Top 10 Custom Chatbot Development For Your Actionable Insights In 2025

How can your business offer 24/7 support, boost sales, and increase efficiency simultaneously? In 2025, AI chatbots are no longer a novelty but an essential business tool. They provide instant customer service, qualify leads, and automate repetitive tasks, leading to significant improvements in customer satisfaction and substantial operational cost savings. This guide details the step-by-step process of how to build an effective AI chatbot, transforming this powerful technology from a concept into a strategic asset for your business growth.

In-Depth Analysis: The Top 10 Business Chatbot Platforms for 2025

This analysis aims to provide a comprehensive understanding to inform custom development strategies.

A. Intercom

Intercom is an AI customer service platform used by companies of all sizes to have better, more efficient customer conversations. It’s ideal for businesses wanting to use advanced AI for proactive support.

Its key feature is the Fin AI Agent, a chatbot that learns from your help articles and documents to answer complex questions. Intercom works across channels like web chat, email, and WhatsApp; connects with hundreds of apps like Salesforce and Slack; and includes a visual builder to create custom automated conversations without code.

• Pros: Known for high-quality, natural-sounding AI providing 24/7 support. It excels at smoothly handing off complex conversations to human agents with full context.
• Cons: The pricing structure can be complex and expensive, as its most advanced AI features are often priced as add-ons. It is generally better suited for larger teams.

Pricing Model Intercom offers tiered subscription plans based on features. Its advanced AI, Fin, is typically an add-on service priced based on usage, such as the number of resolutions it completes.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: Companies like tado° (smart heating) and Stuart (logistics) have used Intercom to achieve dramatically faster response times, higher customer satisfaction, and automatically resolve a high percentage of routine questions.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. Knowledge is Power: A smart chatbot needs a great knowledge base.
  2. Plan for Human Handoff: Ensure a smooth path for complex issues to reach a person.
  3. Measure Satisfaction: Always track how happy users are with your bot.
  4. Be Proactive: Use your bot to send helpful messages, not just react to questions.

B. Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service platform that uses AI Agents (chatbots) to automate support for businesses of all sizes, including major brands like Uber and Instacart.

Its AI Agents are pre-trained on real customer service interactions to solve common issues automatically. The AI learns from a company’s own help articles, works across channels like web, mobile, and social media, and provides tools to help human agents work faster by suggesting replies. The platform also offers security features, including support for HIPAA compliance.

• Pros: Its AI is built specifically for customer service, providing accurate support. It’s quick to launch and works seamlessly with Zendesk’s popular help desk and ticketing system.
• Cons: Advanced AI features often require a paid add-on. The platform is heavily focused on support, with fewer specialized features for sales or marketing.

Pricing Model Zendesk offers per-agent subscription plans. The most advanced AI capabilities are typically an add-on, which may have usage-based pricing based on the number of automated resolutions.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: The global retailer Lush reported improved agent productivity and a high return on investment using Zendesk. Other companies have seen faster ticket processing and high rates of automatically resolved issues.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. Use Your Own Data: Train your AI on verified company information to prevent it from “hallucinating” or making up answers.
  2. Combine General & Specific Knowledge: Use a base AI model but fine-tune it with your specific business data.
  3. Help Your Human Agents: Use AI to support your human team with tools like reply suggestions.
  4. Keep Improving: A chatbot is never “done.” Use feedback and data to improve it continuously.

C. Drift (by Salesloft)

Drift, now part of the Salesloft platform, is a conversational marketing and sales tool that helps B2B companies convert website visitors into qualified leads and accelerate the sales process.

Its AI chatbots engage visitors in real-time, qualify them with targeted questions, and can instantly route high-value buyers to the right salesperson. A key strength is identifying visitors from important target companies. Drift integrates smoothly with sales tools like Salesforce and HubSpot and includes reporting to measure its impact on generating leads and revenue.

• Pros: Excellent for B2B sales teams. It quickly engages promising website visitors and shortens sales cycles by simplifying meeting booking.
• Cons: Heavily focused on sales, with fewer customer service features than other platforms. Its pricing is generally better suited for mid-market and enterprise companies.

