These CustomGPT alternatives offer more channels, lower prices, or both. CustomGPT trains GPT-5 on your documents and returns cited answers. Plans start at $89/month for a single chat widget. There is no WhatsApp, no forms, and no omnichannel inbox. The 10 tools below fix those gaps.
| Tool | Starting Price | AI Chatbot | Channels | Best For | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boei | $14/mo with AI | Included | Included | 50+ | Best overall value |
| Chatbase | $40/mo | Included | Yes (via integration) | 1 | Simple AI chat |
| Botpress | Free / pay-per-use | Included | Requires setup | 10+ | Developers |
| Tidio | Free / $29/mo | $0.50/conv | $59/mo extra | ~10 | E-commerce |
| Crisp | Free / $25/mo | $95/mo plan | $95/mo plan | ~6 | EU teams |
| Kommunicate | $40/mo | Included | Yes | ~5 | Mobile SDK |
| Landbot | $40/mo | Pro plan | $200+/mo | 3 | Visual flows |
| tawk.to | Free | $29/mo add-on | No | 1 | Zero budget |
| Intercom | $74/seat | $0.99/resolution | Higher plans | 6 | Enterprise |
| SiteGPT | $29/mo | Included | No | 1 | Simple website AI |
CustomGPT has earned its reputation for document-trained AI. So why are teams looking elsewhere? Four reasons come up again and again.
1. The price tag is steep. The starter plan costs $89/month. The business tier costs $449/month. That is more than most small businesses can justify. Cheaper tools now offer similar AI quality.
2. It only offers a chat widget. CustomGPT gives you one channel: a chat bubble on your website. No WhatsApp button, no contact form, no callback request, and no phone option. Visitors who prefer messaging apps or forms are stuck.
3. There is no omnichannel experience. Everything lives inside that single widget. You cannot meet customers where they already are. Modern support needs WhatsApp, Messenger, email, and SMS working together. CustomGPT does not support that.
4. The AI setup can be overkill. Maybe you just need a chatbot that answers FAQ questions from your help docs. Document chunking, citation tuning, and persona config are powerful but often unnecessary.
Where CustomGPT focuses on one AI chat widget, Boei gives you 50+ channels from one button on your website. That includes AI chatbot, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM, phone, callback forms, contact forms, FAQ widgets, Telegram, Signal, and dozens more. You pick which channels show up. Setup takes under five minutes on any platform.
The AI chatbot trains on your website content automatically. It reads your pages, learns your FAQ, and answers visitor questions with no manual uploads. Responses are fast and relevant. When the bot cannot answer, it hands off to WhatsApp, email, or your preferred channel.
What makes Boei stand out is the mix of price and breadth. At $14/month with AI ($8 base + $6 AI chatbot add-on), you get AI chat plus every other channel. That is roughly one-sixth of what CustomGPT charges for AI alone. Need live chat agents? Add them for $6/month each. Annual plan with a 7-day free trial, no credit card needed.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Businesses that want AI chat and multiple contact channels in one affordable tool.
Pricing: $8/month per domain for the widget + inbox + contacts + analytics. $6/month AI chatbot add-on (2,000 replies). $6/month per live chat agent. Annual plan. 7-day free trial, no credit card.
Chatbase is one of the most simple CustomGPT alternatives. You upload documents or paste a website URL, and it builds a GPT-powered chatbot in minutes. The interface is clean, the setup is minimal, and the AI responses are solid for FAQ-style questions. If you want a no-fuss AI chatbot on your site and nothing else, Chatbase delivers.
The platform supports GPT-5 and lets you tweak the chatbot's personality, tone, and instructions. You can also review conversation logs and retrain the bot when answers miss the mark. At $40/month, it undercuts CustomGPT while offering a similar core experience.
Chatbase recently added WhatsApp support via integration, but the core experience is still a single chat widget. No forms, no phone channel, and no multi-channel inbox. If a visitor does not want to use the chat bubble, they have limited options.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Solo founders and small sites that only need an AI chat bubble.
Pricing: Free tier available. Paid plans from $40/month.
