Which one is better? Chatmatic vs ManyChat
By Joren Wouters • Updated on
ManyChat and Chatmatic are both chatbot builders you can use to create chatbots on Facebook Messenger, without using any code.
But which platform should you use? What are the differences? And which one is better?
Let’s find out!
Comparison criteria
1. Interface
Chatmatic
Chatmatic uses a Visual Flow builder to create your chatbot flows:
This interface is easy to use and it is easy to set up your chatbot.
The only thing that seems odd to me, is that there is no option to preview the flows before actually publishing them. With this, you cannot double-check a flow if it’s totally working before you are publishing it for the whole world.
- Visual Flow Builder
- Test chatbot
- Interface easy to use?
- Easy to setup a chatbot?
ManyChat
The ManyChat interface is one of the best interfaces I have ever seen in chatbot software. And this is because of the flexibility.
Just as Chatmatic, in ManyChat you can use a Visual Flow Builder to build your chatbot flows. But they also offer a second interface: the Basic Builder:
The benefit of the ManyChat interface is that you can use these two builders interchangeably, which is extremely flexible.
Moreover, you can test your chatbot flow inside Messenger, before it actually goes live.
- Visual Flow Builder
- Test chatbot
- Interface easy to use?
- Easy to setup a chatbot?
The winner: ManyChat
This is a clear win for ManyChat.
ManyChat offers a more flexible interface, by offering two kinds of chatbot builders for building your chatbot flows.
2. Chatbot Elements
Chatmatic
Chatmatic got enough elements to make your chatbot. It only lacks on Attachment, Lists, Validation and Location Sharing. The biggest drawback of those four is the validation part, because you cannot check whether a user has filled a properly formatted email or telephone number.
But, you got enough elements to make your own chatbot.
- Delays
- Images
- Video
- Audio
- Attachments
- Gallery (Horizontal list)
- Vertical list
- Emojis
- Persistent Menu
- Quick Replies
- Buttons
- Free text input
- Location sharing
- Email validation
- Phone number validation
- Date validation
ManyChat
ManyChat provides a lot of chatbot elements that you can use in your chatbot flows.
The only thing they don’t provide is Vertical Lists, which is logical, because Facebook Messenger doesn’t allow this anymore.
- Delays
- Images
- Video
- Audio
- Attachments
- Gallery (Horizontal list)
- Vertical list
- Emojis
- Persistent Menu
- Quick Replies
- Buttons
- Free text input
- Location sharing
- Email validation
- Phone number validation
- Date validation
The winner: ManyChat
This is also a win for ManyChat.
They offer five more chatbot elements than Chatmatic.
Let’s move on the the next one.
3. Users
Chatmatic
In Chatmatic, you can see a complete overview of all your users with their according information:
A drawback of this overview is that you cannot see the custom fields of the user (which are pretty important).
Moreover, you can assign custom fields and tags to users. But, you cannot use these custom fields and tags to create user segments. A;sp. when you are going to send a broadcast, you can only use tags to condition on.
ManyChat
With ManyChat you can add custom fields and tags to specific users. Based on those custom fields and tags, you can send messages to specific user segments.
In ManyChat you can view all the users of your chatbot in the “Audience” tab, which gives you a good overview:
In this overview you can click on each individual user and get all the information of that user, which is extremely useful:
From this overview, you can send flows to the user, live chat with them or add custom fields / tags from this overview.
The winner: ManyChat
And again a win for ManyChat.
ManyChat has a better user overview, where you can see all the tags and custom fields attached to a user.
Moreover, they provide the possibility to create user segments based on those custom fields and tags.
4. Messages
Chatmatic
With Chatmatic is possible to send broadcasts and sequences to your users. You can send a broadcast to your complete audience or a part of it (using tags to condition your audience). Moreover, using the Smart Delay feature in Chatmatic, you can send sequences:
Next to creating sequences, you can also use Conditions to create more personalized experiences.
Unfortunately, you cannot have a chatbot in multiple languages.
