ActiveChat Review

ActiveChat is chatbot platform for building a chatbot for your website, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and SMS.

Do you want to know whether this chatbot platform is worth it to invest in? Let’s find out!

User Interface

If you log in to ActiveChat, the first thing you will see is their dashboard:

On the right-hand side, you will see all the chatbots you’ve made with ActiveChat and on the left-hand side you have the menu with “Bots”, “Account” and “Docs”.

When you are going to actually build your chatbot, ActiveChat makes use of visual flow builder:

With this visual flow builder, it is really easy to make a chatbot flow and connect messages with each other. On the left-hand side, you can pick one of the elements and drag it into the flow builder. Then you can connect this element with other elements by using arrows.

What is really useful, is that you can click on the message prompt in the right-bottom corner in which you can ask any question in case you get stuck.

Also, you can test your chatbot in the interface itself by just clicking on “Test your chatbot” on the top of the page. Testing your chatbot will look like this:

Overall, the interface is easy to use and it is easy to set up your chatbot. But I must say that this interface has a little higher learning curve than other chatbot platforms (such as ManyChat or Chatfuel), because the interface looks more technical.

• Visual Flow Builder

  Create chatbot dialogs with a visual flow builder.
• Test chatbot

  Is it possible to test the chatbot before putting your new flows or changes live?
• Interface easy to use?

  Is the chatbot platform easy-to-use?
• Easy to setup a chatbot?

  Is it easy to set up your chatbot with this chatbot platform?

Chatbot elements

ActiveChat has all the chatbot elements you need to build your chatbot. They only don’t have Vertical Lists and location sharing, but these are certainly no deal-breakers.

Moreover, it is possible to validate the input of the user for phone numbers, email and dates, so that is great!

• Delays

  Use delays between messages in your chatbot
• Images

  Can you send images via your chatbot?
• Video

  Can you send video via your chatbot?
• Audio

  Can you send audio via your chatbot?
• Attachments

  Can you send attachments via your chatbot?
• Gallery (Horizontal list)

  Show a gallery of cards inside your chatbot. A card consists of an image, title, subtitle and button.
• Vertical list

  Show a vertical list of items inside your chatbot
• Emojis

  Can you use emojis inside your chatbot?
• Persistent Menu

  Can you add a persistent menu to your chatbot?
• Quick Replies

  Can you add quick replies to your chatbot where users can click on?
• Buttons

  Can you add buttons to your chatbot where users can click on?
• Free text input

  Can chatbot users freely type text to your chatbot whenever they want to?
• Location sharing

  Can users share their location inside the chatbot?
• Email validation

  When a chatbot user gives their email, can the platform validate it's a correct email address?
• Phone number validation

  When a chatbot user gives their phone number, can the platform validate it's a correct phone number?
• Date validation

  When a chatbot user gives a date, can the platform validate it's a correct date?

Users

When someone has talked with your chatbot, it is possible to see the conversation and all the information of the user:

It is possible to assign certain custom fields and tags to users. Based on those custom fields and tags, you can almost filter any chatbot element in your chatbot flow. For example, if a user has tag A, then send Message 1, but if the user doesn’t have that tag, then send Message 2.

Also, you can segment your users with custom fields and tags. Then, you can send broadcasts to only a specific segment of your users, which is extremely useful.

• Custom fields

  Store information from your chatbot users inside fields. For example, you can ask for someone's email and store it inside the "email" custom field.
• Tags

  Add tags to users in your chatbot flows to organize and categorize contacts.
• User segments

  Can you create user segments based on custom fields and tags?

Messages

With ActiveChat it is possible to send broadcasts and sequences to your users (or to a segment of your users).

Also, it is possible to make a chatbot in any language, but it is not possible to easily translate your chatbot to a different language.

• Broadcasts

  Send a message to all or a part of your chatbot users at a specific date and time
• Sequences

  Send messages on a pre-defined schedule with a certain time interval between those messages
• Conditions

  Make checks in your chatbot flow based on if-then logic. For example, if the user has not given their email, ask for their email.
• Multiple languages

  Is it possible to create a chatbot in multiple languages?
• Easy to translate

  Can you translate text to other languages without using a third-party platform and without creating duplicate flows?

AI & NLP

With ActiveChat themselves, it is possible to recognize keywords and understand the intent of the user:

For each intent, you can determine multiple training phrases and respond with a simple message or a chatbot flow (called a “skill” in ActiveChat).

