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If you search for “the best Messenger Bot-Building platforms”, you’ll probably come across thousands of names. You might get confused on which one is “the best” platform to build a Messenger Bot. Today we are going to make a side-by-side comparison of the two most popular chatbot builders on Google i.e., SocialBot and Botstar.
SocialBot and Botstar both offer remarkable chatbots for your websites. With these messenger bots, your customers can interact with you directly without being forced to log in to their Facebook account. Both platforms require ZERO coding experience – which means that anyone can build a Messenger Bot easily.
But which platform should you use? What’s the difference between SocialBot and Botstar? And which platform is better?
To evaluate both SocialBot and BotStar, we came up with a list of 20 criteria.
Given below is a detailed comparison between SocialBot and BotStar across a wide range of categories. A complete comparison table will allow you to compare both chatbot builders in an easy way. Our main purpose is to highlight features, pros and cons – to help you pick the platform that works best for your business.
So, dive in and figure out why SocialBot is the best chatbot for your online business.
Let’s get started!
The SocialBot interface is one of the best interfaces you can see in any chatbot software because of its flexibility.
In SocialBot, you can choose between two interfaces: Visual Flow Builder and Block Builder. SocialBot’s drag-and-drop chatbot editors are simple to use and let you diagram your bot conversation flow to get a visual overview of the whole bot. It offers built-in CMS where you can easily display a list of data such as product catalogue in your bot flow.
Therefore, when it comes to ease of use and design, SocialBot users can easily understand the platform and build the bot flow.
Moreover, you can test the chatbot in Facebook Messenger, before it actually goes live.
Just like SocialBot, BotStar also provides two kinds of builders: a Visual Flow Builder and a Block Builder. This gives you enough flexibility to build your chatbot flows.
Plus, you can also test the chatbot in Facebook Messenger.
Can you send videos, attachments, galleries, and all other content types that are available on the Messenger platform?
Besides the UI aspect, the number of supported elements to create your bot’s replies is the next big thing we should consider. Chatbot elements are simply the content you add to each block/ section of your message chatbots, such as text, images, or emojis. The more elements available in a chatbot platform, the more value can be added to your bot.
SocialBot provides a comprehensive variety of chatbot elements to build your chatbot. It has all the chatbot elements you need in order to build a chatbot. This enables you to add more value and complement your message with several elements.
With SocialBot, your Messenger Bot can send different types of content, including Delays, Images, Video, Audio, Gallery (Horizontal list), Emojis, Persistent Menu, Quick Replies, Call Button, Share Button, User Input, Validation of email, date, and phone number. The only thing that they don’t provide is File (Attachments).
BotStar also has all the chatbot elements you need. BotStar’s supported block types include Images, Video, Audio, Attachments, Gallery (Horizontal list), Emojis, Persistent Menu, Quick Replies, Call Button, Share Button, User Input, Validation of email, date, and phone number.
However, they don’t provide Delays which is a real deal-breaker.
Can you tag user based on their actions? How about custom fields? Can they be set manually?
With SocialBot, 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 SocialBot, you can also view all the users of your chatbot in the “People” tab. In this overview, you can click on each user and get all the information about that user. Chatbots give you the ability to gather a huge amount of data from your customer’s profile. These data can be leveraged to help you better understand your customers and revise your marketing strategy across all channels. This helps create a customized experience for your users.
You can collect your customers’ data and save it under the corresponding variable. When you save data via variables, you can paste these data into a message and then segment your customers following these data.
Similarly, with BotStar, it is really easy to add custom fields to specific users. Based on those custom fields, you can send messages to specific user segments.
In BotStar, you can view all your contacts and their detailed information in the User tab. When you click on one of the users, you can see all the information related to a user in a pop-up.
SocialBot and BotStar are equally well in this category.
Can you send out a message to a segment of subscribers? How about automated sequences?
