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.
Customer self-service
Self-service customer service, live this afternoon
A hosted customer self-service portal where people search first and ask second. Your team answers once, in public, and that answer keeps working.
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
Answer once
Stop answering the same question twice.
Every part of the portal hands the answer to the next person who needs it. Your team does not type it out again.
Search comes first
Customers search the whole archive from the home page, so many of them find the answer without asking.
Related questions
Every thread shows up to five related threads beside it. One answer leads to the next one.
Duplicate suggestions
While a customer types a title, the form shows questions that may already answer it.
Votes
Anyone signed in can upvote a question. The ones many customers share rise to the top.
One accepted solution
The right reply is marked as the solution. It pins under the question and the thread reads as solved.
Private questions
Some cases are not for the public. Staff can make any question private, and a whole category can be private too.
Why self-service fails
See what customers look for and do not find.
Self-service fails for one plain reason. The answer people search for is not there yet.
Your portal keeps a log of every search that found nothing. That log is your writing list for the week.
The same page shows page views, the questions people read most, and how much your team answered.
Set up
Four steps, one afternoon.
There is no server to pick, no plugin to install, and no project plan. You can do the whole thing between two meetings.
- 1
Sign in
No password to make or store. Use a magic link, a 6-digit email code, or Google.
- 2
Name your portal
Pick a name and an address. Your portal is live at yourcompany.myforumcat.com right away.
- 3
Answer the first questions
Post the five questions your team answers every week, and answer them. That is your starting archive.
- 4
Share the link
Put it in your help page, your app, and your replies. Customers can read and search with no account.
The difference it makes
Answering in the inbox, and answering in public.
The same reply, written once, in two places. The row that matters most is the one about next time.
| A reply in your inbox | An answer on your portal | |
|---|---|---|
| Who reads it | One customer | Everyone who asks it next |
| Found later by | Nobody, once the thread is closed | Search, related questions, and Google |
| The next time it is asked | Someone types it again | You send the link |
| Structured data | None | QAPage on every answered question |
| Private cases | Every case is private | Any question, or a whole category, can be private |
| What it costs | Your team, every time | $9 one time, or $99 a month on your own domain |
Keep the inbox for one-to-one work. This is the public half beside it, not a replacement for it.
Fair questions, plain answers
The things buyers ask us first.
- Can customers read without an account?YesReading and searching are open to everyone. Signing in is only for asking, replying, and voting.
- Can it run on our own domain?YesYes, on Pro. Point help.yourcompany.com at us and SSL is set up for you.
- Does it work on a phone?YesEvery page is server rendered and light, so it opens fast on any phone.
- Can our whole support team answer?YesInvite teammates with a role: owner, admin, agent, or finance. Staff replies show the role.
- Will Google and AI engines read the answers?YesEvery answered question is a public page with QAPage structured data, a sitemap entry, and a raw markdown view.
- Can we point our own AI agent at it?YesYes, on every plan. The REST API and the MCP server cover the same capabilities the dashboard has.
What this is not.
There is no importer. Nothing moves over from an old forum or a knowledge base. Most teams start fresh and let real questions build the archive.
There is no widget to drop into your app, and no AI that writes answers for you. A person answers, and the answer stays public and searchable.
Forumcat is not a help desk. Keep the one you have for one-to-one work. This is the self-service layer beside it.
Pricing
One flat price. No surprises.
Not per user. Not per question. Grow all you want, your bill stays the same. More traffic is good news, not a bigger bill.
Basic
$9 one-time
Create your portal- Portal on yourcompany.myforumcat.com
- 2 team seats
- 1,000 registered members
- 10,000 questions
- 1 GB (≈2,000 images) of media
- Full SEO and GEO: structured data + sitemap
- Analytics built in
most popular
Pro
$99 per month
Start with ProEverything in Basic, plus
- Your own custom domain
- Unlimited team seats
- 10,000 registered members
- Unlimited questions
- 50 GB (≈100,000 images) of media
- 1,000,000 page views / month
FAQ
Questions we get before people sign up.
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.
Do customers need an account to read?
Answer
No. Reading and searching are open to everyone. Signing in is only for asking, replying, and voting, and it is passwordless.
Who can see a private question?
Answer
Only the person who asked it and your team. Whole categories can be private too, so every question posted there starts private.
Does it work on our own domain?
Answer
Yes, on Pro. Point a subdomain like help.yourcompany.com at Forumcat and SSL is set up for you. Your Forumcat subdomain redirects to it.
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.
Is this a self-service portal or a community?
Answer
Both words fit. Your customers ask in public, your team answers, and the archive they build is the self-service part.
Where to go next.
Support forumThe same portal, framed for teams who want a support forum they do not host.Community help centerA help center your customers write with you, question by question.Ticket deflectionWhat changes when the answer to a common question already has a public page.Customer support portalOne public address for customer questions, on your own domain.
Answer once. Let the answer work.
Your portal can be live in about five minutes. $9 one time on a Forumcat subdomain, or $99 a month for your own domain.
Create your portalFree for 7 days. No credit card. Live in about five minutes.
