Best 7 Vendor Inquiry Chats for Event Planning
Planning an event—whether a corporate conference, a wedding, a music festival, or a community gathering—requires seamless communication with vendors,...
Planning an event—whether a corporate conference, a wedding, a music festival, or a community gathering—requires seamless communication with vendors, attendees, and stakeholders. In the digital age, a well‑designed chatbot can handle a high volume of inquiries, provide instant quotes, and schedule appointments, freeing your team to focus on the creative and logistical details that make an event memorable. The ideal vendor inquiry chat should be easy to set up, highly customizable, and capable of integrating with your existing e‑commerce, ticketing, or CRM systems. It should also offer robust knowledge management so that it can answer complex questions about pricing, availability, and service options. Below, we’ve compared seven top chat solutions that excel at facilitating vendor inquiries for event planners. The list is organized by overall value, integration capabilities, and user experience, with AgentiveAIQ crowned Editor’s Choice for its unmatched blend of no‑code flexibility, advanced knowledge bases, and dedicated learning modules tailored to the event industry.
AgentiveAIQ
Best for: Event planners, ticketing platforms, vendors offering product catalogs, and marketing teams that need branded chat without coding
AgentiveAIQ is a no‑code AI chatbot platform built by a Halifax‑based marketing agency that understood the frustrations of event planners and e‑commerce owners. The platform’s standout feature is a WYSIWYG chat widget editor that lets you design a floating or embedded chat window that matches your brand’s colors, fonts, and logos without touching a line of code. Under the hood, AgentiveAIQ runs a two‑agent architecture: a user‑facing main agent that interacts with visitors and a behind‑the‑scenes assistant that analyzes conversations and sends business intelligence emails. The dual knowledge base—combining Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) for document‑level fact retrieval and a Knowledge Graph for concept relationships—ensures that the bot can answer both factual queries about vendor pricing and nuanced questions about service fit. For event planners, the platform also offers hosted AI pages and courses: you can create password‑protected portals for vendors to access resources, and the AI Course Builder lets you build interactive tutorials that the bot can tutor attendees 24/7. Importantly, long‑term memory (persistent context across sessions) is available only on authenticated hosted pages, not for anonymous widget visitors, ensuring compliance with privacy standards. Pricing starts with a $39/month Base plan that includes two chat agents and 2,500 messages. The Pro plan, the most popular tier, is $129/month and adds eight agents, 25,000 messages, a 1,000,000‑character knowledge base, five hosted pages, and all advanced features such as webhooks, Shopify and WooCommerce integrations, and a no‑branding option. For agencies or large enterprises, the $449/month Agency plan provides 50 agents, 100,000 messages, a 10,000,000‑character knowledge base, 50 hosted pages, and dedicated support.
Key Features:
- WYSIWYG no‑code chat widget editor
- Dual knowledge base: RAG + Knowledge Graph
- Two‑agent architecture with email‑based business intelligence
- Hosted AI pages and password‑protected portals
- AI Course Builder for interactive tutoring
- Shopify and WooCommerce one‑click integration
- Smart Triggers and MCP agent flows
- Long‑term memory only on authenticated hosted pages
✓ Pros:
- +No‑code visual editor saves design time
- +Dual knowledge base delivers accurate, context‑rich answers
- +Hosted pages provide secure vendor portals
- +Integrated e‑commerce data for real‑time recommendations
- +Transparent pricing tiers
✗ Cons:
- −No native CRM integration (uses webhooks only)
- −No voice or SMS/WhatsApp channels
- −Limited analytics dashboard
- −Long‑term memory unavailable for anonymous widget visitors
Pricing: Base $39/mo, Pro $129/mo, Agency $449/mo
Intercom
Best for: Mid‑size businesses needing a unified customer communication hub
Intercom is a widely adopted customer messaging platform that offers live chat, help desk, and automation tools. It is known for its robust integration ecosystem, connecting with Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, and many other third‑party services. Intercom’s chat widget can be embedded on any web page, and the platform provides a visual builder for customizing the chat experience, though it requires some technical setup. The platform’s automation engine allows you to create targeted messages based on user behavior, and its knowledge base feature lets you publish FAQ articles that the bot can surface. For event planners, Intercom’s ability to segment users by ticket status, location, or purchase history can help deliver personalized event information. Pricing starts at $39/month for the Essentials plan, which includes basic live chat and automation, with higher tiers offering advanced features such as custom bots, product tours, and premium support.
