7 Best Onboarding Chatbots for Churches

Chatfuel, one of the earliest no‑code chatbot builders, has long served churches, nonprofits, and small businesses looking to automate Facebook Messenger conversations. Its drag‑and‑drop interface allows ministry leaders to create conversational flows, set up automatic responses to common questions about worship times or donation options, and broadcast announcements to a large audience. The platform supports integration with external services via plugins, enabling churches to sync donor data, send email reminders, or trigger push notifications. Chatfuel’s AI capabilities are powered by an in‑built natural language understanding engine that can handle basic intent recognition, though it’s less sophisticated than some newer AI models. The platform offers a free tier that includes up to 50 active subscribers, making it accessible for small congregations. Paid plans—Pro, Business, and Enterprise—expand subscriber limits, add advanced AI, and provide dedicated support. Though Chatfuel is strong in social media integration, it lacks the deep knowledge graph functionality found in newer platforms, which can limit the depth of theological or doctrinal responses.

ManyChat is a versatile chatbot platform that excels in Facebook Messenger and SMS automation, making it a popular choice for churches that want to engage members across multiple channels. The platform’s visual builder allows pastors and staff to design automated conversations for event RSVPs, prayer requests, and donation prompts. ManyChat offers a range of integrations, including email marketing services, CRM systems, and e‑commerce platforms, enabling churches to unify their digital ministry toolkit. The AI features include keyword triggers and basic natural language processing, suitable for common FAQs such as service times, volunteer opportunities, and sermon series. ManyChat’s pricing structure is tiered: a free plan supports up to 500 subscribers, while Paid plans—Pro, Advanced, and Agency—offer unlimited subscribers, advanced AI, and priority support. ManyChat’s limitation is that its AI is still rule‑based, which can result in less nuanced responses for complex theological questions. Additionally, while ManyChat supports SMS, it does not provide a native web chat widget without additional coding.

Intercom is a comprehensive customer messaging platform that has been adopted by many churches and faith‑based organizations for its robust live chat, automation, and customer engagement tools. The platform offers a web chat widget that can be embedded on a church’s website, coupled with a powerful knowledge base to answer questions about service times, donation channels, and outreach programs. Intercom’s automation features allow churches to set up targeted messages based on visitor behavior, such as offering a prayer request form to new site visitors. The platform also integrates with a wide array of CRM, email, and marketing tools, enabling ministry leaders to segment audiences and personalize communication. Intercom’s pricing tiers—Essential, Pro, and Premium—scale with the number of contacts and feature set, with the free tier limited to 200 contacts. While Intercom provides advanced AI for sentiment analysis and automated responses, it does not offer a built‑in knowledge graph, and the learning curve can be steep for non‑technical users.

Drift is a conversational marketing platform that focuses on real‑time chat and automated messaging to convert website visitors into leads. Churches can use Drift to set up a chat widget that answers questions about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and donation options. The platform’s AI chatbot can schedule appointments for small‑group meetings or prayer circles, and it integrates with Google Calendar and popular CRM systems. Drift offers a knowledge base to host articles and FAQs, and its analytics dashboard tracks conversation metrics to help ministries optimize engagement. Pricing starts with a free trial, followed by the Starter plan at $400/month for up to 1,500 conversations per month, and the Growth plan at $800/month for larger volumes. Drift’s strength lies in its ability to capture new leads and schedule follow‑ups, but it does not provide a no‑code visual editor for the chat widget, and its AI is primarily rule‑based.

Ada is an AI‑powered chatbot platform designed to handle complex customer service scenarios. Churches that adopt Ada can create a web chat widget to answer questions about worship schedules, fellowship groups, and community outreach. Ada’s AI engine uses natural language understanding to interpret user intent and can trigger workflows such as emailing a volunteer coordinator or adding a user to a mailing list. The platform supports integration with Salesforce, Zendesk, and other CRM tools, enabling churches to maintain a unified record of member interactions. Ada offers a visual flow builder, but it is more oriented toward enterprise customer support, which can make the learning curve steeper for small ministries. Pricing is not publicly listed and typically requires a custom quote based on conversation volume.

Tars is a chatbot builder that specializes in creating conversational landing pages and lead‑capture flows. Churches can utilize Tars to design interactive quizzes for new members, collect prayer request submissions, or guide visitors to appropriate ministries. The platform offers a visual drag‑and‑drop editor, pre‑built templates, and integration with Google Sheets, Mailchimp, and Zapier, enabling automated data collection and email follow‑up. Tars’ chatbot AI is rule‑based, with basic natural language processing for quick responses. While it does not provide a dedicated knowledge base or AI course builder, its strength lies in its simplicity and affordability. The free plan allows one bot with 100 interactions per month, while paid plans start at $49/month for unlimited bots and interactions. Tars is ideal for churches that need a quick, cost‑effective way to create interactive content without heavy technical investment.