Imagine answering customers’ questions even while you’re asleep. This is what free AI chatbots can do for your website. For small businesses, a free chatbot is all you need. Customers enjoy friendly, informative interactions 24/7, boosting your business’s sales and engagement. This guide includes a selection of free AI chatbots to help your website.
Good to know: niche AI chatbots can also help you with research, coding, or managing meetings.
1. Most Advanced Option: IBM watsonx Assistant
Price: Free with premium options
IBM watsonx Assistant is built on LLMs (large language models) to create a conversational AI platform. Guided prompts and templates help you create your own custom chatbot for your website. Even add in your own buttons, images, and more.
What’s great is that even the free version, aka Lite, gives you ample customization options, webchat, and even SMS/MMS functionality. You’ll get three assistants for free and up to 1,000 monthly users.
As with most AI chatbots, it learns as your customers interact with it. Enter questions and data to boost learning, or start with a template to get set up quickly. As your business grows, though, you’ll definitely need to upgrade to a premium plan.
Pros
- Easy to use chatbot builder
- No-code templates to get started
- Adapts and learns, even in the free version
Cons
- Credit card required to sign up for free (nothing is charged, though)
- Limited number of monthly users
2. Best Drag and Drop Builder: Tiledesk
Price: Free with premium options
Tiledesk is one of the best free AI chatbots for small businesses and solopreneurs. If you’ve ever created a mind map, the Design Studio is a familiar treat. Simply drag, drop, and customize each step of the process to make a template your own or start from scratch.
Easily test your chatbot at any point in the design process. You can even add in proactive events, such as a message when someone looks at a specific page or before they leave.
The downside is that the free version is limited to 500 conversations per month – but you can get unlimited emails. The premium plans, though, are some of the most affordable around.
Pros
- Easy, no-code design builder
- Set up custom rules
- Provides step-by-step instructions for adding to your website
Cons
- Limited to 500 conversations per month
- Limited to two employees in free plan
3. Best for Zapier Users: Zapier AI Chabot
Price: Free with premium options
If you already use Zapier integrations for your business, using the Zapier AI Chatbot just makes sense. It’s one of the best free AI chatbots to integrate with existing Zaps (Zapier integrations) without any coding knowledge.
The tool is still in beta at the time of writing, but you get unlimited conversations for free using the base AI chatbot model. If you want to connect your OpenAI account or use other AI chat models, you’ll have to upgrade. For most small businesses, though, the base model is enough.
Start from scratch or use the provided templates to build a chatbot in minutes. Navigating to the builder isn’t intuitive, but everything you need is in the Interfaces section. Test creation at any point, add triggers, create custom responses, and more – all for free.
Pros
- Unlimited conversations
- Step-by-step builder
- Includes templates
Cons
- AI tools and Interfaces are beta projects and may change at any time
- Only two Interfaces (AI chatbots) for free
4. Best for Customizing a Chatbot: Dialogflow
Price: Free with premium option
Dialogflow is powered by Google’s AI and hosted on Google Cloud. The basic version (Dialogflow ES) is free to use as long as you want. While it’s called a trial, as long as you don’t go over the monthly quotas, there’s no need to upgrade. You get an easy, yet advanced, platform to create free AI chatbots for your website.
If you’re not sure where to start, try a pre-built Agent, which are chatbot templates. Or, train one from scratch to better understand your business and customers. With Intents, you design the intent of the chatbot to best meet your needs.
With seemingly endless customizations, real-time testing, analytics, and integrations, it’s a powerful platform. All the options may seem overwhelming for beginners, but there’s built-in training and tutorials to help you every step of the way.
Pros
- Templates and training tools
- Generous free plan
- Step-by-step chatbot design tools
Cons
- Credit card required to register for free
- Quotas and pricing are confusing
5. Best for Use With ChatGPTBotPenguin
Price: Free with premium options
BotPenguin is all about marketing. Not only can you create free AI chatbots for your website, but Facebook pages and Telegram as well. WhatsApp is supported, but only in premium plans. The platform supports both custom messages and ChatGPT for AI responses.
Free users get 2,000 messages each month and 100 ChatGPT responses a month. Or, connect your own ChatGPT API key to use it as much as you want. The no-code flow builder lets you select question/prompt types from a list and add them to your flow. Add in AI wherever you feel it’s necessary.
While you only get one bot for free, it’s all you really need for a small business. Plus, the site offers tutorials on how to install the finished bot on your site. There are even tutorials to help you design your bot every step of the way.
Pros
- User friendly for all skill levels
- Build for websites and social media
- Choose templates based on your purpose
Cons
- Limited AI and standard messages in free version
Put Chat on Autopilot
Free AI chatbots give your site visitors someone to talk to, even when you’re not around. While free plans are usually limited, they’re often all you really need. You can always use throwaway email addresses to test them to see what you think first. If you’re interested in learning more about AI, check out these photo editors that use AI or see how AI is revolutionizing gaming.
Image credit: Pexels. All screenshots by Crystal Crowder
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