{
    "title": "Chatbase Alternatives 2027: 11 Paid, Free & Open-Source",
    "url": "https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/chatbase/",
    "summary": "The best Chatbase alternatives in 2027 are CustomGPT (best overall, $99/mo), Botpress (best free plan: 100 conversations a month) and AnythingLLM (best open source, MIT). Chatbase itself starts at $32/mo billed yearly. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 13 Nov 2026; 8 more are compared below, including 4 with a free plan and 3 open source.",
    "tool": {
        "name": "Chatbase",
        "starting_price": "$32/mo billed yearly",
        "free_plan": "No",
        "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
        "pricing_url": "https://www.chatbase.co/pricing"
    },
    "task": "Website chatbot builder",
    "prices_checked": "2026-11-13",
    "date_modified": "2026-11-13",
    "alternatives": [
        {
            "name": "CustomGPT",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$99/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Document-heavy agents with a RAG API",
            "difference": "CustomGPT Standard gives 10 agents, 1,000 queries a month, 5,000 documents per agent and 60M words of storage; Chatbase's Basic plan is 1 agent with 4,000 message credits and 40 MB.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://customgpt.ai/pricing/",
            "website": "https://customgpt.ai",
            "zekai_score": 7.7,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/customgpt/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Botpress",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$189/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "100 conversations a month, 3 seats, 3 AI agents",
            "best_for": "Programmable agents with a real free tier",
            "difference": "Botpress bills per conversation (Free covers 100 a month, Plus 250 with packs of 100 for $65) and includes $25 of AI usage on Plus; Chatbase counts message credits.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://botpress.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://botpress.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.9,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/botpress/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Chatling",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$25/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "200 AI credits a month, 1 agent, 1 seat, 500,000 characters",
            "best_for": "Low-cost website bot with a free plan",
            "difference": "Chatling Starter is $25/mo for 1,750 AI credits, 2 agents and 10 million knowledge-base characters, with unlimited chats on every plan; branding removal is a $35/mo add-on.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://chatling.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://chatling.ai",
            "zekai_score": 6.4,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/chatling/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Dante AI",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$40/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "100 messages a month, 1 agent, 1 seat, 150K characters",
            "best_for": "Voice and web agent with lead capture",
            "difference": "Dante's free plan gives 100 messages a month and 10 voice minutes; Starter at $40/mo adds 2,000 messages and 25M characters, with lead capture and human takeover arriving at Advanced.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.dante-ai.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.dante-ai.com",
            "zekai_score": 6.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/dante-ai/"
        },
        {
            "name": "DocsBot AI",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$49/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "1 bot, 50 source pages, 100 AI credits a month",
            "best_for": "Documentation chatbots with MCP and Slack",
            "difference": "DocsBot Personal at $49/mo includes 5,000 source pages, 5,000 AI credits, remote MCP connections and Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram, while Chatbase's cheapest listed plan is $32/mo billed yearly.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://docsbot.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://docsbot.ai",
            "zekai_score": 6.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/docsbot-ai/"
        },
        {
            "name": "SiteGPT",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$59/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Small-site chatbot priced by pages",
            "difference": "SiteGPT meters by pages (1,000 on Starter, 10,000 on Growth) and model split: 4k GPT-4.1-mini messages or 400 GPT-4.1 messages on Starter, with 5k-message packs at $59/mo.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://sitegpt.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://sitegpt.ai",
            "zekai_score": 7.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/sitegpt/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Tidio",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$24.17/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "50 billable conversations, 50 one-time Lyro AI conversations",
            "best_for": "Live chat plus Lyro AI for stores",
            "difference": "Tidio pairs live chat and ticketing with its Lyro AI agent, sold separately from 50 AI conversations; Lyro's first 50 conversations are free for life, and Flows reach 100 visitors free.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.tidio.com/pricing/",
            "website": "https://www.tidio.com",
