Is Botpress or Plain better?

Neither clearly leads. Botpress starts at Free and Plain at $35/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Botpress or Plain?

Botpress has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Botpress and $35/month for Plain.

Does Botpress or Plain run on more platforms?

Botpress runs on Open-source (self-hosted), Cloud-managed (Botpress Cloud). Plain runs on Web, API.

Can I use Botpress for free?

Yes. Botpress has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Plain starts at $35/month.

What is Botpress best used for?

Botpress is most often used for development teams building chatbots and conversational ai using mit-licensed open-source framework, organisations needing custom conversational interfaces with programmatic control via sdk/cli. Of those, development teams building chatbots and conversational ai using mit-licensed open-source framework and organisations needing custom conversational interfaces with programmatic control via sdk/cli are not what Plain is typically brought in for.

What can Botpress do that Plain cannot?

Botpress covers Visual bot builder, NLU integration, Multi-channel support, Analytics. Plain covers Multi-channel consolidation, AI agents, Workflow automation, Sidekick assistant.

Live Chat · head to head

Botpress vs Plain

Botpress

Live Chat

Open-source chatbot platform and framework

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Plain

Customer Support

AI support infrastructure built for B2B teams

From: $35/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Botpress has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Botpress dependent on OpenAI integration; users must provide and manage OpenAI API keys and costs; Plain foundation plan limited to 2,000 credits per month may be restrictive for high-volume teams
They diverge on capability: Botpress covers Visual bot builder, Plain covers Multi-channel consolidation.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Botpress and Plain actually diverge.

Attributes where Botpress and Plain differ
Attribute	Botpress	Plain
Starting price	Free	$35/month
Pricing model	subscription	Tiered pricing per seat with credit system
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Open-source (self-hosted), Cloud-managed (Botpress Cloud)	Web, API
Category	Live Chat	Customer Support
Founded	2016	Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Botpress

Visual bot builder
NLU integration
Multi-channel support
Analytics
Slack
Teams
Messenger
WhatsApp

Only in Plain

Multi-channel consolidation
AI agents
Workflow automation
Sidekick assistant
Insights engine
Linear and Jira integration
Help Center and Knowledge Base
API-first extensibility

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Botpress

Development teams building chatbots and conversational AI using MIT-licensed open-source frameworknot Plain
Organisations needing custom conversational interfaces with programmatic control via SDK/CLInot Plain

Plain

Consolidating support from multiple channels into one inboxnot Botpress
Automating support workflows with AI agentsnot Botpress
Extracting insights and trends from customer conversationsnot Botpress
Building custom support solutions with API accessnot Botpress
Implementing AI-assisted customer support at scalenot Botpress

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Botpress

Dependent on OpenAI integration; users must provide and manage OpenAI API keys and costs

Plain

Foundation plan limited to 2,000 credits per month may be restrictive for high-volume teams
Pricing increases significantly from Foundation to Horizon ($35 to $299 per month)
No published pricing for Frontier (custom) plan
Additional seat costs ($99 per seat) add up for larger teams
Credit-based system requires monitoring usage to avoid overages

Pricing, plan by plan

Botpress

Free

Standard$9000/year
- Up to 4 seats
- 1,200 conversations per month
- No per-seat cost

Plain

$35/month

Foundation$35/month
- 2,000 credits per month
- Slack and email channels
- Ari AI agent
Horizon$299/month
- 15,000 credits per month
- All Foundation features
- Microsoft Teams integration
Frontier$null/custom
- Custom credit allowance
- All Horizon features
- Discord channels

Which should you pick?

Choose Botpress if

You need visual bot builder.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Open-source (self-hosted), Cloud-managed (Botpress Cloud).
You also want nlu integration.

Botpress review

Choose Plain if

You need multi-channel consolidation.
You work on Web, API.
You also want ai agents.

Plain review

Questions people ask

Is Botpress or Plain better?: Neither clearly leads. Botpress starts at Free and Plain at $35/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Botpress or Plain?: Botpress has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Botpress and $35/month for Plain.
Does Botpress or Plain run on more platforms?: Botpress runs on Open-source (self-hosted), Cloud-managed (Botpress Cloud). Plain runs on Web, API.
Can I use Botpress for free?: Yes. Botpress has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Plain starts at $35/month.
What is Botpress best used for?: Botpress is most often used for development teams building chatbots and conversational ai using mit-licensed open-source framework, organisations needing custom conversational interfaces with programmatic control via sdk/cli. Of those, development teams building chatbots and conversational ai using mit-licensed open-source framework and organisations needing custom conversational interfaces with programmatic control via sdk/cli are not what Plain is typically brought in for.
What can Botpress do that Plain cannot?: Botpress covers Visual bot builder, NLU integration, Multi-channel support, Analytics. Plain covers Multi-channel consolidation, AI agents, Workflow automation, Sidekick assistant.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Botpress: How much does Botpress cost?

Botpress charges $9,000 per year for the standard plan supporting 4 seats with 1,200 conversations monthly. No per-seat cost is applied when adding team members or expanding usage, and AI capabilities are included in the subscription.

Source

Plain: What is included in the Foundation plan?

The Foundation plan ($35/month per seat) includes 2,000 credits per month, support for Slack and email, Ari AI agent, Linear and Jira integrations, and Help Center access. Up to 5 seats are included.

Source

Botpress: Is there a free Botpress plan?

Yes, Botpress offers a free tier with no credit card required. You can try the platform for free and test it on your own support tickets before upgrading.

Source

Plain: Can I use Plain with Microsoft Teams?

Yes, Microsoft Teams integration is available on the Horizon plan ($299/month) and higher.

Source

Botpress: What does Botpress include compared to Zendesk or Intercom?

Botpress saves $25,500 per year compared to Zendesk and Intercom for a 4-seat team handling 1,200 monthly conversations, delivering the same AI-powered support without separate AI billing.

Source

Plain: Is there a free trial for Plain?

Yes, Plain offers a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. You can also get 50% discount through their startup program.

Source

Botpress vs Plain

Botpress

Plain

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Botpress

Only in Plain

What people use each for

Botpress

Plain

Where each one falls short

Botpress

Plain

Pricing, plan by plan

Botpress

Plain

Which should you pick?

Choose Botpress if

Choose Plain if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Botpress

More on Plain

Keep looking

Other head to heads