Pricing Model Drift offers premium pricing plans positioned for mid-market and enterprise companies; specific details usually require contacting their sales team.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: As part of Salesloft, Drift’s parent company has helped customers achieve better sales team engagement and get new hires productive faster.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. Focus on engaging your most promising leads quickly.
  2. Ensure a seamless handoff to a live salesperson or calendar booking tool.
  3. Deeply connect your chatbot to your main sales CRM.
  4. Track sales-focused outcomes like qualified leads and meetings booked, not just conversation counts.

D. HubSpot Chatbot Builder

The HubSpot Chatbot Builder, a key part of the HubSpot CRM platform, helps businesses of all sizes create chatbots for lead generation, customer support, and appointment scheduling. It is especially useful for companies already using HubSpot’s sales and marketing tools.

Its main features include a no-code visual builder for creating conversations, deep integration with the HubSpot CRM for personalized interactions, and ready-to-use templates. It supports both simple, rule-based bots and more advanced Conversational AI that learns from a knowledge base. It also offers an AI Inbox Assistant to help human agents write better replies.

• Pros: Very easy to use for non-technical teams, with excellent CRM integration for a unified customer view. The free plan makes it accessible for startups.
• Cons: Advanced AI is locked behind more expensive subscription plans. It works best within the HubSpot ecosystem.

Pricing Model HubSpot provides a free plan with basic chatbot functionality. Access to full Conversational AI and advanced tools requires a subscription to higher-tier paid plans.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: Companies using HubSpot’s platform have reported acquiring more leads and closing more deals, with its AI agent feature leading to high customer satisfaction and time savings.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. Leverage Your CRM: Deeply connect your chatbot to your customer data for effective personalization.
  2. Start Simple: Begin with a rule-based bot for a core task, then scale to more advanced AI as needed.
  3. Build a Knowledge Base: An intelligent AI needs an accurate, well-organized knowledge source to provide helpful answers.
  4. Support Your Human Team: Use AI to augment your human agents’ capabilities, not just to talk to customers.

E. Tidio

Tidio is an AI-powered customer service platform for mid-size businesses, especially in e-commerce. It blends its Lyro AI chatbot with live chat tools to help solve customer problems and generate sales leads.

Its key features include the Lyro conversational AI, a unified ticketing system for managing questions from multiple channels (email, chat, Facebook Messenger), a no-code visual chatbot builder, and email marketing integration. Tidio also connects with popular tools like Shopify, WordPress, and HubSpot.

• Pros: Affordable and easy to set up, with a good balance between AI automation and live chat. Its basic features are easy for non-technical users to manage.
• Cons: Advanced AI capabilities are often a paid add-on. The per-user pricing can become expensive for growing teams.

Pricing Model Tidio offers a free plan, making it very accessible. Paid subscription plans unlock more advanced chatbot and communication tools, with some AI features priced as add-ons.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: Companies like Your KAYA (personal care) and Axioma (car repair) have reported high AI resolution rates with Tidio. Others have seen increased lead generation and boosted revenue.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. A Free Tier Encourages Adoption: Offer a basic, free version of your tool to let users see its value first.
  2. Integrate with Other Marketing Tools: Connect your chatbot to tools like email to continue the conversation and nurture leads.
  3. Focus on Resolution Rate: A key success metric for a support bot is its ability to completely solve customer issues without human help.
  4. Prioritize Ease of Use: Make sure the tools to build and manage your chatbot are user-friendly for non-technical teams.

F. Botpress

Botpress is a highly customizable, open-source AI chatbot platform. It is designed for both developers seeking deep control and beginners who prefer visual tools, and is often used to create powerful, enterprise-grade AI agents.

Its key features include a flexible open-source core, an easy-to-use visual builder (Botpress Studio), and the ability to connect to almost any business tool (like Jira or HubSpot) via APIs. Botpress stays up-to-date with the latest Large Language Models (LLMs) and is built with enterprise-grade security, supporting standards like GDPR and SOC 2.

