Businesses often struggle to keep up with customer questions and concerns in real-time. Traditional chatbots can help, but sometimes, they sound too robotic and repetitive, which might not sit well with customers looking for genuine interaction.
There's a growing need for smarter solutions that can handle complex conversations and offer a more personal touch.
AI chatbots are much smarter than basic chatbots. They can understand the subtle differences in how people talk while responding in more natural ways.
But how easy is it to add one of these smart, custom chatbots to your website?
If you're considering this for the first time, you might be worried about how to start and whether you can customize the chatbot to match your business' style.
Fortunately, it's doable, and a good chatbot builder platform can simplify the process.
In this article, we'll look at the top five bot builder platforms and find out which one could be the best choice for creating a chatbot that improves your customer communication.
Top Chatbot Builders at a Glance
Benefits of Using A Chatbot Builder
Choosing a bot builder platform offers advantages that can boost how your businesses interact with customers:
Advanced Customization and Flexibility
Traditional chatbots often come with predefined scripts and limited responses, which can lead to a robotic and impersonal user experience.
Bot builder platforms, on the other hand, allow for extensive customization. You can tailor every aspect of the bot's behavior, from conversation flow to responses.
This ensures the bot can handle complex queries with a personal touch that reflects your brand's voice.
Intelligent Conversations
Bot builders are typically equipped with advanced AI technologies like Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning.
These technologies allow the bot to engage in human-like conversations and learn from interactions to improve over time.
Unlike traditional chatbots that react to user inputs, conversational AI chatbots created with builder platforms can initiate conversations based on user behavior or specific triggers.
This helps capture user interest and boost customer engagement, which guides them through sales or support processes.
Scalability and Cost-Effectiveness
Bot builder platforms are designed to handle a high volume of interactions. Whether your business is experiencing steady growth or a sudden spike in customer queries, these platforms can effortlessly scale.
Traditional chatbots, especially simpler models, may require adjustments or upgrades to handle increased loads, often involving additional development and costs.
Although bot builder platforms might require a higher initial investment, their ability to automate complex processes can lead to huge cost savings over time.
What Makes the Best Bot Builder Platform?
When choosing a bot builder platform, you want something that truly fits your business needs and helps you deliver smart, seamless conversations.
So, what exactly should you look for when trying to find the best platform? Let's break down the essentials in a way that feels like a conversation about what works.
Modern Language Models (LLMs)
If there's one thing that separates a basic chatbot from an intelligent one, it's the power behind the scenes. The best platforms are built on modern Language Models (LLMs), meaning they're not just answering based on a set script—they're understanding the context of your users' asking.
Instead of manually programming every possible response, an LLM-driven chatbot can pick up on user intent and reply naturally. That saves you a lot of time and makes your chatbot feel much more human.
Integrates with Your Tools and Databases
Your chatbot isn't going to live in a bubble. It needs to pull in data from your CRM, inventory system, or even a third-party tool to provide real value.
The best bot builder platforms let you easily connect your chatbot to your existing tools and databases without technical headaches. If a platform doesn't offer that flexibility, you'll find yourself missing out on the ability to give users relevant, real-time answers.
Public Deployment Should Be Simple
If you're building a chatbot, you probably want to get it in front of your customers. The best platforms let you deploy your chatbot across multiple channels, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or all of the above.
If a platform restricts where your bot can be deployed, it limits your ability to connect with your audience.
Easy to Use, Even for Non-Technical Users
You shouldn't need an experience in programming to build a chatbot. The best platforms offer an intuitive, user-friendly interface that allows anyone to create a bot, whether you're tech-savvy or not. A good chatbot builder gives you all the power without complicating things.
Data Privacy and Security You Can Trust
Trust is everything when it comes to your business and your customers. The last thing you need is to worry about whether your data is being mishandled.
Your chatbot will handle sensitive customer queries, personal details, or business data. You want to ensure the platform you choose has strong data protection policies.
5 Best Chatbot Builders in 2024
Choosing the right bot builder platform for your business involves looking beyond the technical features. You should consider how well each platform aligns with your specific needs.
Since these platforms vary in capabilities, pricing models, and ease of use, finding the right one ensures your investment is worth it.
Here are the five best paid and free AI chatbot builders you should consider for an improved chatbot conversation:
Denser.ai
Denser.ai doesn't just help you build chatbots—it transforms how your business communicates with customers.
