Top 10 AI Chatbot Development Frameworks [Pros + Cons + Integration + Pricing]

Businesses get tons of customer queries on a daily basis. It could become difficult to manage all the queries easily. Are you looking for an alternative option?

AI chatbot development frameworks are here to save the day! The recent explosion in the AI chatbot development industry has been phenomenal. With constant new releases and updates, there are many AI chatbot development frameworks that are combating each other for the top spot.

But it might be difficult to understand which one is better. There are 2 factors that help you determine if a chatbot is worth the investment or not: one is increased efficiency and the other is saving time. There are different types of chatbots and AI assistants available in the market.

To help you choose the best one for your business, we have listed the top AI chatbot frameworks. Along with the pros, cons, and integration, we have also mentioned the pricing plans for each framework.

Top AI Chatbot Frameworks Comparision

Logo	AI Chatbot	Ease of Use	Programming Language	NLP Support	Cost Plans (Free or Paid?)
	Microsoft Bot Framework	100%	Node js, C#	✘	Free + $29/month
	Rasa	80%	Python	✔	Free + Paid
	Wit AI	100%	Python, Ruby	✔	Free
	Dialogflow	100%	NodeJS	✔	Free + Paid
	IBM Watson	70%	Java, C++	✔	Free up to 10k SMS/month
	Amazon Lex	80%	Java, .Net, Ruby	✔	$0.00075/text
	Pandorabots	80%	Java, Ruby, Go, PHP, Python, Node. js	✔	Free up to 10k SMS + $19/month
	Botpress	100%	JavaScript	✔	Free
	Botkit	80%	Node js.	✘	Free
	ChatterBot	100%	Node js, Python	✔	$37

Top AI Chatbot Frameworks For Your Business

1. Microsoft Bot Framework

   

   The Bot Framework by Microsoft is a set of services, tools, and SDKs that give a rich foundation or framework to the AI chatbot developers. Using this framework, we can build and connect intelligent bots. These enterprise-grade bots provide you with the complete ownership and control of your data.

   Pros & Cons:

   Pros	Cons
   SDKs for multiple computer languages Prebuilt entities User-friendly Machine learning speech to text Technical computer support Multilingual	Have to choose either Node.js or C# platforms for development.

   Integrate with:

   • Skype
   • Slack
   • Facebook Messenger
   • Website
   • Cortana
   • Microsoft team
   • Kik

   Pricing:

   There are both free and paid versions in the Microsoft Bot Framework. The paid version works on the basis of pay as you use. It charges $0.50 per 1,000 messages that are exchanged via the premium channel using the AI chatbot. Flexible support plans begin at $29 per month.

2. Rasa

   

   Rasa stack is an open-source framework that has 2 major components: Rasa NLU and Rasa Core. Rasa stack NLU is responsible for natural language understanding while Rasa core helps create intelligent, conversational chatbots. Rasa Stack is actually leading in the open-source machine learning toolkits that help developers create better AI chatbots with minimal training data.

   Go through the pros and cons listed below and if you feel like getting your AI chatbot developed by our expert developers, you can check out our services for Rasa AI chatbot development. Moreover, we have written one more blog if you want an in-detailed list of reasons for choosing Rasa’s framework for your artificial intelligent chatbot.

   Pros & Cons:

   Pros

   Cons

   It can be deployed on your own server by keeping all the components in-house. Highly customizable, so it allows developers to create a chatbot with desired features. It allows multiple environments for development, staging, and production. Rasa offers analytics for various data that allows you to understand customers better. This AI chatbot framework works on the basis of interactive learning, hence it keeps learning on its own as it interacts with people.

   Not suitable for beginners

   Integrate with:

   • Facebook Messenger
   • Rocket.Chat
   • Slack
   • Telegram
   • Twilio

   Pricing:

   Although open-source, Rasa also has a paid version for its AI chatbot framework. It is called the Rasa platform and it is available for enterprises that need heavy functionalities and better performance. The prices are not displayed on their website and one needs to have a word with their customer representative executives to understand the pricing structure.

3. Wit AI

   

   Wit AI has been acquired by Facebook and is free for commercial usage. This NLP platform lets the developers create the entities and intent. It is an open-source chatbot framework that began as a Y Combinator startup. Since it is still an open-source project with open tools, the developers can easily create bots with human-level intelligence without having to teach the bot the basics of human conversations.

