Chatbot Software: Ultimate Guide To Bots In 2022 (With Reviews)

Johanna Gonzalez
12 min readJun 10, 2022

Getting to Know 6 Top Bot Providers For Your Business

Photo credits: Chatbot vector created by vectorpocket — www.freepik.com

One fine Monday morning, you log in to find abandoned orders totaling $18,380.

What the…? Not again?!

Prospects piled their online shopping carts on a Sunday. Three left messages asking some questions, not on your FAQ page.

Sunday, at your company, is a no-work day and all your customer reps log in on Monday at 9 a.m.

This isn’t the first time. You’ve been getting abandoned carts, and the total lost sales are ramping up.

Chances are, your prospects have bounced out for good, forgotten about you, and spied something else.

Or worse! Your competitors must have snatched those sales. How?

With a quality chatbot software, on-call to answer queries every ticking second, 24/7, rain or shine, come weekends or holidays.

Time to take a more serious look into this fast-evolving chatbot software trend. No doubt, it is here to stay.

The Chatbot Software Phenomenon

Here’s something to make those dollar signs light up your eyes…

Business Insider predicts that chatbot software will drive consumer retail purchases from a mere $2.8 billion in 2019 to a staggering $142 billion in 2024.

Whoa! Expect this nearly 5,000% sale increase to arise from a new business norm: more customers choosing to talk to a chatbot!

Chatbot software stats

Really?! How Good Are Chatbots Today?

Today’s chatbots are advanced automated customer service assistants that use artificial intelligence (AI) technology. AI imbues the bots with the ability to hold “intelligent,” personalized conversations.

The Mitsuku chatbot is a shining example of this technological marvel. This award-winning AI chatbot converses in an almost human-like manner, entertaining users with its sassy personality.

Because of the vast business potential of conversational AI technology, AI chatbot platforms are all the rage.

AI bots seem to be growing uncannily clever by the year. With this present trajectory of AI chatbot development, your brand could need a conversational chatbot sooner rather than later.

Not a Techie. What are Chatbots?

Originally called chatterbots, chatbots are programs that “converse” with people through SMS or voice commands.

You may recognize chatbot software in popular personal applications such as Alexa and Google Assistant.

Unlike decades-old versions, AI powers a lot of today’s bots. With AI, chatbots go beyond commands to mimic human conversation.

As business applications, chatbots take the place of human customers or recruiting agents.

Chatbot software automates routine customer questions and replies, freeing agents for engagements that need the human touch.

Since bots don’t sleep, eat lunch, and break for coffee or the loo, they satisfy many customers with on-demand responses at any hour of the day.

Not all chatbots, though, are powered by AI.

Simple, old-version bots assist many businesses with activities such as orders, ticketing, and product information.

To understand more, consider these two main types of chatbot software.

Rule-Based Chatbots

As the name goes, rule-based bots follow the rules to a “T.” These menu-based types adhere to pre-programmed keywords and conversation flowcharts.

They never depart from their strict design.

On the upside, rule-based bots serve many advantages:

  • Not expensive
  • Simpler than AI bots
  • Mesh well with old or legacy systems
  • Very predictable
  • No off-the-rail replies because they keep within their programming

On the downside, these bots are what they are…vapid when the rules are broken.

Conversation with a rule-based chatbot

Any deviation from the keyword or pre-programmed conversation flow will get you one confused bot and an increasingly frustrated prospect or customer.

AI Chatbot Software

Chatbots powered by AI are the ubiquitous future.

People are happier to have “natural” conversations, even if they have to talk to a chatbot.

An AI chatbot can work out verbal cues and respond to written and spoken human language outside pre-programmed rules.

These bots learn from data and use algorithms to arrive at results. The more data they acquire, the more intuitive and conversational they get.

The growing sophistication of AI chatbot softwares provides enormous business leverage for many industries such as finance, healthcare, education, eCommerce, aviation, and manufacturing.

The upsides to an AI chatbot are many, but most significant today are:

  • Pricing flexibility. Many cloud-based chatbot platforms have reasonable subscription prices within reach of small businesses.
  • Ease of customizing one. AI chatbot platforms allow small businesses to build their own chatbots without complex coding by a team of developers.
  • Brand consistency. Bots can be programmed to speak in your brand voice.
  • Conversational experience. Conversational bots provide customers with a much better buying experience.
Conversation with AI chatbot software

Building your own AI chatbot with the best AI chatbot software & apps is definitely the way to go in 2022.

What is a Chatbot Used For?

A quality chatbot software can offer businesses a multitude of benefits. Consider these few.

Image created by Johanna Gonzalez

Capturing Leads That Matter

Lead-capturing bots can immediately profile and segment prospects when they land on your website or social media pages. They guide prospects through the appropriate sales funnels to increase the chances of converting them into customers.

Making Sense of Customer Data

AI chatbot software captures data for valuable insights into customer needs.

With such information, a business may plan what new products to offer, how to gain customer interest, and how to improve experiences to develop brand loyalty.

