Chatbase alternative for teams that sell and support on their website
Chatbase alternative and Chatbase competitor with human handoff at one flat price
InChat is an AI chatbot that trains on your website, docs and PDFs, answers visitors around the clock and passes the chat to a real person in a shared inbox when it should. You pay for AI conversations in the plan, not for message credits that shrink every time you pick a stronger model.
- $49/mo
- AI agent, handoff and 3 team members
- 500
- AI conversations on Starter, not replies
- $0
- extra to remove our branding
The short answer
Chatbase sells message credits: $40 a month for 700 on Hobby, $150 for 4,000 on Standard and $500 for 15,000 on Pro, where one credit is one AI reply on a basic model and 2 to 6 credits on stronger ones. Live chat handoff to its help desk starts on Standard, and removing the Chatbase branding is a $99 a month add-on. InChat is a Chatbase alternative that counts whole AI conversations instead: $49 a month for 500 conversations, 3 team members, human handoff and no branding, $149 for 2,000 and 10 people, $499 for unlimited.
Compare
Chatbase vs InChat, what the same setup costs each month
Four common setups priced from each vendor's public pricing page with monthly billing. A conversation on a website chatbot usually runs several AI replies, so we assume 4 replies per conversation. Chatbase charges a credit per reply on basic models, and 2 to 6 credits on stronger ones, so heavier models push the Chatbase column up.
| Setup | Chatbase (plan + add-ons) | InChat | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 people, about 300 AI conversations (1,200 replies), your own branding | Hobby $40 includes 700 credits, one 1,000 credit top-up $40, remove branding $99, so $179 | Starter: $49 with 500 AI conversations, 3 team members and no InChat branding | About $130 less |
| 3 people, live chat handoff to a human, about 800 conversations | Standard $150 is the first plan with the help desk and covers 4,000 credits, so $150, or $249 with branding removed | Plus: $149 with 2,000 AI conversations, 10 team members and handoff | About the same price, $100 less once branding is removed, and 7 more seats |
| 3 people, 500 conversations on a model that costs 3 credits per reply | 6,000 credits needed: Standard $150 plus two 1,000 credit top-ups $80, so $230 | Starter: $49, conversations are not metered by model | About $181 less |
| 5 people, about 2,000 conversations (8,000 replies), your own branding | Pro $500 includes 15,000 credits, remove branding $99, so $599 | Plus: $149 with 2,000 AI conversations and 10 team members | About $450 less |
Chatbase prices checked on chatbase.co/pricing in September 2026. Free plan with 50 message credits and 1 seat; Hobby $40 a month (700 credits, 2 seats, 10 MB of training data); Standard $150 (4,000 credits, 3 seats, 20 MB, help desk, voice, API); Pro $500 (15,000 credits, 5 seats, 40 MB); Enterprise quoted. Yearly billing takes 20% off. Add-ons: credits $40 per 1,000, extra agent $25 a month, remove branding $99 a month. InChat yearly billing is $24, $74 and $249 a month.
Why teams switch
What changes when you switch from Chatbase
Conversations, not credits
A visitor who asks five follow-up questions is one conversation in InChat, not five to thirty credits. You pick a plan by how many people chat with you, which is a number you already know from your analytics.
A human inbox on the entry plan
Human handoff with agent routing, canned replies and chat history come with Starter at $49. On Chatbase, live chat handoff to its help desk starts with the $150 Standard plan.
Your brand, not ours
The widget carries your name, colors and avatar from Starter up. There is no separate monthly fee to remove our logo.
Answers with the source attached
InChat answers from your pages, docs and uploaded PDFs and shows the page it used, so visitors can check the answer and your team can fix the source when an answer is thin.
Proactive triggers from day one
Open the chat after time on page, at a scroll depth or on exit intent to catch buyers on pricing and checkout pages before they leave.
Room for a real team
Starter includes 3 team members, Plus 10 and Pro unlimited, plus an omnichannel inbox for email, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram on Plus.
How it works
Move from Chatbase in one afternoon
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1
Paste your website URL
InChat reads your public pages, FAQ and help center. Upload the same PDFs and docs you trained your Chatbase agent on, such as return policies, spec sheets or onboarding guides.
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2
Test against your real questions
Export the top questions from your Chatbase chat logs and ask them here. Where an answer is thin, add a page or a short instruction and ask again.
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3
Swap the embed code
Remove the Chatbase script or iframe and paste the InChat script tag before the closing body tag. On Shopify and WordPress it is the same one line.
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4
Invite the people who take handoffs
Your team answers escalated chats in the shared inbox with the full transcript and a summary, so nobody asks the visitor to repeat themselves.
What is the best alternative to Chatbase?