• Pros: Highly customizable with a great deal of developer control. Its open-source nature is supported by a large, active community. It balances easy visual tools with deep coding capabilities.
• Cons: Using its most advanced features for complex bots likely requires developer expertise. Full white-labeling and dedicated support are typically part of the higher-priced Enterprise plan.

Pricing Model Botpress offers a pay-as-you-go plan that is free to start. It also has paid subscription plans for teams and a custom-priced Enterprise plan for larger businesses.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: Companies have used Botpress to significantly boost client consultations (Waiver Consulting Group), automatically resolve a very high percentage of support chats (Ruby Labs), and rapidly deploy bots to manage public health inquiries in a crisis.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. Integrations are Crucial: Design your bot to easily connect with other business systems.
  2. Leverage Open Source: An open-source foundation can accelerate development and provide community support.
  3. Go Beyond Simple Answers: Think about how your bot can perform strategic, value-added tasks.
  4. Deploy Quickly: With the right platform and focus, you can launch an impactful chatbot very fast.

G. Ada

Ada is an AI automation platform for customer service that uses Generative AI and an AI Reasoning Engine to handle complex customer questions. It is a good fit for businesses wanting high automation rates, strong security, and an advanced AI experience.

Its key features include the AI Reasoning Engine that learns from company documents to create personal solutions, support for many channels (web, mobile, social), and connections to business tools like CRMs. Ada is built with enterprise-grade security, supporting standards like HIPAA, SOC2, and GDPR, and allows for a customizable brand personality.

• Pros: Excels at automating complex customer service issues with intelligent, context-aware answers. It has a strong focus on security and regulatory compliance.
• Cons: The platform is a significant investment, better suited for mid-market to large companies. Its pricing can be complex and may be based on usage.

Pricing Model Ada uses flexible pricing plans tailored to business needs, often based on the number of “automated resolutions” the chatbot completes or total conversation volume.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: Companies like Simba Sleep (mattresses) and Loop Earplugs have used Ada to unlock significant new revenue and boost customer satisfaction. Financial app Moka launched its Ada chatbot in just five weeks and saw a high rate of automated resolutions.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. Build a Bot That ‘Thinks’: Design chatbots that can analyze situations and solve problems, not just follow scripts.
  2. Focus on Measurable Business Results: Track metrics like cost savings and customer satisfaction to prove your bot’s value.
  3. Ensure the AI Reflects Your Brand: Customize your chatbot’s personality and tone to match your company’s voice.
  4. Launch Quickly: An impactful chatbot can be built and deployed relatively fast with a focused, agile plan.

H. LivePerson

LivePerson provides a conversational AI platform, the Conversational Cloud, built for large businesses to automate customer service across messaging and voice channels at a large scale.

Its key features include AI Agents for handling and routing questions, a Knowledge Base AI to ensure consistent answers, and an Intent Manager to analyze conversations for automation opportunities. It also has a no-code Conversation Builder and uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to turn existing company content into interactive chatbot experiences. Its open platform connects with many business systems, like CRMs.

• Pros: Excellent for handling high volumes of complex customer questions. It has powerful tools for understanding customer intent and for making sure AI bots and human agents work together smoothly.
• Cons: Its enterprise focus means its pricing and complexity may be too high for smaller businesses. The platform can have a steep learning curve.

Pricing Model As an enterprise-focused platform, LivePerson likely uses a custom pricing model tailored to the needs of each large organization; specific pricing is not publicly listed.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: Businesses using LivePerson have reported significant increases in automatically resolved issues (deflection rate), improved First Contact Resolution (FCR), and higher customer satisfaction scores (NPS), along with reduced operational costs.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. Continuously Improve: Treat your chatbot as part of a cycle: understand, connect, automate, and assist, then use what you learn to improve.
  2. Focus on User Intent: Deeply understanding a customer’s true goal is key to a smart chatbot.
  3. Manage Conversation Flow: In a complex system with bots and humans, plan how to route conversations to the right place.
  4. Leverage Existing Content: Build your chatbot to learn from your existing websites and documents to provide rich, up-to-date answers.

