Kelma vs Chatbase
Chatbase alternative: Kelma vs Chatbase
Both train an AI agent on your website and documents. The difference is what a month of real traffic costs you.
Chatbase is the best-known "train a chatbot on your data" tool, and it earned that position: it's mature, has a large model menu, and now does voice and telephony. If you've outgrown it — or looked at the pricing page and hesitated — this page lays out exactly how Kelma compares, with numbers from Chatbase's public pricing as of July 2026.
The short version: Chatbase's Hobby plan is $40/month (or $32/month billed annually) for 500 message credits — about 500 AI replies. Kelma's Starter plan is €15/month for 5M message tokens — roughly 1,500–2,500 AI replies per month, plus a second agent and branding removal included. For most small-business websites, that's three to five times the conversation capacity at less than half the price.
Kelma vs Chatbase at a glance
| Feature | Kelma | Chatbase |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | Starter — €15/mo (€150/yr) | Hobby — $40/mo ($32/mo annual) |
| AI replies on entry plan | ~1,500–2,500 (5M tokens) | 500 message credits |
| Agents on entry plan | 2 | 1 |
| Free plan | 1 agent, 50K tokens, never deleted | 50–100 credits, agent deleted after 14 days idle |
| Remove branding | Included on all paid plans | Add-on on lower tiers |
| Train on website, PDFs, docs, text | Yes (plus Notion, Google Docs, YouTube, Q&A) | Yes |
| Channels | Web, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Slack, SMS, email | Web, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack + voice |
| Voice / telephony | No | Yes (Standard plan and up) |
| Human takeover inbox | Yes, with team presence + routing | Yes (helpdesk on Standard+) |
| Lead capture | Configurable forms + webhooks + Zapier/Make | Yes |
| Public API | Yes, all paid plans | Yes (Standard+) |
| Bring your own model key | Yes (BYOK) | No — credits only |
| Currency & VAT | EUR, no VAT added | USD + VAT where applicable |
Chatbase figures from chatbase.co/pricing, checked July 2026: Free $0 (50 credits, agent deleted after 14 days idle), Hobby $40/mo, Standard $150/mo (4,000 credits), Pro $500/mo (15,000 credits); annual billing ~20% less. Extra credits $40 per 1,000.
Choose Kelma if…
- Price for real usage: €15/month for 5M message tokens — roughly 1,500–2,500 AI replies, versus 500 credits for $40/month on Chatbase Hobby.
- Your free agent is never deleted — Chatbase deletes free-plan agents after 14 days of inactivity; Kelma's free plan just keeps working.
- Branding removal is included on every paid plan (from €15/month). On Chatbase, remove-branding is a paid add-on on lower tiers.
- WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Slack, SMS and a support email address are all included — no per-channel gating.
- A shared team inbox with live human takeover, presence and routing is built in from Starter, not an upsell.
- Prices are final EUR — no VAT is added at checkout.
Choose Chatbase if…
- You need voice and telephony — Chatbase's Standard plan ($150/month) includes AI voice calls, which Kelma doesn't offer.
- You want to pick between many AI models per agent on a mainstream US-dollar product with a large public community.
- You're an agency reselling many bots and want Chatbase's established white-label ecosystem.
Try the difference on your own content
Paste your website address, watch Kelma learn it, and ask it your customers' hardest questions — free, no card, and your agent is never deleted.
Frequently asked questions
For comparable usage, substantially. Chatbase Hobby is $40/month for about 500 AI replies; Kelma Starter is €15/month for 5M message tokens — roughly 1,500–2,500 AI replies. Chatbase's 4,000-credit Standard plan is $150/month; Kelma Growth is €49/month for 25M message tokens — roughly 7,500–12,500 AI replies.
Yes — there's nothing to export. Point Kelma at the same website and upload the same documents you trained Chatbase on; a working agent typically takes a few minutes. Then swap the embed snippet on your site.
No. Free-plan agents are never deleted for inactivity. The free plan is capped by monthly tokens, not by a deletion timer.
Voice/telephony (AI phone calls), a bigger selectable model menu, and a longer market track record. If you need an AI agent that answers phone calls, Chatbase Standard is the better fit today.
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Competitor names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Figures reflect each vendor's public pricing pages as of July 2026 and may have changed — always confirm on their site. Spotted something outdated? Tell us via the chat widget and we'll fix it.