Unlike other platforms that may feel limited or overwhelming, Denser.ai balances simplicity and power perfectly. Its intuitive interface allows you to get up and running. Yet, it's robust enough to handle complex workflows, making it the ultimate choice for businesses of any size.
You can integrate a chatbot with Denser by embedding it as a widget, which is easily done under the "Copy code to integrate as a chat widget" section.
Follow this full integration guide.
You can use Denser.ai to manage customer interactions on your website, automate workflows, or even handle document management without extensive technical expertise.
The user-friendly interface and seamless integrations ensure businesses can quickly adapt the platform to fit their specific requirements.
The platform's customization options give you complete control over how your chatbot looks, behaves and interacts with customers.
From setting up personalized greetings to adjusting how the chatbot responds based on customer input, Denser.ai lets you create chat experiences that feel tailored and authentic.
You'll also have access to detailed analytics that help you track the chatbot performance and how customers interact. The platform's customizable dashboards let you see the data to quickly adjust and optimize your customer engagement strategy.
Thanks to its semantic search, the chatbot can understand the intent behind customer questions—not just the keywords—leading to more accurate and relevant responses. This means that your customers get the answers they need faster and with less frustration.
The learning and adaptation feature indicates that Denser.ai continuously improves its performance based on interaction data.
Denser.ai's Pricing Plans
Denser.ai offers a range of pricing plans to fit various business sizes, from startups to large enterprises.
The Free Plan is ideal for startups wanting to test basic features at no cost. It includes 1 DenserBot and 20 queries per month.
For individuals or small startups, the Starter Plan is $19 monthly and includes essential features, such as 2 DenserBots and 1,500 monthly queries.
Small teams looking for more advanced options can choose the Standard Plan for $89 monthly. This plan includes 4 DenserBots and 7,500 queries per month.
Large businesses needing comprehensive features can go for the Business Plan, priced at $399 per month. The plan offers 8 DenserBots and 15,000 queries per month.
2. Chatfuel
Chatfuel has an easy-to-use flow builder that allows users to create and manage chat automation.
Image Source: Chatfuel
Chatfuel allows you to store information about your contacts in unlimited custom fields. This is important if your business needs to maintain detailed records of customer interactions for targeted marketing strategies.
Chatfuel also includes a built-in live chat feature, which allows human agents to take over chatbot conversations whenever necessary.
Pros
- Offers many features for building complex chatbots
- Active community support
- Help available for Messenger platform launches
Cons
- Servers slow down during busy times
- Can be expensive for large businesses
Chatfuel's Pricing Plans
Chatfuel offers a range of pricing plans, starting with a free trial.
Basic plans for Instagram and Facebook begin at $19.99 per month, covering 1,000 conversations, with costs increasing for additional volume.
For WhatsApp users, the Business plan starts at $44.99 per month for 1,000 chatbot conversations.
The Enterprise plan costs $300 per month and includes comprehensive features, a personal account manager, and bot-building services with bulk pricing options.
3. Yellow.ai
Yellow.ai is trained on over 16 billion conversations each year, allowing it to handle 90% of incoming queries with high empathy.
Image Source: Botsify
Adding to its functionality, Botsify incorporates AI and machine learning technologies that allow chatbots to learn from interactions over time.
This visual chatbot builder also offers a wide range of pre-built templates that cater to various industries and use cases. These chatbot templates provide a quick starting point for setting up a chatbot and reduce the effort required to deploy a functional bot.
The platform's multilingual support ensures that the chatbots can interact with users in their native language.
Botsify, with over 100 integrations available, can connect the chatbots to various external services and applications.
Pros
- Intuitive interface
- Provides basic bot analytics
- Flexible features and API integration
Cons
- Pricing may be high for small businesses or individuals
- Costs can rise with more features and usage
Botsify's Pricing Plans
Botsify offers a $49 "Do It Yourself" plan for personal use or small startups needing basic chatbot capabilities for websites and Facebook pages.
A more advanced version of this plan is available for $149, suitable for those with higher demands.
Their custom plan is tailored for large enterprises or specific needs, and those interested should contact Botsify directly for more details and pricing.
5. ManyChat
ManyChat provides customizable templates suited for different industries. It also has a visual flow builder and drag-and-drop interface that makes creating and adjusting chatbots easy.
The platform boosts Instagram interactions with several powerful features. It can automatically start conversations or business automation when users message your account with a specific keyword or phrase.
It also supports Story Mentions Triggers, which allow businesses to initiate conversations automatically when mentioned in a story. This feature helps manage large volumes of interactions.
