Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026
Chatbot and conversational-marketing software puts a proactive, often AI-driven widget on a website to start conversations with visitors rather than only answer the ones who already reached out — qualifying a lead, booking a meeting or routing a buyer to sales before a human ever joins.
This guide is aimed specifically at that job, not at plain support live-chat: several tools below also handle support tickets, but they are ranked here on chatbot flow builders, proactive triggers, lead routing and marketing automation. We checked what each vendor's own pricing page and legal notices actually say, not its marketing claims.
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In short
What chatbot software does
Chatbot / conversational marketing software is a website widget, usually paired with a no-code flow builder and increasingly an AI agent, that proactively engages a visitor, qualifies them as a lead, and either answers them automatically or routes them to a salesperson — distinct from a plain support live-chat queue that waits for the visitor to ask first.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each chatbot tool is built for. One rule sits on top of those tests:
Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Free (1 operator, 25 conversations/month); Solo $17/month; Plus $25/month; Expert $83/month; Enterprise from $280/month — up to 30% off on annual billing
Yes
Small Central European ecommerce teams wanting cheap chat hosted in the EU
Companies needing deep CRM or order system integration
Free (2 seats); Mini $45/month (4 seats); Essentials $95/month (10 seats); Plus $295/month (20 seats); Enterprise quoted; priced per workspace with a block of seats included, extra seats $10/month each
Yes
A small company where the whole team answers customers
A support organisation with queues, SLAs and shift reporting
Free €0; Pro from €105/month (€87/month billed annually); Enterprise quoted. Add-ons: Connect AI Agent from €99/month, AI Copilot from €19/month per seat, Workflows from €50/month, WhatsApp Campaigns from €20/month plus Meta fees
Yes
German-speaking companies needing EU hosting and WhatsApp in one inbox
Teams needing detailed routing logic and deep reporting
Boost €299/month billed annually (€349 monthly) for 10 users and 6,000 conversations a year (500 a month on monthly billing); Pro €499/month annually (€599 monthly) for 20 users; Enterprise quoted; AI-handled conversations carry a €0.25-0.30 surcharge each; broadcasting is an add-on; free trial available
—
European teams merging chat, email and WhatsApp into one queue
Essential $19/seat/month; Advanced $85/seat/month; Expert $132/seat/month (billed annually); Fin AI Agent billed separately at $0.99 per outcome on every plan; SMS, WhatsApp, phone and email campaigns billed on usage; 14-day free trial
—
A product company that supports users inside the product
Sold as "Messaging and live chat" inside Zendesk Suite plans: Suite Team $55/agent/month; Suite Professional $115/agent/month (annual billing); Suite Enterprise + Copilot quoted
—
A support organisation that values the ecosystem and hiring pool
Not published; Drift is being sunset and Clari + Salesloft refers existing customers to 1mind
—
The conversational-marketing category pioneer, now being sunset by Clari + Salesloft in favour of partner 1mind
—
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Spanish no-code chatbot builder purpose-built for lead qualification and WhatsApp conversion, not support tickets
Ranked #1 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Landbot was built from the ground up as a conversion and lead-generation chatbot builder, not a support-chat tool with a bot bolted on afterwards — the cleanest "conversational marketing" fit of the vendors in this category.
What stands out
Built for lead qualification
Native WhatsApp tier
Genuine free tier
SpainFree €0 (100 chats/month, 1 seat); Starter €32/month billed annually (€40 monthly): 500 chats, 100 AI chats, 2 seats; Professional €80/month annually (€100 monthly): 2,500 chats, 300 AI chats, 3 seats; Professional + WhatsApp €160/month; Business from €400/month by contract; overage €0.05/chat, €0.10/AI chat, €25/extra seat
Czech chat and automation platform for online stores, with a Mira AI shopping agent sold as an add-on
Ranked #2 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Smartsupp combines a competent chat widget with WhatsApp, Messenger and email in one inbox, and sells Mira, an AI shopping assistant that recommends products, as an add-on from $16 a month for 100 conversations.
