CompassDocs vs Freshservice
CompassDocs
compassdocs.io
Freshservice
freshworks.comSide by side
| Figure | CompassDocs | Freshservice |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8/mo | $19/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 7 |
| Spec score · IT Knowledge Base Software | 9.5 (#1) | 9.0 (#6) |
| Integrations | The product lists a Claude connector, Microsoft 365 and Entra sync, Google Workspace directory sync, and notifications through Webex, Teams, Slack, email, or webhooks. | Freshworks says its marketplace has thousands of apps and its broader ecosystem exceeds 1,200 enterprise apps. |
| Licence | The Community software is open source under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.0. | Freshservice is proprietary commercial software; its Android app separately discloses third-party open-source components and their licences. |
| Purpose | CompassDocs is a self-hosted team knowledge base for writing, organizing, and searching SOPs, technical documentation, policies, and internal knowledge. | Freshservice is an AI-powered IT management solution designed to simplify employee experiences. |
| Security | The feature page states that credentials and backups are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, session tokens are hashed, and login throttling and security headers are included. | Freshworks states that data is encrypted at rest with AES 256-bit encryption and in transit with HTTPS and TLS 1.2. |
| Security controls | Documented protections include authenticator-app two-factor authentication, recovery codes, session controls, idle timeout, login throttling, security headers and audit logs. | The trust center documents audit logging, multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, encryption at rest and encryption in transit. |
| System requirements | Manual installation requires Node.js 20 or newer and PostgreSQL; Docker is the recommended installation path. | The web app supports the latest two versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge; mobile support is iOS 10+ and Android 7.1.1+. |
| What it does | CompassDocs is a self-hosted team knowledge base for writing, organizing and searching SOPs, technical documentation, policies and internal knowledge. | Freshservice is Freshworks' cloud-based AI service-operations and IT service-management platform covering IT service, operations, asset management and enterprise service delivery. |
Plans
CompassDocs
- CommunityFree
- Cloud$8 a month
- Enterprise$599 a year
- Enterprise dedicated support add-on$3,000 a year
Freshservice
- Starter$19 a month
- Growth$49 a month
- Pro$99 a month
- Starter$19 a month
- Growth$49 a month
- Pro$99 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
CompassDocs
CompassDocs is a self-hosted team knowledge base for writing, organizing, and searching SOPs, technical documentation, policies, and internal reference material. Staff can ask plain-English questions about documents and receive answers with inline citations; without an AI key, the product instead uses keyword search. Documents can be edited in rich text or Markdown, with AI proofreading and support for diagrams, tables, checklists, and embeds. Viewer, Editor, Approver, and Admin roles, custom roles, private spaces, and an optional review queue govern access and publishing. Integrations include a Claude connector, Microsoft 365 and Entra sync, Google Workspace directory sync, and notifications through Webex, Teams, Slack, email, or webhooks. Teams can run it with Docker or install Node.js and PostgreSQL manually. Self-hosted backups can be scheduled, restored, and mirrored to off-site storage. Community is free and self-hosted; Enterprise is $599 a year. A Cloud plan at $8 a month per user is listed as coming soon, not yet launched.
Freshservice
Freshservice is an IT management service for employee service and IT operations. Its service desk covers incident, change and problem management, service catalogs, knowledge management and SLA policies. IT asset management includes asset lifecycle management, discovery across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments, and a continuously updated CMDB. Operations features include alert and on-call management, major incident management, service health monitoring and a status page. Freddy AI includes an agent studio, a copilot for drafting responses and summarizing tickets, and insights for identifying trends. Freshworks Marketplace lists more than 1,000 integrations, including Microsoft Teams, Slack, TeamViewer, Jira and Azure AD. Freshservice offers web access, iOS and Android apps, and RESTful API access; API rate limits vary by plan from 100 to 500 calls per minute. Freshworks states that data is encrypted at rest with AES 256-bit encryption and in transit with HTTPS and TLS 1.2. GDPR and SOC 2 are listed across the four plans. Annual billing starts at $19 a month, and a 14-day trial is offered without a credit card.