Chatbots are conversational applications that can be integrated into messaging platforms to perform automated tasks, such as collecting information from customers or helping shoppers find the right products. Chatbots don’t require users to install additional apps. And they are relatively simple and inexpensive to build.
Here is a list of platforms to help build a chatbot for your business. Some of these platforms have basic drag-and-drop builds, while others require basic coding. All of the platforms have free plans.
Platforms to Build Chatbots
Chatfuel. Chatfuel is a platform to create bots for Facebook or Telegram. Set up conversational rules without having to code. Your bot will recognize similar phrases, and send users your pre-defined answers. More than 360,000 chatbots have been created using Chatfuel, from brands such as CNBC, Adidas, and British Airways. Price: Free for up to 500,000 monthly active users.
Chatfuel
Motion.ai. Motion.ai is a platform to visually build, train, and deploy chatbots on Messenger, Slack, Smooch, or your website. Diagram your conversation flow, connect your bot to a messaging service, and go. No programming skills required. Motion.ai allows you to deploy Node.js code directly from its interface. Price: Free for two bots. Premium plans start at $15 per month.
Pandorabots. The Pandorabots Playground is a integrated development environment for building chatbots. Artificial Intelligence as a Service — AIaaS — provides API access to the bot-hosting platform and SDKs, allowing developers to integrate conversational interfaces into applications. Use the same content libraries as Loebner Prize winners. Pandorabots can also build a virtual agent to your specifications, and can even help integrate avatar or speech capabilities. Price: Free.
Microsoft Bot Framework. Use the Microsoft Bot Framework to build bots to interact with your users from your website to SMS, Skype, Slack, Messenger, Office 365 mail, and more. Bot Builder SDKs allow you to build dialogs. Cognitive Services enable your bot to see, hear, interpret, and interact in more human ways. The Connector will have your bot talking in full fidelity on the most popular conversation experiences, no additional coding necessary. Use a variety of tools to develop your bot, such as QnA Maker and language understanding. Test examples from Hipmunk, AzureBot, and StubHub. Price: Free.
Microsoft Bot Framework
Chattypeople. Chattypeople is a tool to create customer support chatbots for Facebook Messenger. Recognize variations on your trigger words and phrases. Take orders from Messenger and comments. Chattypeople integrates with Stripe and PayPal. Price: Free for up to 100 customers. Advanced plan is $12.99 per month.
Botsify. Automate your live chat support with a chatbot. Humans can take over chat from chatbot anytime. The chat updates in real-time. Use a simple drag-and-drop interface to design your template. Chatbot works with Facebook Messenger. Botsify offers several plugins that allow you to integrate your platform with chatbot, such as via RSS feed or JSON API. Price: Free for one chatbot. Premium plans start at $10 per month.
Botkit. Use Botkit to create bot applications for Slack, Facebook Messenger, and other popular platforms where bots live. Botkit is a software development toolkit for Node.js — you’ll need to write some code. However, a lot of what you need is provided. Botkit provides a variety of useful tools, including Botkit Studio, boilerplate app starter kits, a core library, and plugins to extend your bot. Botkit is community-supported open-source software that is available on GitHub. Price: Free.
Botkit
Flow XO. Build an automated bot, human, or hybrid messaging presence. Use over 100 built-in services and integrations. Talk to users through email or helpdesk, or use a web widget to promote your bots. Push content to users on demand. Start interactions by direct message, mention, or overhear. Ask questions and validate the format of the answer. Price: Standard plan is $19 per month. Free plan is available.
Smooch. Smooch is a conversational platform for multichannel messaging. Turn on automation and deliver conversational experiences at scale by connecting to bot platforms. In addition to chatbot automation, sync conversations and expand from your existing customer management system, add payments to conversations, among other features. Support channels like Messenger or Viber, sell products in conversations using Stripe, and more. Price: Free up to 500 conversations per month. Premium plan is $60 per month.
Facebook Messenger. Use the tools on Facebook’s Messenger platform to build and promote a chatbot for your business. With some basic coding, receive and send messages, use plugins and integrations, set appearance and menu, get user info, and more. Use Facebook’s Wit.ai to build conversational bots. The Wit.ai API can help you parse messages into structured, actionable data, predicting the next actions your bot should execute. Price: Free.
Facebook Messenger