Last updated: July 19, 2026
TL;DR
- Botpress is an AI agent platform with its own AI-native helpdesk, priced by conversations: the Plus plan is $150/month billed annually ($189 month-to-month as of our July verification) with 250 conversations included, then packs of 100 at $65.
- Invent prices by usage: $29/month includes $29 of credits, roughly 3,000 Auto messages for about $32 total, with the team inbox, CRM, broadcasts, and white-label included.
- Both reject per-seat pricing. The decision is between two meters: conversation packs that auto-recharge and expire, versus consumption you can read on one dial.
- Read Botpress's conversation rules before you budget: test conversations in the emulator count, a conversation spanning two months counts twice, every anonymous visitor session counts separately, and pack auto-recharge cannot be turned off.
- Botpress is credible and well-built, SOC 2 certified and penetration tested. The question is whether your support volume fits a $150-per-month entry meter or a $29 one.
Botpress and Invent agree on something important: charging per seat for AI-era support is the wrong model. Both say so publicly. Where they part ways is what replaces the seat: Botpress meters conversations in prepaid packs; Invent meters consumption against included credits. That one difference drives almost every number in this comparison, verified against both pricing pages in July 2026.
What is Botpress?
Botpress has spent a decade building AI infrastructure, 750,000 agents built, by its own count, and today sells an agent platform for customer support with a confident pitch: "Most support AI answers. Botpress resolves." The product family includes Agent Studio, an autonomous engine, knowledge bases, tables, a code-first developer toolkit, and, newly, Botpress Desk, its own AI-native helpdesk, positioned to work on top of your existing helpdesk or replace it. Channels include web chat on every plan and WhatsApp from Plus up; voice is an Enterprise feature. Security is real: SOC 2 certified, GDPR compliant, penetration tested by KPMG.
Worth noting honestly: Botpress grew up as a developer platform, and the Studio and SDK are still there, but its current homepage pitches the opposite entry point, "No engineering required. Build your AI agents with natural language." The platform now courts both builders and business teams.
What is Invent?
Invent is the AI layer for your business: one assistant that answers customers on the website widget, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, SMS, and email, grounded in your own knowledge, with every conversation landing in a shared team inbox. Around the assistant sits what a support operation actually runs on: customer memory, contacts and segments, broadcasts, automatic CSAT, agent routing on handoff, and a full agency suite with white-label and sub-organizations.
The differences that decide this comparison:
- Entry price: Business is $29/month with $29 of usage included; a free Pay As You Go plan (100 messages a month) runs a real assistant indefinitely.
- One meter: usage consumed, nothing prepaid, nothing expiring, no packs.
- The stack included at entry: inbox, CRM, broadcasts, CSAT, white-label, SSO, and audit logs all ship at $29, not at a higher tier.
Botpress vs Invent at a glance
Verified against both pricing pages, July 2026:
- Entry price: Botpress Plus $150/month billed annually ($189 monthly per our July 10 check) with 250 conversations. Invent Business $29/month with about 3,000 Auto messages' worth of usage.
- Overage: Botpress sells conversation packs, 100 for $65 on Plus ($0.65 each), auto-recharged monthly, unused pack conversations expire. Invent bills consumption as it happens.
- Free tier: Botpress Free includes 100 conversations with hard storage caps and no top-ups. Invent's free plan includes 100 messages a month, renewed monthly.
- Team features: routing rules, RBAC, and team analytics arrive with Botpress Team at $750/month billed annually. On Invent, custom roles and routing ship in the $29 plan.
- White-label: Botpress Plus removes branding from the web chat widget. Invent's white-label covers the platform, with custom domain and sub-organizations for agencies.
- Beyond conversations: contacts and segments, broadcast campaigns, and CSAT surveys are not part of Botpress's offer; on Invent they are included.
Botpress and Invent compared: conversation packs versus a single usage meter.
How the conversation meter really counts
Botpress publishes its counting rules, and they reward a careful read before you budget:
- A conversation is any exchange of at least two messages in the billing month, AI-only or human-assisted alike.
- Emulator conversations count. Testing your agent consumes the same allotment your customers do.
- A conversation spanning two months counts in both months. A customer who writes on the 31st and gets an answer on the 1st is two conversations.
- Every anonymous session counts separately. The same visitor, returning without being identified, is a new conversation each time.
- Auto-recharge cannot be turned off. Once you hit your allotment, $65 packs of 100 are added automatically, recur monthly until you remove them, and unused pack conversations expire at month end.
