Chatrace Review

By Joren Wouters Updated on

Chatrace

When it comes to automating chats on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Websites and more, Chatrace (formerly known as Silfer Bots) is one of the chatbot platforms that comes up as an option to pick. And at first glance, the platform is packed with tons of incredible features and capabilities.

But is this the best chatbot platform you should use to create your chatbot?

Let’s find out in this comprehensive Chatrace review.

User Interface

After registering and logging in to Chatrace, you’re taken to the dashboard. The main screen displays an overview of your chatbot channels, and the menu on the left side presents other chatbot features.

Dashboard of Chatrace when you log in.

Next up, if you click on Flow in the menu, it will open the Visual Flow Builder page, where you can create or modify new flows. Every flow starts with an initial step, and you can freely add more steps as you wish.

In every step, there are various actions and triggers you can set up, such as sending messages, adding buttons, creating conditions, and much more. The best part is that everything can be done by clicking, dragging, and dropping different elements.

Flow builder of Chatrace

First-time users may need a few minutes to experiment with the flow builder, but it’s super simple, and anyone can get the hang of it in no time.

Flows can also be categorized into different folders, which makes it easy to manage things when you’re dealing with multiple flows.

You can immediately test your flows on your channel by clicking on the preview option. For example, here’s a screenshot from one of the test flows I created and tested on Facebook Messenger:

Test chatbot flows on a specific channel with Chatrace

All in all, Chatrace has an extremely user-friendly interface where anyone can easily set up, test, and apply automated flows on the chatbot across any of the supported channels.

  • 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

With Chatrace, it’s possible to use all the chatbot elements you need. And this is literally: the platforms ticks off any element that I have on my list.

I especially like the Conditions and Start Flow Feature. By using Conditions, you can personalize the conversations which will make the conversation experience greater for your potential customer.

Moreover, with the Start Flow feature, you can create a very scalable chatbot, because you can refer to other flows instead of copy-and-pasting the same flow multiple times.

  • 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 people communicate with your chatbot, their information is stored in the Contacts section of your Chatrace account.

Overview of contacts inside Chatrace

When you click on any of the contacts, Chatrace brings you to the Inbox where you can see the personal details of the contact and full conversation history:

Chat live with one of your contacts through the Chatrace Inbox

Within Chatrace, you can set up custom fields and tags, and assign these to your contacts. The chatbot can ask questions to users, and based on their replies, it will auto-assign the required custom fields or tags.

Moreover, it is possible to filter on contacts, but you cannot create segments of contacts.

  • 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 Chatrace, you can also send bulk messages to users with the Broadcasts feature. Select the channel and the group of users you want to broadcast to, and the chatbot will send the message to all selected users. This is perfect for promotions, special offers, discounts and more:

Broadcasting feature inside Chatrace

Messages can also be scheduled to be delivered at specific times. You can configure the message to be sent to all users simultaneously or at different hours based on their time zones.

Likewise, you can also add users to a sequence that will send them messages with a specific time interval in between.

Chatrace also offers multilingual support so that you can set up your chatbot in multiple languages. The default language for your bot can be adjusted from the Settings section, with almost 50 different languages to choose from.

If you want to handle multiple languages at the same time, you need to manually copy-and-paste flow and translate them yourself, so this is not an easy task.

  • 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

In the Automated Responses section, you can set up specific groups of keywords that your chatbot can automatically reply to. The bot response can be a text message or a flow. For most basic user inputs, this feature is more than enough to get your chatbot to respond appropriately:

Set up automated responses for your bot in Chatrace

But if you want further AI capabilities, Chatrace can be integrated with Dialogflow. By doing so, the chatbot can be trained and configured to understand intent, and detect them in user messages. It helps the bot to provide accurate responses and become more interactive.

  • 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

Chatrace is an omnichannel chatbot platform that connects with:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • WhatsApp
  • Websites
  • SMS
  • Telegram
  • Viber
  • Email
  • Google Business Messages

For SMS, you must connect with a Twilio account which will be responsible for sending and receiving messages from users based on your chatbot flows.

Moreover, Chatrace can automatically merge contacts across channels based on someone’s phone number. That means that if we know someone’s phone number on Instagram and that same person contacts the chatbot via WhatsApp later on, Chatrace can recognize that it is the same person and merge these two contacts into 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

Chatrace has a built-in live chat, which is the Inbox feature I showed above under the Contacts section. At any time, the chatbot can transfer the conversation over to a human agent.

Moreover, Chatrace provides integrations with other powerful tools, such as:

  • Zapier
  • Make (formerly Integromat)
  • OpenAI (ChatGPT)
  • PayPal
  • WooCommerce
  • Mailchimp
  • Microsoft Calendar

Moreover, you can also send API calls from Chatrace and Chatrace also provides its own API that you can trigger from 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

Chatrace provides a handful of marketing tools that can help your grow and expand your business.

