Botpress Review

By Joren Wouters Updated on

Botpress

Botpress is an open-source conversational AI platform that allows you to create chatbots on multiple channels. The question is: Should you use Botpress to build your chatbots?

Let’s find out!

What is Botpress?

Botpress is an open-source conversational AI platform. This means you can use Botpress to build chatbots and have access to all the code of the platform itself.

This is especially useful for developers who want to build their own code on top of Botpress.

Before going into this review, it is essential to say that with Botpress you can code anything you want into their platform. But in this review, I will only cover features that are already built into the platform itself. For example, email validation is not a feature built in the platform, but by following this thread, you can easily code this into your chatbot (if you are a developer).

User Interface

With most chatbot builders, you can log into their website and you can start building.

With Botpress this is not the case. First, you need to download their software and launch it on your computer:

botpress-download

By the way, if you want to put the chatbot on your website or another channel, you need to deploy it on your server first.

Then, if you downloaded the software, you can use it on your own computer:

In their dashboard, you can set all kinds of settings, such as which modules you want to use and the number of chatbots you already created.

Once you are going to build your chatbot, Botpress uses a Visual Flow Builder:

botpress-flow-builder

As you can see from this screenshot, Botpress is easy-to-use, but still has a developer-like interface. Because of this, it is harder to understand the interface in the beginning and it requires you to look up some documentation and tutorials to fully understand it.

Also, what I really like about Botpress is that they have a Content feature in their software. With the Content feature, you can have a complete overview of all the content you’ve set up in your chatbot:

botpress-content-list

A benefit of this feature is that you can hire a copywriter and they can edit the text in the Content feature, without having to see the chatbot flows (which reduces the chance of breaking chatbot flows).

Moreover, you can also test the chatbot inside the Botpress interface:

botpress-testing

Overall, the interface of Botpress is pretty easy to use. But it takes some time before you understand how to set up your chatbot, because of the developer-like interface. Also, if you want to put a chatbot on a channel, you first need to put Botpress on your server, which requires you to be a developer (or hire one).

  • 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

Botpress provides the right elements to create your own chatbot.

Needless to say, they also lack some elements, such as Video, Attachments and Persistent Menu.

But still enough chatbot elements to create a good chatbot!

  • 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

With Botpress you cannot see an overview of the users who talked to your chatbot, which is a drawback.

But, it is possible to ask questions and store the answer of the question in a custom field and use the value of that custom field in the rest of your chatbot flows.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to assign tags to users. But this is not a huge drawback, because you can still use custom fields to function as tags.

Moreover, it is not possible to create user segments in Botpress.

  • 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 Botpress you can send broadcasts to all of your users or a part of them (by using filters).

Also, you can use conditions, so you can create more personalized conversations with your users.

Furthermore, you can also create chatbots in multiple languages. You can set up chatbots in 12 different languages, according to the Botpress website. However, I do not know whether it is easy to set this up, because this is a feature of their Enterprise plan.

  • 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

Botpress has really advanced built-in AI & NLP.

In Botpress, you can understand the intent of the user based on training phrases you provide.

Also, you can use entities to understand important information provided by the user:

botpress-intents-entities

Furthermore, Botpress also has a built-in Small talk feature:botpress-small-talk

And ultimately, you can also test the NLP of your chatbot using their NLU Testing module:

botpress-ai-testing

  • 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 Botpress you can create a chatbot and put it on multiple channels:

  • Your website
  • Facebook Messenger
  • WhatsApp
  • Telegram
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Slack
  • Sunshine Conversations from Zendesk (was Smooch before)

As said before, to put your chatbot on any of these channels, you first need to put the Botpress software on your own server.

  • 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

Botpress has a built-in live chat, which is the most important integration of any chatbot software:

botpress-livechat

Moreover, you can create your own webhooks to integrate with other software 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 a webhook inside your chatbot flow to send data to other applications?

Marketing

Botpress is a bit lacking on the subject of marketing.

It is only possible to create a native widget on your website, meaning that you can show a widget in your own website’s branding.

  • 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

Botpress is an open-source platform that is basically free. They provide two plans: Open-Source and Enterprise:

botpress-pricing

Botpress Open-Source is the free plan and comes with a visual flow builder, live chat, analytics, multiple channels and community support.

The Enterprise plan is paid and comes with additional features: workspaces for collaboration, multilingual chatbots, high availability and 24/7 technical support. However, I do not know the price of the Enterprise plan, because you need to contact sales before it, and it is probably a custom price per client.

  • 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?
  • 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 must say that I couldn’t have the possibility to test the analytics of Botpress, because I didn’t actually deploy a chatbot using their software.

That being said, I found some information of analytics on their website.

Botpress provides basic analytics, such as the engagement of users, the number of conversations, number of messages sent and the number of users:

botpress-analytics

I must say that these analytics are a bit minimal. But with Botpress you can also create your own custom analytics dashboards, but you need to code this yourself.

  • 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

Unfortunately, Botpress doesn’t provide any direct eCommerce integrations.

  • 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

Botpress does provide 4 templates to get you started with building your own chatbot.

Unfortunately, you cannot create these templates yourself and share these with others.

On the other hand, you can duplicate your chatbot flows and chatbot elements, so you can easily reuse them.

  • Templates
    How many pre-built templates does the chatbot platform provide?
    4
  • 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

Botpress doesn’t provide any optimization in their platform, such as A/B testing.

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

Support

Botpress provides extensive documentation on how you can use their platform.

Also, they have some Youtube videos that can help you to get started with their platform.

For support, they rely partly on their community (consisting of 1132 users) and advanced technical support if you have the Enterprise plan.

  • 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, would I recommend to use Botpress to build your chatbots?

Yes, I would.

But there are some sidenotes with this recommendation.

Botpress is not a plug-and-play option, meaning that you can just set up a chatbot in a matter of minutes. First, you need to download their software. Then, deploy it on your own server and also make sure your server is secure (with HTTPS). And only then you can start building your chatbot.

If you are a developer and familiar with servers, this wouldn’t be a huge problem. But if you cannot code and have no experience with servers, this could become a problem. So if you’re just starting out with chatbots, I wouldn’t recommend starting with Botpress.

On the other side, Botpress is extremely useful for companies who want to create chatbots on multiple channels and want to maintain everything in-house. With most other chatbot builders, you are reliant on their servers and uptime, but with Botpress you can put the chatbot on your own server and control everything.

Comments (4)

  1. Marc Mercier

    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!

    1. Joren Wouters

      Thanks Marc! I will also add WhatsApp and Telegram to the channels 🙂

  2. Jean Francois Martin

    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

    1. Joren Wouters

      Thank you for sharing!

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