- Broadcasts
- Sequences
- Conditions
- Multiple languages
- Easy to translate
ManyChat
Manychat provides broadcasts, sequences and also subscribing/unsubscribing from sequences.
What I really like about the sequences in ManyChat is that they are really organized. You can see the complete sequence in one overview and you also see which message is sent at which time, a really good feature.
Also, with ManyChat you can use a feature called “Conditions”, in which you can use logic to send users through a certain flow.
Moreover, it is possible to make a chatbot in any language, but it is not possible to easily translate your chatbot to different languages (because you need to manually copy all your chatbot flows).
- Broadcasts
- Sequences
- Conditions
- Multiple languages
- Easy to translate
The winner: ManyChat
This is a small win for ManyChat.
With ManyChat you can create a chatbot in multiple languages, while this is not possible with Chatmatic.
5. AI & NLP
Chatmatic
With Chatmatic, you can recognize keywords of the user and create a certain response with your chatbot:
But this is also where it stops. You cannot understand the intent of the user or use Entities in Chatmatic.
- Keywords
- Intents
- Entities
- Dialogflow integration
ManyChat
With ManyChat it is only possible to recognize keywords with your chatbot. Based on a keyword (or a group of keywords) your chatbot gives a certain response.
How it looks in ManyChat:
It is not possible to grab the intent of the user, use synonyms or use entities.
ManyChat also doesn’t have a direct integration with DialogFlow. But I created a tutorial on how you can integrate ManyChat with Dialogflow yourself.
- Keywords
- Intents
- Entities
- Dialogflow integration
No winner
Both chatbot builders only offer keyword recognition.
So this is a draw.
6. Channels
Chatmatic
With Chatmatic, it is possible to have a chatbot on Facebook Messenger and SMS.
To be honest, I don’t know if you can send worldwide text messages with their SMS channel. I couldn’t find any documentation on this.
The use of only two channels is a potential drawback for companies who want to give an omnichannel chatbot experience to their customers.
- Website
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Whatsapp
- Telegram
- SMS
- Slack
- Skype
- Email
ManyChat
With ManyChat it is possible to make a chatbot for your website, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, SMS and Email.
This allows you to make an omnichannel chatbot experience for your users. So for example, when someone gives a certain response on Facebook Messenger, you could send an email based on that response.
With SMS, it is only possible to send text messages to users in the United States and Canada. If you want to send text messages to other countries, you need to use the Twilio integration available in the ManyChat App Store (additional costs apply).
- Website
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Whatsapp
- Telegram
- SMS
- Slack
- Skype
- Email
The Winner: ManyChat
With Chatmatic you can put your chatbot on Facebook Messenger and SMS. But ManyChat offers three additional channels: Website, Instagram and Email.
Therefore, ManyChat wins.
7. Integrations
Chatmatic
It seems that Chatmatic has a built-in live chat, however, I couldn’t get it to work.
When I typed something in their live chat, it just didn’t send it to the user in Facebook Messenger.
And this is a huge drawback, because live chat is the most important integration of any chatbot software.
Unfortunately, Chatmatic offers no direct integrations with other software. They do provide webhooks though, but this is a lot harder to make than a simple integration.
- Livechat
- Zapier
- Integromat
- Google Sheets
- Webhooks
ManyChat
ManyChat has a built-in live chat integration. Really good, because this is the most important integration a chatbot software needs. They also provide integrations for:
- Zapier
- Integromat
- Google Sheets
- ActiveCampaign
- MailChimp
- ConvertKit
- HubSpot
- Walletly
- Botsheets
- Janis
By the way, what I really like about the live chat integration of ManyChat is that they also have an iOS app and Android app, so you can respond to user inquiries on the go.
Moreover, ManyChat has its own App store which allows third-party developers to create their own integrations with ManyChat. Currently, the App Store has 38 apps, but I think this will grow over the years:
The winner: ManyChat
ManyChat offers a built-in live chat, while Chatmatic’s live chat is not working.
