Live chat, helpdesk and Lyro AI agent for small and mid-size ecommerce businesses.
Botpress vs CustomGPT.ai
Features, pricing, strengths and trade-offs — and which one fits your situation.
The verdict
Summary
Botpress is best for teams building custom, multi-step AI agents that need logic, integrations and multiple channels, while CustomGPT.ai is best for businesses that need accurate, citation-backed answers from large document collections. Only Botpress offers live chat inbox. Botpress has a high learning curve, compared with low for CustomGPT.ai. Botpress has a free plan, while CustomGPT.ai offers a free trial.
Which should you choose?
Choose Botpress if…
- You need teams building custom, multi-step AI agents that need logic, integrations and multiple channels
- Live chat inbox matters to you
- You're one of: developers and technical product teams, agencies building bots for clients, companies needing multi-channel ai agents
- You want a free plan (CustomGPT.ai only has a trial)
Choose CustomGPT.ai if…
- You need businesses that need accurate, citation-backed answers from large document collections
- You're one of: knowledge-heavy businesses, publishers and educators, internal knowledge base teams
- You want something quicker to learn
- Strong focus on answer accuracy with cited sources
At a glance
| Botpress | CustomGPT.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Teams building custom, multi-step AI agents that need logic, integrations and multiple channels | Businesses that need accurate, citation-backed answers from large document collections |
| Free plan | Yes | Trial only |
| Starting price | From $150/mo | From $99/mo |
| Learning curve | High | Low |
| Platforms | Web, API | Web, API |
| Ideal for | Developers and technical product teams, Agencies building bots for clients, Companies needing multi-channel AI agents | Knowledge-heavy businesses, Publishers and educators, Internal knowledge base teams |
Feature comparison
| Botpress | CustomGPT.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Train on your website / docs | Yes | Yes |
| Human handoff | Yes | — |
| Website widget | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Limited | |
| Instagram / Messenger | Yes | — |
| Live chat inbox | Yes | No |
| Multilingual | Yes | 90+ languages |
| Takes actions / API calls | Yes | — |
| Analytics | Yes | Yes |
IncludedLimited / higher plansNot available— Not confirmed
Security & enterprise
| Botpress | CustomGPT.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Business / enterprise plan | Yes | Yes |
| SSO (SAML / OIDC) | Enterprise plan | Enterprise plan |
| SCIM user provisioning | — | Enterprise plan |
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| HIPAA (BAA available) | — | — |
| GDPR DPA | Yes | Yes |
| Data residency options | — | — |
| No training on your data | — | — |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes |
| Admin controls | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
From each vendor's security documentation. "—" = not confirmed. What to ask vendors · Compare all tools
What each tool does
Botpress
Botpress is a platform for building LLM-powered agents with a visual Studio, knowledge bases, tables and code hooks. Agents can be deployed to webchat, WhatsApp, Slack, Instagram and other channels, with human handoff handled in Botpress Desk. It is used by developers, agencies and product teams that need more control than a simple FAQ bot.
Key features- Visual Studio with autonomous agent nodes and workflows
- Knowledge base built from websites, files and tables
- Botpress Tables for structured data storage
- Human handoff through the Botpress Desk helpdesk
- Integration hub (Zendesk, HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack)
- Custom JavaScript code and API calls inside flows
CustomGPT.ai
CustomGPT.ai is a no-code retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) platform that builds AI agents from websites, sitemaps, documents, videos and audio. Answers include citations and are restricted to your content to reduce hallucinations. It is used by businesses, publishers and internal knowledge teams with large or varied content libraries.
Key features- Ingests websites, sitemaps and 1,400+ document formats
- Indexes YouTube videos and audio files
- Citations and anti-hallucination controls on every plan
- Support for 90+ languages
- RAG API for building custom apps
- Connectors for Google Drive, Notion, Confluence, Zendesk and HubSpot
Pricing
Botpress
Free plan (25 conversations); paid from $150/mo billed annually (Plus)
CustomGPT.ai
No free plan; 7-day free trial; paid from $99/mo ($89/mo billed annually) Standard
Prices last checked September 2026. Plans change often — confirm on each vendor's site.
Pros and cons
Botpress
Strengths- Flexible enough for complex, multi-step agents with custom logic
- Large integration hub and many deployment channels
- Free plan includes webchat and a few agents for testing
- Supports custom code and API calls for real actions
- Steeper learning curve than template-style chatbot builders
- Usage-based AI spend on top of the plan can be hard to predict
- Team features such as roles and routing are limited to higher tiers
- Voice channel is only available on Enterprise
Not ideal for: Small businesses wanting a website FAQ bot live in minutes may find simpler tools like Chatbase or Tidio faster to set up.
CustomGPT.ai
Strengths- Strong focus on answer accuracy with cited sources
- Handles very large content volumes and many file types
- API access included from the entry plan
- Wide language support
- No free plan, only a short trial
- No native WhatsApp or Messenger channel; requires Make or Zapier setup
- No built-in live chat inbox for human agents
- Entry plan keeps only 7 days of analytics history
Not ideal for: Teams wanting a combined chatbot and live chat helpdesk should look at Tidio or Intercom Fin instead.
Integrations
Botpress
CustomGPT.ai
FAQ
What is the main difference between Botpress and CustomGPT.ai?
Botpress is built for teams building custom, multi-step AI agents that need logic, integrations and multiple channels; CustomGPT.ai is built for businesses that need accurate, citation-backed answers from large document collections. Key differences: Botpress offers live chat inbox.
Is Botpress or CustomGPT.ai cheaper?
Botpress starts from $150/mo and CustomGPT.ai starts from $99/mo (as of September 2026). On entry price, CustomGPT.ai is cheaper — but compare what each plan includes, since limits differ. Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.
Do Botpress and CustomGPT.ai have free plans?
Botpress has a free plan, while CustomGPT.ai offers a free trial.
Which is easier to use, Botpress or CustomGPT.ai?
CustomGPT.ai is generally quicker to learn (Botpress: high, CustomGPT.ai: low learning curve).
What are good alternatives to Botpress and CustomGPT.ai?
Other chatbots tools worth comparing include Tidio, Chatbase and ManyChat.