After bot building, the next step is promoting your chatbot to gain more audience and capture more leads for your business. In addition to sending broadcasts & campaigns, SocialBot and BotStar both have a wide range of powerful built-in marketing tools to gain customers.
SocialBot has the ability to send broadcasts i.e., sending out messages to a targeted or filtered group of users. It can also automatically send a sequence of messages to any user who opted-in to your campaign. It also provides subscribing/unsubscribing from sequences.
The sequences in SocialBot are well organized. You can see the complete sequence in one overview. Another good feature is that you can see which message is sent at which time.
Also, with SocialBot, you can use a feature called “Conditions”, in which you can use logic to send users through a certain flow. This provides a more personalized experience for your users.
With SocialBot, it is possible to make a chatbot in multiple languages. It’s also possible to easily translate the chatbot to different languages.
BotStar also provides broadcasts, sequences, and even subscribing/unsubscribing from sequences. You can also see a complete sequence of all the messages you want to send in one overview.
Just as SocialBot, you can also create conditions in your chatbot flows.
Moreover, it is possible to make a chatbot in multiple languages and easy to translate the chatbot to different languages.
Can you send out a message to a segment of subscribers? How about automated sequences?
What if chatbots think like we do and respond to queries as we do. That way, it will open up a whole new level of customer engagement. With advances in Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (AI & NLP), you can train your bot to understand queries and respond to customers just as humans do. This way, a chatbot can handle more and more complex conversations.
With SocialBot, it is possible to recognize keywords with your chatbot. Based on a keyword (or a group of keywords) your chatbot gives a certain response. Users can type whatever they want and the bot will respond based on the predefined keywords.
SocialBot also supports Natural Language Processing. With SocialBot, it is also possible to grab the intent of the user, use synonyms or entities.
SocialBot also has direct integration with DialogFlow.
With BotStar, your chatbot can also recognize keywords and based on those keywords, give a certain response.
BotStar also has direct integration with DialogFlow.
However, BotStar has limited A.I. capabilities and Natural Language Processing. With BotStar, it is not possible to grab the intent of the user, use synonyms or entities. SocialBot beats BotStar in this category.
Can it send notifications to admins? By email and Messenger?
Besides the website, Messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and SMS are also relatively better marketing channel to gain people’s attention and generate high-quality sales leads.
With SocialBot, it is possible to make a chatbot on the website, Facebook Messenger, SMS, WhatsApp and Email.
SocialBot lets you build chatbot widgets for your website and integrate them with suitable third-party platforms.
When someone gives a certain response on Facebook Messenger, you could send an email based on that response. This allows you to make an omnichannel chatbot experience for your users.
With BotStar, it is only possible to make a chatbot on the website and Facebook Messenger.
This is a drawback since BotStar fails to provide an omnichannel chatbot experience to its users.
SocialBot wins on this criteria because they offer WhatsApp, Email and SMS channels (apart from Facebook Messenger and website).
Can it send notifications to admins? By email and Messenger?
The most important integration a chatbot software need is Live chat integration.
SocialBot has a built-in live chat integration so you can respond to user inquiries on the go. Now you can chat with your users directly inside the SocialBot platform. The live chat window also displays all your user’s information on the sidebar.
SocialBot also provides integrations for Google Sheets and Webhooks.
Just like SocialBot, BotStar also has a built-in LiveChat integration.
However, BotStar provides you with a lot of plugin options such as Zapier, Integromat, Google Sheets, Webhooks etc. These integrations are a game-changer for the BotStar userbase.
Any built-in tools to help you promote your bot? Buttons? Landing pages?
With SocialBot, it is possible to put a Facebook Messenger widget or a native widget on your website. You can also create and customize multiple landing pages, each leading to a different message or sequence, connect to Facebook ads and use the One-Time Notification.
Moreover, SocialBot has a really advanced auto-reply to Facebook comments. With this feature, you can automatically send a message to users who comment on a specific Facebook post. Apart from sending a message in Facebook Messenger, you can automatically like the comment and reply with your own comment in SocialBot.
