The 7 best chatbots for customer service in 2025

Everyone’s talking about AI chatbots. But if we’re being honest, a lot of them are clunky, complicated, and way too expensive for what they do. You’re promised easy automation, but you end up with a tool that annoys customers and somehow creates more work for your team.

Picking the wrong chatbot can mean getting stuck in a long contract, a setup process that drags on for months, and an AI that causes more headaches than it solves.

I’ve spent a ton of time testing these platforms to figure out which ones actually work as advertised. This guide gets straight to the point, reviewing the top 7 options to help you find a chatbot that will genuinely help your team and keep customers from pulling their hair out.

Defining the best chatbots for customer service

In simple terms, AI chatbots for customer service are tools that use artificial intelligence to understand and answer customer questions like a real person would. They’re basically your first line of support, ready to help out 24/7.

They work by digging into all the information you already have, your help docs, FAQs, and even old support tickets. This lets them give out accurate answers on their own, handle simple tasks like checking on an order, and juggle tons of conversations at once. Unlike the old-school bots that just followed a script and got stuck saying, "Sorry, I don’t understand," today’s best chatbots can handle more complex questions and know when it’s time to loop in a human agent.

Why use the best chatbots? Key benefits for support teams

So, why even bother with a chatbot? When you get a good one, the perks are pretty obvious and go beyond just answering questions.

For starters, you get to offer support around the clock. Your customers can get instant help anytime, anywhere, without you needing to staff a full team overnight. It also frees up your agents from answering the same questions over and over. This lets them focus their energy on the tougher issues where their expertise is actually needed.

You also get to handle more customer conversations without having to hire more people, which is great for your budget. A good bot provides the same on-brand answer to common questions every single time, making your support feel consistent and reliable. Plus, they’re great for spotting trends. You can see what your customers are asking about most, which might point out a gap in your knowledge base or an opportunity to make your product better.

How we chose the best chatbots for this list

When I put this list together, I looked beyond the fancy feature lists. I wanted to know what really matters to a busy support team. A great chatbot should make your job easier, not give you one more thing to manage.

Here’s what I focused on:

First, how easy is it to set up and use? I wanted to know if you could get it running quickly on your own or if you’d need a developer and a dozen meetings just to get started.

Next, how well does it connect with your other tools? A chatbot should plug right into your helpdesk, whether that’s Zendesk or Freshdesk, and learn from your documents in places like Confluence or Google Docs.

I also looked at control. Can you tweak the bot’s tone to match your brand? Can you set clear rules for when it should hand off a conversation to a person?

And of course, pricing. Is it straightforward, or are there hidden fees that will pop up later? Ultimately, I was looking for tools that solve real problems and make a support team’s life a little less chaotic.

The best chatbots of 2025: a quick comparison

Here’s a quick rundown of how our top picks compare.

Tool	Best For	Key Integration	Pricing Model
eesel AI	Teams that want fast, self-serve setup without replacing their helpdesk	Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, Slack, Confluence	Flat monthly fee (no per-resolution costs)
Intercom	Unified customer engagement (support, sales, marketing)	Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe	Per-seat and per-resolution pricing
Ada	Enterprise-scale automation with deep customization	Zendesk, Salesforce, ServiceNow	Custom (Quote-based)
Zowie	Ecommerce brands focused on ticket deflection	Shopify, Magento, Gorgias	Custom (Quote-based)
Freshchat (Freddy AI)	Businesses already using the Freshworks ecosystem	Freshdesk, Freshsales, Shopify	Per-agent pricing
Tidio	Small businesses needing a simple, budget-friendly solution	Shopify, WordPress, Wix	Free plan, with paid plans per seat
Zendesk AI	Teams fully committed to the Zendesk platform	Deep integration with Zendesk Suite	Add-on to Zendesk plans

A detailed look at the 7 best chatbots

Let’s get into the details of what makes each of these tools tick, including the good and the not-so-good.

