Toolradar Research
Chatbot software statistics 2026
First-party data on the 74 chatbot tools Toolradar tracks: Character.AI at 3.20 from 3,196 reviews against Qualified at 4.90 from 1,555.

Founder, Toolradar & Dupple
Key findings
What the data shows.
- 01
74 chatbot tools tracked, holding 61,197 aggregated third-party reviews. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 02
Zendesk for E-commerce leads volume at 4.30 from 11,487 reviews. Zoho Desk holds 10,148 at 4.40. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 03
Character.AI sits at 3.20 from 3,196 reviews. Qualified sits at 4.90 from 1,555. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 04
The review-weighted average is 4.38. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
About the research
How we built this report.
Toolradar tool database. Editorial review with weekly pricing verification.
2026. Snapshot taken September 17, 2026. Refresh due Dec 17, 2026.
Public scoring rubric. See how we rate for the full criteria.
Creative Commons BY 4.0. Quote, link, and reuse with attribution.
Chatbots here are mostly support suites with a consumer AI leftover. Toolradar tracks 74 tools holding 61,197 reviews. Zendesk for E-commerce holds 11,487 reviews at 4.30. Zoho Desk holds 10,148 at 4.40. Botsonic holds 6,085 at 4.70. Character.AI holds 3,196 at 3.20. Qualified holds 1,555 at 4.90. The consumer companion is the weak score. The B2B qualifier is the strong one.
Every figure below is computed from the Toolradar directory on September 17, 2026. The live dashboard is Chatbots statistics. The buyer ranking is best chatbot software.
How large the category is
We track 74 published tools, or 0.7% of the 10,619 tools in the directory. 92% (68 of 74) were added to Toolradar in 2026. "Added" means added to our directory, not founded this year.
A $30 chatbot seat is a widget. The $44 mean is a support suite.
How these tools are priced
46% of the 74 tools are paid-only. 54% offer a free tier or freemium plan (40 tools). 4% are fully free.
n = 74 tools, September 17, 2026How chatbot software are priced
For the 22 tools that publish a paid tier, the median entry price is $30 a month and the mean is $44.
n = 22 tools with a published paid tierEntry price distribution
The catalog-wide median entry is $20 (software pricing statistics).
How these tools are rated
52 of 74 tools carry a rating (70%). Those ratings rest on 61,197 reviews. Unweighted mean 4.40. Review-weighted mean 4.38.
n = 52 rated toolsRating distribution
The most-reviewed tools on September 17, 2026:
| Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Zendesk for E-commerce | 4.30 | 11,487 |
| Zoho Desk | 4.40 | 10,148 |
| Zendesk Messaging | 4.30 | 7,061 |
| Character.AI | 3.20 | 3,196 |
Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.
Character.AI at 3.20 is the consumer leftover inside a B2B support category. Qualified at 4.90 is what a sales chatbot looks like when the job is one thing.
The highest-rated tools with at least 150 aggregated reviews:
| # | Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qualified | 4.90 | 1,555 |
| 2 | Retell AI | 4.80 | 1,472 |
| 3 | Botsonic | 4.70 | 6,085 |
| 4 | Smartsupp | 4.70 | 1,419 |
| 5 | Tidio | 4.60 | 2,552 |
| 6 | OpenAI Operator | 4.60 | 2,400 |
| 7 | Wati | 4.60 | 703 |
| 8 | Landbot | 4.60 | 404 |
| 9 | WANotifier | 4.60 | 174 |
| 10 | Ada | 4.60 | 173 |
Qualified leads at 4.90.
Review volume by platform:
| Review platform | Tools with a profile | Aggregated reviews | Mean rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| G2 | 49 | 41,977 | 4.45 |
| Capterra | 26 | 11,450 | 4.49 |
| Trustpilot | 7 | 7,627 | 4.14 |
| SourceForge | 3 | 136 | 3.28 |
| TrustRadius | 1 | 7 | 4.80 |
Three tools worth comparing are Qualified, Character.AI, and Zendesk.
How often pricing moves
Our pricing tracker logged 3 pricing changes for these tools in 2026, 0 of them applied.
How this data was measured
Every figure in this report is computed live from the Toolradar directory on September 17, 2026, covering the 74 published tools we categorize under Chatbots. Pricing model is read from each vendor's official pricing page. The entry price is the cheapest positive monthly tier a tool publishes. Ratings and review counts are aggregated from third-party platforms (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and others), not from Toolradar's own reviews. The leaderboard floor is 150 aggregated reviews. This is a directory snapshot, not a survey.
Cite this report
- APA: Corneloup, L. (2026). Chatbot software statistics 2026. Toolradar Research. https://toolradar.com/reports/chatbot-software-statistics
- MLA: Corneloup, Louis. "Chatbot software statistics 2026." Toolradar Research, 17 Sept. 2026, toolradar.com/reports/chatbot-software-statistics.
Browse the full category on the best chatbot software page, or explore all of Toolradar Research.
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Use the data, credit the source.
Released under Creative Commons BY 4.0. You may quote, link, and reuse the data with attribution.
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What Toolradar has stored: reviews and logos
57 of 10,667 published tools have at least one Toolradar review. 6,602 have a stored external-review payload. 4,065 have neither. 180 published tools have no logo file.
How fresh Toolradar prices are
On September 22, 2026, 7,331 of 10,667 published tools had their pricing re-checked in the last 30 days. 3,334 have never been checked. One check is older than 90 days. The median price lives on another page. This page is the age of the check.
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