Chatfuel vs Chatbase vs helply: A Detailed Comparison

Choose Chatfuel if you want a no-code chatbot builder for Meta platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram).

Choose Chatbase if you’re looking for a fast website chatbot with credit-based pricing and simpler automation features.

However, Helply stands out as the top alternative. Helply is the best Chatbase alternative for businesses seeking advanced automation and integration. Helply reduces ticket volume, helps automate support with hands-free, 24/7 customer service, and ensures data security and control.

It processes your knowledge base, executes AI Actions like sending emails, making API calls, and managing product workflows, while identifying content gaps to improve future training.

Let’s begin with a detailed comparison of Chatfuel, Chatbase, and Helply.

Chatfuel for Facebook Messenger

Chatfuel is a no‑code chatbot builder focused on Meta’s ecosystem (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and TikTok). It’s an AI sales and support agent that can work 24 /7 and handle tasks such as:

• Booking appointments and meeting scheduling
• Answering FAQs
• Qualifying leads
• Replying to comments
• Recommending products

Chatfuel requires minimal technical skills, making it accessible to users without a technical background.

The platform also offers an official WhatsApp API service with a verified green badge, unlimited agents on one phone number, and built‑in ChatGPT for more human‑like conversations. Chatfuel is especially popular among marketing teams for creating engaging web chat experiences.

Features

• Works 24/7 without burnout. Chatfuel’s AI agent is marketed as super‑efficient, working around the clock, adapting quickly to user requests and sending unlimited messages.
• Visual builder & chat flows. Chatfuel features a user-friendly visual builder with a drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to easily design and customize chat flows. The visual builder supports dynamic chat flows with branching logic for personalized customer interactions, making it simple to optimize lead qualification, scheduling, and revenue generation.
• Tasks and use cases. Handles booking appointments, answering FAQs, lead qualification, replying to comments, and providing product recommendations. Ready‑made templates cover sales, cart‑abandonment reminders, upsells/cross‑sells, re‑engagement, and feedback collection.
• Integrations and connectors. Connects natively with Stripe, Calendly, Shopify, Zapier, Google Sheets, and HubSpot. Also offers API access, segmentation, analytics, and A/B testing tools to optimize campaigns.
• WhatsApp business enhancements. Offers a verified green badge, supports unlimited agents on one WhatsApp number and includes ChatGPT built‑in for more natural conversations.
• Customer support & reliability. Advertises 24/7 customer support with response times under five minutes, 99.99 % uptime, and GDPR compliance.
• Analytics & targeting. Provides real‑time analytics dashboards, audience segmentation, and A/B testing to help users refine message performance.

Pricing plans

Pros

• Easy to set up and beginner‑friendly. Chatfuel’s visual flow builder offers an intuitive, no‑code interface, making it accessible to non‑developers. Setup can take less than an hour.
• Rich marketing features. Automate direct messages, comments, and stories across Meta channels, run broadcasts and sequences, tag and segment users, and access analytics dashboards. Chatfuel supports conversational marketing with real-time, personalized interactions that help qualify leads and drive conversions. Integrations with ChatGPT, Zapier, Stripe, and Shopify enhance versatility.
• Affordable plans for small brands. Plans starting around $20 per month provide good value for small businesses and creators. Free templates and trials lower the barrier to entry.
• Live chat takeover and mobile apps. Enables human agents to take over conversations via live chat, with mobile apps supporting real-time responses.
• Segmentation and analytics. Tag and segment users, and use analytics dashboards to deliver targeted messaging that boosts customer engagement.
• Positive user feedback. Some users report helpful customer service and successful automation of sales and customer communication.

Cons

• Channel duplication and no web widget. Flows cannot be copied or reused across channels; each platform requires separate builds. There is no native web chat widget, limiting usage to Meta platforms.
• Limited multi‑language support and basic NLP. Primarily relies on keyword triggers, lacking robust translation or language detection. Multilingual bots can be difficult to manage. Chatfuel's natural language processing capabilities are limited, making it less effective at understanding user intent compared to more advanced platforms. AI capabilities are basic with limited intent recognition.
• Visual editor complexity on large bots. The flow editor can become cluttered and challenging to manage with complex logic trees. Visual customization options are limited, affecting branding.
• No omnichannel support and limited integrations. Cannot natively handle web or email channels. Lacks advanced features like auto‑assignment rules and contact merging.
• Reliability and support concerns. Reports of users losing access to bots, inconsistent customer service, and platform downtime suggest potential reliability issues.

