Big and small businesses are using free chatbot platforms to engage customers in new and superior ways.
In the beginning, businesses used chatbots for customer support only. However, they later expanded into other areas, such as marketing and sales. Also, recently there is a surge of interest in using them for self-service applications.
Chatbots are excellent to give your customers the capability of getting things done. For instance, they can help you book a hotel, buy groceries or ask about an insurance plan.
Thanks to the new emerging code-free platforms, creating chatbots is easier than ever. Chatbot tools and resources come with drag-and-drop functionality meant for non-tech professionals. As a result, you can create a chatbot in minutes.
You’ve seen these cool web chatbots and also want one for your website or Facebook page? However, you don’t know where to start.
Read on, and we will show you 10 free Chatbot platforms for superior customer engagement.
AI-powered and Scripted Chatbots
Chatbots are computer programs capable of making conversations with humans over the internet. Most times, you can interact with them via apps such as Facebook Messenger.
For more about what is and for what you can use a Chatbot, see our articles about:
- Chatbots for ecommerce and how they can get you more sales.
- Ecommerce Chatbots: 10 Ways to Bring Fantastic Shopping Experiences.
Before we go into our list of 10 Free Chatbot platforms, you should know that there are two types: AI-powered and Scripted.
AI Chatbots use Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing technologies; they can self-learn and emulate human interaction. However, they cost time and money to develop and don’t always get all things right.
In comparison, Scripted Chatbots are easy to develop and thus cost-effective. Think of them as guided conversations where the bot asks some questions and displays choices for answers. After that, depending on your response, the Chatbot displays different sets of messages.
You can personalize and launch scripted bots on many Free Chatbot platforms in minutes.
In our 10 entries about Free Chatbot Platforms, we included examples of both AI and Scripted Chatbots.
10 Free Chatbot Platforms for Superior Customer Engagement
Full disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.
Free Chatbot Platforms for Facebook
With 2.9 billion monthly active users, 80% Open Rate and 13% Click Through Rate, there is much focus on Facebook Messenger Chatbots.
The following 3 entries are tools designed to build Facebook Messenger Chatbots only.
1. – Mobile Monkey
Mobile Monkey is a Chatbot platform for Facebook Messenger Marketing. Above all, its focus is to help you build chatbots that convert visitors into leads.
Some of the features of Mobile Monkey are:
- You can send notifications, updates and promos on Facebook Messenger.
- Click-to-Messenger Facebook Ads with lead capture and follow-up.
- Unlimited pages, user administration and analytics for teams.
- WordPress plugin to integrate Facebook Messenger chatbots with your WordPress site.
- Artificial Intelligence that matches content to intent via keywords and interactions.
- Run contests, promotions and quizzes with Facebook post autoresponders.
- Take over with live chat when your customers need to talk with a live agent.
- Lead-qualifying user flows with app integrations and conversion tracking.
- Ask questions to learn about leads and see if you’re a good fit.
- Connect your business systems — CRM, email, webinar, order fulfillment and more.
- Pre-made chatbots for many business verticals, some examples are:
- Real Estate Bot.
- Lead Generation Bot.
- E-commerce Chatbot.
- Beauty Salon Bot.
- Auto Repair Shop Bot.
- Gym Bot.
- Personal Coach Bot.
- Restaurant Bot.
- Podcast Promotion Bot.
- Marketing Agency Bot.
Mobile Monkey has a free plan with unlimited bots, messages, lead magnets and Facebook pages. On the other hand, paid plans start from 49 $ a month and include extra features. Scheduled broadcast and drip campaigns are some of those additional features.
Check out their website for more information.
2. – Chatfuel
Chatfuel is one of the most mentioned and recognized platforms to build chatbots for Facebook Messenger. Moreover, being one of the earliest bot builder platforms, it has grown to provide an extensive functionality range. It has also enabled them to acquire a significant number of subscribers, teams and investors.
Chatfuel Features
- Started and still support Telegram, but then focused on Facebook Messenger.