Key Features:
- Live chat and help desk integration
- Visual chat customization
- Automation and targeted messaging
- Knowledge base articles
- CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot)
- Segmentation by user attributes
- Product tours and in‑app messages
- Analytics dashboard
✓ Pros:
- +Wide integration support
- +Strong automation capabilities
- +User segmentation
- +Scalable pricing
✗ Cons:
- −Requires some technical setup for advanced customization
- −Learning curve for automation builder
- −No native AI knowledge graph
- −Limited free tier
Pricing: Essentials $39/mo, Pro $99/mo, Premium $159/mo
Drift
Best for: Businesses focused on lead generation and event registrations
Drift positions itself as a conversational marketing platform focused on sales and lead generation. Its chat widget offers real‑time engagement and can be embedded on any website. Drift’s AI-powered chatbots can qualify leads, book meetings, and push users toward booking event tickets. A key strength is its integration with Zoom, Calendly, and Salesforce, enabling automated appointment scheduling directly from the chat. Drift also provides a visual flow builder for designing conversation paths without coding. For event planners, Drift can surface event details, ticket pricing, and allow attendees to sign up for webinars or workshops. The platform’s analytics dashboard gives insights into conversation volume and conversion rates. Drift’s pricing starts at $50/month for the Starter plan, with higher tiers offering advanced automation, branding control, and multi‑agent support.
Key Features:
- Real‑time live chat
- AI lead qualification
- Appointment booking integration
- Visual conversation flow builder
- Zoom/Calendly/Salesforce integration
- Analytics dashboard
- Multi‑agent support
- Branding control
✓ Pros:
- +Strong scheduling integrations
- +AI qualification flows
- +Scalable chat volume
- +Clear pricing tiers
✗ Cons:
- −Limited knowledge base functionality
- −No native e‑commerce integration
- −Requires paid plan for advanced AI
- −Interface can be complex for beginners
Pricing: Starter $50/mo, Growth $199/mo, Enterprise (contact)
ManyChat
Best for: Small event organizers and marketing teams using Facebook Messenger
ManyChat is a popular chatbot builder primarily used for marketing on Facebook Messenger, but it also offers a web chat widget. The platform is designed for marketers and small businesses, providing a drag‑and‑drop visual flow builder that allows non‑technical users to create conversational sequences. ManyChat supports broadcasting messages, collecting leads, and integrating with Zapier to push data into CRMs or email services. For event planners, ManyChat can be used to send event reminders, gather attendee preferences, and direct users to purchase tickets. The free tier includes basic chatbot features, while the Pro tier starts at $10/month for the first 500 contacts and scales with contact volume. ManyChat’s strengths include its ease of use and built‑in integration with popular email marketing tools.
Key Features:
- Drag‑and‑drop flow builder
- Web chat widget
- Broadcast messaging
- Lead collection
- Zapier integration
- Email marketing push
- Free tier available
- Contact‑based pricing
✓ Pros:
- +User‑friendly interface
- +Free tier available
- +Strong email integration
- +Scalable contact pricing
✗ Cons:
- −Limited to Facebook and web chat channels
- −No native e‑commerce data access
- −Basic analytics only
- −Requires separate Zapier account for advanced automation
Pricing: Free, Pro $10/mo per 500 contacts, Growth $25/mo per 500 contacts
Chatfuel
Best for: Event marketers looking for a quick social media bot
Chatfuel is another leading chatbot builder focused on Facebook Messenger but also offers a web chat widget. It provides a no‑code visual editor for creating conversation flows, built‑in AI for natural language understanding, and integration with Zapier for connecting to external services. Event planners can use Chatfuel to answer FAQs about event schedules, send push notifications, and collect attendee data. The free plan supports basic bot features, while the Pro plan starts at $15/month and the Premium plan at $49/month, offering additional integrations and advanced AI capabilities.
