Back to blog

10 Best ChatBot Alternatives in 2024

---

If you’re looking to deploy a chatbot on your website or app, you might be considering ChatBot. ChatBot is an AI-driven chatbot software that automates and streamlines a variety of tasks on your website with its Help Desk, Live Chat and other powerful tools. However, with these efficient tools, also comes the large amount one needs to pay for using them. Also, ChatBot has the drawback of limited subscription to access its premium features like buttons and multiple chats and the need of getting a separate subscription for live chat access, which is quite costly.

To avoid spending a fortune on a chatbot, it’s advised to look for the alternatives available in the market like Appy Pie’s Chatbot Builder before coming to a final decision. We have listed down below the 10 best ChatBot alternatives you can consider in 2024:

Also Read: Top 30+ Chatbot Examples in 2024

1) Appy Pie Chatbot Builder

Appy Pie Chatbot Builder is a powerful no-code AI driven platform which allows you to build all possible sorts of chatbots with customization options to best suit your needs. This tool has absolutely transformed the customer support industry by automating every step of the process starting from responding to customer queries and providing chat assistance to handling marketing and sales activities. Along with this feature, Appy Pie also offers tools like Live Chat Software, Knowledge Base Software and Help Desk. These tools help provide exceptional customer support services to users through live agents, a ticketing system for prompt query resolution and a vast knowledge base for users to read, learn and upgrade themselves on important information related to the brand. Appy Pie offers step by step guidance on how to create a chatbot from scratch and provides ready-to-use chatbot templates so you have to put in minimal effort. It allows design customization, personalization in bot flow and integrations with various other apps to scale your business for long-term growth.

Pricing

Appy Pie’s Chatbot Builder provides a 7-day free trial option which is risk free and does not require a credit card. One can easily test the chatbot without any knowledge of coding and figure out its suitability to your needs. After that, one can opt for a premium plan which is both affordable and reasonable and provides tons more of special features to use to build your chatbot. The pricing plan is as follows:

• Premium plan for professionals: $11/bot/month
• Enterprise plan to go full-scale: custom pricing

It also offers a 30 days money back guarantee and is trusted by millions like Gartner, G2, SSL, BBB and Trust Pilot.

2) Intercom

Intercom is a breakthrough AI chatbot which uses AI language models to automatically solve customer issues with safe, accurate, conversational answers based solely on the support content fed in its database. It is one of the growing competitors of ChatBot and provides a marketing and customer relationship management software which helps streamline customer support services to a great extent. The no-code platform also allows avoiding manual tasks like routing, snoozing and closing out conversations through automation. Integrations with various apps like HubSpot, Slack, etc. is allowed for a better user experience.

Pricing

Intercom does not have an option for a free plan, but does offer a 14-day free trial. One has to buy the plans at a price dependent on the number of customer interactions as follows:

• Essential: $39/seat/month (best for individual, startups and small businesses)
• Advanced: $99/seat/month (for growing support teams)
• Expert: $139/seat/month (for large support teams)

3) TARS

TARS is another no-code multilingual chatbot platform which is one of the best ChatBot alternatives and offers a number of chatbot templates for different industries like travel, education, healthcare, banking etc. It provides users with comprehensive resources to build a chatbot from scratch with many customization options.
TARS has a huge library of chatbot templates, API integrations and exceptional landing pages which make it a good alternative option. TARS has a user-friendly interface which allows updating of the AI agent’s knowledge base without writing a single line of code. It is easy to use and provides easy integrations with CRMs, in-house systems and more.

Pricing

Tars has a 14-day free trial plan to test the app before you buy the premium plans which are as follows:

• Business: $99/month (5000 chats/month with 1 chatbot)
• Premium: $499/month (10000 chats, 3 chatbots and WhatsApp Business API)
• Enterprise: custom pricing (additional integrations, higher limits and custom codes)

4) Microsoft Bot Framework

Microsoft Bot Framework is a comprehensive framework for building conversational AI bots for your enterprise. It allows creation of a bot with the ability to listen, understand, speak and write using its natural language processing capabilities. It allows options for designing, building, testing, publishing, connecting and evaluating the chatbot for creation of the best user experience. It has features like a software development kit, advanced NLP system and allows
integration with specific channels. The bot converses naturally with users with the help of SDK tools and helps build global, scalable and secure AI experiences. It also makes payments in the chatbot widget possible. However, a drawback of Microsoft Bot Framework is that one should have knowledge of Azure, C# or Node.js to create and deploy a chatbot.

