The truth is you can’t always be available to reply to visitors’ inquiries.
Even organizations that have a dedicated sales or customer service team need to filter through so they can give attention to more pressing issues.
In this era of AI marketing, you don’t need to be your customer’s first touchpoint.
Your chatbot can.
And it’s a win-win situation for you and your customers.
Apart from helping you save time and expenses, clients and website guests can also get quick answers to support their decision-making processes.
Data from HubSpot Research report that 33% find having to wait or repeat themselves the most frustrating experience of seeking customer service help.
90% also expect to get a response to their questions within 10 minutes of asking.
That means any business not investing in the best chatbots is losing a lot to competitors.
However, searching for the right chatbot platform can be pretty exhausting, especially if it’s your first time.
To save you the stress of trying multiple ineffective chatbots, here are the top chatbot companies and how each one can grow your business.
What are the top chatbot companies?
| Tool | Pricing (starts from) | Free plan/trial? | Best For? | Notable Feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botscrew | $10,000 | ❌ | Large Enterprises | Multiple Languages Training and Support |
| ManyChat | $15/month | ✅ | e-Commerce Businesses | Payment Function |
| ChatFuel | $14/month | ✅ | Social Media Integration | Seamless Integration |
| Drift | ➖ | ✅ | B2B Organizations | Conversational Marketing |
| Tidio | $32.5/month | ✅ | SMEs | Live Visitors Preview |
1. Botscrew
BotsCrew is a chatbot software company founded by three friends in Bali, Indonesia. It has since then grown to become a top contender among chatbot companies.
They offer personalized service that includes research and analysis, chatbot design and development, setup, and improvements.
I love that BotsCrew works with almost any platform or software you can think of. That includes WordPress, Salesforce, Shopify, Zapier, PayPal, Slack, Zendesk, etc.
It also lets you manage interaction with customers on your websites and social media platforms like Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, and SMS, all from a single location.
Other notable features:
- The completely scalable platform lets you adapt their chatbot development services to your exact needs.
- Do more on the go with an easy-to-use no-code platform.
- Availability in over a hundred languages.
Pricing:
According to this guide on their blog, BotsCrew can cost you between $10,000 and $75,000 for the basic features, and you’d have to pay from $50,000 to $150,000 for advanced features.
💬 The bottom line
BotsCrew is a chatbot development company that offers advanced AI chatbots with many custom features and integrations in different languages. The cost is high, making BotsCrew suitable for only businesses with enough budget.
2. Tidio
Tidio is another popular name in the chatbot scene.
In addition to Tidio’s powerful chatbots, it also gives a view of customers making inquiries at any time so that you can provide better engagement. That also comes with their data, such as location and contact details.
With Tidio’s multichannel marketing, you can get all messages from customers no matter where they’re sending them from. You also get the shared inbox feature for quickly syncing and managing messages.
Other notable features:
- Tidio’s live chat helps you engage customers in real-time. You can also learn more about your visitors and set up to satisfy them better.
- You can build chatbots quickly with more than 20 templates from Tidio.
- The email inbox function organizes all your inboxes, so you never miss a message.
Pricing:
The basic plan is just $32.50, and the pricing page lists all the benefits of each plan, making Tidio fairly transparent.
💬 The bottom line
Tidio is a feature-rich chatbot platform that works with emails, websites, and major social media apps. It lets you automate, segment, and monitor performance while bringing all activities together in one place.
3. ManyChat
ManyChat is a custom software development company that makes chatbot solutions for SMS and social media engagement. It is a marketing platform enjoyed by over one million businesses worldwide.
From the start through all stages of customer engagement, you can trust ManyChat to deliver. It can generate leads across multiple channels, engage them, and provide the support they need.
Its machine learning can recognize positive comments, reply to them, and even get more when you direct them to the Facebook messenger chatbot.
You can remain aware of the essential numbers with ManyChat analytics. This lets you understand your customer service chatbot performance and the aspects you need to improve.
Other notable features:
- ManyChat integrates with many of the tools you already use, including Zapier, Shopify, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Mailchimp, etc.
- Pay more attention to customers when you collect emails and phone numbers quickly.
- You can create chatbots easily with the help of templates and its drag-and-drop bot builder.
Pricing:
ManyChat’s pricing is as simple as it gets. It consists of only a free plan, which gives you limited access to 1000 contacts, and the Pro plan at $15/month.
💬 The bottom line
ManyChat is one of the few chatbot development companies that stays with you from start to finish. They get you leads from different points on the internet and help you track your performance, whether it’s through SMS, social media, or e-commerce platforms.
4. ChatFuel
ChatFuel made the top of my list of the most powerful AI marketing tools. That’s because they make some of the best chatbots, especially for managing customer relationships.
This artificial intelligence-based chatbot platform offers excellent automation and ease. You can set up your chatbot platforms quickly with templates and an easy-to-use interface.
Its automation also makes sure you’re in control of engagement with customers. Welcome customers, answer questions, guide them to the right products, collect emails, and welcome feedback, even in your absence.
Other notable features:
- Easy no-code platform.
- Shopify and social media automation.
- Different templates for all engagement needs.
- Analytics for improving how you engage.
Pricing:
ChatFuel pricing consists of the basic Entrepreneur plan starting at $14.99/month, the Startup plan at $24.99/month, and the advanced Small Business plan at $59.99/month.
💬 The bottom line
Chatbots are about engagement, which is what ChatFuel focuses on. It makes things easy for you by automating customer needs and queries, whether they are coming from your website, Facebook, or Instagram.
5. Drift
Conversational AI is an essential part of chatbot technologies and that is the main benefit Drift brings to the table. Drift’s natural language processing can help you converse with customers to market your brand and make sales.
I found Drift’s custom chatbots highly impressive when it comes to sounding like humans. So, they’re pretty personalized with engaging inputs.
In addition, Drift has an A/B testing function for checking the effectiveness of different messages. Then, you can have the assurance that your chatbot is helping you grow.
Other notable features:
- Drift Meetings lets you set automatic schedules at any time of the day so the sales team can stay organized.
- Drift help and Drift Videos allow you to create, record and share helpful content with customers.
- Drift Audiences is a feature that collates all relevant data to save you time. It also builds valuable reports by combining data from your audiences and the existing tech stack.
Pricing:
Drift has three pricing plans alongside its free plan — Premium, Advanced, and Enterprise. You can have a quick chat with a salesperson to know the exact numbers but research shows around $1500 is quite popular.
💬 The bottom line
Drift offers unique conversational chatbots and multichannel delivery. It can engage with customers via chatbots, live chats, emails, and videos. That means you can connect with each person exactly how they want.
Conclusion
While chatbots have been around for a while, the recent development of artificial intelligence and machine learning have significantly improved their service delivery. And it promises to get better.
The leading chatbot companies mentioned above offer more leads, personalized engagement, improved project management, insights, and continuous sales.
If you’ve ever thought about growing your business more effectively, there’s no better time to see what you can get from chatbots.
Good Luck!
Jessica La
