7 Best WordPress Documentation Themes (Expert Pick)

You need clarity from your documentation. Something that is visually appealing yet easy to use and provides useful insight. Documentation themes can help here!

Documentation is often the backbone of any good product. Be it for customer support, product development, or internal knowledge.

WordPress is the right choice for creating documentation. It has tons of themes and plugins to choose from, both free and premium options.

We explored hundreds of themes and found only 7 best documentation themes. Each of them gives you the features you need to create and manage online documentation.

Let’s find the best documentation theme for you.

What To Look for in the Documentation Themes?

There’s a whole load of stuff in life that is worth documenting. You see it every day but don’t even notice.

By Jan Chipchase

Like this quote from Jan Chipchase, as a fellow co-worker we have so many things to document.

For example, developers need to document how they built that specific product (so things can be easier with updates or new recruits), and the customer support team needs to answer and resolve common questions and issues with the knowledge base.

In fact, you should also create your personal documentation. As a content marketer, I have my own documentation on how to proceed with different types of content or how I can make content more interesting. It helped me to get in shoes after long breaks and improved my career growth.

To do this, you need the right tools, and here’s what you should look for in documentation themes.

1. User friendly dashboard: You should enjoy creating documentation. Having a separate CPT (custom post type) for documentation helps a lot, plus the added WordPress block editor features are really helpful.
2. Visually appealing and customizable: The theme you choose should be visually appealing by default, so you don’t have to work extra. And a bunch of customization options like color, typography and layouts.
3. Templates: Similar to customization, having multiple documentation templates to choose from is a really good thing to have.
4. User restriction features: If you are creating personal or internal documentation, you need to have some measures in place to block unwanted user access.
5. Analytics and reports: You need to know if your content is helping users or not. Especially if it’s created for customer support.
6. Feedback collection: Even for internal team documentation, you need a feedback system in place. Maybe the product’s UI has changed and that particular documentation is no longer useful. In such cases, users should be able to easily notify the editor.

Other than the above mentioned features, documentation themes these days come with AI integration for writing, summarizing, and assisting users. Having AI features is definitely a plus point in many scenarios.

Best WordPress Documentation Themes

Note: All the tests were performed, or data is from Sep 2024.

Here are 7 WordPress themes that we think are the best for the documentation in 2024:

1. KnowAll
2. Manual
3. TikiDocs
4. Wikb
5. Doxy
6. Tessera
7. KBase

1. KnowAll

A theme specifically designed to build a knowledge base or any kind of documentation website with WordPress.

KnowAll is a WordPress theme developed by our own HeroThemes dev team. It’s one of the most carefully crafted themes you’ll ever find on WordPress that also caters to many different purposes and needs of businesses.

From basic to advanced, you get all the features that a documentation website might need. All without writing a single line of code.

Additionally, you get premium complementary plugins. Including FAQ Builder, Table of Contents and Glossary Builder.

Best Features of KnowAll

• Modern design with easily customizable features
• Let users find answers by themselves using the instant search function
• Ability to order articles and categories to your preference
• Get analytics on user engagements and feedback on articles
• OpenAI integration to add a chatbot to the documentation
• It comes with a set up assistance to easily import demo templates

KnowAll theme is trusted by leading brands¹, and it comes with a 14 day money back guarantee. So you can give it a try without any worries.

2. Manual

Manual is a great WordPress theme for documentation websites. It’s a multipurpose theme that can also be used to create knowledge base websites, FAQs, and forums.

Manual theme is built with the WPBakery page builder plugin. This means you’ll have to familiarize yourself with the plugin to customize the theme to your preference.

The theme gets powered by bbPress plugin and it’s compatible with WooCommerce and WPML plugins as well.

Best Features of Manual

• Ability to build different types of documentation and knowledge base websites
• Includes multiple pre-made template designs
• Customize the theme using WPBakery page builder
• Includes file attachments, user feedback, and live search
• Supports translations and Google Fonts
• Compatible with bbPress, WooCommerce, Slider Revolution, and more

3. Tikidocs

Tikidocs is a WordPress theme that doubles as both a knowledge base and a support theme. You can use it to create a knowledge base website that also offers customer support through a forum.

