Chat assistants · alternatives
The cheapest paid Botmaker plan is $149 per month, which small businesses with light use may find high, and Standard caps you at 3,000 conversations before per-conversation fees of $0.05 to $0.07 apply. A WhatsApp Business Platform account adds a one-time $99, and Enterprise pricing is only on request. The only free access is 300 initial conversations.
Zapier is a no-code automation platform with chatbots, AI agents and 9,000+ apps; it has a free plan and Professional starts at $19.99 per month for 750 tasks. Make is a visual workflow builder with a free tier and Core at $9 per month (priced for 10k credits). ChatGPT is a general assistant, free or Plus (consumer) at $20 per month. None of these is described in our data as a multi-channel customer-service bot with live-chat handoff, so they suit teams building their own flow.
"Better suited" below is based on documented features and pricing from our verified profiles, not on a head-to-head test. Prices are USD as published by each vendor.
Our own captures of each vendor's public pages. Click a frame for the full-size image.
Taken from the documented limitations in our Botmaker profile.
| Tool | Starting price | Free tier | Platforms | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botmaker (this page) | $149/mo (Standard) | Yes | Web, Mobile | There is no free tier beyond 300 initial conversations, and paid plans start at $149 per month with conversation caps and per-conversation overage fees. |
| Zapier | $19.99/mo (Professional) | Yes | Web, API | Free plan limited to two-step Zaps and 100 tasks per month; AI agents and chatbots require separate purchases. |
| Make | $9/mo (Core) | Yes | Web, API | Every module action consumes a credit, so complex scenarios use credits quickly |
| ChatGPT | $20/mo (Plus (consumer)) | Yes | Web, Desktop, Mobile, API | Almost every tool (uploads, images, voice, deep research, Codex) has plan-dependent usage caps that OpenAI states can change over time, and the API is billed separately from every ChatGPT subscription. |
No-code automation platform connecting 9,000+ apps via Zaps, with AI agents, chatbots, tables, forms and an MCP server.
Free stops at: 100 tasks per month, Two-step Zaps only
Free · paid from $19.99/mo US · checked Sep 29
Visual no-code platform for building automated workflows and AI agents that connect thousands of apps.
Free stops at: 1,000 credits/month, 2 active scenarios
Free · paid from $9/mo US · checked Sep 29
OpenAI's general-purpose AI assistant for writing, research, analysis, image generation and coding help.
Free stops at: Unlimited everyday text chats subject to abuse-prevention safeguards, Separate usage limits for file uploads,…
Free · paid from $20/mo US · checked Sep 30
Orchestration layer that routes questions across many AI models, including EU-sovereign ones.
Free stops at: 50 chats per week, 10 images per week
Free plan available US price unconfirmed
AI shopping and support chat assistant for Shopify, Magento and Shopware stores, priced by recovered shoppers.
Free stops at: 5 win-backs per month, 1 storefront, 1 language, 1 seat
Free · paid from $39.99/mo US · checked Sep 29
Multi-model chat that sends one question to several AI models side by side, plus a public AI Wiki of structured guides.
Free stops at: 60 Basic model prompts/month, 6 Advanced model prompts/month
Free · paid from $19/mo US · checked Sep 29
Runs a question through three frontier AI models that critique each other and returns a verified answer.
Free stops at: 1 free session on pricing page (homepage says 3 free sessions), 2 reasoning iterations
Free plan available US price unconfirmed
Sends one question to several AI models at once and returns a consensus answer with side-by-side comparison.
Free stops at: 3 LLM query runs
Free plan available US price unconfirmed
Mac desktop app (Mach Studio) that runs open models locally and drives apps and browser with an agent.
Free stops at: Local models, No account
Verified withsyzygy.com (opens Syzygy (Mach Studio) website in a new tab)
Free · paid from $20/mo US · checked Sep 29
Zapier, Make and ChatGPT all list a free option. Botmaker itself offers only 300 initial conversations free.
The $149 per month entry price, conversation caps with overage fees, a one-time $99 WhatsApp fee and Enterprise pricing by request.
Make Core at $9 per month, then Zapier Professional at $19.99 and ChatGPT Plus at $20.
Not stated in our verified data for these tools. Botmaker is the one listed for WhatsApp, Instagram, voice and email.
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