1. eesel AI: One of the best chatbots for a fast, flexible, and self-serve setup

eesel AI is for teams that want a smart chatbot without the pain of a huge, drawn-out implementation. It’s built to work with the tools you already have, so you don’t have to change your entire workflow.

What I really like about it is how fast you can get going. You can launch it in minutes, not months. Most other companies make you sit through a demo and a long sales process, but eesel AI is completely self-serve. You can connect your helpdesk and knowledge docs and have a bot ready to go all on your own. It pulls information from everywhere, help articles, past tickets, Google Docs, Confluence, and even internal Slack threads, to make its answers much more accurate.

The best part? You can test it out without any risk. eesel AI has a simulation mode that lets you see how it would have handled thousands of your past tickets before it ever talks to a real customer. This gives you a solid idea of its resolution rate and lets you tweak its settings in a safe space. You get full control over what it automates and when it passes a ticket to your team.

• Pricing: Starts at $299/month. The pricing is transparent and based on how much you use it, not how many tickets it solves. No surprise fees.

• Pros: Incredibly simple setup, learns from all your company knowledge, has a risk-free simulation mode, and no per-resolution fees.

• Cons: It’s a newer tool compared to some of the long-standing platforms on this list.

2. Intercom: One of the best chatbots for a unified customer engagement platform

Intercom is one of the big names in this space, known for its powerful all-in-one platform that covers support, marketing, and sales. Its chatbot, Fin, is a key piece of this and is great for guiding customers through everything from onboarding to support requests.

If you want one tool that does it all, Intercom is a solid choice. But that’s also its main drawback. Intercom is a whole ecosystem. If you just need a chatbot for support, it can feel like you’re buying a whole workshop just to get a screwdriver. It can get expensive, fast. The pricing for its AI charges you $0.99 for every single resolution, which can make your costs unpredictable and high if you have a lot of support traffic. This is a big difference from a tool like eesel AI, which has a flat fee that’s easy to plan for.

• Pricing: Plans start at $29/seat/month, but the Fin AI Agent costs an additional $0.99 for every resolution.

• Pros: Beautiful interface, combines lots of customer-facing tools in one place, and is great for proactive messaging.

• Cons: Can get very expensive, the per-resolution pricing is unpredictable, and it might be overkill if all you need is a support bot.

3. Ada: One of the best chatbots for enterprise-level automation

Ada is a heavy-duty platform designed for large companies that need to automate customer service on a huge scale. If you’re a big business with customers all over the world, Ada is probably on your list.

It gives you a ton of customization options, has powerful AI that can handle complex conversations in many languages, and includes a no-code builder that anyone can use. It’s a real workhorse. But all that power comes with a hefty price tag and a long setup process. It’s not the right tool for teams that need something affordable they can start using right away. For that, a self-serve option like eesel AI, which you can launch the same day you sign up, makes a lot more sense.

• Pricing: Custom pricing. You’ll have to go through a demo and get a formal quote.

• Pros: Scales well for large companies, has powerful AI for tricky questions, and strong security features.

• Cons: Expensive, has a long implementation timeline, and isn’t a good fit for small or medium-sized teams.

4. Zowie: One of the best chatbots for e-commerce ticket deflection

Zowie is a chatbot with a very specific mission: to help e-commerce businesses cut down on repetitive support tickets.

And it’s really good at it. It connects directly with platforms like Shopify and Magento, so it’s great at answering common questions like "Where is my order?" or "How do I start a return?". For online stores, it’s a fast and effective way to clear out a big chunk of the support queue. The problem is that its specialization is also its biggest weakness. If you’re not in e-commerce, or if your team needs a bot that can learn from internal docs in Confluence or Google Docs, Zowie won’t be very useful. A more flexible tool like eesel AI, which can connect to a much wider range of knowledge sources, would be a better choice.

• Pricing: Custom pricing, you’ll need to schedule a demo.

• Pros: Perfect for handling common e-commerce questions and is quick to set up for retail brands.

• Cons: Too specialized for most other industries and doesn’t connect to many different knowledge sources.

