8 Best Chatbot Building Tools to Automate Customer Conversations in 2025

Chatbots have become essential for businesses of all sizes – from answering customer questions instantly to guiding shoppers through sales, they work 24/7 to enhance engagement. If you’re a beginner looking to build a chatbot, the good news is you don’t need to be a coder or AI expert. There are plenty of no-code chatbot builders that let you create conversational assistants easily.

In this list, we’ll explore 8 of the best chatbot building platforms available today. Each one offers a different mix of features – we’ll highlight important points like free plan availability, which channels (website, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.) they support, how easy their bot builder is, and more. By the end, you’ll have a clear picture of which chatbot tool fits your needs.

1. SendPulse

SendPulse stands out as an all-in-one chatbot and marketing platform that is very friendly for beginners. It supports multiple messaging channels (from social media apps to a website chat widget) and comes with a generous free plan, so you can start building and testing your chatbot without any upfront cost. SendPulse’s focus is on helping businesses automate customer engagement and boost sales through messaging – whether that’s answering FAQs instantly or sending product recommendations in chat.

With a visual flow builder and lots of pre-built templates, even non-technical users can quickly create interactive chat experiences across channels. Below are some of SendPulse’s key features and what they mean for you as a new chatbot creator:

Free Plan & Pricing: SendPulse offers a free plan that supports up to 3 chatbots, 500 subscribers, and 10,000 messages per month. This is plenty for a new project, allowing you to learn and engage users before upgrading. Paid plans are affordably priced (starting around $8 per month) for when you need to reach a larger audience.
Primary Marketing Focus: The platform focuses on automating customer engagement and sales via messaging. In practice, this means SendPulse is built to help you reply to customers 24/7, send product catalogs or recommendations in chat, and nurture leads – all through interactive conversations. It’s a great fit if you want to increase sales or provide constant support without hiring a big support team.
Website Chat Widget – SendPulse lets you easily embed a chat widget on your website to capture visitors’ questions or leads. With just a few clicks, you can set up a chatbot to greet visitors on your site, answer common questions, and direct them to products or contact forms. This helps turn your website traffic into engaged conversations.
Instagram (DM & Comments): SendPulse’s Instagram chatbot can automatically reply to direct messages, post comments, and even story mentions. For example, if someone comments on your Instagram post, the bot can instantly send them a DM to continue the conversation.
WhatsApp Business API Support: SendPulse is an official WhatsApp Business API In simple terms, this means you can connect an official WhatsApp Business number and create chatflows on WhatsApp. SendPulse enables you to send templated messages (like order updates or promotions) through WhatsApp in a compliant way, reaching customers on the world’s most popular messaging app.
Facebook Messenger Support: SendPulse fully supports Facebook Messenger chatbots. You can create a Messenger bot for your Facebook Page to respond to inquiries, send updates, or even run Messenger marketing campaigns. Because SendPulse is multichannel, the same platform also covers Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, and more – but Messenger remains a core channel it supports.
Rich UI Elements: SendPulse supports rich message elements like quick-reply buttons, carousels, and product cards in your chat flows. This allows you to build interactive chats – for instance, showing a carousel of products with images and “Buy now” buttons, or offering predefined quick replies that users can tap instead of typing.
Broadcast Messaging: You can send broadcast messages to all or segments of your subscribers on supported channels, in a way that stays compliant with each channel’s rules. SendPulse’s broadcasting tools let you filter your audience (for example, message only users who interacted in the last 24 hours on Messenger for free-form promos, or use WhatsApp template messages for wider outreach).
Segmentation: SendPulse includes advanced audience segmentation across channels. You can group your contacts by attributes or behavior – for example, tag subscribers by interest or purchase history – and then target specific segments with tailored messages.
Event-Based Triggers: You can set up automated flows that trigger on specific events like a website visit, a cart abandonment, or a completed purchase. For instance, if a customer adds an item to their cart but doesn’t check out, SendPulse can automatically send a reminder message or discount.
Visual Flow Builder: SendPulse offers a drag-and-drop visual flow builder to design your chatbot conversations. It’s intuitive – you simply place blocks for messages, questions, actions, and connect them with arrows to set the conversation path. You can incorporate conditions (if/else logic), loops, or redirects between blocks, and even set goal tracking in the flow.
Template Library: There is a built-in library of pre-made chatbot templates for various industries and channels. Even on the free plan, you can browse SendPulse’s templates (for example, an FAQ bot, an e-commerce product recommendation bot, etc.) and install one to get a head start.
Unified Inbox: SendPulse provides a unified inbox that combines all your bot and live chats across different channels. In practice, this means your team can see messages from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, your website, etc., all in one place. If a conversation needs human attention, a live agent can jump in via this inbox. It ensures you never miss a customer message and can manage all chats without juggling multiple apps.