   Pros & Cons:

   Pros

   Cons

   Easy to deploy it on Facebook Messenger, so if you want to create a bot just for that platform, this is the best AI chatbot framework. It is open-source which means that it has a large developer community. The NLP engine in Wit.ai’s AI chatbot framework is undeniably amongst the best and can hold its own against bigger bot-building tools. It offers SDKs in iOS, Node.js, Python, Ruby. Wit.ai supports around 80+ languages from around the world, allowing developers to easily translate data worldwide.

   Hard to retrieve missing parameters in Wit AI

   Integrate with:

   A chatbot created using Wit.ai can be integrated into:

   • Your app
   • Your website
   • Slack
   • Facebook Messenger
   • Wearable devices
   • Home automation

   Pricing: Free of cost

4. Dialogflow

   

   Dialogflow is an AI chatbot framework that is a subsidiary of Google. It comes with machine learning capabilities, built-in NLP features, and integrations with many other popular communication platforms. With Google Dialogflow, developers are able to create highly intelligent chatbots that can understand the nuances of language and keep improving over time. This is because it is supported by Google’s Cloud Natural Language, making it easier to train the bot to understand human emotions and sentiments.

   Pros & Cons:

   Pros

   Cons

   Supports both voice-based and text-based assistants. Easy to understand and learn, even for beginners. Best quality and rich conversations using natural language. It offers SDKs for more than 14 platforms. Google Dialogflow supports more than 20 languages from around the world. With an in-line editor, the coding becomes speedier. It helps you do sentiment analysis for every query. Allows IoT integration to add an extra layer of intelligence for home automation.

   Fine control over dialogue processing is not available to the programmer.

   Integrate with:

   • Facebook Messenger
   • Google Assistant
   • Slack
   • Alexa
   • Cortana
   • Kik
   • Line
   • Skype
   • Telegram
   • Twilio
   • Viber

   Pricing:

   The standard edition is free of cost but you can switch to a paid version if you have to handle a lot of queries on a regular basis. Starting at $0.002 per text request, the prices vary and can go up to $0.075 per minute for all the phone calls that you process.

5. IBM Watson

   

   Watson is one of the most widely known AI chatbot frameworks used by developers. It offers a variety of bot-building tools. It has built-in machine learning capabilities and in comparison to other big players in the AI chatbot framework race, IBM Watson holds its own in terms of features, integration, and flexibility.

   Large companies are using IBM Watson for building sophisticated AI chatbots for their internal purposes. It is a pioneer in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and reasoning. Moreover, it offers the developers advanced cognitive capabilities.

   Pros & Cons:

   Pros

   Cons

   IBM Watson is loaded with a highly advanced and capable machine learning engine. It allows automated predictive analysis. For non-technical business users, there is a Watson Assistant GUI that they can use easily. IBM doesn’t collect the data that you use for building the bot and lets you store it on a private cloud, thus ensuring maximum security and confidentiality. It also has visual recognition security. Currently, Watson supports more than 10 languages from around the world and it also has an in-built language translator. It has a tone analyzer that helps you understand and distinguish negative and positive responses from the users and customers.

   Too many tools can be confusing

   Integrate with:

   • Facebook Messenger
   • Intercom
   • Slack
   • WordPress site

   Pricing:

   The pricing model starts from the Lite version which is free of cost and allows up to 10,000 messages per month. Other chargeable plans are Standard, Plus, Premium, and Deploy Anywhere. Standard costs you $0.0025 per message and provides you with unlimited messages. The Plus plan’s pricing information is not public and you can contact IBM for a free 30-day trial. Premium and Deploy Anywhere plans are based on custom pricing.

   

   Have an idea to build AI chatbot for your startup?

   Consult Our Experts

6. Amazon Lex

   

   A versatile chatbot framework with sophisticated bot-building tools, Amazon Lex is a great AI chatbot framework for beginners in the field. It is a part of Amazon Web Services and is one of the most powerful, capable, and multifaceted options available. It comes with built-in machine learning and natural language understanding capabilities with AWS. Highly scalable in nature, AWS helps make this AI chatbot framework better than most others.

   Pros & Cons:

   Pros	Cons
   Allows automated speech recognition and converts speech into text. Integrated with AWS, it is highly scalable. Amazon Lex provides SDKs for many different platforms. Free to use, all one needs to do is log in to the AWS account and start creating.	Language barrier to develop an artificial intelligence chatbot using Amazon Lex.

   Integrate with:

   • Facebook Messenger
   • Slack
   • Kik
   • Twilio SMS

   Pricing:

   Amazon Lex is based on a pay-as-you-go pricing model. They charge $0.004 per voice request and $0.00075 per text request. Highly flexible, Lex also allows users to process up to 10,000 text requests and 5,000 speech requests per month for free for the first year.

