Businesses looking to grow quickly can find the right chatbot platform that will help them gain competitive advantage.

There are many approaches and frameworks, but it is easiest to create a chatbot with one of the chatbot platforms. This is especially true for those who have no previous experience in software development.

This article will discuss the differences between ManyChat (the market’s leading chatbot builder) and Chatfuel (the market’s second-leading chatbot builder).

Manychat vs Chatfuel – A brief introduction

What are ManyChat and Chatfuel?

In case you’ve never heard of them. Chatfuel and ManyChat are visual bot builders that can be used for automation and marketing. They both facilitate bot-building on Messenger for users who are not tech-savvy.

What is a bot and a chatbot?

Let’s start by defining some of the most important chatbot terms in order to simplify the discussion about conversation bots and this software.

• Artificial intelligence (AI), used in chatbots to provide relevant, human-like answers based on customer messages

• Automate: Send scheduled messages to customers following specific user actions. For repetitive, simple tasks, replace people

• Bot: This is a type of robot application in a virtual world. They act as regular computer users and offer real-time customer support through multiple channels.

• Buttons: Usually seen in a website’s chat box or messenger platform as preset answers. Customers can now choose buttons that contain content to answer their questions, instead of typing.

• Chatbot: A chatbot is a program that allows you to communicate with your business via text, email, messaging apps, voice calls, and other methods.

• Conversation Flow: A programmatic conversation. This is created by attaching nodes that represent specific actions or messages to the flow.

Chatfuel and ManyChat are two most popular chatbot builders, along with other options for building an automated conversation flow on Facebook Messenger.

Bots created for specific user questions will provide answers to users’ queries in order to improve the relationship between the audience and businesses.

ManyChat key features

• You can create multiple chatbots with ease using a variety of tools such as drag and drop builders and messaging types like cards, images, text, attachment files, except Vertical list.

• A simple, icon-heavy interface design that is easy to understand and very clear makes it easy to provide a friendly user interface

• Integrate with Shopify and Stripe, ActiveCampagin and 1.500+ other apps via Zapier

• Chatbot support tools for Facebook Messenger and SMS

• Eight Growth Tool options are available to help your customers get to the chat flow with your bots.

• Engage your targeted segments via SMS, Messenger, Email, Email, and Website

Chatfuel key features

• ManyFuels, like ManyChat, also has a clean interface and visual flow creator to help you build and customize your chatbot.

• Multiple elements can be used to create custom messages. Expect attachment files and location sharing options.

• Chatbots can be created on Facebook and only via Website

• Integromat, Google Sheets and Shopify Live Chat are also available.

• Chatbot interactions live analyzed

• Connect the chatbot with Facebook ads, landing pages and Facebook website widgets

Chatfuel and ManyChat have very similar features. This is understandable as:

• These are designed to improve chatbot-making, especially in customer service.

• You should target the same market, usually those with little or no programming knowledge.

This makes it difficult for users who don’t have a deep understanding of the platforms to make a decision.

ManyChat vs Chatfuel – A feature comparison

Chatbot builders

Technical tasks such as chatbot-making used to be reserved for the tech-savvy. Fortunately, technology has made it possible to create intuitive interfaces that are accessible to everyone, including beginners.

This is why, to assess the power of Both ManyChat & Chatfuel, let’s take a look at their chatbot building process.

ManyChat

ManyChat’s user-friendly interface and incredible flexibility are two reasons ManyChat is a favorite marketing toolkit for many merchants.

Manychat’s flexibility is due to the fact that you have 2 interface options for building a bot flow.

• The Basic Builder: This is very similar to Chatfuel’s “block” structure. This view shows the bot flow in a linear manner. It allows you to modify and edit every message at a very basic level.

• The Flow Builder: See your entire bot’s logic sequence in a glance. The Flow Builder is a visual representation of the messages, actions and blocks that are organized according to orders in the bot flow.

ManyChat offers 2 types of builders, and an enhanced chatbot-making experience through the Drag and Drop editor. This is a huge plus!

For newbies, the interface of ManyChat Flow Builder can be confusing (possibly overwhelming).

Although it is optimized for the best user experience, it may take some time to get to know this bot flow page. While editing and debugging, you can switch easily between the Basic Builder and Flow Builder views.

You can even work with two builders at once by clicking on any block in the Flow Builder.

Chatfuel allows users to select any flow generated in the left column. Every generated flow has three main elements:

• Card: The basic elements of building bot flow, such as text, images and videos.