Besides that, ActiveChat provides a Dialogflow integration. With this integration, you can grab the intent of the user (but I think Dialogflow provides more languages than the built-in Intents of ActiveChat) and make use of Entities.

Also, it is good to know that you cannot use them both. You can use the ActiveChat Intents or you can use Dialogflow, but not both at the same time.

• Keywords

  Trigger chatbot flow based on certain words or phrases a user says to the chatbot.
• Intents

  Trigger a chatbot flow by understanding the intent of the user.
• Entities

  Capture specific information from sentences. For example, if a user says "veggie pizza", the chatbot can understand it's not a regular pizza, but a veggie pizza.
• Dialogflow integration

  Does the chatbot platform provide a direct integration with Google's AI Platform?

Channels

With ActiveChat it is possible to put a chatbot on your website, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, SMS and even send automated e-mails. So, it is possible to make an omnichannel chatbot experience for your users.

For sending SMS messages, you need to connect your Activechat account to Twilio. ActiveChat will handle the chatbot logic, and Twilio takes care of receiving and sending text messages (additional costs for Twilio apply).

What is also a benefit, is that sending e-mails to your subscribers won’t cost you more money, because this is handled with an integration with your own website/email server.

So, they do pretty well on this one!

• Website

  Can you publish your chatbot on your website?
• Facebook

  Can you publish your chatbot on Facebook?
• Instagram

  Can you publish your chatbot on Instagram?
• Whatsapp

  Can you publish your chatbot on WhatsApp?
• Telegram

  Can you publish your chatbot on Telegram?
• SMS

  Can you publish your chatbot on SMS?
• Slack

  Can you publish your chatbot on Slack?
• Skype

  Can you publish your chatbot on Skype?
• Email

  Can you publish your chatbot on email?

Integrations

ActiveChat has a built-in live chat, which is the most important integration of any chatbot builder.

Unfortunately, ActiveChat does not provide direct integrations with Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat), which is a drawback. It is, however, possible to integrate ActiveChat with Zapier, but you need a JSON webhook for this.

ActiveChat does have integrations with Google Sheets and Google Calendar. Also, you can make API calls to other applications.

• Livechat

  Direct integration with live chat, either via a built-in live chat functionality or a third-party live chat platform.
• Zapier

  Direct integration with Zapier, one of the largest integration platforms in the world.
• Make (formerly Integromat)

  Direct integration with Make (formerly Integromat), one of the largest integration platforms in the world.
• Google Sheets

  Direct integration with Google Sheets, to store or retrieve data from sheets.
• Webhooks

  Can you call an API inside your chatbot flow to send or get data from other applications?

Marketing

With ActiveChat it is possible to have a Facebook Messenger-like widget on your website:

And to have a native widget on your website:

Moreover, you can send tailored pro-active messages to users based on the website URL they currently are:

And you can even take it further, for example, by checking on the number of page visits. With this, you can send extremely tailored messages to the user. For example, you can make a different message for a user who is coming for the second time to the pricing page than for a user who visits the pricing page for the first time.

Furthermore, it is possible to connect Facebook Ads to your chatbot, to make landing pages and to make QR Codes and custom URLs to your chatbot, which is really useful if you want to attract people to your chatbot.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to use the One-Time Notification, Recurring Notifications and to automatically reply to Facebook comments.

• Facebook website widget

  Embed your chatbot as a Facebook Widget on your website.
• Native website widget

  Embed your chatbot as a native widget (your own branding & colors) on your website.
• Landing pages

  Can you create a simple landing page to drive users to your chatbot?
• Facebook Ads

  Start a conversation with your chatbot when someone clicks on a Facebook Ad
• One-Time Notification

  Send one-time notifications via Facebook Messenger for a topic that a chatbot user has opted-in for
• Facebook comments auto-reply

  Automatically reply with your chatbot to users who comment on your Facebook Posts
• Button creator

  Add a button to your website to drive users to your chatbot
• Custom URLs for your chatbot

  Generate a simple URL that can be shared anywhere to send users to your chatbot

Pricing

ActiveChat pricing starts at $149 per month. This plan comes with live chat, all channels, the visual chatbot builder and 3 live chat agent seats. For every plan, they also charge a $399 one-time setup fee:

If you want more features, you need to with their Company plan, which costs $490 per month and also gives you access to knowledge management, AI live chat hints, question answering, all integrations and their analytics.

