Which one is better? SilFer Bots vs ManyChat

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By Joren Wouters Updated on

ManyChat is the most popular chatbot builder for Facebook Messenger. SilFer Bots is the new kid on the block.

They are both mainly used for Facebook Messenger and don’t require any coding skills, which means anyone can build a chatbot!

But which platform should you use? What are the differences? And which one is better? The giant or the new kid on the block?

Let’s find out!

1. Interface

SilFer Bots

When you are going to build your chatbot flows, SilFer Bots uses a Visual Flow Builder:

silferbots-flow-builder

And if you click on one of the message blocks, you can edit it easily:

silferbots-message-element

Another big plus for the SilFer Bots interface is that they provide a search bar. Instead of looking into multiple flows to find the thing you are looking for, you can just search for it. Moreover, you can test your chatbot in Facebook Messenger, before the flow actually goes live.

There is only one little drawback. Some features (like Sequences) are a bit hidden in the interface. So this requires a bit of digging the first time you use SilFer Bots.

  • 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?

ManyChat

The ManyChat interface is one of the best interfaces I have ever seen in chatbot software. And this is because of the flexibility.

In ManyChat you can choose between two interfaces: The Basic builder and the Flow builder:

manychat-basic-builder
Basic Builder of Manychat
manychat-flow-builder
Flow Builder of ManyChat

Just as with SilFer Bots, you can test your chatbot flows inside Messenger, before it actually goes live.

  • 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?

No winner

SilFer Bots and ManyChat both offer great interfaces.

To my opinion, the ManyChat interface has a more “premium” style. On the other hand, SilFer Bots provides a search bar while ManyChat doesn’t.

So, no winner on this one.

2. Chatbot Elements

SilFer Bots

SilFer Bots provide a lot of chatbot elements.

There are only three elements they don’t offer: Audio, Vertical Lists and Location sharing, but these are certainly no deal-breaker.

  • 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?

ManyChat

Just like SilFer Bots, ManyChat provides a lot of chatbot elements.

The only thing they don’t provide is Vertical Lists, which is logical, because Facebook Messenger doesn’t allow this anymore.

  • 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?

The winner: ManyChat

This is a small win for ManyChat.

ManyChat offers one more chatbot element than SilFer Bots, so that’s why they win this category. But again, a really small win, just a really small difference.

3. Users

SilFer Bots

With SilFer Bots it is really easy to add custom fields and tags to specific users. Based on those tags and custom fields, you can create user segments and send specific messages to them. Within SilFer Bots, you have a good overview of your complete audience:

silferbots-audience

Also, you can see the information per user:

silferbots-lead

Within this overview, you can send particular flows to the user, engage with them in a live chat or add custom fields / tags.

  • 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?

ManyChat

With ManyChat you can add custom fields and tags to specific users. Based on those custom fields and tags, you can send messages to specific user segments.

In ManyChat you can view all the users of your chatbot in the “Audience” tab, which gives you a good overview:

manychat-audience

In this overview you can click on each individual user and get all the information of that user, which is extremely useful:

manychat-user

Just as SilFer Bots, you can send flows to the user, live chat with them or add custom fields / tags from this overview.

  • 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?

No Winner

With both SilFer Bots and ManyChat you can do the same: add custom fields and tags, and create user segments based on that.

So again, no winner on this subject!

Let’s look at Messages.

4. Messages

SilFer Bots

With SilFer Bots, you can send broadcasts and sequences to your audience. Moreover, users can subscribe and unsubscribe from these sequences.

Also, you can use conditions inside your chatbot flows, which allows to you use logic and calculation inside your flows. Really useful feature when you want to send personalized messages to your audience.

And here comes the BIG plus for SilFer Bots. SilFer Bots is multi-language. And not only that a chatbot can handle multiple languages at the same time, but you can also easily translate the chatbot to multiple languages! I have not done this myself, but if you want this you can contact SilFer Bots customer support through their chatbot and they will assist you with changing the language.

What I did notice is that you can easily translate the Persistent Menu tot any language:

silferbots-menu-translation

  • 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?

ManyChat

Manychat provides broadcasts, sequences and also subscribing/unsubscribing from sequences.

What I really like about the sequences in ManyChat is that they are really organized. You can see the complete sequence in one overview and you also see which message is sent at which time, a really good feature.

manychat-sequence
An example sequence in ManyChat

Also, with ManyChat you can use a feature called “Conditions”, in which you can use logic to send users through a certain flow.

Moreover, it is possible to make a chatbot in any language, but it is not possible to easily translate your chatbot to different languages (because you need to manually copy all your chatbot flows).

  • 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?

The winner: SilFer Bots

This is a win for SilFer Bots.

