How fast can we be live?
Answer
About five minutes. Sign in, name your portal, and it is online at yourcompany.myforumcat.com. Nothing to install.
Compare
Answerbase pricing, and the simple alternative
Answerbase puts questions and answers next to products. We give your customers one public Q&A portal on your own domain, live in about five minutes.
Free for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
5 minfrom sign-up to a live portal
0servers to run or patch
$9one time for a working portal
7 daysfree, no card needed
About Answerbase
What Answerbase is, and who buys it
Answerbase is customer Q&A software. Companies use it to add a question and answer section to a product site or an online store. Shoppers can ask before they buy.
The parts are close to ours: a question, replies, votes, and one answer marked as the right one. It has been in this market for years. The reviews it does get are quiet and positive, mostly about responsive support.
Where it is strongest is commerce. If the answer belongs beside a product, that is the job it was built for.
Pricing
Answerbase pricing, in plain words
Answerbase sells hosted plans, and we have no sourced number to quote here. When you search answerbase pricing, read what each plan caps. Ask what happens as the question count grows.
Ours is easy to read. $9 one time puts a portal on a Forumcat subdomain. $99 a month moves it to your own domain and lifts the limits. Free for 7 days. No credit card.
The bill does not move with traffic, questions, or seats.
What your customers see
The portal, in your brand
One public page for every customer question, in your brand.
Side by side
Answerbase and Forumcat, line by line
Our column is what we ship today. Their column is sourced or plainly descriptive, and says so when we cannot source it.
| Answerbase | Forumcat | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Sign up and configure, hosted by them | About five minutes |
| Price shape | Per plan, hosted | $9 one time, or $99 a month |
| Who hosts it | The vendor | We do |
| Your own domain | Check with the vendor | Yes, on Pro, with SSL set up for you |
| REST API and MCP on every plan | Check with the vendor | |
| Private questions and categories | Check with the vendor | |
| Roles for the support team | Check with the vendor | Five: owner, admin, agent, finance, member |
Sources as of Jul 2026. We only print a competitor number when a public source gives one. Otherwise the cell says "check with the vendor". Unlimited seats and questions on Pro carry a quiet fair-use backstop, lifted for any real portal that reaches it. Page views are fair-use limits, not a meter.
Fair to them
When Answerbase is the right pick
Stay with Answerbase when the questions belong next to products. A shopper asking on a product page is a different moment from a customer asking after the sale. That moment is what it serves.
It is also a fair reason to stay that the product works and the support is good. A tool your team likes is worth keeping.
Why teams move
When teams pick Forumcat instead
Teams come to us when the questions arrive after the sale. They want one public place for customer questions, on their own domain. Search, categories, and a solved badge on the answered ones.
They also want the API without a conversation. Every capability here is a REST call and an MCP tool on every plan. Your own agent can read questions and draft answers for a person to post.
- Live in about five minutes, with nothing to install
- Your own domain on Pro, with SSL set up for you
- Private questions and private categories
- QAPage structured data and a markdown view on every answered question
A closer look
See it before you decide
Name it, pick an address, and the portal is live. That is the whole setup.
Pricing
Two plans. Both flat.
The bill does not grow with traffic, questions, or seats. Pick a plan, and that is the price.
| Basic | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9 one time | $99 a month, or $990 a year |
| Portal address | yourcompany.myforumcat.com | Your own domain, SSL included |
| Team seats | 2 | Unlimited |
| Registered members | 1,000 | 10,000 |
| Questions | 10,000 | Unlimited |
| Media storage | 1 GB (≈2,000 images) | 50 GB (≈100,000 images) |
| Page views a month (fair use) | 100,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Search, votes, accepted solutions | ||
| Structured data, sitemap, markdown view | ||
| REST API and MCP server | ||
| Google sign-in under your brand | ||
| Analytics and search log | ||
| Free trial | 7 days, no card | 7 days, no card |
Unlimited seats and questions on Pro carry a quiet fair-use backstop, lifted for any real portal that reaches it. Page views are fair-use limits, not a meter.
FAQ
Questions buyers ask at this stage
What does it cost in month twelve?
Answer
The same as month one. $9 one time for a portal on a Forumcat subdomain, or $99 a month for your own domain. The bill never grows with traffic or questions.
Can we put the questions on our product pages?
Answer
No. There is no widget to embed. The portal is a hosted site on your own domain. You link to it from product pages, emails, and support replies.
Can we import our old forum or help docs?
Answer
Not today. There is no importer. Most teams start fresh and let the new questions build the archive, which is live in minutes.
What happens to our answers if we leave?
Answer
They are yours. Every question and answer is readable through the REST API, so you can pull it all out any time.
Does it replace our help desk?
Answer
No. Keep your help desk for one-to-one work. Forumcat is the public place beside it where the answers many customers share get written once.
Try the portal version
Create a portal, post a question, and see how it reads to a customer.
Create your portalFree for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
