The Best Chatbot Builder for Small Business in 2026: An Honest Pricing Comparison

The Best Chatbot Builder for Small Business in 2026: An Honest Pricing Comparison

Most "best chatbot" articles are SEO bait - a list of 20 tools with a one-paragraph blurb each, half of them affiliate-linked. This one is different in a specific way. It does not pretend to be a hands-on lab benchmark. It is a clear-eyed comparison of the 7 platforms small businesses actually shortlist, on the things that decide your bill and your fit: how each one prices, how it charges for AI, which channels it covers, and who it genuinely suits. Every price below comes from each platform's public pricing pages as of June 2026 - treat it as a starting point and confirm current rates before you commit, because chatbot pricing changes often (several of these tools restructured their plans in early 2026). If you are scoping the financial side, our free ROI calculator and support cost calculator help you quantify the upside.

Full disclosure: I work on Wexio, one of the seven tools here. I have kept this to verifiable pricing and documented capabilities rather than opinion dressed up as a test.

The one thing that actually drives your bill: how AI is priced

Before the tool-by-tool breakdown, the single most important difference. The headline cost gap between these platforms is not the base subscription - it is how each one charges for AI. There are three models, and they are an order of magnitude apart:

• Per-resolution / per-conversation: you pay a fixed fee every time the AI handles a conversation. Intercom Fin is $0.99 per resolution, HubSpot's Breeze agent is about $1.00 per conversation, Tidio's Lyro works out to roughly $0.65 per conversation on entry tiers. At 1,000 AI conversations a month, that is $650 to $1,000 - on top of the platform fee.
• Flat AI add-on: a fixed monthly surcharge on top of your plan regardless of volume. ManyChat's AI Step is +$29/mo, for example.
• Bring-your-own-key or self-host: you connect your own OpenAI/Anthropic/Gemini account (or self-host) and pay the model provider directly. A GPT-4o-class reply costs a fraction of a cent, so the same 1,000 conversations often land in the $5-50/mo range. Wexio (BYOK) and Botpress (self-host) work this way.

That structural difference - not brand, not features - is what creates the 10x to 40x spread you see quoted in chatbot comparisons. Two tools doing an identical job can be $1,000/month apart purely because one marks AI up per resolution and the other lets you pay the model directly. Keep this in mind as you read the prices below.

The 7 tools, compared

Quick pricing-model reference (public pricing, June 2026):

Tool by tool

1. ManyChat - fast Meta-channel bot, watch the AI add-on

Pricing (June 2026): Free (capped at 25 active contacts), Essential $14/mo, Pro $29/mo, Business $69/mo. ManyChat restructured its plans in March 2026. AI: not included in any plan - the AI Step is a separate +$29/mo add-on. Channels: Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS.

ManyChat's template library is genuinely huge and its flow editor is one of the most polished. The two things to watch as you grow: the AI add-on is a flat surcharge that can rival your base plan, and contact-based pricing scales with your whole audience even when those contacts do not engage. You are also tied to Meta channels.

Best for: Solo founders who want a working FB/Instagram bot quickly and expect to stay inside the contact caps for a while.

2. Chatfuel - the ManyChat shape with AI bundled in

Pricing (June 2026): Chatfuel moved to contact-based AI tiers in 2026. Fuely Super starts at $39/mo (150 contacts) and is commonly marketed at $69/mo (500 contacts); Fuely Max roughly doubles the price at each tier. There is no permanent free tier (7-day trial). AI: bundled into the tiers (GPT-class models), not a separate add-on. Channels: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp.

Chatfuel feels familiar if you have used ManyChat. The advantage is that AI is included in the plan rather than charged separately. The trade-off is that, like ManyChat, you are on Meta channels and pricing scales with contacts.

Best for: Teams that want the ManyChat experience with AI included in the plan, on Meta channels.

3. Tidio - the e-commerce-shaped option (mind the pricing cliff)

Pricing (June 2026): Free, Starter $29/mo, Growth $59/mo, then a steep jump to Plus at $749/mo (there is no mid-tier between Growth and Plus). AI: "Lyro" is a separate add-on starting around $39/mo for 50 conversations, which works out to roughly $0.65 per AI conversation on entry tiers. Channels: website widget first; weaker if your customers reach you on messaging apps.

Tidio's strength is the e-commerce niche - order status, returns, and sizing questions are handled well out of the box, and Shopify setup is quick. The flow editor is more linear than a full graph, so deeply branched flows hit a ceiling. The two things to plan around: the Growth-to-Plus pricing cliff, and Lyro's per-conversation cost at volume.

Best for: Shopify or BigCommerce stores under ~10 people. Skip it if your customers mostly DM you on WhatsApp or Instagram.

4. Landbot - built for conversion landing pages

Pricing (June 2026): Sandbox is free (100 chats/mo), Starter EUR 40/mo (EUR 32 annual), Pro EUR 100/mo, plus dedicated WhatsApp tiers (WhatsApp Starter EUR 80, WhatsApp Pro EUR 200). AI: AI chats are capped per tier with per-chat overages (around EUR 0.10 over the allowance). Channels: web and WhatsApp.

Landbot is really a conversational landing page rather than a support-inbox chatbot. The bot lives on its own page or embedded full-width. If your goal is to improve form-completion and lead-capture rates, it is excellent at that. If your goal is answering support questions in Messenger, it is the wrong shape.

Best for: Lead-gen businesses where the bot replaces a form. Skip it if you need a support/inbox-style chatbot.

5. Botpress - developer-friendly, most flexible

Pricing (June 2026): Open-source and self-hostable - free of licence fees, you pay only your own server and your own AI token usage. Cloud: Free (100 conversations), Plus $89/mo, Team $495/mo. AI: token usage is billed separately on every plan - you connect your own model and pay for what it uses. Channels: anything you write an adapter for.

