Keep one current version of every procedure and see who read it. Most teams start with a shared Google Drive or SharePoint folder, and that works for a while; Helpable helps once people can't find the latest version or nobody knows who read it. Here is an honest look at both.
A shared folder works until there are three versions of the same file. Helpable keeps one current version and shows who read it.
Illustration with a fictional demo company. The Google Drive side is a simple sketch of a shared folder, drawn by Helpable.
Google Drive's column is based on Google's own product and help pages. Workspace editions differ; check Google's site for what is in yours.
| Google Drive and Helpable side by side | Helpable | Google Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge baseOne place for answers means fewer repeated questions; Helpable keeps the team handbook and the customer help center in one tool. | Internal knowledge base and a public help center | Folders and shared drives with files |
| Procedures (SOPs)In a Drive folder, owner and review date depend on file names and habits; Helpable gives every procedure an owner, a review date and one current version. | Numbered steps with images and checklists, owner, review date, versions | Documents in folders; no review dates or owners per procedure |
| Training and quizzesDrive has no quizzes or courses; Helpable turns a procedure into a lesson with a quiz and a score per person. | Lessons, quizzes with six question types, certificates from Business Plus (expiry on Business Max) | No quizzes, courses or certificates |
| AI answers to employee questionsAn answer with its source is one people can trust and check; Helpable answers only from your own content and says so when it doesn't know. | Yes: answers from your own articles, procedures and documents, with the source | Gemini in Drive answers from your files with the source |
| Read confirmationsGoogle's Drive pages list no read confirmations; Helpable shows per person who confirmed each version of a procedure. | Per version, with an overview of who confirmed and who is pending | Not found on Google's Drive pages |
| MobileField and shift staff look things up on a phone; Helpable works in the phone's browser, so there is nothing to install. | Works in the phone's browser; no app | Mobile apps |
| Where data is storedWhere data lives is often the first question in a client's security check; Helpable stores it in the EU on every plan. | EU | Region not stated on the Drive product page |
| Free trialA trial on your own content tells you more than a demo; Helpable gives you 14 days on Business Plus, no credit card. | 14 days on Business Plus, no credit card | Up to 15 GB free with every Google Account |
Based on public information from workspace.google.com and support.google.com, checked on October 15, 2026. Features change; check Google's site before you decide.
Pick Google Drive or SharePoint if you mostly need to store and share files, your team already lives in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, and nobody needs proof of who read what.
Pick Helpable over a shared Google Drive or SharePoint folder once people can't find the latest version or you need to know who read it: Helpable keeps one current version per procedure, asks for confirmations and turns it into training.
Use Google Drive and Helpable together if Drive holds contracts, sheets and client files: Helpable holds the procedures, handbook and training, built from the Drive documents you upload.
Google Drive stores and shares files. You set who can edit, comment or view, search across your files, and use the mobile apps on any device. Every Google Account includes up to 15 GB of free storage, and Gemini in Drive can answer questions from your files with the source.
SharePoint does the same for Microsoft 365 teams, with sites and document libraries. Copilot in SharePoint answers questions about the sites and libraries you can access, with a Microsoft Copilot license. Both are familiar, flexible and often already paid for.
Common reasons we hear. They may or may not apply to you.
Copies, "final_v3" files and old exports pile up. In Drive, older versions of a file can be removed after 30 days or 100 newer versions unless you keep them.
A folder shows who can open a file. It doesn't show who read the new procedure or finished the training.
A folder tree makes sense to the person who built it. New colleagues need a clear path: what to read first, what to learn, and a quiz to check.
Employees ask a question in their own words and get a short answer from your own articles, procedures and documents, with a link to the exact page it came from. You stop being the person everyone asks.
Upload your handbook or policies. Helpable makes them searchable right away and suggests articles you check, change and approve. Nothing goes live until you say so.
When the answer isn't there, Helpable says so and the question lands on your list of things to write down, with no name attached.
Bring in the documents you have and turn them into articles, procedures and training.