Botpress is an open-source chatbot framework that gives developers full control over conversation logic. It has a visual flow builder combined with code-level access. You can build anything from a simple FAQ bot to a complex multi-step workflow with API calls and conditional logic. The built-in AI layer uses GPT models for natural language understanding.
The platform supports 10+ channels through integrations. These include web chat, WhatsApp (via Twilio), Messenger, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. The free tier is generous, with pay-per-use pricing that only kicks in at scale. For developer teams that want to own the chatbot logic end to end, Botpress is hard to beat.
The trade-off is complexity. Setting up WhatsApp requires configuring Twilio separately. Building flows takes developer time. Non-technical users will struggle. The learning curve is steeper than any other tool on this list.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Development teams that want full control over chatbot logic and flows.
Pricing: Free to start. Pay-per-use for AI and messaging volume.
Tidio combines live chat, AI chatbots, and basic automation into a platform built for online stores. Its Lyro AI assistant answers customer questions about products, shipping, and returns using your help content. The e-commerce integrations are strong. Native connections to Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce let the bot pull order data and product info directly.
WhatsApp is available but only as a paid add-on starting at $59/month on top of your plan. The AI chatbot charges $0.50 per conversation after your monthly limit. That can add up fast for high-traffic stores. The free plan includes 50 live chat conversations per month. That is enough to test but not enough for real use.
Tidio works well for e-commerce teams that want AI-assisted support tied to their product catalog. But the per-conversation AI fees and pricey WhatsApp add-on make it costlier than it first appears.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Online stores that need AI support tied to product and order data.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from $29/month. AI and WhatsApp cost extra.
Crisp is a European customer messaging platform with a clean, modern interface. It offers live chat, a shared inbox, a knowledge base, and chatbot automation. The platform is GDPR-compliant with data hosted in the EU. That makes it a natural pick for European businesses that care about data residency.
AI chatbot features and WhatsApp both need the $95/month Unlimited plan. Lower-tier plans give you live chat and basic automation without AI or messaging app channels. The chatbot builder uses visual flows rather than GPT-style document training. It works best for structured conversation paths.
For EU teams that want a polished messaging platform and can justify the $95 price, Crisp delivers. But if you want strong AI chatbot quality like CustomGPT, the AI layer is less advanced.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: European teams that need GDPR compliance and a shared inbox.
Pricing: Free plan available. Pro at $25/month. Unlimited at $95/month.
Kommunicate focuses on AI-powered customer support with a strong emphasis on mobile SDKs. It integrates with Dialogflow, IBM Watson, and OpenAI to power its chatbot layer. Native SDKs for iOS and Android make it one of the best options for AI chat inside a mobile app.
WhatsApp is available on all paid plans. That is a notable advantage over CustomGPT. The dashboard combines bot conversations and human agent handoff in a single view. At $40/month for the starter plan, it costs less than CustomGPT with more channel options.
The platform supports about five channels total: web chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, and mobile app chat. That is more than CustomGPT but far fewer than tools like Boei. The interface can also feel dated next to newer competitors.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Teams that need AI chatbot support inside mobile apps.
Pricing: From $40/month. 30-day free trial.
Landbot is a no-code chatbot builder with a drag-and-drop flow editor. You design conversation paths visually. You connect question nodes, condition branches, and integrations into a flowchart. The visual approach makes it easy to build complex bots without writing code.
AI features are available on the Pro plan. WhatsApp needs the Business plan at $200+/month. The platform supports three main channels: web chat, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Landbot is strongest for lead generation and qualification flows. You get tight control over the conversation path.
Pricing climbs quickly once you add WhatsApp and AI. The base plan at $40/month covers only web chat bots. For teams that want both AI and WhatsApp, Landbot becomes one of the priciest options on this list.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Marketing teams building lead qualification and survey bots with visual logic.
Pricing: From $40/month. WhatsApp from $200+/month.
tawk.to is the go-to free live chat tool. It offers unlimited agents, unlimited chat history, and a working live chat widget at no cost. The company makes money by selling live agent services and paid add-ons. If your budget is truly zero, tawk.to gets you a chat widget on your site today.
The AI chatbot is available as a $29/month add-on. It is less advanced than CustomGPT's document-trained AI but handles basic FAQ responses fine. There is no WhatsApp, no contact forms, and no multi-channel support. You get a live chat widget and that is it.
