ManyChat

ManyChat automates direct messaging across Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and TikTok, aimed at creators, ecommerce sellers, social media marketers, agencies and brands, and priced on active contacts rather than on seats or conversations.

Focusing on social direct messages rather than website chat is what separates ManyChat from the general chatbot platforms. The conversations it automates start from a comment on a post, a story reply or a DM, which is where creator and ecommerce audiences actually engage, and the named use cases reflect exactly that: collect emails, request to follow, respond to comments, and follow to DM. Those are social growth mechanics rather than customer support flows.

Comment-to-DM automation in particular is the mechanic that made this category, since replying publicly to hundreds of comments is impossible while moving each commenter into a private conversation is both scalable and far more likely to convert. Instagram's own rules make that the sanctioned route to an audience's inbox.

Active contacts as the billing unit is well chosen for this use, since a creator's cost scales with the audience they actually engage rather than with team size, and an account with a large but dormant following is not penalised. Pricing is published across five tiers: Free at 0 dollars with 25 active contacts and two channels, Essential at 14 dollars a month with 250 contacts, Pro Manychat AI at 29 dollars with 2,500, Business at 69 dollars with 7,500 and Advanced at 139 dollars with 25,000, each then charging per additional contact. Annual billing saves 18 to 30 percent and a 14 day trial is offered.