Open-source technology is extremely valuable because of the fact that you can build custom solutions on top of them. Also the communities that form around many open source projects are a great source of support.
Chatbots are not an exception – there are many open-source chatbot frameworks and platforms that allow to develop custom chatbots for any channel.
Please keep in mind however, that if you wish to resell white-labeled chatbots for clients, there is no need to look for open-source solutions. There are chatbots like Enrol created specifically for that whitelabel resellers, with easy integrations and a dedicated support team.
Read on for the 2021-ready list of the best open source chatbots.
1. OpenDialog
OpenDialog is a Conversational AI chatbot creator. It allows chatbot creation for channels like web chat, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Amazon Alexa, Slack, Microsoft Teams and more.
OpenDialog has multilingual support and offers analytics and A/B testing among other features.
According to some developers, this platform is best for creating complex custom conversational apps.
OpenDialog can be integrated with CRM systems, Sharepoint, and a list of other Enterprise-level products.
All the code for OpenDialogue is available on GitHub.
2. Rasa
Rasa is positioned as a platform to create customer-centric “contextual assistants”.
Rasa integrates well with multiple channels, such as web chats, Facebook Messenger, Twilio, Slack, Rocketchat, Telegram, Mattermost, Google Hangouts, Microsoft bot framework, and other custom connectors.
Rasa comes in open source and Rasa X editions, which allow to create, integrate, and improve Rasa assistants to the above channels for free, and the Enterprise edition. The paid Enterprise edition allows analytics, role-based access control, and other advanced features.
3. ParlAI by Facebook AI
https://ai.facebook.com/blog/state-of-the-art-open-source-chatbot/
The subdivision of the social media & ad giant has built what they claim to be the largest ever open-domain chat bot, or what they call it the BlenderBot.
Aside from the “usual” machine learning and AI technology used in the bot, it is focused on simulating an empathetic, engaged personality that displays knowledge as well. All of that is achieved by “blending” different tasks within the bot.
The code for ParlAI is on GitHub and you can create conversational recipes and tweak them yourself.
There are no practical applications for the bot yet, though it may be implemented as part of other Facebook services, which would be great for general chatbot adoption.
4. Ana
Ana is a very handy and practical open source AI chatbot that has a set of useful features.
For instance, Ana Chat Servers let you distribute the bot across multiple channels backed by Ana’s server infrastructure. This way your bot is always scalable and has no performance issues.
Apart from that, Ana offers Android and iOS SDK and can be embedded into an app on any of the two mobile platforms. Best part – Ana is free for personal and commercial use.
Check out Ana’s GitHub for the chatbot platform code.
5. Bot Libre
Bot Libre Is another Android-ready chat bot, open source and ready for integrations.
Bot Libre offers an Enterprise bot platform, an Offline bot for Android, iOS bots, and desktop bots.
This is an older project that has started out making bots that can perform a variety of tasks, chat and communication being just one of them. Bot Libre offers Twitter bots, Kik bots, Voice bots, Facebook and Skype bots, and a lot more.
Their forum is filled with valuable bot info and tutorials, however there’s a steep learning curve and a lot of legacy info.
See the GitHub repository for more BotLibre details.
6. Microsoft Bot Framework
Microsoft offers a comprehensive bot framework based on Azure, C#, and Node.Js.
Bots created there are using AI and natural language processing (Azure cognitive services) and are seamlessly integrating with other Microsoft products. If you’ve been working with Microsoft up till now you will definitely find value in their bot framework.
This major framework allows you to develop custom chatbots both for your internal business needs, for communication with customers, and for white-label reselling to clients.
7. Botpress
An open source platform based on modular architecture. Allows a convenient flow management editor and supports multiple channels like SMS, WeChat, Skype and more.
Botpress offers specific expertise in healthcare and financial services, and you can get pre-made solutions if you work in these industries.
Get Botpress on GitHub.
8. Botkit
Botkit is based on Microsoft Bot Framework and open-source libraries (node.js). This bot development framework can be integrated with Twilio, Cisco Spark, IBM Watson, Microsoft, Glitch, and more.
Developers of Botkit aim to give a more user-friendly version of a bot framework.
The fun part about this platform is you can try a starter kit that you can run and edit right in your browser. Click here to give it a try.
9. ChatterBot
Python-based platform that can be taught to communicate in any language. More input will train the bots created on ChatterBot better.
What chatbot platform to select?
While looking for the best chatbot platform for your business needs, focus on the way you will apply it. The market offers a lot of options so make sure you do enough research.
Get in touch with us if you want to get consulting on the best chatbot builder for your needs.