            "zekai_score": 6.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/tidio/"
        },
        {
            "name": "AnythingLLM",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "Self-hosted document chat with a website widget",
            "difference": "AnythingLLM runs on your own server with a default LanceDB store and any of OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama or LM Studio, and offers an embeddable website widget in its Docker build.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/anythingllm/",
            "last_release": "2026-10-26",
            "zekai_score": 8.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/anythingllm/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Langflow",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "Visual builder for RAG agents and MCP",
            "difference": "Langflow is a drag-and-drop builder that deploys a flow as an API or MCP server and links to LangSmith and Langfuse for tracing; Chatbase trains from uploaded sources without a flow canvas.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/langflow-ai/langflow",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/langflow/",
            "last_release": "2026-11-10",
            "zekai_score": 8.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/langflow/"
        },
        {
            "name": "ChatbotX",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "Self-hosted multichannel AI chatbot platform",
            "difference": "ChatbotX stores knowledge in PostgreSQL with pgvector and takes OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenRouter or local models through your own keys, with a webchat channel and human takeover.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/ChatbotXIO/ChatbotX",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/chatbotx/",
            "last_release": "2026-11-11",
            "zekai_score": 7.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/chatbotx/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Chatwoot",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "Open-source support inbox with Captain AI",
            "difference": "Chatwoot is a self-hosted support inbox whose Captain AI agent sits beside website live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and SMS channels; Chatbase's agent plugs into helpdesks instead.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/chatwoot/chatwoot",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/chatwoot/",
            "last_release": "2026-10-24",
            "zekai_score": 8.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/chatwoot/"
        }
    ],
    "faq": [
        {
            "q": "What is the best alternative to Chatbase in 2027?",
            "a": "CustomGPT is the best overall Chatbase alternative on this page ($99/mo). For no cost, Botpress has a free plan (100 conversations a month, 3 seats, 3 AI agents). To self-host, AnythingLLM is open source (MIT)."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a free version of Chatbase?",
            "a": "No. Chatbase has no free plan; paid plans start at $32/mo billed yearly, checked on 13 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a 100% free alternative to Chatbase?",
            "a": "Yes. AnythingLLM, Langflow, ChatbotX, Chatwoot are open source and free to self-host. Botpress, Chatling, Dante AI, DocsBot AI, Tidio have a free plan with limits, shown in the table."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is cheaper than Chatbase?",
            "a": "Chatling starts at $25/mo, against $32/mo billed yearly for Chatbase, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 13 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "How much do Chatbase alternatives cost for a team of 5?",
            "a": "If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 13 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Tidio $120.85/mo, Chatling $125/mo, Dante AI $200/mo, against Chatbase $160/mo for Chatbase. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size."
        },
        {
            "q": "Which is better, CustomGPT or Chatbase?",
            "a": "CustomGPT Standard gives 10 agents, 1,000 queries a month, 5,000 documents per agent and 60M words of storage; Chatbase's Basic plan is 1 agent with 4,000 message credits and 40 MB. Choose CustomGPT if you need several agents on large document sets and a RAG API, and meter by queries rather than credits. Stay with Chatbase if you want built-in helpdesk inbox, voice and Zendesk or Salesforce actions in the same product."
        },
        {
            "q": "Why are people leaving Chatbase?",
            "a": "The documented reasons are: Chatbase's pricing page (read 13 Nov 2026) lists only paid plans with a 7-day trial: Basic is $150 a month ($120 billed yearly) for 4,000 message credits and 3 members, and add-ons include $40 per 1,000 extra credits and $99 a month to remove 'Powered By Chatbase' (13 Nov 2026); Chatbase's changelog says the GPT-6.1 Terra model costs 2 credits per response, so larger models draw down the monthly message credits faster (27 Oct 2026). Each is sourced in the section above."
        },
        {
            "q": "What are the best Chatbase alternatives?",
            "a": "CustomGPT, Botpress, Chatling, Dante AI, DocsBot AI and SiteGPT are the closest hosted options; AnythingLLM, Langflow and Chatwoot are the open-source ones."
        }
    ],
    "publisher": "Zekai (zekaiwork.com) — independently reviewed; prices read on vendor pages on the dates shown.",
    "licence": "Free to quote with a link to https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/chatbase/. Bulk copying or republishing the dataset is not permitted."
}