The best alternative to Chatbase is the one that matches how your chats end. If most conversations should be answered by AI and the rest handed to a person on your team, pick a tool that includes both in one price: InChat covers 500 AI conversations, human handoff and 3 team members for $49 a month. If you mainly want to experiment with many AI models or build a voice agent, Chatbase itself is a strong option.
Buyers who search for Chatbase alternatives usually hit one of these walls:
- Credits run out faster than expected. Hobby's 700 credits are 700 AI replies on a basic model. At four replies per conversation that is about 175 conversations, and fewer if you choose a model that costs 3 to 6 credits per reply.
- The chatbot cannot hand off on the cheaper plan. The help desk, where a person joins the chat live, starts on Standard at $150 a month.
- Branding costs extra. Removing the Chatbase badge is a $99 a month add-on on top of any plan below Enterprise.
How much does Chatbase cost per month?
Chatbase costs $40 a month for Hobby, $150 for Standard and $500 for Pro on monthly billing, or $32, $120 and $400 a month billed yearly. Each plan includes a pool of message credits (700, 4,000 and 15,000) and one AI agent. Extra credits cost $40 per 1,000, extra agents $25 a month and branding removal $99 a month.
The list price is only the starting point, because the credit pool decides the real bill. For the full plan table, credit costs by model and totals at four team sizes, read our Chatbase pricing breakdown.
Does Chatbase have live chat with a human agent?
Yes, but not on every plan. Chatbase's help desk, where the AI hands a conversation to a human who joins the chat, is included from the Standard plan at $150 a month. On Hobby you can escalate by creating a ticket in a connected help desk such as Zendesk, which means a second tool and a second bill.
InChat includes human handoff with agent routing on every paid plan. The visitor stays in the same widget, your agent sees the whole transcript and a short summary, and the AI keeps answering other visitors in the meantime.
Where Chatbase is still the better choice
We would rather you pick the right tool once. Chatbase is the better fit if you want to choose between more than twenty AI models per agent, need AI phone and voice support (on Standard and up), or run a very small bot on the free plan's 50 credits. Its Hobby plan at $40 is also $9 cheaper than our Starter if you need no handoff and keep the Chatbase badge.
InChat is the better fit when your chat is part of sales and support, a person has to take over some conversations, and you want the bill fixed before the month starts. If you are comparing more vendors, our cheaper alternative to Intercom and Crisp alternative pages run the same math against those tools.
Who it is for
Who switches from Chatbase to InChat
Ecommerce stores
Shipping, returns, sizing and order questions get answered from your policy pages, and a customer who wants a refund reaches a person without leaving the chat.
SaaS companies
Trial users get setup answers from your docs, and a buyer asking about an annual contract lands in your sales inbox with the conversation attached.
Agencies and service firms
Clients see their own branding with no badge fee, and Pro runs unlimited client domains from one account, each trained only on that site.
FAQ
Chatbase alternatives, common questions
Chatbase has a free plan with 50 message credits a month, one AI agent, one seat and 1 MB of training data, and agents on it are deleted after 14 days of inactivity. It is enough to test the product, not to run a live website. Paid plans start at $40 a month for Hobby.
A message credit is what Chatbase charges for one AI reply. Basic models use 1 credit per reply, while stronger models use 2 to 6 credits per reply. A single conversation with several follow-up questions therefore uses several credits, which is why the monthly pool can run out quickly.
For a single person running a small bot with the Chatbase badge, no: Hobby is $40 and our Starter is $49. Once you need human handoff, your own branding or more than about 175 conversations a month, InChat is usually cheaper, because those are included in the $49 and $149 plans.
Yes. InChat trains on the same sources: your website URL, help center pages and uploaded files such as PDFs. Point it at the pages you used in Chatbase, upload the same documents, and test the answers before you swap the embed code.
Yes. InChat installs with one script tag on Shopify, WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace or any HTML site, and it trains on product, shipping and returns pages as well as your blog and help docs.
Yes. Paste your website URL above and InChat trains an agent on your content so you can ask it your own customer questions. Create an account to test more conversations, then pick a plan when you are ready to go live.
Keep comparing
Chatbase pricing
Chatbase plans, credit costs by model and four real monthly totals.
Crisp alternative
Workspace pricing plus AI credits, compared with one flat plan.
Cheaper alternative to Intercom
Per-seat plans plus $0.99 per resolution, compared with a flat price.
AI chatbot pricing
Every InChat plan, what it includes and the yearly price.
AI answers and a human inbox, at a price you know in advance.
Paste your URL, test the agent on your own content and go live with one line of JavaScript. Plans from $49 a month with 500 AI conversations, 3 team members and human handoff included.