At this price that is genuinely useful, and hosting in the EU removes a procurement conversation. Two caveats: plans come in operator bundles of one, three and five, so a fourth person means the top plan, and the integration list is short enough that connecting it to a warehouse or ERP means custom work.
What stands out
Mira AI shopping agent
Unlimited conversations on paid plans
EU vendor
Where it costs you
The AI agent is a separate add-on with its own conversation limit
Fewer integrations than the bigger platforms
Right for
Small Central European ecommerce teams wanting cheap chat hosted in the EU
Wrong for
Companies needing deep CRM or order system integration
Czech RepublicFree (1 operator, 25 conversations/month); Solo $17/month; Plus $25/month; Expert $83/month; Enterprise from $280/month — up to 30% off on annual billing
Italian open-source conversational AI platform: build chatbots and AI agents visually, deploy across channels or self-host
Ranked #3 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Open sourceSelf-hostablePricing on requestEurope
Tiledesk is an EU-based open source project with a visual designer for conversation flows and the option to run everything on your own infrastructure, which is a rare pairing. For a technical team on a small budget with data residency to satisfy, it does the job.
Expect rough edges: the agent console is the less-developed half of the product, the community is small, and upgrades occasionally require reading the repository rather than the manual.
What stands out
Open source, self-hostable
Multi-channel flow builder
EU vendor
Where it costs you
Human agent tooling is secondary to the bot builder
Documentation gaps show up during version upgrades
Right for
Technical European teams wanting self-hosted chat with visual flow design
Wrong for
Support managers expecting a polished agent workspace day one
ItalyPro €149/month (€124/month billed annually) — 3 users, 20 AI agents, 5M AI tokens, 3,000 conversations/month; Business €499/month (€416/month annually) — 5 users, 50 AI agents, 10M tokens, 5,000 conversations/month; Enterprise and White Label quoted; 14-day free trial
French all-in-one messaging platform with a no-code AI chatbot builder and flat per-workspace pricing
Ranked #4 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Crisp inverts the pricing model that makes this category expensive: you pay for the workspace, with a block of seats included, not for each person who answers a message. Essentials covers ten people for $95 a month, so a company of fifteen where support is everyone's occasional job adds five agents at $10 each rather than buying fifteen full seats.
The product is strongest where it started, with live chat, a chatbot and a shared inbox, and thinner where the enterprise tools are strong, which is queue management, SLA reporting and workforce planning.
What stands out
Flat per-workspace pricing
No-code AI chatbot builder
EU vendor
Where it costs you
Email inbox not on the free plan; ticket portal only on Plus
Analytics start at Essentials
Right for
A small company where the whole team answers customers
Wrong for
A support organisation with queues, SLAs and shift reporting
FranceFree (2 seats); Mini $45/month (4 seats); Essentials $95/month (10 seats); Plus $295/month (20 seats); Enterprise quoted; priced per workspace with a block of seats included, extra seats $10/month each
Polish sales-chat platform built around targeted campaigns and proactive outreach, not just support queues
Ranked #5 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
LiveChat is the specialist's specialist: canned responses, transfers, supervision of live conversations, and reporting that answers whether staffing matches demand. Agents who use it all day notice the difference from the cheaper widgets within a week.
The commercial shape is the objection. The AI agent and the ticketing live in Text, the company's own separate product at another per-user price from $19 a month, so a team wanting one integrated stack should price both products before comparing.
What stands out
Proactive sales campaigns
Campaign conversion tracking
Contract with Text, Inc. (US)
Where it costs you
The AI agent and ticketing are a separate Text subscription
Little value if chat volume is only a few conversations a week
Right for
Support or sales teams handling steady daily chat volume properly
Wrong for
Sites with a handful of conversations a week
PolandStarter $19/person/month (annual) or $25 (monthly); Team $49/$59; Business $79/$89; Enterprise quoted
German chat platform, rebranded Lime Connect, with a no-code Workflows builder and paid WhatsApp marketing campaigns
Ranked #6 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Userlike, now sold as Lime Connect, answers the compliance question directly, with hosting in Germany and contract terms written for a German buyer, and it adds WhatsApp, Facebook and SMS to the same agent inbox on the Pro plan without an extra product.
