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From Zero To Chatbot: 5 Best Platforms Beginners Should Try
Getting started with chatbots can feel like stepping into a world with too many buttons, dashboards, and channels to manage.
But the good news is that today’s leading best chatbot platforms make the process surprisingly accessible, even if you’re building your very first automation.
The tools in this guide offer beginner-friendly ways to get started, whether you want to
- Manage conversations on your website,
- Boost engagement on Instagram,
- Streamline WhatsApp interactions,
- Create automated flows without writing a line of code.
The five platforms below are well-known names in the chatbot world, but each specializes in something a little different.
To help you choose, we’ll take a close look at their marketing focus, messaging channels, automation capabilities, visual builders, template libraries, and pricing approaches.
What Are The 5 Best Platforms Beginners Should Try?
In 2026, the digital landscape has shifted towards the platforms that can prioritise three things:
- User ownership
- AI-driven automation
- Community engagement
For beginners looking to build a brand, learn skills, and start a business, choosing the right entry point is critical for long-term scalability and for reducing early technical hurdles.
1. SendPulse
SendPulse is a versatile marketing automation platform. It is built for people who want practical, easy-to-launch best chatbot platforms without sacrificing advanced features.
Are you a beginner? In that case, you will appreciate how many channels are available right from day one.
This allows a single dashboard to manage website chats, social messaging apps, and, if needed, email and SMS.
The platform also supports TikTok and WhatsApp chatbots, making it especially attractive for beginners in e-commerce workflows, according to a popular reviews report.
The feature set available to beginners is expansive. SendPulse supports building chatbots for Instagram Direct Messages, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp (via partner integración for API access), Telegram, and website widgets.
Instagram automation includes DM triggers, comment auto-replies, and story reaction responses – features that creators and small businesses find especially valuable.
The platform includes rich UI elements such as
- Quick replies,
- Buttons,
- Carousels,
- Product cards.
All of these are easy to insert into flows.
For conversion-focused marketing, SendPulse offers segmentation based on attributes, events, tags, and behavior. It also includes event-based triggers such as cart recovery, purchase flows, and page-visit logic, where supported.
A unified inbox combines human and automated conversations, helping teams respond more efficiently.
The visual flow builder is one of the strongest elements. It is fully drag and drop with-
- Conditions
- Branching
- Loops
- Ready to use blocks
As a beginner, you might struggle with the logic design. But? Now you have SendPulse. It can particularly make these elements approachable.
The template library is broad, offering industry-specific flows (such as retail, services, and education) and channel-specific templates for Instagram, WhatsApp, and website widgets.
Add broadcast messaging that complies with platform policies and standard statistics for automation performance, and beginners get an environment that feels powerful without being overwhelming.
Plans And Pricing
SendPulse offers one of the most generous free plans. The free tier includes
- Three chatbots,
- Up to 500 subscribers, and
- 10,000 messages monthly.
This is ideal for experimentation and small early-stage projects. Paid plans start from $8/month for unlimited best chatbot platforms, live chat, and messages.
2. HubSpot Chatbot Builder
HubSpot Chatbot Builder sits within HubSpot’s broader CRM ecosystem, making it an attractive entry point for beginners who want customer communication directly tied to contact management.
Many new users appreciate that the chatbot builder works hand-in-hand with forms, CRM profiles, email marketing, and support pipelines.
For someone just starting out, the cohesive environment can reduce the overwhelm that sometimes comes with switching multiple disconnected platforms.
In terms of channels and features, HubSpot focuses on website chat widgets and CRM-based automation.
It’s best chatbot platforms integrate tightly with HubSpot’s conversations inbox, giving teams one place to manage both automated and human responses.
It offers a strong set of tools for website-based customer journeys. Users can guide visitors through product questions, book meetings, and trigger workflows based on CRM data rather than relying solely on channel-based triggers.
HubSpot supports quick replies, button-based interactions, and conversational forms that collect customer details directly into contact profiles.
HubSpot’s builder offers a clean, visual-flow interface. Beginners who like clear, CRM-style pathways tend to find this helpful, while those wanting more flexible conditional flows sometimes find the system less adaptable.