Upload handbooks and policies as PDF, Word or text. Helpable makes them searchable and suggests article drafts that a manager checks and approves.
Each procedure has one published version with a short summary of what changed, and older versions stay on record.
Search across articles and procedures at once, so people find the answer on their phone.
The parts a shared folder doesn't give you, made simple for a small team.
Upload handbooks and policies and get article drafts to check and publish, searchable for everyone.
Numbered steps with images and checklists, an owner, a review date and a version history with a short change summary.
Ask people to confirm and see who read which version and when, and who is still pending.
Lessons, six question types, assignments with due dates, reminders and certificates with an optional expiry date.
Employees ask in their own words and get a short answer from your content, with a link to where it says so.
The app is available in English and Dutch, and your data is stored in the EU.
Try Helpable free for 14 days, no credit card needed. Then pick the plan that fits your team.
Your knowledge base for team and customers, written faster with AI.
$29/month
Billed monthly
That's $0.95 a day
Start free trialTrain your team on that knowledge: courses, quizzes and progress per person.
$89/month
Billed monthly
That's $2.93 a day
Start free trialEverything in Business, plus:
Training that runs by itself, and proof of who really knows what.
$179/month
Billed monthly
That's $5.88 a day
Start free trialEverything in Business Plus, plus:
Add these to Business and up, any time. You only pay for what you use.
Add people one by one as your team grows, for a fixed price per person on every plan.
$9/month
A help center and handbook for another brand, location or client.
$10/month
Remove “Powered by Helpable” from your help center. Included in Business Max.
$19/month
You can have your most-used knowledge and a first training in Helpable on the same day. Google Drive keeps working for as long as you want it to.
Upload the files you have (Word, PDF, Markdown, text or CSV), import a public website or connect Notion under Settings › Integrations. Each one becomes a searchable document. Download your Drive or SharePoint files as Word or PDF first.
AI turns each document into a draft article or procedure. You read it, fix what is off, give it an owner and a review date, and publish. Nothing goes live by itself.
Pick the articles and procedures a new colleague needs and say who it is for. AI drafts lessons and quiz questions that link back to them. You check and publish.
Invite people by email, put them in teams and assign training and procedures with a due date. Ask for read confirmations; reminders go out by email.
Try Helpable free for 14 days on Business Plus, no credit card. Keep Google Drive running until you see the team use Helpable, then decide.
We bring in your documents, write your first procedures and build your first training for you. You pay once, next to your plan, and we confirm the scope before we start.
Teams of about 5 to 50 people whose know-how has outgrown a shared folder.
Installers, cleaners and field staff who need the current procedure on their phone at a client site.
In practice: A cleaner at a new office building opens the current floor plan and cleaning steps on her phone, and nobody works from an old printout found in a shared folder.
See howHospitality, retail and care teams that onboard new and temporary staff again and again.
In practice: A temp who starts on Saturday works through the till and returns lessons on Thursday evening, and the shift lead sees who passed before the weekend.
See howAgencies, accountancy, real estate and recruitment teams that want one way of working, written down.
In practice: An accountancy office keeps one current year-end checklist, so every assistant works from the same version and old copies in Drive stop causing missed steps.
Several locations that should all use the same, current procedures.
In practice: Every location uses the same hygiene procedure, and when head office changes a step, each manager is asked to confirm the new version that same day.
Support, sales and service teams that need the same answer every time, plus a public help center for customers.
In practice: A support team answers a refund question the same way every time, because the article behind it has one owner and the new agent passed a quiz on it in week one.
See howCan't find your answer? We're happy to help.
Yes, and many small teams do, because it is free and familiar. Helpable becomes useful once you need one current version of each procedure, proof of who read it and training for new people.
Helpable is a good alternative for the know-how people must follow and learn: procedures, the handbook and onboarding. Keep Drive or SharePoint for contracts, sheets and slides; most teams use both.
Yes. Download them as PDF or Word and upload them to Helpable as documents; Helpable makes them searchable and suggests article drafts for you to check. There is no direct Google Drive connection yet.