For a mid-sized European company that is usually enough. Push it harder and the limits appear: advanced and skill-based routing are Enterprise-only, the reporting will not tell you much about queue behaviour, and customisation of the widget beyond colours is limited compared with the Polish competition.
What stands out
No-code Workflows builder
WhatsApp Campaigns add-on
EU vendor
Where it costs you
Advanced and skill-based routing only on the Enterprise plan
Analytics stay at the surface level
Right for
German-speaking companies needing EU hosting and WhatsApp in one inbox
Wrong for
Teams needing detailed routing logic and deep reporting
GermanyFree €0; Pro from €105/month (€87/month billed annually); Enterprise quoted. Add-ons: Connect AI Agent from €99/month, AI Copilot from €19/month per seat, Workflows from €50/month, WhatsApp Campaigns from €20/month plus Meta fees
Dutch omnichannel inbox where website chat sits beside a WhatsApp Business number for outbound marketing
Ranked #7 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Trengo treats website chat as one inbox channel among many, which is the correct model for a company where customers also write on WhatsApp, email and Instagram, and where nobody should have to check six tools. Rules, assignment and reporting work across all of it.
Buy it only for the widget and you overpay for scope you do not use. Plans come with ten or twenty users and a conversation allowance (yearly on annual billing), which suits ten occasional answerers better than three constant ones, and AI-handled conversations are charged on top.
What stands out
WhatsApp Business inbox
Broadcasting as an add-on
EU vendor
Where it costs you
Entry plan is priced for ten users, dear for a small team
Heavier than needed if the website is the only channel
Right for
European teams merging chat, email and WhatsApp into one queue
Wrong for
Companies that only want a widget on one website
NetherlandsBoost €299/month billed annually (€349 monthly) for 10 users and 6,000 conversations a year (500 a month on monthly billing); Pro €499/month annually (€599 monthly) for 20 users; Enterprise quoted; AI-handled conversations carry a €0.25-0.30 surcharge each; broadcasting is an add-on; free trial available
Norwegian AI support platform mixing branched dialogue flows with generative answers in 100+ languages, aimed at high-volume customer service
Ranked #8 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Kindly's AI agents speak 100+ languages by default, which matters for a European retailer or marketplace serving many language markets from one bot, though the vendor now pitches it as a customer-service platform rather than a marketing tool.
What stands out
100+ language AI agent
Deep CRM/helpdesk integration
Quote only
NorwaySession-based pricing on an annual commitment; not published — quoted per organisation
US messaging platform built around the Fin AI agent, sold as an outcome-priced add-on to every tier
Ranked #9 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Intercom owns in-product support: the messenger, product tours and an AI agent that resolves a real share of conversations rather than deflecting them into a queue. For a software company supporting users inside the application, nothing else is as coherent.
Pricing combines seats from $19 to $132 a month on annual billing, $0.99 for each outcome the AI agent delivers and usage charges for SMS, WhatsApp and phone, which makes forecasting the bill genuinely difficult before you have run it for a quarter.
What stands out
Fin AI Agent
Outcome-based AI pricing
Omnichannel
Where it costs you
Seats plus a per-outcome AI charge plus usage-billed channels
Budgeting is genuinely hard
Right for
A product company that supports users inside the product
Wrong for
A team handling phone and email only
United StatesEssential $19/seat/month; Advanced $85/seat/month; Expert $132/seat/month (billed annually); Fin AI Agent billed separately at $0.99 per outcome on every plan; SMS, WhatsApp, phone and email campaigns billed on usage; 14-day free trial
Messaging and chat bundled inside the Zendesk Suite, not sold as a standalone chat product
Ranked #10 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Zendesk's advantage is the ecosystem: an app for every adjacent system, a large pool of agents who already know it, and reporting mature enough for a support operation to be managed on. Everything works and nothing surprises.
