Open-source chatbots are not just tools for automated responsesâthey represent a thriving community of developers who contribute to building versatile, transparent, and customizable conversational agents. Whether youâre looking to embed a chatbot on a website, create a corporate assistant, or explore the potential of AI-based chat, open-source solutions provide the flexibility and power to make your vision a reality.
Hereâs a look at six of the best open-source chatbots available today, from visual no-code builders to frameworks that let you build chatbots tailored to your specific needs.
1. Hexabot âïž
Hexabot is an advanced open-source chatbot builder that focuses on AI-powered, multilingual, and highly customizable chatbots. With its open plugin system, Hexabot makes it easy to extend the functionality by adding new channels, blocks, or integrations. Developers will love the rich feature set: a visual editor for chat flows, an analytics dashboard, and multilingual capabilities are just a few highlights.
Hexabot is built for developers who need more control over customization while still being straightforward to use. The project is licensed under AGPLv3, encouraging community collaboration while ensuring fair use.
2. Typebot đ
Serving the same purpose as TypeForm, Typebot is a lightweight open-source chatbot builder designed for simplicity. The drag-and-drop UI allows users to create automated chat flows without writing a single line of code. Typebot excels in scenarios where you need a chatbot to answer repetitive questionsâlike customer support or educational use cases.
If youâre a beginner looking to launch a chatbot without worrying about code, Typebot is a perfect fit.
3. Botpress: No-Code Visual Chatbot Builder đïž
Botpress is well-known for its powerful visual flow editor, where users can build conversational agents without diving into the complexities of programming. This is a chatbot solution that fits perfectly in environments that value a graphical, low-code approach to bot creationâideal for both small businesses and large enterprises.
Botpress also provides NLU capabilities to ensure that chatbots can understand natural language, making it a great choice for non-technical users looking for an effective solution.
4. Rasa: The Developerâs Choice for Custom Chatbots đ ïž
Rasa is a open-source frameworks for building highly customized chatbots, particularly for enterprise-level solutions. Written in Python, it offers extensive tools for NLU, dialogue management, and integrations with a variety of services.
Rasa stands out as a great choice for developers building serious, sophisticated chatbots tailored to specific corporate requirements. Its flexibility and support for conversational AI pipelines give it a unique edge in custom projects.
5. Tock: Offline-First Chatbots for Embedded Devices đĄïž
Tock is an impressive open-source platform that targets not just cloud-based chat but also embedded devices. Designed with an offline-first approach, Tock makes it possible to run chatbots on devices that do not have stable Internet connectivityâideal for use cases in IoT, vehicles, or other scenarios where embedded intelligence is crucial.
If you need a solution for creating chatbots on embedded devices with or without an Internet connection, Tock is a solid choice.
6. BotMan: PHP-Powered Conversational Bots đ»
BotMan is an open-source chatbot framework specifically for PHP developers. It provides an easy-to-use syntax to create conversational agents that can be integrated with messaging services like Slack, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and others.
For those in the PHP ecosystem, BotMan is an excellent tool for building chatbots, providing well-documented features and community-driven support.
Honorable Mentions: DeepPavlov & HuggingChat đ€đ
DeepPavlov: An AI framework for creating highly advanced conversational agents and virtual assistants. It offers pre-built deep learning models and flexibility to develop sophisticated applications.
GitHub - DeepPavlovHuggingChat: HuggingChat uses open-source GPT-based models for building conversational experiences that leverage natural language generation. Perfect if you want to bring LLM capabilities to your chatbot projects.
GitHub - HuggingChat
Conclusion
Open-source chatbots offer endless possibilitiesâfrom simple, no-code tools to frameworks that power sophisticated AI. Depending on your needsâwhether it's no-code simplicity with Botpress, custom development with Rasa, embedded applications with Tock, or multilingual chatbots with Hexabotâyouâll find an open-source solution that fits your project perfectly.
Join these open-source communities and contribute to make conversational AI accessible to everyone. Which of these chatbot platforms have you tried, or are planning to use? Let me know in the comments!
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