So, you’re digging into the HubSpot chatbot documentation. You're probably either a HubSpot pro trying to get more out of your subscription, or you're checking out new tools and wondering if this chatbot is worth your time. Let's be honest, the official docs can feel a bit like a scavenger hunt, with information scattered across what feels like a dozen different articles.
My goal here is to save you the headache. I've pulled everything together into one practical guide. We'll walk through the setup, features, pricing, and, most importantly, the limitations that the marketing page might not shout about.
HubSpot gives you a decent place to start, especially if your whole world already revolves around their platform. But as you’ll see, most growing businesses eventually hit a wall and need a bot that’s a bit smarter, more flexible, and better connected to their other tools.
What is the HubSpot chatbot?
At its core, the HubSpot chatbot is a tool that automates conversations on your website. It’s part of a bigger feature called "Chatflows," which is HubSpot’s command center for all things live chat and bots.
When you start building, you'll find you have two main options:
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Live Chat: This is exactly what it sounds like. A visitor clicks the chat widget, and they get connected to a real person on your team. Simple and direct.
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Rule-Based Chatbot: This is the automated version. You create a script with a series of questions and pre-written answers to guide visitors. It’s typically used for things like qualifying a lead, booking a meeting, or creating a support ticket.
HubSpot’s chatbot builder is a no-code tool, which is great for marketing or support teams who don't have a developer on speed dial. Its biggest claim to fame is its deep connection to the HubSpot Smart CRM. This lets the bot use contact info to make the conversation feel a little more personal. But that’s also its biggest weakness: if your company’s real knowledge lives outside the HubSpot CRM, the bot is left in the dark.
How to set up and build your bot
Instead of having you piece together instructions from a bunch of help articles, here’s a straightforward look at how you actually build a chatbot in HubSpot. You’ll find everything under Service > Chatflows in your account.
After you click to create a new chatflow, you're walked through a setup process split into a few tabs. Getting a handle on what each one does is the key to getting your bot up and running.
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Build: Think of this as your main canvas. It’s a visual editor where you drag and drop "actions" to map out the conversation. You’ll start with a welcome message and then add questions, if/then logic, and other bits and pieces.
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Target: This tab is all about deciding where and when your bot shows up. You can have it appear only on your pricing page or make sure it stays hidden on your careers page. You can also get more specific by targeting visitors based on things like what device they’re using or where they’re located.
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Display: Here’s where you get to play with the look and feel. You can change the widget’s color to match your branding and decide if it should pop up automatically or wait for a user to click. You can also set it to appear after someone’s been on the page for a certain amount of time.
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Options: This is for all the nitty-gritty details. You can set the bot's language, manage data privacy messages for GDPR and CCPA, and tweak other settings behind the scenes.
The visual editor is pretty friendly for simple, straight-line conversations. But if you try to build something more complex with multiple paths, it can start to feel a bit clunky. And if you want to add any real logic (what HubSpot calls if/then branches), you’ll need to have your credit card ready for a paid plan.
Key features, actions, and limitations
HubSpot's chatbot has a decent toolkit, but it's really important to understand what it does well and where it falls short.
Conversation building and bot actions
Inside the builder, you get a few "actions" to work with. The ones you'll use most often are:
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Ask a question: This is the bot's bread and butter. You can ask for info like an email or company size and have it saved right to a contact’s profile in the HubSpot CRM.
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Submit a ticket: If a visitor needs help, this action can create a new ticket in the HubSpot Service Hub.
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Book a meeting: This lets you drop in a meeting link so a qualified lead can schedule a demo without leaving the chat.
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Knowledge base lookup: The bot can search your HubSpot knowledge base and suggest relevant articles. (Just a heads-up, this is only available on the Service Hub Professional or Enterprise plans).
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Send to team member: When the bot gets stuck, this action hands the conversation over to a live agent.
See the pattern? All of these actions are tied directly to the HubSpot universe. The bot can only talk to HubSpot tools. If your team uses Zendesk for support, or if your most important documentation is in Confluence or Google Docs, the bot can't access any of it. It's like trying to find a book in a library when you're only allowed in one aisle.
This is where more advanced tools like eesel AI really stand out. It’s designed to connect to the tools you’re already using. It taps into your existing help desk, wikis, and other knowledge sources, so the AI can use all of your company’s brainpower, not just what's stuck in one platform.
If/then branches and making your bot smarter
For a bot to not feel robotic, it needs to handle different conversation paths. HubSpot’s “if/then branches” are how you do this, but they’re locked away on the Professional or Enterprise plans. On a free or Starter plan, every conversation is a one-way street.
The logic you can use is based on how a visitor answers a question, what you already know about them in your CRM, or whether your team is available.
But here’s the catch: the bot can’t make decisions based on live, external data. Let’s say a customer asks, "Where’s my order?" A HubSpot bot can be programmed to ask for the order number, but it can’t actually check its status in your Shopify store. It just collects the info and passes it along.
A truly helpful AI agent should be able to do more. For example, eesel AI's AI Agent can be set up with custom actions to look up order info from your system, check an account status, or verify a subscription. It delivers real answers, not just more questions.
Reporting and analytics
HubSpot gives you a basic dashboard with metrics like how many conversations were started and how many people gave up halfway through. It’s a decent high-level overview.