The cost climbs in steps: Suite Team at €55 per agent billed annually includes messaging and voice, but satisfaction surveys and a second brand need Professional at €115, and Copilot and the workforce engagement bundle are €50 per agent each on top, with automated resolutions beyond the monthly allowance at €1.50 each.
What stands out
Bundled in Zendesk Suite
Omnichannel AI routing
Not sold standalone
Where it costs you
Copilot, workforce management and extra AI resolutions are paid add-ons
CSAT surveys and multiple brands need the Professional plan
Right for
A support organisation that values the ecosystem and hiring pool
Wrong for
A five-person team on a budget
United StatesSold as "Messaging and live chat" inside Zendesk Suite plans: Suite Team $55/agent/month; Suite Professional $115/agent/month (annual billing); Suite Enterprise + Copilot quoted
The conversational-marketing category pioneer, now being sunset by Clari + Salesloft in favour of partner 1mind
Ranked #11 of 11 in Best Chatbot & Conversational Marketing Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
On 5 March 2026 Clari + Salesloft announced the gradual sunset of Drift and an exclusive deal to refer existing Drift customers to 1mind as its successor; drift.com now redirects to a Salesloft page that says "We've transitioned from Drift to 1mind". Not a product to start on now.
What stands out
Category pioneer
Being sunset
Customers referred to 1mind
United StatesNot published; Drift is being sunset and Clari + Salesloft refers existing customers to 1mind
Chatbot / conversational marketing software is a website widget, usually paired with a no-code flow builder and increasingly an AI agent, that proactively engages a visitor, qualifies them as a lead, and either answers them automatically or routes them to a salesperson — distinct from a plain support live-chat queue that waits for the visitor to ask first. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
4 of the 11 tools here publish what they cost; the other 7 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: Landbot, Smartsupp, Crisp, Lime Connect (formerly Userlike).
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 11 vendors are established in 9 countries across 3 regions (Europe 7, North America 3, Elsewhere 1). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
03
Consider whether you want the source
1 of these are open source: Tiledesk. Hosting one yourself trades a subscription for maintenance.
A bot built to qualify leads, or a support inbox with a bot attached
Landbot was designed for lead qualification and conversion, and LiveChat for proactive sales campaigns whose conversion it tracks.
Zendesk sells chat only inside its Suite, Intercom is at its best supporting users inside a product, and Trengo is an omnichannel inbox. A marketing team buying from the second group pays for ticketing; a support team buying from the first misses its queues.
Name who owns the bot: marketing, sales or support.
Walk through how a qualified lead reaches a salesperson's calendar or the CRM, step by step.
Check whether proactive triggers can fire on page, referrer or time on site.
Seats, workspaces, chats, sessions and resolutions
Crisp charges per workspace with a block of seats included, so occasional answerers cost little. LiveChat, Intercom and Zendesk charge per person.
Landbot meters chats and AI chats with overage fees, Tiledesk bundles conversations and AI tokens, Kindly prices by session on an annual commitment, Intercom's Fin costs $0.99 per outcome and Trengo adds a surcharge when the AI handles a conversation. A bot that works raises most of those bills.
Estimate monthly bot conversations from site traffic, then price the overage.
Ask what counts as an outcome or an AI-handled chat, and who decides.
Find out what happens when the monthly allowance runs out: bot switched off, or billed on.
The widget conversation often ends on WhatsApp
Landbot has a dedicated WhatsApp tier, Userlike sells WhatsApp Campaigns as an add-on with Meta fees on top, and Trengo is built for the visitor who starts on website chat and wants to finish on WhatsApp.
If your buyers live in a messaging app, the widget is only the opening move and the cost of the second channel deserves the closer look.
