Chatbot and conversational-marketing software puts a proactive widget on a website to start conversations with visitors, qualify them as leads through a no-code flow, and route or resolve them with an AI agent — a different job from plain support live-chat, which waits for the visitor to ask first. This ranking is aimed at the buyer choosing a tool specifically for lead generation and marketing automation, not general customer support. We judged how much of the tool is genuinely built for proactive engagement and lead qualification rather than a support-chat product with a bot bolted on, what the bill actually becomes once metered AI conversations are added, whether visitor and lead data exports cleanly, and which company or jurisdiction ultimately holds the conversation data.
Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the
shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in chatbot software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
How we ranked these
Fit for lead generation: proactive engagement versus reactive support
The clearest split in this category is whether a tool was built to start a conversation or only to answer one. Landbot, Crisp and Kindly lead with a no-code flow builder aimed at qualifying a lead before a human ever joins; LiveAgent-style tools and plain support-chat widgets exist mainly to resolve tickets. Several vendors reviewed here, Crisp, LiveChat, Trengo and Userlike among them, do both, and are reviewed on our separate live-chat guide for their support side; this page judges the same products specifically on proactive triggers, chatbot flow builders and lead routing.
The real price: seats, AI conversations and the add-ons nobody demos
Published pricing on this list ranges from genuinely free, Crisp, Smartsupp and Landbot all offer a usable free tier, to Kindly's quote-only session pricing with no published number at all. The number on the pricing page rarely survives contact with a real AI rollout: Intercom bills $0.99 per Fin resolution on top of every seat-priced tier, Userlike's AI Agent, AI Copilot, Workflows and WhatsApp Campaigns are four separate add-ons on top of its base Pro price, and Trengo adds a per-conversation surcharge whenever its AI handles a chat. A headline price without the AI usage line is not a real price in this category.
Getting your leads out: conversation history and CRM portability
Visitor and lead data is the asset that actually matters in this category, more than the chat transcript itself. Most vendors here push qualified leads into a CRM through a native integration or Zapier rather than offering a clean bulk export of raw conversation history, and switching vendors mid-campaign means rebuilding chatbot flows from scratch since no two vendors share a flow-definition format. Tiledesk is the one partial exception: its open-source core means a technical team can self-host the platform and its data rather than depend on a vendor's export tooling at all.
Independence from the vendor: ownership, jurisdiction and stability
Three names here, Drift, Intercom and Zendesk, are US companies, which puts customer conversation data within reach of US legal process regardless of where a data centre physically sits. Drift is the starkest example of vendor instability in this category: acquired by Salesloft, its own domain now redirects entirely to a Salesloft product page, and Salesloft states it has moved the underlying AI technology to a partnership with another company, 1mind. The eight EU/EEA vendors reviewed here answer the jurisdiction question differently: processed and contracted from inside the EU or EEA by a company incorporated there, which is a distinct guarantee from a US host's optional data-residency add-on.
Who it's for: three shapes of buyer, not one
A small ecommerce store defaults correctly to Crisp, Smartsupp or Landbot's free or low-cost tier, all three built for exactly that size of buyer. A B2B company that wants to route qualified inbound visitors straight to a sales rep is closer to what LiveChat's campaign tracking or Intercom's Fin AI Agent are built for, at meaningfully higher per-seat and per-resolution cost. A company selling across many language markets, or one that wants deep CRM and helpdesk integration for a high-volume operation, is the buyer Kindly is actually built for, despite its lack of published pricing.
The 11 tools, reviewed
#1 Crisp
French all-in-one messaging platform with a no-code AI chatbot builder and flat per-workspace pricing · France · crisp.chat
Flat per-workspace pricing No-code AI chatbot builder EU vendor
French all-in-one messaging platform with a no-code AI chatbot builder and flat per-workspace pricing. Flat per-workspace pricing rather than per-seat: adding a part-time marketer or a developer who occasionally jumps into chat costs nothing extra, which is unusual in this category.
