8 best Chatbase alternatives in 2026 (free and paid)

Chatbase is one of the best-known tools for training an AI agent on your own content. It is also not the only option, and its pricing does not suit everyone. This guide compares eight Chatbase alternatives, from simple website chatbots to visual agent builders, with prices checked on each vendor's own site in October 2026.

Why people look for Chatbase alternatives

• Price of the entry plan. Chatbase Hobby costs $40/month ($32/month billed yearly) for 700 message credits.
• Paid extras. Removing the "Powered by Chatbase" label is a $99/month add-on, and each extra agent is $25/month.
• A small free plan. The free plan includes 50 message credits a month, and Chatbase deletes free-plan agents after 14 days of inactivity.
• Different needs. Some teams want a cheaper website-only bot. Others want a visual flow builder, more data connectors, or a live chat inbox at the center.

Chatbase alternatives at a glance

How we evaluated

We make intoCHAT, so we are not neutral. We list it first, and we describe its gaps as directly as anyone else's. For every other tool we used only the vendor's own pricing, product and documentation pages, checked in October 2026. Prices are in US dollars before tax. Vendors count usage differently (messages, credits, queries, conversations), so compare quotas with care.

• Price and quota of the cheapest paid plan, and whether a free plan exists.
• Training sources: websites, files, Q&A and connected tools, and how content stays current.
• Channels and handoff: website only or more, and whether a person can take over.
• Actions: what the agent can do beyond answering, such as calling an API or searching products.
• Extras that cost more: branding removal, extra agents, overage.

The 8 best Chatbase alternatives

1. intoCHAT

intoCHAT trains an AI agent on your website (it crawls up to 500 URLs and renders JavaScript-heavy pages), files such as PDF, DOCX, XLSX and CSV, text snippets and Q&A pairs. You add it to your site with one script tag, the WordPress plugin or a Shopify theme snippet. Paste a shop URL and it detects Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, VTEX, WordPress or a custom site and creates live product-search actions from the shop's public data, with product cards in the chat.

Best for: small businesses and shops that want a low-cost AI website agent with live product search.

Pricing: Free plan with 1 agent and 25 messages per month. Starter $19/month ($199/year) with 3 agents and 2,500 messages per month. Pro $49/month ($499/year) with 10 agents and 10,000 messages per month. Removing "Powered by intoCHAT" is included on any paid plan.

Strengths

• Low entry price, with 3 agents and branding removal on the $19 plan.
• Live product search for online shops without API keys or an app install.
• Custom API actions (up to 25 per agent) and JavaScript actions on your own page.
• Lead form in the chat, email alerts to you and up to 5 more addresses, CSV export.
• Q&A answers take priority, and you can star a source so it ranks higher.

Limitations

• Website only: no WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, email or voice.
• No human handoff or live chat, and no team seats.
• No public API, webhooks or Zapier, and no Notion or Google Drive connectors.
• Retraining is manual, and you cannot choose the AI model.
• The free plan is small (25 messages a month).

2. Chatling

Chatling is a no-code AI chatbot builder with a website crawler, file uploads, Notion and Zendesk sources, live chat with human handoff, and actions such as HTTP requests and calendar bookings.

Best for: small teams that want a budget AI agent with live chat and social channels.

Pricing (checked October 2026): Free plan with 200 AI credits a month. Starter $25/month ($21 billed yearly) with 1,750 credits and 2 agents, Growth $75/month, Scale $295/month. Credits per message depend on the AI model you pick. Branding removal is a $35/month add-on below Scale.

Strengths

• Live chat and human handoff, even on the free plan.
• WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram from Starter.
• States that data is hosted in Amsterdam and offers a DPA.

Limitations

• Stronger models use more credits per message, so the quota shrinks quickly.
• No ticketing of its own; it creates tickets in Zendesk or HubSpot.

3. SiteGPT

SiteGPT builds a chatbot from websites, sitemaps, YouTube, files and connected sources like Notion, Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive, and refreshes them on a schedule.

Best for: teams whose content is spread across several tools.

Pricing (checked October 2026): No free plan; 7-day trial with a card. Starter $59/month ($39 billed yearly) with 1 chatbot and 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages (or 400 GPT-4.1 messages). Growth $129/month, Scale $429/month. Branding removal and WhatsApp are paid add-ons.

Strengths

• Wide choice of data sources with automatic refresh.
• Escalation to a human, plus takeover from its iOS app on Growth and up.
• States a SOC 2 Type II examination.

Limitations

• No free plan, and the trial needs a credit card.
• One chatbot on Starter; API access starts on Growth.

