Knowledge Base
Comparing public and agent-only knowledge bases
Decide what belongs in customer-facing and staff-only support articles, then check how four platforms control access and distribution.
Public articles answer customers directly. Agent-only articles cover the checks, decisions and internal routes staff need. The comparison is who needs each instruction and where it may appear.
Write for each audience
A public article can explain what a customer should do, what information they need and when support must take over. A staff procedure can explain how an agent verifies an account, checks an exception or seeks approval. Both may cover the same issue without sharing the same detail.
For example, a public delivery article might explain where to find a tracking reference and when to contact support. The staff version might say which order record to check and who can authorise a remedy. Neither needs to reproduce a customer's personal details.
| Question | Public article | Agent-only procedure |
|---|---|---|
| Reader | Intended customer audience | Authorised staff |
| Next action | Customer action or contact route | Verification, decision and reply steps |
| Exclusions | Internal instructions and unnecessary personal data | Unnecessary personal data and unsupported promises |
| Owner | Content owner with product or policy input | Process owner informed by the same change |
Check the access boundary
Product labels are not interchangeable. Zendesk sets viewing permissions on individual articles. Eligible plans allow an agents-and-admins audience; Suite Team allows everyone or signed-in users, but not an agents-and-admins restriction. Signed-in users can include customers.
Freshdesk sets the documented portal visibility of knowledge content at the folder level. Options include all users and all agents, alongside other audience settings. Check an article's folder and any connected bot access before relying on its label.
Help Scout Docs private collections are normally visible to authenticated Help Scout users and absent from customer Docs search. All Help Scout users can view them. Settings can also surface private content through Beacon or AI Answers, so those destinations need a separate check.
Intercom internal articles cannot be added to its public Help Center, but they can be enabled for the customer-facing Fin AI Agent. New internal articles are disabled for Fin and enabled for the agent-facing Copilot by default. A published unlisted public article remains accessible by direct link and is available to Fin and Copilot by default. Check the Help Center and answer-tool audiences separately.
Platform Access Control Overview
- ZendeskArticle-level permissions; agents-and-admins option available
- FreshdeskFolder-level visibility; options include all users and all agents
- Help ScoutPrivate collections visible to authenticated users; may appear via Beacon or AI Answers
- IntercomInternal articles not in Help Center; default enabled for Copilot, disabled for Fin unless configured
Keep paired articles aligned
When a rule changes, assign someone to update both the customer explanation and the staff procedure. Compare eligibility conditions, dates and promised next steps before either version changes. If only one version is updated, the public promise and staff process may conflict.
Before release, check a proposed public article and staff procedure as a signed-out visitor, a signed-in customer and an ordinary agent. Repeat the check in any widget or answer tool that uses them. Record where each version appears and whether the intended reader can act on it.
