Best Tools to Build Your Own Chatbots (2024)

If you’re running an online service, be it through a website, mobile apps, or even within chat apps like Telegram or WhatsApp, it’s high time to consider getting a chatbot if you haven’t already.

Now, you might be thinking that setting up a chatbot sounds like a tech nightmare, especially if coding isn’t your thing. But don’t worry, it’s actually become quite easy. There are plenty of platforms out there now that let you whip up a chatbot without needing to be a tech whiz. We’re going to walk you through ten of these chatbot builders.

So, whether you’re just starting out and don’t know your HTML from your HTTP, or you’re a seasoned developer looking for advanced features, there’s definitely a chatbot builder out there that fits your need.

Overview:

Chatbot Tools: What Do They Do?

Imagine chatbots as your own team of digital helpers, ready to chat with your customers around the clock. They’re set up to field questions and guide users through your services with friendly, text-based conversations.

Chatbot tools – sometimes called chatbot builders – are the behind-the-scenes magic that lets you craft these chatty assistants to engage with visitors on your site or app. They’re like the directors teaching actors their lines, except the actors are chatbots that can talk to your visitors, answer their questions, and help them out with various tasks.

Thanks to artificial intelligence, or AI, these chatbot tools get better with time. It’s a bit like how a person gets better at their job the more they do it; these chatbots learn from chatting with lots of different people. So, the more they interact, the more helpful they become.

Take a chatbot in a store, for example – over time, it can learn the ins and outs of customer queries, from where to find products to when the store closes. It’s like having an ever-ready assistant who’s there to lend a hand whenever your customers need it.

Best Chatbot Tools to Try

Now, without further ado, here are some of the best chatbot tools I’ve come across, along with their prices and some of my thoughts on their pros and cons.

SunShine Conversations

Sunshine Conversations, formerly known as Smooch, is Zendesk’s platform designed to elevate customer interactions into personalized and engaging experiences. It enables businesses to seamlessly integrate their existing systems, providing a cohesive and efficient service that spans the entire customer journey. With advanced customization capabilities, companies can create unique interactions that allow customers to browse products, make bookings, and even complete payments within the conversation itself.

The platform’s strength lies in its unified API, which simplifies the integration process, allowing for a single setup to be deployed across various channels. This not only accelerates the time to market but also ensures that customers have a consistent experience, regardless of the platform they use.

Price:

Sunshine Conversations is included with any Zendesk plan, which starts at $44 per agent per month.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel is a chatbot platform ideal for e-commerce marketers looking to boost their presence on Facebook Messenger. It’s designed to enhance lead generation, facilitate upselling and cross-selling, and ultimately increase revenue. The platform’s recent integration with ChatGPT allows businesses to maximize their WhatsApp potential, offering a more engaging customer experience and fostering growth.

The platform simplifies the integration of various data sources, such as your store, CRM, or CDP, through the Chatfuel API. This integration enables a more streamlined messaging process, allowing for sophisticated audience segmentation and the delivery of personalized messages that truly resonate with customers.

Additionally, Chatfuel provides robust tools for real-time analytics, helping businesses track message performance and customer engagement, which are essential for optimizing messaging strategies and driving effective marketing decisions.

Price:

Chatfuel’s pricing begins at $14.40 per month, which includes 500 conversations. Additional conversations are charged at $0.03 each. It also offers a free 7-day trial.

Botsify

Botsify is a chatbot platform that helps businesses automate conversations with their customers. It’s like having a multilingual virtual assistant that can speak over 100 languages, making it easier to connect with customers from all over the world. The platform is designed to be a one-stop-shop for chat automation, offering easy integration with other systems and tools your website might use, which means less hassle for you in terms of setup and maintenance.

With Botsify, creating forms to gather leads is as simple as having a conversation. These forms feel more like chatting with a friend rather than filling out a boring form, making it more likely that visitors will engage and provide the information you need. Plus, if a customer needs to talk to a real person, the chatbot can hand off the conversation to a human agent, ensuring that personal touch when it’s most needed.

Price:

Botsify offers a plan starting at $49 per month, which includes 2 chatbots, support for up to 5,000 users per month, unlimited conversations, forms, and media, along with integration options for Messenger, SMS, Website, Instagram, and Telegram.

Messenger for Business

If your business thrives on Facebook, then “Messenger for Business” could be a game-changer for you. This Facebook chatbot bridges the gap between you and your audience, allowing seamless communication directly through your Facebook Business Page. Whether it’s a potential lead scrolling through your posts or a customer visiting your website, they can easily start a conversation with you via a handy chat plugin.

The best part? These chats are powered by Messenger from Meta, ensuring that the conversations are smooth and consistent.

The beauty of “Messenger for Business” lies in its ability to automate interactions without losing the personal touch. You can generate and nurture leads, handle queries, and follow up-all on autopilot with the option for live chat when needed. Customers get the benefit of instant communication without the dreaded wait times or the hassle of explaining their issue to multiple agents. Plus, the conversation history stays put in Messenger, making it a breeze for customers to pick up where they left off.

Setting up “Messenger for Business” is a breeze. Just activate Messenger on your business page, pop a ‘Send Message’ button on your profile, and you’re good to go. You can even welcome event guests to message you and set up automated responses to instantly reply, send away messages, answer FAQs, and convert post comments into conversations. It’s all about keeping the engagement high and the responses swift, helping you connect with your customers more effectively.

Price:

Messenger for Business is free.

Telegram Bots

The Telegram chat app isn’t just for messaging; it’s got its own clever chatbot feature too. Imagine having a little helper in your chats that can do all sorts of neat tricks, from running mini-apps in JavaScript to handling payments from folks in over 200 countries.

These bots are like Swiss Army knives for your productivity, ready to tackle tasks like file conversions, chat management, or even telling you if you’ll need an umbrella for the day. You can chat with these bots one-on-one, or bring them into group chats and channels to add some extra pizzazz and functionality.

What’s more, Telegram bots play nice with other services. There’s a whole bunch of official bots for popular platforms that make it super easy to pull in content or do quick searches without leaving the app. For the gamers out there, developers can whip up engaging HTML5 games, from solo adventures to multiplayer challenges, right within Telegram. And for the social butterflies, bots can help you link up with new friends who share your interests, find local events, or even trade second-hand treasures.

Setting up a basic Telegram bot is a breeze, but if you want to give it some extra oomph and tailor it to do more complex stuff, you might need to roll up your sleeves and get familiar with some programming. But don’t worry, a little coding can go a long way in making your bot truly yours.

Price:

Telegram Bots is free.

Botkit

Botkit is like a toolbox for anyone wanting to build chatbots. It’s a piece of the Microsoft Bot Framework and is all about helping developers whip up bots, apps, and various integrations for popular messaging platforms such as Slack, Google Hangouts, Twilio, and Facebook Messenger.

What sets Botkit apart is its user-friendly approach. It’s designed to handle the complex bits of messaging APIs, allowing developers to focus on crafting their bot’s personality and capabilities. This means less time fussing over technical details and more time bringing creative ideas to life.

When you create a bot with Botkit, you’re equipping it with the conversational chops that mimic human interaction. Your bot will be able to ‘listen’ to users, ‘say’ things in return, and ‘reply’ to keep the conversation flowing.

This trio of skills enables developers to create bots that are not just functional but also engaging, capable of handling a chat as smoothly as a human would.

Price:

Telegram Bots is free.