Automate your marketing with chatbots.
Grade: A — Score: 85/100
ManyChat leverages advanced technology to enable businesses to create interactive chatbots for platforms like Facebook Messenger and Instagram. Its user-friendly interface allows users to design and deploy chatbots without any coding knowledge, making it accessible for marketers and small business owners.
The workflow is designed to facilitate seamless communication between businesses and their customers. Users can automate responses, send targeted messages, and manage customer interactions efficiently, all while tracking performance metrics to optimize engagement strategies.
However, there are risks associated with using chatbots, such as potential miscommunication and the need for regular updates to maintain relevance. Businesses must also ensure compliance with data protection regulations to safeguard customer information and maintain trust.
Free: $0/month (no credit card required)
Essential: $14/mo billed yearly ($168/year) or $17/mo billed monthly. 14-day free trial.
Pro: $29/mo billed yearly ($348/year, 25% off) or $38.67/mo billed monthly. 14-day free trial.
Business: $69/mo billed yearly ($828/year, 30% off) or $98.57/mo billed monthly.
Advanced: $139/mo billed yearly ($1,668/year, 30% off) or $198.57/mo billed monthly.
Consider switching to Chatfuel: Chatfuel offers similar chatbot capabilities with a focus on Facebook Messenger, appealing to users looking for a different interface.
Active Contacts are unique people you exchange messages with during a monthly billing period, counted once per person regardless of how many times you message them. Each plan includes a monthly allowance (25 on Free, 250 on Essential, 2,500 on Pro, 7,500 on Business, 25,000 on Advanced) and overages are billed automatically starting at $0.10 per extra contact on Essential monthly, dropping to $0.004 on Advanced yearly. Automations do not shut off when you exceed your limit, so a viral post can produce a significant overage bill. You can set an overage ceiling in Settings to cap how many extras you are willing to pay for.
Both started as Facebook Messenger bot builders but diverged around channel breadth and AI. Manychat supports seven channels including TikTok, SMS, and email, holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001 certifications, and has deeper ecommerce integrations with Shopify and Klaviyo. Chatfuel focuses on Instagram and Messenger with a simpler interface and paid plans from $14.99/mo. Pick Chatfuel for single-channel simplicity on a tighter budget, Manychat for multi-channel automation with AI-powered replies.
These tools solve different problems. Manychat runs flow-based automation on social DM channels (Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, TikTok) with AI as a step inside flows. Fin is a free-form AI agent built for customer support inside a full helpdesk, starting at $29/seat/mo plus $0.99 per AI resolution. Pick Manychat for creator and DTC marketing automation. Pick Fin if you already own Intercom and need autonomous ticket resolution.
Yes. Manychat is an Official Meta Business Partner for Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, and also a TikTok partner. Being a Meta Business Partner means Manychat passes periodic Meta Data Use Checkups and compliance audits, gets access to platform features earlier than non-partners, and can legally automate Instagram DMs and comments under Meta's rules. This partnership is why Manychat is one of the few tools that can reliably run Instagram comment-to-DM automation without account restrictions.
Manychat holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and is listed in the Cloud Security Alliance STAR Registry as a Trusted Cloud Provider. The SOC 2 report is available on request to customers or prospects through Manychat support. Data is encrypted in transit via TLS 1.2 with AES256 ciphers and at rest with FIPS 140-2 compliant encryption. Annual third-party penetration tests and a bug bounty program are also in place.
No. Manychat does not publish SSO or SAML integration on any plan, including Advanced at $139/mo yearly. Team access is managed through email and password with role-based permissions at the account level (1 user on Free and Essential, 2 on Pro, 5 on Business, 10 on Advanced). Enterprise buyers who require SAML SSO for procurement will need to work around this or choose a different platform.
Manychat's AI Supplementary Terms contractually restrict third-party AI providers (OpenAI, Azure OpenAI) from using your inputs or outputs to train or improve their services for general use. However, Manychat itself may use your interaction data to maintain, modify, and develop its own AI features. You retain ownership of your inputs and outputs as User Generated Content, but the platform's own AI improvement is not something you can opt out of. You also cannot use Manychat AI to build competing chatbot foundation models.
Yes. Manychat's plan price covers the platform, but WhatsApp Business API conversations carry separate Meta fees billed through your Manychat Wallet. Marketing messages cost roughly $0.02 to $0.08 per conversation depending on recipient country, utility messages around $0.02 each, and each account gets 1,000 free service conversations per month plus free conversations started from Click-to-WhatsApp ads. A business messaging 10,000 customers in Western Europe could spend $600 or more per month in Meta fees alone on top of the Manychat subscription.
Yes. You can cancel any plan at any time from Settings, and if the cancellation is within 30 days of purchase, Manychat issues a full refund through support. After the 30-day window, cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period with no refund for unused time. Annual plans cannot be switched to monthly until the annual term ends, but upgrading during an annual term prorates the difference as a credit.
Yes. The Shopify integration is available on Pro and above and supports abandoned cart recovery, order status updates, post-purchase nurture flows, and in-chat product browsing with discount codes delivered via DM. Other ecommerce-adjacent integrations include Klaviyo for customer sync, Stripe and PayPal for in-chat payments, and HubSpot or Salesforce for CRM. Zapier and Make cover everything else through webhooks.
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