Botpress is the technical option. The flow editor is a real graph with custom code blocks - you can write JavaScript in nodes, call any API, and run the model of your choice. Self-hosting is genuinely free of subscription (you cover a small server). The cost is the learning curve: the first week is steep and you really want a developer on hand.

Best for: Teams with at least one developer who want maximum flexibility. Skip it if everyone on the team is non-technical.

6. Wexio - multi-channel with bring-your-own AI

Pricing (June 2026): Free (100 operations, no AI - for evaluation), Standard $16/mo, Pro $29/mo. Billing is by operations rather than per seat or per contact. AI: two modes - use built-in OpenAI/Anthropic/Gemini models counted against your plan's operations, or bring your own key and pay the provider directly (fractions of a cent per reply). Channels: WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, and Viber in one unified inbox. A web widget is on the 2026 roadmap and is not live yet.

The BYOK option is the reason Wexio lands in the cheap column for AI-heavy use: for a 1,000-conversation/month bot on GPT-4o, paying the model directly comes out to a few dollars rather than a per-resolution markup. The build experience is closer to ManyChat than Botpress - a visual flow editor with real branching. The honest caveat: if all you need today is a polished website chat widget, Tidio is further along there - Wexio's strength is the messaging apps.

Best for: Teams whose customers live in messaging apps, or anyone cost-sensitive about AI at volume.

7. HubSpot Chatflows - free rule-based bot if you are already on HubSpot

Pricing (June 2026): The rule-based chatbot (Chatflows) is free on HubSpot's Free and Starter tiers. The AI agent (Breeze Customer Agent) lives in Service Hub Professional (around $90/seat/mo) and bills about $1.00 per conversation. Channels: website widget tied into the HubSpot CRM.

If you already pay for HubSpot, the free rule-based bot is a sensible first step - it sits right next to your contact records. The catch is that anything genuinely AI-driven is locked behind the Professional tier and then billed per conversation, which gets expensive quickly.

Best for: Existing HubSpot customers who want a free rule-based bot beside their CRM. Skip the standalone setup if you are not already on HubSpot.

Picking by team size

Solo founder, low volume (under ~200 conversations/mo): Wexio Standard ($16/mo) if you need messaging apps and AI; ManyChat's free tier if you are FB/IG-only and fit inside the 25-contact cap; Landbot's free Sandbox if you just need a web lead-capture form.

Small team, web-first or e-commerce (500-2,000 conversations/mo): Tidio for Shopify-style stores (budget for Lyro's per-conversation cost), or Chatfuel if your customers are on Meta channels. Start from pre-built templates to avoid rebuilding common flows.

Higher volume or AI-heavy (5,000+ conversations/mo): this is where the AI pricing model dominates the bill. Bring-your-own-key or self-host - Wexio BYOK (non-technical) or Botpress (technical) - so your AI cost does not scale per resolution.

Existing HubSpot customer of any size: start with the free Chatflows rule-based bot. Add another tool only when you hit something HubSpot cannot do.

What this comparison leaves out

A few popular tools were left out because they do not fit "small business":

• Intercom - enterprise B2B, with Fin AI at $0.99/resolution. Covered in our Tidio vs Intercom vs Wexio article.
• Drift - same enterprise motion as Intercom, more so.
• Salesforce Einstein Bots - only relevant if you are already on Salesforce.
• Custom-built bots - out of scope. If you have engineering capacity, Botpress plus the Cloud API is the closest off-the-shelf "custom" option.

FAQ

What is the absolute cheapest chatbot for small business?

For production use, the genuinely low-cost options are HubSpot Chatflows (free rule-based bot if you are on HubSpot) and Botpress self-hosted (you pay only infrastructure and your own AI tokens). Wexio, Tidio, ManyChat, and Chatfuel have free or low tiers, but their free caps are sized for evaluation, not real traffic.

Can I use a chatbot without coding?

Yes for most tools here. ManyChat, Tidio, Chatfuel, Wexio, Landbot, and HubSpot are no-code. Botpress is semi-no-code - you build flows visually but get the most value with some code.

Will a chatbot replace my support team?

No. Bots typically handle 30-70% of common questions; your team handles the rest. The goal is to free up time, not to replace people. Teams that try to make the bot answer everything usually end up with a worse customer experience.

Which chatbot has the best AI in 2026?

Tools that let you bring your own model (Wexio, Botpress) give you direct access to frontier models like GPT-4o, Claude, and Gemini. Tools with proprietary AI (Tidio Lyro, Intercom Fin) ship whatever their vendor releases, which is usually a step behind and priced per conversation.

How long does setup take for a real production bot?

As a rough rule of thumb: no-code tools (ManyChat, Tidio, Chatfuel, Wexio) take a day or two for a useful bot, and a developer-shaped tool like Botpress takes longer to get comfortable with. The biggest time sink is almost always content - writing the actual question/answer flows - not the building itself.

Should I worry about chatbot AI hallucinations?

Yes. Every AI bot occasionally invents facts. Best practice in 2026: scope the AI tightly (answer only from your knowledge base), give it a clear handoff to a human, and review AI conversations regularly for errors.

What to do next

1. Identify the 1-2 channels you actually need (web only? WhatsApp? FB/IG?).
2. Pick 2 candidates from this list that cover those channels.
3. Sign up for free trials of both and build the same simple flow on each.
4. Whichever took fewer steps and handled your own test conversation better wins.

Try Wexio - the Free plan (100 ops, no AI) lets you build flows and connect channels before committing. Standard at $16/mo enables AI auto-replies and 10,000 operations for production use. The setup walkthrough covers the first hour end-to-end.