The Chatbase alternative that answers questions and still captures the lead
Chatbase builds AI agents that answer and resolve support questions. Collectchat is a website chatbot that asks your questions, in your order, in every conversation, answers what visitors type with AI along the way, and saves each answer as a structured response. Standard includes 1,000 AI answers a month for $29, billed yearly.
Free forever plan with 50 AI answers a month. No credit card required.
Why choose Collectchat over Chatbase
Pricing
- Free plan with 50 AI answers a month.
- 1,000 AI answers for $29/mo, billed yearly.
- No branding from $29/mo, billed yearly.
- No free plan listed, 7-day trial.
- 700 message credits for $32/mo, billed yearly.
- Branding removal is a $1,188/yr add-on.
Lead capture
- Your questions, in your order, every chat.
- Native booking and payments.
- Phone numbers verified with SMS OTP.
- Lead action runs when the AI decides.
- Form mode: name, email, and phone only.
- Booking through Calendly or Cal.com.
AI answers
- Answers from your site, files, and FAQs.
- Never makes up prices, dates, or policies.
- Keeps collecting when AI answers run out.
- Answers from files, sites, Q&A, and Notion.
- Choose a model, 1 to 5 credits a reply.
- Agent stops replying when credits run out.
Every Feature Compared
What you get on Collectchat versus Chatbase, the plan each feature is on, and what roughly 1,000 AI replies a month really costs. Chatbase figures are from its pricing page and docs, October 2026.
| Feature | Collectchat | Chatbase |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | ||
| Cost of ~1,000 AI replies a month Billed yearly (monthly: $39 vs $52). Collectchat Standard includes 1,000 AI answers. Chatbase Hobby is $32 for 700 credits, plus 300 top-up credits at $40 per 1,000 (about $12), on a 1-credit model. | ✅ $29 / mo | 👎 About $44 / mo |
| Price per AI reply Collectchat: $29 ÷ 1,000 answers. Chatbase Hobby: $32 ÷ 700 credits, and one reply uses 1 to 5 credits depending on the model, more when it runs an action. | ✅ About 2.9¢ | 👎 4.6¢ to 23¢ |
| Entry paid plan Billed yearly. On monthly billing it is $19 vs $40. | ✅ $14, 500 answers | 👎 $32, 700 credits |
| Free plan What you can use without paying. Chatbase’s pricing page lists paid plans with a 7-day free trial. | ✅ 50 AI answers / mo | 👎 7-day trial |
| When the monthly allowance runs out Collectchat keeps collecting responses and skips AI answers until the reset. Chatbase agents stop replying until credits reset, unless auto-recharge ($40 per 1,000 credits) is on. | ✅ Bot keeps running | 👎 Agent stops replying |
| Chatbots included Separate bots for different sites, pages, or clients. | ✅ 10 on Lite | 👎 1 (+$300 / yr each) |
| Remove platform branding Drop the vendor mark from your chatbot. | ✅ Standard ($29) | 👎 $1,188 / yr add-on |
| Custom domain Serve the chatbot from your own domain. | ✅ Standard | 👎 Enterprise |
| Lead capture | ||
| Questions every visitor is asked You set the questions and their order, and the chatbot asks them in every conversation. Chatbase’s lead action runs when its AI decides the moment fits your instructions. | ✅ Free | 👎 When the AI decides |
| In-chat lead form Chatbase’s form mode holds up to three fields with no custom fields. Its conversational mode adds custom text, number, email, date, or yes/no fields. | ✅ Any question type | 👎 Name, email, phone |
| Leads saved as structured rows Each answer in its own column, ready to export as CSV. | ✅ Free | ✅ Activity > Leads |
| Branching on answers Send people down different paths based on what they said. | ✅ Lite | 👎 AI-run procedures |
| Phone number OTP validation Verify real phone numbers with an SMS code before you follow up. | ✅ Standard | ❌ |
| Appointment booking Let visitors pick a time inside the conversation. | ✅ Native, Lite | 👎 Via Calendly or Cal.com |
