UChat vs Chatfuel

UChat and Chatfuel are both chatbot platforms that can be used to create chatbots on multiple channels, without using any code.

But which platform should you use? What are the differences between them? And which platform is better?

TL;DR:

UChat is the winner!

UChat has more chatbot elements, it is easier to translate your chatbot to other languages, has a direct integration with Dialogflow & OpenAI, 8 more channels to publish your chatbot on including web chat, with tons of native integrations, and more eCommerce possibilities(native integration with Shopify & woocommerce).

Regarding A.I & NLP, UChat have bring the native integration with dialogflow & OpenAI. With the openAI embedding, you will be able to set up smart chatbot to reply to your customers accurately in Facebook & Instagram comments, Facebook Groups & Facebook lives!

Besides that, UChat provides an extensive white-label feature. you can find more information about it here.

Here is a summary of the comparison between UChat & UChat 👇

Let’s find out in great details! 

If you don't want to wait, you can get your 14 days free trial with UChat below directly, no credit card required, access to all the pro features!

Here is a list of criteria we are going to use:

1. Interface

2. Chatbot elements

3. Users

4. Messages

5. AI & NLP

6. Channels

7. Integrations

8. Marketing

9. Pricing

10. Analytics & Tracking

11. eCommerce

12. Template & Cloning

13. Optimization

14. Support

15. Who is the winner?

1. Interface

UChat

When you log in at UChat, you will see a dashboard with the latest stats of your chatbots:

On the left-hand side, you have a menu with all the different options, such as your Bots (per channel), Analytics, Integrations, Templates Marketplace,Mini app Marketplace, eCommerce and much more.

When creating your chatbot with UChat, you can use the visual flow builder. With the flow builder, you can just drag and drop elements and create your chatbot flow:

If you click on one of the blocks, a sidebar will open up on the right where you can edit the contents of that block:

Furthermore, you can customize the theme of your flow builder and switch between different themes (which is a really unique feature):

Also, you can test out your chatbot flows by clicking on the Preview button before you actually put them live.

In general, the interface of UChat is really easy to use and it is also pretty easy to set up your chatbot.

Although it is really easy to use, the platform can feel quite overwhelming when first starting with it, because of the many features UChat has.

Luckily UChat have an extensive 700+ Youtube tutorial videos, detailed documented knowledge base & thriving 4K+ Facebook group to help you get up to speed with their platform.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel provides two types of builders: a Visual Flow Builder and a Block Builder:

So this gives you enough flexibility to build your chatbot flows.

One important thing to mention is that you cannot use the builders interchangeably. This means that the flows you build in the Visual Flow Builder are not visible in the Block builder and vice versa.

Besides, you can test the chatbot in the interface.

Also, as with UChat, you can also divide your flows over folders.

Here is the summary:

Winner: UChat

This is a small win for UChat.

Their platform is just a little bit easier to use and the flow builder is much more smoother.

2. Chatbot Element

UChat

UChat provides all the chatbot elements to create your chatbot.

And I mean this literally: they check every chatbot element in the list below!

This is unique because I haven’t seen this before with any other chatbot platforms.

Moreover, they also provide more technical elements such as getting data and showing that in a dynamic gallery. I won’t deep dive in these elements in this review, but just know that you can get a bit technical with UChat 😉

Also UChat support the WhatsApp catalog, WhatsApp single product/Multiple product messages, which allow you to build a native eCommerce shopping experience in WhatsApp channel.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel has also all the chatbot elements you need. They only don’t provide Files, Vertical lists and Location sharing, but these are no deal-breakers.

Just as UChat, they also provide Conditions and starting other flows in your chatbot.

Winner: UChat

This is a small win for UChat.

They both do great on the chatbot elements they have, but UChat has 3 more items: Vertical lists, attachments & location sharing.

3. Users

UChat

Within UChat, you can see all the users that talked to your chatbot on every channel in one overview:

If you click on one of your users you can see the detailed information of that user, such as their name, custom fields and tags that have been added:

With UChat, you can add custom fields and tags to users. Then you can use that user information to condition in your chatbot flows, broadcasts and sequences.

Likewise, you can create your own segments based on custom fields and tags, and use these segments inside your chatbot.

Chatfuel

With Chatfuel it is really easy to add custom fields to specific users. Based on those custom fields, you can send messages to specific user segments.

In Chatfuel you can see all your users of your chatbot in the “People” tab.

When you click on one of the users, you can see all the information related to a user in a pop-up:

A disadvantage of Chatfuel is that you cannot add tags to users. This, however, can be solved by using custom fields as tags. You can just make a custom field and set the value to “Yes” or “No”, so this isn’t a really big deal. 

