Documentation tools cover everything from internal wikis (Notion, Confluence, Slite, Outline) to API and developer documentation platforms (GitBook, ReadMe, Mintlify, Docusaurus) to customer-facing knowledge bases (Help Scout Docs, Intercom Articles, Zendesk Guide). What unites them is the workflow problem: write, review, publish, find, and keep documentation current as the underlying systems change. What divides them is whether the writers are product managers, developers, or support agents.
Engineering teams have settled into clear preferences. API documentation flows through Mintlify, GitBook, ReadMe, or a Docusaurus repo on GitHub. Internal engineering wikis run on Notion, Confluence, or markdown in a monorepo. Customer help centers run on Help Scout, Intercom, or Zendesk Guide. The crossover tools (Notion, GitBook) try to span multiple use cases and succeed unevenly.
The dirty secret of documentation is that the tool matters less than the writing culture. Teams that write good docs do so on any tool; teams that do not write docs blame the tool. That said, friction matters: a tool that requires three clicks and a context switch to fix a typo will see less maintenance than one that lets engineers edit alongside the code.