Harrison Hu

Posted on Oct 9 AI-assisted

Free vs Paid Chatbot Starter Kits for Home-Service Shops: What You Actually Need

#opensource #smallbusiness #chatbot #javascript

Home-service shops such as aircon cleaning, house cleaning, moving and plumbing get the same message all day: "How much?" The honest answer is usually "it depends", on the unit type, the quantity, the area, the floor and whether there's an elevator. A quote bot asks those questions in order and replies with a price range, or hands the chat to a human when the job is risky.

This article compares two AI-assisted starter kits from the same itch.io store: a free Lite quote engine and the paid LINE AI Quote Helper Kit. The goal is to help you pick the cheaper option whenever it's enough.

First: what a "quote bot" needs to do

Strip away the chat UI and a quote bot does four things:

Collect inputs in a fixed order: area, unit type, quantity, add-ons, floor or elevator, special conditions.
Apply pricing rules such as a price per unit, add-on fees, a bulk discount and a surcharge for stairs.
Return a range, not a promise. Something like "about NT$3,240–NT$3,960, final price confirmed on site".
Hand off to a human for anything it shouldn't price: out-of-area jobs, unusual units, or messages that mention discounts, warranties or leaks.

Notice what's missing: a large language model. Neither kit calls an LLM. Quoting is deterministic rules in a JSON file, so the same inputs always give the same range, and you can test it.

What the free Lite kit covers

Lite = MIT-licensed quote engine + rules.json + static demo. It's the free cut of the paid kit:

https://harrisonlineai.itch.io/line-ai-quote-helper-lite

Based on the package contents, Lite includes:

web/rules.json: every pricing and hand-off rule in one file. Fields include units (price per unit type, or human: true to always hand off), outdoorAddonPerUnit, bulkMinUnits, bulkDiscountPerUnit, noElevatorFloor, noElevatorFee, rangePct, serviceAreas and handoffKeywords.
web/quote-engine.js: a small, dependency-free function for the browser and Node. It checks hand-off conditions first and only calculates a range if none apply.
web/index.html: a static demo with a simulated LINE-style chat and the owner's quote card. Serve it with npx serve web or upload web/ to a static host such as Cloudflare Pages.
test.js: five logic tests you run with node test.js.
MIT license: use, fork and ship it in your own projects.

The sample shop and its prices are fictional.

A typical edit looks like this:

{
  "units": {
    "Split type": { "price": 1800, "human": false },
    "Ceiling concealed": { "price": null, "human": true }
  },
  "serviceAreas": ["Taipei City", "New Taipei City"],
  "handoffKeywords": ["discount", "warranty", "leak"],
  "rangePct": 0.1
}

(The shipped sample uses Traditional Chinese labels; English is shown for illustration.) Then update the expected values in test.js and rerun it.

What the paid kit adds

The LINE AI Quote Helper Kit (US$24) ships the same engine, rules.json, tests and web demo. On top of that, it includes:

A real LINE Messaging API webhook as a Cloudflare Worker. It verifies LINE's request signature, asks each question with quick-reply buttons and can remember each customer's progress with an optional Workers KV binding. It uses reply messages only, so it doesn't send pushed broadcasts.
An owner-facing Excel rules sheet with a built-in calculator. The owner fills in prices in a spreadsheet and you copy the numbers into rules.json.
A client FAQ template in Traditional Chinese for the shop owner.
A bilingual setup SOP (Chinese and English), which the README estimates at about 60–90 minutes.
A commercial license to use and modify the kit for your own business and unlimited client projects, including paid ones. You can't resell or redistribute the kit itself.

It still needs basic terminal and Node.js comfort. No API keys are included; you create your own LINE channel and set secrets with wrangler secret.

Side-by-side

	Free Lite	Paid LINE kit (US$24)
Quote engine + `rules.json` + tests	Yes	Yes
Static web demo	Yes	Yes
Connects to a real LINE Official Account	No	Yes (Cloudflare Worker webhook)
Quick-reply buttons and session memory in LINE	No	Yes (KV is optional)
Owner Excel sheet with calculator	No	Yes
Client FAQ + setup SOP	README only	Yes
License	MIT	Commercial, unlimited client projects, no resale

When the free kit is enough

Pick Lite and don't pay for anything if:

You only need a demo to show an owner what a guided quote flow feels like.
You're wiring the engine into your own stack, such as a bot on another channel, a website form or your backend. It's a plain function.
You want to settle the pricing logic first. Many quoting problems are really rule problems, like a missing surcharge. Work them out in rules.json and the tests before any chat platform is involved.
You'd rather write the LINE integration yourself. The Messaging API is well documented.

When the paid kit is worth it

The paid kit makes more sense when:

The target channel is specifically LINE and you want a working webhook to adapt instead of writing one.
A non-technical owner maintains the prices. The Excel sheet with a calculator gives them a familiar place to change numbers and check results.
You need hand-over material, such as an FAQ for the shop and a step-by-step setup guide.

If none of those apply, the free version is the better choice.

Do this before using either kit

The inputs matter more than the code. Before editing rules.json, collect the shop's real price list, service areas, hours and the questions that must always go to a human. The Free AI Chatbot Client Intake Pack is a free questionnaire, knowledge-base CSV and go-live checklist for that step.

Also: label the bot as an automated assistant, say the final price is confirmed on site, never let it promise discounts, and replay a few real past inquiries before going live.

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