Who it’s for

• Small businesses, creators, and marketers active on Meta platforms. Suitable for companies relying on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp for customer interactions and marketing. Chatfuel simplifies chatbot creation with its no-code, drag-and-drop interface, making it easy for both beginners and experienced users. Its simple flow builder and affordable plans appeal to start-ups, e-commerce stores, and influencers automating lead capture, product recommendations, and basic support.
• Teams seeking quick deployment without coding. Chatfuel's AI chatbot builder enables businesses to launch chatbots quickly and test campaigns without technical expertise or developer involvement.
• Marketers needing segmentation and basic analytics. Those valuing built-in segmentation, tagging, broadcast tools, and basic analytics will find it useful.

Who it’s not for

• Organizations requiring omnichannel support and complex workflows. Businesses needing chatbots across web, email, and social channels or advanced branching logic may find it too limited. Each channel requires separate builds, and there is no web chat widget. Additionally, businesses that require advanced customization may find that greater technical expertise is needed than what Chatfuel provides.
• Companies with multilingual customers or advanced NLP needs. Limited natural language understanding and translation capabilities may not meet the needs of organizations operating in multiple languages.
• Users prioritizing reliability and strong customer support. Reports of service issues and poor support suggest it may not suit businesses requiring dependable service and responsive assistance.

Chatbase

Chatbase is a no-code chatbot platform that enables you to create AI chatbots trained on your own content. It allows users to build custom-trained bots tailored to their business requirements by feeding it various sources such as websites, PDFs, proprietary documents, or unique knowledge bases. As a comprehensive chatbot platform, Chatbase supports deployment across multiple platforms, including websites and messaging apps, making it easy to manage conversational bots across different channels.

Once the bot is created, you can deploy it on your website or other channels and enhance its performance over time using conversation logs and feedback.

Chatbase helps companies craft chatbots that embody their brand’s tone, delivering more personalized interactions with customers.

Features

Chatbase provides several robust features for developing customer-facing AI agents:

• Real-time data synchronization: The agents can connect with order management systems, CRMs, and similar platforms to access up-to-date information like orders, subscriptions, or customer details.
• System actions: Agents are capable of performing tasks within your systems or via integrations, such as updating subscription information or changing addresses.
• Model experimentation: You can test various large language models (LLMs) and configurations to identify the best fit for your specific needs, leveraging advanced AI capabilities for superior model selection.
• Smart handover: Agents can be configured to escalate conversations to human agents when appropriate, using natural language instructions and interpreting user input to determine when escalation is needed.
• Prompt question answering: Designed to respond to customer inquiries in real time, providing accurate and immediate answers to frequent questions, and facilitating AI-powered conversations for more natural interactions.
• Comprehensive analytics: Chatbase provides built-in analytics to monitor chatbot performance, track user interactions, and optimize effectiveness.
• Wide integration support: Compatible with popular tools including Make, Zendesk, Notion, Slack, Stripe, Salesforce, Calendly, WhatsApp, Zapier, and more.

Pricing Plans

Chatbase offers a free tier alongside multiple paid plans. Pricing is based on monthly message credits, number of agents, and feature availability.

Costs scale with chat volume—higher usage necessitates purchasing additional message credits or upgrading plans.

Add-ons: Additional purchases include auto-recharge message credits ($14 per 1,000 credits), extra agents ($7 per agent/month), custom domains ($59/month), extra message credits ($12 per 1,000 credits), and removal of Chatbase branding ($39/month).

Pricing Changes and User Feedback

Users on platforms like Reddit and social media have reported multiple pricing adjustments by Chatbase, including sudden increases and feature restrictions.

Some users have expressed concerns about limited features and integrations, suggesting the platform may not fully satisfy all business needs.