4. CustomGPT.ai

CustomGPT.ai focuses on answering from large document collections. It ingests sitemaps, many file formats, YouTube and connectors such as Google Drive, Notion, Confluence and Zendesk, and offers a RAG API.

Best for: organizations with large document libraries and many agents.

Pricing (checked October 2026): No free plan; 7-day trial with a card. Standard $99/month ($89 billed yearly) with 10 agents and 1,000 queries a month. Premium $499/month with 25 agents and 5,000 queries.

Strengths

• Very large storage limits and many supported formats.
• API, MCP connectors and Zapier for developers.
• States SOC 2 Type 2 certification.

Limitations

• 1,000 queries a month on Standard, and the agent stops answering at the limit.
• Human handoff is not described on its site.

5. Tidio

Tidio is a live chat and ticketing tool with an AI agent called Lyro. Lyro is priced separately by the number of AI conversations per month.

Best for: small businesses that want live chat first and an AI agent on top.

Pricing (checked October 2026): Free plan with live chat and 50 billable conversations a month. Starter $29/month. Lyro from $39/month ($32.50 billed yearly) for 50 AI conversations. 7-day trial.

Strengths

• Live chat, ticketing and handoff on every plan.
• Email, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp channels; Shopify integration.

Limitations

• AI conversations are a separate bill that grows with volume.
• The free plan's 50 Lyro conversations are a one-time allowance.

6. Crisp

Crisp is a French messaging platform with a shared inbox, knowledge base and an AI agent called Hugo. It charges per workspace with unlimited conversations, and AI usage is paid through credits.

Best for: teams that want a shared inbox, flat workspace pricing and EU hosting.

Pricing (checked October 2026): Free plan without the AI agent. Mini $45/month per workspace, Essentials $95/month with AI knowledge training and channels like WhatsApp and Instagram, Plus $295/month. 14-day trial.

Strengths

• Shared inbox and human handoff on every plan.
• States EU hosting and GDPR compliance.

Limitations

• Training the AI on your content needs Essentials at $95/month.
• AI usage beyond included credits is billed on top.

7. Botpress

Botpress is an agent-building platform with a visual studio that can also run code, a TypeScript development kit, a knowledge base, and its own helpdesk called Botpress Desk.

Best for: technical teams that want flows, code and many channels.

Pricing (checked October 2026): Free plan with 100 conversations a month. Plus $189/month ($150 billed yearly) with 250 conversations, Team $939/month ($750 yearly). Extra conversations come in automatic packs, and AI usage beyond the included amount is billed at cost.

Strengths

• Full control over logic, with documented channels such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, Slack and Teams.
• A free plan with 100 conversations a month for testing.

Limitations

• More setup work than a train-and-embed chatbot.
• Overage packs are added automatically at 95% of quota and cannot be turned off.

8. Voiceflow

Voiceflow is a visual builder for chat and voice agents, combining playbooks and workflows with code functions, API tools and MCP. It supports web chat, phone and SMS.

Best for: product and CX teams designing chat and voice agents together.

Pricing (checked October 2026): Voiceflow no longer publishes prices; businesses request pricing. Its docs describe Free, Pro, Business and Enterprise plans with credit-based usage, and the free plan has a one-time credit grant.

Strengths

• Strong voice and phone support alongside chat.
• Handoff to helpdesks such as Zendesk, Genesys and Kustomer.
• States SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.

Limitations

• No public price list, so budgeting needs a sales conversation.
• A design tool more than a quick website chatbot.

When to stay with Chatbase

Chatbase is a strong choice if you need many channels from one agent: website, email, phone, Slack, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. On Standard it adds its own helpdesk with live chat takeover, automatic weekly re-sync of sources, and API access, and it can escalate into Zendesk, Intercom and other helpdesks. It also states SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance. If those features matter to you, the higher price can be worth it.

How to switch from Chatbase

1. Gather your sources. List the URLs, files, text snippets and Q&A pairs your Chatbase agent uses, and copy your instructions.
2. Rebuild and test. Add the same sources to the new tool and ask it 20 to 30 real questions from your chat history.
3. Match your settings. Recreate the welcome message, suggested questions, colors and lead capture.
4. Swap the embed code. Replace the Chatbase script with the new one and read transcripts daily for the first week.

Try intoCHAT before you decide

For a feature-by-feature view, read intoCHAT vs Chatbase. To see the answers on your own content, paste your URL into the free preview tool; it builds a temporary agent from 5 of your pages. If it fits, create your agent free.