Botpress has become incredibly popular for making chatbots on many channels.
So in this Botpress review, I cover all the features of Botpress, the pros and cons, pricing, and more. After reading this review, you will exactly know when Botpress is the right fit for you.
Let’s dive in!
Our Verdict
Our Verdict
Botpress is a great platform for building fully customizable customer support chatbots. Plus, it works on many channels.
It has a flow builder and built-in AI. This lets you create custom flows and use AI in your chatbot. You can train your chatbot on custom data, like your website and documents. It can also automatically translate messages, summarize conversations, and more.
With Botpress, you can start for free. The platform’s price increases with your usage (pay-as-you-go).
Pros
- Easy-to-use Flow Builder
- Unlimited variables
- Advanced AI: Intents, AI Agents, Knowledge Base and more
- Publish your chatbot on 10 channels
- Add Chat widget to your website
- Built-in Live Chat
- Integrations with Zendesk & Zapier
Cons
- High learning curve for the flow builder
- Publishing on Facebook and Instagram is technical
- No marketing features for Facebook and Instagram
- Live chat available on $89/month plan
- Basic analytics on standard plan


What is BotPress?
Botpress is a chatbot platform to create, manage and publish chatbots.
With Botpress, you can create and launch chatbots on many channels. These can include your website, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
Key features of Botpress include:
- Flow builder to create chat automations
- Built-in Artificial Intelligence, powered by ChatGPT
- Publish your chatbot on many channels. This includes your website, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack and more
Using the Botpress Flow Builder
When you start creating your Botpress chatbot, Botpress offers a flow builder:
In the flow builder, you have multiple sections:
- Files (left): Here, you can see an overview of your folders, chatbot flows, knowledge bases, and tables.
- Flow builder (middle): This is where you create the flows of your chatbot
- Emulator (right-bottom): This is where you can test your chatbot flows
- Event debugger (center-bottom): It will show Botpress’s choices when testing your chatbot.
Each flow in Botpress consists of nodes. A node in Botpress can consist of one or multiple cards. A card is a chatbot element, such as a text message, asking a question, or quering the knowledge base.
Adding nodes and cards to your chatbot flows is super easy, you can just click and drag them in the flow builder.
Also, you can immediately test your chat flows. Just start chatting with your bot in the bottom-right corner:
When you are testing, the cards in the flow builder light up, so you can easily see where you are in the process of testing.
Plus, I like that you can use the Event Debugger to analyze the chatbot’s decisions in your chat flows. These features make it easy to test and improve your chat flows with Botpress.
That being said, the Botpress flow builder has a somewhat high learning curve.
On the one hand, you can get started quickly using simple elements such as Text Messages, Images and Capture Information.
On the other hand, adding expressions (for “if-then logic”), setting variables and starting other flows can feel a bit more technical. Botpress knows this and this is why they often added AI features to their own platform.
For example, if you want to add an expression, you can just describe what expression you want and hit Enter. Then, Botpress gives you the technical expression you need in your flow:
This is a simple example with expressions. But, Botpress can even create complete code blocks for you.
In short, Botpress has an easy-to-use interface. But, it can take time to learn how it all works. Once you get the hang of it, it works like a charm!
Flow Builder | |
Ease of use | 4 |
Ease of setup | 3.5 |
Test chatbot |
Chatbot elements
Botpress provides many elements to create a chatbot. They almost have all the elements I have on my criteria list. Among these, there are three cards I think are exceptionally useful.
Expression: With an expression you can use logic in your chatbot flows. Using this will let you personalize and tailor conversations to each person. This improves the user experience of your chatbot by tenfold.
Start flow: This card is crucial for scalability (and if you want to build large chatbots). With the Start flow element, you can start another flow in your Botpress bot. Because of this, you don’t need to copy and paste duplicate content, but can reference other flows.
Execute code: This element is a great for flexibility. By using this card, you can create custom functions using Javascript. It can be as simple as setting a variable, or as “hard” as making an API call. Needless to say: you are completely flexible in what you want to create.
Image | |
Video | |
Audio | |
Attachment | |
Gallery (Horizontal List) | |
Quick reply | |
Button | |
Collect User Input | |
Condition | |
Delay | |
Start automation | |
Split traffic |
Users
In Botpress, you can see an overview of all the conversations of your chatbot:
This gives you some insights into how people are talking with your chatbot and where you can improve. However, you cannot see the variables of users who talked with your chatbot (such as their name, email, etc.).
This is a drawback because it is possible to ask questions in Botpress and store the answers in custom fields (called Variables in Botpress). You can also use these variables in your chatbot flows and automations.
Contacts overview | |
Custom field | |
Tags | |
User Segments |
Botpress AI Features
This is where Botpress sets itself apart from the competition. Botpress has extremely advanced AI capabilities.
In Botpress, you have multiple AI agents that you can enable for each bot:
- Knowledge Agent
- Personality Agent
- Summary Agent
- Vision Agent
- Translator Agent (I already described this one above, you can use it to automatically translate each message sent to a user)
Ands on top of that, they also have an Autonomous Node, which is an absolute game-changer for AI.