Segmentation and personalized responses are driven by CRM fields and lifecycle stages, giving users a strong foundation for marketing and sales follow-ups.
Broadcasting is available via email and CRM channels, but not via social messaging apps, unlike channel-specialized platforms.
Plans And Pricing
HubSpot’s pricing model depends heavily on the user’s CRM tier. The best chatbot platforms are included in the free HubSpot plan, but advanced automation and custom branching require paid Marketing or Service Hub tiers. Paid tiers start at around $20/month.
Relevant note: While HubSpot is popular, there are several other examples of CRM tools on the market—such as Salesforce or the lesser-known SendPulse CRM—that businesses also rely on.
3. Tidio
Tidio is well-known for simplifying customer support automation and having a strong focus on helping beginners turn website visitors into chat participants.
Those new to chatbot building often point out how easy it is to install the widget, connect automations, and start handling conversations without technical configuration.
Tidio markets itself primarily as a tool for live chat and automated customer service, which is reflected in its feature set and channel availability.
Tidio offers segmentation based on user attributes or behaviors within the widget, as well as event triggers based on visit patterns or interactions.
The visual builder in Tidio is designed to be beginner-friendly, relying on drag-and-drop elements to create automated flows.
Conditions and branches are included but kept simple and straightforward. Its template library includes ready-to-use flows for common support scenarios such as
- FAQs,
- Lead capture, and
- Cart-related triggers for ecommerce websites.
The unified inbox brings together live chat and automated interactions, letting human agents take over smoothly when needed.
For beginners who want a hybrid of human and automated service rather than a heavy focus on marketing automation, this blended approach works well.
Plans And Pricing
Pricing for Tidio starts with a free plan providing users with live chat, 100 chatbot conversations per month, and basic templates.
The Starter plan, which costs $29/month, gives more conversations, advanced AI features, and integrations.
4. Chatfuel
Chatfuel has a strong reputation for helping users build chatbots for social platforms and create marketing and sales automation through
- Messenger,
- Instagram,
- WhatsApp.
Chatfuel supports Facebook Messenger bots, Instagram automation features, and WhatsApp messaging through approved channels.
It offers quick replies, buttons, product card elements, and structured messaging formats designed for commerce.
Users can set up triggers based on keywords, menu selections, and channel-specific events such as Instagram comment triggers.
Segmentation is available through tags and attributes, allowing targeted follow-ups and personalized responses. The unified inbox and handover protocol support team-based management of automated and live conversations.
The visual flow builder is Chaufel, is intuitive. that too Drag-and-drop blocks and easy navigation.
Conditions, branching, and event-based messaging allow users in order to create personalised experiences without complexity.
The template library includes:
- Industry-specific flows
- Channel-oriented templates for Messenger and Instagram.
Broadcasting is available within the compliance rules of each channel, supporting marketing messages, promotional alerts, and updates for subscribed users.
Chatfuel also includes GDPR-aligned consent tools and compliance options for Facebook-related policies.
Plans And Pricing
The platform offers a free trial instead of a free plan. Paid tiers start at $24/month for 1,000 conversations on Facebook, while paid plans for WhatsApp and Instagram start at $39/month.
5. TARS
TARS is one of the best chatbot platforms, specializing in creating conversational landing pages and chat-based forms designed to increase conversions.
For beginners, this approach often feels refreshing because it replaces static website forms with interactive dialogs that guide users step-by-step.
TARS focuses heavily on lead generation and conversion optimization, giving businesses tools to build chat sequences that clarify user needs and drive higher completion rates.
Channel support in TARS focuses on website-embedded best chatbot platforms and landing-page-style conversations.
Unlike broader multi-channel platforms, TARS focuses on a specific marketing use case: converting visitors.
TARS provides built-in analytics for tracking unique visits, conversion rates, and chat-level performance, helping small teams measure outcomes without specialist tools.
Plans And Pricing
TARS offers a free plan that covers 50 conversations per month.
Paid plans start from $499/month for 500 conversations, advanced LLM models, and a training limit of 20 knowledge bases.
