5 Best Chatbot Building Tools to Consider (Beginner’s Guide)

Running an online store today means more than just having good products—it’s about being available when customers need you. Shoppers expect quick answers, personalized recommendations, and gentle reminders that help them return and complete a purchase. That’s where chatbots come in: they’re the digital assistants that can greet visitors on your website, reply instantly to questions in Instagram DMs, and send WhatsApp updates that keep your brand top of mind.

For ecommerce beginners, the challenge isn’t deciding whether to use a chatbot—it’s choosing one that’s easy to set up and truly useful for driving sales. With so many tools available, it helps to focus on the features that matter most: a free plan or trial to test things out, the ability to place a chat widget on your site, support for social messaging apps, and smart automations like cart recovery and product catalog cards.

In this guide, we’ll look at five platforms including SendPulse, Outgrow, Ada, Verloop, and Landbot. It will help you decide which tool is the best for your marketing goals.

1) SendPulse

If you’re looking for an all-in-one chatbot platform that’s friendly for beginners but powerful enough to grow with your store, SendPulse is the best place to start. It offers a free plan with up to 3 chatbots, 500 subscribers, and 10,000 messages per month, which is plenty to get comfortable before upgrading. Prices for paid plans start from $8/month for unlimited chatbots, live chat, and messages. 

The platform’s primary focus is on helping businesses automate sales and customer engagement across popular messaging apps and websites. That means you can set up a website chat widget, connect to Instagram DMs (including comment auto-replies), and use Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp with official API support. From day one, SendPulse makes it possible to greet customers where they are and guide them toward purchase.

Key features for beginners

SendPulse gives you a visual drag-and-drop flow builder that’s designed for non-technical users, complete with templates so you don’t have to build every flow from scratch. Growth tools like referral links and QR codes make it easy to start conversations from Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger—whether through packaging inserts, in-store signage, or social posts. Because it’s an official WhatsApp Business API provider, you won’t have to worry about unreliable workarounds if WhatsApp is an important channel for you.

Ecommerce-specific functions

For ecommerce, SendPulse covers all the essentials: abandoned cart recovery, event triggers for cart, purchase, or site visits, and product catalog cards that make browsing inside chat feel natural. It supports channel-compliant broadcasts, so you can re-engage customers in a way that fits platform rules. You can also run segmented campaigns based on subscriber attributes or past actions, which means your follow-ups are more personal and effective. On Instagram, the platform supports comment auto-replies, helping you turn post engagement into conversations automatically.

Segmentation and analytics

SendPulse includes segmentation tools that let you target based on behavior, attributes, or cohorts—ideal for tailoring your outreach. The analytics dashboard shows performance across campaigns and broadcasts, giving you a clear view of how your automations are performing. While its Shopify integration is more focused on syncing contacts than pulling in cart or order data directly, most of the automation features beginners need are already covered inside the platform.

Bottom line for beginners

SendPulse is a strong all-around pick because it gives you everything you need in one place: a free plan to start, multiple channels (Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, website), powerful ecommerce triggers, and beginner-friendly tools for growth. It doesn’t just help you answer questions—it helps you bring shoppers back to their carts, show off products inside chat, and run compliant broadcasts that drive sales. For a store just getting into chatbots, SendPulse offers the most complete and practical toolkit.

2) Outgrow

If your main priority is capturing leads on your website rather than managing conversations in messaging apps, Outgrow is a good starting point. It focuses on interactive content like quizzes, calculators, and chatbot-style flows that help visitors engage with your brand before they buy. Outgrow offers a 14-day free trial so you can test it out, but there isn’t a permanent free plan available. Paid plans start from $14 for 3,000 leads per year.

Its primary focus is on lead generation, not ecommerce automation, so you won’t find built-in integrations with Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, or Messenger. Instead, Outgrow is designed to collect information on your site and send it to your CRM or email system.

Key features for beginners

Outgrow comes with a drag-and-drop builder and a wide range of prebuilt templates, so you don’t have to start from scratch. You can create interactive quizzes or calculators that guide customers through choices and capture data along the way. It doesn’t support referral links, QR codes, or broadcast messaging, since it isn’t meant for social channels. Still, as a web tool, it gives you simple ways to qualify leads and learn more about your audience.

Ecommerce-specific functions

Unlike SendPulse or Verloop, Outgrow doesn’t connect directly to ecommerce platforms for cart tracking or purchase triggers. That means no abandoned cart recovery, catalog cards, or automated review requests. You can, however, create custom forms to collect post-purchase feedback or set up quizzes that recommend products. Its strength lies in on-site engagement, not order recovery.

Segmentation and analytics

Outgrow lets you collect visitor responses and feed that information into your CRM, giving you the ability to segment later through another system. Its analytics focus on completion rates, engagement, and conversions from the interactive flows themselves. For beginners, this is enough to see whether your website quizzes and calculators are working.

Bottom line for beginners

Outgrow is best if you want to turn website visitors into qualified leads through engaging, interactive content. It won’t help you with Instagram DMs, WhatsApp campaigns, or ecommerce automations like abandoned cart recovery, but it does make lead generation feel approachable and fun. If your first step is filling the top of your funnel rather than managing conversations, Outgrow is a solid place to begin.

3) Ada

If your store handles a lot of customer questions and you’re interested in using AI to scale support, Ada is a platform to consider. Unlike tools with a free plan, Ada works on an enterprise pricing model with custom quotes, so it’s not the kind of tool you sign up for casually. Its primary focus is on providing AI-powered self-service, designed to reduce support tickets and resolve routine inquiries quickly. You can use Ada as a website chat widget, and it also supports Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp through official providers. Instagram DM is possible via integrations, but automatic comment replies aren’t a highlight here.