Let’s cover them one-by-one.
Knowledge Agent
With a Knowledge Agent, you can upload knowledge base sources. These include website URLs, documents, and Web Search. Then, Botpress trains itself on these sources and can automatically answer questions about them:
Just upload your website’s FAQ URL. Botpress can then answer all the questions on that page.
Additionally, you can also choose what LLM model you want to choose. Here, you can choose between OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Deepseak and LLama:
Personality Agent
Using the Personality Agent, you can give Botpress instructions on what the personality of the bot should be. Then, Botpress will automatically rewrite every message that is sent to a user so that it matches the described personality:
Summary Agent
With the Summary agent, you can automatically summarize a complete conversation. This is great when you are handing over the conversation to an agent, so that person knows immediately what the conversation is about:
Vision Agent
By using the Vision Agent, your chatbot can automatically describe and understand images. This is really useful when analyzing images is part of a business process, because now AI can do the work for you:
Intents & Entities
Aside from the agents, you can also create Intents in Botpress to understand the intent of the user based on training phrases you provide:
Botpress has many built-in entities. You can also create your own to capture specific information from a sentence:
AI Task & AI Generate & AI Transition
Botpress has also created AI cards that you can use in your chatbot flows. They offer three types of AI Cards:
- AI Task: this card generates content and automates tasks
- AI Generate: this card generates text based on a prompt
- AI Transition: this card classifies text into predefined categories. You can use it to capture the intent of a phrase, without having to give training phrases to Botpress.
Botpress Autonomous Node
Lastly, Botpress also has the Autonomous Node. With this element, you can let a LLM (like ChatGPT) decide when and in what order certain things are done. For example, you can instruct it to use the knowledge base to answer any question. Also, it can do an API call for order status inquiries:
Again, Botpress has incredible AI features. I haven’t seen such advanced capabilities in any other chat platform!
Keyword recognition | |
Intents | |
Entities | |
AI Knowledge Base | |
NLP integrations | |
LLM integrations |
Live Chat
Botpress has a built-in live chat, that allows you to hand over the conversation to a human agent. This live chat is available from the Plus plan ($89/month).
Likewise, Botpress has a direct integration with Zendesk to send a chat to a live chat agent or create a Zendesk ticket.
Built-in live chat | |
Live chat integration | |
Auto-Assignment Rules |
Channels
With Botpress you can create a chatbot and publish it on multiple channels:
- Your website
- Facebook Messenger
- Telegram
- SMS (using Twilio)
- Slack
- Viber
- Line
- Microsoft Teams
To publish your chatbot on Facebook or Instagram you need a Meta Developer App. I think this is a disadvantage because this is a technical process. Also, each Meta Developer App needs to get manually approved by Meta.
Website | |
Facebook | |
Instagram | |
Whatsapp | |
Telegram | |
SMS | |
Slack | |
Email | |
Microsoft Teams | |
Line | |
Viber | |
Merge contacts across channels |
Marketing
With Botpress, you can add a chat widget to your website:
You can fully customize this widget’s look using CSS, a web styling language. You can also proactively send messages using Javascript. A little downside of this is that you need to know how to code in these languages.
You can customize this widget to your own branding by changing colours and giving it a name. Additionally, you can style it with CSS, a web styling language:
You can also proactively send messages using Javascript. A little downside of this is that you need to know how to code to set this up.
You can also send WhatsApp Message Templates using Botpress. But, you have to code these as well.
Unfortunately, you don’t have any marketing features for Facebook and Instagram, which is a drawback of the platform.
Broadcasts | |
Sequences | |
Rules | |
Website widget | |
Send proactive messages on website | |
Facebook Ref URL | |
Auto-Reply to Facebook Comments | |
One-Time Notification | |
Recurring Notifications | |
Facebook Ads | |
Auto-Reply to Instagram Comments | |
Instagram Story Mention Reply | |
WhatsApp Message Templates |
Botpress Integrations
Botpress has many direct integrations, such as:
- Shopify
- Salesforce
- Intercom
- Calendly
- Typeform
And much more!
Besides this, Botpress also directly integrates with Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat). This allows you to connect Botpress to almost every application on earth.
Additionally, you can use the Execute Code block to send or get data from other applications by creating your own API calls.
Direct integrations | 11-50 |
Zapier | |
Make | |
Make API Calls | |
Webhooks |
Botpress Pricing
Botpress pricing includes a free plan of up to 2,000 messages per month and you can customize paid plans (already starting at $1 per month).
Free plan
With the Botpress Free plan, you get:
- 5 bots
- 2,000 messages per month
- 3 collaborators
- 5,000 table rows
- 100MB file storage (for knowledge bases)
Botpress Pay-as-you-go plan with add-ons
If you want more than the features on the free plan, you can buy add-ons. These add-ons let you customize your Botpress plan to your specific needs.