These are Botpress's own published rules, and the design intent is fair enough: never cut a customer off mid-conversation. But for a business owner, the practical effect is a bill measured in units you don't fully control, counted in ways you have to memorize.
Invent's meter is the other philosophy: one number, consumption, visible in your dashboard, with $29 of it included every month. Roughly 3,000 Auto messages come to about $32 total. Testing doesn't bill against a pack, month boundaries don't double-count anyone, and nothing auto-purchases on your behalf.
The helpdesk question
Botpress Desk is a genuinely interesting move: an AI company shipping its own ticket-management system, arguing, correctly, that AI-first support needs AI-native tooling rather than bolted-on bots. If you live in tickets, it deserves a look, and Botpress's pitch of working on top of your existing helpdesk lowers the switching cost.
Invent's answer to the same question is the inbox-and-conversation model: customers do not send tickets, they send messages, and the AI, the humans, the CSAT, and the customer's whole history live in one shared inbox across every channel. Which model fits you says more about your support culture than about either vendor.
Switching from Botpress to Invent
- Bring your knowledge. The sources that trained your Botpress agent, docs, sites, files, train your Invent assistant directly.
- Rewrite flows as instructions. Most support logic that lived in Studio flows becomes plain-language instructions plus Actions for the steps that touch other systems.
- Connect your channels natively. Web chat and WhatsApp carry over; Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, SMS, and email join them, same assistant.
- Run both for a week. Compare resolution rate and CSAT on live traffic before cutting over; the free plan makes the test cost nothing.
Or skip the work entirely: book a free 30-minute migration call and we rebuild your agent, knowledge, instructions, channels, branding, at no charge.
What you give up either way
Both directions, honestly. Choosing Invent means giving up Botpress's developer toolkit and code-first extensibility, its purpose-built Desk helpdesk, and Enterprise-tier voice, real assets if you have engineers who want them or phone AI on the roadmap. Choosing Botpress means giving up the $29 entry point, the single predictable meter, and the included CRM, broadcasts, and CSAT layer, which you will either live without or assemble elsewhere.
Which should you choose in 2026?
- Choose Botpress if your volume justifies a $150-plus monthly meter, your team values the developer toolkit or the Desk helpdesk, and conversation-pack economics fit how your customers actually write to you.
- Choose Invent if you want the whole support stack, assistant, channels, inbox, CRM, CSAT, white-label, at $29/month on one meter you can read, live today.
Comparing more tools? The AI chat automation roundup covers Intercom, Crisp, Tidio, and Drift head to head.
FAQs
What is Botpress?
Botpress is an AI agent platform for customer support with a decade of AI infrastructure behind it: Agent Studio, knowledge bases, a developer toolkit, and Botpress Desk, its own AI-native helpdesk. It prices by conversations, not seats, with plans from $150/month billed annually.
How much does Botpress cost?
The Free plan includes 100 conversations with hard storage caps. Plus is $150/month billed annually (about $189 month-to-month as of July 2026) with 250 conversations, then $65 per 100-conversation pack. Team is $750/month billed annually with 1,500 conversations and $0.50 per extra conversation. Enterprise is custom.
Is Botpress free?
There is a Free plan: 100 conversations a month with hard storage caps, and no top-up packs when you hit the limit; the next step is Plus at $150/month billed annually. Invent's Pay As You Go plan is also free, with 100 messages that renew every month, so a low-volume assistant can run on it indefinitely.
What counts as a conversation on Botpress?
Any exchange of at least two messages in a billing month, by Botpress's published rules: emulator tests count, a conversation spanning two months counts twice, and each anonymous visitor session counts separately. Auto-recharge of overage packs cannot be disabled.
Is Invent a good Botpress alternative?
Yes, especially on entry economics: $29/month with usage included versus $150-plus with conversation packs, and the team inbox, CRM, broadcasts, CSAT, and white-label ship in the base plan rather than higher tiers.
Does Botpress charge per seat?
No, and neither does Invent; both reject per-seat pricing. The difference is the replacement meter: Botpress prepays conversations in expiring packs, while Invent bills consumption against $29 of included monthly usage.
Can I run both before deciding?
Yes, and you should: Invent's free plan runs a real assistant on your actual content alongside your Botpress agent. A week of live traffic comparing resolution and CSAT answers the question better than any comparison post.
Related
- Add an AI Chat Widget to Your Website, No Code
- AI Call Routing and Agent Routing for Customer Service
- Best AI Chat Automation Platforms: Invent vs Rivals
- Voiceflow vs Invent: Studio or Support Platform?
Two companies killed the seat. Only one kept the meter simple.