5. Freshchat (Freddy AI): One of the best chatbots for teams in the Freshworks ecosystem

Freshchat is the chatbot tool from Freshworks, powered by their Freddy AI. It’s a decent mix of live chat and automation that can help most support teams.

Its biggest advantage is for companies that are already using other Freshworks tools like Freshdesk or Freshsales. For those teams, the integration is seamless and just works. The catch is that it’s designed to keep you within the Freshworks world. If your company’s knowledge is stored somewhere else, like in Notion or internal wikis, getting it to work can be a pain. It feels less like a flexible tool and more like a way to lock you into their ecosystem, which is a major difference from a platform like eesel AI that’s built to play well with others.

• Pricing: Paid plans start at $19/agent/month.

• Pros: Integrates perfectly with other Freshworks products and has good basic features.

• Cons: Works best inside its own ecosystem and can be limiting if you use a variety of tools.

6. Tidio: One of the best chatbots for small businesses on a budget

Tidio is a popular choice for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs who need a simple, cheap way to add live chat and a basic chatbot to their site.

It’s on this list because it has a pretty good free plan, is super easy to install on sites like WordPress and Shopify, and has a visual builder that makes sense even if you’re not technical. It’s a great place to start. That said, Tidio isn’t designed for teams that need to handle complicated issues or a lot of support volume. Its AI is fairly basic, and it doesn’t have the more advanced features, like a simulation mode, that you’d find in a tool like eesel AI. It’s great for getting started, but you might find yourself needing something more powerful pretty quickly.

• Pricing: Has a free plan; paid plans start around $25/month.

• Pros: Very affordable, incredibly easy to set up, and user-friendly.

• Cons: Basic AI features, not built for growing support teams, and has limited analytics.

7. Zendesk AI: One of the best chatbots for dedicated Zendesk users

If your team lives in Zendesk, their own AI tool seems like the obvious choice. It’s built to work perfectly with Zendesk tickets, macros, and help articles, so it’s easy for any Zendesk admin to get it going.

But this tight integration is also its biggest flaw. Zendesk AI only knows what’s inside the Zendesk universe. If you have important info stored in external places like SharePoint, Confluence, or Google Docs, the bot can’t see it. This "walled garden" approach is a huge drawback because it means your bot is working with incomplete information. It’s the opposite of a tool like eesel AI, which is specifically designed to bring all of your company’s scattered knowledge together in one place.

• Pricing: It’s a paid add-on for Zendesk Suite plans.

• Pros: Seamless integration with Zendesk and is easy for existing admins to use.

• Cons: Only learns from Zendesk data, locks you into their ecosystem, and can be an expensive add-on.

How to choose the best chatbots for your business

So, with all these options, how do you pick one you won’t end up hating? Here are a few questions to ask yourself.

First, what’s your main goal? Are you just trying to get rid of simple, repetitive questions? Or do you need something that can walk customers through more detailed problems? Knowing what you want to accomplish will help you focus on the features that actually matter.

Next, take a look at your current tools. The best chatbot is one that works with the software you already use. You shouldn’t have to switch your helpdesk just to get a bot to work. Look for something that’s flexible.

Then, think about your time and resources. Do you have developers who can help with a complex setup, or do you need something you can launch yourself this afternoon? A tool like eesel AI lets you get started in minutes, which is a big plus.

Finally, ask for a risk-free way to try it out. Don’t just trust a slick sales demo. See if you can get a free trial or, even better, a simulation mode that shows you exactly how the bot will perform with your real customer data before you sign anything.

The future of the best chatbots: From automation to collaboration

The goal of a good chatbot isn’t to replace your support team; it’s to make their jobs easier. The best setup is one where the bot handles all the boring, repetitive stuff, which gives your team the time and focus to handle the conversations that really need a human touch. It’s all about finding that sweet spot between AI efficiency and human expertise.

The right tool should feel like a helpful teammate, not another complicated system you have to wrestle with every day.

Ready to see how a flexible, self-serve AI can help your support team? With eesel AI, you can connect your knowledge sources and see how it would perform on your real tickets in just a few minutes. Start your free trial or book a demo today.