For businesses that just need human-staffed live chat with an optional AI layer, tawk.to is unbeatable on price. But if you want a true CustomGPT alternative with strong AI and multiple channels, it falls short.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Bootstrapped businesses that need live chat at zero cost.
Pricing: Free. AI add-on at $29/month.
Intercom is the enterprise standard for customer messaging. It offers a powerful shared inbox, AI chatbot (Fin), workflow automation, product tours, and a help center. Fin AI uses GPT-5 to answer questions from your help content. It resolves a large share of support tickets automatically.
The AI charges $0.99 per resolution. That adds up at scale, but you only pay when the bot actually solves a problem. WhatsApp, Messenger, and SMS are available on higher-tier plans. The platform supports about six channels. It integrates deeply with Salesforce and HubSpot.
At $74 per seat per month, Intercom costs more than CustomGPT for small teams. But for enterprise support ops that need reporting, SLAs, and team management, it is the industry leader.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Enterprise support teams with high ticket volumes and complex workflows.
Pricing: From $74/seat/month. AI at $0.99/resolution.
SiteGPT is the closest direct alternative to CustomGPT in approach. You point it at your website, it crawls your pages, and it creates a chatbot that answers questions based on your content. Setup takes minutes, the AI responses are accurate for website Q&A, and pricing starts at $29/month.
Like CustomGPT, SiteGPT is a single-channel tool. You get a chat widget and nothing else. No WhatsApp, no contact forms, and no multi-channel inbox. What SiteGPT does differently is keep things simple and the price lower. If you found CustomGPT's training pipeline overwhelming, SiteGPT strips it down to the basics.
The bot supports multiple languages and you can match it to your brand colors. For small businesses that just want their website content available through a chat interface, SiteGPT does the job at a third of CustomGPT's price.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Small businesses that want simple website-trained AI chat and nothing more.
Pricing: From $29/month. Free trial available.
tawk.to is free for live chat with an optional $29/month AI add-on. For AI chat included with multiple channels, Boei starts at $14/month with AI. That is roughly one-sixth of CustomGPT's $89/month entry price.
For website-based Q&A, most tools on this list use GPT-5 or similar models. They deliver comparable answer quality. Where CustomGPT excels is deep document training with PDF uploads and source citations. If you need that, Chatbase and SiteGPT come closest. If your content lives on your website, Boei's auto-trained AI handles it well.
CustomGPT is stronger at training AI on large document libraries: PDFs, knowledge bases, and internal docs. It gives you granular control over chunking, personas, and citation formatting. If your use case involves hundreds of technical documents and you need precise source attribution, CustomGPT's specialized pipeline has an edge.
Boei supports over 50 channels. That includes AI chatbot, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM, Telegram, Signal, phone, callback, contact forms, FAQ widgets, and many more. Botpress is next with around 10 channels through integrations. Tidio follows with roughly 10.
Yes, but availability varies widely. Boei and Kommunicate include WhatsApp on their standard plans. Botpress supports it through Twilio. Tidio charges $59/month extra. Crisp requires the $95/month plan. Landbot needs the $200+/month Business plan. Chatbase now offers WhatsApp via integration. tawk.to and SiteGPT do not offer WhatsApp at all.
Most tools on this list require no coding. Boei, Chatbase, SiteGPT, Tidio, and Crisp all offer copy-paste setup. Landbot uses a visual builder. The exception is Botpress. It is built for developers and requires technical knowledge.
CustomGPT builds a strong AI chatbot. But at $89/month for a single chat widget, it is hard to justify when alternatives offer more channels at lower prices. If you want AI chat alongside WhatsApp, forms, phone, and 50+ other channels for $14/month with AI, Boei is the most complete alternative. Start with the 7-day free trial and see the difference omnichannel makes.
Try Boei free today - no credit card required.
Article by
Ruben is the founder of Boei, with 12+ years of experience in conversion optimization. Former IT consultant at Ernst & Young and Accenture, where he helped product teams at Shell, ING, Rabobank, Aegon, NN, and AirFrance/KLM optimize their digital experiences. Now building tools to help businesses convert more website visitors into customers.
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