On your website, you can add a Facebook website widget or a native website widget (in the branding of your website). Additionally, you can also share links (Entry Points Links) that will bring your contacts to a specific flow in your website chatbot (or another channel):

Entry points links in Chatrace

You can also integrate Chatrace with Facebook Ads, target specific users, and auto-reply to Facebook comments. Similarly, the auto-reply feature is supported for Instagram posts, story replies, and mentions as well.

On Facebook, you can:

  • Integrate Chatrace with Facebook Ads and target specific users
  • Auto-reply to Facebook comments
  • Use the Ref URL to get contacts to a specific chatbot flow
  • Send one-time notifications
  • Send Recurring Notifications

On Instagram, you can:

  • Auto-reply to Instagram posts and comments
  • Send automatic replies to users who mention your handle on stories

On WhatsApp, you can:

  • Send WhatsApp message templates
  • 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

The basic plan of Chatrace is completely free for up to 500 users. So when you’re starting out, you can enjoy the features of this chatbot without spending any money. In the basic plan, the features are also limited. To access all the advanced features of Chatrace, you’ll need the Pro plan, which costs only $14/month, which is a cheap and reasonable price:

Pricing of Chatrace

If you want to scale your chatbot to more than 500 users, additional charges will apply based on the number of maximum contacts. Up to 1000 contacts it will cost $21/month, up to 3000 contacts will cost $29/month, and so on.

Chatrace also offers a whitelabel version at $499/month. This plan is mainly focused for large businesses that want to use the chatbot platform under their own brand name and logo:

Pricing of Chatrace Whitelabel plan

Even when you sign up for the free plan, you get a 7-day free trial, so all features are accessible for this period. And after that, there’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee. These risk-free offers are perfect for testing the chatbot in detail before deciding to invest money.

  • 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?
    14
  • 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

In Chatrace, your dashboard is your analytics page as well. This is where you can check and manage your chatbots across all channels and get a quick overview of all your contacts. Scrolling down, you’ll see graphs representing total contacts, new contacts, and messages received over specific periods.

Analytics dashboard of Chatrace.

Moreover, you can analyze what your average response time was and how fast your support agents were responding to questions:

Response time analytics in Chatrace
Source: Chatrace

And how many questions were handled by the bot and how many by humans:

Handled conversations by humans and bots in Chatrace
Source: Chatrace

Further below, there are pie charts that display user segmentation data based on source, gender, and language:

Pie charts in Chatrace showing the user segmentation

The simple overview of the analytics page makes it easy to go through the data and gain insights into your chatbot’s performance and user activity. Moreover, you can also track inside the flow builder how many people got a message, opened or clicked on it.

While the analytics feature of Chatrace isn’t all too impressive, I do appreciate the simplicity and clean display of data and info.

  • 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

Chatrace has built-in e-commerce integration that you can access by heading to Tools and Ecommerce. Here, you can:

  • Manage a catalog of your products
  • Manage orders and coupons
  • Add different vendors whose products can be sold through your chatbot
  • Create different categories for your products

The Ecommerce section of Chatrace also has its own Analytics page, where you can track sales, orders, and top products over time.

For payments, Chatrace supports integrations with PayPal, Stripe, RazorPay, and WooCommerce.

  • 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

Chatrace does not provide any templates, but you can create your own templates and share these with others. This makes it easier to use the same flows or triggers across different accounts instead of copying and pasting them individually every time.

In this visual flow builder, you can duplicate a step or entire flow to quickly set up your chatbot.

  • Templates
    How many pre-built templates does the chatbot platform provide?
    0
  • 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

In the visual flow builder, you will notice an option called Split Traffic. This is basically an A/B testing feature, where you can display two or more different messages or responses to different groups of users.

Split traffic in Chatrace to AB test your chat flows.

The reaction of users can be analyzed for each message to determine which works best. You can split the traffic not only for text messages but for other elements as well, such as images or buttons.

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

Support

Chatrace has a completely free video course where you can learn the platform’s features in great detail. I highly recommend beginners to go through the course as they are getting started. They also have comprehensive documentation, where all the key features of the chatbot are clearly explained with instructions.

If you still have any issues, you can message the support team at Chatrace, and they are always quick to reply and happy to help in any way. It might help to join their Facebook Community too. It’s a small community of about 500 members but is growing quickly.

  • 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 use Chatrace to create your chatbots?

It depends. Let me explain:

Feature-wise, Chatrace has lots of great features that you want in a chatbot platform: easy-to-use flow builder, all the chatbot elements, overview of contacts, integration with Dialogflow, integrations with other tools, decent analytics and it connects to multiple channels.

That being said, I am hesitant to use Chatrace for my own chatbot and my own clients. This is because I don’t know the structure of the company and I prefer to work with a platform where I know the founder and employees (or can look them up). On LinkedIn, I could only find two employees, which is the founder itself and the head of technical support.

After asking the founder of Chatrace if they had any developers working on the platform, I was told they had 4 developers, but the founder was not willing to disclose any information about them (so I could not verify it). For me, that brings in too much risk for the stability of my own chatbot and I am therefore hesitant to using it.

My recommendation: test it out for yourself and see whether it is working for you, feature-wise it’s a very promising platform.

Go to Chatrace

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