| Accept payments in the chat Take a payment from a new visitor. Chatbase’s Stripe actions manage existing customers’ subscriptions and invoices (Basic plan). | ✅ Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay | 👎 Shopify checkout links |
| File uploads from visitors Let people attach a file in the chat. | ✅ Lite | ✅ Hobby |
| AI answers | ||
| Answers from your website Collectchat re-reads your pages weekly. Chatbase auto-resync is on Basic and up. | ✅ Up to 50 pages | ✅ 40 MB of content |
| Answers from files Collectchat: up to 10 MB per file. Chatbase: up to 20 MB per file. | ✅ PDF, Word, CSV, TXT | ✅ PDF, Word, TXT |
| Answers you write yourself Collectchat FAQ answers win over website and files. Chatbase adds Q&A and text sources. | ✅ FAQs | ✅ Q&A sources |
| Review unanswered questions Spot gaps and fix the answer for next time. | ✅ Save as FAQ | ✅ Correct in Activity |
| AI actions The AI calls your APIs, places Shopify orders, or searches the web mid-chat. | ❌ | ✅ 5 per agent on Hobby |
| Support & channels | ||
| Live chat handoff to a human A person takes over the conversation in real time. | ❌ | ✅ Basic ($120) |
| Helpdesk and ticketing Chatbase’s own inbox, or tickets in Zendesk, Intercom, HubSpot, Freshdesk, and more. | ❌ | ✅ Basic ($120) |
| WhatsApp, Instagram & Messenger replies The same agent answers on messaging apps. | ❌ | ✅ Hobby |
| Voice and phone calls The agent answers phone calls. | ❌ | ✅ Basic ($120) |
| Team seats Teammates who can work in the account. | 👎 1 on Standard | ✅ 2 on Hobby |
| Integrations & deployment | ||
| Google Sheets Send each lead to a spreadsheet. | ✅ Standard | 👎 Via Zapier (Basic) |
| Zapier Connect thousands of other apps. | ✅ Standard ($29) | 👎 Basic ($120) |
| Webhooks Post each lead to any endpoint. | ✅ Standard | ✅ On lead actions |
| Slack Notify your team in Slack. | ✅ Standard | ✅ Hobby |
| WordPress & Shopify install Add the chatbot without touching code. | ✅ Free | ✅ Hobby |
Why teams switch to Collectchat
Works 24/7 automatically
Your chatbot greets visitors, asks your questions, answers what they type with AI, and books meetings or takes payments around the clock, fully automated.
Every answer, structured
Each answer is saved as a structured response with its own field, so leads arrive as clean rows you can export or send to your CRM, not a conversation to read through.
AI answers included
1,000 AI answers a month on Standard with no per-answer fee. If you run out, the chatbot keeps collecting leads and skips AI answers until the reset.
No coding required
Build with drag-and-drop or describe your goal and let AI create the whole chatbot. Then paste one snippet, or install it on WordPress or Shopify.
500+ integrations
Send every response to Google Sheets, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Slack, or a webhook, and to 5,000+ more apps through Zapier.
Deploy anywhere
Run it as a website chat widget, a shareable page, or an inline embed, and show different chatbots on different pages.
When Chatbase might fit instead
Chatbase is a strong AI support agent. It is the better pick when the job is resolving support conversations rather than collecting leads:
- You need live chat handoff to a human, or a helpdesk inbox with tickets and routing (Basic plan and up).
- You want one agent answering on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, email, Slack, and phone calls, not only your website.
- The AI has to take actions: call your APIs, place Shopify orders, look up Stripe subscriptions, or search the web.
- You want to pick the AI model, from 1-credit options up to Claude 5.5 Opus and GPT-5.5.
- You need enterprise controls such as SSO, HIPAA eligibility, audit logs, and SLAs (Enterprise plan).
But when the goal is turning website visitors into leads, bookings, or payments, with every answer saved as a structured response and AI answers for the questions in between, Collectchat is the more focused and more affordable choice.