Moreover, Manychat offers more integrations with other software than Chatmatic.
So this is a clear win for ManyChat.
8. Marketing
Chatmatic
With Chatmatic, it is possible to connect your chatbot to Facebook ads, automatically reply to Facebook Comments, create a button for your website and make custom URLs to your chatbot.
There is only one drawback: Chatmatic is partly compliant with the latest Facebook policies. On the one hand, they are compliant, because you can send broadcasts using one of the Messenger tags:
But on the other hand, you cannot use the One-Time Notification. And this is a huge drawback for a chatbot builder that is so focused on Facebook Messenger.
- Facebook website widget
- Native website widget
- Landing pages
- Facebook Ads
- Facebook comments auto-reply
- Button creator
- Custom URLs for your chatbot
ManyChat
With ManyChat, is possible to put a Facebook Messenger widget on your website, create a landing page, connect to Facebook ads, use the One-Time Notification, automatically reply to Facebook comments, create buttons and create custom URLs to your chatbot.
Moreover, ManyChat has a really advanced auto-reply to Facebook comments.
Usually, with auto-reply to Facebook Comments, you make a Facebook post, people comment on it and then you send them an automatic message in Facebook Messenger.
But ManyChat goes further. Next to sending a message in Facebook Messenger, you can automatically like the comment and reply with your own comment:
The winner: ManyChat
This is also a win for ManyChat.
Manychat offers just three more marketing possibilities: Facebook website widget, landing pages, the One-Time Notification and a more advanced Facebook comments auto-reply.
9. Pricing
Chatmatic
To be honest with you: when I first started Chatmatic I felt a little bummed. Because when you click on “Free trial” on their website, this is the next window:
Immediately a commitment of 149$ per month. And yes, they provide a free trial, because the first month is free, but you immediately need to give your billing information (which I don’t like).
On this screenshot, it says that the monthly pricing is 149 dollars. But in the dashboard, it says that it is 97$. I really don’t know which one of those two is true, so I hope for the 97$.
But this is still a lot of money. And to my opinion, it is not actually worth it. For this kind of money, you would expect a better user overview, a working live chat, integrations with other software, better AI capabilities, analytics dashboard and compliance with the latest Facebook policies.
Moreover, there is additional pricing if you want to use SMS:
- Free trial
- Free plan
- Price per month97
- Monthly pricing available?
- Money back guarantee
ManyChat
ManyChat provides a free plan that stays free forever. This plan comes with 1000 contacts and does not have all the features that ManyChat provides (but still enough to make a good chatbot).
If you want more features, you can upgrade to the Pro package, which costs 10$ per month, which is a really low price. The price of the Pro package goes up with the number of subscribers your chatbot has. 1K subscribers result in $15 per month and 2.5K subscribers is $25 per month.
The only possible drawback is that you cannot have a trial for the Pro package, but this does not matter, because there is a 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked.
The winner: ManyChat
ManyChat’s prices are ten times lower than Chatmatic’s prices, while offering more features.
In addition, they also provide a free plan.
10. Analytics
Chatmatic
With Chatmatic, you can see the analytics per message in your chatbot flow. For every message, you can see how many times it is sent, delivered, opened and clicked.
Moreover, you can also see the averages for the whole flow:
In general, these analytics are fine to optimize your chatbot flows, but it would be nice if they added a dashboard where you can see all the analytics for your complete chatbot.
There is one drawback of their analytics: you cannot analyze the user input that the chatbot didn’t understand. Therefore, it is hard to improve the automated answers of your chatbot.
- Dashboard
- User input
- User retention
- Sent messages
- Open rate
- Click rate
- Conversion rate
- Fall back rate
- Volunteer users
- Custom dashboards/reports
ManyChat
ManyChat provides a basic dashboard for your chatbot analytics, showing you the total subscribers, unsubscribes and net subscribes:
Furthermore, they also provide analytics for each block in your chatbot. For each block, they provide the number of people the message is delivered to, the open rate and the click rate.
