
Salesforce is the heart of your business, but getting a chatbot to play nice with it can feel like a major headache. You know you need one, but the options are overwhelming. Do you go with Salesforce's own Einstein Bots and brace for the eye-watering price tag and complexity? Or do you take a chance on a third-party app, hoping the integration doesn't turn into a six-month developer project? It feels like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I’ve been there. That’s why I decided to sort through the options myself. I spent weeks testing, comparing, and digging into the pricing of the top chatbot solutions for Salesforce. This guide is the result, a straightforward breakdown of seven of the best options out there. We’ll look at what really matters: how easy they are to set up, what they can actually do, and how much they’re going to cost you.
What is a chatbot for Salesforce?
Let's get one thing straight: a chatbot for Salesforce isn't just a simple chat widget you slap on your website. It's a smart tool that needs to be deeply woven into your Salesforce data and workflows. Think of it as a super-efficient assistant who’s directly connected to your company's brain and never needs a coffee break.
Its main job is to chat with customers or prospects and then actually do something with that information in Salesforce. This could mean automatically creating new leads or support cases from a conversation, looking up an order status directly from Salesforce records, or updating a customer's contact details without anyone on your team lifting a finger.
Basically, it bridges the gap between customer conversations and your CRM, whether you’re trying to capture new leads or just give your support team a break from answering the same questions over and over.
Why you might need an alternative to Einstein Bots
Salesforce does have its own native solution, Einstein Bots (now part of the Agentforce platform). Its biggest selling point is that it's already inside the ecosystem. But here’s the thing, a lot of businesses end up looking elsewhere, and for good reasons.
First off, the cost. Einstein Bots often require expensive, high-tier licenses like Service Cloud Unlimited or a separate "Digital Engagement" add-on. The pricing can also be tied to a limited number of "conversations," which makes it almost impossible to predict your bill at the end of the month.
Second, they’re not exactly plug-and-play. Setting up and customizing Einstein Bots usually means you need a deep understanding of Salesforce-specific tools like Flows. This means you’re either spending a ton of time learning it yourself or hiring a pricey Salesforce developer.
And finally, native bots are great at using knowledge that lives inside Salesforce, like official Knowledge Articles. But what if the real answers your customers need are scattered across Google Docs, Confluence, or past support tickets? That's a common blind spot for native solutions, leaving your bot unable to answer a huge chunk of questions.
Our criteria for the best chatbot for Salesforce
To give you a fair comparison, I looked at each tool through the same lens, focusing on what you'd actually care about when trying to get work done. Here’s what I checked for:
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Ease of integration: How hard is it to connect the chatbot to Salesforce? Can someone on your sales or support team handle it, or do you need to bring in a developer?
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Automation and workflow capabilities: Can the bot do more than just talk? I wanted to see if it could take real actions, like creating cases, updating leads, and kicking off custom workflows.
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Knowledge management: How does the bot learn? Is it stuck with just your help center, or can it tap into the real-world knowledge hidden in your past tickets, internal docs, and other apps?
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Testing and deployment: Can you test the chatbot safely before letting it loose on your customers? A good tool should let you see how it will perform and give you some confidence before you go live.
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Pricing transparency: Is the pricing page clear and easy to understand? Or is it hiding behind a "Contact Sales" button and a bunch of confusing licenses?
Comparison of the best chatbot for Salesforce
Here’s a quick look at how the top tools stack up against each other.
| Tool | Best For | Ease of Setup | Custom Actions | Transparent Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eesel AI | Overall flexibility & self-serve setup | High | Yes (No-code API calls) | Yes |
| Salesforce Einstein Bots | Deep native Salesforce workflows | Low | Yes (Via Flows) | No |
| Ada | Enterprise-grade conversational AI | Medium | Yes | No |
| 360 SMS | SMS and WhatsApp-first automation | High | Limited to messaging | Yes |
| ValueText | Cost-effective SMS/WhatsApp bots | High | Limited to messaging | Yes |
| Mogli | Native SMS/WhatsApp on Salesforce | Medium | Limited to messaging | No |
| Google Bot for Salesforce | Powerful NLP & enterprise scale | Low | Yes (Developer heavy) | No |
The 7 best chatbot for Salesforce tools in 2025
Let's dive into the details of each tool, what makes it stand out, and where it falls a little short.
