The best open source chatbot platforms in 2021

Open Source has inaugurated a deep dimension in SaaS, one of the jewels of the Internet. Elements of speed, transparency, multi-contribution and control facilitate the further advancement of software and AI solutions. One of such notable software is Open Source Chatbots, which runs on databases and APIs to perform various functions.

chatbots

These make it possible to simulate conversations with humans, their original code being accessible and available for modification. In short, they are conversational AIs. Many frameworks and platforms offer the benefits of customer management, cost adequacy, better engagement, and new innovative aspects. However, here are the exceptional ones:

BOOTLIBRE

Free bot is an open source platform for chatbots and artificial intelligence, offering multiple chatbot integrations for social media and the web without any programming. It sports an effortless interface for convenient and fast working as well as dedicated customer support. It also offers an open source chatbot engine, SAAS platform, and SDKs for web, Android, and iOS.

The Spotlight feature is that you can download and install the chatbot platform on premise, on your preferred cloud service / server. Hence, providing complete control and data privacy. Bot Libre also supports automated messaging, Alexa, Google, IBM Watson integration, and a plethora of other platforms. Integration of bots is easy and both SMS and IVR are supported. Bot Libre allows a virtual agent to impersonate an avatar on a website and is great for UX / UI, and can also help create counseling bots.

Here, bots learn effectively through NLP and scripting can be done with SELF or AIML. This framework also offers “Free Enterprise Bot», Allowing to obtain a license for a company version of the open source platform and to host its own projects and clients. It widely uses API and SDK for web integration. It is language independent and supports chatbots in all languages.

TASTE

Rasa is an open source platform built on an on-premises framework, useful for creating “contextual AI assistants”. It is built on TensorFlow and uses Python. It is unlike any of the major platforms like Microsoft or AWS. It has two important independent components:

  • NLU: Natural language comprehension aid for classification of intentions, retrieval of responses and extraction of entities, among others.
  • Kernel: takes care of the dialogue management and decides what to do next according to the previous set of inputs.

These sophisticated components work in tandem to develop intelligent and contextualized robots. This allows bots to intelligently understand complex user utterances and learn more rather than collapsing due to limited pattern. It integrates with multiple channels ranging from Twilio to other custom connectors.

The platform works on storytelling, by developers, for bot training as an alternative to visual flow and setting intent. This model works remarkably with large training data sets, making it the most sought after for customer service chats. Synonyms and hyponyms are also compatible, along with a mix of API calls.

It also integrates “Rasa X”, a free set of tools to enhance virtual assistants and develop robust text and voice chatbots. Bots created using Rasa are less “dumb” and able to maneuver subject changes and incorporate logic into the palaver. It also has an Enterprise edition, offering exclusive advanced benefits, analytics and role-based access control.

Botpress

Botpress is another juggernaut in this dimension. It offers versatile chatbot development with heavy use of JavaScript, unlike the other two. It opens the sources of conversational features and NLP libraries and has advanced built-in AI and NLP. Botpress, like others, is also cloud independent, giving you full control over the data.

It has a visual conversation studio to facilitate conversations and multi-dynamic workflows. This allows a conversation designer and a developer to collaborate on a project. The flexible flow management system and the ability to build the bot locally and deploy it to the desired server makes this platform even more flexible and convenient. It uses an emulator to test the conversations. The framework uses visual flows and training data substantial in terms of intentions, entities and locations, unlike Rasa. This makes it suitable for those organizations that regularly need to deploy automation.

Botpress comes with a built-in live chat, making it a unique and essential integration of any bot platform. It is also equipped with pre-developed solutions for use in financial and healthcare services, allowing a certain degree of expertise in these areas. Actionable analytics, multi-channel setup, and integrated Small Talk components add to its unique set of tools.

Botpress offers two versions:

  • Botpress Open-Source: This is the free version loaded with a visual feed generator, live chat, analytics, multi-channel compatibility, and community support.
  • Botpress Enterprise: it is paid and characterized by collaborative workspaces, multilingual bots, high availability with 24-hour technical support.

Conclusion

Powerful frameworks have varied users from multiple industries. Their respective bots have proven to be robust, stable, easy to develop and constantly updated, which makes them indispensable. You will be able to make an informed choice among these, as all of them meet the necessary criteria and levels. Good bot development!


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