Summary:

Winner: UChat

This is a small win for UChat.

With UChat ticking off all the boxes, Chatfuel misses one.

The reason why I think of it as a small win is because the Tags feature can easily be solved by using custom fields as tags.

4. Messages

UChat

With UChat, you can send broadcasts to your complete audience or filter down on specific users:

Also, UChat have offer broadcast API, which you can easily automate the broadcast by Tag, user ID or segment.

Moreover, you can also send sequences to your users whereby you send messages to them with a certain delay in between:

Also, as mentioned before, you can use conditions in your chatbot flows. This means you can use “if this, then that” logic in your chatbot flows, which allows you to create a personalized chatbot experience for your users.

Furthermore, and this is one of the best features of UChat, you can create a chatbot in any language. And the best part of this it that is really easy to do so.

What you do, is that you just create your chatbot flows in your main language (for example, English). Then, you can add another language inside your chatbot settings and easily translate all the texts:

Once you have done that, your chatbot is fully translated! And inside your chatbot flows you can just ask the language of the user and set the right language for that user in UChat. Really great feature!

Chatfuel

Chatfuel provides broadcasts, sequences, and even the subscribing/unsubscribing from sequences.

It is really easy to make a sequence of messages in Chatfuel. You can see the complete sequence of all the messages you want to send in one overview:

Moreover, it is possible to make a chatbot in any language, but it is not easy to translate the chatbot to different languages. Just like with UChat, this comes with a lot of copy-pasting.

Winner: UChat

UChat wins in this category, because you can use their platform to easily translate your chatbot to other languages, and UChat offer easy to use broadcast API.

Regarding the other features: UChat and Chatfuel do equally well.

5. AI & NLP

UChat

The AI & NLP of UChat is pretty simple. You can group keywords together and create a reply for it. This can be a chatbot flow or just a simple text response:

What is also pretty cool is that UChat can recognize images, stickers, locations and more using their keyword recognition:

UChat offers native integration with Dialogflow & openAI. Also, UChat support you to train your openAI chatbot with your own business data through embedding.

This will open the whole world to implement the A.I powered chatbot to server real business, because you will have the flexibility to offer accurate, relevant response back to the user, and migrate to live chat agent when it's necessary.

Chatfuel

With Chatfuel it is really the same as with UChat. Your chatbot can only recognize keywords and based on those keywords, give a certain response.

This is how it looks in Chatfuel:

Also, Chatfuel doesn’t have a direct integration with DialogFlow.

Winner: UChat

UChat provides a direct integration with Dialogflow & openAI, while Chatfuel doesn’t.

Therefore, they win huge in this category.

6. Channels

UChat

With UChat, you can create chatbots on 13 different channels:

1. Your website

2. Facebook Messenger

3. Instagram

4. WhatsApp

5. Telegram

6. SMS

7. Slack

8. Google Business

9. Voice

10. WeChat

11. Line

12. Viber

13. VK (Russian version of Facebook)

This allows you to create an omnichannel chatbot experience for your customers.

If this is not enough, you can also add your channel using the Custom API Channel integration.

Not only UChat allow you to create chatbot in all these channels, you can also unify the users coming from different channel through Single-Sign on(SSO). You can find more information here.

Chatfuel

With Chatfuel, you can create a chatbot on your website, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Unfortunately, you cannot merge contacts across channels.

Winner: UChat

This is a clear win for UChat. They provide 8 channels more than Chatfuel. and also you can unify the user across different channel through Single-Sign on(SSO).

7. Integration

UChat

UChat has its own live chat, which is the most important integration of any chatbot builder. This live chat also comes with an iOS and Android app, so you can answer customer questions while you are on the go.

Besides their own live chat, they also have live chat integrations with Intercom, JivoChat, Drift, Freshchat and Front or any other platforms support webhook.

Moreover, they provide over 30 integrations with other software applications, such as:

• Google Sheets

• Integromat/Make/Pablly connect

• Calendly

• Go High Level

• Google Map

• Gmail

• Mailchimp

• Slack

And much more!

If this is not enough, you can also use webhooks inside your chatbot and integrate with other systems for the live chat transfer.

Furthermore, UChat also has its own Mini-App Store that allows third-party developers to create their own apps inside UChat and share them with others (free or paid). Currently, the Mini-App Store has 72 apps that you can use inside your UChat chatbot:

The authentication of the mini app support API key & oAuth v2.0, which should cover most of the 3rd party service.

And when you build the mini app, you can easily build the integration(actions or triggers) through visual drag & drop flow builder.