• Blocks: These are where you can add any content that you wish to send users. You can have many different types of content and messages in each block.

• Connectors: These are the circular points that you can use to connect cards by dragging the Arrows

Cards are shorthand for details of your messages and media such as text or gallery, depending on your reference. These cards can be connected with the connectors. You can group cards together and arrange them in blocks to create a bot flow. 

Let’s conclude:

Chatfuel is primarily built on the idea of groups, blocks and cards. This makes bot-making simple and intuitive for non-technical users.

Both ManyChat (User experience) as well as UI (user interface) are excellent chatbot platforms that focus on “customer-focused” chatbots.

Chatfuel users cannot use the builders interchangeably with ManyChat. The Block builder does not allow you to build flows in Visual Flow builders. Chatfuel can consider this a disadvantage.

Chatbot-making components available

A simple interface is not enough to assess the quality of a chatbot platform. The second thing to consider is the number of elements that can be used to create the bot’s replies.

Chatbot-making elements can be understood by the content that you add to each section/ block of your message chatbots. This could include text, images or GIFs.

Your bot can have more value and details if there are more elements in your chatbot platform.

ManyChat

ManyChat is a highly rated platform because of its many in-built capabilities to create high-personalized bot experiences that are tailored to the needs of businesses.

ManyChat messages are generated using many block types and not cards like Chatfuel. They have the exact same operational mechanism.

What is special about ManyChat’s block type types?

• The interface is simple and intuitive, with lots of icons.

• You can drag blocks around so users can place them wherever they want in the message by using the blue button to the right of the added blocks

• Perform some of the primary actions, such as removing, copying or changing positions of additional blocks in messages

• You can support up to 10 primary blocks types in the free version, and 2 additional types that are only available with the Pro plan

ManyChat supports block types

• There are delays
• Text
• Card and Gallery
• Images
• Video, Audio, File (Attachments)
• Request for a one-time notification
• User input and + Dynamic (Requires subscriptions)
• Other elements that are available, aside from the block types, include: Emojis, Quick Replies; Button; Quick Replies; Persistent Menu; Validation of email, date and phone number; Location Sharing

ManyChat supports the Vertical List block. It’s currently deprecated and displayed as a Gallery by Facebook.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel refers to all elements that are used to build a bot as “Plugins”. For bots created in the Automate tab, plugins are equivalent to components added to a block. These plugins are used to automate Messenger sales.

Chatfuel organizes these plugins and divides them into five main categories. This allows you to see and select the best plugins for your needs.

• Add and Send Content (7 plugins). Allows you to fill the bot’s blocks with different content types

• Collect User Data (5 types of plugins): This allows you to gather additional information about customers for outreach purposes and segmentation

• Export and Import (5 plugins). These plugins allow your bot to handle data better.

• Redirect Users (4 plugins). These plugins can be applied to your bot’s block to guide your users to a specific part of your bot, based on their action and attribute.

• Connect Users to Human (2 plugins). This allows your team to take control of the chat from the bot and can have a live conversation with users

However, the supported card types can be used to create bot’s content within the scope of comparison elements numbers.

• Text + Button
• Gallery
• Video
• Audio
• Typing
• Rapid responses
• Permanent menu
• Other elements available: Validation email, phone number and date

Let’s conclude:

Chatfuel and ManyChat both offer a wide range of chatbot elements that can be used to build your chatbot. This allows you to easily add value and enhance your message by using one or more elements.

Let’s say we evaluate based on the number of chatbot elements available (in terms of creating content). Because Chatfuel doesn’t have attachments or location sharing, ManyChat might be a better choice than Chatfuel.

Communication channels supported

ManyChat

ManyChat supports communication channels

• Facebook Messenger
• SMS and email (Only available for Pro plans)

ManyChat users don’t have to use Facebook Messenger like any other platform on the market. This is a major advantage.

This allows businesses to provide a seamless omnichannel chatbot experience.

Although SMS and Email via ManyChat are a part of this platform, there is an additional fee.

You will receive a number of free emails each month if you sign up for ManyChat email. The number of contacts you have subscribed to your Pro account plan will determine the number of emails.

• 500 emails per month for up to 500 contacts
• Maximum of 5000 contacts = 5000 emails per month

Each email that you receive after using all your emails will be charged $0,003 per.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel users can only build their chatbots through Facebook Messenger. Although it is optimized and designed specifically for Facebook Messenger, ManyChat appears to be more popular than Chatfuel in terms of the number of channels available.