Now! Customer Support

The capacity for rendering customer service 24/7 is a huge advantage for businesses, large and small. Customers who get on-demand responses, no matter the time, often develop loyalty and trust in your brand.

Ease Agent Workloads and Optimize Costs

Automated customer service won’t replace your customer service agents. Instead, it would free up their time from routine Q & As and enable them to focus on solving problems that need the human perspective.

Chatbot software optimize costs by answering as much as 80% of routine questions, saving businesses as much as 30% on expenses for servicing customer requests.

Recruiting and Onboarding “Right-Fit” Employees

Chatbots for Human Resources take the tedium out of recruiting and hiring employees. An HR chatbot responds to applicant queries, engages them on multiple platforms, and provides ranking information on metrics such as experience and background.

With such information at their fingertips, human hiring managers can better focus on what humans do better: holding interviews and crafting offers.

Marketing Brand Experience

A conversational AI chatbot can make the perfect partner for promoting products. In the case of global fashion brand H&M, chatbot software helps customers pick out a complete outfit. Aloft Hotel’s Chatbotler acts as a digital concierge, fulfilling basic requests, such as booking changes and points redemption.

Automation: Let Bots Do the Dirty Work

Chatbot software automates tedious, repetitive tasks and complements the skills of human agents. It allows agents to focus on solutions that need empathy and out-of-the-box problem-solving skills.

6 Top Platforms for Building Your Chatbot Software (Choose the Right Fit for Your Business)

AI chatbot software platforms

Let’s do a dive into chatbot platforms. What are they?

Chatbot software is created or built on a chatbot platform, also called a chatbot builder.

Think of a chatbot platform as a toolkit that helps simplify the process of creating chatbots. It also allows you to embed the chatbots you have designed into web or mobile apps.

Many of these platforms are cloud-based. Some offer bot builders that require no coding. Small businesses can customize bots without needing to hire a team of developers to build their chatbot software from the ground up.

You may want to consider this list of chatbots or platforms for your business.

3 Top Chatbot Software Open Source Platforms (Large Business Bot Providers)

Open-source platforms allow developers to design, create, deploy, and test enterprise-grade chatbot software.

Open-source means that the source code is free for anyone to use, study, change, and enhance. This encourages collaboration among developers, so all can learn from and improve existing technology.

Microsoft Bot Framework

Microsoft Bot Framework is a hybrid open-source platform that offers a broad range of tools to build advanced AI chatbots. It integrates with Luis, a natural language-understanding engine proprietary to Microsoft. It also integrates with BotKit, an open-source visual conversation builder which Microsoft recently acquired.

Best Scaled For: Large to medium-sized businesses

Supported Channels: Omnichannel: Web, Microsoft 365 Email, Facebook, Slack, Alexa, Cortana, GroupMe, Skype, Telegram, WeChat, Twilio

Multi-Language: Yes

Bot to Human Hand-Off: Yes

‍‍Free Plan Available: Yes, but capped at 1,000 messages

Pricing: So many pricing options for a cornucopia of services under the Azure Bot Service.

Pros:

  • Has almost everything enterprises need to build and connect intelligent, conversational bots that sound natural
  • Multiple Language platform
  • Integrates bots across various channels, especially with other Microsoft services
  • Very scalable

Cons:

  • May not be installed in-house as Luis is proprietary software. Its cloud platform, Azure, hosts the chatbot software created in the framework.
  • Could be a bit costly as Luis is a pay-per-API call service
  • The framework is complex for non-developers

Wit.AI

Wit.AI is an open-source chatbot framework acquired by Facebook in 2015. It boasts a robust and advanced natural-processing language (NLP) that allows Facebook chatbot software to be a better conversationalist.

Best Scaled For: Large to medium-sized businesses

Supported Channels: Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Slack, Google Drive, Twitter, Twilio, Zoom, YouTube, Hubspot, MailChimp, Shopify, Salesforce, Voice interfaces for mobile phones, wearable devices, and home automation products

Multi-Language: Yes

Bot to Human Hand-Off: Yes

‍‍Free Plan Available: Free or Freemium

Pricing: Free

Pros:

  • Free, open-source
  • Can create chatbots with the ability to converse more naturally
  • Easy, straightforward deployment on Facebook Messenger

Cons:

  • Training of bots takes a lot of time
  • Intended for developers
  • Difficult to use

Botpress

Botpress is an AI chatbot software open source platform for creating enterprise-grade conversational bots. It allows developers to create a free chatbot for website integration and work across other channels. Its free, open-source version is robust and includes many features usually found in paid plans of other AI chatbot platforms.