Image Source: ManyChat
For new users who have not messaged before, ManyChat offers Conversation Starters to help them easily begin talking about specific topics. It makes it simpler for new followers to engage.
Additionally, ManyChat's Flow Builder can capture important customer information like emails or phone numbers and store them in its CRM system.
Pros
- Simple chatbot setup with defined actions
- Supports complex chats with API calls and tags
- User-friendly for automated messaging channels
Cons
- Difficult to reach support
- Challenging to integrate certain processes
ManyChat's Pricing Plans
Manychat offers a range of pricing plans to suit different needs.
The Free plan lets you start with basic features for up to 1,000 contacts at no cost.
The Pro plan starts at $15 per month for more advanced features.
If you need a customized experience to support larger business goals, their Elite plan offers tailored options.
Steps to Building Your First Bot with Denser.ai
With the range of bot builders available,Denser.ai is the top choice for its sophisticated features and user-friendly, no-coding-required interface.
Here's how you can start building your first chatbot with this bot builder platform:
Step 1: Define Your Bot's Purpose
Before you start building your chatbot, you must define your expectations. Think about how the chatbot can help your business.
Do you want to increase sales, respond to customer questions, or handle easy tasks so your team can focus on more complex issues?
Also, consider the typical questions or problems your customers have. Knowing this will shape your chatbot's design.
Step 2: Register with Denser.ai
Denser.ai is designed for ease of use. Its user-friendly interface simplifies the process of setting up a chatbot.
You can integrate the Denser.ai chatbot into your website as a chat widget, embed it within an iframe, or utilize the Denser REST API to easily manage user inquiries.
Step 3: Start Building Your Chatbot
After choosing Denser.ai as your bot platform, adding it to your website is easy. Denser.ai gives you a specific code that you need to put into your website's HTML, which includes a bit of HTML and JavaScript.
Here's what you need to do:
- Denser.ai will provide you with a short snippet code essential for adding the chatbot to your site. This code makes sure the chat widget works properly.
- In the code, there's a placeholder for a chatbot ID that is special to your chatbot and connects it to your Denser.ai account.
- Replace the placeholder in the code with your actual chatbot ID from Denser.ai so the chat widget on your website is correctly linked to your account.
Step 4: Develop and Train Your Chatbot
Once you're done building, select a template that aligns with your business needs. You can customize your chatbot by incorporating expected questions and answers.
This no-code chatbot builder also provides tools to train your chatbot to better respond to customer inquiries.
Step 5: Establish Escalation Protocols
You must also define clear triggers for when an inquiry should be escalated to a human agent.
These triggers could be based on the query's complexity, specific keywords, or signs of user frustration, such as repeated questions.
You may assign team members to handle these escalations based on their expertise. Technical questions might go to your tech support team, while pricing queries are directed to sales staff.
Step 6: Integrate with Other Systems
Common integrations include CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, databases, and email platforms.
Knowing what systems your chatbot should work with will guide the integration process.
Ensure that your chatbot platform, such as Denser.ai, supports integration with these systems. Most modern chatbot platforms have built-in integrations or APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that assist with these connections.
Optimize Your Website Interactions with Denser's Chatbot Builder
Make your customer interactions smarter with Denser.ai. This AI chatbot builder allows you to deliver personalized responses and accurate support to boost customer loyalty.
With advanced AI-driven analytics, effortless integration, and user-friendly customization, Denser.ai is tailored to meet your needs without coding expertise.
Sign up for a free trial or schedule a demo with Denser.ai today and see how easy and effective automation can be!
FAQs About Bot Builder Platforms
What types of chatbots can I build with a bot builder platform?
A chatbot creator typically allows you to build a variety of chatbots tailored to different purposes, such as informational bots, customer service bots, booking bots, and sales bots.
Depending on the platform, you may be able to customize the bot for specific tasks like lead generation, survey collection, or even entertainment.
Can I update my chatbot once it's live?
Yes, most bot builder platforms allow you to make changes and updates to your chatbot even after it has gone live. This is essential for maintaining its effectiveness, as you can continually optimize based on user feedback and changing business needs.
Is Microsoft Bot Framework suitable for non-developers?
While Microsoft Bot Framework is incredibly powerful, it is primarily designed for developers with a good grasp of programming concepts. The learning curve might be steep for non-developers, although Microsoft provides extensive documentation and developer tools to ease the process.