What is Chatbase?
Chatbase is a US platform for building AI agents trained on your own content. The agents reply in the customer’s language on websites, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, email and phone. From the Standard plan up, your team can take over chats live in a built-in helpdesk.
Where Chatbase shines
Chatbase’s strength is channel and integration breadth: WhatsApp, Slack, email and voice. Agents act in Shopify, Stripe and Zendesk, and run on models from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google. You can start free, and paid plans come with a 7-day trial.
How Askly is different
Askly counts whole conversations. An answer is a conversation the AI finished without a human reply. On its self-serve plans, Chatbase meters every AI reply in credits.
Each reply uses 1 to 6 credits, depending on the model. In Askly, a long and tricky chat counts once, or not at all after a handover. That keeps your monthly bill predictable.
Askly AI plans include unlimited users, no seat fees. Chatbase’s paid self-serve plans include two, three or five seats. Seasonal staff and managers join Askly without buying extra seats.
Language matters just as much when people answer. Chatbase’s helpdesk translates incoming customer messages, but replies go out as written. To answer in the customer’s language, your teammate translates every reply separately.
In Askly’s Fully Human mode, your team writes in one language. Askly translates both ways, live, so you reach new markets without local hires.
With Askly, BusTruckParts serves buyers from 100+ countries in their own language.
Chatbase translates its own buttons and menus automatically. For the greeting, placeholder and suggested questions, its docs point you to code. With Askly, localization is done on day one.
Askly keeps written conversations in the EEA, in Frankfurt and the Netherlands. Chatbase runs on AWS in the United States and processes customer data there. Transfers from the EU rely on standard contractual clauses.
Pricing: what you actually pay
Take a typical SME: five support people, 500 conversations a month. The AI answers first, and your team takes over when needed.
On Chatbase, the built-in helpdesk starts with Standard at $150 a month. That plan includes three seats and 4,000 message credits.
Two more people need extra seats, sold as an add-on inside the dashboard. The alternative is Pro at $500 a month, which includes five seats.
Credits are the harder part. On GPT-5.6 Terra, which Chatbase suggests for most production work, a reply costs two credits. So 4,000 credits cover 2,000 replies, about four per conversation.
Stronger models cost up to six credits a reply, and images or PDFs add more. Without auto-recharge, an agent that runs out of credits shows as unavailable. Top-ups cost $40 per 1,000 credits, and unused plan credits do not roll over.
Removing the Chatbase branding costs another $99 a month. Yearly billing takes 20% off the plan price, but not off that add-on.
Askly counts differently. AI Support Agent Starter costs €195 a month with 6-month billing. It covers up to 500 answers a month.
An answer is a whole conversation the AI finished alone, however many messages it took. Handovers to your team do not count. Users are unlimited, so all five people work in Askly at no extra cost.
At about 500 conversations a month, Starter is the right fit. Move to Flex at €359 when AI answers approach 1,000. Flex also adds priority support and up to 5 domains.
Askly’s team can also do the setup for you, for a one-time €1,500. Askly prices exclude VAT.
Results that speak for themselves
At private healthcare provider Confido, AI resolves 72% of patient questions.
At Wagenküll Castle & Resort, a hotel and resort, AI answers 91% of repeating questions.
Lottery operator Eesti Loto replies to customers 42 times faster with Askly AI.
Summary: which one should you choose?
Chatbase makes sense if you want WhatsApp, Slack and voice in one self-serve tool. It fits best when your team works in one language.
Choose Askly if you want a bill that follows conversations, not credits, models and attachments. AI plans come with unlimited users, so your whole team can help.
Choose Askly, too, if you serve customers in many languages. Two-way live translation means no local hires. Written chats stay in the EEA, and the chat window is localized from day one.
