Dialogflow, Botpress, and Rasa suit teams that want control over logic and deployment, while Landbot, Chatfuel, Manychat, and Tidio suit teams that want a visual builder and a faster launch. Starting prices range from usage based pricing to $150 per month for Botpress Plus, so compare the meter that drives the bill, such as requests, conversations, chats, or active contacts. Botpress, Rasa, Landbot, Tidio, and Manychat have free plans, while Dialogflow, Azure AI Bot Service, and Chatfuel offer trial credit or a trial.
We compared 8 options for best platform for developing chatbots. Each profile below lists the price, free plan, pros and cons as published by the company.
On this page
Best platform for developing chatbots: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dialogflow | Google Cloud teams building voice and text agents | $0.007 per chat request for Flows | Free trial (credits) | Visit |
| 2 | Botpress | Teams building AI agents with a visual studio | $150 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 3 | Rasa | Engineering teams that want open source control | quote only | Yes | Visit |
| 4 | Azure AI Bot Service | Microsoft and Teams focused enterprise teams | quote only | Yes | Visit |
| 5 | Landbot | Lead capture with web and WhatsApp flows | 32 euros per month | Yes | Visit |
| 6 | Chatfuel | Social and WhatsApp automation for small business | $18 per month | Free trial | Visit |
| 7 | Tidio | Small business live chat with AI support | $24.17 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 8 | Manychat | Instagram and Messenger automation for creators | quote only | Yes | Visit |
The 8 best best platform for developing chatbots, in detail
Dialogflow
Best for: Google Cloud teams building voice and text agents
Dialogflow, now listed by Google Cloud as Conversational Agents, gives teams two ways to build. Flows, also known as Dialogflow CX, use intents and deterministic logic, which helps when a conversation must follow clear steps, such as booking or triage. Playbooks use natural language instructions and building blocks such as data stores and generative fallbacks, which helps when answers come from documents.
- Pricing is usage based.
- The page lists $0.007 per chat request for Flows and $0.012 per chat request for Playbooks.
- Voice is $0.001 per second for Flows and $0.002 per second for Playbooks.
- New users receive trial credits of $600 for Flows and $1,000 for Playbooks.
Pros
- Visual builder for Flows and Playbooks
- Supports chat and voice agents in one service
Cons
- Usage billing can be hard to forecast at high volume
- Playbooks cost more per request than Flows
Botpress
Best for: Teams building AI agents with a visual studio
Botpress is built around a visual studio where a team can design agents, connect knowledge, and publish to webchat and WhatsApp. The platform prices by conversations, not by seats. A conversation is any exchange with at least two messages from the end user in the billing month, and a voice call of 3 minutes counts as 1 conversation.
- Plus costs $150 per month when billed annually and includes 250 conversations per month, with packs of 100 for $65.
- Team costs $750 per month when billed annually and includes 1,500 conversations per month, with packs of 100 for $50.
- The free plan includes 3 seats, 3 AI agents, and 100 conversations per month, plus community support.
- Plus adds unlimited AI agents, whitelabel webchat, WhatsApp, a help center with a custom domain, and $25 of AI usage included.
Pros
- Visual Studio with unlimited AI agents on subscription plans
- Includes WhatsApp, webchat, help center, and team controls on higher plans
Cons
- Free plan is limited to 3 AI agents and 100 conversations per month
- Conversation packs auto recharge when the included limit is reached
Rasa
Best for: Engineering teams that want open source control
Rasa is a conversational AI platform for teams that want to build, test, deploy, and run AI agents with full control. Builders can design assistants in code or in a visual builder, and add enterprise search and open prompt editing. Custom actions run through the Rasa SDK, and content and response management sit in the same platform.
- Rasa supports Kubernetes deployment through Helm, multi node concurrency with Redis, a conversational data pipeline with Kafka, and observability with
- Security controls include single sign on, role based access control, personal data management, and secrets management powered by Vault.
- The Free Developer Edition allows one bot per company, with up to 1,000 external conversations per month or 100 internal conversations per month, plus
- Enterprise adds full platform access and premium support.
Pros
- Open source framework with code and visual building
- Data, agents, and logic stay under team control
Cons
- Enterprise pricing is not published, so a quote is needed
- Free Developer Edition is limited to one bot per company
Azure AI Bot Service
Best for: Microsoft and Teams focused enterprise teams
Azure AI Bot Service is Microsoft Azure service for building enterprise grade conversational AI and connecting bots across channels. The pricing page lists a Free tier and an S1 tier. Standard channels include unlimited messages on both tiers, while premium channels include 10,000 messages per month on the Free tier and a variable amount per 1,000 messages on S1.
