7 Must-Have Platforms for a CRM & Data Entry Bot for Sales Teams (Internal)

Intercom is a widely adopted customer messaging platform that has evolved into a full‑featured CRM and support suite. It offers live chat, automated bots, help center integration, and a built‑in customer database that feeds directly into its messaging engine. The platform is especially popular among SaaS and e‑commerce companies for its ability to surface product recommendations, qualify leads, and trigger email workflows based on chat interactions. Intercom’s bot framework allows users to design flows through a visual interface, set up conditional logic, and integrate with external services like Zapier or Salesforce. The platform also includes a Knowledge Base module, which can be linked to the bot to surface relevant articles. Pricing starts with a Starter plan at $39/month (for up to 1,000 contacts) and scales up to the Growth plan at $99/month and the Pro plan at $199/month, each adding more contacts and advanced automation features. Intercom’s key strengths lie in its tight integration with its own customer database, robust ticketing system, and comprehensive analytics. However, it can become pricey for larger contact bases, and the bot logic is limited to the platform’s own ecosystem, which can be a hurdle if you rely on multiple CRM vendors. Additionally, while the visual editor is powerful, it can become complex for users who want to fine‑tune natural language understanding.

Drift has positioned itself as a conversational marketing platform that blends chatbots, live chat, and email workflows to accelerate lead qualification and sales outreach. Drift’s bot framework can be configured through a drag‑and‑drop interface, allowing marketers to set up qualification questions, route conversations to the right sales reps, and schedule meetings. One of Drift’s standout features is its ability to pull data from Salesforce and other CRMs in real time, enabling the bot to deliver personalized product recommendations and track user interactions directly within the sales pipeline. The platform also offers a robust analytics dashboard that tracks conversation metrics, conversion rates, and revenue attribution. Drift’s pricing is not publicly listed; prospects are encouraged to contact the sales team for a custom quote, but the platform typically starts around $400/month for small to medium teams and scales upward. Drift’s main strengths include its tight CRM integration, built‑in meeting scheduling, and powerful analytics. However, the platform can be expensive for small teams, and the bot logic is heavily tied to the Drift ecosystem, which may limit flexibility for companies that use other customer data sources.

HubSpot offers a comprehensive inbound marketing, sales, and service platform that includes a built‑in chatbot builder. The chatbot is designed to capture leads, answer common questions, and forward qualified prospects to the sales team. HubSpot’s bot builder is integrated with its CRM, meaning conversation data automatically feeds into contact records, allowing sales reps to see a full history of interactions. The bot can be customized using a visual editor, and it supports conditional logic, HTML snippets, and custom JavaScript. HubSpot’s free tier provides basic chatbot functionality, while the paid plans (Starter $45/mo, Professional $800/mo, Enterprise $3,200/mo) unlock advanced features such as adaptive testing, multi‑language support, and more sophisticated automation. HubSpot’s strengths lie in its all‑in‑one platform for marketing, sales, and service, and its ability to tie chat conversations directly to contact data. The drawbacks include a steep learning curve for advanced customizations, limited flexibility for complex conversational flows, and the fact that the free tier is quite limited in terms of scalability.

Ada is a no‑code AI chatbot platform that focuses on delivering customer support automation for businesses of all sizes. It offers a visual chatbot builder, pre‑built templates, and the ability to train the bot with custom intents and entities. Ada’s platform is known for its multilingual support and its capability to integrate with popular CRMs and ticketing systems via webhooks or native connectors. The platform also provides a knowledge base integration that allows the bot to surface articles and FAQs. Ada’s pricing is tiered, with a Starter plan that starts around $1,000/month (for up to 10,000 conversations) and scales to a Professional plan at $3,000/month and Enterprise at $10,000/month, each adding more conversations, advanced analytics, and dedicated support. Ada’s strengths are its ease of use, multilingual capabilities, and strong integration ecosystem. Its main limitations are the high cost compared to other platforms and the fact that it doesn’t provide built‑in long‑term memory; instead, it relies on external databases or webhooks for context.

Bold360, now part of IBM Watson Assistant, offers an AI‑driven customer engagement platform that focuses on conversational search and self‑service. The platform allows users to build chatbots that can understand natural language queries, surface relevant knowledge articles, and route conversations to human agents when needed. IBM’s Watson Assistant provides a visual dialog editor, intent recognition, entity extraction, and the ability to integrate with external data sources via APIs. The platform’s strengths include its powerful NLP engine, enterprise‑grade security, and tight integration with IBM’s suite of services such as Watson Discovery for knowledge graph capabilities. Pricing for Bold360 is not publicly disclosed; IBM typically offers custom quotes based on usage and required features. The platform is well‑suited for enterprises that already use IBM cloud services and require robust security and compliance.

ManyChat is a popular chatbot builder that focuses on automating conversations on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and SMS. The platform offers a visual flow builder, broadcast messaging, and basic CRM integration via Zapier. ManyChat is particularly known for its ease of use and low barrier to entry for marketers who want to engage customers directly on social media. The platform supports the creation of lead funnels, automated responses, and simple e‑commerce integrations (e.g., Shopify). ManyChat’s free plan allows unlimited broadcasts but limits the number of subscribers to 500. Paid plans range from $10/month for the Pro plan (1,000 subscribers) to $25/month for the Max plan (5,000 subscribers), with higher tiers available for larger audiences. ManyChat’s advantages include its simplicity, social media focus, and cost‑effective plans. However, it is limited to a few channels, lacks deep CRM integration, and doesn’t provide a built‑in knowledge base, making it less suitable for complex internal data entry needs.