Let’s conclude:

ManyChat offers more benefits than Chatfuel, as it provides an omnichannel approach to businesses that allows them to use the chatbot. It also has outstanding features.

Your customers will enjoy a better omnichannel experience on your website, email, or SMS. Chatfuel’s limitations can make it difficult to market your chatbots, especially if your customers aren’t likely to use Facebook regularly or even dislike it.

Templates

A friendly interface and functional chatbot elements are important, but creating a bot from scratch can be time-consuming and daunting for newbies.

This is why it’s important to be able to clone and edit a bot using pre-made templates.

ManyChat

ManyChat users have the ability to use templates:

• Make new chatbot templates

• Use the Template and Flow Sharing features to share the pre-built templates with others

• To speed up the chatbot-making process, duplicate chatbot flows and chatbot elements

You will have different power limits between the Pro and Free plans. Pro users will have access to certain templates and elements, for example.

ManyChat offers a template store that can be used for eCommerce, Estate, Beauty, and Restaurants, as well as Shopify.

Chatfuel is compared with ManyChat’s main template features: 

• Template: Share your entire bot (including Tags, Custom User Felds and Actions) to clients, community members, or other bot builders. You can also better manage and backup a pre-built bot that is high-security.

• Protected Template: Protects your intellectual property. This means that others cannot view, edit, or share your templates. You get total control over your templates

• Edit Template: You can perform actions like: Add or Remove Content, Enable or Disable Public Access Link, or even Delete a Template

Chatfuel

Chatfuel, like ManyChat, organizes its pre-made templates in 11 categories. These include Local Business, Travel, eCommerce and Appointment Booking.

ManyChat has expanded and developed its template resource for Shopify, a large eCommerce platform. Charfuel is a better choice, offering templates for Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence.

Chatfuel templates are not like ManyChat’s templates. They come with a price tag (for premium templates) at the top of your Pro subscription. Most of them are however free.

Chatfuel templates allow users to:

• Messenger Templates: Preview and Test the Templates. Check if the bot you are about to install is compatible with your needs

• Simple installation: You can easily make a copy of this template to customize it further or modify it with one click 

Let’s conclude:

The winner will be determined by you! Chatfuel and ManyChat templates include helpful descriptions and notes that allow you to review the template and determine if it has what you want.

Chatfuel has more templates than ManyChat, so it is a better option if you are looking for a variety of templates. Chatfuel will have this advantage if you are a beginner.

ManyChat, on the other hand, is focused on creating and customizing your own templates with more advanced features.

Growth Tools

The bot-making process has been outlined. Your efforts will not be effective if users aren’t able to find your bot via other channels.

ManyChat

ManyChat Growth Tools

• Website widget: Add or overlay Facebook Messenger widget to your website

• Ref URL: Create custom URLs that link to the Messenger bot

• Chat with customers: You can display a chat icon on your website that customers can click to start a conversation either with your bot, or a Live Chat agent.

• QR code can be used online and on printed assets to drive leads

• Multiple landing Pages: Create landing pages for your bot, and enable One-Time Notification

• Click-to-Message Ads – Automatically open a conversation with your bot to start a customer discussion for leads from Facebook ads

• Facebook comments: Auto-reply a comment on Facebook 

You can use the auto-reply feature to Facebook comments to send messages to commenters and also like and respond to their comments.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel has very similar marketing capabilities to ManyChat. Chatfuel’s Growth Hacks are built with five main entry points to initiate a conversation between your bot and Chatfuel.

• Auto-reply to Facebook comments: Comments auto-reply to Facebook posts

• Bot link: Formerly called the REF link entry points

• Button Creator: Customers can click on the Message button to drive them to your bot from their Fb Shop page, or the Messenger icon at the bottom-right corner on a webpage.

• Click-to Message Ads: Click to Messenger Ads that direct customers directly to the chatbot by clicking on it

• Support for landing pages: Create landing pages using a button to direct the target audience towards the bot

Chatfuel and ManyChat have the greatest difference, however. Chatfuel’s auto-reply to comments on Facebook is less advanced than Chatfuel.

One of ManyChat’s auto-messages can be sent to who comments. Further, one can like the comment and reply right on the post. Chatfuel’s auto reply stops when you send private messages.

Final words

Chatfuel and ManyChat both offer tools to stimulate the first conversation between your bot and customers.