Reports also mention automatic upgrades upon exceeding message limits and steep price jumps between tiers (e.g., moving from 10,000 to 40,000 messages requiring a jump from Pro to a higher tier).

Pros

• Supports customer self-service: As one of the best Chatbase options for businesses seeking quick deployment, Chatbase empowers customers to resolve common issues independently through AI-driven self-service, efficiently handling customer queries at scale and reducing reliance on human agents.
• Quick and easy setup: Users often highlight that Chatbase can be configured in under ten minutes without coding skills, featuring a rapid learning curve.
• Custom content training: The ability to upload PDFs, websites, Notion pages, Q&A pairs, and other documents ensures accurate responses based on company-specific knowledge.
• Multi-channel integrations: Integration with Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Zendesk, Zapier, and others enables deployment across various platforms, with an embeddable website chat widget.
• Workflow automation with AI actions: Users can create custom actions such as order lookups or CRM updates, transforming the bot from a static Q&A tool into an interactive assistant.
• Analytics and ongoing enhancement: The analytics dashboard offers insights into conversations, feedback, and usage, facilitating continuous improvement. Users can fine-tune chatbot responses based on feedback and conversation logs for better accuracy and user experience.
• Multilingual capability and scalability: Supports multiple languages and can scale to enterprise needs.
• Risk-free free plan: The free tier allows testing core features without payment, useful for small experiments before committing financially.
• Better alternative to building from scratch: Many find Chatbase simplifies initial bot creation compared to developing custom solutions.
• Ideal for quick deployments and simple needs: Works well for straightforward query handling and rapid bot launches.

Cons

• Limited customization and flow design: Chatbase lacks support for custom chatbot flows or complex conditional logic. Users report difficulty in fine-tuning responses and limitations when handling complex queries.
• Pricing complexity and expense: Pricing increases sharply with usage; the free plan is restrictive, and essential features like branding removal require additional fees. Unexpected charges and tier changes have frustrated users.
• Extra fees for necessary features: Removing branding, adding agents, or purchasing message credits incur separate charges, seen as nickel-and-diming by some customers.
• Restrictive free tier: Only one agent and 100 monthly message credits are included; agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity, limiting thorough testing.
• Occasional inaccuracies and hallucinations: Some users report that Chatbase bots sometimes provide incorrect or fabricated answers, which can be problematic in support contexts.
• Inconsistent customer support: Some feedback points to slow or unresponsive service.
• Integration gaps and inadequate live chat handoff: Certain integrations are missing, and live-chat handoff capabilities are reported as insufficient, prompting some users to switch platforms.
• Sudden pricing changes and forced upgrades: Users have been surprised by abrupt price increases and automatic upgrades when exceeding usage limits.

Who it's for

• Small to medium businesses and startups: Especially SaaS and e-commerce businesses looking to automate support, including those needing quick deployment without developer resources, particularly for repetitive customer inquiries.
• Simple to moderately complex support bots: Ideal for straightforward Q&A bots leveraging various content types and multiple platform integrations, and for those seeking AI-driven tools to automate customer engagement and support.
• Teams valuing multi-channel deployment: Businesses wanting chat widgets on websites and connections to Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Zendesk, or CRMs.
• Organizations comfortable with credit-based pricing: Teams prepared to monitor usage and accept the pricing model may find Chatbase scalable.

Who it's not for

• Enterprises needing deep customization or complex workflows: Lack of visual flow builders and advanced logic limits suitability for sophisticated bot requirements.
• Cost-sensitive users or those with high usage: Steep pricing jumps and add-on fees can make Chatbase costly at scale.
• Industries requiring high accuracy and human-like responses: Reported hallucinations and inaccuracies may be unacceptable.
• Users needing white-label branding included: Branding removal is an extra cost.
• Those requiring specific integrations or robust live chat handoff: Missing features may limit effectiveness.

Helply AI Agents for Customer Support

Helply is an AI-powered customer support agent that functions as both an assistant and automation tool, handling multi-channel inquiries and improving support efficiency. It integrates with existing helpdesk platforms rather than replacing them, delivering immediate ticket resolution.

