Userbot Review

By Joren Wouters Updated on

Userbot

Userbot is chatbot software for websites, Facebook Messenger, Slack and Twitter. They describe themselves as “Artificial Intelligence made by humans, for humans.”

The question is: Should you buy this chatbot software to build your chatbots? Let’s find out!

For this review of Userbot, I used the criteria in my post “How to choose the best chatbot software“.

User Interface

I really like the user interface of Userbot.

When you first start with Userbot, they provide a complete step-by-step guide in the things you need to know for building your own chatbot:

userbot-start-guide

Even with small pop-ups that show you where to click and how to use their platform:

userbot-start-popup

This is really useful when you are not familiar with building chatbots, because it shows you all the steps you need to do to make a chatbot.

Next, Userbot makes use of Visual Flow Builder to make your chatbot flows:

userbot-visual-flow-builder

With their Visual Flow Builder and the step-by-step guide, it is really easy to set up your chatbot. Also, the interface is extremely easy to use.

Furthermore, you can even test your chatbot in the Userbot interface:

userbot-test-chatbot

  • 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

Userbot is pretty limited on the subject of chatbot elements.

It is only possible to use three elements:

  • Text
  • Forms
  • Buttons

With their “Forms” element, you can ask for user information, such as their name or email.

Usually, you would expect that you can ask these form questions in a conversational manner, but with Userbot this is not possible.

Userbot is just showing a form inside the chatbot, like this:

userbot-forms

For me, this is a huge drawback. One of the benefits of chatbots is that users don’t need to fill in boring forms and you can ask questions more engagingly. This is unfortunately not possible with Userbot, because they just put a form in the 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 Userbot, it is not possible to see an overview of all the users that interacted with your chatbot, so this is a drawback.

On the other hand, you can see all the conversations with your chatbot in the “Chats” tab:

userbot-chats

But there is something strange with Userbot.

In Userbot, you can make forms in which you ask for information about the user and store it in a custom field.

But the problem is, is when you look at the user details in the “Chats” section, you don’t see those filled-in custom fields:

userbot-user-details

It’s like you can ask for information about the user, but you cannot see that information in Userbot.

So that makes their custom fields feature almost completely useless.

  • 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

Unfortunately, Userbot performs really bad on this one.

It is not possible to send broadcasts and sequences, use conditions or create a chatbot in multiple languages.

  • 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 Userbot, it is possible to recognize keywords in three ways:

  1. A message contains all the words
  2. And the message is exactly

userbot-keywords

Also, they have the option “It’s similar to”, which means that you can grab the intent of the user:

userbot-intents

Currently, it is only possible to use Entities in the Enterprise plan (which I didn’t have access to), so I couldn’t test this out. But I spoke with Userbot and they said that is possible with their platform.

  • 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

Userbot provides four channels that you can put your chatbot on:

  1. Websites
  2. Facebook Messenger
  3. Slack
  4. Twitter

So this allows you to create an omnichannel experience for your customers, which is a benefit.

  • Website
    Can you publish your chatbot on your website?
  • Facebook
    Can you publish your chatbot on Facebook?
  • 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

Userbot has its own live chat, which is the most important integration of any chatbot software.

But I must say, this live chat is pretty basic.

Usually, when the chatbot cannot give an answer to the user, the chat is handed over to a live chat agent. And when the live chat agent has answered the question of the user, the chatbot is reactivated again.

But with Userbot, you cannot reactivate your chatbot again. Furthermore, it is not possible to send a certain chatbot flow to the user in their live chat section.

Moreover, Userbot has a Zapier integration that allows you to connect your chatbot with other software, such as your CRM.

  • 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

Userbot provides a native website widget that you can fully customize to your website’s branding:

userbot-website-widget

But that is it. It is not possible to have a Facebook website widget, create landing pages, connect your chatbot to Facebook ads, use the One-Time Notification, automatically reply to Facebook comments, create buttons or create custom URLs to your chatbot.

  • 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

When I first started with Userbot, I directly needed to fill in my credit card information for their free trial:

userbot-creditcard-info

And I know that is still a 14-day free trial, but I don’t like it when I immediately need to fill in my credit card information.

Userbot has a free plan that stays free forever. It comes with 20 users per month, the web chat widget, analytics, 1 bot flow and Slack as a channel.

Their first paid plan (Lite) is €29 per month and comes with 200 users per month, a Facebook channel, NLP, Chat rating and email support:

userbot-pricing

userbot-pricing-features

A drawback of their pricing is that even in the Pro plan (which is €49 per month), the Userbot branding is still not removed from the chatbot.

Also, when you want more users than 200 or you want more live chat agents, the packages cost more:

userbot-pricing-add-users-agents

  • 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?
    29
  • 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

Userbot provides a dashboard in which you can see the number of messages, number of messages that are handled by the chatbot and average response time:

userbot-analytics-dashboard

Also, you can analyze the user input that the chatbot didn’t understand:

userbot-user-input

This allows you to easily improve the answers of your chatbot.

  • 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

Userbot provides no 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

Userbot provides 0 templates that you can use to create your chatbots.

Furthermore, it is not possible to create templates yourself and share those with others.

On the other hand, it is possible to duplicate your chatbot elements, which allow you to easily reuse them.

  • 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

Userbot provides no support for optimization, such as A/B Testing.

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

Support

Userbot provides its step-by-step guide, which explains how you can use their platform to make chatbots.

Furthermore, they have videos on Youtube, but these are only in Italian, and not English.

Also, they provide customer support over email.

  • 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 Userbot to create your chatbots?

No, I wouldn’t recommend that.

Userbot is good in one thing: giving answers to questions. They have a good interface, an easy-to-use visual flow builder, built-in live chat, a native website widget, built-in AI & NLP, you can put your chatbot on four channels and decent analytics.

But there are also some drawbacks:

  • You cannot make custom fields, tags or user segments (or see the info in a custom field)
  • It is not possible to send broadcasts & sequences
  • You cannot use conditions in your chatbot flows
  • Limited chatbot elements
  • Limited marketing possibilities

And for me, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages of Userbot. If Userbot would improve their live chat, the ability to see the info in a custom field and provide more marketing possibilities, I would definitely recommend them.

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