Write down the same ten questions customers keep asking. They are a useful proposed test set, not a promise that a bot will answer them correctly. Decide which answers are approved and where a difficult case goes. Then compare the bill: a conversation, a resolved outcome and a flat chatbot subscription are different units.
The five options are Tidio with Lyro, Zapier Chatbots, HubSpot's chatbot builder and Customer Agent, Dapta and Intercom Fin. Four have full directory reviews. Intercom adds a per-outcome pricing comparison, but we haven't reviewed it in full. Don't treat that inclusion as a completed product test or a universal support recommendation.
Disclosure: none of the links on this page are affiliate links. We haven't run hands-on tests yet, and resolution rates quoted below are the vendors' own figures. Methodology.
Comparison table
| Tool | Best for | Paid price (USD) | Free plan | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio (Lyro AI Agent) | Small online shops and service businesses that want live chat plus an AI agent on their website | Lyro AI Agent from $32.50/mo annual ($39 monthly) for 50 AI conversations; Starter help desk $24.17 ($29) | Yes: 50 billable conversations/mo, 50 Lyro conversations (one-time) | Pricing pagechecked 2026-11-02 |
| Zapier Chatbots | Teams already on Zapier who want a simple FAQ and lead-capture bot wired into their apps | Chatbots Pro $13.33/mo annual ($20 monthly); Advanced $66.67 ($100) | Yes: up to 2 chatbots (public link only; embedding needs Pro) | Pricing pagechecked 2026-11-02 |
| HubSpot (chatbot builder + Customer Agent) | Businesses that want chat leads and tickets to land straight in a CRM | Chatbot builder free; Starter $7/seat/mo annual promo (list $20); AI Customer Agent $0.50 per resolution on Professional or Enterprise | Yes: free rule-based chatbot builder | Pricing pagechecked 2026-11-02 |
| Dapta | Sales-led businesses that want AI agents answering calls, SMS, WhatsApp and web chat and booking meetings | Pro $99/mo (100,000 credits, 5 users); Scale-Up $499 | No free plan (7-day Pro trial, 7,000 signup credits) | Pricing pagechecked 2026-11-02 |
| Intercom (Fin AI Agent)Not yet in our directory | Support teams that want an AI agent inside a full help desk, priced per resolved outcome | Fin AI Agent $0.99 per outcome, plus per-seat Intercom helpdesk plans | 14-day free trial, no card | Pricing pagechecked 2026-11-02 |
Before tax, list prices unless marked as a promo. "Annual" means the per-month price when billed yearly. On 2 Nov 2026 Tidio's page showed the same figures in EUR to our checker in the Czech Republic; the USD monthly prices ($39 Lyro, $29 Starter) were read on 26 Oct 2026. HubSpot Starter's $7 promo price is from our 26 Oct check; the Customer Agent price and the free chatbot builder were read on 2 Nov.
Three kinds of chatbot
- Rule-based bots. You draw the conversation: buttons, questions and branches. HubSpot's free chatbot builder works this way, qualifying leads, booking meetings and creating tickets, and syncing answers to the HubSpot CRM. Tidio's Flows do the same for proactive messages and quote requests. Predictable, but they can't answer a question you didn't plan for.
- AI agents trained on your content. Tidio Lyro, Intercom Fin and HubSpot's Customer Agent read your FAQs, help articles or website and answer in natural language, then hand over to a human when needed. Tidio lets you train Lyro from FAQ uploads, a website scraper and Zendesk article import.
- Chatbots wired into automation or sales. Zapier Chatbots answer from your instructions and knowledge sources and can trigger Zaps in 8,000+ apps (Zapier's chatbot page). Dapta goes further on sales: AI agents that answer calls, SMS, WhatsApp and web chat, qualify leads and book meetings.
How chatbots are billed
- Per conversation (Tidio). Lyro is bought as a monthly quota of AI conversations, from 50 up to 1,000. Tidio's separate "billable conversations" count only chats where a human agent replied; Lyro and Flows replies don't count toward them.
- Per resolution or outcome (Intercom, HubSpot). Intercom charges $0.99 per Fin outcome on top of helpdesk seats. HubSpot's Customer Agent costs $0.50 per resolution for messaging and $0.50 per minute for voice, paid in HubSpot Credits, and needs a Professional or Enterprise edition.
- Flat fee (Zapier Chatbots). Pro is $13.33 a month on annual billing ($160 a year) or $20 monthly for up to 5 chatbots; Advanced is $66.67 ($800 a year) or $100 monthly for up to 20 and removes the Zapier logo. Zapier's chatbot page says there are "no monthly credits".
- Credits (Dapta). Pro is $99 a month for 100,000 credits. Dapta's review notes that 1,000 credits equal $1 and an answered call uses 333 credits a minute (checked 26 Oct 2026).
How to choose
- List your top 20 questions. If they concern orders, hours, prices or bookings, use the approved FAQ to evaluate the agent. Do not assume importing the answers guarantees correct handling of every question. If you mainly want leads, a rule-based bot may be enough and is often free.
- Decide where conversations should land. In a help desk (Tidio, Intercom), in your CRM (HubSpot), or in other apps through automation (Zapier).
- Estimate monthly volume. Per-conversation and per-resolution pricing gets expensive as chats grow; flat pricing doesn't scale with volume but caps the number of bots.
- Check the channels. Website chat is standard. Tidio lists WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger; HubSpot's Customer Agent covers email, chat, forms, WhatsApp, Messenger and voice; Dapta covers phone calls, SMS, WhatsApp and web chat.
- Plan the human handoff. Every tool here can pass a chat to a person. Decide who answers, and during which hours, before you switch the bot on.
