center design example

We’ll start with the most advanced and complex example. Complex as it gives the best functionality compared to other resource centers, and it hits all of the points of what makes a good help center.

Userpilot’s help center has content grouped into themes to provide ease of access. In addition to that, it also has built-in search functionality for specific and fast access to resources.

#2 – Slack’s help center design example

Slack’s help center is launched by clicking the question mark icon next to your user picture at the top right corner.

The design is simple and user-friendly. But it’s not user-friendly that they remove the search bar once you click on a help topic you want to explore, making you have to scroll forever.

Slack’s help center

#3 – Miro’s help center design example

Miro is big on tutorials, so theirs is designed more as a learning center than a help center.

Notice they have a feedback button, which is excellent. Positioning that button at the top right corner was a pretty good move as it makes it easy to spot.

Miro’s learning center

#4 – Jira’s help center design example

We looked at Jira since this is a very popular software and quite a complex one.

Their in-app help center offers more than a simple knowledge base, but it could use a few UI touches to make it more user-friendly as all the modules kind of blend in.

I particularly like how they featured solutions to the main issues customers encounter at the top. This gives the user instant answers to common problems.

Jira’s help center

#5 – Loom’s help center design example

Loom’s design is short and sweet. Their self-serve support isn’t in-app, but providing a link to its location on their website was a great move. This is something you might want to consider if your support center is only on the website.

Loom’s help center is well organized and has quick access links to everything the user might need. Nice touch with featuring announcements (the hiring message).

Loom’s help center

#6 – Fullstory’s help center design example

It was great how Fullstory embedded the email support directly in-app. It means customers can send emails to a support agent without leaving the app.

They should have done the same with their knowledge base articles and training instead of redirecting customers to their website. But I guess contacting customer support was the most pressing matter to their users, so they tried to cater to that first.

Fullstory’s knowledge base

#7 – Activecampaign’s help center design example

Like Fullstory, ActiveCampaign’s help center is on their website, but they are linked to it within the app.

It was also nice to let the customers know there’s live support available if they need it.

ActiveCampaign’s help center

#8 – Mural’s help center design example

Mural’s help center has all the resources their customers will need, but it can be a bit annoying to scroll until you find what you’re looking for. Overall, the help center looks great, and it’s nice how they highlighted the chat feature to invite customers that want extra help.

Mural’s help center

#9 – Hubspot’s help center design example

Clicking the support option on Hubspot will launch an in-app center containing different articles to guide you on the problem you just encountered. The “top searches” section is helpful as it might have just what the user is searching for, which saves extra time.

And if you don’t find the solution you seek, there’s also the option of asking Hubspot’s community forum or chatting directly with the support team.

Hubspot’s help center

#10 – Poptin’s help center design example

Poptin is a tool for building and tracking popup analytics. Its help center is simple, and the guides are well categorized to help the user easily find what they’re looking for. The search feature also works well for this purpose.

It was nice placing the “Contact Us” button at the top right corner where customers can quickly find it.

Poptin’s help library

#11 – Mixpanel’s help center design example

Mixpanel’s in-app resource is accessed by clicking the question mark icon at the top right. The help center has an intuitive UI and is well-arranged. It’s one of the best help center designs on this list.

mixpanel-help-center-design.png customer service team center examples

Mixpanel’s help center

#12 – Heap’s help center design example

This software has extensive self-serve customer support. There’s the help center to solve common questions, then video tutorials in the Heap University section, and guides to help with installation and onboarding.

And if all that isn’t enough, customers have the option to contact the support team. But with all these resources available, you bet Heap’s support team won’t be getting many requests.

Heap’s support resources

#13 – Asana’s help center design example

Asana’s help center is simple but rich. The resource is a combination of helpful articles and video guides that are easily searchable.

Asana also makes it clear that customers can contact support for live training when they need it.

Asana’s help center

#14 – Basecamp’s help center design example

Basecamp’s help center is built in-app with a warm and inviting color combination designed to draw attention.

The fact that you can toggle between guides and ‘contact support’ at the top of the help pop-up looks cool.

Basecamp’s help center

#15 – Monday.com’s help center design example

Aside from having all the features we’ve identified in other products, Monday’s help center also includes buttons to check service status and suggest features.

The latter is especially useful for retaining existing users. Instead of lapsing because of a missing feature, customers can now suggest what they’d like to see in the app.

Monday’s help center

How to create a help center with Userpilot

Userpilot provides a suite of tools designed to help you build a comprehensive and engaging resource center tailored to your users’ needs.

Add different modules and relevant content

With Userpilot, you can enhance your resource center by grouping individual items into modules, making the content organized and easy to navigate.

This method allows for a more structured presentation of information, where similar resources are bundled together for straightforward access.

You can also choose specific user segments to show your content to. This helps to declutter your UI and personalize the experience for each user. For instance, with segmentation, you would avoid sending a guide on learning how to use a feature to customers who have already adopted it.

Create a help center code-free with Userpilot.

Customize your resource center design

Userpilot offers extensive customization options for your resource center, allowing it to seamlessly integrate with your brand’s aesthetic.

You have the freedom to select icons and colors that match your brand identity, ensuring a consistent user experience across all touchpoints.

Additionally, you can personalize the text at the top of the knowledge base to reflect your brand’s voice or convey specific messages. Emojis can also be added for a touch of personality and to make the content more engaging.

These customization features enable you to create a resource center that looks like an integral part of your own website or app and also resonates with your audience on a more personal level.

Userpilot enables you to customize your knowledge base to match your brand.

Localize knowledge base content for better user experience

Localizing your knowledge base content significantly enhances the user experience by making the information more relevant and accessible to a global audience.

With Userpilot, you have the flexibility to use AI-driven tools to translate content automatically, ensuring quick and efficient localization.

Alternatively, you can manually upload translated content to maintain greater control over the quality and nuance of the translations.

Localizing content demonstrates your commitment to inclusivity and increases the overall effectiveness of your resource center by catering to a more diverse user base.

Localize your help center with Userpilot.

Conclusion

And that’s a wrap. You now have an idea of why in-app help centers are useful and which elements you should include in yours.

Don’t forget to keep your resources in-app help centers as much as possible so that your customers won’t have to leave the platform before solving their problems.

Ready to give Userpilot a spin? Get a demo today to see how our tool can help you create the best help center designs!