HelpKit turns a Notion workspace into a help center site. That is the whole pitch, and it is a good one if you already write in Notion: the site has pages, categories and search, and the content never leaves the place you keep it. People look for an alternative for two reasons. There is no free plan, only a 7-day trial, and the AI chatbot that answers readers' questions is an add-on at $49 a month on top of whatever plan you choose.
If what you actually want is a help page that answers the reader's question, Hostus does that on the free plan, with no chatbot bolted on: Claude writes the page from your answers, Hostus hosts it, and every reader can ask the page and get an answer from it with the section cited. Below, five options with prices read on each vendor's own site on 18 October 2026.
Where HelpKit users go
1. Hostus, if the help center is a page Claude writes and readers can ask it
Best if the help center fits in one long page (or a folder of pages) and you want readers to ask it. Claude writes one HTML page from your answers, grouped by topic, and publishes it on a link. Ask is on by default on every published page: a reader types a question in plain words and gets a short answer written from that page only, with the section cited, no account. What the page could not answer is listed for you, in the reader's wording. A reader can also reply on a section, privately, and you get an email. Free plan: 20 documents, 2 MB in total, 20 reader questions a day across the account, no card, no clock. The content stays yours: it is an HTML file you can download.
2. HelpKit, if you write in Notion and want a multi-page site with search
Pick it if your answers already live in Notion and you want them published as a proper help site, with pages, categories and search, without leaving Notion. There is no free plan; the trial is 7 days. The AI chatbot that answers from your articles is an add-on at $49 a month. The plan prices did not render on their pricing page when we checked, so check their pricing page for the current numbers.
3. Help.center, if you want a free multi-page site with an embeddable chatbot
Pick it if you want a multi-page help site with search and an AI chatbot you can embed on your own website as a widget, and you want to start free. The free plan includes 50 AI answers a month; Business is $19 per seat per month with 500.
4. HelpSite, if you want a classic knowledge base on your own domain
Pick it if you want a hosted knowledge base in the classic shape, with a custom domain from the first plan. There is no free plan: a 14-day trial, then Starter at $490 a year. The AI chatbot is on the Pro plan.
5. GitBook, if the help center is really developer documentation
Pick it if the product is for developers and the help center is documentation. The free plan is for individuals: one user, no custom domain and no reader-facing AI. Essential is $65 per site per month plus $12 per user per month, billed annually, and that is where the reader AI starts.
6. A FAQ page on your website, if the questions never change
Pick it if you have six questions and they are the same six every month. Free, on your domain, in Google. It answers nothing it did not anticipate and tells you nothing about what was asked.
Side by side
| Tool | Answers questions you did not write | Shows what readers could not find | Reader needs an account | Multi-page with search | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostus | Yes, from the page only, section cited | Yes, the unanswered questions are listed for you | No, not to read, ask or reply | No: one page per document, a folder groups pages; Ask replaces search | Yes: 20 documents, 20 reader questions a day across the account, no card |
| HelpKit | Yes, as a $49 a month add-on | Check their site | No | Yes, from Notion | No; 7-day trial, check their pricing page |
| Help.center | Yes, AI chatbot and search | Check their site | No | Yes | Yes, 50 AI answers a month; Business $19 per seat per month |
| HelpSite | Yes, AI chatbot on the Pro plan | Check their site | No | Yes, custom domain from Starter | No; 14-day trial, then $490 a year |
| GitBook | Yes, from the Essential plan | Check their site | No | Yes | Yes, one user, no reader AI; Essential $65 per site per month plus $12 per user |
| FAQ page on your website | No | No | No | One page, browser find | Free |
Prices were read on each vendor's own pricing page on 18 October 2026 and change without notice. "Check their site" means the vendor's page did not state it on the day we read it.
What it looks like
The demo is the help page of a fictional planner app, one file on the free plan, with Ask on. Try two questions: one the page covers and one it does not. The first comes back with the section cited; the second as a plain statement that the page does not cover it, and on your own page that question would land in your unanswered list. The business is fictional and the plans, prices and limits on it are illustrative.
The prompt
With the Hostus connector on, this writes the page and publishes it in one turn. Copy the text of your Notion pages and paste it under the prompt.
Make me a help center page from the Notion pages pasted below, one HTML file, mobile first.
Group the answers by topic. Each topic is a section with an id, each question a heading with an id, the answer right under it in plain words. A short index of topics at the top. No search box: readers will ask the page.
Publish it to Hostus and give me the link.
[paste your Notion pages here]The page is born private: switch it to public (or email-gated) in the Hostus dashboard before sharing the link. Ask is already on. The longer version of this prompt, and what to do with the unanswered questions each week, is in the guide a help center page that answers questions on its own.
What you learn after it is live
A help site tells you how many people visited. A Hostus page tells you what they were looking for. Every question Ask could not answer from the page is kept for you in the reader's wording, in the dashboard and through the Claude connector, so the next section you write is the one people actually needed. Reading by section adds the other half: which topics readers open and how long they stay (the prompt asks for heading ids for that).
When you add an answer, upload the new HTML to the same document, or ask Claude to change it. The link does not move and the previous versions stay in the history, so the help button in your app never needs a new address.
Good to know before you switch
Hostus is not a help site builder with categories and a search bar. One document is one page: a folder groups several and can be shared read-only, but there is no site menu and no search across pages. Ask is rate limited to 20 reader questions a day across all your documents on the free plan and 200 on paid, and it answers only from the page: if the page does not say it, it says so.
There is no widget to embed on your site; the page cannot be framed inside another one, so the help center is a link you put in your menu or behind the help button. Public pages carry a noindex, so the help center will not show up in Google, and there is no custom domain: the address is your-slug.hostus.page. If search traffic to help articles matters to you, a multi-page site on your own domain is the right shape, and Hostus is not that.