With SilFer Bots it is easy to translate your chatbot to different languages, while with ManyChat you need to manually copy paste all your chatbot flows.

5. AI & NLP

SilFer Bots

SilFer Bots has a built-in AI engine, which allows the chatbot to train itself on specific phrases (so the chatbot makes itself smarter). With their engine, you can understand the intention of the user, based on certain keywords.

If that is not enough for you, they also provide a direct DialogFlow integration, which gives you additional AI powers. Moreover, they also provide a Wit.ai integration, which is really useful for languages not supported by DialogFlow.

  • 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?

ManyChat

With ManyChat it is only possible to recognize keywords with your chatbot. Based on a keyword (or a group of keywords) your chatbot gives a certain response.

How it looks in ManyChat:

manychat-keywords

It is not possible to grab the intent of the user, use synonyms or use entities.

ManyChat also doesn’t have a direct integration with DialogFlow. But I created a tutorial on how you can create this integration yourself.

  • 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?

The winner: SilFer Bots

Another win for SilFer Bots.

SilFer Bots has a built-in AI engine, while ManyChat doesn’t.

Also, SilFer Bots provides a direct integration with DialogFlow, while with ManyChat you need to connect using a third party (Janis).

6. Channels

SilFer Bots

SilFer Bots provides multiple channels to put your chatbot on: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS and Email.

For the WhatsApp channel, they also provide a direct integration with Twilio.

For the SMS integration, you need a Twilio or Clicksend account and it allows you to send text messages all over the world. The great thing is that SilFer Bots provides a direct integration with Twilio and Clicksend.

Furthermore, you can only send emails to users who are a Facebook subscribers, so this is a small drawback. But, it is possible to connect with every email provider using their SMTP feature.

So they don’t provide SMS and Email out of the box, but it is possible to easily integrate with other software packages to leverage this.

  • 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?

ManyChat

With ManyChat it is possible to make a chatbot for your website, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, SMS and Email.

This allows you to make an omnichannel chatbot experience for your users. So for example, when someone gives a certain response on Facebook Messenger, you could send an email based on that response.

With SMS, it is only possible to send text messages to users in the United States and Canada. If you want to send text messages to other countries, you need to use the Twilio integration available in the ManyChat App Store (additional costs apply).

Also, Telegram is in closed beta, which means this channel will soon be added to ManyChat.

  • 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?

A small win: SilFer Bots

They both offer the same channels.

But, ManyChat only provides SMS as a one-way channel (you can only send text messages), while SilFer Bots provides SMS as a two-way channel (send text messages, receive them and automatically reply).

Therefore: a small win for SilFer Bots.

7. Integrations

SilFer Bots

SilFer Bots has a built-in live chat, which is the most important integration of any chatbot software. 

Also, they provide integrations with Zapier, Integromat, Google Sheets and you can create your own webhooks.

Moreover, they provide many direct integrations with other software packages:

  • SendGrid
  • Walletly
  • MailChimp
  • ActiveCampaign
  • Drip
  • Moosend
  • Platformly
  • PipeDrive
  • Klaviyo
  • GetResponse
  • MailerLite
  • Leadsquared
  • Truemail

And it seems like they are only extending their direct integrations, so these are really useful!

  • 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?

ManyChat

ManyChat has a built-in live chat integration. Really good, because this is the most important integration a chatbot software needs. They also provide integrations for:

By the way, what I really like about the live chat integration of ManyChat is that they also have an iOS app and Android app, so you can respond to user inquiries on the go.

Moreover, ManyChat has its own App store which allows third-party developers to create their own integrations with ManyChat. Currently, the App Store has 38 apps, but I think this will grow over the years:

manychat-app-store

  • 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?

The winner: It depends

SilFer Bots provide more direct integrations with other software packages, which could be really useful.

On the other hand, ManyChat has an iOS and Android app to handle your live chat.

It’s up to you which is more important to you 😉

8. Marketing

SilFer Bots

With SilFer Bots it easy to put a Facebook widget on your website, connect your chatbot to Facebook ads, automatically reply to Facebook comments, send One-Time Notifications and create custom URLs to your chatbot.

They only don’t provide a native website widget (a widget in your website’s branding) and buttons.

What I really like with SilFer Bots is their auto-reply to Facebook comments feature, it is way better than other chatbot software.

Usually, with auto-reply to Facebook Comments, you make a Facebook post, people comment on it and then you send them an automatic message in Facebook Messenger.

But SilFer Bots is going three steps further. Next to sending a message in Facebook Messenger, they also reply on the comment of the user:

silfer-bots-auto-reply

Secondly, you can even integrate this with DialogFlow, so you have a different response per comment.

