Live Chat · alternatives
Alternatives to Zendesk Answer Bot
21 live chat tools sit alongside Zendesk Answer Bot in this directory. Below is what separates each from Zendesk Answer Bot on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 21
- With a free tier
- 11
- Cheaper to start
- 12
- Zendesk Answer Bot starts at
- $55/month per agent
Why people look past Zendesk Answer Bot
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the Zendesk Answer Bot entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
It costs more than the category median
Zendesk Answer Bot starts at $55/month per agent. Across the 12 live chat tools listed beside it that publish a price, the median entry point is $24.5/month.
There is no free tier
The record for Zendesk Answer Bot carries no free tier, so evaluating it means paying first. 11 of the 21 alternatives below can be used without paying.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
AI-powered customer engagement and service platform
Priced and rated the same as Zendesk Answer Bot on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Enterprise conversational AI platform
Priced and rated the same as Zendesk Answer Bot on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
AWS conversational AI service
- Can be used without paying; Zendesk Answer Bot cannot.
- Starts $54.996 a per speech request cheaper, at $0.004/per speech request.
- 2 tiers to Zendesk Answer Bot's 3.
Chatbot and automation platform for Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and SMS
- Can be used without paying; Zendesk Answer Bot cannot.
- Starts $40 a month cheaper, at $15/month.
- 2 tiers to Zendesk Answer Bot's 3.
No-code chatbot builder for websites, WhatsApp, and lead generation
- Can be used without paying; Zendesk Answer Bot cannot.
- Starts $23 a month cheaper, at €32/month.
No-code AI chatbot builder for websites and messaging channels
- Can be used without paying; Zendesk Answer Bot cannot.
- Starts $36 a month cheaper, at $19/month.
- 4 tiers to Zendesk Answer Bot's 3.
Every Zendesk Answer Bot alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk Answer Bot (this page) | $55/month per agent | - | 3 | |
| Bold360IBM AI chatbot for live chat with NLU engine for customer support, similar machine learning-based article and intent matching | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Kore.aiConversational AI platform supporting 30+ channels with multi-intent handling and sentiment analysis, comparable enterprise scope | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Amazon LexAWS conversational AI service with speech and text understanding, pay-as-you-go pricing alternative for chatbot building | Free, then $0.004/per speech request | Usage-based | 2 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| ManyChat | Free, then $15/month | Freemium | 2 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Landbot | Free, then €32/month | Freemium | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Conferbot | Free, then $19/month | Freemium | 4 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Jivochat | Free | Subscription | 4 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Ada | Free | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Botpress | Free, then $9000/year | Subscription | 1 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Freshchat | Free, then $19/month | Subscription | 4 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Google Dialogflow | Free | Usage-based | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| IBM Watson Assistant | Free | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Crisp | Free, then $45/month | Freemium | 5 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Conversica | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| LiveChat | $20/month | Subscription | 4 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Comm100 | $29/month | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Kayako | $30/month | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Capacity | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Gorgias | $10/month | Usage-based | 4 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Haptik | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
| Acquire | $50/month | Subscription | 3 | vs Zendesk Answer Bot |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the Zendesk Answer Bot badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (11)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
Cheaper than Zendesk Answer Bot (12)
Entry price under Zendesk Answer Bot's $55/month per agent. The record does not say what unit that price is charged in, so confirm per-seat versus flat rate before comparing budgets.
What you would be giving up
Zendesk Answer Bot is most often brought in for customer engagement, lead generation, customer support, sales automation. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If Zendesk Answer Bot is broadly right and the question is cost, the Zendesk Answer Bot pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Live Chat category lists everything the directory holds, and best live chat tools ranks them.
Zendesk Answer Bot runs on web, email, slack, mobile. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about Zendesk Answer Bot alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Zendesk Answer Bot?
- 21 other live chat tools are listed in this directory, led by Bold360, Kore.ai, Amazon Lex, ManyChat. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Zendesk Answer Bot?
- 11 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Amazon Lex, ManyChat, Landbot, Conferbot, Jivochat.
- Is there a cheaper alternative to Zendesk Answer Bot?
- Yes. 12 of the alternatives below start under Zendesk Answer Bot's $55/month per agent: Amazon Lex at Free, then $0.004/per speech request, ManyChat at Free, then $15/month, Landbot at Free, then €32/month, Conferbot at Free, then $19/month.
- Why do people look for an alternative to Zendesk Answer Bot?
- On the figures on record, 2 things stand out: it costs more than the category median; there is no free tier. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from Zendesk Answer Bot?
- Zendesk Answer Bot is most often brought in for customer engagement, lead generation, customer support, sales automation. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to Zendesk Answer Bot?
- None of the live chat tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these Zendesk Answer Bot alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Live Chat, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare Zendesk Answer Bot against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Zendesk Answer Bot covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every live chat tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Live Chat category, 21 tools beside Zendesk Answer Bot. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.