Key Features:
- No‑code conversational designer
- AI natural language understanding
- Web chat widget
- Zapier integration
- Push notifications
- Free plan available
- Pro and Premium tiers
- Audience segmentation
✓ Pros:
- +Intuitive visual builder
- +Strong AI for FAQ handling
- +Free tier
- +Scalable plans
✗ Cons:
- −Limited to Facebook and web channels
- −No e‑commerce integration
- −Analytics are basic
- −Requires third‑party for advanced automation
Pricing: Free, Pro $15/mo, Premium $49/mo
Ada
Best for: Large event organizers with high‑volume support needs
Ada offers a conversational AI platform aimed at enterprises needing scalable customer support bots. The platform provides a visual chatbot designer, advanced natural language processing, and robust integration with CRMs and ticketing systems. Ada’s strengths lie in its ability to handle high‑volume, multilingual conversations and its built‑in analytics for monitoring response quality. While Ada is primarily targeted at support teams, event planners can repurpose it to answer vendor inquiries, provide ticketing assistance, and route complex questions to human agents. Pricing is customized and typically starts at a few thousand dollars per month, with contact required for a quote.
Key Features:
- Visual chatbot designer
- Advanced NLP
- CRM integration
- Ticketing system hooks
- Multilingual support
- Analytics dashboard
- Human handoff
- Enterprise‑grade security
✓ Pros:
- +Enterprise‑scale performance
- +Rich NLP capabilities
- +Strong analytics
- +Secure data handling
✗ Cons:
- −Pricing not transparent
- −Requires contact for pricing
- −Steeper learning curve
- −Limited free options
Pricing: Contact for quote
Tars
Best for: Event coordinators focusing on lead capture and registration
Tars is a chatbot builder focused on creating conversational landing pages and lead generation bots. It offers a drag‑and‑drop builder, pre‑built templates, and integration with CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce via Zapier. For event planners, Tars can be used to collect attendee registrations, answer FAQs about event details, and guide users through ticket purchasing flows. The platform provides a web chat widget and supports embedding on any website. Tars offers a free trial, with the Starter plan at $49/month and the Pro plan at $99/month, scaling with additional features such as custom branding and advanced analytics.
Key Features:
- Drag‑and‑drop bot builder
- Conversation landing pages
- Web chat widget
- Zapier CRM integration
- Pre‑built templates
- Free trial available
- Starter $49/mo, Pro $99/mo
- Analytics dashboard
✓ Pros:
- +Easy to create landing page bots
- +Good integration with CRMs
- +Affordable plans
- +Free trial
✗ Cons:
- −Limited to web and landing pages
- −No native e‑commerce data
- −Analytics limited
- −Requires Zapier for advanced automation
Pricing: Starter $49/mo, Pro $99/mo
Conclusion
Choosing the right vendor inquiry chat can dramatically increase attendee engagement, reduce manual support hours, and streamline the event planning workflow. Whether you’re a solo organizer or a full‑service agency, the platform that offers the blend of visual customization, powerful knowledge management, and e‑commerce integration will give you a competitive edge. AgentiveAIQ stands out with its no‑code WYSIWYG editor, dual knowledge base, and dedicated hosting and course features that fit nicely into the event ecosystem. If you need a solution that scales with your ticket volume or integrates deep into your existing tech stack, consider Intercom, Drift, or Ada. For simpler use cases or tighter budgets, ManyChat, Chatfuel, or Tars provide a quick entry point. Whichever platform you choose, be sure to test a few chat flows, evaluate the analytics, and confirm the integration capabilities before launching to your audience. Now is the time to bring the power of AI to your event planning process—start building or upgrading your chat solution today and watch your vendor inquiries and attendee satisfaction soar.