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Threadbox vs Chatbase

Chatbase and Threadbox both let you build an AI agent from your website and documents in minutes, embed it with a script tag and hand conversations to a human when the AI gets stuck. If you only need a friendly FAQ widget, either will do the job.

The differences show up once the agent has to do things rather than say things: look up an order, check a booking, apply an escalation rule, or prove to a compliance team where customer data lives. This page walks through those differences honestly, based on Chatbase's public documentation as of September 2026.

  • UK/EU hosted
  • UK GDPR ready
  • Encrypted at rest and in transit
  • Companies House 00838986

Last updated

Verdict

TL;DR

Both build an AI agent from your website in minutes. Pick Chatbase for a quick FAQ bot. Pick Threadbox if the agent has to look up live data, follow escalation rules and sit inside a UK/EU-hosted support desk billed in GBP.

Which should you choose?

Choose Threadbox if…

  • You need exact answers from your systems via deterministic webhooks
  • You want rule-based escalation into one inbox across web, Slack, WhatsApp and email
  • UK/EU hosting, GBP pricing and VAT invoices matter to your procurement team

Choose Chatbase if…

  • You only need a simple FAQ widget
  • You do not need GBP invoicing or UK data residency
  • You want a tool focused on the web widget rather than a full support desk

At a glance

Feature comparison between Threadbox and Chatbase
CapabilityThreadboxChatbase
Agent
Train on website, files and Q&A
Choice of OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models
Custom actions that call your APIs
Deterministic regex webhooks (no LLM in the loop)Not advertised
Guardrails: blocked topics, injection and leak checksPartial
Playground with compare mode and saved scenariosNot advertised
Channels & widgets
Website widget with streaming replies
Slack, WhatsApp and emailEmail from Starter, WhatsApp from Growth, Slack on BusinessHigher tiers
Rich widgets: cards, buttons, forms, status cardsPartial
Lead capture with triggers and CSV export
Team
Shared inbox with human takeoverBasic
Escalation rules: sentiment, keywords, fallbacksPartial
Roles: owner, admin, agent, viewerPartial
Ask-your-data assistant (Backstage)Not advertised
Support desk
Threads with references, custom fields and statusesNot advertised
Response targets with business hoursNot advertised
Rules and skills-based routingNot advertised
Customer portal with guides and communityNot advertised
Phone, SMS and social channelsNot advertised
Business
UK/EU hosting by defaultNot stated
Pricing in GBP with VAT invoicesNot advertised
Per-resolution feesNoneNone
Free seats for viewers and contributorsNot advertised
Human support from the team who built itNot stated

Chatbase is a trademark of its respective owner. Comparison based on public documentation as of 19 October 2026. “Not advertised” means we could not find it in Chatbase’s public material. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.

Pricing in GBP

Threadbox

GBP, excluding VAT, billed monthly

  • Free50 conversations a month£0/month
  • Starter500 conversations a month£29/month
  • Growth2,000 conversations a month£99/month
  • Business10,000 conversations a month£349/month

No per-resolution fees. Extra conversations in blocks of 100, up to a spend cap you set. Full pricing

Chatbase

Published in USD, with an approximate GBP conversion

  • Hobby$32/month billed yearly; 2 members≈ £30/month$40/month
  • Standard$120/month billed yearly; 3 members≈ £112/month$150/month
  • Pro$400/month billed yearly; 5 members≈ £375/month$500/month
  • EnterpriseCustom

Source: Chatbase pricing page, checked on . GBP converted at the 16 October 2026 rate.

How to switch

  1. 1Export or list your Chatbase sources and paste the URLs into a new Threadbox agent
  2. 2Upload the same PDFs and documents; indexing takes a few minutes
  3. 3Re-create actions by describing the endpoint in plain English, or email us the definitions
  4. 4Replace the Chatbase script tag with the Threadbox one
  5. 5Turn on Slack, WhatsApp or email if you were waiting for them

Read the full Chatbase alternative guide or browse all alternatives.

Where the two products are genuinely similar

Both crawl a URL, accept PDF and DOCX uploads, chunk and embed the content and answer with retrieval-augmented generation. Both offer a customisable web widget, lead capture forms, a conversation log and a REST API. Both let you pick between several foundation models.

If your evaluation stops at 'can it answer questions from my help centre', you will struggle to separate them. The next three sections cover where the real differences are.

Actions and deterministic lookups

Threadbox has two ways to fetch live data. Custom actions let the model call an endpoint you describe in plain English with typed parameters. Regex webhooks are simpler and stricter: when a message matches a pattern such as an order number, Threadbox calls your system and returns the result verbatim, with no LLM in the loop and therefore no chance of a hallucinated tracking status.

Chatbase supports actions but has no equivalent of the deterministic layer. For logistics, e-commerce and booking use cases that distinction matters more than model choice.

Try it on your own website

Paste your URL. We crawl it and hand you a working agent in minutes. Free plan, no card.

Escalation, inbox and team workflow

Threadbox escalation is rule-based: negative sentiment, keywords, repeated fallbacks, message count or a specific tool call can pause the AI and route the conversation to a person with full context. Your team replies from a shared inbox that spans web, Slack, WhatsApp and email, and hands back to the agent when done.

Chatbase offers human takeover from its dashboard and basic notifications, but the triggers are less granular and the inbox is centred on the web widget.

Data residency, invoicing and support

Threadbox is hosted in the UK/EU, bills in GBP with VAT invoices and signs a DPA on request. Chatbase prices in USD. For UK companies this can be the deciding factor for procurement, not the feature grid.

Support is the other quiet difference. Threadbox is a small UK team; you talk to the people who built the product, usually the same day.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Paste the same URLs and upload the same files. Most teams re-create their agent in under an hour; we will help with actions if you email us the definitions.

Keep exploring

Try Threadbox next to your Chatbase agent

Same URL, same documents, ten minutes. See which one your customers prefer.

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  • UK/EU hosted
  • UK GDPR ready
  • Encrypted at rest and in transit
  • Companies House 00838986