Heyy vs Chatbase: Which One Should You Choose?
Quick answer
Chatbase is the better default choice for most teams: it has broader integrations (Shopify, Stripe, HubSpot, Salesforce), deeper analytics, and a real, checkable body of customer usage behind it. Heyy is the better choice specifically if WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger carry most of your support volume and you want tighter, permission-scoped control over what the AI can read or write in a contact record — nothing in Chatbase matches that. Most teams evaluating both end up on Chatbase by default, simply because 'we need an AI chatbot for our website' is the more common starting problem and Chatbase answers it faster, with a longer track record. Neither company's AI-resolution-accuracy claims should be taken at face value — test both against your own content before committing either way.
- Chatbase is the better default pick for most teams — broader integrations, deeper analytics, and a real, checkable track record. Heyy is the better pick specifically if WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger carry most of your support volume.
- Both are single-agent AI tools at a similar starting price ($49/mo for Heyy's Hobby plan vs $40/mo for Chatbase's Hobby plan, or $32/mo billed annually) — the real difference is which problem each one was built to solve first: Chatbase for a website widget, Heyy for messaging apps.
- Neither one's AI holds up to close inspection yet: Chatbase's own users report it confidently generating wrong answers once a question falls outside its trained content, and Heyy has no track record at all to check against — it simply doesn't have an established user base handing out public feedback yet.
- Chatbase pulls ahead on the things that make a chatbot useful beyond FAQs: a dedicated Shopify Action for order questions, a Stripe Action for billing, and HubSpot/Salesforce hooks for escalating to a human ticketing system — Heyy has none of these natively, pushing you toward building your own API action instead.
- Heyy pulls ahead on inbox discipline: its unified inbox and exit-point handoff system are more deliberately built than Chatbase's, and its attribute-permission model (Read/Share/Update) is a genuinely more careful way to let an AI touch a customer record than anything Chatbase documents.
- Pick Chatbase if your support starts on a website and you want the safer, better-integrated, better-documented option today. Pick Heyy if your customers actually live in WhatsApp or Instagram DMs and you're willing to be an early adopter in exchange for tighter data controls.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Heyy | Chatbase |
|---|---|---|
| Number of native channels | WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Live Chat, and SMS — five channels, no native voice | Website widget, WhatsApp, email, and voice — a broader default spread |
| True omnichannel unification | Genuinely unified across its messaging channels | Genuinely unified, with the website widget as the clear center of gravity |
| AI availability | One AI Employee with configured identity and scoped knowledge, included from the base plan | Chatbase's core product and most mature offering — the default answer to 'we need a website chatbot' |
| AI resolution accuracy | No independent track record to check yet | Users report it confidently generating wrong answers once a question falls outside trained content |
| AI training method | Trained on uploaded docs and URLs with configurable scope | Trained on uploaded docs and URLs with configurable scope |
| Hallucination controls | Documented scoping guidance and explicit warnings against ungrounded claims | Basic scoping controls, but users report confidently wrong answers slipping through |
| Automation depth | Configurable exit-point and handoff logic for the AI Employee | Configurable flows and actions, comparable depth |
| Sentiment/intent detection | Limited — not a documented strength | Documented sentiment/intent classification on incoming conversations |
| Unified inbox | A standout for Heyy — deliberately built and central to the product | Solid and functional, but less central to the product's design |
| Live chat option alongside AI | Live Chat is a first-class channel alongside the AI Employee | Available and functional, positioned as a fallback rather than a first-class channel |
| Internal collaboration tools | Basic internal notes and assignment | Basic internal notes and assignment |
| Canned responses/macros | Well-documented canned response system | Not yet scored — no evidence found |
| Shopify | No native connector — DIY via a Custom API action | Dedicated Shopify Action for order and delivery questions, built in |
| CRM integrations | No native connector — DIY via a Custom API action | HubSpot/Salesforce hooks, ticketing-focused rather than deep CRM sync |
| Order & payment data access | Documented order/payment lookup patterns via a hand-built API action | Handles order questions via the Shopify Action; more limited on payment specifics |
| Multi-language support | Basic multi-language support | Broader documented language coverage |
| Analytics depth | Not yet scored — no dashboard documented | Basic dashboard covering usage and conversation volume |
| Pricing model transparency | Published tiered pricing, but credit/WhatsApp usage costs take real work to model out | Published tiered pricing, but message-credit usage takes real work to model out |
| API/webhook extensibility | Documented Custom API action framework, functional but requires real engineering effort | Documented API/webhook support, functional for custom integrations |
Our verdict
These two sit close on price but solve different problems, and the channel list tells you most of what you need to know: Heyy is built around WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger with Live Chat as one option among several, while Chatbase is a website-widget-first bot that's grown outward into email, WhatsApp, and voice. If your support volume actually starts on your website, Chatbase's broader integration surface wins the comparison outright — a dedicated Shopify Action for order and delivery questions, a Stripe Action for billing, and HubSpot/Salesforce hooks for ticket escalation are all real, documented features Heyy simply doesn't have without you building a Custom API action yourself. What Chatbase doesn't have is a clean track record on accuracy: users describe it confidently generating answers that are simply wrong once a question falls outside its trained content, which is exactly the failure mode Heyy's own documentation seems built to avoid — the explicit warning against crawling live store data for prices, and the guidance to wire up a real-time API action instead, reads like a team that has already watched this go wrong somewhere. The trouble is Heyy can't yet prove its approach works better in practice: there's no track record on its resolution accuracy at all, versus Chatbase's imperfect but real, checkable usage history. My honest read: most teams land on Chatbase by default, and that default is reasonable — it's the faster, better-integrated, better-documented answer to 'we need an AI chatbot.' Where that default breaks down is exactly where Heyy is aimed: if WhatsApp or Instagram DMs are where your customers actually show up, and you want tighter, permission-scoped control over what the AI can touch in a contact record, Heyy is worth a real Playground test now that its pricing is finally public — just go in knowing you're betting on the product's design, not a track record.