Pricing

Creating chatbots along with using certain API features is free of cost, however quite a few integrations are required with different Microsoft Apps like calculator, Teams, etc. which are paid. The pricing plans are:

• Standard plan with unlimited messages allowed- Free
• Premium plan with first 10000 messages/month free and $0.50 for every additional 1000 messages

5) Chatfuel

Chatfuel is an amazing option when it comes to looking for ChatBot alternatives for social media. Chatfuel allows creation of multilingual AI-powered bots for apps like Facebook Messenger, Slack, etc. Chatfuel provides easy drag and drop features for building innovative social media bots and has A/B testing facilities to increase conversions. Features which make Chatfuel stand out as a good social media chatbot builder software include provision of a verified green badge in WhatsApp API, GDPR compliance and integrations with Stripe, Shopify, Calendly etc. Chatfuel provides a one-stop solution for sales and engagement activities. It allows reminders to be sent to users who have abandoned their shopping carts, upselling, cross-selling, re-engagement, customer support, ads and a lot more.

Pricing

A free trial option is available only for the first 50 automated engagements which is quite less to come to a judgment on suitability of the software. The pricing plans are-

• For businesses- starting from $14.99 for 1000 conversations per month with $0.01 for additional conversations.
• For enterprises- starting from $300 (also provides bot building services for 10 free hours)

6) Freshchat

Freshchat is a messaging software provided by Freshworks which allows building customized chatbots to deliver a seamless experience to customers across self-serve or agent assisted channels. It has options for messaging, live chat, voice and even email. Some of the features Freshchat provides are software development kit and vision intel. Freshchat’s all in one service lets you collaborate, manage tickets and solve complex issues easily. Users can perform bulk actions and receive canned responses. It builds no-code, affordable, teachable chatbots which can perform sentiment analysis as well to provide a seamless experience to users.

Pricing

Freshchat offers a 14-day free trial with no requirement of a credit card. The pricing plans offered are-

• Free starter pack for upto 10 agents forever
• Growth- $19/agent/month billed annually (for fast growth)
• Pro- $49/agent/month billed annually (for high performance)
• Enterprise- $79/agent/month billed annually (for enterprise-grade support)

7) Tidio

Tidio is a communication and marketing software which helps create chatbots for social media, websites and conversational landing pages without any coding skills. Chatbots created with Tidio are visually appealing with multiple options of ready-to-use designs. Tidio’s chatbot, Lyro AI, automates tasks and saves time, money and resources which would otherwise be required to build a chatbot with the help of code traditionally. Tidio uses Open Javascript API for unlocking custom functionalities and allows for omnichannel communication.

Pricing

Tidio has the following pricing plans-

• Free plan closing at 50 Lyro conversations
• Lyro AI: $39/month
• Tidio+: $749/month

8) Zendesk AI

With Zendesk AI, you can add messaging and live chat to your website or mobile application to streamline your customer service processes on various social channels.It helps create rich conversational experiences by being available 24/7 and offering fast AI-automated responses so that your customers never have to wait before a query can be resolved. Zendesk AI not only takes action of generating responses but also provides response suggestions to agents depending on business policies. It generates personalized messages within seconds and passes on all the information to agents to provide them with context.

Pricing

Zendesk allows basic plans starting at $19 per month. The other premium plans it offers are-

• Suite Team: $55/agent/month
• Suite Growth: $89/agent/month
• Suite Professional: $115/agent/month
• Suite Enterprise: custom pricing

9) ManyChat

ManyChat is a chatbot builder that provides easy-to-use tools for designing custom chatbots for Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram DMs. It offers a wide variety of features such as integration with email and SMS. It automates responses and can handle multiple conversations at a single time which ensures a smooth workflow. It provides solutions for creators, eCommerce, agencies and restaurants and helps get more direct results from social media. No tech experience is required to create a chatbot as it is done completely by an AI assistant. However, Manychat cannot be used as a widget on websites. It is limited to being used on social media apps.

Pricing

ManyChat offers 3 pricing plans-

• Free plan (up to 1000 contacts)
• Pro plan: $15/month (scales with number of contacts)
• Premium plan: custom pricing (has fixed monthly cost)

10) Qualified

Qualified is an AI-driven pipeline generator platform. It offers a solution to increase website engagement and hit pipeline targets through AI chatbots which engage visitors, capture leads and book meetings, round the clock. Qualified has its own chatbot- Piper, that automatically surfaces relevant marketing offers based on different audience segments. It also books meetings with customers to keep them engaged and also offers options to be transferred to a conversation with a live agent for further steps. Piper creates meaningful and personalized buyer journeys so that they never have to complain and are satisfied with their experience.

Pricing

Qualified does not offer a free plan. It has 3 paid plans:

• Growth: $3500/month (best to grow website conversions)
• Premiere: custom pricing (to help maximize pipeline and surface more insights)
• Enterprise: custom pricing (best for large organizations with complex requirements)

Conclusion

If ChatBot’s features don’t align with your business requirements, you can always opt for any of the above mentioned alternatives to ensure that you have all the right resources at the right time and at the right price to create the perfect chatbot. Carefully analyze each of the above ChatBot alternatives and select the one you think will ensure that your customers have a seamless experience every time they’re on your site, mobile application or scrolling through your social media pages.