AI Chatbot Features Compared: Channels, Handoff, Store Integrations and More (2026)

Price is only half of the decision. Two chatbots that cost the same can behave very differently: one answers on WhatsApp and Instagram, the other only on your website. One reads your live product catalogue, the other only your help articles. One hands a chat to a person with the context already written, the other drops the customer into an empty inbox.

This guide compares what each tool actually does, so you can match features to the way you sell. For pricing, see our pricing comparison. Information was collected on 3 October 2026 from vendor pages and public documentation, and features change often, so check each vendor’s own site before you buy.

What to compare

Seven questions separate chatbots in practice:

1. Channels: where can customers reach the bot?
2. Store integrations: does it know your products, stock and orders?
3. Knowledge: can it answer from your own documents and pages?
4. Human handoff: what happens when the bot should step aside?
5. Helpdesk connection: does it work with the support desk you already use?
6. Analytics: can you see what visitors read and which chats lead to a sale?
7. Ownership: are you buying a tool, a seat, or a subscription?

Feature matrix at a glance

Vendors across the top, features down the side. Customers message on the app they already use, so channels come first, followed by store platforms, support features, and automation and data.

How to read it: ✓ = supported, per the vendor’s own pages or public listings. ✗ = not found in the vendor’s public documentation or listings when we checked, so confirm with the vendor before ruling it out. ~ = partial (see notes).

Notes

• Intercom: WooCommerce works through a custom data connector, not a native one, and Wix only through a third-party app. We found no click or funnel analytics, only page views on visitor profiles.
• Tidio: Help desk and ticketing are on the free plan, though reviewers call the ticketing light. We found no click or funnel analytics, only a live visitor list.
• Crisp: We found no voice or phone support. It has a ticketing system, though reviews disagree on how capable it is. We found no click or funnel analytics, only live visitor counts through its API.
• Chatbase: Chatbase Voice adds phone calls. Its helpdesk with human takeover needs the Standard plan or above, per third-party sources. There is no native WooCommerce connector, only custom API actions, and its analytics do not cover website visitors.
• Botpress: LINE appears in older documentation, so check the current Hub. Voice is enterprise only. Handoff uses a built-in inbox or external desks such as Chatwoot and Freshchat, with no native ticketing.
• Gorgias: Third-party guides describe the WooCommerce integration as view-only for orders and AI Agent features as Shopify-only. Voice needs an add-on, and reporting is mostly ticket-based.
• Abuse protection: ProxyAI’s Abuse Guard detects flooding, off-topic replies and abuse, then applies a temporary cooldown or a ban (from 1 hour to permanent). Intercom can block a user from their profile (keyed to email, and bypassable without identity verification) and filters spam for Fin on email. Chatbase pauses spam conversations but has no ban feature. Crisp offers IP restrictions but no AI spam detection, and Gorgias’s spam detection covers Voice calls only. We found no abuse controls for Tidio or Botpress.
• Scheduled AI agent tasks are AI agents that run on a schedule, such as a weekly sales digest. We found nothing like it at the six competitors; Crisp relies on outside tools (Pipedream, Runbear).

If your customers are in Southeast Asia, Japan or Taiwan, LINE matters. If you sell to developers or communities, Discord and Telegram matter. In this matrix, ProxyAI is the only one with a tick on every channel row.

How the knowledge base differs

Every vendor can answer from your own content, so that row above is all ticks. The differences are in what you can feed it and how it stays current.

As with the main matrix, a ✗ means we did not find it documented, and a ~ means partial.

Store integrations: does the bot know your products?

A chatbot that cannot see your catalogue can only point to a product page. One that can will answer “does this come in navy, medium?” with live stock and price.

ProxyAI connects to four platforms:

• WordPress and WooCommerce: a free plugin installed from your own wp-admin. The WooCommerce Store add-on gives the bot live product answers.
• Shopify: installs from the Shopify App Store, reads your live catalogue, finds products by description, price or category, answers on variants and stock, builds a cart in chat and hands over a checkout link. It also answers “where is my order?” using order lookups.
• Wix: one click from the Wix App Market, with a Wix Store add-on for live product answers and checkout links.
• Any website: a short snippet to paste in.

Gorgias is the standard helpdesk for Shopify merchants, and Shopify Inbox is the free chat on every Shopify plan.

Knowledge: can it answer from your own content?

Out of the box, a bot answers from your pages and posts once you sync your content. For anything longer, such as policies, manuals or price lists, you need a knowledge base.

ProxyAI’s Bot Knowledge add-on grounds answers in your documents, with search that handles both exact words and paraphrases, and a document editor. The Agent Tasks add-on can also re-read your website on a schedule and report pages it could not read.

Human handoff: when a person should take over

AI should handle the repetitive questions and step aside for the rest. A good handoff does three things: it triggers when the customer asks, it gives the agent context, and it lets the bot take back over afterwards.

ProxyAI’s Human Handoff add-on:

• Hands over the moment someone asks for a human, before the bot answers.
• Leaves an AI briefing of the issue waiting when your agent opens the chat.
• Lets your agent reply under their own name and avatar, then hand back to the bot.
• Follows your working hours in your timezone. Outside them the bot says no agents are online.

Helpdesk connection: work with the desk you already have

Many small teams already use a helpdesk. ProxyAI’s Helpdesk Connect add-on gives you a choice: use ProxyAI’s simple built-in desk, a board of every ticket the bot has opened, or connect Gorgias, Zendesk, Freshdesk or Help Scout. With a connected desk:

• The ticket arrives with the chat transcript and order context pre-filled.
• Agent replies in Gorgias or Help Scout reach the customer back on their chat channel.
• You choose one desk per bot, and can switch to another any time.

So a small team can run on the built-in desk, and a team that already has a helpdesk can keep it.

Analytics: what happens before and after the chat

ProxyAI’s Sentry add-on is visitor analytics tied to the chat: pages visited, time on page and scroll depth, most-clicked elements (with rage and dead clicks flagged), and a funnel from visit to chat to first message to conversion. It is off until you switch it on, with a daily visitor limit you set.

Safety and abuse protection

Abuse Guard adds moderation and safety filters: free filters, a smarter AI guard at fractions of a cent per message, and a ban list. This matters for public chat, where spam and abuse arrive quickly.

Scheduled AI agents

Beyond answering customers, ProxyAI’s Agent Tasks add-on runs AI agents on a schedule, such as a weekly sales digest in plain language delivered to your inbox. Each run is logged step by step with its cost shown.

Ownership: tool or subscription?

This is the biggest structural difference. Intercom, Tidio, Chatbase and Crisp charge every month, per seat, per conversation or per credit bundle. ProxyAI’s chatbot and every add-on are one-time purchases, bought once and kept, and only AI usage is metered. Many add-ons include AI credits on purchase, so the setup cost is not all lost. See the comparison pages for each vendor in detail.

Feature summary