Here are a few actions supported for you to build integration:

• External request

• Javascript function

• Set variable value

• Clear variable value

• JSON operation

• OpenAI

• Fire trigger

• Get one time URL

• Set Action Failed

After the mini app is published, you can sell the mini app to our audience, and earn 70% commission from the sales.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel has a built-in live chat, just like UChat.

In addition to this, they also provide direct integrations with:

• Zapier

• Make (formerly known as Integromat)

• Google Sheets

• Calendly

• ChatGPT

• Stripe

If that’s not enough, you can also create your own API calls inside their flow builder and get or send data to other applications.

Winner: UChat

This is a small win for UChat.

While both platforms provide live chat, various integrations with other platforms and an app store, UChat does it a little bit better.

Besides their own live chat, they also provide integrations with other live chat applications and it is really easy to create your own mini-app by using their flow builder (which is not possible with Chatfuel).

8. Marketing

UChat

Regarding the marketing possibilities, UChat does really well.

On Facebook, you can automatically reply to comments, connect your chatbot to Facebook Ads, use the One-Time Notification, send Sponsored Messages and use Recurring Notifications.

On Instagram, you can also automatically reply to comments, reply when somebody mentions your account in their Instagram story and check if somebody replied to your own Instagram story.

Moreover, with UChat you can add a Facebook Messenger and a native widget to your website.

With their native website widget, you can create a website widget and change it to the branding of your own website by changing the avatar, colors and even the font of the widget:

This widget can be displayed as a small bubble, full page, chat window inside your page or even a pop-up.

Additionally, you can also send a QR-Code inside your web chat and continue the same conversation on a different channel. For example, if a user starts a conversation and needs to go at a certain time, you can continue the conversation on another channel (such as WhatsApp). This is an amazing and unique feature, which I haven’t seen in any other chatbot builder yet.

You can also trigger different greeting messages per page, and have the pre-chat form to collect the lead information before the user initiate the conversation.

Chatfuel

Just like UChat, Chatfuel provides all the marketing possibilities you need.

You can add a Facebook Messenger widget to your website and send pro-active messages based on the URL that users are on. Moreover, you can also create your own landing pages with your Facebook Messenger chatbot.

On Facebook, you can:

• Create Ref URLs that go to a specific chatbot flow

• Automatically reply to Facebook Comments

• Send one-time notifications

• Send Recurring Notifications

• Connect a Facebook ad to your Messenger chatbot

• Send Sponsored Messages via Facebook Messenger

With Instagram, you can:

• Automatically reply to Instagram comments

• Send replies to Instagram users who mentioned your Instagram handle in their Instagram story

And with WhatsApp, you can send WhatsApp message templates.

The only drawback is that Chatfuel doesn’t provide a native website widget.

Winner: UChat

Again, a win for UChat.

Both platforms provide the same features regarding Facebook and Instagram, but UChat also has a native website widget.

Because of this, UChat wins!

9. Pricing

UChat

UChat provides a free plan that includes 1 chatbot on 1 channel, 200 users and all basic features of the platform.

This plan also comes with a 14-day free trial for all Pro features. This is great when you want to determine whether UChat is the right fit for you.

If you want to create more chatbots or more users, you need to upgrade to the Business plan, which costs $10 per month. This plan comes with 1 chatbot (which can be an omnichannel chatbot), 1000 bot users, 5 members and all Pro features:

If you want more chatbots, members or users you can simply add those at some extra costs:

UChat also provides a Money-Back Guarantee for 7 days. So you can safely buy their Pro plan, test out their features within 7 days and if it isn’t the right fit for you, you can just ask your money back.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel provides a free plan that gives you access to all the features as long as you stay under 50 subscribers.

The next plan is 15 dollars per month for 500 subscribers and goes up with the number of subscribers you have. 1K subscribers is 20$ per month and 2K subscribers is 30$ per month.

Winner: No winner

There is no winner in this category.

Both platforms provide a really good price for the value of the platform.

10. Analytics

UChat

UChat provides a basic analytics dashboard that shows how many users talked to your chatbot, how many messages were received and how many messages were sent:

Besides that, it also provides information on Gender, Language and the different timezones of your users:

Moreover, inside the flow builder, you can see to how many people a certain message was sent:

Because UChat is the platform that also support you to transfer the conversation to the live chat support, so you can also find the live chat agent performance report like below:

In the report, you can easily find the KPIs like how many conversations assigned, how many conversations marked as done, and the average response time, average resolve time.

