The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and Obie. We wrote this article for the purposes of evaluating the Obie and Guru platforms, respectively. This article is meant to be a helpful resource for organizations who are currently in the midst of their journey to onboarding a new internal knowledge base system.
A side-by-side comparison of key features
It is important to begin by stating that, here at Obie, we truly believe in the adage: a rising tide lifts all ships. In other words, we believe that it is possible for more than 1 team/product/company to benefit by trying to make knowledge more accessible at work. With that said, we made this blog to help those evaluating knowledge solutions make an informed decision about Obie and its alternatives.
Since 2015, we have learned from our customers and countless prospects about their journey acquiring different business wiki software vendors. Often, they are forthcoming with the various business wiki software products they have evaluated.
We are most often compared to a product called Guru (getguru.com), developed by Guru Technologies in Philadelphia, PA. Both Guru and Obie emerged in the Slack wiki realm early in the Slack platform’s history. We have independently tried to solve common knowledge management pains, but have arrived at different solutions.
The Pros
| Obie | Guru |
| Robust Slack integration | Robust browser extension |
| 16+ knowledge integrations | Focus on native content tools |
| Active user pricing | Granular verification settings |
The Cons
| Obie | Guru |
| Less verification features | Not built for heavy Slack workflows |
| Younger browser extension | Bias to native content tools create silos |
| No SOC2 certification | Cost prohibitive, particularly at scale |
Obie vs Guru – Notable Mentions
| Obie | Guru | |
| Offers free trial | ✅ | ✅ |
| Per user pricing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Browser extension | ✅ | ✅ |
| Slack integration | ✅ | ✅ |
| Content verification | ✅ | ✅ |
| Built-in knowledge base | ✅ | ✅ |
| FAQs | ✅ | ❌ |
| Intelligent knowledge integrations | ✅ | ❌ |
| Ticketing / Helpdesk integrations | ✅ | ❌ |
Guru and Obie are two different solutions with different focus directions
Product direction
At Obie, our mission is to make knowledge universally accessible and more useful within organizations. Our vision, is to be the most intelligent solution for learning anything at work. From a product standpoint, we translate that mission and vision into a unique look at how vendors traditionally solve the internal knowledge management problem.
With the most robust Slack integration in the internal knowledge support space, Obie anticipates what you need as you work within Slack, surfacing relevant answers or documents by using a smart federated search of your existing sources. In other words, you do not need to build a separate knowledge base. Obie becomes any growing team’s single source of truth, without risking any of the information in the various existing containers you have or want to continue to use. Support seekers get faster answers, while subject matter experts experience less context switching and less interruption.
Obie is different because you do not need to enter all your important knowledge into proprietary formats. Instead, Obie connects the knowledge you have from other tools easily – playing nicely with Google Drive, Confluence, Zendesk, Jira and many other knowledge platforms your team already uses. Obie helps your support teams build knowledge easily, putting the team in control. Organically build accurate, up to date information. Obie is especially good at organizing and surfacing FAQ’s. Harness the power of your support team to build and organize the best knowledge base as they work.
If you’re solely looking for a brand-new destination to manage your company’s knowledge and don’t intend to have more than one knowledge source, Guru might be the best fit for you. The way Guru makes knowledge portable and embeddable in various locations is convenient and innovative. While Guru certainly integrates deeply with Slack, it’s more of a feature than a philosophy. The Slack integration is an extension of Guru’s knowledge portability rather than a focus on improving workflow.
Use-cases
Between Guru and Obie there is definitely overlap among the different variations of business wiki software we seemingly are most popular for, with a few exceptions. This is worth noting to further understand the product direction of both vendors.
| Obie | Guru |
| IT/DevOps* | Sales |
| Support | Support |
| Sales | Marketing* |
| Company-wide (HR) | Company-wide (HR) |
“I am really impressed with the Obie support team, they have done everything from holding our hands during set up to responding instantly to any issues encountered. Truly one of the best support experiences with a vendor we ever had”
Mohammed Dajani, Senior IT Manager – Cvent
When it comes to remote sales team enablement, and supporting distributed teams in general, any business wiki software is a step in the right direction for most organizations to begin to manage their company’s knowledge.
Obie Pricing
Our active user pricing model offers the most flexible licensing option available on the market. Instead of choosing individual users to have dedicated licenses, Obie lets you establish a pool of available seats that can utilized based on need.
Guru Pricing
There you have it! We have done our best to lay out all of the key components between Obie and Guru for the purposes of easier evaluation of the two products. We truly think everyone that is building products to help manage your company’s knowledge is awesome, so props to the Guru team!
Hey 👋, before you go, check out Obie in action! — watch the Fastest Demo Video Ever