Key features for beginners

Ada is centered around an AI-first approach, meaning its bots are built to answer questions naturally and escalate to humans only when necessary. You can design flows in a visual no-code builder, but the main appeal is how the AI automates common support tasks. Unlike SendPulse, Ada does not include referral links, QR codes, or broadcast messaging, because it isn’t designed as a marketing tool. Instead, it focuses on service efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Ecommerce-specific functions

Ada can respond to customer questions during the shopping journey, and it supports event-based triggers so the bot can step in at relevant points like product pages or checkout. However, it does not specialize in abandoned cart recovery, nor does it provide product catalog cards for WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook. If you want to request reviews or user-generated content, you’d likely need to build custom flows or connect Ada with another system.

Segmentation and analytics

Segmentation in Ada is geared toward tailoring support responses rather than marketing campaigns. Analytics focus on metrics such as resolution rates, deflection rates, and time saved for support teams, rather than open or click-through rates. It’s designed for businesses measuring success by reducing agent workload rather than sending promotional broadcasts.

Bottom line for beginners

Ada is a great fit if your main challenge is scaling customer support with AI, and you have the budget and resources to invest. For a small or mid-size store focused on marketing and sales, it may feel like overkill, since it lacks built-in tools for broadcasts, catalogs, and cart recovery. But if your top priority is service automation and multilingual support, Ada is a powerful option that takes pressure off your team.

4) Verloop

If WhatsApp is the main way your customers reach you, Verloop is a chatbot platform worth exploring. It’s built with support automation in mind and focuses strongly on WhatsApp Business API connections. Unlike tools with free plans, Verloop uses a custom pricing model, so you’ll need to contact their team for details. You can create a website chat widget and integrate with Facebook Messenger, though Instagram DM or comment auto-replies aren’t a standard part of its feature set. For businesses centered on WhatsApp conversations, Verloop provides a mix of automation and agent tools that help manage service at scale.

Key features for beginners

Verloop supports broadcast messaging on WhatsApp using approved templates, so you can send reminders, updates, or promotional messages that follow platform rules. It also allows you to generate QR codes and conversation links to make it easier for customers to start chatting with your store—helpful for packaging inserts or retail signage. Rich UI elements like buttons, quick replies, and forms are available within WhatsApp and Messenger flows, giving customers more than just plain text interactions.

Ecommerce-specific functions

On WhatsApp, Verloop includes features for product catalogs and can help with abandoned cart recovery by nudging customers who haven’t completed checkout. It also supports event-based triggers tied to shopping actions, making it possible to guide customers back at the right moment. While it integrates smoothly with CRM and helpdesk systems, it doesn’t offer a dedicated Shopify app for syncing orders or discounts, so some ecommerce functions require extra setup.

Segmentation and analytics

Segmentation is supported mainly for organizing conversations and creating workflows that suit different customer groups. Analytics focus on conversation quality, agent performance, and WhatsApp engagement metrics. It’s less about marketing campaigns and more about tracking support efficiency.

Bottom line for beginners

Verloop is best if your store already leans heavily on WhatsApp as a support channel and you want automation combined with live agent workflows. It’s not as broad as SendPulse—there’s no Instagram DM automation or strong growth tools for Messenger—but if your priority is reliable WhatsApp broadcasts, catalogs, and agent handoff, Verloop is a strong fit.

5) Landbot

If your goal is to design conversations that look polished and run smoothly on your website, Landbot is a strong choice. It’s known for having one of the most user-friendly visual builders, making it easy to map out flows without technical skills. Landbot offers a free sandbox plan with up to 100 chats per month, and paid tiers start around €32/month for 500 web and messenger chats and 100 AI chats. 

For messaging channels, it supports Facebook Messenger and can connect to WhatsApp through official providers, but Instagram DM and comment auto-replies aren’t part of the package. Beginners who want to focus on web chat first will find Landbot especially approachable.

Key features for beginners

Landbot’s drag-and-drop builder is among the most intuitive available, with blocks for questions, conditions, and integrations. You can choose from a library of templates to launch common flows quickly, which is helpful when you’re just starting out. For growth, Landbot can create QR codes and conversation links, mostly for WhatsApp, making it easier to direct customers into a chat flow. While it doesn’t offer specialized referral deep links like SendPulse, the basics are there to get conversations going.

Ecommerce-specific functions

Compared to other platforms, Landbot is lighter on direct ecommerce automations. It doesn’t provide built-in abandoned cart recovery or event triggers tied to purchase or cart updates, so you’d need to rely on custom integrations. Product catalog cards for Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp aren’t supported as native features. That said, you can still collect leads, answer product questions, and guide customers toward checkout with structured flows.

Segmentation and analytics

Landbot allows you to segment users based on their responses in conversations, which is useful for qualifying leads or grouping customers by interest. Analytics track flow completion, drop-offs, and conversions inside your chatbot, giving you insight into how well your website conversations are working. It’s more focused on optimizing chat journeys than running broad marketing campaigns.

Bottom line for beginners

Landbot is a great fit if you value a smooth visual builder and want to create engaging website chat experiences. It’s not designed for social DM automation or ecommerce triggers like cart recovery, but it excels at giving your site a conversational touch. If your store wants to start with web chat and later expand into WhatsApp, Landbot provides a clear, beginner-friendly path.

Wrapping Up

Each of these tools has its strengths—Outgrow for lead capture, Ada for AI-powered support, Verloop for WhatsApp-first engagement, and Landbot for smooth web chat design. But if you’re looking for the most practical all-in-one solution for ecommerce, SendPulse stands out. With its free plan, official WhatsApp API, Instagram DM and comment auto-replies, abandoned cart recovery, product catalogs, and easy-to-use flow builder, it gives beginners everything they need to start conversations and turn them into sales. For most online stores, SendPulse is the best place to begin.