Here's the answer with the September 2026 prices: ManyChat runs free to $69 a month, with the $29 Pro tier covering most DM-automation clients. Chatbase, the fastest train-on-your-documents website bot, runs free to $40 for most small clients. Tidio starts around $24 with an AI agent built in. The glue layers, Zapier and Make, run $12 to $67. Your delivery stack for a typical client costs $40 to $120 a month, and it goes on the client's card, in the client's name. The margin between that and a $1,500 to $3,500 build fee is your knowledge, not your tooling.
The decision tree is one question: where does the client's volume live? DMs and comments, like salons and boutiques: ManyChat. Website questions, like clinics and local pros: Chatbase if their answers live in documents, Tidio if they also want live-chat takeover. Bigger clients with support teams: resell Intercom Fin, where per-resolution pricing means they pay for outcomes. Outgrown templates: Voiceflow.
And know when to custom-build on the Claude API instead: when the client needs their exact brand voice, when the bot must reason across systems, or when volume makes per-seat pricing silly. The economics are startling: a busy 3,000-conversation month runs single-digit dollars in tokens. You're not competing with $40 subscriptions on price. You're selling behavior subscriptions can't do.
The full priced stack is Volume 3 of our AI Agency guide.
One question, one stack, and a quote in minutes instead of research weekends.