PolyAI alternatives
PolyAI by PolyAI costs Usage-based and is proprietary. If you need something cheaper, open source, self-hosted or simply different, here are 10 alternatives that do the same job, ranked by how widely they are used, with the differences that matter.
10 PolyAI alternatives, by popularity
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Framework and platform for building voice and chat assistants that can be self-hosted: the open-source Rasa framework (Apache-2.0) and the open-core Rasa Pro / Rasa Platform. A free Developer Edition license covers one bot with capped monthly conversations.
- Free to start; PolyAI has no free tier
- Open source (Apache-2.0)
- More widely used (Gid Score 58 vs 18)
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Chatwoot is an open-source omnichannel support desk (live chat, email, WhatsApp and social inboxes) and Captain is its AI agent that answers from help-center content, PDFs and websites. The core is MIT-licensed with an enterprise directory under a separate license, and it can be self-hosted or used as a hosted plan.
- Free to start; PolyAI has no free tier
- Open source (MIT)
- More widely used (Gid Score 52 vs 18)
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Platform for building and deploying LLM-based support agents with a hosted studio, a conversation-metered pricing model and a public MIT-licensed monorepo of SDKs and integrations. It integrates with help desks such as Intercom, Zendesk, HubSpot and Salesforce.
- Free to start; PolyAI has no free tier
- Open source (MIT)
- More widely used (Gid Score 44 vs 18)
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Platform for deploying AI agents that resolve customer support conversations over chat, email and voice, with workflows written as natural-language Agent Operating Procedures. It also provides testing, QA and analytics tooling for those agents.
- More widely used (Gid Score 43 vs 18)
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AI agent platform for support teams with a Solve agent that resolves tickets over chat, email, voice, API and Slack, plus Triage, Discover, QA and Assist products. Zendesk markets it as Forethought AI agents by Zendesk and it can run on other service platforms.
- More widely used (Gid Score 42 vs 18)
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Platform for building AI support and sales agents trained on a company's own content and published to a website widget, WhatsApp, email, Slack and other channels. Plans are metered in monthly message credits, with model choice across several providers.
- Free to start; PolyAI has no free tier
- More widely used (Gid Score 40 vs 18)
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Platform for building retrieval-based AI agents from a company's own documents and website content, available as a chat widget and through a RAG API with official SDKs. It targets support and research questions and offers custom enterprise builds.
- More widely used (Gid Score 39 vs 18)
- Growing fast: usage up 66% in 30 days
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AI customer service agent from Tidio that now has its own site and pay-as-you-go credit pricing, and can be placed on Tidio chat or invited into other help desks such as Zendesk, Freshdesk, Salesforce and HubSpot. It lets customers choose among Claude, GPT and Gemini models.
- More widely used (Gid Score 36 vs 18)
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AI customer agent that answers and resolves support conversations over chat, email, voice and messaging channels, either natively inside the Intercom helpdesk or on top of other help desks such as Salesforce, HubSpot and Freshdesk. It runs on the vendor's own Apex model suite.
- More widely used (Gid Score 36 vs 18)
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Visual chatbot and chat-form builder that can be embedded on websites or run on WhatsApp and self-hosted. The code is source-available under the Functional Source License (FSL-1.1-ALv2) rather than an OSI-approved open-source license.
- Free to start; PolyAI has no free tier
- More widely used (Gid Score 36 vs 18)
PolyAI vs alternatives at a glance
| Agent | Price | Free to start | Open source | MCP | Local models | Gid Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PolyAI | Usage-based | ✕ | ✕ | ? | ? | 18 |
| Rasa | Free | ✓ | ✓ | ? | ? | 58 |
| Chatwoot Captain | Free + $19/mo | ✓ | ✓ | ? | ? | 52 |
| Botpress | Free + $150/mo | ✓ | ✓ | ? | ? | 44 |
| Decagon | Custom | ✕ | ✕ | ? | ? | 43 |
| Forethought | Custom | ✕ | ✕ | ? | ? | 42 |
| Chatbase | Free + $40/mo | ✓ | ✕ | ? | ? | 40 |
| CustomGPT.ai | $99/mo | ✕ | ✕ | ? | ? | 39 |
| Lyro | Usage-based | ✕ | ✕ | ? | ? | 36 |
| Fin | $0.99/outcome | ✕ | ✕ | ? | ? | 36 |
| Typebot | Free + $39/mo | ✓ | ✕ | ? | ? | 36 |
Prices from the vendors' pricing pages; features from official docs (“?” means not documented). Full feature comparison · All prices
How teams use these tools
How Hawksmoor turned missed restaurant calls into bookings with a PolyAI agent
UK restaurant group Hawksmoor deployed a PolyAI voice agent that answers calls and books tables across its 14 sites. PolyAI reports high call volumes handled and better conversion…
PolyAI reports 20k calls answered every month and 80,000 covers booked since July 2025.
How Substack automated Tier 1 reader and publisher support with Decagon
Substack used Decagon's AI agent to handle repetitive support requests such as cancellations and email imports. Decagon reports that most inquiries are now resolved without a huma…
Decagon reports that the agent resolves more than 90% of user questions without human intervention.
How Lightspeed handled most of its support volume with Fin
Lightspeed, a commerce platform for merchants in more than 100 countries, put Fin in front of its multi-region, multilingual support queue and gave its human agents Copilot. Inter…
Intercom reports a Fin resolution rate of 65% and a Fin involvement rate of 99%.
FAQ
What is the best alternative to PolyAI?
By usage, the closest alternative is Rasa, followed by Chatwoot Captain, Botpress, Decagon.
Is there a free alternative to PolyAI?
None of the closest alternatives has a free tier.
Is there an open-source alternative to PolyAI?
Not among the closest alternatives we track.
How do these PolyAI alternatives compare on price?
Rasa: Free; Chatwoot Captain: Free + $19/mo; Botpress: Free + $150/mo; Decagon: Custom; Forethought: Custom; Chatbase: Free + $40/mo.
PolyAI: pricing, features and stats · All customer support AI agents · Find the right agent in 4 questions