- A team should read the full pricing page before budgeting, because the bot service is only part of the cost.
- That structure suits a team already using Azure, Microsoft 365, or Teams.
- An AzureBot provisions an Azure Web App to host the bot, and the bot follows App Service pricing.
- Application Insights may be provisioned on the Basic tier for analytics, and language understanding or question answering resources may also be create
Pros
- Connects bots to Teams, web chat, and other standard channels
- Fits into Azure hosting, identity, and monitoring
Cons
- The S1 premium channel price is shown as a variable amount per 1,000 messages, not a fixed monthly price
- App Service, Application Insights, and related resources add separate charges
Landbot
Best for: Lead capture with web and WhatsApp flows
Landbot is a no code platform for building AI agents and chatbots for websites and WhatsApp, focused on turning traffic into qualified leads. The visual builder, templates, and human takeover through a shared inbox are central to the product. Pricing is published in euros for EU customers and in dollars elsewhere.
- Free costs 0 euros and includes 100 chats per month, 1 seat, the full builder and templates, and a WhatsApp test number, with no AI chats included.
- Starter costs 32 euros per month when billed annually, with 500 chats per month, 100 AI chats, and 2 seats.
- Professional costs 80 euros per month when billed annually, with 2,500 chats per month, 300 AI chats, and 3 seats.
- Extra chats cost 0.05 euros each, and extra AI chats cost 0.10 euros each.
Pros
- Visual builder with templates and a 14 day trial
- Clear chat and AI chat allowances with published overage prices
Cons
- WhatsApp with a personal number starts on Professional, with an add on of 100 euros per month
- Landbot branding can only be removed from Professional upward
Chatfuel
Best for: Social and WhatsApp automation for small business
Chatfuel is a chatbot platform for WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, TikTok, and websites, focused on small business automation, lead capture, and customer support. Every plan includes AI powered chatbots, a shared team inbox, CRM, integrations with tools such as Google Sheets and Zapier, and official WhatsApp API access. A team can launch with templates and build flows visually, without technical skills.
- The platform also offers a setup assistant called Coworker, with setup chats using credits, at about $10 per bot in the first month.
- Pricing is credit based.
- The Business S plan costs $18 per month when billed annually, equal to $216 a year, with $20 of usage included and $240 of usage for the year.
- Business M costs $40.50 per month when billed annually, Business L costs $81 per month, Business XL costs $153 per month, and Business XXL costs $366.
Pros
- Visual flow builder with templates and a shared team inbox
- Official Meta and WhatsApp partner with CRM and integrations
Cons
- Unused credits do not roll over to the next month
- Meta WhatsApp fees are separate from the plan price
Tidio
Best for: Small business live chat with AI support
Tidio combines live chat, ticketing, and automation for small business websites and stores. The Starter plan costs $24.17 per month and includes 100 billable conversations, 50 Lyro AI Agent conversations as a one off amount, 100 Flows visitors reached, live chat and ticketing, a live visitors list, operating hours, and basic analytics. The core products are Customer Service, Lyro AI Agent, and Flows, and each can be bought alone or as part of a bundled plan.
- Flows use a drag and drop builder to automate messages and answer predefined questions.
- Lyro AI Agent uses support content to understand questions and resolve common requests, while human agents can take over when needed.
- Growth starts at $49.17 per month, from 250 billable conversations, and adds advanced analytics, user permissions, automatic chat assignment, automati
- Plus starts at $300 per month plus monthly usage and adds premium support, a dedicated success manager, discounted usage rates, departments, multiproj
Pros
- Live chat, ticketing, and AI agent in one workspace
- Free plan plus a 7 day trial of full features without a card
Cons
- Free plan limits Flows to 100 unique visitors per month
- Lyro AI conversation limits refresh only on a subscription plan
Manychat
Best for: Instagram and Messenger automation for creators
Manychat is built for creators and social first businesses that want to handle engagement at scale without replying to every message by hand. It can reply to comments and messages and capture leads. Channels listed on the pricing page include Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, email, and SMS.
- An Active Contact is a real person interacted with during a monthly billing period, and one person counts as one Active Contact for the month, no matt
- The pricing page shows a Free plan that does not require a credit card, and Essential or Pro can be tested free for 14 days.
