Many agencies end up running documentation for clients without ever planning to. It starts with a PDF guide for a new website, then a few "how do I update the blog?" emails. Sooner or later a client asks for a proper help center, and then the next client asks too.
In an earlier post we at eniston looked at why help center software matters for agency operations in general. This article is the practical follow-up: a playbook for running a separate knowledge base for every client, from setup and branding to access, roles and handover.
It is tempting to put all client documentation into one knowledge base with a category per client. That works for a few weeks. Then the problems start:
Clients see each other. One misplaced article or a shared search index is enough for client A to find documentation about client B. For most agencies that is not acceptable.
Branding gets mixed up. Each client expects their own logo, colors and domain, not your agency's brand or a neutral template.
Access becomes complicated. Some clients want a public help center for their customers, others want an internal wiki only their staff can open. One knowledge base can't do both well.
Handover is painful. If a client leaves or wants to run the docs themselves, you have to untangle their content from everyone else's.
The cleaner model is simple: one client, one knowledge base. Each one has its own content, domain, design, team and access rules. Your agency manages all of them from one account.
In eniston, a separate knowledge base is called a workspace. A workspace is where you manage the documentation for a single product, website or app. Each workspace can have its own team, its own custom domain and its own settings. That makes it a natural fit for one client.
A few practical tips for the setup:
Use a consistent naming scheme, for example "Client name – Help Center" and "Client name – Internal".
Start from a standard category structure. Most client help centers need the same basics: Getting started, How-to guides, Troubleshooting and FAQ. Adapt it per client instead of starting from zero.
Use sections for clients with several products. If a client has a shop and an app, you don't necessarily need two workspaces. Sections let you split one workspace into separate parts in the frontend, each with its own theme and starting page.
Decide early whether the help center should be found on Google. Public help centers benefit from search traffic. For internal or client-only documentation, the workspace SEO settings let you block bots from crawling it completely.
A help center feels like part of the client's product when it lives at an address like help.clientname.com. Every eniston workspace starts on its own eniston.com subdomain, which is fine for drafts and reviews. For go-live, you connect a custom domain.
The setup is a single DNS change: you create a CNAME record at the client's domain provider and point it to your account's eniston identifier. Once the record points to the right place, the domain receives a valid SSL certificate. You can use a subdomain such as help.clientname.com or a separate domain.
One tip from practice: keep the domain in the client's name. The client should own the domain and their DNS; you only need them to add one record. This makes a later handover much easier.
Custom domains with SSL are included in both our Plus and Business plans, so there is no extra fee per client domain.
In the appearance settings of each workspace you can:
upload the client's logo (including a separate logo for dark mode) and favicon,
choose between the "Default" and "Documentation" themes, both with light and dark mode,
adjust the predefined colors to the client's brand colors,
add up to 3 header links (for example back to the client's website or app) and up to 4 footer links (for example their legal notice and privacy policy),
and, if you know CSS, apply custom styles to match the client's design system more closely.
Translatable themes let you define your own languages and wording, which is useful for clients whose help center isn't in English.
If the help center should look entirely like the client's own product, you can remove the "Powered by eniston" backlink from all workspaces in an account with a one-time payment of €15.
Not every client help center is public. Typical cases in agency work are customer-facing help centers, documentation that only the client's employees should see, and drafts that only your team and the client contact should review. eniston offers several ways to restrict access to a workspace:
Frontend authentication. Only invited team members can open the workspace. Combined with the Read-only role, this works well for internal client wikis.
IP allowlist or blocklist. Allow only the client's office IPs (IPv4), or block specific addresses.
Simple password. Protect the whole workspace or single categories with a password. You can even pass the password in the URL (or an encrypted version of it), so a link inside the client's app or intranet opens the protected content directly.
A good rule: decide on the access model in the project kickoff and write it down.
The best client help centers are maintained by people who know the product, usually the client's own team. Per-seat pricing makes this expensive, so many agencies end up as the only people allowed to edit anything. We explain this problem in our article on knowledge base software without per-user pricing.
We at eniston don't charge per user. On our Business plan you can invite as many team members as you need, and the price stays the same. Because each workspace has its own team, you invite a client's people only to their workspace. You can assign roles and permissions per person:
Read-only for client staff who should only read restricted documentation,
Editor for client contributors who create and update articles and categories but shouldn't delete anything,
Extended Editor for trusted editors who may also delete articles and categories,
Admin for the client's main contact, who can manage team and workspace settings,
Super-Admin with full access, including subscription settings. In most agency setups, this role should stay with your agency.
Team collaboration is part of our Business plan, so if you work with client editors, this is the plan to choose.
Two habits help: keep your own agency team in every workspace, so you can step in when needed, and rely on the version history: every published article keeps its 20 latest versions, and deleted articles can be restored for 30 days. That takes a lot of fear out of giving clients edit rights.
Sooner or later, many clients want to take over their documentation, or the contract ends. A clean handover is much easier if you plan it at the start.
There are two common handover models:
You keep hosting, the client takes over the editing. The workspace stays in your agency account, and the client's team gets Editor or Admin roles. You stay responsible for the subscription and can offer documentation as an ongoing service. For many agencies, this is the most practical option.
The client moves to their own account. The client signs up for their own eniston account and the content moves over. Because the CNAME target is tied to the account, the client's DNS record needs to point to their new account's identifier. Ask our support team about the best way to move content for your situation before you schedule the switch.
Whichever model you choose, a short handover checklist helps:
the custom domain and DNS are in the client's name,
the client has at least one Admin who knows the workspace settings,
access rules (password, IP list, frontend authentication) are documented,
article statistics and feedback have been reviewed together, so the client knows which articles readers use and which need work,
and any personal data questions are clarified. Our GDPR checklist for knowledge bases covers the points EU clients usually ask about.
Many help center tools charge per help center, per project or per seat, so the bill grows with every new client. Our model is based on workspaces included in a flat plan (prices in EUR, excluding VAT):
Plus: €8 per month or €80 per year, with 2 workspaces. Good for agencies that only run documentation for one or two clients and don't need client editors.
Business: €28 per month or €280 per year, with 10 workspaces and team collaboration without per-user pricing.
Extra workspaces: €9 each, as a one-time payment, not per month.
Business dedicated: €98 per month or €980 per year, with unlimited workspaces, a dedicated server location, database instance and CDN, and the Enhanced add-on included.
A quick example: an agency with 15 client help centers on the Business plan pays €28 per month plus a one-time €45 for 5 extra workspaces. The monthly price stays the same whether each client has two editors or twenty.
If your team or your clients want AI support while writing, the optional Enhanced add-on adds AI features and extra formatting options for all workspaces in an account, for €6 per month. Full details are on our pricing page.
All workspaces are made and hosted in Germany, on servers with ISO 27001 certification, and we comply with the GDPR.
Running documentation for clients is easier when each client gets their own help center: one workspace, the client's domain and branding, clear access rules, the right roles for their editors, and a handover plan from the start. It keeps clients separate and turns documentation into a service you can offer with every project.
If you'd like to try this setup with one of your clients, you can test eniston free for 30 days. No payment information is required, so you can set up a first client workspace, connect a domain and invite the client before you decide.
Our knowledge base software offers a great variety of features to manage your knowledge articles. Try eniston for free for 30 days. No credit card required.