2. Tidio

Tidio is well-known for combining live chat and chatbots in one platform, which makes it a popular choice for small businesses starting with customer chat. This platform is quite beginner-friendly: it offers a free plan to get started, an intuitive chatbot editor, and it integrates chatbot automation with live chat so you can have a bot answer common questions and a human take over when needed. Tidio’s primary focus is customer service and lead generation on your website, but it also ties in multiple channels (like email, Messenger, and even Instagram DMs to an extent) into one inbox. Here’s what Tidio has to offer:

Free Plan & Pricing: Tidio has a free plan, which includes basic live chat for up to 50 live chat conversations per month, and a limited number of chatbot interactions (e.g. 50 AI bot answers and 100 chatbot triggers for visitors). This free tier also lets you send up to 500 emails per month, integrating basic email marketing. Paid plans start at $29/month (with higher tiers for larger volumes and advanced features).
Primary Marketing Focus: Tidio emphasizes customer service automation and boosting sales. It’s designed to help answer FAQs, assist customers in real time, and capture leads on your site. It even includes some email marketing features to re-engage visitors.
Website Chat Widget: Tidio provides a customizable live chat widget that you can embed on your website. This widget supports both live human chat and automated chatbot greetings. For example, you can set a chatbot to greet visitors with “Hi, how can I help?” and either answer common questions or pass the chat to a human operator. The widget can be styled to match your site, and it’s mobile-friendly.
Instagram (DM & Comments): Tidio offers a Multichannel Inbox that can integrate Instagram Direct Messages into your support inbox. This means you can read and reply to IG DMs from the Tidio interface. However, it lacks features for automatically replying to Instagram comments or setting up Instagram chatbot flows. So, you can manage conversations from Instagram in Tidio, but it’s not as full-fledged an Instagram bot platform as some others (no automated comment-to-DM trigger, for instance).
WhatsApp Business API Support: Tidio has native integration for WhatsApp. You can connect your WhatsApp Business account so that WhatsApp messages appear in Tidio’s inbox. While it’s not an official BSP itself, Tidio lets you handle WhatsApp chats.
Facebook Messenger Support: You can integrate a Facebook Messenger bot with Tidio. This allows your Facebook Page messages to be managed through Tidio, and you can even automate some Messenger responses with Tidio’s chatbot flows.
Rich UI Elements: Tidio’s bots can use rich elements like quick reply buttons, cards/carousels with images and buttons, etc., especially on channels that support them (like Messenger). In the website chat, you can use things like clickable buttons and collect user input through forms.
Broadcast Messaging: Tidio is not built for mass broadcasting to subscribers in the way dedicated marketing chatbots are. Its focus is more on one-on-one live or automated chats initiated by the user (or triggered by their actions on the site).
Segmentation: Tidio lets you tag and segment your contacts or site visitors. For example, you might tag users who used the chat to ask about pricing as “Interested in Pricing,” and later you could filter to engage those users differently. These tags/segments can be used for targeting proactive chats or sending follow-up emails.
Event-Based Triggers: Tidio chatbots can be triggered by certain user actions or e-commerce events. There are built-in triggers like “when a user visits a specific page,” “when cart value is above $X,” or “on exit intent” (when a user is about to leave the site). With Shopify or other e-commerce integration, you can set a chatbot flow to trigger on events like an abandoned cart (e.g. after a product is added to cart and not purchased, a chatbot can pop up asking if the user needs help).
Visual Flow Builder: Tidio offers a user-friendly visual workflow builder for chatbots. You create chatbot flows by dragging triggers and actions onto a canvas and connecting them. For example, you can visually map out: “If the user clicks button A, send message X; if they click button B, send message Y.” It supports conditional logic and integrations (like adding people to your mailing list).
Template Library: Tidio provides a set of pre-built chatbot templates categorized by use-case (like Sales, Lead Generation, Customer Support). You can choose a template such as “Discount Offer Bot” or “FAQ Answer Bot,” and then customize its content.
Unified Inbox: One of Tidio’s strengths is the unified inbox for all communications. Your live chat, chatbot conversations, emails, Facebook Messenger messages, and Instagram DMs can all appear in one dashboard. This means you (and your team) don’t have to constantly switch channels – you respond to everything from Tidio. If a bot is handling a chat and the user needs human help, your team sees it and can jump in seamlessly.