Where it falls short
The full AI chatbot suite and MagicBrowse co-browsing sit behind the Essentials tier and above. Operator routing and reporting are simpler than a dedicated sales-chat tool like LiveChat, and there is no independent security certification stated on the vendor's own site.
Wrong for
A sales team that needs detailed operator routing, staffing prediction and campaign-conversion reporting should look at LiveChat instead.
Pricing: Free (2 seats); Mini $45/month; Essentials $95/month; Plus $295/month; Enterprise quoted — priced per workspace, not per seat (free plan)
Visit Crisp →
#2 Landbot
Spanish no-code chatbot builder purpose-built for lead qualification and WhatsApp conversion, not support tickets · Spain · landbot.io
Built for lead qualification Native WhatsApp tier Genuine free tier
Spanish no-code chatbot builder purpose-built for lead qualification and WhatsApp conversion, not support tickets. Landbot was built from the ground up as a conversion and lead-generation chatbot builder, not a support-chat tool with a bot bolted on afterwards — the cleanest "conversational marketing" fit of the vendors in this category.
Where it falls short
Chat volume is metered and overage fees (€0.05–€0.10 per chat) add up quickly for a high-traffic site. WhatsApp only ships on the €160/month tier and above, and the vendor discloses little about its founding team beyond "since 2015".
Wrong for
A high-traffic support operation that needs unlimited conversations without per-chat overage should look at Crisp or Smartsupp instead.
Pricing: Free €0 (100 chats/month, 1 seat); Starter €32/month billed annually (€40 monthly) — 500 chats, 100 AI chats, 2 seats; Professional €80/month annually (€100 monthly) — 2,500 chats, 300 AI chats, 3 seats; Professional + WhatsApp €160/month; Business quoted; overage €0.05/chat, €0.10/AI chat, €25/extra seat (free plan)
Visit Landbot →
#3 Smartsupp
Czech chat and automation platform for online stores, with visitor recordings and a Mira AI agent · Czech Republic · smartsupp.com
Visitor session recordings Mira AI agent EU vendor
Czech chat and automation platform for online stores, with visitor recordings and a Mira AI agent. Visitor session recordings paired with the Mira AI agent: a marketer can watch how a shopper actually moved around the site before the bot ever engaged them.
Where it falls short
Aimed squarely at small ecommerce stores; routing and reporting stay simple even on the Expert plan. The Mira AI agent and AI Reply Assistant are metered add-ons, not included in the base price.
Wrong for
A B2B software company or a large support team needing deep CRM integrations should look at LiveChat or Intercom instead.
Pricing: Free (1 operator, 25 conversations/month); Solo $17/month; Plus $25/month; Expert $83/month; Enterprise from $280/month — up to 30% off on annual billing (free plan)
Visit Smartsupp →
#4 Tiledesk
Italian open-source conversational AI platform: build chatbots and AI agents visually, deploy across channels or self-host · Italy · tiledesk.com
Open source, self-hostable Multi-channel flow builder EU vendor
Italian open-source conversational AI platform: build chatbots and AI agents visually, deploy across channels or self-host. Tiledesk is the only tool in this line-up with a genuinely open-source core: a technical team can self-host it instead of trusting a vendor's cloud, which none of the other EU chat vendors here offer.
Where it falls short
No published free-forever tier; every paid tier is metered by AI tokens and conversations, which takes modelling. The Pro tier's 3,000 conversations and 5M tokens a month can run out quickly, and it is newer and less widely known than Crisp or LiveChat.
Wrong for
A non-technical team that wants a plug-and-play widget with no token budgeting to think about should look at Crisp or Smartsupp instead.
Pricing: Pro €149/month (€124/month billed annually) — 3 users, 20 AI agents, 5M AI tokens, 3,000 conversations/month; Business €499/month (€416/month annually) — 5 users, 50 AI agents, 10M tokens, 5,000 conversations/month; Enterprise and White Label quoted; 14-day free trial (free trial)
Visit Tiledesk →
#5 LiveChat
Polish sales-chat platform built around targeted campaigns and proactive outreach, not just support queues · Poland · livechat.com
Proactive sales campaigns Campaign conversion tracking EU vendor
Polish sales-chat platform built around targeted campaigns and proactive outreach, not just support queues. Campaign conversion tracking is the clearest "marketing" feature here: it reports how many of the proactive campaigns a visitor saw actually turned into a conversation, which a pure support-chat tool does not measure.