These bots offer you a lot of opportunities to grow your user base and encourage commentators to subscribe to your bot. Manychat still wins a small victory.

eCommerce tools

Anything that enhances the customer experience and fosters brand loyalty and trust is crucial in a customer-centric world.

Chatbots have this ability, while also opening up more sales opportunities to eCommerce businesses. Let’s see how ManyChat and Chatfuel can help with this eCommerce aspect.

ManyChat

ManyChat is a great chatbot platform that can be invested in. Its direct integration with Shopify – one of the most widely used eCommerce platforms worldwide – is what makes ManyChat a worthwhile investment.

Chatfuel’s eCommerce tools allow you to:

• Send abandoned shopping cart notifications by email or SMS to recover abandoned cart rates

• Automated messages to customers about their order status and shipping status will keep them informed

• Collect customer reviews and feedback to improve your sales

• ManyChat’s SMS and Fb marketing tools can help you retain customers and increase loyalty.

• Shopify allows you to create personalized coupons and send them out via SMS and Messenger. Text recipients can also redeem coupons by clicking one button

• You can track the earnings of your store, average revenue and purchase per buyer using ManyChat’s eCommerce dashboard to gain a deeper understanding about customers’ insights

You can also use the chatbot to accept payments from your customers via Stripe and Paypal.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel users have the same access to:

• Boating sales via promo codes

• Facebook Messenger allows users to auto-remind others about abandoned carts and encourage them to make the purchase.

• Stripe support allows you to pay directly through the chatbot

• Customers can get assistance with their most common queries 24/7, without the need for human intervention

• To retain customers and drive sales, create promo codes or sales for a limited time

• Tracking information for share orders

Final words

Both platforms have eCommerce capabilities and can be used to accommodate nearly all online merchants.

However, there is one limitation. Both do not have WooCommerce integrations. You can however connect your chatbot account to WooCommerce using Zapier or Integromate integration.

Soon:

• Chatfuel’s eCommerce features are easy to use and set up (best for new and small businesses).

• ManyChat’s data collection and possibilities experts dive deeper into the options. ManyChat’s tools are more difficult and time-consuming to use fluently (medium to large companies or experts in the chatbot field).

Reporting and Analytics

ManyChat

It is easy to locate and view the Metrics Dashboard in ManyChat Pro. This dashboard shows a summary of all your business’s revenues and conversions, especially:

• Earned: Total income earned over different periods

• Average Revenue per Paying User (ARPPU).

• Average Payment Count (APC), reflects the buyer’s sales retention rate via the number and type of transactions made for the given time.

• Sales: Total sales for this period

• Total number of subscribers and non-subscribers

You can also receive reports on specific flows and blocks in your chatbot via the:

• Delivered to (%): The number of people the message was delivered to
• Opened by (%): Your message’s open rate
• Click by (%): Get the click rate

The same applies to Sequences with 4 metrics: Subscribers and Messages, Open rate, CTR, and Messages.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel presents a more detailed dashboard, which focuses on user-related analytics rather than the bot’s overview as ManyChat. You can see:

• The total users for specific periods

• In graph form, the figures show user retention and activity over days.

• For further improvement of your chatbot’s answer, please provide user input

You can access the Sequence/Broadcast User Engagement report by clicking:

• Sent: Date and time at which the sequence was sent
• Process of sending sequences (%)
• Number of recipients
• Rates of Read, Clicked and Failed (%)

ManyChat reports your business’s conversion rate using actual numbers. Chatfuel does the same job via its Popular Block Table. A table that evaluates the most popular blocks shows you your audience’s flow and helps you to see their effectiveness.

Let’s conclude:

Chatfuel and ManyChat let users test chatbots in Facebook Messenger prior to the launch.

Merchants can also get more statistics by integrating ManyChat and Chatfuel with 3rd-party analytics tools like Botanalytics or Dashbot.io.

What ManyChat’s Analytics and Report does not offer:

• User input
• User retention

ManyChat’s reports make it easy to keep track of and capture every click and action.

What does Chatfuel’s Analytics and Report not offer?

• Conversion rate (It is still possible to track the performance of blocks)

Chatfuel’s analytics dashboard is also rated as being clearer than ManyChat’s. Chatfuel also supports User Input reports, which allow you to see keywords that you don’t know the answers to. This allows for better modification.

Chatfuel is the winner in this area.