• Free trial

  Does the chatbot platform provide a free trial?
• Free plan

  Does the chatbot platform provide a free plan?
• Price per month

  What is the lowest price per month for creating a chatbot on this platform?
  149
• Monthly pricing available?

  Is it possible to pay monthly?
• Money back guarantee

  Is there a money-back guarantee in case you are not satisfied with the platform?

Analytics

I always say that Analytics is extremely important. Because with Analytics you can easily see how your chatbot is doing and ways how to improve your chatbot.

But the Analytics of ActiveChat is extremely minimal. It is only possible to see the number of users and user growth. But that is basically it.

• Dashboard

  Dashboard that provides general analytics of your chatbot.
• User input

  Get the input from users that your chatbot didn't understand.
• Sent messages

  The number of messages that were sent by your chatbot.
• Open rate

  The percentage of chatbot users that opened a message inside your chatbot.
• Click rate

  The percentage of chatbot users that click on a button inside your chatbot.
• Conversion rate

  The percentage of users that converted through your chatbot. For example, the percentage of users that gave their email address
• Fall back rate

  The percentage of interactions where the chatbot did not know an answer to a question.
• Custom dashboards/reports

  Can you create your own dashboard or reports?

eCommerce

ActiveChat does extremely well on this one.

With ActiveChat it is possible to integrate your Shopify and WooCommerce webshop to your chatbot. It is even possible to buy directly within the chatbot. This is a huge advantage, because this is not possible with many other chatbot software.

You can make a total webshop within your chatbot, by using the Visual Flow Builder:

From the chatbot, you can show products, add products to the cart, show the cart and create orders. Then, you can send the payment link for the order directly within the chatbot, so the user can directly pay for the order within the chatbot.

ActiveChat is only one of the few chatbot software that has an extremely good eCommerce integration, so that’s pretty impressive.

• Payments

  Collect payments inside your chatbot
• Shopify

  Direct integration with Shopify to get products, order information and cart data.
• WooCommerce

  Direct integration with WooCommerce to get products, order information and cart data.
• Buy directly within the chatbot

  Ability for chatbot users to buy products or services directly from a chatbot
• Cart abandonment

  Trigger messages in the chatbot when a user abandons their cart on a website or inside the chatbot

Templates & Cloning

ActiveChat provides 18 templates that you can directly install to make your chatbot.

Furthermore, it is possible to duplicate your chatbot flows and chatbot elements to make your chatbot faster.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to make templates yourself and share them with others.

• Templates

  How many pre-built templates does the chatbot platform provide?
  18
• Make template

  Can you make templates yourself?
• Share template

  Can you share self-created templates with others?
• Duplicate chatbot flows

  Is it possible to duplicate chatbot flows, so you can easily reuse them?
• Duplicate chatbot elements

  Is it possible to duplicate chatbot elements, so you can easily reuse them?

Optimization

With ActiveChat it is not possible to do any kind of optimization, such as A/B testing.

• A/B Testing

  Can you optimize your chatbot flows by performing A/B tests?

Support

ActiveChat provides video tutorials, has extensive documentation and they provide customer support through live chat and e-mail.

So, they are doing everything to help you when you get stuck 😉

• Tutorials

  Does the chatbot platform provide tutorials on how to use its platform?
• Documentation

  Does the chatbot platform provide documentation on how to use its platform?
• Customer support

  Does the chatbot platform provide customer support?

Conclusion

So, should you buy ActiveChat?

It depends.

On the one hand, they have a good interface, many chatbot elements, it is possible to add custom fields/tags to users, you can segment your users, send broadcasts and campaigns, have a DialogFlow integration, built-in live chat, you can put your chatbot on multiple channels, they have an advanced website widget and one of the best eCommerce integrations I’ve ever seen.

But they also lack two pretty important features:

1. Analytics
   Analytics allows you to easily improve your chatbot. Unfortunately, ActiveChat has really minimal analytics, so it is really hard to determine how good your chatbot is and how you should improve it.
2. Zapier/Integromat Integration
   Currently, ActiveChat does not provide a Zapier/Integromat integration. This is a drawback, because these software applications allow you to connect your chatbot with almost every software on earth, which is currently not possible. It is possible to connect to Zapier with using JSON code, but I also know that many chatbot makers don’t understand code.

That being said, for the price that ActiveChat asks you would also expect more chatbot channels, such as Instagram or WhatsApp.