The Rise of Embeddable AI Chatbots

In the digital age, user interaction is evolving rapidly. AI-powered chatbots are at the forefront of this transformation...

Introduction

Lately, I've been deep-diving into AI chatbots that can be embedded on a website and dynamically scrape website content at regular intervals. The goal: a bot that knows everything on a site and can answer questions competently. Bonus points for being free (or at least cheap), customizable, and self-hostable if it saves money without major headaches.

Turns out, there are quite a few options. Here's what I found.

• The Rise of Embeddable AI Chatbots
  • 1. Chatbase (SaaS, Free Plan Available)
  • 2. OpenAssistantGPT (Open-Source, Hosted & Self-Host Options)
  • 3. SiteGPT (Hosted, No Free Plan)
  • 4. Kommunicate (Hybrid AI + Live Chat, Expensive)
  • 5. Self-Hosted / Open-Source Approaches
    • Botpress (Open-Source)
    • Custom LLM + Vector DB
  • Final Thoughts

1. Chatbase (SaaS, Free Plan Available)

Chatbase is a hosted chatbot builder that lets you feed it website URLs or documents. It scrapes the content and builds a knowledge base. Embed it with a simple script—zero coding required.

• Pros:
  • No-code setup, super easy to implement.
  • Free plan (100 messages/month, 10 URLs).
  • Customizable chat widget.
  • Multi-language support.
• Cons:
  • Free plan is pretty limited.
  • Needs periodic re-scraping.
  • Paid plans ($19–$40/mo) scale with usage.

Verdict: Good for quick, plug-and-play chatbot embedding. Free tier is useful for small projects, but scaling up costs money.

2. OpenAssistantGPT (Open-Source, Hosted & Self-Host Options)

An open-source chatbot with website crawling capabilities. Uses GPT-3.5/4 and supports document ingestion. Hosted version has a free tier (~500 messages/month), but you can also self-host.

• Pros:
  • Free hosted version available.
  • Self-hostable (saves cost long-term).
  • Customizable chat widget.
  • Supports OpenAI's API (or local models if you're ambitious).
• Cons:
  • Free hosted tier is limited.
  • Self-hosting requires setup (infra + crawling pipeline).

Verdict: Great balance between free hosted use and self-host flexibility. More setup needed than Chatbase but avoids vendor lock-in.

3. SiteGPT (Hosted, No Free Plan)

SiteGPT is basically "ChatGPT for your website." It scans pages and builds a chatbot trained on that content.

• Pros:
  • No coding required.
  • Supports large sites (scales up to 10k+ pages).
  • Customizable chat UI.
• Cons:
  • No permanent free plan (only a 7-day trial).
  • Paid plans start at $79/mo (ouch).

Verdict: Expensive but powerful. If you have a big website and need a polished bot, this might be worth it.

4. Kommunicate (Hybrid AI + Live Chat, Expensive)

Kommunicate's Website Scraper feature lets you turn a site into a chatbot knowledge base. Also integrates with live agents for human fallback.

• Pros:
  • Combines AI chatbot + live chat.
  • Can scrape entire sites.
  • Supports multiple languages.
• Cons:
  • Plans start at $100/mo (way more than Chatbase/SiteGPT).
  • GPT-4-powered chatbot is $200/mo.

Verdict: Feels overkill unless you're a business that needs hybrid support. Powerful but pricey.

5. Self-Hosted / Open-Source Approaches

If you don't want to depend on a third-party SaaS and are okay with rolling up your sleeves, you can self-host a chatbot. Some options:

Botpress (Open-Source)

• Self-hostable chatbot builder with a Knowledge Base module that ingests URLs.
• Free to use, but requires a backend server.

Custom LLM + Vector DB

• Use LangChain or Haystack to crawl website content, store in a vector DB (like Pinecone, Chroma, or Weaviate), and retrieve answers with an LLM (GPT-4, Llama 2, etc.).
• Completely customizable but requires coding.

Verdict: Cheapest long-term if self-hosted, but requires actual effort. Great for devs, not for casual users.

Final Thoughts

• Quick & Easy: Chatbase (best free option), OpenAssistantGPT (for self-hosting potential).
• Powerful & Scalable: SiteGPT (best if you can afford it), Kommunicate (if you need live chat integration).
• DIY / Cheap Long-Term: Botpress or a fully custom setup (vector DB + self-hosted LLM).

For non-devs, SaaS options like Chatbase or OpenAssistantGPT (hosted) are the best bet. If you're comfortable with servers, a self-hosted LLM + scraper setup could be the most cost-effective long-term.

I'll probably test out OpenAssistantGPT on my own infra and see if self-hosting is worth the hassle. If anyone's tried it, let me know what worked (or didn't).