7 Awesome Services To Help You Create A DIY Chatbot

Over the recent days, bots have become a new trend. Having originated in Telegram messenger, they went over to Facebook. Now we can create them for communication, order placement or virtual consultations in Facebook Messenger as well. Even the ones created just for fun attract attention of the would-be buyers. Software Focus has picked several services for building DIY bots, and for some of them you don’t even need to write a single line of code.

Api.ai for Facebook Messenger

Api.ai develops products for communication and provides tools for programming bots on various platforms. As it is with Facebook Messenger, the final product may be created even without any programming skills. By filling out and editing a step-by-step form, the user can choose different bot functions, add context and logics.

As explained by the service developers, bots can be created in three stages. The first one is to outline the key points. During the second stage, bots are connected to their web services and at the third stage, the bot launch takes place.

The tools are free up to 6,000 accesses per month, but then you have to pay $89 a month.

Api.ai for Slack

Api.ai has the equivalent service for Slack. Generally, it is even easier to create, but the very process is pretty much the same and consists of three stages. Service monetization is also identical – only 6,000 accesses a month are provided for free.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel is another service to create bots for messengers. According to the service founder Dmitry Dumik, Chatfuel is designed for those who want to make a bot, but have no programming skills or are limited in server capacities. Some server functions are still restricted. TechCrunch and Forbes, for example, used Chatfuel to make their brand bots.

Estherbot

Estherbot is meant for Facebook Manager and it transforms your resume into a bot. For now, it’s only a template, which, according to the bot’s developer Esther Crawford, can take hold in HR in future. Such a bot is able to answer basic repeated questions, provide more context to some lines in the resume and describe personal traits of an applicant. It is free, but it works with English-language CVs only.

Abot

Great fans of the Iron Man and, in particular, of Jarvis the virtual assistant, would totally love it. The bot makes it possible to create personal cyber-assistants. Abot can perform functions of customer support, answer questions about the product or actually become your personal Jarvis. The platform is open source, free of charge and can be integrated into Slack, Twitter, email or SMS.

Botlytics

Botlylics performs analytical functions: it controls the content and tracks the amount of messages, which your bot sends. Nevertheless, there are serious concerns as to the user privacy: Botlytics analyzes their messages as well. The server is free of charge and its API is open.

Meya

Among the other numerous services, we decided to present the last (but not the least) one to provide you with a greater deal of choice. With the help of Meya you can activate bots in Twitter, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Slack and Kik. The platform offers bot hosting, frameworks, databases and tools for integration.