--- title: Help & Manual Reviews meta\_title: 'Help & Manual Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta\_description: Filter 22 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Help & Manual works for a business like yours. aggregate\_rating: rating\_value: 4.8 review\_count: 22 scale: '5' date\_modified: '2026-08-07' parent\_category: name: Development url: https://www.g2.com/categories/development --- # Help & Manual Reviews & Product Details Help+Manual is the most popular authoring tool for writing and publishing help and technical documentation in multiple formats. While it is as easy to use like Word, Help+Manual gives you the full power of a true WYSIWYG XML editor. You can focus your energy on writing and immediately get productive! This is combined with powerful features for editing documentation files, including full support for multimedia and complex modular projects. Some of the power features are: ► Multi-channel publishing - this includes all standard Windows help formats, from Microsoft HTML Help to Webhelp to Visual Studio Help, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word documents and ePUB e-books - the standard format supported by the Apple iPad - as well as Amazon Kindle. ► Responsive Webhelp - Webhelp is a context-sensitive format and allows seamless integration of the documentation into your website. This output format can be highly customized and displays equally well on desktop and mobile devices. ► True single source - all publishing formats supported by Help+Manual are generated from the same project. This means you only have to edit your help and documentation once. Forget about the nightmare of "converting" your documentation every time you change anything. ► Multi-user editing and team authoring - multiple authors can work on the same project at the same time. No databases or additional server components are required. ► Version control, remote editing - Help+Manual has active support for Subversion, Microsoft Team Foundation Server and Microsoft Visual SourceSafe compatibles. ► Translation - projects are 100% XML and can be translated directly by tools like SDL Trados (configuration files are included). * * * Seller [EC Software](https://www.g2.com/sellers/ec-software) Discussions [Help & Manual Community](https://www.g2.com/products/help-manual/discuss) Languages Supported German, English Overview by Alexander Halser (CEO at EC Software GmbH) Show More ## Pricing Pricing provided by Help & Manual. ### Server Edition $1099 ### Basic Edition $399 [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/help-manual/pricing) ## Top-Rated Alternatives [ ![MadCap Flare](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "MadCap Flare") MadCap Flare 4.4/5(491) ](https://www.g2.com/products/madcap-flare/reviews) [ ![ClickHelp](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "ClickHelp") ClickHelp 4.7/5(66) ](https://www.g2.com/products/clickhelp/reviews) [ ![Adobe RoboHelp](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Adobe RoboHelp") Adobe RoboHelp 4/5(38) ](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-robohelp/reviews) [ View All Alternatives ](https://www.g2.com/products/help-manual/competitors/alternatives) ## User Insights Average based on 22 real user reviews. Perceived Cost $$$$$ [Log in to unlock pricing and user insights](/login) JM Jennifer M. Assistive Technology Specialist Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 6/19/2023 "Quick Document Merge" 4.5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? The capacity to swiftly and seamlessly combine document elements and repurpose content is very nice. Help & Manual is an affordable product that is simple for beginners. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? Some features are a little challenging to utilize. But when I did more research and used them, they got simpler. But some users may not be comfortable with this. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? My work has become considerably more organized thanks to the capability of reusing elements and recomposing a paper. The output formats take just a few clicks, and the results speak for themselves. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite JC Joseph C. Managing Director Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 7/19/2019 "My Go to For Help Files and Documentation and Guide-Books" 5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? Both reliable (crash-proof) and intuitive. I have been working in outline form since college and this program pulls together massive help file and documentation projects with ease. Being able to write it once and use a few compile directives to hid things that are not needed in say a PDF manual make publishing simple and fast. Reliability is important to me because crashed programs are frustrating. I have never lost work in this product in 15 years. I can't recall locking it up or being stuck either. Confidence follows. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? Updates of the enhanced template skins that you customize can be tricky when the skin template is updated by the vendor later. I have a cheat-sheet for what I need to change to tweak those enhanced templates for my custom settings. But this is high-end user stuff and a minor inconvenience. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Help & Manual: Ease of use, features, reliability and cost all come to mind in selecting technical writing software for F1 help, manuals and related documentation. The output formats are just a few clicks and the results speak for themselves. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? Certainly a great tool for in--program F1 help, but then I can export this to PDF user's manuals in seconds. I use some custom directives (IF statement stuff) to hide certain elements that are not needed in a PDF manual. We have an industry guide that is built with this using visual links and menu options built with JS menu tools. and it looks like and runs like a program. We've even put some of that into on-line Web-Help by just publishing to Web-Help. Easy for sure. