The 9 best chatbot services for customer support in 2025

Let’s be real, shopping for a chatbot service can feel like a chore. The market is flooded with options, and they all seem to promise they’ll completely change your customer support with AI. But once you start looking closer, you’re often met with confusing tech-speak, hidden fees, and platforms that want you to overhaul your entire workflow.

That’s why I wrote this guide. My goal is to cut through the marketing fluff and give you a straightforward look at the best chatbot services available right now. We’ll cover everything from quick-to-launch tools to more heavy-duty enterprise solutions, helping you find the right match for your team.

What are chatbot services?

At their simplest, chatbot services are platforms that help you build, launch, and manage AI-powered chatbots. You can place these bots on your website, in your app, or connect them to channels you already use, like Slack or WhatsApp.

Thankfully, we’ve moved past the clunky, rule-based bots of a few years ago. You remember them, the ones that felt like a bad automated phone menu where you just end up mashing the "0" key to find a human. Today’s chatbots use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to actually figure out what a customer is asking, even with typos or weirdly phrased questions.

This upgrade means you can get some real wins: 24/7 support without overworking your team, lower running costs, and happier customers. They can even help with lead generation and sales questions, turning your support into a channel that brings in revenue.

How we chose the best chatbot services for this list

To put together a list that’s actually useful, I zeroed in on what matters day-to-day. It’s not about having the most features, it’s about what works in the real world. Here’s what I looked for:

• Setup and value: How fast can someone on your team (who isn’t a developer) get a bot running and see it helping customers?

• Plays well with others: Does it plug into the helpdesk and tools you already use, or does it force you to move everything over to their system?

• AI quality: How smart is the bot, really? Can it understand the context of a conversation? And can you easily adjust its personality and what it knows?

• Testing capabilities: Can you test the bot on your own data in a safe space before it starts talking to live customers?

• Clear pricing: Is the pricing straightforward, or are you going to be surprised by a massive bill filled with per-ticket fees after a busy month?

A quick comparison of the top chatbot services

Platform	Best For	Standout Feature	Pricing Model
eesel AI	Instant integration with existing helpdesks	Risk-free simulation on past tickets	Flat monthly fee (no per-resolution cost)
Chatbase	Building agents that can take action	Syncs with real-time data for actions	Tiered monthly subscriptions
Botsonic	Versatile AI with a focus on security	Model-agnostic AI gateway	Tiered monthly subscriptions
HubSpot Chatbot Builder	Businesses already in the HubSpot ecosystem	Deep integration with HubSpot CRM	Free, with premium tiers in Hubs
ChatBot.com	Visual, no-code bot building	Intuitive drag-and-drop builder	Tiered monthly subscriptions
Google Cloud Dialogflow CX	Large enterprises with complex needs	State-of-the-art NLU and scalability	Usage-based (pay-as-you-go)
Intercom (Fin)	Proactive customer engagement	Strong human + AI agent handoff	Custom (based on seats & contacts)
Azure AI Bot Service	Companies invested in the Microsoft ecosystem	Low-code interface for fusion teams	Usage-based (premium channels)
Zapier Chatbots	Simple, automation-focused bots	Connects to thousands of apps via Zaps	Included in Zapier plans

The 9 best chatbot services in 2025

Alright, let’s get into the details. Here’s a breakdown of the top platforms that made the cut, each with its own vibe.

1. eesel AI: best chatbot services for instant helpdesk automation

eesel AI is built around a simple idea: your AI should work where you work. It connects directly into helpdesks like Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Intercom, letting you automate support without a massive migration project. The whole thing is designed so you can sign up and have a live AI agent in just a few minutes, all on your own.

What’s great about it:

• Live in minutes: The setup really is self-serve. You connect your helpdesk with a click, and you’re ready to go.

• Risk-free simulation: This is a huge one. You can test your bot on thousands of your past tickets to see exactly how it would have performed. This gives you a solid forecast of your automation rate before you even think about going live.

• Learns from everything: It doesn’t just read your help center. It learns from past tickets, macros, and can even connect to scattered knowledge in places like Google Docs or Confluence.

• No-surprise pricing: You pay a flat monthly fee. No extra charges per resolution, which makes budgeting so much easier.

What to consider:

• It’s a newer platform, so it doesn’t have the same name recognition as some of the older tools.

• If you need to set up very complex, custom API actions, it might require a little bit of configuration to get started.

Pricing: Plans start at $299/month for the Team plan, with the Business plan at $799/month.

2. Chatbase: best chatbot services for building AI agents that take action

Chatbase is a great choice when you need a bot that can do things, not just answer questions. It’s designed to create AI agents that can perform actions in your other systems, like checking an order status or updating a customer’s profile in your CRM.

What’s great about it:

• It’s really good at pulling in real-time data from your other business tools.

• The platform gives you fine-grained control over when a chat should be handed off to a human, and you can set the rules in plain English.

What to consider:

• The more actions and integrations you build, the more complicated the bot’s logic can become to manage over time.

Pricing: Chatbase has a free plan to get your feet wet, with paid plans starting at $49/month.

3. Botsonic: best chatbot services for security-conscious teams

Botsonic is an enterprise-grade chatbot builder from the team behind Writesonic. Its main draw is a serious focus on security and compliance, with SOC 2 and GDPR readiness right out of the box. It’s also "model-agnostic," meaning it uses a mix of different AI models behind the scenes to give you the best performance.

What’s great about it:

• They are very committed to data security and have a strict policy of not training their models on customer data.

• It’s a solid choice for creating AI assistants for both your team and your customers.

What to consider:

• The interface can sometimes feel like it’s geared more toward content creation (its parent company’s specialty) than pure customer support.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $49/month.