3. User.com

User.com is an all-in-one marketing automation and CRM platform that includes chatbot functionality as part of its toolkit. For a beginner, it might feel overwhelming, but it can be very powerful if you want a single platform to manage all customer interactions. User.com offers a chatbot builder for web and Messenger, but its real strength lies in how those bots integrate with other channels (email, SMS, push notifications) and a unified customer database. If you’re looking for a multi-channel marketing hub that also lets you build chatbots, User.com could be the choice. Let’s look at its features:

Free Plan & Trial:com offers a 14-day free trial for new users. It also offers a free tier with limited contacts and features, making it ideal for trying out the system. The Basic Plan costs $60/month for small teams.
Primary Marketing Focus:com’s focus is on personalized, multi-channel communication to convert and retain customers. It’s positioned as a unified automation platform – you can send targeted emails, show pop-ups, push notifications, and use chat (bots or live), all based on user behavior tracked in one CRM.
Website Chat Widget:com provides a customizable chat widget for your website. This widget can serve both as a live chat window and a chatbot interface. You can design a bot to greet visitors or collect info initially, and then route to a human agent if needed. The widget can be styled to match your branding. Having it as part of User.com means the chat can also pull in data from the user’s profile (if known) to personalize conversations.
Instagram (DM & Comments): Instagram is not currently a native channel in User.com. The platform supports email, live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, but it doesn’t list Instagram integration.
WhatsApp Business API Support:com has a native WhatsApp integration. You can connect through the WhatsApp Business API to send and receive WhatsApp messages on the platform. This allows you to create WhatsApp drip campaigns or support chats, all managed from User.com’s interface.
Facebook Messenger Support:com allows you to connect a Facebook Page and manage Messenger conversations. Incoming Messenger chats can appear in the User.com inbox, and you can set up basic chatbot flows on Messenger as part of your automation workflows.
Rich UI Elements:com’s chatbots can utilize rich elements, particularly in the web chat widget (such as quick reply buttons, forms, and images). However, it might not support all the fancy carousel or card templates that, say, Facebook Messenger offers. For Messenger bots through User.com, you can certainly send text and images, and possibly quick replies, but advanced gallery cards or product templates may not be fully available.
Broadcast Messaging:com supports broadcasting, but its focus is on email, SMS, or on-site messages rather than mass blasts via Messenger. You can create segments and send email newsletters or push notifications to them. For chat specifically, you might use WhatsApp templates or SMS for broadcasts, but Messenger broadcasting isn’t a highlighted feature here (especially with Facebook’s restrictions).
Segmentation: You can create dynamic segments based on user attributes and behavior (e.g. segment users who viewed a certain page or clicked a certain email). These segments update automatically as users meet the criteria. In terms of chat, this means you could have segments like “Chatted with bot and is VIP customer” and target them differently. Segmentation in User.com spans all data (CRM data, events, tags), which is powerful for personalization.
Event-Based Triggers:com workflows can start from various events or user behaviors. For example, if a user signs up on your site, views a product, or triggers a custom event (like “Demo Requested”), you can have an automated flow start – that could involve sending a chat message, an email, adding a tag, etc. For an e-commerce scenario, if a user makes a purchase, you might trigger a thank-you chat or a cross-sell message the next time they visit the site.
Visual Flow Builder:com provides a visual drag-and-drop builder for automation flows, which includes chatbots. This builder is quite powerful – you can mix chat actions with other actions (send email, add to list, wait X days, etc.) in one flowchart-like interface. You place nodes for triggers, conditions, messages, and connect them in sequence.
Template Library: It offers some ready-to-use templates for chat scenarios. These might include basic flows like a lead capture bot or FAQ bot. While not as extensive as some dedicated bot platforms, these templates provide a starting point that you can customize.
Unified Inbox:com has a unified “Sales Inbox” where all conversations from various channels come together. Your team can respond to website chats, in-app messages, emails, and even Messenger messages from this one inbox. So if a user first chatted on your site and later replied to an email, you’d see both interactions threaded for that user.

4. ManyChat

ManyChat is one of the most popular chatbot builders, especially known for its Facebook Messenger and Instagram bots. If you’ve heard the phrase “Chat Marketing,” ManyChat pretty much coined it – they focus on using chatbots for marketing, sales, and customer follow-up on social media channels. For beginners, ManyChat is appealing due to its free plan, large community, and intuitive visual flow builder. It’s built with non-technical users in mind, and it shines if you’re looking to grow your audience on Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp with interactive campaigns (like comment-to-message funnels, promotional broadcasts, etc.). Let’s break down ManyChat’s key features:

Free Plan & Pricing: ManyChat offers a free plan for up to 1,000 contacts, which is generous for getting started. This free tier gives you core chatbot features on Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp (with some limitations on advanced features). The Pro plan starts at $15/month for 1,000 contacts (and scales with your audience size). They also provide a 14-day free trial of Pro features, allowing you to test advanced targeting and analytics.
Primary Marketing Focus: ManyChat specializes in marketing and sales automation through chat. It’s designed for use cases like converting commenters to subscribers (e.g. “comment ‘INFO’ to get a DM”), sending drip campaigns in Messenger/Instagram, recovering abandoned carts via messages, etc.. If your goal is to drive sales or engage prospects on social media, ManyChat’s feature set (growth tools, broadcasting, etc.) is built for that. It’s less about pure Q&A and more about interactive marketing.
Website Chat Widget: ManyChat’s focus is on Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp rather than a native web chat widget. You can embed a Messenger chat plugin on your site through ManyChat (which essentially opens Messenger on your website), but ManyChat doesn’t have its own independent web chatbot widget.
Instagram (DM & Comments): ManyChat is an official Instagram partner and has excellent support for Instagram automation. You can set your ManyChat bot to automatically respond to Instagram Direct Messages.
WhatsApp Business API Support: ManyChat is an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider as well. This means you can connect your WhatsApp Business API number and build WhatsApp chatbots with ManyChat. You’ll be able to send WhatsApp Template Messages (pre-approved messages for things like alerts, promotions) via ManyChat to users who opt in, and handle inbound WhatsApp messages too.
Facebook Messenger Support: Messenger is ManyChat’s original and core channel. ManyChat started as a Facebook Messenger bot platform and is an official Meta Business Partner. You can build rich Messenger bots with it, and use all of Messenger’s features (quick replies, galleries, etc.). ManyChat also provides various growth tools for Messenger – like landing page opt-ins, Messenger referral links, and customer chat plugins – to help you attract Messenger subscribers from your website or ads.
Rich UI Elements: ManyChat fully supports rich media and UI elements in chats. On Messenger and Instagram, you can use quick reply buttons, carousel cards (swipeable product cards with images and buttons), list layouts, etc. ManyChat’s flow builder makes it easy to include these: for example, you can create a carousel of products fetched from Shopify, or present quick replies like “Yes/No” for a question.
Broadcast Messaging: ManyChat is built with broadcasting in mind, but always in a channel-compliant way. On Messenger/Instagram, that means you can broadcast to segments of subscribers as long as you follow the 24-hour rule or have the proper tags (for sending updates after 24 hours). ManyChat helps manage this by allowing “Promotional” broadcasts only to those active in the last 24h, and “Subscription” or tagged broadcasts for others (e.g., One-Time Notification or event reminder tags). On WhatsApp, you can broadcast via template messages to all opted-in users.
Segmentation: ManyChat provides robust segmentation tools using tags, custom fields, and conditions. You can tag users based on their interactions (like clicking a certain button, expressing interest in X product, etc.), or store attributes (like their location, or responses to questions). Later, you can filter your audience by these tags/fields to send targeted broadcasts or to have parts of your chatbot flows only activated for certain segments.
Event-Based Triggers: ManyChat flows can be triggered by a variety of events and integrations. For instance, ManyChat integrates with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, so you can automatically trigger an “Abandoned Cart” message sequence if someone leaves items in their cart without buying. Other triggers could be a user subscribing, clicking a certain link, or even commenting on a social post.
Visual Flow Builder: ManyChat’s visual flow builder is often praised for its ease of use and power. You build conversations on a drag-and-drop canvas, connecting message nodes and decision points. The interface is clean and lets you see the entire conversation structure. You can branch into different paths with condition nodes (for example, if the user’s answer = X, go down this path; if Y, go down another path), and even loop or reconnect flows using “Go to” actions.
Template Library: ManyChat offers a large template library where you can find pre-built “bot templates” for various industries and use cases. For example, you might find a template for a Restaurant Booking Bot, an E-commerce Product Recommendation Bot, or an Event Registration Bot. With one click, you can install a template, which populates a ready-made flow in your account; then you just tweak the content.
Unified Inbox: ManyChat provides a unified Live Chat inbox where you can monitor and respond to incoming messages from different channels. Through the ManyChat dashboard (or mobile app), you can see conversations from Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and even SMS in one place. If your bot hands it off to a human or if someone types “agent”, you’ll get the message in this inbox and can jump in.