1. eesel AI
A screenshot of the eesel AI landing page, a flexible chatbot for Salesforce.
eesel AI takes a different approach. Instead of being an app you install from the AppExchange, it's a standalone AI platform that connects to Salesforce and your whole tech stack. Its biggest plus is that it’s built to be incredibly self-serve. You can connect it to Salesforce, your help center, Google Docs, Confluence, and even past tickets in minutes. From there, you can build AI agents that take custom actions, like creating a lead in Salesforce or checking an order status in Shopify, all without writing a line of code.
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Pros: It’s incredibly easy to set up; you can be live in under an hour. The simulation mode is a huge help, letting you test your bot on historical tickets to see how it would have performed before you launch. The pricing is transparent and not based on per-resolution fees, and it can learn from literally anywhere your knowledge is stored.
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Cons: It's not a "native" Salesforce app, so you’ll be managing it in a separate dashboard. For teams that want every single tool living inside the Salesforce UI, this might be a dealbreaker.
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Pricing: eesel AI's pricing is straightforward. The Team plan starts at $299/month ($239/month if paid annually) and the Business plan, which includes training on past tickets and custom AI Actions, is $799/month ($639/month annually).
2. Salesforce Einstein Bots
This is Salesforce's own chatbot, and its strength is its deep, native integration. If you need to build complex conversation flows that rely heavily on custom Salesforce objects and processes, Einstein is powerful. It’s built on the Salesforce platform, so it’s secure and uses standard features like Flows to control its logic.
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Pros: You get an unmatched connection to Salesforce data and workflows. It's also secure and compliant, which is a big deal for large companies.
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Cons: The pricing is a maze. To get Einstein Bots, you generally need the pricey Service Cloud Unlimited Edition ($350/user/month) or the Agentforce 1 Service plan ($550/user/month). You can sometimes add it to the Enterprise plan for an extra $75/user/month. On top of that, it requires a lot of specialized Salesforce knowledge to build and maintain, and it really struggles with any information that isn't stored in Salesforce.
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Pricing: Requires high-tier Service Cloud licenses, which effectively means you're starting at $350/user/month.
3. Ada
Ada is a big name in the enterprise AI world. It's an AI-powered automation platform built for large support and sales teams and offers a powerful chatbot builder with solid integrations, including Salesforce. If you need a bot that can handle highly personalized conversations at a massive scale, Ada is a strong contender.
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Pros: It’s built to handle enterprise-level demand, has very advanced conversational AI, and focuses heavily on personalization.
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Cons: The price is a complete mystery. You have to go through a sales process to get a quote, which is usually a sign that it's expensive. It can also be a beast to implement and often needs a dedicated team just to manage it.
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Pricing: Custom pricing is only available after you talk to their sales team.
4. 360 SMS
A screenshot of the 360 SMS landing page, a messaging chatbot for Salesforce.
360 SMS is a popular AppExchange app that, as you might guess, is all about messaging. It lets you automate conversations on SMS and WhatsApp using a no-code chatbot builder. It’s a great fit for specific tasks like sending appointment reminders, qualifying leads through text, or answering simple questions on the go.
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Pros: It’s excellent for SMS and WhatsApp automation. The no-code builder is easy to learn, and it's much more affordable than the big enterprise platforms.
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Cons: It’s not really an omni-channel AI agent. The automation is more about simple, rules-based flows than intelligent actions. If you need more than just text-based chat, you'll hit a wall pretty quickly.
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Pricing: According to their AppExchange listing, pricing starts at $7/user/month for the basic plan, but you won't find a full pricing breakdown on their site.
5. ValueText
A screenshot of the ValueText landing page, an affordable chatbot for Salesforce.
ValueText is another AppExchange app focused on automating SMS and WhatsApp conversations. It's positioned as a cheap and cheerful solution for simple workflows, like creating a case or booking an appointment directly from a text message within Salesforce.
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Pros: It’s one of the most affordable options out there, supports multiple messaging channels, and is easy to set up for basic tasks.
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Cons: The biggest issue is that its website, valuetext.com, is currently up for sale. This is a massive red flag for any business looking for a reliable, long-term tool. The chatbot logic is also quite basic and not cut out for complex processes.
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Pricing: Previously listed at $5/user/month, but its operational status is highly questionable.
6. Mogli
A screenshot of the Mogli landing page, a native messaging chatbot for Salesforce.
Mogli is another player in the Salesforce-native SMS and WhatsApp space. It’s built 100% on the Salesforce platform, which is a big bonus for admins who want to keep everything neat and tidy. It offers solid tools for messaging and includes an inbound chatbot feature for automating basic responses and surveys.