Helply is designed for e-commerce teams to streamline order management and customer inquiries, making it ideal for online businesses looking to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. Similar to Yuma AI, which is known for its e-commerce and customer support automation features, Helply focuses on automating support for e-commerce platforms and SaaS businesses.

Helply is a self-learning AI that:

• Automatically resolves tier-1 tickets
• Provides 24/7 answers
• Continuously improves through feedback

It connects with helpdesk tools like Zendesk, Groove, Freshdesk, and Help Scout, allowing teams to retain their current systems while adding AI support.

Helply requires no coding and trains on existing knowledge bases and past tickets for quick deployment.

Key Features

AI Agent Training

The AI learns from a variety of sources: help center articles (e.g., Zendesk, Google Docs), web pages, manually entered text, uploaded files, and custom Q&A pairs.

Continuous knowledge enrichment is supported. Helply also analyzes user behavior to enhance training and personalize responses.

Agent Customization

Users can adjust:

• Appearance and persona (friendly, playful, etc.)
• Styling (e.g., bolding words)
• Response style (concise answers)
• Fallback actions when answers are unknown (e.g., triggering forms or suggesting contacting support)

Actions

Helply’s AI can perform tasks beyond answering questions, such as sending emails, calling APIs (e.g., Stripe for invoices), or executing workflows (e.g., creating help articles).

This makes the bot interactive and transactional.

Personalization

User-specific data (e.g., subscription plans) can be provided to tailor responses accordingly.

Conversation Dashboard

Past interactions are accessible for review, training, and quality assurance.

Knowledge Gap Detection

Helply analyzes support tickets to identify unanswered common questions, highlighting gaps and enabling training on new topics.

Deployment

An embed code allows adding the AI chatbot to websites or help centers, and Helply can be deployed across multiple platforms for easy user access and broader reach.

Pricing Plans

Helply offers annual plans with monthly pricing based on AI answer volumes and features.

Unused answers roll over monthly; additional answer packs can be purchased.

Pros

• Self-learning with continuous improvement: Helply identifies knowledge gaps and drafts new help articles, enhancing documentation and reducing repetitive tickets. It also facilitates AI-powered conversations for more natural customer interactions.
• Action-driven automation: Helply's AI-driven tools enable seamless workflow automation—AI Actions allow the bot to retrieve or update customer data and trigger workflows, going beyond static answers.
• E-commerce support: Assists with abandoned cart recovery by reaching out to customers.
• Rapid, no-code setup: Integrates easily with existing helpdesks without migration.
• Customizable tone and persona: Matches brand voice and style.
• Accelerates knowledge base growth: Generates drafts for missing articles to improve support content.
• Smooth escalation to human support: Ensures a seamless transition to human support when issues require real human interaction.

Cons

• Not a complete helpdesk solution: Helply focuses on AI automation and requires an existing helpdesk.
• Cost can increase with heavy usage: Pricing scales with AI answers, credits, and agents used.
• Needs curated content: Performs best with well-maintained knowledge bases, requiring ongoing content management.

Who it's for

• Support teams overwhelmed by high volumes of customer queries and repetitive tier-1 queries.
• Organizations with existing helpdesks wanting AI automation.
• Companies committed to improving documentation.
• Teams requiring multi-language support (over 40 languages supported).

Who it's not for

• Businesses seeking an all-in-one platform with ticketing and CRM.
• Teams without sufficient documentation or unique queries that need heavy content creation.

Final Verdict

Helply integrates seamlessly with your existing help desk, learns from previous tickets, and executes real tasks through its AI Actions. It also detects gaps in your help content using Knowledge Bridge and drafts new articles to continuously improve support quality.

If you want a solution with quick deployment, effective ticket resolution, and ongoing quality improvements without overhauling your tech stack, Helply is an excellent choice.

Chatfuel is best suited for businesses focused on Meta platforms, offering an easy-to-use no-code builder with strong marketing capabilities and affordable plans.

Chatbase remains a good option if you want a straightforward, no-code chatbot trained on your own content and don’t mind potential cost increases as usage grows.

Book a FREE demo to see how Helply will resolve 66.3% more tickets, do things 3x faster, and cut costs by 32.5%!