I. Salesforce Einstein Bots

Salesforce Einstein Bots are AI chatbots within the Salesforce Service Cloud designed to automate customer questions. They are the best choice for businesses already using the Salesforce CRM, as they can connect to that customer data to provide smarter, more personalized help.

Key features include a deep, native integration with Salesforce data, an easy-to-use Einstein Bots Builder for creating conversations without code, and AI tools that assist human agents by sorting cases or suggesting replies. It also uses Generative AI to summarize conversations and help create new help articles, creating a valuable knowledge loop.

• Pros: Its excellent connection to Salesforce data leads to smarter conversations. It’s great for handling routine questions, freeing up your support team for more complex problems, and has strong reporting tools.
• Cons: This chatbot is really only a good fit for companies already using Salesforce. Accessing the AI features usually requires a higher-tier Salesforce plan and can cost extra.

Pricing Model The Einstein AI features are typically sold as an add-on to Salesforce’s higher-level subscription plans (like Enterprise or Unlimited). Pricing is usually per user, per month, and may have limits on the number of chatbot conversations.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: Salesforce itself used its Einstein tools to significantly improve customer self-service and satisfaction. The publishing company Wiley also reported a high return on investment.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. Connecting to a CRM is a game-changer for providing personalized service.
  2. Use AI to help everyone—both customers and your support team—to maximize efficiency.
  3. Learn from conversations to improve your help articles and make your AI smarter.
  4. Start with the basics and add more advanced AI features as your business grows.

J. ManyChat

ManyChat is a popular no-code chatbot platform for marketing, sales, and support on social media channels like Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and TikTok. It is a great choice for creators and e-commerce businesses who want to turn their social media followers into customers.

Its key features include a strong focus on social media automation (like auto-replying to comments with a DM), a simple no-code visual builder, and automation triggers based on user actions. It’s often used to handle FAQs, capture leads, and run contests. ManyChat also connects with popular tools like Shopify, MailChimp, and HubSpot.

• Pros: Excellent for automating sales and lead generation directly on Instagram and Facebook Messenger. It is very user-friendly for non-technical teams and offers an affordable free plan.
• Cons: Its primary focus on social media means it may not be the best choice for a complex website chatbot. Its AI may be less advanced than enterprise-level platforms.

Pricing Model ManyChat offers a free plan to get started. Its Pro plan has a subscription fee that scales up as an organization’s number of contacts grows.

Impact & Lessons for Builders

• Impact: Businesses have used ManyChat to generate significant additional sales (Astral Restaurant Systems), see a high return on ad spend (The Pearl Source), and substantially grow social media followings.
• Lessons for Builders:
  1. Meet Customers on Social Media: Engage with customers on the platforms they use daily.
  2. Turn Comments into Conversations: Automatically send a DM to users who comment on your posts to start a sales conversation.
  3. Simplicity Works: A simple, focused, no-code bot can be very effective for common tasks.
  4. Use Giveaways to Engage: Use chatbots to run automated contests to build your audience and capture leads.

Key Benefits of Different Chatbot Platforms

Different chatbot platforms offer distinct advantages, from improving customer satisfaction (CSAT) to driving revenue growth. The table below showcases real-world success stories, demonstrating how businesses have leveraged these tools to enhance efficiency and profitability.

Considerations for Choosing a Chatbot Platform

The chatbot market offers many different platforms, each with its own strengths. Choosing the right one means understanding their key differences and the benefits each approach provides for your business.

Here are the main ways chatbot platforms differ:

• All-in-One CRM vs. Specialized Tools: Platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce Einstein Bots are built directly into their CRM systems.
  
  • Benefit: This gives your chatbot seamless access to rich customer data, allowing for very personal and helpful conversations. It’s a great choice if you already use that CRM.
• Best-of-Breed Niche Platforms: Tools like Ada (for customer service automation) or Drift (for B2B sales) focus on being the best in one specific area.
  
  • Benefit: These platforms offer deep, powerful features for their specific niche, helping you achieve expert-level results in that part of your business.
• Open-Source vs. Proprietary:Botpress is a key example of an open-source platform, while most others are proprietary (closed-source).
  