SocialBot also lets you create highly customizable buttons and custom URLs for your chatbot.
With Botstar, it is possible to do almost the same things as with SocialBot.
However, you cannot create customizable buttons under BotStar, which can be done conveniently in SocialBot.
What does the platform cost? Is it a flat monthly fee? Or does it depend on the number of subscribers?
SocialBot provides a free trial.
For uninterrupted connection, SocialBot also provides a lifetime deal that stays forever. SocialBot Lite plan starts at $49 as the lifetime charges. If you want more features, you can upgrade to SocialBot Accelerator, which costs $99 as the lifetime charges.
The only possible drawback is that you cannot have monthly pricing, but this does not matter, since you can save an ample amount with the lifetime deal. Hence, SocialBot is comparatively cheap for the value it provides.
SocialBot also offers a money-back guarantee, no questions asked.
BotStar does not provide a free trial. However, it provides a free plan that offers some limited features.
BotStar’s monthly plan starts at $15 per month. If you use Botstar for 1 year, your total cost will be $180 (15 x 12 = 180). However, SocialBot’s lifetime plan with all features costs only $99 which is far less than what you spend at BotStar.
This is a small win for SocialBot because they have better plans plus a free trial.
Does the platform report stats for sent, open or clicked messages? Can it report popular user inputs?
SocialBot provides a clear analytics dashboard showing you the number of users, total subscribers, unsubscribes, net subscribers, user retention and user activity.
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. You can also see particular statistics of your sequences.
SocialBot also provides Conversion rate, Fall Back Rate and custom dashboards/reports.
The analytics of SocialBot are much clearer than the analytics of BotStar.
Moreover, it can also show the user input the chatbot did not know an answer to, which allows you to easily improve the answer of your chatbot:
BotStar only provides a basic dashboard for your chatbot analytics, not showing you the user retention and user activity.
Like SocialBot, you can not see the delivered rate, seen rate and click rate of elements in your chatbot flow under BotStar.
There are three more things it does not have: Conversion rate, Fall Back Rate and custom dashboards/reports.
Can you collect payments for your products or services directly in Messenger?
With SocialBot, it is possible to let users buy products directly within the chatbot, using their Stripe integration. You can also receive payments through your chatbot by using the Stripe or Paypal integration.
Another strong feature is WhatsApp Order Notification for sending important Order updates.
SocialBot also provides an abandoned cart integration with Shopify. This allows you to send a message to users who put a product in their cart but didn’t finish their order.
SocialBot also has WooCommerce integration.
Just like SocialBot, BotStar also let users buy products and make payments directly within the chatbot.
However, BotStar doesn’t support the Cart Abandonment feature.
Another drawback is that BotStar doesn’t have a WooCommerce integration and WhatsApp Order Notification feature.
Can you easily create bot templates to reuse for multiple projects? To easily share templates with others? Can you easily clone your messages and bots?
SocialBot offers a pool of free chatbot templates for e-commerce, customer support, and lead generation. You can directly install these templates to make your chatbot. These include free templates and templates only available for Pro users. You can also filter them by category and find the one that best suits your needs.
With SocialBot, it is also possible to make a chatbot template and share it with others. Create your own templates and copy, edit and clone these templates later. In this way, expert users will never find it difficult to work with the platform.
Furthermore, it is possible to duplicate/clone your chatbot flows and chatbot elements to make your chatbot faster.
BotStar provides 70 free templates which you can directly install to make your chatbot.
Although it is possible to duplicate/clone your chatbot flows and chatbot elements, you cannot modify and share templates under Botstar.
Whether the software provides A/B testing?
SocialBot provides A/B testing in their software.
However, it is not possible to do A/B testing in Botstar.
Do they provide access to the Instagram API?
Enjoy up-to-date Instagram tools with SocialBot.
Queue up amazing content over Instagram. Schedule image posting and video posting to drive engagement.