The theme comes with several specific sections that are designed to help users find solutions to their problems. As well as page layouts for creating product documentation and knowledge articles.

It also uses the WPBakery page builder plugin and you can customize the theme design to rearrange its content by familiarizing yourself with the visual editor.

Best Features of Tikidocs

• Lets you create both knowledge base and forum websites
• Customize the theme using WPBakery page builder
• Includes live search functions for quickly searching the knowledge base
• Supports bbPress, WooCommerce, WPML, and other plugins
• Compatible with RTL languages

4. Wikb

Wikb is another great WordPress documentation theme that also includes different layouts and documentation templates. The theme has a very beautiful and casual design that makes it stand out from the crowd.

Similar to other themes, this one also gets powered by the WPBakery page builder plugin. And it uses the Bootstrap 3 framework. This means the theme is fully responsive and looks great across all types of devices and platforms.

Best Features of Wikb

• Fully responsive and modern theme design
• Allows you to create documentations and offer customer support at the same time
• Includes sections for promoting your products using a portfolio section
• Compatible with WooCommerce, bbPress, and other popular plugins
• Includes multiple color schemes and Google Fonts integration

5. Doxy

The Doxy WordPress theme comes with a very simple and minimal design. This theme is also made specifically for creating online documentations and knowledge bases.

This theme lets you choose from multiple versions of homepage designs featuring video backgrounds, gradient backgrounds, and more.

All of the templates are built with the Elementor page builder, one of the best free page builder plugins available on WordPress.

Best Features of Doxy

• W3C validated fully-responsive website design
• Can be used to build online documentation and knowledge base websites
• Optimized for Gutenberg editor to easily create articles
• Customize the design using Elementor page builder
• Lets you create forums, support ticketing systems, and more

6. Tessera

Tessera WordPress theme works as both a support forum theme and a knowledge base theme. You can use it to create a powerful knowledge base that features both aspects. As well as documentations for products.

This theme design is built using the Elementor page builder and uses bbPress plugin to power up its forum system. It also includes modules for FAQs and a support ticketing system as well.

Best Features of Tessera

• Ability to build a complete knowledge base with documentations, FAQs, and forum
• Customize the theme using Elementor page builder
• Features live search function for easy search
• Built-in social sharing and user feedback system
• Includes premium DV FAQ plugin for free

7. KBase

KBase is a modern WordPress theme for knowledge base websites. It comes with 7 unique pre-made homepage designs for creating various styles of knowledge base websites. It also includes stylish documentation page layouts as well.

The clean and professional look of this theme makes it a great solution for startups, enterprises, and SaaS businesses.

Best Features of KBase

• Beautiful and modern website designs
• Ability to choose from multiple homepage designs
• Customize the design using WPBakery page builder
• Choose from 6 different types of search systems
• Compatible with bbPress, BuddyPress, and WooCommerce

How To Create a Documentation Website in WordPress?

There are a couple of ways to make a documentation section for your business.

If you already have a website, you can create a documentation website right alongside it. All you need to do is to install WordPress on a different directory or on a sub-domain name. And set up the documentation website there.

It won’t cost you any money and the only thing you have to buy is a great-looking documentation theme.

If you’re setting up a documentation website for a new product or business, you’ll have to invest in a few things first. Here’s what you’ll need.

• A domain name: NameCheap has great offers starting at just $10
• WordPress hosting: Kinsta has the best managed WordPress hosting at $30 per month
• WordPress documentation theme: Refer to our list below to pick a theme

Managed WordPress hosting platforms have WordPress pre-installed. You can just upload your theme and start customizing the website.

In Conclusion

Remember that every documentation needs to be regularly updated to reflect your latest updates. Make sure to pick a theme that allows you to easily update threads, articles, and guides on your website.

You may also want to check out our Best Documentation Tools collection to learn more about building and managing your documentation website.

References:

1. 8 Awesome Examples of The KnowAll WordPress Knowledge Base ↩︎