- Let you build Chatbots using a drag and drop user-friendly interface; zero coding experience requires. Furthermore, it organizes content in blocks, which can contain messages, images and videos. You can link together and reuse blocks.
- Support message sequences, campaigns and broadcasts to a filtered list of subscribers.
- Supports payment via Facebook native payment (US-only) for Chatbots for ecommerce. Also, it can process payments with Stripe in countries where it is available.
- Has AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities. Such as responding to keywords, questions, and random responses.
- Support many languages for its Natural Language Processor. It includes English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Hindi, Chinese, and many more.
- Marketing tools to promote your Chatbot via button creator, landing pages and comments on Facebook posts.
- Analytics dashboard with stats on messages and subscribers.
- Integration with JSON to send and get data from other platforms or tools. Also, it integrates with Google site search, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, WordPress and many more via Zapier.
- Free templates to quickly start your Chatbot.
Chatfuel has a free version that gives you access to almost every feature for up to 5.000 subscribers. However, users will see the Chatfuel branding on your bot. So, to remove branding, you’ll need to upgrade to the paid Pro Plan.
On pro plans, monthly prices increase according to the number of reachable users allowed.
Want to know more about Chatfuel? Check out their website.
3. – Manychat
Manychat is a visual chatbot builder for Facebook Messenger. It supports message broadcasts, analytics, scheduled postings and many other features.
One of its features is a user-friendly visual interface. Consequently, you can build Chatbots by dragging and dropping message flows and establishing sequences. Here’s an example of ManyChat’s graphical interface:
Some other features of ManyChat are:
- Let you set up broadcasts and campaigns for your chatbot subscribers.
- Supports payment via Facebook Messenger.
- Can send images, video, audio, attached files, buttons, lists, emojis and others.
- Has AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities. As a result, can respond to keywords, questions and give random responses.
- Features an audience dashboard where you can view profiles of users. In the Dashboard, you can see how they opted in when they joined and in which sequences they are enrolled.
- Analytics reports keeping track of clicks and subscriber actions.
- Forms to collect information for your subscribers (Instead of using web forms).
- Integration with Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Also, ManyChat features integration with many other applications through Zapier.
- Free templates to get you started.
ManyChat has a Free Basic Plan with limited features and the ManyChat branding is included in menus and promotional tools. In contrast, Pro plans start from 10$ a month with 500 subscribers. Furthermore, with a Pro Plan, you will get access to extra features and remove the ManyChat branding.
For more information about features and plans, visit the Manychat website.
Completely Free Chatbot Platforms
4. – Gobot
Gobot is a Chatbot platform focused on conversational marketing and lead generation. It lets you build chatbots that engage visitors 24/7, ask qualifying questions, provide helpful content, book meetings and more.
Gobot chatbots are not only thought to interact with customers but to assist your live reps as well. Therefore, they can handle repetitive tasks, allowing your agents to focus on the questions that matter.
Gobot Features
- Automatically qualify leads on your website, 24/7, 365.
- Route chats to the right live rep at the right time. Likewise, schedule qualified meetings without using email.
- Let your visitors conversationally shop in your online store. Moreover, help them find the right products, prevent cart abandonment, up and cross-sell.
- Build chatbots using an easy-to-use interface that allows you to define targeted triggers, 20+ message types, smart branching and more.
- 100+ Ready to use chatbot templates for a quick start.
- Conversational landing pages.
- Personalized email sequences.
- Analytics and reporting.
- Integrations with SalesForce, Hubspot, Zapier and more.
Gobot lets you build chatbot in minutes using its intuitive user interface. Here is an example:
Gobot also allows you to make customer service chatbots; some of its features are:
- Create, organize and publish help articles.
- Track interactions with your help content.
- Customize brand color, customer language and more.
- Automate actions on behalf of your live reps.
At the time of this writing, Gobot is free. They have paid plans in the works they will introduce; nonetheless, they will continue offering a superb zero-cost option.
Visit the Gobot website for more information.
