RESOURCES

Guides and comparisons for founders who answer their own support

The guides cover cutting down repeat questions and adding an AI chatbot to your site, with steps for WordPress, Shopify, Webflow and other platforms. The comparisons put AI support tools side by side, and every price in them comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, with the date we read it. The glossary explains customer service metrics, each with its formula and a worked example.

Start here

Guides

Setting Deacon up, and the questions a founder asks before choosing any AI support tool.

How to use Deacon
Install Deacon with one script tag, teach it your docs, make it look like your site and answer what it misses, step by step. Free plan, no card.
Oct 2026
Customer service experience: what customers notice
The five things customers notice when they ask you for help, from the wait to reaching a person, with the research behind each and how to check your own.
Sep 2026
Voice of the customer, explained for small teams
What voice of the customer means, where the term comes from, seven ways to collect it, a programme that fits an hour a week and what VoC software does.
Sep 2026
What is Lovable? How the AI app builder works
What Lovable is, how you build and publish a web app on it, what code it writes, where it stops, who it suits and what a live app still needs.
Sep 2026
AI agent vs chatbot, and which one you need first
The difference between an AI agent and a chatbot as Zendesk and Salesforce define it, where the line really sits, and which one a small team needs first.
Sep 2026
Chatbot examples worth copying, by kind
Real chatbot examples for support, ecommerce, lead capture and docs, four famous failures, and what a good answer, “I don’t know” and handover look like.
Sep 2026
FAQ page examples, a template and how to make one
How to make an FAQ page customers use, with seven real examples worth copying, a template to paste and the steps on Shopify, WordPress, Wix and Squarespace.
Sep 2026
Will AI replace customer service? What it can’t do
No, not all of it. What AI already answers well, what still needs a person, where the handover sits and what it means for support jobs.
Sep 2026
AI knowledge base: what an AI agent answers from
What goes into an AI knowledge base, how an agent finds the right part of it for each question, and how to build one for support without a help centre.
Sep 2026
Chatbot vs live chat, and the option in between
What a chatbot and live chat each cost you in money and hours, where each one lets customers down, and the setup where AI answers first and you step in.
Sep 2026
Conversational AI for customer service, explained
What conversational AI does when a customer writes in, how it differs from scripted bots and AI agents, and one support chat followed turn by turn.
Sep 2026
Customer insights from the questions customers ask
What a founder can learn from the questions customers ask, from feature asks to bug reports and missing docs, and how to act on each kind.
Sep 2026
Customer service automation examples for founders
Automated customer service for a founder, stage by stage. What to automate before, during and after a question, with tools and prices to set up this week.
Sep 2026
Customer support for startups, in the right order
What to set up for support at each stage of a startup, the sign that says it’s time for the next step, and the startup discounts support vendors offer.
Updated Oct 2026
Grounding AI: answering only from your own content
What grounding means for AI answers, how retrieval ties a support bot to your own content, and the mistakes grounding can’t stop by itself.
Sep 2026
Helpdesk automation for customer support, in order
The order to automate customer support in when you answer it yourself, set against the routing, tagging and deadline rules a helpdesk runs, plan by plan.
Sep 2026
How to write knowledge base articles, with examples
Write each help article so a customer skimming it and an AI agent searching it both find the answer, with six before-and-after rewrites to copy.
Sep 2026
Product Hunt launch checklist, week by week
Every field on a Product Hunt listing and its limit, what to do in the weeks before, and how to answer launch-day visitors and see which ones signed up.
Sep 2026
Customer support outsourcing costs for a small SaaS
What freelancers and agencies charge to answer your customers, the minimums and notice behind each price, and where outsourcing breaks for a small SaaS.
Updated Sep 2026
WordPress AI chatbot with a plugin or a script tag
How the free WordPress AI chatbot plugins work, what each one leaves out, and how to put a chatbot on your site with one script tag in your footer.
Updated Sep 2026
How to add a chatbot to your website in 4 steps
How to add a chatbot to your website in four steps, where its script tag goes on each builder and framework, and how to tell it who’s signed in.
Updated Sep 2026
How to reduce support tickets as a founder
Most support tickets are the same few questions in different words. Here’s how to find yours, fix each at its cause and keep the messages that need you.
Updated Sep 2026
How to set up an AI chatbot for documentation
Which pages to let it learn from, what happens to your docs inside it, how to test it on questions customers really sent and how to keep it current.
Updated Sep 2026
What to do in the week after launching a website
The checks to run before you post the link, the four numbers worth watching on launch day and what to do with the questions your first visitors send.
Updated Sep 2026
AI hallucination: what it is, with real examples
What an AI hallucination is, six real examples from Air Canada to Google, why chatbots make things up and how to make a support bot say it doesn’t know.
Updated Sep 2026

Free tools

Small tools for your site, free to use with no sign-up.