Where it falls short
Everything is billed per operator, which gets expensive for a team of ten or more. The AI agent is a separately priced sister product (Text AI Agent), not bundled in, and there is no free plan, only a trial.
Wrong for
A small store on a tight budget wanting a free or near-free chatbot should look at Crisp's or Smartsupp's free tier instead.
Pricing: Starter $19/person/month (annual) or $25 (monthly); Team $49/$59; Business $79/$89; Enterprise quoted (free trial)
Visit LiveChat →
#6 Userlike
German chat platform, rebranded Lime Connect, with a no-code Workflows builder and paid WhatsApp marketing campaigns · Germany · userlike.com
No-code Workflows builder WhatsApp Campaigns add-on EU vendor
German chat platform, rebranded Lime Connect, with a no-code Workflows builder and paid WhatsApp marketing campaigns. Userlike now operates as "Lime Connect (Userlike) GmbH", part of the Lime Technologies group; the legal entity, registration (HRB 73211) and Cologne address stay German, so its EU status is unaffected by the rebrand.
Where it falls short
Rebranded to "Lime Connect" in 2026; the userlike.com domain now redirects to a Lime Technologies subdomain, which can confuse existing customers. The AI Agent, AI Copilot, Workflows and WhatsApp Campaigns are all separately priced add-ons on top of Pro.
Wrong for
A buyer who wants one flat price with AI included, not a stack of metered add-ons, should look at Crisp instead.
Pricing: Free €0; Pro from €105/month (€87/month billed annually); Enterprise quoted. Add-ons: Connect AI Agent from €99/month, AI Copilot from €19/month per seat, Workflows from €50/month, WhatsApp Campaigns from €20/month plus Meta fees (free plan)
Visit Userlike →
#7 Trengo
Dutch omnichannel inbox where website chat sits beside a WhatsApp Business number for outbound marketing · Netherlands · trengo.com
WhatsApp Business inbox Broadcast marketing messages EU vendor
Dutch omnichannel inbox where website chat sits beside a WhatsApp Business number for outbound marketing. Built specifically for the moment a visitor who starts on website chat wants to finish the conversation on WhatsApp — the handoff most single-channel chat widgets do not support.
Where it falls short
Priced as a bundle of seats and conversations, so a team that only wants web chat ends up buying more than it uses. The AI-handled-conversation surcharge is a variable cost that is easy to underestimate, and visitor tracking is more basic than LiveChat's or Smartsupp's.
Wrong for
A team that only wants a cheap website widget and has no WhatsApp use case should look at Crisp or Landbot instead.
Pricing: From €299/month billed annually for 10 users and 500 conversations/month, plus a per-conversation surcharge when the AI handles a chat; free trial available (free trial)
Visit Trengo →
#8 Kindly
Norwegian AI chatbot with a 100+ language visual dialogue builder, aimed at high-volume conversational commerce · Norway · kindly.ai
100+ language AI agent Deep CRM/helpdesk integration Quote only
Norwegian AI chatbot with a 100+ language visual dialogue builder, aimed at high-volume conversational commerce. Kindly's 100+ language support is the widest of any vendor in this category, which matters for a European retailer or marketplace selling across many language markets from one bot.
Where it falls short
No published pricing anywhere on the vendor's site — every plan requires a sales conversation. Session-based pricing on an annual commitment is harder to budget than a monthly published tier, and it is positioned mainly at large-volume operations rather than small businesses.
Wrong for
A small business that needs to see a price before talking to sales should look at any of the EU vendors with published pricing on this page instead.