Also, UChat allow you to send custom event in the chatbot automation, and build custom report with the custom conversion data.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel provides a clear dashboard showing you the number of users, user retention, user activity, popular blocks, popular buttons and popular messages:

 Moreover, it can also show the user input the chatbot did not know an answer to, which allows you to easily improve the answer of your chatbot:

Next to this, you can also see particular statistics of your sequences:

And just as with UChat, you can see the delivered rate, seen rate and click rate of elements in your chatbot flow:

There are only three things it does not have: Conversion rate (but still possible to track certain actions), Fall Back Rate (could be a good improvement) and custom dashboards/reports (not always necessary).

Winner: UChat

This is a small win for UChat.

They provide more analytics inside their platform than UChat.

11. eCommerce

UChat

This is also a great feature of UChat. Within UChat, you can create your own products and directly sell these products inside your chatbot:

With this feature, you don’t even need to use a third-party eCommerce platform.

However, if you do, UChat also provides a direct integration with Shopify and with WooCommerce, which allows you to get customer information, search for products, get abandoned carts and sell & sync order directly to your Shopify & Woocommerce store across all the channels UChat support.

You can learn more about the integration with Shopify with UChat here.

You can learn more about the integration with Woocommerce with UChat here.

Furthermore, UChat also provides direct integrations with Paypal, Stripe, you can create dynamic checkout links to sell one time or subscription right in all the channel UChat support.

Also, you can find the mini app integration with Razopar, Billplz, Bizappay and Hitpay so that you can let customers pay directly inside the chatbot.

Moreover, UChat also provides the WhatsApp Product Catalogue Message, which allows you to create a smooth checkout experience directly on WhatsApp. This is also pretty unique, because I haven’t seen this yet with any other chatbot platform.

You can find the step by step training tutorial with template provided through link below

Chatfuel

Chatfuel provides an abandoned cart integration with Shopify. This allows you to send a message to users who put a product in their cart, but didn’t finish their order.

Moreover, it is possible to let users buy products directly within the chatbot, using their Stripe integration.

Just like UChat, Chatfuel also doesn’t have a WooCommerce integration.

Winner:UChat

This is a win for UChat.

UChat has a built-in eCommerce features, more integrations with payment providers and a WooCommerce integration (while Chatfuel doesn’t).

12.Template & Cloning

UChat

UChat provides 140+ templates that you can use to get started with creating your chatbot.

With UChat it is also possible to create your own templates and share them with others.

Moreover, you can duplicate your chatbot flows and chatbot elements inside the visual flow builder, so that you can easily reuse them.

UChat also support you to set different permission of you template.

UChat also support you to autoupdate/remote update the template for the user who installed, and also remote manage the installations.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel provides 21 free templates which you can directly install to make your chatbot.

You can also create these templates yourself and easily share them with others using the Share Flow feature in Chatfuel.

Moreover, it is possible to duplicate your chatbot flows and chatbot elements to make your chatbot faster.

Winner: No winner

No winner for this category.

With both chatbot platforms, you can use pre-built templates, create templates yourself and duplicate your chatbot flows and elements.

13. Optimization

UChat

Within UChat, you can use the Split element to perform A/B testing on certain messages:

Chatfuel

It is possible to do A/B testing in Chatfuel, but it is not in the free plan. So you need to upgrade to a “Pro” plan if you want to unlock this feature.

Winner: No Winner

Also, No Winner!

They both provide A/B testing in their platform, so they are equally good.

14. Support

UChat

UChat has extensive documentation and Youtube tutorials on how you can use their platform.

Besides that, they also provide customer support via email and via their Facebook Community. for UChat partners, UChat offers live chat support & dedicate success manager support.

Chatfuel

Just as UChat, Chatfuel provides tutorials on how to make chatbots with their platform.

Also, they have good documentation and customer support.

Just like UChat, they also have a large Facebook community (75.000 members) in which all people are willing to help you when you get stuck.

They also have proper documentation and good customer support.

What I also love about UChat is that they have a large Facebook community (35.000 members) in which you can ask all kinds of questions and learn more about the platform.

Winner - No Winner

And again, No Winner.

They do equally good on this one by providing extensive information about their platform and having a huge community of members willing to help each other.

Which one is the winner?

UChat is the Winner overall.

UChat has more chatbot elements, it is easier to translate your chatbot to other languages, has a direct integration with Dialogflow & openAI, 8 more channels to publish your chatbot on, more integrations, a native website widget and more eCommerce possibilities.

Besides that, UChat provides an extensive whitelabel feature. It's a perfect solution if you are digital marketing agency, and want to run chatbot business under your own brand.

But this doesn’t mean Chatfuel is a bad platform.