5. Outgrow

Outgrow takes a unique spin on chatbots – it’s not just a chatbot builder, but a platform for creating interactive content like quizzes, calculators, polls, and chatbot-style lead forms. The idea is to engage users with something interactive (for example, a quiz that recommends a product, or a chatbot that asks a series of questions to provide a personalized result). For a beginner, Outgrow can be appealing if you want a chatbot that feels more like an interactive quiz or survey on your website to generate leads. It may not cover messaging apps like Messenger or WhatsApp at all; instead, it shines on websites and landing pages as a lead gen tool. Here are Outgrow’s main features and limitations:

Free Plan & Trial: Outgrow doesn’t offer a permanent free tier beyond a 14-day free trial. During the trial, you can try all features. After that, plans start around ~$22/month for a Freelancer plan (with basic features and lower content limits) and go up steeply for business plans with more traffic and content pieces.
Primary Marketing Focus: Outgrow is primarily focused on engaging users and generating leads through interactive experiences. Instead of static forms, you use quizzes or chatbot-like flows to collect data. For example, an e-commerce site might use Outgrow to create a “Product Finder Chatbot” that asks a few questions and then recommends a product, capturing the user’s email at the end for the results.
Website Chat Widget: Outgrow allows you to create chat-style widgets that you can embed on your website. These are often conversational forms or quizzes that appear as a chat window. You design the questions and logic, and then embed the snippet on your site or have it as a standalone landing page.
Instagram (DM & Comments): Outgrow does not integrate with Instagram’s DM or comments at all. Its domain is on-site and standalone interactive content.
WhatsApp Business API Support: Outgrow does not support WhatsApp. There’s no feature for WhatsApp messaging or bots.
Facebook Messenger Support: Outgrow isn’t designed for Messenger or other messaging apps. You wouldn’t use Outgrow to build a Facebook Messenger bot; you’d use it to build a bot-like quiz that lives on a webpage.
Rich UI Elements: Supports interactive content on web – Outgrow’s chat experiences can include images, GIFs, and multiple-choice buttons for answers. But they don’t have “rich cards” in the Messenger sense, since it’s not in Messenger. Instead, think of it as a dynamic form – you can show an image or even a GIF in a question, have several buttons for choices, or input fields.
Broadcast Messaging: Outgrow does not have a concept of broadcasting messages to a list of subscribers. It’s not a subscriber messaging platform; rather, it’s content that users engage with on your site or via a link.
Segmentation: Outgrow collects responses when users interact with your quizzes or bots, but it doesn’t provide a robust segmentation system in-platform. You typically export or sync those leads to your CRM or email tool and segment them there. Within Outgrow, you can view analytics and results of a quiz, but you wouldn’t, for instance, create cohorts of users in Outgrow for targeted re-engagement (since re-engagement isn’t done in Outgrow itself).
Event-Based Triggers: Outgrow content doesn’t listen for external events like “cart abandoned” or “user visited page X” to start a chatbot. Instead, the chatbot/quiz starts when the user engages with it (like they land on the page or click the widget). Outgrow can’t automatically pop up based on complex conditions outside of what you manually set (you could manually embed a chatbot widget to appear after X seconds on a page, but it’s not deeply tied into e-commerce events, for example).
Visual Flow Builder: Outgrow provides a no-code, drag-and-drop builder to design your question flows. You create a series of questions (which can be text input, multiple choice, rating scales, etc.) and you can add branching logic based on answers.
Template Library: Outgrow offers a library of high-converting templates for different industries and use cases. These templates include things like Cost Calculator bots, Product Recommendation quizzes, or simple Q&A chat forms. They aren’t necessarily called “chatbot” templates, but they function similarly (a guided conversation).
Unified Inbox: Outgrow does not have a chat inbox for live conversations. The “chatbot” interactions are automated and one-off; there’s no feature for a human to take over in real time or to see all ongoing sessions (aside from analytics of completion rates).

6. Chatfuel

Chatfuel is known as one of the first big platforms for Facebook Messenger bots. It has since expanded to support Instagram and WhatsApp bots as well. If you’re looking to build a bot for Facebook or Instagram without coding, Chatfuel is a well-known option. It’s used by many marketers and businesses to handle FAQs, send updates, or even enable shopping via chat. For beginners, Chatfuel offers a free plan and a visual builder, and it’s geared towards marketing and customer support use cases (especially for e-commerce). Chatfuel also recently started integrating AI (with ChatGPT-based “AI Agents”), but its core is still the rule-based flows. Here’s what Chatfuel brings to the table:

Free Plan & Trial: Chatfuel offers a free trial and a free plan with basic functionality. The free plan typically has limitations, such as a cap on the number of subscribers or the inclusion of Chatfuel branding on your bot. Pro plans start around $24/month for Facebook/Instagram bots (up to ~1,000 conversations) and higher for WhatsApp (~$39/month, since WhatsApp costs more).
Primary Marketing Focus: Chatfuel’s focus is marketing & sales automation for businesses (especially e-commerce). It emphasizes helping increase revenue by automating tasks such as answering product questions, guiding shoppers through catalogs on Messenger/Instagram, and collecting leads.
Website Chat Widget: Chatfuel doesn’t have a standalone web chat widget of its own, but it allows you to embed a Facebook Messenger chat plugin on your website. This effectively lets visitors chat with your Facebook Messenger bot directly on your site. The upside is you unify web and Messenger (and users often log in via Facebook), but the downside is that it requires the user to use Messenger.
Instagram (DM & Comments): Chatfuel fully supports Instagram DM automation and comment triggers. As an official Instagram partner, you can use Chatfuel to create an IG bot that replies to direct messages and can automatically respond to story mentions or specific comments on your posts.
WhatsApp Business API Support: Chatfuel is an authorized WhatsApp Business Solution Provider and supports WhatsApp bots. You can connect an official WhatsApp number through Chatfuel and create automated flows for WhatsApp similar to what you’d do on Messenger.
Facebook Messenger Support: Chatfuel is one of the original Messenger bot platforms, and it excels at it. Building a Facebook Messenger chatbot is essentially what Chatfuel was built for. It supports all the native Messenger features (including things like persistent menus, which are the menu options in a Messenger chat). If you have a Facebook page and want a bot to handle the Messenger chat for that page, Chatfuel provides templates and easy tools to do so.
Rich UI Elements: Chatfuel supports rich UI elements on Messenger and Instagram, such as quick replies, carousel galleries, persistent menu, buttons, etc.. In the Chatfuel flow editor, you can add these components to your messages. For instance, you might send a carousel of product images with “Buy” buttons beneath each, or use quick replies to let the user pick from predefined options.
Broadcast Messaging: Chatfuel allows you to send out broadcasts to your bot subscribers, with targeting and tags for compliance. You can filter who should receive the broadcast (like only users with a certain attribute), and Chatfuel helps enforce Facebook’s rules by, for example, only sending promotional broadcasts to users who interacted in the last 24 hours unless you have a proper tag/notification in place. For WhatsApp, you can send broadcast messages via templated messages to all subscribers (since WhatsApp requires templates for outbound).
Segmentation: Chatfuel enables segmentation of your audience using attributes (custom user fields). You can assign attributes to users (like “interested_in = shoes” or “customer_type = VIP”) during your bot flow, and later use those to create segments. In Chatfuel’s People tab, you can filter users by these attributes and even export lists or sync with Facebook Ads for lookalike audiences.
Event-Based Triggers: Out of the box, Chatfuel can trigger flows on certain in-chat events, like when a user says a specific keyword or clicks a certain button. For e-commerce events (like cart abandonment or purchase), Chatfuel provides integrations (e.g., a Shopify plugin) to trigger messages.
Visual Flow Builder: Chatfuel has a visual Flow Builder interface. In the past, Chatfuel was more “block” and menu-based, but now you can toggle to a canvas view where you drag blocks and connect them to map out the conversation. It’s not as flashy as some others, but it gets the job done: you create message blocks and decision points (like asking a question and branching based on the answer) on a drag-drop canvas. You can implement conditions (if/else logic) to handle different user responses.
Template Library: Chatfuel provides a library of bot templates for various purposes. When you create a new bot, you can choose from templates like “Customer Support Bot,” “Lead Generation Bot,” “E-commerce Product Catalog Bot,” etc. These templates come pre-configured with example flows and dialogs, which you can then modify.
Unified Inbox: Chatfuel offers a unified inbox (sometimes called Chatfuel’s Inbox or Live Chat) where your team can manage conversations from all channels connected. That means if you have Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp bots through Chatfuel, any time a user messages (and perhaps the bot hands over or the user requests human help), you will see those chats in one place. Your support agents can reply from that interface.

7. Botsonic

Botsonic is a newer entrant that rides the wave of AI-powered chatbots. Botsonic lets you create a ChatGPT-like AI chatbot trained on your own content (such as your website or knowledge base). In essence, you feed it information, and it generates answers to user questions using AI. This means it’s great for answering FAQs or providing support, without you writing every possible Q&A. For beginners, Botsonic offers a straightforward setup (no coding required; just provide content, and the AI handles the rest). However, it’s worth noting that it lacks the marketing broadcast features and multi-channel capabilities found in some other platforms. It’s mainly for an AI Q&A chatbot on your website. Here’s what you should know about Botsonic:

Free Plan & Trial: Botsonic offers a 7-day free trial. After that, their Starter plan is around $19/month, which usually allows 1 chatbot and up to 1,000 messages per month. Higher plans (e.g., ~$49/month) increase the number of bots and messages.
Primary Marketing Focus: Botsonic is geared towards customer engagement and support via AI-driven Q&A. If you have a lot of content (like product info, guides, FAQs), Botsonic’s AI can use that to answer user queries in a conversational way. It’s particularly useful for support (answering common questions) or as a website concierge (“Ask me anything about our services”).
Website Chat Widget: Botsonic provides an embeddable chat widget for your website. When users open it, they can ask questions, and the AI chatbot will respond (based on the knowledge you provided it). The widget is basically the interface for your AI bot on your site. So you can add a “Chat with us” or “Have questions? Ask our AI” type widget and engage visitors.
Instagram (DM & Comments): Botsonic does not support Instagram integration. It doesn’t handle Instagram DMs or comment replies.
WhatsApp Business API Support: There’s no WhatsApp support in Botsonic. It doesn’t connect to WhatsApp Business API or any phone messaging.
Facebook Messenger Support: Botsonic doesn’t create Messenger bots.
Rich UI Elements: Botsonic’s chat is primarily a text-based Q&A interface. It might support basic rich text or hyperlinks in responses, but you won’t get fancy buttons, quick replies, or carousel displays. The experience is typically: user asks a question in text, and the AI answers in text (sometimes with a link to the source of info if that feature is on).
Broadcast Messaging: Botsonic cannot initiate outbound messages or broadcasts. It’s a reactive chatbot: it answers when asked.
Segmentation: Botsonic isn’t a marketing platform, so it doesn’t have user segmentation features.
Event-Based Triggers: The Botsonic chatbot doesn’t hook into external events like “user did X” triggers. It’s not a workflow tool; it won’t, for instance, automatically message someone who abandoned a cart. It only responds when a user interacts with it. Any triggers would have to be custom-coded outside Botsonic to open the widget or prompt the user.
Visual Flow Builder: Botsonic does not use a flow builder at all. There are no decision trees to design. Instead, you “train” the bot by providing it with content (like uploading PDFs, linking your FAQ page, etc.), and the AI handles the conversation dynamically. So, there’s no drag-and-drop editor, no predefined paths.
Template Library: Since Botsonic doesn’t use scripted flows, there aren’t traditional “templates” for bots. Every bot has a similar structure (an AI assistant) with varying levels of knowledge.
Unified Inbox: Botsonic by itself doesn’t provide a dashboard for humans to jump into conversations in real-time. It’s meant to be an automated self-serve Q&A. If a user needs further help, Botsonic has some integrations (like sending the conversation to a helpdesk or handing off to a live chat system), but Botsonic doesn’t offer a built-in live agent console.

8. Flow XO

Flow XO is a platform that’s been around for a while, offering a flexible, integration-friendly chatbot builder. Although it may not be as flashy in marketing as some newer tools, it’s quite capable of building bots for various channels, including web, Messenger, Telegram, SMS, etc. For beginners, Flow XO offers a free tier and a straightforward visual editor for creating chat flows. It’s known for being good at connecting with other apps via webhooks and integrations, which is great if you have to tie your bot into external systems. Flow XO doesn’t heavily emphasize any single channel or use-case; it’s a general-purpose bot builder with a bit of everything. Let’s go through Flow XO’s features:

Free Plan & Pricing: Flow XO offers a Free Forever plan, which includes 5 bots or active flows and up to 100 interactions per month. An “interaction” is basically one user message or one action, so 100 isn’t a lot, but it’s enough to test out on a small scale. They also provide a 14-day free trial of paid features. The Standard plan is $25/month for 5,000 interactions and up to 15 bots, with options to buy add-ons for more capacity.
Primary Marketing Focus: Flow XO is a general-purpose, often used by small businesses for a variety of needs. It doesn’t position itself strongly as a marketing or sales tool; rather, you can use it for customer support, answering FAQs, lead collection, or simple workflow automation. People like it for its integration options – you can connect your bot to Google Sheets, CRM systems, etc., which is useful for many scenarios.
Website Chat Widget: Flow XO supports embedding chatbots on websites. You can create a chatbot and then generate an embed code to put a chat widget on your site. This way, visitors can interact with your bot directly on your homepage or wherever you install it.
Instagram (DM & Comments): Flow XO does not have integration with Instagram for DMs or comment triggers. It focuses on channels like your website, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Slack, and SMS. Instagram automation isn’t available here.
WhatsApp Business API Support: Flow XO doesn’t natively support WhatsApp Business API. If you’re determined, you could use a custom API call in Flow XO to send WhatsApp via a third-party, but that’s not out of the box.
Facebook Messenger Support: Flow XO supports creating bots for Facebook Messenger. You can connect it to your Facebook Page, and the bot you build will interact with users on Messenger.
Rich UI Elements: Flow XO can utilize rich elements like cards (images with title/buttons), quick replies, etc., on channels that allow them. For example, on Messenger it can send gallery cards; on web chat it can show buttons or ask for multiple-choice responses.
Broadcast Messaging: Limited – Flow XO has some capability to send broadcasts, but it’s quite basic and not a major feature. You could schedule a message to all users of a bot or trigger a broadcast via an integration. However, compliance (like Messenger’s 24-hour rule) isn’t enforced by Flow XO itself, so you’d have to manage that manually. Also, given changes in Messenger policies, Flow XO’s broadcast might be less commonly used now.
Segmentation: Flow XO doesn’t have a full CRM segmentation system, but you can filter who gets certain flows based on attributes or which bot they came through. For instance, if you maintain user attributes in Flow XO’s data (like storing their product interest), you could potentially use a filter to only send a message to users with a certain attribute. However, it’s not as straightforward as a dedicated segmentation feature – it’s more like manually setting up conditional steps or separate flows for different groups.
Event-Based Triggers: Flow XO has triggers for certain things (like receiving a message with specific keywords, or a scheduled time trigger), but it doesn’t have out-of-the-box e-commerce event triggers. You can use webhooks or Zapier to send events into Flow XO – for example, when an order is created in Shopify, send a webhook to Flow XO to trigger a flow. But natively, it doesn’t list triggers like “cart abandoned” or “product purchased.” So, it’s capable if you’re a bit technical and integrate it, but not built-in.
Visual Flow Builder: Flow XO provides a visual editor, though it’s somewhat more form-based than canvas-based. When building a flow, you add sequential actions and filters in a list format. You can branch using filter conditions (like an IF statement to decide which action comes next). It is no-code and quite logical, but might not have the free-form drag-and-connect interface that some others do.
Template Library: Flow XO doesn’t really offer pre-made templates for specific industries. They provide some example flows in documentation, but there isn’t a one-click template gallery.
Unified Inbox: Flow XO includes a live chat inbox where you can monitor all user interactions and take over when needed. This means if your bot is running on multiple channels (say, your website and Messenger), you can see all incoming messages in one place and respond in real time.

Wrapping Up: Choosing the Right Chatbot Builder

Finding the best chatbot building tool depends on where and how you plan to use your chatbot, but each of the 8 platforms above excels in its own way. To quickly recap their strengths: Tidio is great for website live chat with a mix of human+bot and a friendly interface, making customer support a breeze. User.com offers an all-in-one marketing and CRM suite – perfect if you want your chatbot tightly integrated with email campaigns and customer data.

ManyChat and Chatfuel are both fantastic for social media engagement – ManyChat shines with Instagram and WhatsApp marketing flows, while Chatfuel is a go-to for Messenger and has official WhatsApp support with e-commerce focus. Outgrow stands out for interactive lead generation content; it turns quizzes and questionnaires into conversational experiences that can capture leads more effectively than static forms.

Botsonic is unique, leveraging AI to answer customer questions from your own knowledge base – you don’t have to script answers, which is powerful for an FAQ or support bot. Flow XO provides flexibility and integrations, being a solid all-purpose tool especially if you might need to connect your bot to other apps or want to deploy on multiple platforms like Messenger, Telegram, and your site.

Amidst all these strong options, SendPulse comes forward as one of the most well-rounded choices – especially for beginners who want to hit the ground running. What makes SendPulse really attractive is its balance of features and ease of use. Unlike some single-channel tools, SendPulse covers multiple channels (Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, website chat, and more) all under one roof, so you won’t outgrow it when your communication strategy expands.

It also provides a generous free tier that lets you experiment with real bots (up to 3 bots and 500 subscribers) before investing. Many other platforms either lack a forever-free option or limit it severely, but SendPulse gives enough room to learn and serve initial users.

Beginners will appreciate its visual drag-and-drop builder and the library of templates to quickly set up common bot scenarios. Plus, SendPulse uniquely combines chatbot messaging with other marketing channels (like email and SMS) in one platform, which means as you grow, you can orchestrate campaigns holistically.

Another area where SendPulse shines is its support for advanced but crucial features out-of-the-box. For example, it’s an official WhatsApp Business API provider – a big plus if WhatsApp marketing is on your radar, since not many builders directly offer that.

It also handles tasks such as broadcasting with compliance, segmentation across channels, and event-based triggers (like cart abandonment reminders) in a very straightforward way. These are the kind of features that drive real ROI from chatbots, and having them in an easy interface is gold for a beginner who wants to see tangible business results.