Free UTM builder
Tag any link with utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign and copy it in one click. Free, with no sign-up, and it shows how each tag is read.
Sep 2026
Free FAQ generator
Write your FAQ from a template for software companies and copy it as HTML, Markdown or FAQ schema JSON-LD. Free, with no sign-up, in your browser.
Oct 2026

Comparisons and alternatives

The tools you’re weighing up, with what each one costs and who it suits.

Deacon compared
Alternatives
Pricing explained
Best-of lists
Head to head

Deacon compared

Alternatives

Zoho Desk alternatives, with free plans and prices
Freshdesk, Zendesk, Help Scout, HubSpot, Intercom and Crisp set against Zoho Desk’s editions on free plans, chat and AI, with prices read 9 October 2026.
Oct 2026
Front alternatives for a small team, with prices
Help Scout, Missive, Gmelius, Hiver, Zendesk and Crisp set against Front on seat price, channels and AI, with prices read on 8 October 2026.
Oct 2026
Help Scout alternatives compared, with prices
Six Help Scout alternatives for a small team, from Front and Missive to Zendesk and Crisp, with seat prices and AI costs read on 7 October 2026.
Oct 2026
Cursor alternatives, picked by why you're leaving
Seven Cursor alternatives sorted by why you're leaving, from the bill or the editor to a terminal agent or your own API key. Prices read 27 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Drift alternatives before Drift retires in 2027
Drift, Salesloft’s sales chat tool, retires on 31 January 2027. Six alternatives, each with its free plan and price, and where Deacon fits.
Sep 2026
Freshchat alternatives and how each bills its AI
Eight Freshchat alternatives with each one’s free plan, first paid price and AI meter, read on 25 September 2026 and led by Deacon, which answers for you.
Updated Oct 2026
Freshdesk alternatives for small support teams
Seven Freshdesk alternatives for a small team, from Zendesk to Crisp, with seat prices, free plans and AI meters read on 25 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Gorgias alternatives for Shopify stores, compared
Zendesk, eDesk, Tidio, Help Scout, Freshdesk and Shopify Inbox set against Gorgias, with seat, ticket and AI prices read on 25 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Lovable alternatives, and what each does better
Seven Lovable alternatives, each set against a reason founders actually leave, with prices read on their own pricing pages on 27 September 2026.
Updated Sep 2026
Replit alternatives, and which one to pick
Eight alternatives to Replit, each judged against its own workspace, languages, deployments and databases, prices read 27 September 2026.
Updated Sep 2026
Botsonic alternatives compared on price and handoff
Eight Botsonic alternatives with their free plans, first prices and how each passes a chat to you, read on 23 September 2026 and led by Deacon.
Sep 2026
Google Analytics alternatives and their free plans
Plausible, Fathom, Umami, Matomo, PostHog and five more, with their free plans, prices and cookie rules, read on 23 September 2026.
Sep 2026
LiveChat alternatives and what their AI costs
Eight alternatives to LiveChat, the live chat app from Text, Inc., with each one’s free plan, seat price and AI, read on 23 September 2026 and led by Deacon.
Sep 2026
Free tawk.to alternatives, compared on their AI
Eight tawk.to alternatives that each have a free plan, and what that plan’s AI does before you pay, read on 23 September 2026 and led by Deacon.
Sep 2026
Zendesk competitors compared on seats and AI prices
Freshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom, HubSpot and four more Zendesk competitors, with seat prices, AI meters and free plans read on 23 September 2026.
Updated Oct 2026
Botpress alternatives for customer support
Eight Botpress alternatives with prices read on 23 September 2026, what each counts and what happens at its limit, starting with Deacon, which needs no build.
Updated Sep 2026
Chatling alternatives and what each reply costs
Eight Chatling alternatives, priced on 23 September 2026, and how many replies each one’s cheapest AI plan covers, starting with Deacon.
Updated Sep 2026
Dante AI alternatives that let you take over a chat
Dante AI lets a person take over a chat from $120 a month. Eight alternatives, the plan where each lets you step in, and prices read on 23 September 2026.
Updated Sep 2026
DocsBot alternatives that answer from your docs
Eight tools that answer customers from your docs, set beside DocsBot AI’s plans, with each one’s seats, limits and prices, read on 23 September 2026.
Updated Sep 2026
Fin AI alternatives and what each charges for
Who owns Fin now, what its $0.99 outcome counts, and ten AI agents that meter another way, read on 23 September 2026, with Deacon’s free plan first.
Updated Sep 2026
Free SiteGPT alternatives and what they count
SiteGPT has no free plan, and its 4,000 messages become 400 on GPT-4.1. Seven alternatives that start free, with meters and prices read on 23 September 2026.
Updated Sep 2026
Tidio alternatives priced with the AI switched on
What Tidio and Lyro cost together, and eight Tidio alternatives priced with their AI on, read on 23 September 2026, starting with Deacon’s free plan.
Updated Sep 2026
Voiceflow alternatives for website chat
Seven Voiceflow alternatives for a chat agent on your website, with prices read on 23 September 2026 and which of them take phone calls, starting with Deacon.
Updated Sep 2026
Wonderchat alternatives, compared plan by plan
Eight Wonderchat alternatives with prices read on 23 September 2026, what each counts and the first plan where a person can take over, starting with Deacon.
Updated Sep 2026
The best Chatbase alternatives and what they cost
Ten Chatbase alternatives with their free plans, prices and limits, read on 22 September 2026, starting with Deacon, an AI support agent with a free plan.
Updated Sep 2026
Crisp chat alternatives and where each AI starts
Nine Crisp chat alternatives, with each one’s free plan, first price and AI read on 23 September 2026, led by Deacon, whose free plan answers from your docs.
Updated Sep 2026
Intercom alternatives and what each costs a startup
What Intercom’s seats, Fin and Early Stage add up to for a startup, and nine alternatives with their startup offers, read on 23 September 2026.
Updated Oct 2026

