Pandorabots Expert Reviews, Pricing, Alternatives - SSR 2023

Pandorabots is an open-source chatbot builder that uses Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML) to design conversational flows and human-like virtual agents, a.k.a avatars, through real-time animation. Pandorabots can be used to build chatbots on various communication channels such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, WhatsApp, SMS, and Telegram.

Pandorabots is an artificial intelligence company that designs chatbots for various use cases, such as virtual assistance, education, games, and social networks. Two of their notable chatbots are ALICE, which inspired the character in Her, and Mitsuku for the Metaverse.

Real-time human-like avatars enhance the chatbot experience to build rapport and develop a personal brand for businesses. According to the website, their solution is one of the best implementations of the artificial intelligence markup language (AIML). Pandorabots also offers a free AIML course for users to learn how to create basic and complex conversational agents.

Pandorabot isn't for businesses that want a straightforward, no-code chatbot platform. This is because building a chatbot and designing conversational flows with Pandorabot requires basic knowledge of coding and AIML.

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• Support for AIML open standard: Pandorabots has full support for AIML (artificial intelligence markup language) to encode knowledge independently of a particular client or conversation domain, thus allowing Pandorabots to host multiple chatbots on one platform.
• Human-like virtual agents: Pandorabots are designed to emulate human conversation for a personalized chat experience.
• Voice-enabled: Pandorabots offers speech-to-text and text-to-speech options for voice-enabled devices.
• Context-awareness: Pandorabots can consider the context of a conversation to produce more relevant responses.

Pandorabots also offers:

• Multilingual support
• Rapid iteration
• Cross-channel messaging
• Live bot training
• Access to chatbot libraries

Pandorabots can integrate with several third-party messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Line, Viber, Telegram, and Twitter. Customers can also use RESTful APIs to integrate with other apps and systems.

Pandorabots offers four pricing plans: 

• The Sandbox Plan is free but includes only unlimited Sandbox messages.
• The Developer Plan ($19/month) offers 10,000 channel messages per month, $9/ third-party channel, and $3/ additional 1,000 messages.
• The Pro Plan ($199/month) provides free integration to third-party channels, 100,000 channel messages a month, $2.50/ additional 1,000 messages, and rapport avatar compatibility.‍
• The Enterprise Plan has more flexible options for third-party channel integrations and the number of channel messages. You can contact the team directly for a custom quote.

Though Pandorabots offers both code and no-code options to build and design a chatbot, a basic amount of coding expertise and AIML knowledge is required. Keeping this in mind, the solution is best suited for businesses that have a development team at their disposal.

Once you've created an account on Pandorabots' website, you can start building your chatbot. They offer both code and no-code options. Users can build bots using its Chat Design and Intents Tree features. Alternatively, customers who prefer to code can create an AIML file and follow the tutorials available on the website.

All plans have access to the Pandorabots FAQs knowledge base and open-source chatbot libraries. The Sandbox tier only offers Office Hours - weekly sessions with AIML expert and Mitsuku chatbot creator Steve Worswick. These are held on Tuesdays at 4:00 PM UK time and allow users to ask questions related to AIML and the tool. 

On the other hand, email support is offered in the Developer tier, while email, chat, and phone support is provided for the Pro tier. Lastly, Enterprise subscribers can avail themselves of SLA and premium support.

Pandorabots was founded by Lauren Kunze in 2008.