--- title: HelpSmith Reviews meta_title: 'HelpSmith Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 16 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how HelpSmith works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.8 review_count: 16 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-06-04' parent_category: name: Development url: https://www.g2.com/categories/development --- # HelpSmith Reviews **Vendor:** Divcom Software **Category:** [Help Authoring Tools (HAT)](https://www.g2.com/categories/help-authoring-tool-hat) **Average Rating:** 4.8/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 16 ## About HelpSmith HelpSmith is a help authoring tool that you can use to create HTML Help (CHM), Web Help, Printed Manuals, Adobe PDF, MS Word, ePub eBooks, and Markdown documentation from a single source. HelpSmith includes a rich feature set combined with an easy-to-use user interface with a slight learning curve. Among the advanced features available in HelpSmith is the built-in Image Tool that significantly simplifies the way of writing documentation for user interfaces. For example, you can easily capture screenshots, create various annotations for images (balloons, arrows, ellipses, text labels, etc.), add clickable hotspots, and also use control annotations for UI elements that can be exported into the help topic where you can provide a detailed description for each control. ## HelpSmith Reviews ### 1. Helpsmith has been a Great Asset for me **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian W. | MD, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 05, 2024 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** I want to start by saying I’m not affiliated with Helpsmith in any way, I’m just a satisfied user. I’ve been working with Helpsmith since around 2017, starting with version 6, and now I’m using version 10 (2024). I’m genuinely impressed with how the software has evolved over the years. One of the things I really appreciate about Helpsmith is how user-friendly it is. I’ve found the online tutorials 'both video and text' to be incredibly helpful. They’ve made learning the ins and outs of the program a lot easier. The regular updates and ongoing support are also big pluses. Helpsmith has been consistently updated and well-supported throughout my time using it, which is a huge relief as some programs I've purchased over the years have ceased trading or simply stagnated. Whenever I’ve had a question or needed some help, their support team usually gets back to me within 24 hours, which is fantastic. What’s also worth mentioning is how open Helpsmith is to user feedback. I’ve submitted a few suggestions over the years, and it’s been great to see some of them actually implemented in newer versions. If you’re curious to see Helpsmith in action, you can check out a project I’ve worked on. My website, [https://onsafelines.com/qhse.support](https://onsafelines.com/qhse.support), showcases nearly 500 pages created from Helpsmith files. The way Helpsmith converts these files into HTML pages so quickly is really impressive. Overall, Helpsmith has been a reliable and efficient tool for my help file creation needs, and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for solid software in this area. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** Although the basics are easy to grasp, some more advanced features can have a bit of a learning curve. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** A key benefit of HelpSmith is its ability to quickly convert help files into HTML pages. This feature addresses the challenge of generating web-ready documentation from my files, making it easier to deploy comprehensive help resources online. The speed and accuracy of this conversion have streamlined my workflow and improved the accessibility of my documentation. The ability of Helpsmith to create concide, professional looking, and easy to use navigation menu is a major problem solver for website page help support. ### 2. Easy working software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2024 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** Wery easy to work with and a nice output result. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** Missing prewiev during working with a projekt. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating functional web based helpfiles. ### 3. HelpSmith is a great way to produce HTML and printed Help files. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ian G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 07, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** HelpSmith is a simple to use, easy to follow, application for the creation of Help files. I mostly use HTML and printed PDF manuals to record all of the information needed to assist Users of my applications. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** I sometimes find the word processor a little annoying. Using Bullets and Numbering can be confusing at times especially when you wish to add blank lines or additional information within the Bullets and Numbering. **Recommendations to others considering HelpSmith:** Try the other programs first before using HelpSmith. Then try HelpSmith, you will be pleasantly surprised. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use HelpSmith for producing help files and manuals for the applications that I provide. The help file is the best way of explaining how to use the application and how the application processes its data. I have tried a number of help authoring programs and by far, HelpSmith has made the task of creating help files the easiest to build and with its integration into various help file formats it is far and above other products. ### 4. Intuitive user friendly program **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeff A. | President, Non-Profit Organization Management, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** The program is designed to be similar to most programming environments. It is simple yet, meets nearly all of the needs of a good help authoring system. The program has a vast array of publication documents that can be created from the help document you create. I like the look of the compiled Web Help. The created web help file can easily be added to any system or web page. The compiled web help uses the function and navigation available with a standard web browser. The PDF compiled document utilizes the main menu to navigate around the help file. The Microsoft Word document is a basic text document formatted to Word specifications. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** The program does not handle the addition of videos as well as it should. The embedded video is attached to the page but, does not show correctly on all complied version of the created help document. The compiled help documents do not all look the same. I did find the word document is sometimes breaks pages with the header and/or footer on a separate page. The PDF compiled help sometimes adds an extra blank page to the document. **Recommendations to others considering HelpSmith:** Test out the various program available and see which best meets your needs. We found this product to be intuitive, easy to use and priced reasonably. The support staff is very responsive and made changes to the program just to meet my issues. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** We created a help system for the enterprise version of our food plant MRP system. We upgrade the help on a regular basis with ease. We are using the printed, PDF and Web help compiled versions of the help file. ### 5. HelpSmith - Best Help Development System for Application Developers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Steve N. | Sr. Software Enginer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** I have used HelpSmith for a number of projects that I distribute on my own website. It is without a doubt the easiest to use Help System I have found among the many I have researched and tried over the years. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** I still have HelpSmith version 5.x and as far as I know it is still reliant on the Microsoft Help Workshop software. If it still reliant on such software, my suggestion would be to find a way to provide a different compiler for the product since with Microsoft's past history one never knows when this product may be pulled from distribution. **Recommendations to others considering HelpSmith:** Absolutely recommend this product. For those that are selling\distributing projects you cannot find an easier to use system for developing Help Files and Information than that which is HelpSmith **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use HelpSmith for the very reason it was designed for; to create Help System for the projects that I distribute. In my view, a well defined Help File is still the best documentation format available for such work. They are easy to build with HelpSmith, compact and compartmentalized. And if a user would like to be able to print a hard-copy of the information, he or she can simply request a version for printing. ### 6. Fast and Easy **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Denis P. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** I was able to create a Help file that mirrored my user manual. HelpSmith organized my help information clearly and easily. Edits are a breeze and it keeps everything together for me in one place. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** Sometimes the fonts display a little small on my 4K screen, making it hard to read. But that is a small price to pay for how easy it is to use. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** With Helpsmith we spend much less time maintaining the help portion of our application, which can be very time consuming. In fact, we really don't worry about it at all. ### 7. Easy to Use Software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Estefani P. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** I find the program to be very intuitive and practical. The interface is presented in a familiar format so I am able to find things easily. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** When I first opened the program I would have liked to see a tour of the program that walks me through the various elements of the software. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are creating help documentation for our software. The benefits of using HelpSmith are the time that it saves us in having to organize the information ourselves. ### 8. Simple and reliable **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michael P. | Managing Director, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** Its easy to get along with HelpSmith - even new users can get up to speed intuitively to produce content. We have used the product for years for our product help documentation and will continue to do so **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** The earlier versions don't scale 4k screen grabs very well **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our product is used by persons from many different cultures, so help content needs to be simple and include embedded diagrams and screen prints for easy communication of concepts and methods. We also rely on context sensitive help to focus the reader on a specific topic to avoid overwhelming them with detail. HelpSmith allows us to control this content and embed it in our applicaiton very easily ### 9. Helpsmith is a great tool for creating help systems. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dale O. | Director Contracts & Estimating, Maritime, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 31, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** Organization is easy to achieve and maintaining consistent formatted information is super easy. Gone are the days of manual help system creation using the original Microsoft tool. Other tools do not have the suite of tools/methods contained in HelpSmith. Templates are helpful. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** Sometimes extra pages appear which take time to track down the source. **Recommendations to others considering HelpSmith:** Try the Demo. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** Benefits are easily created help systems that are easily updated. Publishing hard copy manuals is also easy. ### 10. the editor offers speed, simplicity and efficiency for your application manual **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Roberto G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** the timing of the topic with its explanatory texts **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** the context tool could export in addition to the code along the topic title **Recommendations to others considering HelpSmith:** Do not waste time with other competing products, HelpSmith offers security and efficiency to edit the manual of your applications. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** he helpsmith pretty much allows me to clarify very well the operation of my application, from there practically the support of my applications are benefited. ### 11. Helpsmith is full-featured and very reasonably priced **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Neal C. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** The program has more features than I would possibly expect at this price point and gets more every release. Very good quality also. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** I cannot think of anything to criticize. Its important that we realize that other programs are so expensi ve they are assuming you do not care about value. **Recommendations to others considering HelpSmith:** Just look at the price of these products! **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** Authoring help files for program ### 12. HelpSmith for Access help documentation **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Buz H. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** I have found HelpSmith to be a very user friendly application for developing documentation for programs I have been writing. Everything from managing text to illustrations is very straightforward and robust. It also offers a wide verity of compiled outputs from HTML to PDF and Word. I like the ability to create templates to save time when creating multiple documents. I have tried other help file products and this has been the best that I have found. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** I haven't really found anything that I dislike. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been using HelpSmith to create help files for Access database programs I have written. ### 13. Great product and easy to use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** The best feature of the product is that it is easy to use. I became proficient with it in less than an hour. I was able to start authoring our help the same day. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** Not much, it seams to have all the features that we need. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** We need to author help text for our accounting software application. The product is easy and makes it fast to add or edit our help text. ### 14. Complete and easy to use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Program Development | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** I like the possibility to generate several document types (chm, pdf, etc) from a single file. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** I would have liked to have syntax highlighting but I believe this feature will be present in the new version. **Recommendations to others considering HelpSmith:** Test it and you will enjoy it. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** All my application help files have been made with HelpSmith for years and I've never had any problems. ### 15. Help system for taxpayers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** I've been using HelpSmith since 2015. most of all I use Webhelp compilation for guide to the tax code **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** Not have Georgian menu, but works with Georgian fonts well **Recommendations to others considering HelpSmith:** Helpsmith stably works. Helps create big help systems **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** The Tax Code of Georgia has about 3500 comments. Help system for taxpayers ### 16. Easy to Use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2018 **What do you like best about HelpSmith?** I really like the flexibility of HelpSmith. It allows me to build my help menu the way I want it, and the multiple templates make it easy to keep consistency and professionalism throughout. **What do you dislike about HelpSmith?** There's not really anything I dislike about it. **What problems is HelpSmith solving and how is that benefiting you?** HelpSmith has helped us cut down on direct calls to support staff. ## HelpSmith Discussions - [What is HelpSmith used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-helpsmith-used-for) - [View HelpSmith pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/helpsmith/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-23+04%3A01%3A41+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=226861c3-8a33-4dc3-afb9-6ab9d05e6c5b&secure%5Btoken%5D=e7bbf8a0781dbc7d747e4b40982fef61637b9f3567cea768ac38c7b3e0c42dff&format=llm_user) ## Top HelpSmith Alternatives - [MadCap Flare](https://www.g2.com/products/madcap-flare/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (483 reviews) - [Dr. Explain](https://www.g2.com/products/dr-explain/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (30 reviews) - [Help & Manual](https://www.g2.com/products/help-manual/reviews) - 4.8/5.0 (20 reviews)