But there is more. You can even check the number of friends a Facebook user has tagged. This is great for giveaways:

silferbots-tagged-users

  • 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

ManyChat

With ManyChat, is possible to put a Facebook Messenger widget on your website, create a landing page, connect to Facebook ads, use the One-Time Notification, automatically reply to Facebook comments, create buttons and create custom URLs to your chatbot.

Moreover, ManyChat has a really advanced auto-reply to Facebook comments.

Usually, with auto-reply to Facebook Comments, you make a Facebook post, people comment on it and then you send them an automatic message in Facebook Messenger.

But ManyChat goes further. Next to sending a message in Facebook Messenger, you can automatically like the comment and reply with your own comment:

manychat-automatic-comment-reply

  • 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

The winner: SilFer Bots

This is a small win for SilFer Bots.

But their auto-reply to Facebook Comments is just better than ManyChat’s auto-reply. It gives you two advantages:

  1. Integrate it with DialogFlow so you don’t reply with the same public comment every time
  2. Check the number of friends a user has tagged

Again, it’s a small win.

9. Pricing

SilFer Bots

SilFer Bots has a free plan which is free forever. With this plan, you get unlimited users, unlimited broadcasts, unlimited custom fields/tags, but it also comes with limited features and SilFer Bots branding. 

The paid plan is the Pro plan, which costs 9$ per month and then you have 500 users and all the features of the platform:

silferbots-pricing

The price of the Pro plan increases with the number of users. For example, with 2.500 users you pay 19$, which is still really cheap.

They do not offer a free trial, but they do provide a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Great add-on: If you have a Facebook page with the word “Demo” in it, you will get a Pro plan for life! Nice way to show your demo chatbots, if you are a chatbot agency 😉

  • 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?
    9
  • 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?

ManyChat

ManyChat provides a free plan that stays free forever. This plan comes with 1000 contacts and does not have all the features that ManyChat provides (but still enough to make a good chatbot).

If you want more features, you can upgrade to the Pro package, which costs 15$ per month, which is a really low price. The price of the Pro package goes up with the number of subscribers your chatbot has. 1K subscribers result in $25 per month and 5K subscribers is $45 per month.

manychat-pricing

The only possible drawback is that you cannot have a trial for the Pro package, but this does not matter, because there is a 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked.

  • 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?
    15
  • 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?

No winner

SilFer Bots and ManyChat both offer really cheap prices for their chatbot software.

So no winner on this one.

10. Analytics

SilFer Bots

SilFer Bots has really basic analytics.

They provide a dashboard with the number of users, new users, active users, and user messages.

With the focus on e-commerce, they do provide quite extensive e-commerce analytics, such as the sales, number of orders, number of products in the orders, top products and top vendors:

silferbots-analytics-ecommerce

  • 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?

ManyChat

ManyChat provides a basic dashboard for your chatbot analytics, showing you the total subscribers, unsubscribes and net subscribes:

manychat-dashboard
Source: ManyChat

 

Furthermore, they also provide analytics for each block in your chatbot. For each block, they provide the number of people the message is delivered to, the open rate and the click rate.

manychat-analytics-block

And this also holds for sequences:

manychat-analytics-sequence

There are only two drawbacks about the analytics in ManyChat:

  1. The analytics are all over the place. There is no one clear, in-depth dashboard with all relevant analytics, but this is distributed over multiple sections (Broadcasts, Sequences, etc.)
  2. There is no overview of unmatched keywords. If a user filled in a word that did not get a response, you cannot get this information in your ManyChat dashboard. This is a big disadvantage because it does not allow you to easily improve your chatbot. But I have made a solution for this: the ManyChat User Input Dashboard.

What ManyChat also has, is the ManyChat Pixel. This is a pixel you can put on your website to track conversions coming from your chatbot, really useful feature!

  • 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?

The Winner: ManyChat

ManyChat gives better analytics than SilFer Bots.

SilFer Bots only provide general analytics, while ManyChat gives you analytics per block.

The only drawback of ManyChat is that there is no overview of unmatched keywords. But I have made solution for this: the ManyChat User Input Dashboard.

11. eCommerce

SilFer Bots

This is probably one of the best parts of SilFer Bots.

They provide a direct integration with Shopify and WooCommerce. With one click, you can import all the products of your webshop into SilFer Bots.

When you don’t have Shopify/WooCommerce webshop, you can connect SilFer Bots to Stripe, PayPal or Razorpay and let the user pay directly in the chatbot.

Also, you can add your own products inside SilFer Bots and add a lot of information:

  • Product description
  • Pricing (with taxes and discounts)
  • Product image
  • Inventory (you can track the inventory with SilFer Bots)
  • Tags
  • Variants
  • Add-ons

With this feature, you can provide a complete webshop experience within your chatbot.

