Overview

Botpress is a platform for building, deploying and monitoring AI agents for customer support and other workflows. Its main development environment, Botpress Studio, combines visual conversation design with autonomous reasoning, knowledge grounding and custom development options. Bots can use multi-step workflows and connect to external APIs and systems, while the managed Botpress Cloud is the recommended platform for new development.

Botpress sits across several categories: Conversational AI Platforms, Chatbot builders and AI agent platforms. That breadth can suit teams looking for one environment for conversation flows and agent-driven tasks. It does not, however, mean that the platform is self-hostable for new deployments: Botpress v12 and locally installed versions are sunset and unavailable for new downloads, purchases or deployments.

Key features

Visual flows and agent reasoning

Studio provides a drag-and-drop visual environment for building conversation flows, branching logic and multi-step automations. Botpress also offers AI bot generation. The Autonomous Engine combines LLM reasoning with structured logic to select actions, carry them out across multiple steps and connect to external APIs and systems.

Knowledge, data and handoff

Knowledge Bases can ingest documents, websites, spreadsheets and CSV files to support grounded answers. Tables provide a place to store structured data across sessions. Botpress also supports human handoff, making it possible to include an escalation path in a customer-support workflow.

Integrations and custom development

The integration catalog covers channels and services including WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Slack, Gmail, Google Drive, Linear and Stripe, alongside custom APIs. Integrations marked with a checkmark in the Hub are verified by Botpress for safety and function. Teams can extend bots with custom code actions, bespoke integrations, multi-LLM configuration and programmatic API access.

The API set includes Chat, Admin, Files, Tables and Runtime APIs for managing bots, content, data, analytics and runtime messages. Botpress Cloud documents a maximum of 30 installed integrations per bot and a public API limit of 100 requests per second.

Security and privacy

Botpress states that its infrastructure is SOC 2 and GDPR compliant. It describes confidence thresholds, RAG systems and context-aware conversation management as part of its approach. The company also says it adheres to GDPR, participates in an EU Data Protection Representative Program and uses organizational, physical and technical measures to protect personal data.

Pricing

Botpress uses a freemium model. The Free plan costs 0.00 USD per free and includes 25 conversations, 3 seats and 3 AI agents, with no top-ups or overages.

Plus costs 150.00 USD per month, billed annually. It includes 250 conversations/mo, 3 seats, unlimited AI agents, $25 AI usage, white-label webchat, a custom-domain Help Center and live-chat technical support.

Team costs 750.00 USD per month, billed annually. It includes 1,500 conversations/mo, unlimited seats and AI agents, Teams, routing and RBAC, team analytics, real-time collaboration and $150 AI usage. Enterprise pricing is not listed; the plan uses custom conversation volume.

The Free plan includes community support through Discord, documentation, Botpress Academy and YouTube. Plus includes technical support through live chat. Compare conversation and AI usage allowances against the expected workload before selecting a plan.

Platforms

Botpress lists API and web as platforms. Botpress Cloud is a fully managed web application and the recommended option for new development. The platform supports multichannel deployment, with integrations for messaging and workplace services. Self-hosting is not available for new deployments because Botpress v12 and locally installed versions have been sunset.

Who it's for

Botpress is suited to teams building AI agents for customer support or other workflows that need visual conversation design, knowledge-grounded answers, multi-step actions and connections to external systems. Its combination of custom code actions, APIs and multi-LLM configuration gives developers ways to extend beyond the visual builder, while the managed cloud model sets a boundary for organizations that require new self-hosted deployments.

It may also fit teams that want human handoff, multichannel delivery and shared work features at the Team tier. Teams should check the plan-specific conversation and AI usage allowances, the 30-integration-per-bot maximum and the 100-requests-per-second public API limit against their requirements.

Pros and cons

Pros

Visual flow building, AI bot generation and an autonomous engine support both designed conversations and multi-step agent workflows.
Knowledge Bases accept several common source formats, and Tables retain structured data across sessions.
Custom code, integrations, multi-LLM configuration and dedicated APIs offer extension options.
A free plan is available, and paid plans specify conversation, seat and AI usage allowances.

Cons

New deployments must use Botpress Cloud; self-hosted and locally installed versions are sunset.
Cloud documents limits of 30 installed integrations per bot and 100 public API requests per second.
Enterprise pricing is not listed, and the paid plans have defined conversation and AI usage allocations.

Alternatives

For adjacent options, see IBM watsonx Assistant, Gupshup, LiveKit Agents, Inbenta, ElevenLabs, Amazon Lex, Bland AI and Rapida AI.

Verdict

Botpress brings visual flow building, grounded knowledge, autonomous multi-step workflows and API-based extensibility into a managed cloud platform. Its appeal is strongest for teams that want to combine conversation design with agent actions and integrations rather than choose between visual building and developer control. The key constraint is deployment: new users are directed to Botpress Cloud, not self-hosting. Pricing is clear at Free, Plus and Team tiers, but conversation and AI usage allowances should be checked against anticipated volume, and Enterprise pricing requires a custom quote.

	Botpress	ZernFlow
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	$150/mo	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Web	Web
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Paid from	$150/mo	—
Deployment channels	multichannel	multichannel
Visual flow builder	Yes	Yes
AI bot generation	Yes	Yes
Knowledge-base answers	Yes	—
Human handoff	Yes	—
Included conversations	250 /mo	—

Botpress vs ZernFlow

Botpress

ZernFlow