The problem is, the analytics are just… basic. They tell you what happened but don't give you much insight into why. The reports won't flag gaps in your knowledge base when the bot gets stumped, and they won't point out new automation opportunities based on what your customers are actually asking.
In contrast, a dedicated AI platform gives you much deeper insights. For example, eesel AI has a powerful simulation mode that lets you test the AI on thousands of your past tickets before you even turn it on. This gives you a surprisingly accurate forecast of how it will perform. Once it's live, you get reports that highlight specific knowledge gaps, so you know exactly which help articles you need to write next.
This video explains what chatflows are in HubSpot CRM and how to use them.
HubSpot chatbot pricing: A breakdown
"Free Chatbot Builder" is a great headline, but the truth is, most of the features that make a chatbot genuinely useful are behind a paywall. The free tools are a nice way to dip your toes in the water, but you’ll probably find the pool is smaller than you thought.
To get the bot’s full power, you don't just buy the bot. You have to subscribe to one or more of HubSpot's "Hubs," and the price can climb quickly.
Here’s a quick look at what you get at each level:
| Feature | Free Tools | Starter (from $9/mo/seat) | Professional/Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversational Bots | Limited features, HubSpot branding | Limited features, branding removed | Advanced features like if/then branches |
| Routing | Basic, goes to one inbox | Can route to specific users/teams | Skill-based and round-robin routing |
| Knowledge Base Integration | Nope | Still no | Available on Service Hub Pro/Ent |
| Customization | Basic widget color | Basic widget color | More advanced customization |
The main thing to remember is that the cost isn't just for the chatbot. It’s an add-on that gets better the more you spend on the entire HubSpot ecosystem. If you aren't planning to go all-in on HubSpot, you could end up paying for a lot of stuff you don’t need just to get a decent chatbot.
The alternative: An AI agent that plays well with others
If HubSpot's chatbot feels too walled-off or expensive for what it does, you're not alone. A lot of businesses find they need something with a bit more muscle. This is where a dedicated AI platform like eesel AI comes into play. It’s built to plug into the tools you love and use every day, instead of forcing you to live in its world.
Bring all your knowledge together
The biggest leg up a platform like eesel AI has is its ability to learn from all your knowledge, no matter where it is. That means your AI agent gets the full picture and can give much better answers.
It connects to:
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Knowledge Bases: Confluence, Notion, Google Docs, SharePoint.
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Past Conversations: eesel AI actually reads your past support tickets to learn your brand voice and common customer issues from day one. HubSpot’s bot just can’t do that.
Go live in minutes, not months
eesel AI is built to be self-serve. You can sign up, connect your help desk, and have a working AI agent in a few minutes without ever having to talk to a salesperson.
Best of all, you can try before you buy with a simulation mode. This lets you test the AI on your past support tickets in a safe environment. You can see exactly how it would have responded and get a real sense of its resolution rate and your potential ROI before it ever talks to a live customer.
Get full control with a customizable workflow engine
With eesel AI, you can get really specific about how your automation works. You can create rules to decide exactly which tickets the AI should handle and what it's allowed to do.
This includes setting up custom actions, which let the AI connect to any of your systems through an API. It can grab real-time data (like order status) or perform tasks (like tagging a ticket or escalating to a specific person). This turns your AI from a simple Q&A bot into a tool that actually gets work done.
Is it time to move beyond a basic bot?
The HubSpot chatbot is a solid tool, especially if your business is already all-in on the HubSpot platform and your needs are pretty simple. It’s a good first step into conversational support.
But its weaknesses become obvious pretty fast. It’s stuck inside the HubSpot bubble, can't automate complex tasks, and makes you pay for expensive, bundled plans to unlock its best features. For any business that needs a smart, flexible AI agent that works with their entire tech stack, a specialized tool is the way to go.
Ready to see what a real AI agent can do?
Stop wrestling with limited chatbot builders. eesel AI connects with your existing help desk and knowledge sources to provide instant, accurate support. Start your free trial today and see how much you can automate in just a few minutes.
Frequently asked questions
The HubSpot chatbot documentation highlights two primary types: Live Chat, which connects visitors directly to a human agent, and Rule-Based Chatbots, which use pre-scripted flows to automate responses for common tasks like lead qualification or scheduling meetings.
The HubSpot chatbot documentation primarily focuses on the bot's deep integration with the HubSpot Smart CRM. It clarifies that the bot's actions are tied to the HubSpot ecosystem and cannot directly access external knowledge sources like Zendesk or Google Docs.
The HubSpot chatbot documentation provides details on a basic dashboard with metrics such as conversation starts and completion rates. However, it does not offer deeper insights into why certain interactions occurred or identify specific knowledge gaps from customer questions.
Yes, the HubSpot chatbot documentation indicates that "if/then" logic for creating dynamic conversation paths is available. This advanced feature, however, is exclusive to the Professional or Enterprise plans, meaning free and Starter users are limited to linear flows.
The HubSpot chatbot documentation outlines a four-tab setup process: "Build" for designing the conversation flow, "Target" for defining display conditions, "Display" for customizing the widget's appearance, and "Options" for language and data privacy settings.
The HubSpot chatbot documentation shows that while basic chatbot functionality is offered for free, advanced features like complex logic, knowledge base integration, or sophisticated routing are bundled into HubSpot's various paid "Hubs" (Starter, Professional, Enterprise), significantly increasing the overall investment.