Listen to what our customers say
Trusted by 50,000+ businesses worldwide
“Collectchat has been an invaluable tool for our business. It's allowed us to easily convert our website visitors and collect important information.”
Ester Bonafonte
“We're heavy users of Collectchat, from internal bots like 'Ask the CEO anonymously' and onboarding feedback, to external recruitment bots that bring in ~90% of our job applications.”
Pauliina Uuttu
“The result looks great, much more attractive to potential respondents than the regular Google Forms questionnaires.”
Shai Alter
Learning Developer, OTI
“Collectchat has been super useful for us and we have certainly seen a growth in our subscriptions per month. With the contribution of this widget, we have even seen an average 30% increase in the total monthly subscriptions.”
Evi Katsoulieri
Marketer, GrowthRocks
“The templates are amazing. Very easy to set up and very powerful. It's a great service that it's the equivalent of having a 24/7 employee that does a great onboarding experience for your prospects.”
Victor Bustillos
Founder, Webjoy.co
“Interactive form worked like magic, increased Yatramantra's conversion to 3 times and significantly reduced the cost of agents, who used to ask the same questions to every customer.”
Saran Kumar
CTO, Yatramantra
Frequently asked Questions
Yes, if your goal is capturing leads. Chatbase is an AI agent built to answer and resolve support questions. Collectchat is a website chatbot that asks your questions in the order you set, answers what visitors type with AI from your website, files, and FAQs, then carries on with your questions and saves every answer as a structured lead. If you need live chat or a helpdesk, Chatbase is the better fit.
Yes. Billed yearly, Collectchat Standard is $29 a month with 1,000 AI answers included. Chatbase Hobby is $32 a month for 700 message credits, and each reply uses 1 to 5 credits depending on the model. On a 1-credit model, about 1,000 replies a month costs around $44 once you add top-up credits at $40 per 1,000. Billed monthly, that is $39 versus about $52. See Collectchat pricing.
Chatbase’s pricing page lists paid plans starting at $32 a month (billed yearly) with a 7-day free trial, and does not list a free plan. Collectchat has a free forever plan with 3 chatbots, plus 100 responses and 50 AI answers a month.
Yes. Chatbase has a Collect Leads action. In form mode it shows up to three fields (name, email, and phone) with no custom fields. In conversational mode the AI asks for custom fields one message at a time. Either way, the AI decides when to ask based on instructions you write. Collectchat asks your questions in every conversation, with any question type, phone OTP, native appointment booking, and payments.
Chatbase is the deeper AI product: you choose the model, add actions, and train on more source types. Collectchat’s AI answers do one job well. They reply to a visitor’s question in up to three short sentences, in the visitor’s language, from your website (up to 50 pages), files, and FAQs. They never make up prices, dates, or policies, and when unsure the chatbot says your team will follow up. Unanswered questions show in Results, where you can save an answer as an FAQ.
No. Collectchat is fully automated and has no live chat inbox. If people on your team need to take over conversations, Chatbase’s live chat (Basic plan and up) is the better fit. Collectchat instead sends each completed response to your email or WhatsApp, and on Standard to Slack, Google Sheets, or your CRM, so your team can follow up. Also comparing other tools? See Collectchat as an Intercom alternative or a Tidio alternative.
On Collectchat, the chatbot keeps running and collecting responses; it only skips AI answers until your allowance resets. Free includes 50 AI answers a month, Lite 500, Standard 1,000, and Unlimited 10,000, with no per-answer fee. On Chatbase, agents stop responding when message credits run out, unless you turn on auto-recharge.
Add your website and upload the same PDF, Word, CSV, or TXT files (up to 10 MB each) so AI answers can use them, then turn your best Chatbase Q&A answers into FAQs, which take priority. Build the questions you want every visitor to answer, test the flow, and swap the Chatbase snippet for Collectchat’s chat widget.
If you have more questions, feel free to contact us .