Pricing explained

Front pricing per seat, with Autopilot and Copilot
Front’s Starter, Professional and Enterprise prices per seat, what Autopilot and Copilot add, and what one to five people pay, read on 8 October 2026.
Oct 2026
Zoho Desk pricing per user, and what Zia AI costs
Zoho Desk’s free edition, Express, Standard, Professional and Enterprise prices per user, what Zia AI tokens cost, and team totals, read 8 October 2026.
Oct 2026
Base44 pricing in 2026: plans and what credits buy
Base44 pricing read on 10 October 2026: Starter $20, Builder $50, Pro $100 and Elite $200 a month, the credits each plan gives, and the student discount.
Updated Oct 2026
Bolt.new pricing, plans and what tokens buy
Bolt.new pricing read on 27 September 2026. Free costs nothing, Pro is $25 a month and Teams $30 a member, and what a token buys and what burns them fastest.
Updated Sep 2026
Chatbase pricing plans and what a credit buys
Chatbase pricing read on 25 September 2026, from the free plan to Pro, what a message credit buys on each model, and what a founder or a team of three pays.
Sep 2026
Crisp chat pricing, its four plans and Hugo’s bill
Crisp chat’s plans as priced on 25 September 2026, what a workspace includes, how Hugo’s AI credits are spent, and what a founder or small team pays.
Sep 2026
Decagon pricing, per conversation or per resolution
Decagon publishes no price. How it charges per conversation or per resolution, who it sells to and how you buy, read on its own site on 25 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Emergent pricing, Standard at $20 and Pro at $200
On emergent.sh, Free gives you 10 credits a month, Standard is $20 a month ($17 billed yearly) and Pro is $200 ($167 yearly). Here’s what those credits buy.
Updated Sep 2026
Fathom Analytics pricing and free trial
Fathom Analytics' page view tiers, which all have the same features, its 7-day trial and what a small SaaS site pays, read on 27 September 2026.
Updated Sep 2026
Freshchat pricing per agent, and Freddy AI sessions
Freshchat’s Free, Growth, Pro and Enterprise prices per agent, what Freddy AI Agent sessions cost, and what a small team pays, read on 25 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Freshdesk pricing plans per agent, and Freddy AI
Freshdesk’s Growth, Pro and Enterprise prices per agent, what Freddy AI sessions and Copilot add, and what a team of one to three pays, read 25 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Gorgias pricing plans, tickets and AI Agent fees
Gorgias’s four plans priced by the ticket, what counts as a billable ticket, what AI Agent adds, and a month worked out at 300 and 1,000 tickets.
Sep 2026
Help Scout pricing, plans per user and AI Answers
Help Scout’s free plan, Standard, Plus and Pro per user, AI Answers at $0.75 a resolution, and what one, three or five people pay, read on 25 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Lovable pricing in 2026: plans, credits and hosting
Lovable's plans in US dollars: Free's 5 build credits a day, Pro from $25 a month for 100 credits, and what Lovable Cloud and hosting cost.
Updated Oct 2026
Plausible pricing, plans and free trial
Plausible's Starter, Growth and Business plans, priced by page views, its 30-day trial and what happens over the limit, read on 27 September 2026.
