A custom-built chatbot or a chatbot platform?

You are ready: you are going to take your webshop to the next level with your own chatbot for the ultimate customer experience. Now the chatbot still has to be built, but how do you do that? Will you develop a chatbot yourself, or choose a chatbot platform and customer service software? In this article you will find out the right choice for your company. Read on for all the pros and cons in a row.

Why start with a chatbot?

Chatbots streamline contact between your customers and your service team. The digital employees offer new possibilities for having more interaction with your website visitors. It is therefore no surprise that 80 percent of marketers plan to deploy chatbots in the coming year. Chatbots not only offer your customers a 24/7 service, they also create new possibilities for turning your website visitors into loyal customers. On top of that, chatbots save service and operational costs. According to research by Juniper, customer service chatbots will save over 11 billion dollars in costs in 2025. Reason enough to start with your own digital employee! But where do you begin? In the overview below you can read the difference between building a chatbot yourself and a chatbot platform.

The pros and cons of a chatbot platform

With chatbot platforms you build your own chatbot using existing technology. Some chatbot platforms have a simple menu in which you drag easily between the options. That kind of menu is also called a ‘drag-and-drop’ menu. With other chatbot platforms you need more technical knowledge, and you cannot make a chatbot yourself straight away. When you do not need programming knowledge for a platform, no developers are involved in building your chatbot. The biggest advantage of a chatbot platform is its user-friendliness. Below are all the pros and cons in a row.

What are the advantages of a chatbot platform?

• Easy to use - Chatbot platforms are handy for developing simple but advanced chatbots for any company.

• Social integrations - With a chatbot platform it is possible to connect your chatbot to your favourite social channels, such as Facebook Messenger.

• Integrations for tooling - A chatbot platform also makes it easy to integrate your chatbot with your own systems: think of your email or a CRM system.

• Guidance from experts - When you build a chatbot through a chatbot platform, external guidance is often offered. Someone who knows the software well walks through the building process with you: a Customer Success Manager, for example. This CSM makes sure you make sensible choices when building your chatbot.

• Faster than fast - With a chatbot platform your chatbot is often live within a few weeks.

A few disadvantages of a chatbot platform

• Limited possibilities - When you build by means of a chatbot platform you are limited to the options and features the platform offers.

• Not in your own branding - With some chatbot platforms you are limited to the platform's designs. This differs per provider: there are also chatbot platforms where you can upload your own website widget, for example.

The pros and cons of custom-built chatbots

When you choose to build a chatbot yourself, you are logically not ‘tied’ to a chatbot platform. So you choose a set of functions yourself that are ideal for your company. Such chatbots work as a server-side application that implements chat functions through its own API. To build your own custom-built chatbot, you need a development team. When your chatbot is going to use artificial intelligence, the development team uses open NLP tools. This is a separate service; building a chatbot with artificial intelligence is therefore often pricier than a chatbot without artificial intelligence. So bear the development costs of your chatbot in mind when you choose to build it (or have it built) manually.

What are the advantages of custom-built chatbots?

• Extensive possibilities - It is possible to work complex features and functionalities into your chatbot.

• Your development team is there for you - When you have hired your own development team to build your chatbot, they help you with new requests straight away. The focus is on your wishes.

• A one-of-a-kind chatbot - By building your own chatbot, your digital employee is unique. You hold all the strings yourself and adapt it fully to your own branding.

The disadvantages of building manually

• Technical knowledge required - Without programming knowledge, no chatbot. When building a chatbot manually you therefore have to have the right knowledge, or hire a team.

• High development costs - The big disadvantage of building a chatbot manually is the high development costs. These costs arise when hiring a third party to build the chatbot for you.

• Time-consuming process - Building a custom-built chatbot is a time-consuming process. This is because a framework has to be made, a service infrastructure and a hosting setup.

Which option is suitable for your company?

Building a chatbot manually offers many options: the chatbot is then built entirely to your wishes. The build process takes longer and is pricier, but your chatbot does have exactly the features you consider important. A chatbot platform has user-friendliness, speed and affordability as its biggest advantages. Through a chatbot platform your chatbot is ready within a few weeks, and the only thing you have to do is enter your chatbot's knowledge.

Not finished reading?

Read on in our whitepaper: "Benefits of chatbots".