Our picks by situation
Online shop or local service business: Tidio (Lyro AI Agent)
Live chat, ticketing and an AI agent in one tool, with a Shopify and WordPress install and a free plan to start. Lyro answers only from your content and hands off to a human. Tidio says customers average a 75% resolution rate (vendor figure). Connecting Lyro to an existing Zendesk or Salesforce help desk needs the Plus plan ($300 a month and up).
Already automating with Zapier: Zapier Chatbots
The cheapest paid option here: Pro is $13.33 a month on annual billing for 5 chatbots you can embed on your site, with lead collection. Chats can trigger Zaps, so a lead can go to your CRM and Slack in one step. Zapier's pricing card mentions both "10 custom knowledge sources" and "1 knowledge source (1MB text file)" for Pro, so confirm the limit in a trial. Comparing automation tools too? See Zapier alternatives.
Leads must go straight into a CRM: HubSpot
The chatbot builder is free with no card, qualifies leads, books meetings and creates tickets, and writes everything to the HubSpot CRM. It's rule-based. For AI answers, HubSpot's Customer Agent costs $0.50 per resolution but requires a Professional or Enterprise edition, which is a much bigger commitment than Starter.
Phone calls and WhatsApp matter as much as web chat: Dapta
AI voice and text agents that answer calls, reply on SMS, WhatsApp and web chat, qualify leads and book meetings. Pro is $99 a month with 100,000 credits and 5 users. No free plan; a 7-day trial and 7,000 signup credits instead.
A growing support team that wants a full help desk: Intercom Fin
Fin AI Agent costs $0.99 per outcome on top of Intercom helpdesk seats, with a 14-day trial without a card. Intercom advertises 93% off for startups that have raised under $10M and have 15 employees or fewer. Not reviewed in our directory yet.
Privacy and GDPR checklist
- Tidio: says it is GDPR and CCPA compliant and has a completed SOC 2 report; its privacy policy says data is mainly processed in the EEA, with some transfers to the US under SCCs and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Lyro runs on Anthropic's Claude plus Tidio's own models.
- Zapier: SOC 2 Type II, a DPA covering GDPR with SCCs; Zapier says EU-only data storage isn't supported.
- HubSpot: SOC 2 Type 2 via its Trust Center and an EU data center in Frankfurt for new customers. On the Customer Agent page HubSpot says third-party AI providers are contractually prohibited from training on your data.
- Dapta: no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 claim and no data location stated on the pages we checked (26 Oct 2026).
- Everyone: mention the chatbot and its provider in your privacy policy, don't let the bot collect health or payment data it doesn't need, and sign the vendor's DPA.
Example: 300 chats a month
Take a hypothetical shop with 300 website chats a month and an assumption that AI resolves half, or 150. That is an arithmetic scenario, not a measured resolution rate. At list prices checked 2 Nov 2026, Zapier Chatbots Pro is $13.33 a month on annual billing without a volume-based increase. HubSpot Customer Agent would consume 150 × $0.50 = $75 in credits, plus Professional or Enterprise. Intercom Fin would be 150 × $0.99 = $148.50, plus helpdesk seats. Lyro uses an AI-conversation quota rather than that resolution unit: its entry $32.50 annual equivalent covers 50 AI conversations. Check Tidio's 300-conversation tier before budgeting the example.
The surrounding products still differ. Tidio and Intercom have help-desk functions, HubSpot is CRM-centered and Zapier connects other apps. The entry figure may not include every component the proposed support route needs. Price the whole setup with the AI stack cost calculator or see more tools in our best AI tools for small business guide.
FAQ
What is the best AI chatbot for a small business?
For most small websites and online shops, Tidio with the Lyro AI Agent is the most complete starting point: a free plan, live chat and help desk in one place, and Lyro from $32.50 a month on annual billing for 50 AI conversations. If you already run your business on Zapier, Zapier Chatbots is cheaper (Pro $13.33 a month annually). If leads must go straight into a CRM, HubSpot's chatbot builder is free. Prices checked 2 Nov 2026.
Is there a free AI chatbot for small business websites?
Yes, with limits. Tidio's Free plan includes 50 billable conversations a month and 50 one-time Lyro AI conversations. Zapier Chatbots Free lets you build 2 chatbots shared by public link (embedding on your site needs Pro). HubSpot's chatbot builder is free but rule-based; its AI Customer Agent needs a Professional or Enterprise edition.
How much does an AI chatbot cost per month?
On 2 Nov 2026: Zapier Chatbots Pro $13.33 a month on annual billing ($20 monthly); Tidio Lyro from $32.50 annually ($39 monthly) for 50 AI conversations; Dapta Pro $99 a month for 100,000 credits; Intercom Fin $0.99 per outcome on top of helpdesk seats; HubSpot Customer Agent $0.50 per resolution on Professional or Enterprise.
What's the difference between a chatbot and an AI agent?
A rule-based chatbot follows the paths you build, such as HubSpot's free chatbot builder sequences or Tidio Flows. An AI agent such as Tidio Lyro, Intercom Fin or HubSpot Customer Agent answers in its own words from your help content and can hand over to a human. Rules can suit structured lead capture while an AI agent handles questions. Whether to combine them depends on the required workflow; we do not have an adoption survey showing what most businesses use.
Are AI chatbots GDPR compliant?
It depends on the vendor and your setup. Tidio says it is GDPR compliant and processes data mainly in the EEA; HubSpot offers an EU data center in Frankfurt; Zapier offers a DPA but no EU-only storage. Dapta doesn't state its data location on the pages we checked. Add the chatbot to your privacy policy and sign the vendor's DPA.
Will an AI chatbot replace my support staff?
Vendors report high automation rates (Tidio says its customers average a 75% Lyro resolution rate; HubSpot reports a 70% average for Customer Agent), but these are vendor figures, not independent tests. Plan for human handoff, and review conversations weekly in the first month.