A Chatbase alternative with your team behind the bot
Chatbase builds an AI agent from your content and charges in message credits, with its helpdesk inbox from the Basic plan. SupportVia answers from your own pages too, and every plan includes the shared inbox where your team takes over in one click, with a note on what the customer needs. Plans count AI conversations, not message credits, from $29 a month.
Try it on your own website
Free for 7 days or 50 AI conversations, no card needed. Live in about ten minutes.
How Chatbase charges, as of October 2026
- Hobby: $40 a month, or $32 billed yearly. 700 message credits a month, 1 AI agent, 2 members.
- Basic: $150, or $120 billed yearly. 4,000 credits, 3 members, and the helpdesk inbox.
- Business: $500, or $400 billed yearly. 15,000 credits, 5 members.
- Extra credits: $40 per 1,000, added automatically below a level you set.
- Removing “Powered by Chatbase”: $1,188 a year. An extra AI agent: $300 a year.
As of October 2026. Prices change, so check the vendor’s own page before you decide. Sources: Chatbase pricing, Chatbase docs: live chat action, Chatbase docs: sources
When the bot can’t answer
Chatbase’s live chat action hands a conversation to its helpdesk inbox when the AI decides the customer wants a person, following instructions you write. Its pricing page lists that inbox from the Basic plan.
In SupportVia, the inbox is on every plan, and four things send a chat to it:
- The customer asks for a person, at any time.
- Nothing you’ve written covers the question, so the AI says it isn’t sure and offers your team.
- The AI decides a person should take it, and leaves a note on what the customer needs.
- An error or a timeout: the customer gets an apology and the chat goes to people.
What your team sees
The inbox has folders for what needs a person, your own open chats, the ones with the team, the ones the AI is handling, leads and closed chats. Take over, hand back to the assistant, or close. Once a teammate replies, the AI stops; a reply it was still writing is dropped, until you hand the chat back. While the customer waits for a person, the chat asks for their name and email, and the conversation waits in your inbox as a lead.
Reading your website
Add your address and SupportVia reads your sitemap, or follows your links, and keeps the pages that help: home, services, prices, help, policies and contact first. Blog, jobs, cart, sign-in and error pages stay out. It shows what it kept and what it left out before importing, and a skipped page can be added by its link.
Sites built with JavaScript, such as React or Vue, are opened in a headless browser so their pages are read too. The import also picks up your name, logo and brand color, and writes a greeting and starter questions for you to edit.
Several websites
One snippet serves every website in a workspace. Each website gets its own look, company information and knowledge, and can share the workspace’s Q&As and notes. Teammates can be limited to the websites they look after. Pro is sized for up to 15 websites; write to us to set it up.
Chatbase and SupportVia, side by side
| Question | Chatbase | SupportVia |
|---|---|---|
| How it’s priced | Plans from $40 a month, or $32 billed yearly | Three plans: Starter $29, Growth $79, Pro $199 a month. Teammates included (2, 5, unlimited) |
| How the AI is charged | Message credits per month; extra $40 per 1,000 | AI conversations in the plan: 150, 500 or 1,500 a month. Past the allowance, new chats go to your team. Once we agree a limit with you, you can switch on extra AI conversations at $0.30 to $0.40 each, up to a monthly cap you set. Chats your team answers aren’t counted. Your own AI account works on every plan (up to 1,000 conversations a month on Starter, up to 5,000 on Growth and no monthly cap on Pro) and never uses your AI conversations |
| Handing the chat to a person | Live chat action into its helpdesk inbox, listed from the Basic plan | On every plan. The customer asks, the AI offers a person when nothing it knows covers the question, or an error sends the chat over. A note goes with it, and once a teammate replies the AI stops |
| Shows where an answer came from | Not covered by the pages we checked | Up to five “Read more” links under an answer, to the pages it used |
| Several websites | One AI agent per plan; an extra agent is $300 a year | One snippet for every website in a workspace, each with its own look and knowledge. Plans are sized for up to 2, 5 or 15 websites; write to us to set yours up |
| Currency | Its pricing page lists dollars | US dollars or rupees (₹), plus taxes where they apply. Hosted in the United States |
| Free plan or trial | 7-day trial on paid plans; no free plan listed | 7 days or 50 AI conversations free, whichever comes first, no card. No free plan |
| What it learns from | Your website, Q&As and files such as PDFs | Website pages, Q&As and notes; no file uploads |
| Your own AI account | Not covered by the pages we checked | On every plan (up to 1,000 conversations a month on Starter, up to 5,000 on Growth and no monthly cap on Pro): OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, OpenRouter and more, or any OpenAI-compatible API; it never uses your AI conversations |
As of October 2026. Prices change, so check the vendor’s own page before you decide. Sources: Chatbase pricing, Chatbase docs: live chat action, Chatbase docs: sources
“Not covered by the pages we checked” means the vendor’s pages we read didn’t say, not that it can’t. Our guide to chatbots that give wrong answers sets out the rules behind SupportVia’s column.
How to switch from Chatbase
- Start free and add your website. Check the import preview: what it kept, what it left out, and the logo and color it found.
- Ask the questions your customers ask in the playground. Nothing there is stored or counted. Add Q&As and notes for anything missing.
- Remove the Chatbase embed code from your site and paste SupportVia’s one line in its place.
The install guides have the exact steps for WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and any other website. Your Chatbase history stays with Chatbase: SupportVia doesn’t import chats from other tools.
Choose Chatbase if
- You want a bot first, with models from several AI companies, file uploads and actions.
- You want the same agent on other channels: its pricing page lists WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.
- You don’t need a team inbox on your first plan.
Other Chatbase alternatives
Other tools on this list that Chatbase’s buyers often look at, as of October 2026. Each page has the figures and sources.
- Tidio: Live chat and an AI agent in one tool, with a free plan.
- Intercom: Large teams that want AI answers inside a full helpdesk.
- Crisp: A shared inbox with AI credits in each plan.
- tawk.to: Free live chat, with AI as a paid add-on.
- SiteGPT: A bot built from your website, priced by messages, with an inbox from Growth.
What SupportVia doesn’t do
- No channels beyond the chat on your website: no WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, SMS or email.
- No mobile app for your team. The inbox runs in the browser, with desktop alerts and the waiting count in the tab.
- No ticketing, tags, canned replies or assignment rules.
- No actions: the AI answers and hands over. It doesn’t book, refund or look up orders.
- No PDF or file uploads: knowledge is your website’s pages, Q&As and notes.
- No white label or custom domains.
Chatbase alternative: questions people ask
Can I upload PDFs?
No. SupportVia learns from your website’s pages, plus Q&As and titled notes you write. Paste what’s in a PDF into a note if customers ask about it.
Can I use my own model?
Yes, on every plan and during the free trial: up to 1,000 conversations a month on Starter, up to 5,000 on Growth and no monthly cap on Pro. Connect OpenAI, Claude, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek, xAI or Together AI, or any OpenAI-compatible API. The connection is tested before it’s saved, and its answers never use your plan’s AI conversations.
Do messages count both ways?
No messages are counted. The published plans count AI conversations: a chat the AI replies to counts once, for up to 30 of the AI’s replies.
Read next
Answer every customer. Start free today.
Add your website, check what it learned, and paste one line. Your team sees the first conversation in the inbox.