MindTouch - The closest thing to a magic bullet for customer support
Updated June 14, 2016

MindTouch - The closest thing to a magic bullet for customer support

Aaron Hathaway | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

MindTouch 4

Overall Satisfaction with MindTouch

I found MindTouch (then DekiWiki) during a search for a usable wiki for internal documentation (we were one of their early customers). It served ably in that capacity for many years, and it continues to be a world-class knowledge management system, even as the product has matured and grown more specialized.

MindTouch made the decision several years ago to focus on customer-facing support, which doesn't really apply to our internal-only use case. The downside of this change is that my users see more administrative cruft than I'd prefer. Not a huge deal, but worth considering if your use will be solely internal (MindTouch is arguably overkill for strictly internal use).
  • Clean, usable UI that the vast majority of users use without training.
  • Actively developed and very well supported.
  • More integrations than you can shake a stick at.
  • Better internal-only usage options. A user type between "community" and "pro" that can optionally contribute but which sees more of a customer's view of the content.
  • Not to single out MindTouch on this point, but portability of content is a huge issue (i.e., what if you want to move your content to a different application?). It doesn't appear that anyone has really cracked this nut yet, but I wish someone would.
  • MindTouch's official recommendation is that no sensitive/private content should be added to a MindTouch instance. While I appreciate the honesty, I do wish there were way to securely include sensitive content (page-level encryption). I recognize the complexity of the request, but it's so needed.
  • Doesn't really apply to our use case, but I have long enjoyed redirecting users' questions to MindTouch: "Say...how do I [something that has been asked many times before].." "Have you checked the wiki?" "Oh yeah. No. I'll do that."
I haven't actively compared MindTouch to its rivals in many years, but compared to other wiki-like options, MindTouch was years ahead.
As stated before, MindTouch isn't an ideal platform for strictly internal knowledge management--but that's not their target market. They're interested in making customer support sites more usable, dynamic, and helpful. In that arena, I don't think MindTouch has been bested by their competitors.

MindTouch Implementation

MindTouch Training

MindTouch Support

Using MindTouch

I appreciate how much energy MindTouch has poured into UX; it shows.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Intuitive UI makes edits and changes trivial.
  • DekiScript is the key to extending MindTouch, and it becomes easy to perform complex tasks with very little code.
  • The still new-to-me structure takes some getting used to, but once you understand it, it makes the content much easier to organize and access.
  • Exporting (but all/most knowledge management systems suffer from this).

MindTouch Reliability