Chatbase vs Botpress (2026): the fastest chatbot from your docs or the open agent builder?
Chatbase is the fastest way to build a chatbot from your own documents: upload a website or PDFs and get a custom chatbot in minutes, from a free plan with 50 message credits a month and Hobby at $40 a month. Botpress is the open, self-hostable agent builder: visual flows, routing, teams and WhatsApp, from a free plan with 100 conversations a month and Plus at $189 a month.
| Chatbase | Botpress | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Free plan: 50 message credits a month, 1 agent, 1 member — agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity | Free plan: 100 conversations a month, with no overages |
| Paid tier | Hobby $40 a month ($32 billed annually) for 700 credits, 1 agent; Standard $150 ($120 annual) for 4,000 credits, helpdesk, voice and telephony; Pro $500 ($400 annual) for 15,000 credits | Plus $189 a month ($150 billed annually) for 250 conversations plus $25 of AI usage, whitelabel webchat; Team $939 ($750 annual) for 1,500 conversations plus $150 of AI usage |
| Best for | Small businesses who want a chatbot trained on their docs live today, with no building | Teams building serious agents — multi-step flows, routing, human handoff, WhatsApp — who may self-host |
| Standout strength | The fastest setup in the category: upload your docs and the chatbot answers from them, with integrations for Shopify, WhatsApp, Instagram and Slack on paid plans | A real agent platform: visual flow builder, autonomous agents, knowledge bases, analytics, and the option to self-host instead of paying per conversation |
| Watch out for | Older listings still show $19 and $99 plans — those are stale; current prices are $40 and $150 a month — and removing the 'Powered by Chatbase' badge costs $99 a month extra | Priced per conversation, so volume gets expensive fast — Botpress's own calculator puts 3,000 conversations at about $1,689 a month — and overage packs cannot be switched off |
Chatbase wins when the chatbot needs to exist today: a small business whose customers ask the same questions, answered from the company's own documents, with no one building flows. Its Hobby plan at $40 a month ($32 billed annually) covers 700 message credits — enough for a small site — and its Standard plan at $150 a month adds helpdesk, voice and telephony for businesses that take calls as well as chats. Botpress wins when the agent is a product: a team building multi-step flows, routing between agents, human handoff and WhatsApp, with analytics and the option to self-host the whole thing.
The pricing models decide almost everything here. Chatbase charges per message credit, so a short answer costs little and a long one costs more — but 700 credits on Hobby is a small pool, and the $99-a-month branding removal costs more than two years of Hobby at the annual rate. Botpress charges per conversation, so a chat that takes ten turns costs the same as one that takes one — but 250 conversations on Plus is a small pool too, and its own calculator puts 3,000 conversations at about $1,689 a month. If you want a chatbot from your docs with no building, Chatbase is the simpler and cheaper buy. If you are building agents as a product and may self-host, Botpress is the more powerful platform — just price your expected conversation volume first.
Sources: official pricing pages and 2026 comparison coverage. Chatbase listing · Botpress listing