These are features that are really useful when you have your own webshop. Also, they provide one of the most important features for an eCommerce store: Abandoned Cart Reminders. You can even set the timing of that message to your exact needs.

  • 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

ManyChat

ManyChat has a direct integration with Shopify that allows you to:

  • Recover abandoned carts
  • Notify customers about orders and shipment updates
  • Collect reviews and feedback after purchase
  • Generate repeated purchases

It is, however, not possible to buy a product from your Shopify store within the chatbot.

But, you can receive payments through your chatbot by using the Stripe or Paypal integration.

The only drawback is that ManyChat doesn’t have a WooCommerce integration.

  • 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

The Winner: SilFer Bots

SilFer Bots wins this one, because they got two features ManyChat doesn’t have:

  1. An integration with WooCommerce
  2. You can add products to SilFer Bots if you don’t have a webshop

12. Templates & Cloning

SilFer Bots

SilFer Bots provides 28 templates (in different language), which makes it really easy to setup your chatbot.

Furthermore, you can also create templates yourself and share those with others.

Moreover, 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?
    28
  • 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?

ManyChat

ManyChat provides 19 templates which you can directly install to make your chatbot. These include free templates and templates only available for Pro users.

With ManyChat it is possible to make a chatbot template and share it with others. This is really useful when you are making multiple chatbots who do the same thing (for example, Lead generation). 

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

  • Templates
    How many pre-built templates does the chatbot platform provide?
    19
  • 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?

No winner

Both chatbot builders provide templates, making/sharing of templates and duplicating chatbot flows and elements.

So, no winner on this subject.

13. Optimization

SilFer Bots

With SilFer Bots it is possible to optimize your chatbot through A/B testing.

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

ManyChat

It is possible to do A/B testing in ManyChat, but it is not available in the free plan. So you need to upgrade to a “Pro” plan if you want to unlock this feature.

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

No winner

And again, no winner.

They provide A/B testing that you can use to optimize your chatbot.

14. Support

SilFer Bots

SilFer Bots provides documentation, tutorials and customer support. I must say that the documentation is a little bit minimal, but I think this will grow with their platform.

Also, they have a Facebook community, with 1791 members, which is growing at a really fast pace.

And with a fast pace, I mean that one year ago their Facebook community was non-existent.

  • 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?

ManyChat

Just like SilFer Bots, ManyChat provides extensive tutorials on how to make a chatbot and all of the features on their platform.

They also have good documentation and customer support.

What I also love about ManyChat is that they have a large Facebook community (75.000 members) in which you can ask all kinds of questions and learn more about the platform.

  • 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?

No Winner

No winner on this one.

They both have tutorials, documentation and good customer support. Also, they have a community which are willing to help you when you get stuck.

Who is het winner?

Well, let’s look at the winners per criterium:

Criterium SilFer Bots ManyChat
Interface - -
Chatbot elements
Users - -
Messages
AI & NLP
Channels
Integrations - -
Marketing
Pricing - -
Analytics
eCommerce
Templates & Cloning - -
Optimization - -
Support - -

Although SilFer Bots has better features than ManyChat, I would not recommend using SilFer Bots for creating your chatbots.

Because of a recent lawsuit of ManyChat, SilFer Bots has chosen to shut down the company. Moreover, the platform is pretty unstable lately and also not all the features are working.

So, if you need to choose between ManyChat and SilFer Bots, I would go with ManyChat.

Go to ManyChat

Comments (6)

  1. James

    When you implement it on reality, you’ll find silferbots has over 100+ bugs while almost less than 10 on Manychat.

    1. Joren Wouters

      Hey James, thanks for your comment! What kind of bugs do you mean? I haven’t experienced any with SilFer Bots… (or with ManyChat for that matter)

  2. Andrey Krastev

    I am not agree with some points:
    1) “Furthermore, you can only send emails to users who are a Facebook subscribers, so this is a small drawback. Also, you need SendGrid for this.” That’s not true. Silferbots have HTMP email integration. You can send email from your Gmail account or your company’s email. Also you can send email when you insert manually email to your clients which are not yours chatbot subscribers.

    2) “SilFer Bots has a free plan which is free forever. With this plan, you can have 100 users, 300 sales and 50 products.” That’s not true. They have free plan with not all features.
    Silferbots provide free pro account with all features if in name of your page has word DEMO. This is perfect if you want to show how is working chatbot and to find more clients ig you are agency.

    1. Joren Wouters

      Hey Andrey! Thanks for your additions. I changed my review accordingly 😉

  3. Andres Sayago

    Hi Joren,

    Do you have any comparing article about the best platform to build just ChatBots for WhatsApp?

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