- Overage is charged per additional Active Contact beyond the included contacts, and the page sends notifications as a team approaches its monthly limit
- Plan prices are not shown as a single fixed number in the page text read for this guide, and the page states that prices do not include tax and are de
Pros
- Strong Instagram comment to DM automation and Meta partner status
- Works across Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, email, and SMS
Cons
- The pricing page states that the final price is set by billing country and excludes tax, so the checkout total can differ
- Annual plans cannot be downgraded until the annual term ends
How we chose
We opened each vendor pricing page and took the starting price from that page, or listed quote only when no fixed starting price was shown. We checked free plans, trial terms, included conversations, channel support, and limits that affect the monthly cost. We did not claim hands on testing, and we did not use third party review scores, awards, or customer counts to rank the tools.
Choose by team size and budget
| Team size and budget | Best starting point | Why it fits | Monthly cost to model | | Solo creator, under $50 per month | Manychat Free or Landbot Free | Social automation and a visual builder | $0 to start, then check contact or chat limits | | Small business, $20 to $60 per month | Tidio Starter or Chatfuel Business S | Live chat plus AI support, or social and WhatsApp flows | $24.17 for Tidio Starter; $18 for Chatfuel Business S when billed annually | | Small team, $100 to $200 per month | Botpress Plus or Landbot Professional | Visual building, WhatsApp, and team seats | $150 for Botpress Plus; 80 euros for Landbot Professional, both billed annually | | Engineering team, usage based budget | Dialogflow Flows or Rasa Free Developer Edition | Code control and deployment choice | $0.007 per chat request for Dialogflow Flows; $0 for Rasa Free Developer Edition within its limits | | Enterprise, Microsoft stack | Azure AI Bot Service | Teams channels, Azure hosting, and identity controls | Quote only, plus App Service and related Azure resources | | Enterprise, custom volume | Rasa Enterprise or Botpress Enterprise | Governance, single sign on, and support | Quote only, ask for a written quote with volume and support terms |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best platform for developing chatbots for a small business?
Start with a visual builder such as Landbot, Tidio, or Chatfuel. Landbot Free includes 100 chats per month, Tidio Starter costs $24.17 per month, and Chatfuel Business S costs $18 per month when billed annually. Test one real flow, check WhatsApp or Instagram limits, and move up only when volume grows.
Which chatbot platform is best for developers?
Rasa and Dialogflow suit developers best, because both support code, custom logic, and deployment control. Rasa offers an open source framework, Kubernetes deployment, and custom actions through its SDK. Dialogflow offers Flows for deterministic logic and Playbooks for generative agents, plus voice support.
How much does it cost to build a chatbot?
Costs depend on the meter and volume. Dialogflow Flows cost $0.007 per chat request, Botpress Plus costs $150 per month when billed annually, Landbot Starter costs 32 euros per month when billed annually, and Tidio Starter costs $24.17 per month. Add channel fees, overage, and hosting.
Do these chatbot platforms offer a free plan?
Yes, several do. Botpress Free includes 100 conversations per month, Rasa Free Developer Edition allows up to 1,000 external conversations per month, Landbot Free includes 100 chats per month, and Tidio and Manychat have Free plans. Dialogflow offers trial credits, Azure has a Free tier, and Chatfuel offers a free trial.
Can I build a chatbot without coding?
Yes, Landbot, Chatfuel, Manychat, Tidio, and Botpress all offer visual builders and templates that let a non technical team build flows, connect channels, and publish a bot. They cover lead capture, FAQs, and comment to DM automation. A developer is still useful for custom integrations and complex logic.
Which platform is best for WhatsApp chatbots?
Landbot, Chatfuel, Manychat, and Botpress all support WhatsApp, but the cost differs. Landbot adds WhatsApp with a personal number from Professional, with a 100 euro per month add on, while Chatfuel and Manychat include WhatsApp on subscription plans and charge Meta fees separately. Confirm the total with Meta fees first.
Sources
- https://cloud.google.com/dialogflow
- https://cloud.google.com/dialogflow/pricing
- https://botpress.com
- https://botpress.com/pricing
- https://rasa.com
- https://rasa.com/pricing/
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/ai-services/ai-bot-service
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/bot-services/
- https://landbot.io
- https://landbot.io/pricing
- https://chatfuel.com
- https://chatfuel.com/pricing
- https://www.tidio.com
- https://www.tidio.com/pricing/
- https://manychat.com
- https://manychat.com/pricing
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.