Yes. Helpable answers employee questions from your own articles, procedures and documents, with a link to the source, and says so when it doesn't know. Questions it can't answer show up as a list of gaps to write down.
Yes. Helpable lets you ask for a read confirmation on a procedure and shows per person who confirmed which version and when. Read confirmations are part of every plan.
Helpable has no free plan. You get a free trial of 14 days on Business Plus, and you don't need a credit card.
Helpable starts at $29 per month for Business, with 3 team members, an internal knowledge base, a public help center, read confirmations and the AI writer. Business Plus ($89) adds training with quizzes, assignments and progress per person, 5 team members and 750 AI credits a month, and Business Max ($179) adds automatic assignment, more knowledge bases and recurring training.
Helpable stores your data in the EU. That makes it easy to explain where your know-how lives.
Yes. Helpable works in the browser on a phone, tablet or laptop, so people can open a procedure or lesson on site. There is no native app yet.
Yes. Helpable's app is available in English and Dutch, and you can write your content in either language.
Most small teams keep their know-how in a shared Google Drive or SharePoint folder at first. These are the questions people search when that folder stops working as a knowledge base, answered with the facts on this page.
Yes, a shared Google Drive works as a knowledge base for a small team with a handful of documents, and Helpable becomes useful once you need one current version of each procedure, proof of who read it and training for new people.
Drive is free to start, familiar and often already paid for. The trouble usually starts around the tenth hire. Copies called final_v3 pile up, someone downloads the opening checklist to their desktop and edits it there, and a new colleague finds two handbooks with different holiday rules. Older versions of a file can disappear from Drive after 30 days or 100 newer versions unless you choose to keep them. See how document version control works in Helpable.
For procedures people have to follow, Helpable is a Google Drive alternative with numbered steps, images and checklists, one owner, a review date and one published version with its history.
A Word file in a folder has none of that structure. A cleaning supervisor who changes the steps for a kitchen deep clean edits the document, and nobody knows what changed or when it should be checked again. In Helpable each new version gets a short summary of what changed, and the owner sees when the next review is due. Read more about SOP software.
Google Drive shows who can open a file, and Helpable shows who read and confirmed each version of a procedure, with an overview of who is still pending.
With a folder, the usual way to share a change is an email asking people to read the new version. Some open it, some don't, and you find out when something goes wrong. In Helpable you publish the change, everyone assigned is asked to confirm, reminders go out by email, and you can show per person who confirmed which version and when. Read confirmations are part of every plan; see read and acknowledge.
Helpable gives new hires a clear path through lessons, quizzes and due dates, which a folder tree can't offer on its own; we found no quizzes, courses or certificates in Drive or SharePoint.
A folder makes sense to the person who built it. A new colleague opens fourteen subfolders and doesn't know where to start. In Helpable you upload the handbook and policies you already have as PDF or Word, Helpable makes them searchable and suggests article drafts, and AI drafts a training with lessons and quiz questions that link back to the sources. You check it, assign it with a due date and see scores per person. More on employee onboarding software.
Gemini in Drive answers from your files with the source, Copilot in SharePoint needs a Microsoft Copilot license, and Helpable answers from your own articles, procedures and documents with a link to the source.
An answer is only as good as the files behind it. If Drive holds three versions of the travel policy, an AI answer may quote the old one. In Helpable answers come from published articles and procedures with one current version, and questions it can't answer land on a list of gaps to write down. People only get answers from content they are allowed to see.
Moving from Google Drive to Helpable starts with the documents people open every week, downloaded as PDF or Word and uploaded as documents that turn into article drafts you check.
There is no direct Google Drive connection yet. Start with the procedures new people need in their first weeks, then the handbook, then the rest as questions come in. Keep Drive or SharePoint for contracts, sheets and slides; most teams use both. Drive stays enough for a small team with a few documents and no need to train people or prove who read what. For a wider look at knowledge base software, see internal knowledge base software or the Notion alternative.
Upload one handbook from your Drive, publish one procedure and see who confirms it.