Updated Sep 2026
Replit pricing, plans and what credits buy
Replit pricing read on 27 September 2026. Starter is free, Core is $20 a month and Pro starts at $100, and one monthly credit pays to build and run your app.
Updated Sep 2026
SiteGPT pricing, and what a message really buys
SiteGPT’s plans as priced on 25 September 2026, why a question and its answer use 2 messages, what GPT-4.1 does to the count, and a founder’s month.
Sep 2026
tawk.to pricing, and what free really costs
tawk.to’s live chat is free. Its AI Assist plans, message credits and branding add-on as priced on 25 September 2026, and what a small team pays with AI.
Sep 2026
Tidio pricing plans, Lyro AI and what you pay
Tidio pricing read on 25 September 2026, from Free to Growth and Lyro, what counts as a conversation, when plans upgrade themselves, and what a small team pays.
Sep 2026
v0 pricing, plans and what credits buy
Vercel’s v0 free, Plus and Business plans read on 27 September 2026, what a credit buys, what burns them fastest, and what a real app costs to build and host.
Updated Sep 2026
Zendesk pricing plans per agent, and the AI on top
Every Zendesk plan per agent, billed yearly or monthly, what the AI, Copilot and add-ons add, and what one to three agents pay, read on 25 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Botpress pricing plans, packs and monthly bills
Botpress’s Free, Plus and Team plans read on 23 September 2026, what counts as a conversation, the packs it adds at 95% and what a month really costs.
Sep 2026
Chatling pricing, and what its credits buy by model
Chatling’s four plans as priced on 23 September 2026, how many replies each buys by model, what visitors see at zero, and a founder’s month worked out.
Sep 2026
Intercom Fin AI pricing, per outcome and per seat
How Fin AI counts a $0.99 outcome, what it costs on Intercom, Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot and Freshdesk, and three months priced, read 25 September 2026.
Updated Oct 2026
Intercom pricing plans, seats and the Fin bill
An Intercom bill line by line for a team of one to three, from the $19 or $29 seat to Fin, Copilot and Early Stage, and how Intercom and Fin are sold now.
Updated Oct 2026
Kajabi Expert Agents: cost, limits and alternatives
How Kajabi’s Sales Agent and Teaching Assistant learn, what an agent costs before and after 30 September 2026, the themes they need and four other chatbots.
Sep 2026
Voiceflow pricing plans, credits and chat costs
What Voiceflow charges for a chat agent on your website, from its plans and credit rates read on 23 September 2026, with a month of chat priced out.
Sep 2026
Wonderchat pricing, and what its credits cover
Wonderchat’s plans under every name they go by, priced on 23 September 2026, with what a credit pays for, what stops at the limit and a founder’s month.
Sep 2026
Zendesk AI pricing and what each resolution costs
What Zendesk’s AI costs a small team, from the agent seat to each automated resolution, Copilot and the overage past your allowance, read on 23 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Chatbot pricing, and what an AI chatbot costs
Chatbot pricing by the seat, the credit, the resolution or the month, and what an AI chatbot costs, with one month of 1,000 questions priced on eleven tools.
Updated Sep 2026

