ZChat vs Chatbase
The same AI-agent toolkit, with a real support inbox behind it
Chatbase and ZChat now cover the same core jobs: an AI agent trained on your content, actions that call real systems, messaging channels, a voice agent and a human handoff. The difference is what sits behind the AI. Chatbase puts its helpdesk on a higher plan; ZChat has the inbox, handoff, tickets and actions on every paid seat.
Choose Chatbase when proof and ecosystem matter
Chatbase has years of customers, SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA eligibility on Enterprise, a longer list of packaged integrations (Zendesk, Salesforce, Calendly-native booking, Zapier) and more model vendors behind one switch.
- SOC 2 Type II
- More integrations
- Established vendor
Choose ZChat when the inbox matters
The human inbox, same-thread handoff, tickets and every AI action come with the seat instead of a higher tier, and you can bring your own model key.
- Inbox on every plan
- Same-thread handoff
- Bring your own key
Where ZChat is still behind
No SOC 2 report yet, no Salesforce handoff, and a smaller integration catalogue. Discord works through an /ask command rather than a bot that reads every message, and campaigns are simple email or SMS sends rather than a marketing suite.
- No SOC 2 yet
- No Salesforce handoff
- Smaller catalogue
Chatbase vs ZChat
| Dimension | Chatbase | ZChat |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Teams that want an established AI-agent platform with compliance paperwork and a large integration catalogue. | Teams that want the same AI-agent jobs with a real support inbox behind them. |
| Human handoff and helpdesk | Helpdesk, human escalation and tickets start on the Standard plan. | Shared inbox, same-thread human takeover, tickets, canned replies and SLAs on every paid seat. The AI can hand off by itself through a transfer action. |
| AI actions | Collect leads, custom forms, Cal.com and Calendly booking, Stripe, Shopify, Slack, web search, custom buttons, custom API actions and helpdesk escalations. | Thirteen built-in actions: collect leads, collect custom fields, hand off to a human, create a ticket, escalate to Zendesk or Freshdesk, Shopify order status and product search, reply buttons, booking link (Calendly, Cal.com or any page), Slack alerts, custom button, web search and Stripe billing lookup. Plus custom API tools with variables and a test button, and every call logged. |
| Workflow builder | Agent actions and workflow automation configured in the dashboard. | Flows: buttons, questions, branches, tags, actions and hand-off to the AI or a person, triggered by the first message or a keyword. Built as a list of steps rather than a drag-and-drop canvas. |
| Channels | Website chat, email, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack, voice, telephony and outbound campaigns. | Website chat, email, SMS, WhatsApp (Twilio or Meta Cloud API), Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Discord (/ask command), LINE, Microsoft Teams and Slack, plus an AI phone agent on Twilio Voice and one-off email or SMS campaigns to your contacts. |
| Voice agent | Voice and telephony from the Standard plan. | The AI answers calls on your Twilio number, uses the same knowledge and actions, and transfers to a person when needed. The call transcript lands in the inbox. |
| Knowledge sources | Files, text, website crawl, Q&A, Notion and more, with auto-retraining on higher plans. | Site crawl that updates pages in place, URL import, document upload (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, HTML, text, Markdown, CSV), Q&A pairs, Notion sync, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, and YouTube captions. Scanned PDFs and images are read with OCR (needs an OpenAI key, managed or yours). Weekly auto re-sync for sites and Notion. |
| AI models | OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, Meta, Mistral, Moonshot and Z.ai models, depending on plan. | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, and open models such as Llama, Qwen, Kimi and GLM through OpenRouter - on ZChat-managed keys or your own. |
| Multiple agents | One agent per plan; extra agents are an add-on. | One site on the free plan; paid workspaces can add up to 10 sites, each with its own agent name, instructions and knowledge scope. |
| Branding | Removing Chatbase branding is an add-on. | Paid plans remove the ZChat attribution. |
| Single sign-on | SSO on Enterprise. | OpenID Connect SSO (Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace and others), with an option to require it. |
| Security proof | Publicly claims SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and HIPAA eligibility on Enterprise. | No formal attestation yet. Secrets are encrypted at rest, webhooks are signature-checked, and every AI action is audit-logged - but that is not a SOC 2 report. |
| Deployment | Cloud only. | Cloud. For your own servers there is DChat (dchat.com), our separate self-hosted product, sold as a subscription: Community edition free with unlimited agents, Premium $19 and Enterprise $49 per agent per month. |
Rechecked September 23, 2026 against public Chatbase product, actions and documentation pages. Everything in the Chatbase column is their own public claim, not something we have verified working. Everything in the ZChat column is read from the shipping code, including the gaps. Competitor claims change without notice - recheck before sales or legal use.
The AI-agent feature lists now largely match. The difference is the inbox: Chatbase puts its helpdesk on a higher plan; ZChat includes the inbox, actions and handoff on every paid seat. Concede SOC 2 and the integration catalogue plainly.