Pricing: Session-based pricing on an annual commitment; not published — quoted per organisation (free trial)
Visit Kindly →
#9 Drift
The conversational-marketing category pioneer, now operated by Salesloft after its acquisition · United States · drift.com
Category pioneer Now under Salesloft ABM-style routing
The conversational-marketing category pioneer, now operated by Salesloft after its acquisition. Drift.com now redirects to salesloft.com/platform/drift. Salesloft's own page states it has "transitioned from Drift to 1mind" for its AI chat agent technology, so the standalone Drift AI product is being superseded within Salesloft's platform even as the Drift name continues to be used for the offering.
Where it falls short
Drift.com now redirects entirely to salesloft.com/platform/drift, and Salesloft's own page states it has "transitioned from Drift to 1mind" for its AI chat agent technology. The standalone Drift product and brand independence that defined this category are gone; a buyer is now evaluating Salesloft's wider revenue-orchestration platform, not a focused chatbot tool.
Wrong for
A buyer specifically wanting the independent, focused conversational-marketing product Drift used to be should treat that product as effectively discontinued and evaluate Intercom, Qualified or the EU vendors on this page instead.
Pricing: Not published; quoted per organisation (free trial)
Visit Drift →
#10 Intercom
US messaging platform built around the Fin AI agent, sold as an outcome-priced add-on to every tier · United States · intercom.com
Fin AI Agent Outcome-based AI pricing Omnichannel
US messaging platform built around the Fin AI agent, sold as an outcome-priced add-on to every tier.
Where it falls short
Pricing is outcome-based on top of the seat fee ($0.99 per Fin AI resolution across every tier), which is hard to forecast before launch. The entry Essential tier lacks the workflow automation and multilingual help centre that make the product compelling, pushing most real deployments to Advanced or Expert.
Wrong for
A budget-conscious small business should look at Crisp or Smartsupp, both far cheaper at comparable functionality.
Pricing: Essential $29/seat/month; Advanced $85/seat/month; Expert $132/seat/month; Fin AI Agent billed separately at $0.99 per resolution across all tiers; 14-day free trial (free trial)
Visit Intercom →
#11 Zendesk
Messaging and chat bundled inside the Zendesk Suite, not sold as a standalone chat product · United States · zendesk.com
Bundled in Zendesk Suite Omnichannel AI routing Not sold standalone
Messaging and chat bundled inside the Zendesk Suite, not sold as a standalone chat product.
Where it falls short
Messaging is sold as part of the Suite rather than as a cheap standalone widget, so a company that only wants chat pays for a full help desk too. Sales-oriented features such as detailed visitor tracking and proactive greetings are weaker than LiveChat's or Crisp's.
Wrong for
A company that only wants chat and has no plan to run Zendesk's help desk should look at a standalone chat vendor instead.
Pricing: Sold as "Messaging and live chat" inside Zendesk Suite plans: Suite Team $55/agent/month; Suite Professional $115/agent/month (annual billing); Suite Enterprise + Copilot quoted (free trial)
Visit Zendesk →
What the data says about this market
Ownership in this category has shifted visibly during 2026. Drift, the company that popularised the term "conversational marketing", was acquired by Salesloft; its own domain no longer resolves to an independent product, redirecting instead to a Salesloft platform page, and Salesloft states it has moved to an AI partnership with a separate company, 1mind, for the underlying chat-agent technology. Of the 11 vendors ranked here, 8 are EU or EEA-headquartered and 3, Drift (now Salesloft), Intercom and Zendesk, are US-headquartered, which is a notably higher European share than most SaaS categories on this site.
Pricing has moved toward metered AI usage layered on top of seat or workspace fees rather than replacing them. Intercom charges $0.99 per Fin AI Agent resolution in addition to its $29–$132 per-seat tiers; Userlike prices its Connect AI Agent, AI Copilot, Workflows and WhatsApp Campaigns as four separate add-ons; and Trengo adds a per-conversation surcharge specifically when its AI, rather than a human agent, handles the chat. Three vendors, Crisp, Smartsupp and Landbot, still offer a genuine always-free tier rather than a time-limited trial, which is a higher proportion of real free tiers than the AI-heavy end of this category usually carries.