Best-of lists

Best AI agents for customer service, with prices
Nine AI agents for customer service, from Fin to Agentforce and Sierra, with what each can act on, how it bills and prices read on 25 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Best knowledge base software for small teams
Eight knowledge base tools for a customer help centre, ranked for small teams, with prices read on 25 September 2026 and which plans answer customers with AI.
Sep 2026
Best vibe coding tools for founders, ranked
Nine vibe coding tools ranked for founders, from Lovable and Base44 to Cursor and Codex, with free plans and prices read on 25 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Live chat software for a small business website
Eight live chat tools for a small team’s website, with each free plan, lowest price and AI meter read on 25 September 2026, led by Deacon’s free plan.
Sep 2026
Website analytics tools and who they suit
Twelve website analytics tools grouped by job, each with its free option, lowest price and cookie rule read on 27 September 2026.
Updated Sep 2026
AI help desks for customer support: how each bills
How eleven helpdesks bill the AI that answers your customers, by resolution, outcome, session or credit, and what AI for agents costs, read 23 September 2026.
Sep 2026
Best AI chatbots for customer service, with prices
Nine AI chatbots for customer service, ranked for small teams, with prices read on 23 September 2026 and the plan where a person can take over a chat.
Updated Oct 2026
Small business help desk, customer service software
Choosing help desk software for a small business? Eleven picks from an AI agent to a full helpdesk, with prices for three people read on 23 September 2026.
Updated Oct 2026
Free ticketing systems and free help desk software
Free help desk software and open source ticketing systems for a small team, with each one’s limits and the hosting, modules and upkeep it really costs.
Updated Oct 2026
Customer support tools for small teams, with prices
The five kinds of customer support tool, what each costs on prices read on 23 September 2026, and how the number of people answering tells you which you need.
Updated Oct 2026
Free AI chatbots for a website, and their limits
The free AI chatbot plans for a website, what each one gives you, what your visitors see when it runs out, and the catches in the small print.
Updated Sep 2026

Head to head

Use cases

Deacon in your situation, and on your platform.

On your platform
For your business

On your platform

Deacon and Lovable
Sep 2026
Deacon and Bolt
Sep 2026
Deacon and v0
Sep 2026
Deacon and Replit
Sep 2026
Deacon and Base44
Sep 2026
BigCommerce chatbot: add one as an app or a script
Updated Oct 2026
Bubble.io chatbot, from API Connector to one script
Sep 2026
Carrd chatbot for a one-page site, on Pro Standard
Sep 2026
Kajabi chatbot options, from Expert Agents to code
Sep 2026
Lovable chatbot for support: build it or add one
Sep 2026
Replit chatbot for support: what it takes to build
Sep 2026
Adding an AI chatbot to a GitHub Pages site
Updated Sep 2026
HubSpot chatbot, free and AI, and what each costs
Updated Sep 2026
Adding a Squarespace chatbot with Code Injection
Updated Sep 2026
Wix chatbot options, from Smart Chat to custom code
Updated Sep 2026
WooCommerce AI chatbot for pre-checkout questions
Updated Sep 2026
Framer chatbot plugins, or one line of Custom Code
Updated Sep 2026
Shopify AI chatbot, from Inbox to one script tag
Updated Sep 2026
Adding a Webflow chatbot, and the plan it needs
Updated Sep 2026

For your business

AI chatbot for ecommerce, from sizing to shipping
Which shopper questions an AI chatbot can answer from your store’s own pages, which need your order system, and the ecommerce chatbots built for each job.
Sep 2026
AI chatbot for small business, and what it can’t do
Which questions an AI chatbot can take for a shop, clinic, agency, salon or trade, what it costs a small business, and what should still reach the owner.
Sep 2026
AI customer support for SaaS without a support team
Which questions AI should answer at a small SaaS, which must still reach you, and how to set one up on your site and inside your signed-in app.
Updated Sep 2026
What to look for in a documentation AI assistant
The three ways to add an AI assistant to your docs, six tests for choosing one, and what the questions readers ask it say about your pages.
Updated Sep 2026

Glossary

Customer service metrics and terms, one to a page, each metric with its formula and a worked example.

Customer service metrics glossary
Customer service metrics and KPIs for founders who answer their own support, each with its formula, a worked example and benchmarks where a source has them.
Sep 2026

For AI assistants

What ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity should read before describing Deacon.

Information for AI assistants
Deacon is an AI customer support agent for founders. This page gives ChatGPT, Claude and other assistants the plain facts, with prices and what it doesn’t do.
Sep 2026
llms.txt
The short index a coding assistant reads first, with the install and goals documents.
Sep 2026

Looking for something we haven’t covered?

We make Deacon, an AI customer support agent that answers your customers in seconds from your own docs. It gets better with every answer you write, and it shows you what customers are stuck on and what they want next. You can try it on the free plan, which needs no card and has no end date.