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Verified User in Computer Software](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Computer Software") UC Verified User in Computer Software Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 1/25/2018 "Easy, powerful online help generator" 5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? This is an affordable product that does exactly what it says it will do: create a nice online help packager. If you don't want to deal with XML and other manual markup, you don't have to. Support is very responsive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? It could handle styles better. In the occasional event where I have to paste text into a topic (instead of importing it), there isn't a "Paste as Plain Text" option - you have to paste it and then remove whatever styles it thinks the text has, or you have to paste into a text-only editor to be sure that no incorrect styles are coming over. Also, when you do apply a style, it doesn't work as smoothly as it does in a word processor. I mean, I know it's NOT a word processor, but there are some basic concepts to applying styles to text that don't hold up here. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Help & Manual: Make sure you think through everything (and learn everything) before you start: how to give custom IDs to each page (because if you've got 1200 pages, you won't be able to navigate by the automatically assigned page names), how to create an index, etc. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? We write our manuals in Word and distribute them as printable PDFs. (I know, Word isn't a great documentation platform but it's the only one I have.) Once the documentation is approved in Word, all I have to do is save it as an RTF and then import it into Help & Manual and boom, online help. (There's still a lot of stuff to do but all of the content and the bulk of the organization comes in automatically.) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Ingmar K.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Ingmar K.") IK Ingmar K. CEO Computer Software Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 12/19/2016 "Easy to use, flexible, great support" 4.5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? I've been using H&M for over ten years now. It's a great product that is very easy to use. I like the variety of output formats they support, compiling help files is also quite fast. Working with the tool is generally quite straightforward and efficient. Their support team is also quite helpful, and I've never evaluated another help authoring tool. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? There is hardly anything I don't like. But if I had to pick something, then it would be the lack of customization options for their HTML output. The product does offer some options to customize HTML output and they offer optional premium skins. The skins look a bit outdated however, and I haven't been able to customize the output exactly how I would like it (although it still looks good the way it is). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? We use Help & Manual for documentation of our software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Alberto S.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Alberto S.") AS Alberto S. CTO Computer Software Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 12/14/2016 "A must-install tool every time I set up a new computer" 5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? People creating documentation must have a right balance between knowing all details and nuances about the product being documented and being able to create good-looking and consistent documentation. Help&Manual allows to have someone from our dev team creating and maintaining personalized and functional documentation in different formats, without the need to outsource this process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? The editor seems not as feature full as single-focused tools, but that's easy explainable because the contents can then be presented in different outputs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Help & Manual: Give the trial version a try, it's fairly easy to quickly surprise yourself with what can be achieved Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? Creating documentation for software solutions, either for the application user and the partner implementing it is always a painful process. Help&Manual turns the process of creating and maintaining good-looking documentation in several formats much easier and pleasant, so there's no excuse for not keeping the documentation up-to-date! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Juergen H.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Juergen H.") JH Juergen H. Senior R&D Engineer Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 11/28/2016 "One of the best tools of the trade" 5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? From a single project, I can derive a printed manual, the online help for our software and publish a web manual for online use. The ability to create multiple TOCs allows to easily create manuals for product families... Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? Not a true WYSIWYG. Table handling though improved, but still somehow cumbersome, unlike the MS office table handling. I would love to have a broader "Repeat" functionality, e.g., when I formatted a certain text part, it would be useful if the same formatting could be repeated for another text part. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Help & Manual: Try it! Once you got familar, you will ove it. And: affordable price... Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? We manufacture electronic devices that mostly are controlled by software. Responsible for the entire product documentation (manual, help file, web manual...) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Adam S.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Adam S.") AS Adam S. Founder and CEO Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 12/14/2016 "Great Tool for Writing Help Documentation in Multiple Formats" 4.5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? The fact that we can author a central document, publish it into a windows .CHM file for inclusion with our application and a custom PDF template that we can post on our website. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? Some older versions of v7 seemed a bit unstable, but that is fixed in the latest versions and it's been reliable and very useful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? We use it to document a Windows application that also needs online documentation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ![vibhuti g.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "vibhuti g.") VG vibhuti g. Technical Writer Consumer Services Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 11/17/2016 ""Ease" is the word for Help & Manual" 5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? The tool is user-friendly. It is just because my new organization is using the MadCap Flare I got to compare both the products and yes, Help & Manual wins my heart. The options to insert images and make them responsive to all the kinds of outputs are the best. Unlike, Flare it can open multiple projects in the same instance. The tools help is actually a big help whenever you are stuck. It produces tool utilization reports and gives a representation of the amount of contribution made by multiple users. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? The skin options for basic version are limited. The online outputs are not compatible with all the browsers and mobile OS. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? Time, efforts and money saved is a big benefit ! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Roy L.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Roy L.") RL Roy L. Owner Computer Software Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 11/26/2016 "Fabulouse, easy to use, error free" 5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? What all the other reviews said -- all true. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? In older versions, upgrading took more steps than I would have preferred (not automatically carrying forward old settings), but still, easy and straightforward enough. May have been fixed in later versions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? Documentation of software program. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Verified User in Education Management](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Education Management") AE Verified User in Education Management Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 12/4/2016 "Help & Manual: Excellent product" 5/5 What do you like best about Help & Manual? The ease of use, especially the screen capture feature. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Help & Manual? The screen capture becomes awkward when trying menu selections Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Help & Manual: Please consider Help & Manual if you are developing a help system for your software, or writing a user manual. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Help & Manual solving and how is that benefiting you? I use Help & Manual to develop Help file for software, as well as the printable user manual. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ## Questions about Help & Manual? Ask real users or explore answers from the community Get practical answers, real workflows, and honest pros and cons from the G2 community or share your insights. [ Ask about Help & Manual ](https://www.g2.com/products/help-manual/discussions/new) ![Muhammad A.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Muhammad A.") MA Muhammad Afzal • Last activity over 3 years ago Grow your website 1 Upvote 1 [ Join the conversation ](https://www.g2.com/discussions/grow-your-website) [ View all Discussions ](https://www.g2.com/products/help-manual/discuss) ## Pricing Options Pricing provided by Help & Manual. ### Server Edition $1099 ### Basic Edition $399 ### Professional Edition $598 [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/help-manual/pricing) Help & Manual Comparisons ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_d61ecfdb9b46ed822c4cfff4611b92eb/madcap-flare.png "Product Avatar Image") MadCap Flare 4.4/5(491) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/help-manual-vs-madcap-flare) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_0384fe9e2c268608fa81e2725b551f19/helpndoc.png "Product Avatar Image") HelpNDoc 4.1/5(18) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/help-manual-vs-helpndoc) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_377d8238a3508dc89e7b3c1e0190af36/adobe-robohelp.png "Product Avatar Image") Adobe RoboHelp 4/5(38) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/adobe-robohelp-vs-help-manual) ##### Categories on G2 [Help Authoring Tool (HAT)](https://www.g2.com/categories/help-authoring-tool-hat) ##### Explore More [Is The Wild worth it for VR collaboration?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-the-wild-worth-it-for-vr-collaboration)[What capital project management software are real estate developers using to compare options and manage the full lifecycle from land acquisition through construction completion?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-capital-project-management-software-are-real-estate-developers-using-to-compare-options-and-manage-the-full-lifecycle-from-land-acquisition-through-construction-completion%20)[Best enterprise resource planning software](https://www.g2.com/discussions/best-enterprise-resource-planning-erp-software-what-s-your-top-pick) [What are the best food safety management software platforms for small teams managing tight timelines?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-the-best-food-safety-management-software-platforms-for-small-teams-managing-tight-timelines)[digital asset management platforms](https://www.g2.com/discussions/digital-asset-management-platforms-what-s-your-favorite)[Which supplier risk management app is best for handling third-party risks](https://www.g2.com/discussions/which-supplier-risk-management-app-is-best-for-handling-third-party-risks) [Show MoreShow Less](javascript:void(0);)