The best chatbot builder depends on where your customers chat. Intercom and Tidio suit website customer service, ManyChat and Chatfuel suit Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, Botpress and Voiceflow suit custom AI agents, Landbot suits no-code conversational forms, HubSpot suits businesses using its CRM, and Chatbase suits a quick AI chatbot trained on your own content.
A good chatbot answers the questions your customers ask every day, at any hour, and hands the tricky ones to a human. A bad one traps people in a loop and loses you the sale. The difference is mostly down to the builder you pick and how much care you put into the answers.
The builders below are well known and widely used. Some focus on customer service, some on social media and some on building your own AI agent from scratch. I've focused on what each one is known for, so shortlist two and build the same simple bot in both before you decide.
What should you look for in a chatbot builder?
- Channels. Check it works where your customers are: your website, Instagram, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
- AI answers. Many builders can now answer from your own help pages, website or documents.
- Human handover. The bot should pass a conversation to a person smoothly when it can't help.
- No-code building. A visual flow builder means you can change answers without a developer.
- Integrations. Leads and conversations should flow into your CRM, help desk or email tool.
- Reporting. You need to see which questions come up and where people drop off.
Chatbot builders compared
| Tool | Best for | Stand-out feature |
|---|---|---|
| Intercom | Customer service teams | Fin AI agent |
| Tidio | Small online shops | Live chat plus Lyro AI agent |
| ManyChat | Instagram and Facebook | Comment and DM automation |
| Chatfuel | Messenger and WhatsApp bots | No-code social chatbots |
| Botpress | Custom AI agents | Developer-friendly platform |
| Voiceflow | Teams designing chat and voice agents | Collaborative agent design |
| Landbot | Conversational forms | No-code chat flows |
| HubSpot | HubSpot CRM users | Bots linked to contact records |
| Chatbase | Quick AI bots from your content | Train on your website and files |
Plans and features change often, so check each vendor's current plans before you commit.
The best chatbot builders
1. Intercom
Intercom is a customer service platform with a messenger, help desk and help centre. Its AI agent, Fin, answers customer questions using your help content and hands over to your team when needed.
Who it suits: growing businesses and software companies with a steady flow of customer questions.
What stands out: the full service setup. Bot, inbox and help centre work together in one place.
Watch out for: it's a full platform, so a small site that only needs a simple bot may find it more than enough.
2. Tidio
Tidio combines live chat, a help desk and an AI agent called Lyro. It's especially popular with online shops, including Shopify and WordPress stores.
Who it suits: small online businesses that want live chat and AI answers in one simple tool.
What stands out: ease of setup. You can have chat and a basic bot on your site quickly.
Watch out for: check how its AI handles your specific products and policies before you let it answer alone.
3. ManyChat
ManyChat automates conversations on Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and SMS. It's well known for comment-to-DM automations, where someone comments a keyword on a post and gets a message straight away.
Who it suits: creators, coaches and businesses that sell through Instagram and Facebook.
What stands out: social automation. It turns comments and story replies into conversations and leads.
Watch out for: follow each platform's messaging rules closely, as they change and can limit what bots can do.
4. Chatfuel
Chatfuel is one of the long-running no-code chatbot builders for Facebook Messenger, and it now covers Instagram and WhatsApp too, with AI features for answering questions.
Who it suits: small businesses that want a social chatbot without coding.
What stands out: a focus on messaging apps, with templates for common sales and support conversations.
Watch out for: if your customers mostly contact you through your website, a website-first tool may suit you better.
5. Botpress
Botpress is a platform for building AI agents and chatbots. It has a visual builder, connects to large language models and can be deployed across websites and messaging channels. It started as an open source project and is popular with developers.
Who it suits: businesses and developers building a custom AI assistant with their own logic.
What stands out: flexibility. You can design detailed conversations and connect them to your own systems.
Watch out for: there's more to learn than with a simple website chat tool.
6. Voiceflow
Voiceflow is a platform for designing, testing and launching chat and voice agents. Teams use it to plan conversations together on a shared canvas.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
Who it suits: product and customer experience teams building AI agents together.
What stands out: collaboration. Designers, writers and developers can work on the same agent.
Watch out for: it's aimed at teams building serious agents, so a solo business owner may want something simpler.
7. Landbot
Landbot is a no-code chatbot builder known for turning forms into conversations. It works on websites and WhatsApp and includes AI features.
Who it suits: businesses that want to qualify leads or collect information in a friendlier way than a form.
What stands out: conversational forms. One question at a time often feels easier than a long form.
Watch out for: plan your flows carefully, as long chats can tire people out just like long forms.
8. HubSpot
HubSpot includes a chatbot builder inside its customer platform. Bots can book meetings, qualify leads and create tickets, and every conversation is saved to the contact record.
Who it suits: businesses already using HubSpot as their CRM.
What stands out: the CRM link. Your team sees the full chat history next to each contact.
Watch out for: the most useful features depend on which HubSpot products you use, so check what's included.
9. Chatbase
Chatbase lets you build an AI chatbot trained on your own content, such as your website pages and documents, and add it to your site.
Who it suits: small businesses that want a quick AI assistant that answers from their own information.
What stands out: speed. Point it at your content and you have a working assistant fast.
Watch out for: review its answers regularly and keep your source content up to date, or it'll repeat old information.
How to choose the right chatbot builder
Start with where the questions come from. If most customers ask on your website, look at Intercom, Tidio or Chatbase. If they message you on Instagram or WhatsApp, look at ManyChat, Chatfuel or Landbot. If you want a custom assistant, Botpress or Voiceflow give you more control.
Then write down your twenty most common questions and the answers you'd give. Whatever tool you choose, those answers are what make the bot useful. And always give people an easy way to reach a human.
If you're still deciding whether you need one, read my 6 reasons your website needs a chatbot. My guide to AI chatbots for small business websites covers the basics, and how to set up an AI chatbot for customer service walks through the setup.
Building a tool in this space? Here's how tools get considered for my roundups.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best chatbot builder?
It depends on your channel. Intercom and Tidio suit website customer service, ManyChat suits Instagram and Facebook, and Botpress and Voiceflow suit custom AI agents.
Can I build a chatbot without coding?
Yes. Tidio, ManyChat, Chatfuel, Landbot and Chatbase are all built for non-developers, with visual builders and templates.
Can a chatbot answer from my own website content?
Yes. Tools such as Intercom, Tidio and Chatbase can use your help pages, website or documents to answer questions.
Will a chatbot replace my customer service team?
No. A chatbot handles common, repetitive questions and passes the rest to people. That frees your team for the conversations that need a human.