Use Auto Comment Reply feature with SocialBot. You can also hide/delete some unwanted/offensive comments or disable comments altogether for a specific post.
Users can also write down the offensive/unwanted keywords separated by commas and give reply based on specific keywords.
Measure and report on the performance of your content. Monitor the auto comment reply reports using SocialBot. Check Posts Analytics that shows the number of engagements, impressions, reach and save for a specific Instagram post.
Many companies are already using Instagram as their primary sale or promotion channel.
On the one hand, where SocialBot has successfully integrated various Instagram features, BotStar fails to provide access to Instagram’s API.
It is not possible to enjoy any of these Instagram features with BotStar.
Whether the software facilitates the import/export of products?
Conversational commerce is the future of eCommerce. SocialBot lets your WooCommerce shoppers search and find the right product quickly.
You can import products to your SocialBot’s dashboard and make all such products available in Facebook Messenger and Instagram for search/browse.
You can also export any of these products to the SocialBot eCommerce store.
This way a good conversational chatbot experience increases store sales and customer conversion rates.
However, these valuable WooCommerce tools are not available in BotStar.
Whether you can post content on various social media platforms?
With SocialBot, building your brand on social media becomes much easier.
Visually plan and schedule posts over Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Blogger, WordPress and Medium.
SocialBot users can utilise these tools for content curation, discovery, scheduling, publishing and analytics.
However, it is not possible to enjoy any of these social media tools with BotStar.
Whether it allows automatic posting of new items on Facebook Pages?
An RSS feed assists you in finding and distributing content. With SocialBot, you can automatically post RSS Feeds to Facebook.
Whenever you add new content over YouTube, WordPress or website, updates are automatically posted out to your social channels like Facebook. In other words, a post will be sent out as soon as a new article is added to the RSS feed.
You can also control what content is included in a Facebook post from an update to the RSS Feed and make sure posts include the right content to be posted successfully.
However, this automatic sharing of new content with your friends and followers over Facebook is not possible at BotStar.
Whether the chatbot provides unique features like website compare, subscriber backup, etc.
Facebook Messenger doesn’t allow sending messages after a 24-hour window. OTN is the only way where you can send a promotional message even after 24 hours and SocialBot provides that feature.
On SocialBot, you cansend Promotional Messages on Facebook Messenger Using One Time Notification. You can also send promotional SMS and Emails after a 24-hour window.
However, with BotStar, once a subscriber messages you on Facebook, you have a 24-hour window to send as many promotional messages as you want.
After 24 hours, you are not allowed to send any message. Beyond 24 Hours Marketing is not possible on BotStar.
Whether it allows sending messages after a 24-hour window?
SocialBot’s Website Compare Tool lets you compare your website with a competitor’s website. The comparison can be done based on total shares, reactions, comments and updates on each website.
With SocialBot’s Instagram Search Tool (Hashtag Search), you can enter a keyword and get search results of top media related to that keyword over Instagram.
Interest Explorer is a kind of engagement explorer where you can get the engagement for all your social media posts over various platforms.
Get Daily/Weekly/Monthly subscriber report and backup your Subscriber data to Google Sheet over SocialBot.
On the other hand, any of these unique tools are not available on BotStar.
Do they provide extensive tutorials, proper documentation and good customer support?
SocialBot provides extensive tutorials on how to make a chatbot and all of the features on their platform.
They also have proper documentation and good customer support.
They provide extensive information about their platform and have a big community of members willing to help each other.
Just as SocialBot, BotStar also provides tutorials on how to make chatbots with their platform.
Equally, they have good documentation and customer support.
Now that you’ve got a basic understanding of these two platforms, you can easily draw an accurate judgment about which chatbot is right for you. As per our evaluation criteria, SocialBot does a better job in comparison to BotStar. SocialBot has earned a total of 96 , whereas BotStar has only earned only 55.
With the Instagram Tools, OTN Tools, various powerful features, and much more affordable pricing at SocialBot, why don’t you let us become a part of your business and your next game-changer?
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