For example:
- Adding 5,000 messages per month is $20
- Adding 100,000 Table rows is $25 per month
- Adding a bot costs $10 per month
- “Always Alive” (ensures quicker delivery of messages) costs $10 per month
- Adding 1 collaborator is $25 per month
- And 1GB of vector DB storage is $20 per month
Botpress Plus Plan
The Botpress Plus Plan costs $89/month and comes with:
- 25% discount on all add-ons
- Live chat
- Removed “Powered by Botpress” branding
- Custom analytics
This plan also works with the same pay-as-you-go structure as the free plan.
Team plan
Lastly, Botpress offers a Team plan. This is perfect if you go above $495 on the pay-as-you-go plan, because it gives you a huge discount.
The team plan comes with:
- 20 bots (with “Always Alive”)
- 250,000 messages per month
- 5 collaborators
- Custom analytics
- 1 million Table rows
- 10GB Vector Database Storage
- Live chat support
Free trial | |
Free plan | |
Price per month | $5 |
Monthly pricing available? | |
Money back guarantee |
Botpress Analytics
For each bot in Botpress, you get an analytics dashboard showing the monthly users, number of sessions and the number of messages. Likewise, you can also see the number of messages per sessions, a 3-month overview and what types of users where talking withy our chatbot:
These analytics show some insights on how much traffic is coming through your chatbot. But, it’s not enough.
So if you want to take it one step further: Botpress also has Custom Analytics. With Custom Analytics, you can track custom events in your chatbot flows. You can also create a custom dashboard, tailored to your needs.
Dashboard | |
Flow analytics | |
User input | |
Sent messages | |
Open rate | |
Click rate | |
Conversion rate | |
Fall back rate | |
Agent analytics | |
Custom event tracking | |
Custom dashboards/reports |
Botpress Templates
Botpress does not provide any templates that you can use to get started with building your chatbot.
But luckily, you can easily export and import chatbot templates and share these with others.
Number of templates | 0 |
Make template | |
Share template |
Support
Botpress provides extensive documentation on how you can use their platform.
Also, they have a lot of YouTube videos that can help you to get started with their platform.
For support, they rely partly on their active Discord community and customer support via Email.
Tutorials | |
Documentation | |
Customer support |
Is Botpress worth it?
So, would I recommend using Botpress to build your chatbots?
After this Botpress review, I can confidently say – yes, I would! Especially if you are looking for a support chatbot for your website.
Botpress has an easy-to-use flow builder, advanced testing, and many chatbot elements. It lets you ask users questions and store their answers in attributes. It can automatically translate messages and has very advanced AI features. You can publish your chatbot on 10 channels and easily integrate with other apps using Zapier.
There are only a few drawbacks of Botpress:
- It can take some time before you fully understand the flow builder
- Publishing on Facebook and Instagram is technical
- Analytics are pretty basic on standard plan
- Limited marketing possibilities
Botpress Alternatives
Here are the best Botpress alternatives:
- Voiceflow, if you’re looking for a platform that also has many AI features and is easier to use. In fact, here’s a detailed Voiceflow vs Botpress comparison.
- Manychat, if you’re looking for a platform that directly connects with Facebook and Instagram (+ marketing features)
- UChat, if you’re looking for an omnichannel chatbot platform that’s easier to use
Looking for Botpress alternatives? Check out this Botpress vs Voiceflow comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Botpress free?
Botpress has a free plan for up to 2,000 messages/month. If you need more messages, you can customize one of their paid plans to your needs (pay-as-you-go pricing).
Is Botpress open source?
Yes, Botpress is open source. Botpress has two versions: Botpress Cloud and Botpress V12. Botpress V12 is an open-source platform that you can self-host on your server. Botpress Cloud runs on the Botpress website and is not open source.
Is Botpress self-hosted?
You can host Botpress V12 on your own server, it’s open-source software.
What is the price of Botpress?
Botpress pricing depends on your needs.
Botpress has a free plan up to 2,000 messages/month. If you need more messages or more advanced features, you can customize a paid plan to your needs.
These are the Botpress costs:
- Adding a bot costs $10 per month
- Adding 5,000 messages per month is $20
- 1GB of vector DB storage is $20 per month
- “Always Alive” (ensures quicker delivery of messages) costs $10 per month
- Adding 100,000 Table rows is $25 per month
- And adding 1 collaborator is $25 per month
Does Botpress have live chat?
Yes, Botpress has a built-in live chat. But this live chat is only available on the $89/month plan. Likewise, Botpress has a direct integration with Zendesk. This lets you use the Zendesk live chat together with Botpress.
Thanks for writing about Botpress. I just want to mention that we do support Whatsapp and Telegram. I also want to add that we are a dev tool, so while some integrations or functionalities seem to be missing, someone can still create all of them. For example, templates and cloning can be done by using a git workflow. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions at marc.mercier@botpress.com. Happy chatbot building!
Thanks Marc! I will also add WhatsApp and Telegram to the channels 🙂
Thanks for this article. Please find here the list of all Botpress features and specifications for future reference: https://botpress.com/docs/features
Warm regards,
JF Martin – Head of Product @ Botpress
Thank you for sharing!