ManyChat vs Chatfuel – Integrations and Customer Support

Integration

This aspect is not a winner since both offer all the integrations that a business needs, including the most crucial ones like:

• Chat live
• Zapier
• Integromat
• Google Sheets
• Webhooks

Support

ManyChat offers support from:

• ManyChat Facebook Community: 97.6K Members
• ManyChat ticketing system to address specific problems/ features
• ManyChat Free Video Tutorials or Youtube Channel
• ManyChat Basic: ManyChat documentation covering all of ManyChat’s features

Chatfuel offers support from:

• Chatfuel Facebook Community: 73.9K members

• Chatfuel documentation: This section guides users through every step and problem during the experience. Chatfuel’s help section, however, isn’t as easy to navigate and as straightforward as ManyChat.

• Chatfuel video tutorials at Youtube

• Chat and email support

Both offer a variety of ways to provide valuable information that covers nearly every aspect of your experience, from detailed documentation to videos.

ManyChat provides better support for its users through more sources than Chatfuel.

Comparison of Chatfuel vs. ManyChat

Pricing for MayChat

ManyChat offers 3 pricing options. These include:

• Up to 1000 contacts eligible for a free plan

• Pro Plan: Starting at $10/mo (for 1000 contacts) to $435/mo (for 100.000 contacts); $145/m for 25.000 contacts

• For a list of 100.000 contacts, contact the ManyChat sales team

Chatfuel pricing

Chatfuel offers its customers 3 pricing options.

• Up to 500 contacts eligible for a free plan

• Pro Plan: Starting at $15/month (from 500 contacts to $180 (maximum of 25.000 contacts).

• Premium plan: Chat with Chatfuel’s sales team to get > 25.000 contacts

ManyChat vs. Chatfuel – Which is the best and most viable option?

Chatfuel and ManyChat both offer free plans with some limitations.

However, ManyChat’s Pro and Free packages are still more affordable than Chatfuel.

Chatfuel’s free plan may be the better option, especially for small- and medium-sized businesses, when we compare both options in terms of functionality. Why?

Chatfuel’s free plan gives you all the tools needed to automate and create your Messenger inbox. This includes AI setup, Integrations, Analytics, and Analytics. There are still restrictions on certain features such as:

• Limit of 50 users
• Chatfuel branding

The platform is available to you at your best. Chatfuel offers more when you start with a smaller subscriber list, but still wants to build a functional bot.

ManyChat’s Pro plan is better than Chatfuel when it comes to performance. ManyChat’s Pro plan removes all restrictions from the Free package. ManyChat offers the same features as Chatfuel’s Pro plan, but at a much lower price.

A pro plan is a better option than Chatfuel, which costs $5-$35 more per user. ManyChat is the best option if you have a large subscriber list (> 500 members),

Chatfuel and ManyChat are not the only options for chatbot building..

ManyChat vs. Chatfuel – Short verdict

ManyChat makes Chatfuel more worthwhile than Chatfuel due to its intuitive bot builder, and lower price.

Both platforms allow you to create a complete bot flow even if you are not tech-savvy. However, ManyChat allows you to do this:

• Its bot builders, as well its variable management system are more powerful than ManyChat.

• It also comes with a well-organized documentation and large support community

• Chatfuel bots can only be used on Facebook Messenger. 

Chatfuel still has some advantages over ManyChat, however.

• Number of templates: Although ManyChat offers only 25 pre-made templates for bots, Chatfuel has over 83 templates.

• Chatfuel has an integrated analytics system. It provides a clearer dashboard and more specific metrics for contacts than ManyChat.

Who is ManyChat best suited for?

You want a platform that makes it easy to:

• Multichannel chatbot campaigns can be launched

• A chatbot system that is comprehensive and affordable can be built in the long-term

• Logically manage multiple bot flows and connect pages from one dashboard

• Simple setup

ManyChat may be the right solution for you. ManyChat is still focused on providing a platform that allows users to create their bots, with a high level of complexity. Its template library is limited, making it difficult for beginners to use.

Chatfuel is best for whom?

You can find a platform that meets your needs here

• You can offer multiple bot templates and you will easily find multiple templates to create ideal chatbots for many industries.

• It is easy to grasp and understand in the first few weeks of your experience

• Enjoy all the features of the Free plan

• User analytics gives you more detailed statistics on your bot’s performance.

Chatfuel might be the right choice for you.

Bottom line

Although this post is quite long, we hope you find it useful and informative.

Each has its pros and cons. ManyChat has more tools for marketing and statistics, while Chatfuel can create custom fields to provide a more personal customer experience.