4. HubSpot chatbot builder: best chatbot services for HubSpot users

If your company already lives and breathes HubSpot, their Chatbot Builder is a no-brainer. It’s a free tool that’s built right into the HubSpot CRM, so it’s easy to make bots that know your customer history and can kick off internal workflows.

What’s great about it:

• The connection with the HubSpot CRM is as smooth as it gets.

• You can start using it for free, which is perfect for smaller businesses.

What to consider:

• It’s not nearly as useful if you’re not fully bought into the HubSpot ecosystem. The training options are pretty basic compared to dedicated tools. While a tool like eesel AI works with whatever helpdesk you use, HubSpot really wants you to stay in their world.

Pricing: The chatbot builder itself is free. You’ll need to upgrade to paid Marketing or Service Hub plans for more advanced capabilities.

5. ChatBot.com: best chatbot services for a simple visual builder

ChatBot.com is all about making bot building easy for anyone. Its core feature is a clean, drag-and-drop visual builder that lets you map out conversation flows without touching any code. It’s a solid pick for teams that want to design structured, guided chats.

What’s great about it:

• The visual editor is one of the most user-friendly ones out there.

• It offers a library of pre-built templates to help you get started faster.

What to consider:

• It relies more on pre-written scripts and rules than on generative AI. This can cause it to stumble when a customer asks something unexpected that doesn’t fit the flow.

Pricing: Plans start at $52/month.

6. Google Cloud Dialogflow CX: best chatbot services for enterprise scalability

Dialogflow CX is Google’s big, powerful platform for building enterprise-level conversational AI. It has some of the best natural language understanding (NLU) tech available and is built to handle huge numbers of conversations, making it a favorite for large companies with developer resources.

What’s great about it:

• Its ability to follow complex, back-and-forth conversations is second to none.

• It’s extremely scalable and reliable.

What to consider:

• There’s a steep learning curve, and you really need technical skills to get the most out of it. The usage-based pricing can also be hard to predict and can get expensive. In contrast, a tool like eesel AI is made for non-technical users and has simple, flat pricing.

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go, based on the number of interactions.

7. Intercom (Fin): best chatbot services for proactive engagement

Intercom is a well-known name in customer messaging, and Fin is its AI chatbot. It’s particularly good at creating a smooth handoff between automated and human support. It’s also strong at proactive engagement, which makes it popular with sales teams who want to qualify leads.

What’s great about it:

• The transition from AI bot to a live agent is seamless.

• It’s excellent for qualifying leads and scheduling meetings automatically.

What to consider:

• Intercom can get very pricey, very fast. It also works best when you go all-in on their platform, which can lead to being locked in with one vendor.

Pricing: Custom pricing, but it usually starts in the hundreds of dollars per month and goes up from there.

8. Azure AI bot service: best chatbot services for the Microsoft ecosystem

For companies that run on Microsoft, the Azure AI Bot Service makes a lot of sense. It provides a complete development environment for building bots that connect easily with products like Microsoft Teams and the broader Azure cloud platform.

What’s great about it:

• Deep integration with all things Microsoft.

• It has a low-code graphical interface meant for teams of both business users and developers.

What to consider:

• It’s most useful if you’re already paying for Azure. For teams with simpler automation needs, it can feel overly complicated.

Pricing: Usage-based, depending on how many messages are processed.

9. Zapier Chatbots: best chatbot services for simple workflow automation

Zapier Chatbots does what Zapier does best: connects apps. It lets you build simple chatbots that are designed to trigger automations in thousands of other tools. It’s perfect for task-based bots, like one that collects lead info and adds it to a Google Sheet.

What’s great about it:

• It can connect to over 5,000 different apps, which is pretty incredible.

• You can set up basic automations in minutes without any code.

What to consider:

• This is not a dedicated customer support tool. It’s missing the advanced conversational AI, analytics, and agent-assist features you’d need for a real support setup.

Pricing: Included with Zapier’s paid subscription plans.

How to choose the right chatbot services for your business

Okay, that was a lot. If you’re not sure where to start, try asking yourself these five questions to narrow down the options.

1. How much time and technical skill do we actually have?

If the answer is "not much," look for a self-serve platform like eesel AI that you can get running in an afternoon. If you have developers ready to go, a more customizable tool like Dialogflow CX could be an option.

2. Do we want to ditch our current helpdesk?

This is a big one. Some platforms are all-in-one and expect you to move your entire support team over. Others, like eesel AI, are built to plug into the tools you already use, saving you from a huge migration headache.

3. Where is our company knowledge stored?

Is all your info neatly organized in a help center? Or is it spread across Google Docs, old Confluence pages, and your senior agents’ brains? Find a tool that can learn from all these sources, not just one.

4. How can we tell if it will actually work for us?

Don’t just believe the sales demo. Ask if you can test the AI on your real historical data. The ability to run a simulation, which is a key part of eesel AI, is the best way to see how it will perform before you commit.

5. What’s our real budget?

Keep an eye out for pricing models that charge per interaction. They can seem cheap at first, but costs can jump unexpectedly. A flat monthly fee gives you peace of mind and lets you scale without worrying about the bill.

This video breaks down several top AI chatbots to see how they stack up for different tasks, from productivity to customer service.

Add AI chatbot services to your support without the headache

Choosing the right chatbot service isn’t about finding the tool with the most features. It’s about finding the one that fits your current workflow, learns from your team’s knowledge, and starts delivering results quickly. The best tools today don’t ask you to tear everything down and start over; they make what you already have better. They let you start small, test things out, and grow at your own pace.

Tired of sitting through long demos and dealing with complicated setups? With eesel AI, you can connect your helpdesk and launch an AI agent trained on your actual data in just a few minutes. See for yourself with a risk-free simulation. Try eesel AI for free.