ICT services have grown faster as a share of global trade than most other service categories, from 9.1% of world service exports in 2013 to 14.48% in 2023, with the European Union's share rising even further, from 10.58% to 17.55% over the same period (World Bank). Conversational software sits inside that growth as a genuinely EU-strong sub-category: eight of the eleven vendors here, spanning France, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic and Norway, are built and headquartered in Europe, which is a wider spread of EU/EEA countries than most single software categories on this site show.
The 11 ranked vendors, counted
- Headquarters by region: Europe 8, North America 3
- By country: United States 3, Czech Republic 1, France 1, Germany 1, Italy 1, Netherlands 1, Norway 1, Poland 1, Spain 1
- Pricing model: Flat monthly tiers 1, Flat per workspace 1, Flat tiers + paid add-ons 1, Per agent / month (bundled) 1, Per seat + AI outcome 1, Per seat + AI usage 1, Per seat + conversation volume 1, Per seat / month 1, Quote only 1, Session-based / quote only 1, User bundle + conversation allowance 1
- Free option: Free trial 7, Free plan 4
Counted from the 11 vendors on this page. More in our market data.
For the wider market behind chatbot software, read our report The Global Shift to ICT Services,
or browse all industry reports.
Questions and answers
What is the best chatbot and conversational marketing software in 2026?
Crisp leads this ranking of 11. It pairs a no-code AI chatbot builder with proactive triggers and lead-lifecycle tracking, priced flat per workspace rather than per seat, which is unusual in this category. Landbot is the closest EU alternative for a team that wants a bot built specifically for lead qualification and WhatsApp conversion, and Intercom's Fin AI Agent is the strongest AI-resolution option among the US vendors, at meaningfully higher cost.
How is this different from live-chat software?
Live-chat software answers a visitor who already reached out; this category is built to start the conversation and qualify the visitor as a lead before a human joins, through proactive triggers, no-code chatbot flows and marketing automation like WhatsApp broadcast campaigns. Crisp, LiveChat, Trengo and Userlike appear on both this page and our separate live-chat guide, reviewed for a different job on each.
Which of these tools are US companies, and does that matter?
Drift (now operated by Salesloft), Intercom and Zendesk are all US-incorporated, which puts customer conversation data within reach of US legal process regardless of where a data centre physically sits. The other 8, Crisp, Landbot, Smartsupp, Tiledesk, LiveChat, Userlike, Trengo and Kindly, are EU or EEA-registered companies. Whether that distinction matters depends on a buyer's own compliance requirements.
Is there a free chatbot tool in this category?
Crisp, Smartsupp and Landbot all offer a genuine free tier rather than a time-limited trial: Crisp for up to 2 seats, Smartsupp for one operator with 25 conversations a month, and Landbot for 100 chats a month on one seat. Userlike also has a free plan below its paid Pro tier. Tiledesk, LiveChat, Trengo, Kindly, Drift, Intercom and Zendesk do not offer a permanent free tier.
What happened to Drift?
Drift, the company that popularised the term "conversational marketing", was acquired by Salesloft. Drift.com now redirects entirely to salesloft.com/platform/drift, and Salesloft's own page states it has "transitioned from Drift to 1mind" for the underlying AI chat-agent technology. The Drift name persists inside Salesloft's revenue-orchestration platform, but the independent, focused product that built the category is effectively gone.
Is any tool in this category open source?
Tiledesk is the only one. Its core conversational AI platform is open source and can be self-hosted, alongside a hosted cloud version with metered pricing — unique among the vendors reviewed on this page.
Which tool is best for WhatsApp-based lead generation?
Landbot and Trengo are the clearest fits among the EU vendors. Landbot sells WhatsApp as a dedicated paid tier built around lead-qualification flows; Trengo puts a WhatsApp Business number in the same inbox as website chat and email, with broadcast messages for outbound marketing. Userlike's WhatsApp Campaigns add-on covers targeted outbound messaging rather than inbound qualification.
How often is this ranking updated?
Whenever a fact underneath it changes: a pricing update, an acquisition like Drift's, or a product that stops being maintained. The published and last-reviewed dates at the top of this guide are real, and a review means someone checked the vendor's current documentation, not that a date was moved forward without a re-check.