  • Benefit: Open-source platforms offer maximum flexibility and control for businesses with development teams, allowing for deep customization. Proprietary platforms often provide a more polished, ready-to-use experience with dedicated support.
• Ease of Use vs. Power: No-code platforms like ManyChat and Tidio have simple drag-and-drop builders.
  
  • Benefit: This allows marketing and sales teams to build effective chatbots quickly without needing any coding skills. More powerful, developer-focused platforms offer more flexibility but require more technical expertise.
• Pricing Models: The way you pay for the service varies. Common models include paying per agent seat (like Zendesk), per resolution or conversation (like Ada), or through tiered feature plans (like HubSpot).
  
  • Benefit: This variety allows you to choose a model that best fits your budget and how you plan to use the chatbot, whether you have a small team or expect high volumes of automated conversations.

5 Key Considerations for Chatbot Development

Drawing lessons from the top platforms provides a clear blueprint for building your own successful AI chatbot. Success comes from a step-by-step approach that focuses on solving real business problems.

1. Start with a Clear Purpose and Goals

Before you build anything, you must have a clear plan.

• Define Your “Why”: First, answer the questions: “Why are we building this chatbot?” and “What specific problem will it solve?” This keeps your project focused.
• Set Measurable Goals (KPIs): Decide how you will measure success from the start. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can include things like faster customer response times, higher customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, or more leads generated for your sales team.
  • Benefit: This ensures your chatbot is built to achieve specific, trackable business results.

2. Prioritize a Core Set of Features

Don’t try to build everything at once.

• Use the MVP Approach: Start with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This means launching your chatbot with only the most essential features needed to solve the main user problem.
• Add Features Over Time: You can add more advanced features later based on user feedback and performance data.
  • Benefit: This approach lets you launch faster, learn from real users, and avoid wasting resources on features people don’t need.

3. Build a Strong Knowledge Backbone

An AI chatbot is only as smart as the information it can access.

• Create a Knowledge Base: A well-organized and up-to-date knowledge base is essential for your chatbot to learn from and provide accurate answers.
• Connect to Your CRM: Deeply connecting your chatbot to your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system allows it to have more personal and helpful conversations by using existing customer data.
  • Benefit: A strong knowledge backbone ensures your chatbot is accurate, helpful, and provides a personalized experience.

4. Design an Excellent Conversation

How the chatbot talks to users is key to its success.

• Focus on Natural Flow: The conversation should feel intuitive and easy for the user.
• Keep it Simple: Use clear language, short messages, and easy-to-tap buttons and quick replies, especially for mobile users.
• Plan for Human Handoff: No chatbot can answer every question. Design a smooth and seamless way to pass a conversation to a human agent when needed, giving the agent the full context of the chat.
  • Benefit: Great conversation design leads to higher user adoption and satisfaction.

5. Commit to Continuous Improvement

Building a chatbot is not a one-time project.

• Monitor and Analyze: After launch, regularly review conversation logs and track your KPIs to see how the chatbot is performing.
• Gather User Feedback: Actively ask for and listen to user feedback to find areas for improvement.
• Iterate and Retrain: Use what you learn from data and feedback to continuously refine conversation flows and retrain your AI model.
  • Benefit: This ongoing cycle of improvement ensures your chatbot stays effective, gets smarter over time, and continues to meet user needs.

VI. Conclusion

Choosing to build a custom chatbot or buy a commercial platform is a key strategic decision. Building offers maximum customization and control, ideal for unique business needs. Buying a platform like Intercom or Zendesk provides faster deployment and access to powerful, pre-built AI features. The right choice depends on your specific goals, resources, and speed-to-market requirements.

The future of chatbots points toward even deeper integration of Generative AI for more natural conversations and the automation of more complex business tasks. The emphasis on ethical AI, data privacy, and specialized “AI agents” for specific roles will only grow. Ultimately, chatbots are becoming central hubs for entire customer journeys.

Ready to build a powerful, custom AI chatbot tailored to your business needs? Connect with our team to start designing your intelligent automation solution today.