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Pros: Being a fully native Salesforce app simplifies management and keeps things clean. It has a strong feature set for its core messaging channels.
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Cons: Pricing isn't transparent. They use an org-wide pricing model, which can be expensive for smaller teams, and you have to contact them for a quote because the pricing page on their website is broken. The chatbot feels more like an add-on than the main event.
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Pricing: Org-wide pricing available on request.
7. Google Bot for Salesforce (by NeuraFlash)
A screenshot of the NeuraFlash landing page, which offers the Google Bot for Salesforce.
This AppExchange solution from NeuraFlash is for companies that want the absolute best-in-class natural language processing (NLP). It hooks Google's powerful Dialogflow AI into Salesforce, creating a very sophisticated, multilingual, and multi-channel bot. This is the heavy-duty option.
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Pros: You get to use Google's world-class AI, making it incredibly powerful and scalable for complex conversations.
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Cons: This is not a DIY tool. It’s very expensive, with pricing starting at $1,000 per month, and it requires a full implementation project with specialized developers. It’s an enterprise solution through and through.
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Pricing: Starts at $1,000/org/month.
How to choose the right chatbot for Salesforce
Feeling a bit of decision fatigue? Let’s simplify. Before you look at another feature list, ask yourself one question: what is the main job I need this chatbot to do? Are you trying to capture more leads from your website, or are you trying to stop your support team from drowning in repetitive tickets? Your main goal is the most important factor.
Next, think about the total cost of the tool, not just the monthly fee. A cheap license doesn't mean much if you have to hire a developer for a month just to get it running. A platform that your existing team can set up and manage themselves, even if the subscription is a bit higher, can save you a fortune in the long run.
Finally, look for a tool that lets you start small and grow. The best solutions don't force you to go all-in from day one. They let you test things safely, see the results, and then gradually expand your automation as you get more comfortable.
The future of your chatbot for Salesforce is flexible, not locked-in
While Salesforce Einstein Bots offer that tight native integration, the reality is that modern automation is all about flexibility. The best chatbot for Salesforce is often one that connects not just to your CRM, but to your entire universe of tools and knowledge, wherever it happens to be.
This video explains how a chatbot for Salesforce can create and update leads directly from a conversation.
Platforms like eesel AI are showing how this works. They give you the power to automate workflows without needing to be a developer, learn from all your scattered documents, and prove the value before you fully commit. It's about empowering your team, not locking you into a single ecosystem.
Ready to see what a truly flexible AI chatbot can do for your Salesforce workflows? Start a free trial of eesel AI and connect your knowledge sources in minutes.
Frequently asked questions
A chatbot for Salesforce is more than just a simple chat widget; it's a smart tool deeply integrated with your Salesforce data and workflows. Its primary job is to interact with customers, then automatically create leads, update cases, or retrieve information directly within your CRM, bridging conversations with your Salesforce records.
Many businesses seek alternatives due to Einstein Bots' high cost, often requiring expensive high-tier Salesforce licenses or add-ons. They also demand deep Salesforce Flow knowledge for setup and struggle to access information not stored directly within Salesforce.
When evaluating a chatbot for Salesforce, prioritize ease of integration, robust automation capabilities for taking actions in Salesforce, and comprehensive knowledge management that can learn from various sources. Also, look for clear pricing and the ability to test safely before deployment.
Yes, many modern chatbots for Salesforce are designed to integrate with a wide range of external tools and knowledge bases, like Google Docs, Confluence, or past support tickets. This allows the bot to access comprehensive information regardless of where it's stored, providing more complete answers.
To estimate total cost, consider not only the monthly subscription but also potential implementation costs, such as hiring developers or the time your internal team spends on setup and maintenance. Tools that are self-serve and don't require specialized coding can significantly reduce these hidden expenses.
Absolutely. Many advanced chatbots for Salesforce offer simulation or testing modes that allow you to preview how the bot will interact with various scenarios. Tools like eesel AI can even simulate performance on historical customer conversations, providing a clear forecast of its impact before you go live.
For basic messaging automation on channels like SMS or WhatsApp, simpler AppExchange solutions like 360 SMS or Mogli might suffice. However, if you need intelligent, multi-channel conversations, complex workflow automation, and learning from diverse knowledge sources, platforms like eesel AI or Ada are better suited.