5. – Snatchbot
Snatchbot is a chatbot platform with an intuitive interface that supports many channels. At the time of this writing, Snatchbot is free to use, although they recently introduced a paid pro version.
Some of the features of Snatchbot are:
- Complete platform as a service (PaaS) that allows you to design, test and launch your bots. As a result, you don’t need to develop a costly in-house infrastructure.
- Both automated and human hybrid chatbots: No coding skills required.
- Design simple or multiple-choice conversations. Furthermore, add action buttons, payment collection, translations and more.
- Multi-channel support: You can publish your bots on mobile devices, web apps, and chat services. Supports Facebook Messenger, Telegram, LINE, SnatchApp and more.
- The platform includes a variety of pre-built bots that can help you get started fast. They cover functions such as customer service, banking, travel, healthcare, and ecommerce chatbots.
- Supports Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing to develop true AI-powered Chatbots.
Snatchbot is free, with unlimited bots, messages, and support. A pro plan is available starting at 30$.
Check out the Snatchbot website for more information about its features.
Free Chatbot Platforms for Websites and Other Channels
6. – IBM Watson Assistant
Watson Assistant is the solution from IBM to build enterprise, AI-powered chatbots. With Watson Assistant, you make chatbots by defining intents, entities and then giving examples of each. Then, you launch your bot and further train it by giving it examples from real users and correcting any misidentified intents or entities.
Watson Assistant chatbots are AI-powered and use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand user intent.
IBM Watson Assistant Features
Here are some of the features of IBM Watson Assistant:
- Watson Assistant interface is not complicated, with generated suggestions and industry-specific content. Moreover, you can program intents, entities and dialog in minutes.
- You can test your chatbots, refining your product before delivering it to users.
- Let developers build conversational interfaces in mobile applications, customer service tools and websites. For example, one of IBM’s plugins allows for easy integration with WordPress.
- Supports over thirteen languages.
- Watson Assistant knows when it is the moment to transfer the conversation to a live rep.
- Can store conversations and learn from them to further personalize the interaction experience.
- Analytics dashboard and conversation logs to help visualize trends.
IBM Watson Assistant features a free plan that allows 10.000 Application Program Interface (API) calls per month, five chatbots, 100 intents and 25 entities. On the other hand, Paid options start at $0.0025 per call; you can create up to 20 chatbots, 2.000 intents and 1.000 entities. Furthermore, if your needs exceed those, they offer a “premium” plan.
For more information, visit the Watson Assistant website.
Follow this link if you are looking for a full review of Watson Assistant.
7. – Flow Xo
Flow XO is a platform to create, manage and publish chatbots that require no coding skills. It integrates with many messaging platforms, your website and even other applications. Besides, users can share your bot with others.
Flow XO features are:
- Supports many channels, including Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, Twilio and websites.
- With Flow XO, you develop chatbots by defining workflows in a code-free environment. Workflows control what happens when a user interacts with your bot. Further, you can listen to particular keywords and respond with text, links, images, payment requests and more.
- Customers can engage with you across many platforms. Their first conversation may be through your website, but they might want to use Facebook Messenger as the dialogue continues.
Flow XO has a free plan limited to 500 interactions; you can build up to five different bots. In contrast, paid options start with 5.000 messages and 15 bots for $19 a month.
Visit their website for information about features and plans.
Free chatbot platforms that require programming skills
On our last 3 entries, we show you three chatbot free platforms aimed at a more technically savvy audience. You will need programming skills to develop chatbots for these platforms. Nevertheless, you will gain much in the way of flexibility.
8. – Microsoft Bot Framework
Microsoft Bot Framework is a chatbot platform focused on developers. You need technical skills, but you gain more control over the conversational experience you provide.
Some of its features are:
Open Source Software Development Kits (SDK)
SDK and tools to build, test and connect bots. The framework includes:
- Bot Builder SDK: Open source SDK for .NET and Node.js.
- Bot Connector services: REST interface to make use of different messaging platforms.
