Comparison
AI chatbot vs live chat
Live chat is excellent when someone is actually there. The problem is that in a small business, nobody reliably is.
Context
The honest starting point
Human live chat wins on nuance, empathy and handling the unexpected. There is no argument about that. The difficulty is operational: to staff live chat properly you need someone watching it during all the hours your website has visitors, which for most small businesses means someone watching it instead of doing their job.
And an unanswered chat widget is actively worse than no widget. It is a visible promise of instant help, broken in front of someone who was interested enough to try.
Side by side
The comparison
| Human live chat | AI chatbot | Both | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Response time | Seconds — if staffed | Under 2 seconds, always | Under 2 seconds |
| Hours covered | When someone is watching | 24/7/365 | 24/7 with human escalation |
| Cost | Staff time | From £297/mo managed | From £497/mo |
| Simultaneous conversations | 2–3 comfortably | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Handles the unexpected | Excellent | Escalates | Excellent |
| Books appointments | Yes, manually | Yes, automatically | Yes |
| Consistency | Varies by person and mood | Identical every time | High |
| Out-of-hours enquiries | Lost | Captured | Captured |
Verdict
So which should you pick?
For nearly every business under thirty people, the right answer is AI first with human escalation. The bot handles the routine 80% instantly and around the clock; anything it cannot handle is escalated to a person with the full conversation attached. You get live-chat quality without needing someone to sit and watch a widget.
Plans
One plan, everything included
Website, AI, automation and ongoing management in a single monthly fee. No contracts — 30 days' notice.
Plan 01
Starter
Sole traders & micro businesses
£750 setup
+ £297/month
- ✓3–5 page professional website
- ✓AI chatbot trained on your business
- ✓Lead capture + instant alerts
- ✓Automated enquiry follow-up
- ✓Missed call text-back
- ✓Online booking & monthly reporting
Most popular
Plan 02
Growth
Established SMEs, 2–10 staff
£1,500 setup
+ £497/month
- ✓Everything in Starter
- ✓5–8 page website with live chat
- ✓AI voice receptionist — 200 mins/mo
- ✓Full lead & sales pipeline
- ✓Client onboarding automation
- ✓Invoice chasing & weekly reporting
Plan 03
Full Managed
Busy SMEs & scaling businesses
£2,500 setup
+ £897/month
- ✓Everything in Growth
- ✓Unlimited page website
- ✓AI voice receptionist — 400 mins/mo
- ✓Staff onboarding automation
- ✓Social scheduling & knowledge base
- ✓Priority support & strategy calls
All plans include hosting, edits, updates and ongoing management. Cancel any time with 30 days' notice. Full pricing details →
FAQ
Common questions
Yes, on Growth and Full Managed plans. You get an alert, you open the thread, and you continue from where the AI left off with the full history in front of you.
It should say it does not know rather than guess, and we test explicitly for that before go-live. Every gap that surfaces in the transcripts gets patched in the monthly review.
If you genuinely can staff it during all your traffic hours, it performs very well. Most small businesses discover within a fortnight that they cannot, which is when the widget becomes a liability.
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