Ask whether outbound WhatsApp messages carry Meta's fees on top of the vendor's.
Move a test conversation from widget to WhatsApp and see whether the history follows.
Confirm that opt-in is captured in the bot flow before any broadcast is sent.
Who builds the flows, and where the bot runs
Every bot here needs someone to write and maintain its dialogue. Tiledesk has an open-source core a technical team can self-host, though its agent console is the weaker half.
Kindly covers more than 100 languages for retailers selling across markets. Smartsupp sells its Mira shopping agent as an add-on metered by conversation. Drift is being sunset, and Clari + Salesloft refers its customers to 1mind.
Ask what the AI answers from, and what it does when it has no answer.
Check whether the AI agent is metered separately from the chat plan, and at what rate.
If you run Drift today, ask Clari + Salesloft for the sunset date and what moving to 1mind involves.
What goes wrong most often when buying chatbot software
Putting a reactive support chat queue on the pricing page and calling it conversational marketing.
Pricing an AI agent on current chat volume when proactive triggers are meant to multiply it.
Launching a qualification flow that asks eight questions before the visitor gets anything back.
Adding WhatsApp broadcasts without counting Meta's fees per message.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What is the best chatbot software in 2026?
Landbot leads our ranking of 11. Landbot was built from the ground up as a conversion and lead-generation chatbot builder, not a support-chat tool with a bot bolted on afterwards — the cleanest "conversational marketing" fit of the vendors in this category.
Which chatbot tools publish their pricing?
4 of the 11, with the pricing model each one publishes:
Landbot: Free €0 (100 chats/month, 1 seat); Starter €32/month billed annually (€40 monthly): 500 chats, 100 AI chats, 2 seats; Professional €80/month annually (€100 monthly): 2,500 chats, 300 AI chats, 3 seats; Professional + WhatsApp €160/month; Business from €400/month by contract; overage €0.05/chat, €0.10/AI chat, €25/extra seat.
Smartsupp: Free (1 operator, 25 conversations/month); Solo $17/month; Plus $25/month; Expert $83/month; Enterprise from $280/month — up to 30% off on annual billing.
Crisp: Free (2 seats); Mini $45/month (4 seats); Essentials $95/month (10 seats); Plus $295/month (20 seats); Enterprise quoted; priced per workspace with a block of seats included, extra seats $10/month each.
Lime Connect (formerly Userlike): Free €0; Pro from €105/month (€87/month billed annually); Enterprise quoted. Add-ons: Connect AI Agent from €99/month, AI Copilot from €19/month per seat, Workflows from €50/month, WhatsApp Campaigns from €20/month plus Meta fees.
The other 7 quote per organisation.
Is there a free chatbot tool?
Landbot, Smartsupp, Crisp, Lime Connect (formerly Userlike) offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these chatbot software vendors established?
In 9 countries across 3 regions: Europe 7, North America 3, Elsewhere 1.
Landbot: Spain.
Smartsupp: Czech Republic.
Tiledesk: Italy.
Crisp: France.
LiveChat: Poland.
Lime Connect (formerly Userlike): Germany.
Trengo: Netherlands.
Kindly: Norway.
Intercom: United States.
Zendesk: United States.
Drift: United States.
Which chatbot tools are open source?
Tiledesk.
Which chatbot tools can you host yourself?
Tiledesk. The other 10 are hosted by the vendor only.
What should you use instead of Landbot?
Smartsupp and Tiledesk are the next two on this page. Smartsupp is for small Central European ecommerce teams wanting cheap chat hosted in the EU; Tiledesk is for Technical European teams wanting self-hosted chat with visual flow design.
Who should not buy Landbot?
Landbot was built from the ground up as a conversion and lead-generation chatbot builder, not a support-chat tool with a bot bolted on afterwards — the cleanest "conversational marketing" fit of the vendors in this category.
If your chatbot software product belongs among these 11, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