And this also holds for sequences:
There are only two drawbacks about the analytics in ManyChat:
- The analytics are all over the place. There is no one clear, in-depth dashboard with all relevant analytics, but this is distributed over multiple sections (Broadcasts, Sequences, etc.)
- There is no overview of unmatched keywords. If a user filled in a word that did not get a response, you cannot get this information in your ManyChat dashboard. This is a big disadvantage because it does not allow you to easily improve your chatbot. But I have made a solution for this: the ManyChat User Input Dashboard.
What ManyChat also has, is the ManyChat Pixel. This is a pixel you can put on your website to track conversions coming from your chatbot, really useful feature!
The Winner: ManyChat
This is a small win for ManyChat.
They both offer the same kind of analytics, ManyChat just offers two more features: Dashboard and Conversion rate.
11. eCommerce
Chatmatic
Chatmatic does not have any eCommerce integrations whatsoever.
- Payments
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Buy directly within the chatbot
- Cart abandonment
ManyChat
ManyChat has a direct integration with Shopify that allows you to:
- Recover abandoned carts
- Notify customers about orders and shipment updates
- Collect reviews and feedback after purchase
- Generate repeated purchases
It is, however, not possible to buy a product from your Shopify store within the chatbot.
But, you can receive payments through your chatbot by using the Stripe or Paypal integration.
The only drawback is that ManyChat doesn’t have a WooCommerce integration.
The Winner: ManyChat
While Chatmatic offers no eCommerce integrations, ManyChat offers integrations with payment providers and Shopify.
Again, a win for ManyChat.
12. Templates & Cloning
Chatmatic
Chatmatic provides 4 free templates that you can use to build your chatbot.
Moreover, you can also create templates and share these with others.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to copy your chatbot flows or chatbot elements.
- Templates4
- Make template
- Share template
- Duplicate chatbot flows
- Duplicate chatbot elements
ManyChat
ManyChat provides 19 templates which you can directly install to make your chatbot. These include free templates and templates only available for Pro users.
With ManyChat it is possible to make a chatbot template and share it with others. This is really useful when you are making multiple chatbots who do the same thing (for example, Lead generation).
Furthermore, it is possible to duplicate your chatbot flows and chatbot elements to make your chatbot faster.
The winner: ManyChat
ManyChat offers more templates than Chatmatic, and you can duplicate your chatbot flows and chatbot elements.
Therefore, ManyChat wins.
13. Optimization
Chatmatic
With Chatmatic, you can optimize your chatbot by using A/B testing.
- A/B Testing
ManyChat
It is possible to do A/B testing in ManyChat, but it is not available in the free plan. So you need to upgrade to a “Pro” plan if you want to unlock this feature.
No winner
No winner on this criterium. Both chatbot builders offer A/B testing to optimize your chatbot.
14. Support
Chatmatic
It seems that Chatmatic offers some training on how you can use their platform, but that training isn’t free.
Moreover, I couldn’t find any tutorials or documentation on how to use the Chatmatic, which is a huge drawback. This can keep you of really understanding how to use the software.
Also, they do provide customer support via their own support desk, which you can access via the Chatmatic dashboard. I cannot decide over the quality of their support, but it does not seem really good. On Facebook there is a page Chatmatic Support, which is rated as 2.3/5 stars and shows the following:
- Tutorials
- Documentation
- Customer support
ManyChat
ManyChat provides extensive tutorials on how to make a chatbot and all of the features on their platform.
They also have good documentation and customer support.
What I also love about ManyChat is that they have a large Facebook community (75.000 members) in which you can ask all kinds of questions and learn more about the platform.
The winner: ManyChat
ManyChat offers tutorials and documentation, while Chatmatic does not.
Moreover, they also have a large Facebook community to help you when you get stuck building your chatbots.
Which one is the winner?
It is clear that ManyChat is the winner. They have almost won on any criterium in this comparison.
Wow! Nice comparison!
Thank you, John! Glad you liked it!