7. Pandorabots

   

   Pandorabots is an open-source chatbot platform that enables individuals to create and publish on the internet, smartphone applications, and messaging apps such as LINE, Slack, WhatsApp, and Telegram AI-powered chatbots.The Pandorabots chatbot layout is based on the scripting language of AIML (artificial intelligence markup language), which developers can use to build conversational bots.

   The downside is that the AIML language is only used by Pandorabots, and thus does not have machine learning algorithms and resources that are common on other sites for chatbot development.

   Pros & Cons:

   Pros	Cons
   It is a built-in AIML scripting language. It is an open-source platform. Pre-defined content libraries provide some shortcuts. It can deploy on multiple channels. Better customer service.	AIML language used by Pandorabots only. Less accuracy and reliability for business.

   Integrate with:

   • Facebook Messenger
   • Viber
   • WeChat

   Pricing

   On the free version, you get a development sandbox, infinite messages in the sandbox, community support, and Pandorabots open-source chatbot library on which is called Sandbox. After hitting the 10K message mark, the Developer package is $19 per month + $9 per 3rd party platform (such as Facebook or Twilio) + $3 for each extra 1K messages you send.

8. Botpress

   

   Botpress is based on a modular architecture and is an open-source framework, with a broad range of process automation functionalities. It includes features like editor, natural interpretation of language, analytics, and multi-channel-use.While Botpress excels in business environments where on-site chatbot development and hosting are a must, you don’t have to work to start using it in a big organization. You can build your chatbot locally with the help of Botpress and deploy it on your favourite cloud host.

   Pros & Cons:

   Pros	Cons
   It can be customized. It is an easy way to start developing your Bot. It helps in the learning environment. Documentation is very easy to understand. It provides improved customer service.	The high learning curve is the obstacle. Hard to run various instances from one installation. It has limited features.

   Integrate with:

   • Telegram
   • Facebook Messenger
   • Your own website

   Pricing: Free of cost

9. Botkit

   

   Botkit is an open-source chatbot platform driven by a group of developers that are involved and enthusiastic. It’s now operated by Microsoft as well. You can build any sort of bot for any platform using Botkit. It has been a go-to programming platform for quite a while for developers who rely on Slack bots.

   However, you can build and publish your bot practically anywhere you choose with several channel-specific Botkit adapters to operate with and full integration with the Microsoft Bot Framework.

   Pros & Cons:

   Pros	Cons
   It is simple and easy to use. It has great documentation and a lively community. It has the capability of fast building bots. It supports all major platforms. It can be customized.	It has no built-in support for NLP. It suffers from many bugs.

   Integrate with:

   • Slack
   • Cisco Webex
   • Cisco Jabber
   • Microsoft Teams
   • Facebook Messenger
   • Twilio SMS
   • Twilio IPM
   • Google Hangouts

   Pricing: Free of cost

10. ChatterBot

    

    It is powered by Node js, python, and machine learning algorithms that automate the whole flow. By building a Python library, ChatterBot is language independent. This helps the bot to be educated in any language required. The bot’s operating method is fairly simple and straightforward-the more ChatterBot inputs, the reliability of processing the output, and the accuracy both improves. Adapting to the bot is easy, but it continues to learn constantly throughout the process.

    Pros & Cons:

    Pros	Cons
    It is easy to use wizards. It has an automatic answer feature. It is capable of marketing automation. It allows Zapier integration. It is easy to edit. You need to pay only once. It works on all devices.	It is overwhelming sometimes.

    Integrate with:

    • Facebook

    Pricing:

    This is marketed at a price of $37. You can get messenger chatbots and 5 chatbot models with the Front-end Kit. In addition, you will have some OTOs to pick from.

Conclusion

So these were some of the top AI chatbot frameworks used by developers around the world. Did you find one that you think is feasible for your business? If yes, do let us know.

Do you want to develop an AI chatbot using Rasa, Dialogflow, or any other framework? Or do you want artificial intelligence software development? Do you have questions like how to build an app or what is the cost to create an app? Feel free to discuss it with us.

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This page was last edited on November 25th, 2020, at 9:54 AM.

Author Bio

Rakesh Patel

Designation: Co-founder and CEO of Space-O Technologies

Mr. Rakesh Patel is a Founder and CEO of Space-O Canada. He has 28 years of IT experience in business strategies, operations & information technology. He has expertise in various aspects of business like project planning, sales, and marketing, and has successfully defined flawless business models for the clients. A techie by mind and a writer at heart, he has authored two books - Enterprise Mobility: Strategy & Solutions and A Guide To Open311.