Best Scaled For:

Botpress Enterprise: Large to medium-sized businesses

Botpress Open Source: Small businesses

Supported Channels: Your website, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Email

Multi-Language: Yes, but only for Botpress Enterprise edition

Bot to Human Hand-Off: Yes

‍‍Free Plan Available: Yes, only for the open-source version

Pricing: Free for open-source edition; Custom pricing for the Enterprise version

Pros:

  • Has built-in live chat feature
  • Free for the open-source plan
  • A visual flow builder and the Live Chat are built-in features of the free plan.
  • The free edition also offers multiple channel support, data analyses, and community-based help.
  • Allows you to control and maintain chatbots across multiple channels in-house without relying on the server of the chatbot builder

Cons:

  • Not compatible with Instagram, Skype, and SMS
  • Can build a widget only for your website, not for Facebook, your landing page, or other channels.
  • No direct integrations with eCommerce marketing channels such as Shopify and WooCommerce

3 Top Chatbot Software Platforms Scalable for Small Businesses

Cloud-based platforms could fit right for small businesses with budgets too tight for hiring a team of developers. Many such platforms offer simple, no-coding chatbot software creation. Instead, these offer drag-and-drop user interfaces that make it easy to create an AI chatbot that speaks with your brand’s voice.

Moreover, these solutions offer affordable monthly or annual subscription fees, which allow small businesses to explore chatbots.

Drift

Drift is a market-oriented chatbot platform known for its cutting-edge Live Chat messaging platform. It emphasizes real-time personalized conversations on various communication channels, such as websites, mobile apps, and emails. The Drift chatbot automates lead capture and segmentation, bookings and schedules, notifications, and email playbooks, among its many capabilities.

Best Scaled For: Scalable — Large to small businesses

Supported Channels: Your website, landing page, and email. Not omnichannel

Multi-Language: Yes, but only for its Enterprise plan

Bot to Human Hand-Off: Yes

‍‍Free Plan Available: Yes, but with limited features. Free Trial Available

Pricing: Premium version = Free Plan + Custom Chatbots.

Advanced version = Premium Plan + A/B testing and advanced lead routing

Enterprise version = Advanced plan + AI-powered chatbots and multiple languages

Pros:

  • “Playbook” feature provides an easy chatbot builder for developers
  • Robust market segmentation capabilities
  • Integrates with your marketing CRM
  • Immediate chat support from Drift agents for tech issues

Cons:

  • Pricier than other chatbot software, as per customer reviews
  • Prices are not available on the website
  • Steep learning curve for non-developers
  • Not omnichannel. Chatbots only work on your website and email.

DialogFlow

The best thing about this Google chatbot platform is its versatility. Both small and large companies can use Dialogflow easily and create their chatbot software without coding.

Best Scaled For: Very scalable - fits small to large enterprises

Supported Channels: About 20+ channels which include Facebook Messenger, Kik, Twitter, Slack, Line, Twitter, Skype, Spark, Viber, Twilio, and Google Assistant

Multi-Language: Yes, about 30 languages

Bot to Human Hand-Off: Coding required

‍‍Free Plan Available: Yes

Pricing: Complex pricing for paid plans

Pros:

  • Machine learning is better than others, even with less training data
  • Build AI-powered chatbots without coding
  • Very scalable

Cons:

  • Lacks good customer support
  • Although it can integrate with many platforms, it is difficult and needs a developer to do so

Botsify

Botsify is a no-code chatbot builder that offers complete chatbot software management. You can test, deploy, and get an in-depth analysis of your sales, lead generation, and prospect attraction.

Best Scaled For: Small to large businesses

Supported Channels: Omnichannel — Website, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WordPress, WhatsApp, Twilio, Shopify, Alexa

Multi-Language: Yes

Bot to Human Hand-Off: Yes

‍‍Free Plan Available: No free plan. Free trial available for 14 days.

Pricing: Basic 2-Chatbot Plan — $49/month

Premium 5-Chatbot Plan — $149/ month

White-Label Plan for agencies and some SMBs — custom pricing

Custom Plan for large enterprises — custom pricing

Pros:

  • Drag-and-drop interface for no-coding chatbot software creation
  • Ready-to-use chatbot templates
  • Integration with Shopify and Dashbot.io
  • Reasonably priced full management services

Cons:

  • Bot-to-human handoff process is a bit difficult
  • Does not have its own analytics but can be integrated with Dashbot.io

Chatbots: The Bee’s Knees For Your Business in 2022 and Beyond

Depending on the complexity, AI chatbots don’t break the bank these days.

Still..would a small to medium-sized business need chatbot support?

The short answer is YES.

The long reply is…If not today, then eventually, in a very few short years. Don’t catch yourself doing business under a rock.

Image by Johanna Gonzalez

Now you know. Well-designed chatbot software can recover as much as 25% of abandoned carts or keep your customers away from competitors.

Chatbots fit perfectly into the NOW! consumer culture of on-demand answers and next-day deliveries.

So, given today’s affordable tech advancements, your business has fewer reasons to lose sales to more bot-savvy competitors.

Boost your bottom line and improve your profits. Build a bot to increase sales, brand loyalty, and workforce efficiency.

Just don’t lose big time to a piece of tech.

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Johanna Gonzalez

Certified Content Marketer | Copywriter. I write for brands so they can stand out and connect to people who need them. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/