- Bot Framework emulator: To test your bot before launch.
- Natural Language Understanding Service: Semantic parsing functionality.
- Bot Service: For deploying bots on Microsoft Azure.
Other Features
- Integration with Azure Cognitive Services, which gives your bot AI capabilities. Therefore, your bots will be able to speak, listen, understand and learn from your users.
- You can build bots of different complexity levels, including questions, answers and virtual assistant bots.
- Microsoft provides template bots to get you started.
- You can host bots on Microsoft Azure or other cloud services like Amazon Web Services.
- You can deploy server-less bots, which is excellent for keeping costs down when developing experimental or practice bots.
Most of the components of Microsoft’s framework can be downloaded for free. The highest cost is for hosting, whether on Azure or another platform. Moreover, the cloud component is free for standard channels, including Facebook Messenger, Slack, Skype and Cortana. For “premium channels,” which include webchat, the cost is $0.52 per 1.000 messages.
Visit the Microsoft website for more about Microsoft Bot Framework.
9. – Wit.AI
Wit.AI is a free chatbot tool that enables developers to build applications to which users can text or talk. Above all, at its core, wit.AI features a Natural Language Platform (NLP).
Wit.AI is not code-free; you will need a team of computer specialists to leverage the most out of it. Even so, you will build bots that understand commands, comments and questions.
- Are you looking to develop the next voice-enabled mobile app? Do you build AI-powered consumer products? Then Wit.AI might be for you.
- Here
are some of the features of Wit.AI:
- Ability to learn human language and interaction.
- Enables developers to create text or voice bots.
- Allow developers to build a voice interface for any app.
- Developers can build home automation applications enabled by voice.
- Applicability for developing voice interfaces for wearables.
Visit the Wit.AI website for more information.
10. – Botkit
Botkit is a Node JS chatbot open-source framework for developers to run chatbots with Slack or Facebook Messenger services. You can add your integrations with any app you want.
If you are a tech company developing chatbots, Botkit might be a good fit for your needs.
Some of the features of Botkit are:
- Chatbot Open Source Platform with a large and helpful community.
- Framework for sending and receiving messages, calling application program interfaces (API) and running custom code.
- You can bring in any Natural Language Processing (NLP) service you want.
- Support many integrations, including Facebook Messenger, Twilio, Facebook for Work, Microsoft Team, Slack, Cisco Spark and Web Chat. You can add your own.
- Provide starter kits to get you up and running.
Follow this link and check out Botkit’s features.
Choose a Free Chatbot Platform for Superior Customer Engagement
Most of the free chatbots platforms that we have shown in this list don’t need programming skills. As a result, being non-technical is no longer a barrier to creating and building chatbots fast.
If you are looking for no-code platforms, try Gobot or Snatchbot. Focusing on Facebook Messenger, Chatfuel, Manychat and Mobile Monkey are excellent choices. For other channels, pick Watson Assistant or Flow XO. On the other hand, if you are a developer and want more control, Microsoft Bot Framework, Wit.AI or Botkit might be a good fit.
Take action now, pick a free chatbot platform and begin integrating Artificial Intelligence technologies into your business.
For more on Chatbots, check out our posts about:
- Chatbots for ecommerce and how they can get you more sales.
- Ecommerce Chatbots: 10 Ways to Bring Fantastic Shopping Experiences.
What do you think about chatbots and how they can help businesses of every size? Which free chatbot platform would you recommend and why? Leave a comment below.
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Reference
Chatbottech reviews. IBM Watson Assistant is not too shabby.
Chatbottech reviews. A Review of the Microsoft Bot Framework.
Church, Jon. Picking a Chatbot Framework: Botkit vs. Microsoft Bot Builder.
Customersadvocate.org. IBM Watson API Chatbot Review.
Koo, L. MobileMonkey Review: Makes Facebook Marketing Fun & Easy. Published in WPStarters.
Tran, Dana. ManyChat vs Chatfuel. An In-Depth Review & Comparison. Published in ThinkTuitive.