Are you in the quest for a chatbot development company? But don?t know what price would be the best for chatbot development? Here is a cost analysis and break down of it based on the steps or stages involved in chatbot, often called, talking bot, development.
Chatbot developers need to follow six significant stages/steps before they could create one that will solve the challenges of business. In the process of estimating the chatbot development cost, we assume $40 per hour as the standard cost of a developer.
Step #1. Backend Development
A backend system is required to collect, handle and process the conversation or messages of the users taking place across different channels, voice, texts, etc. All the processes are controlled intelligently with the ready-to-use NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) services including Wit.ai, Api.ai or LUIS. Managing NLP services demands a thorough understanding of .NET and Node.js server-side SDKs.
| Task | Tools | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server setup & deployment | AWS, Nodj.js, Microsoft Bot Framework | 4 | $160.00 |
Step #2. NLP Integration
Once you have your backend setup, create endpoints for integrating the NLP with each specific channel. The integration process varies a lot from one NLP SDK to another. The common practice involves: Setting up an endpoint in your backend for sending and receiving messages based on access tokens authorization. Also, you are required to implement some channel specific UI in the form of quick reply buttons, or visual cards that engage and guide the user through the conversation period. Let?s take one example, say Facebook Messenger. It favors initiating hosted Web views that give you an unlimited flexibility of showing conversation rich UI using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
| Task | Tools | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook channel integration & setup | Microsoft Bot Framework | 4 | $160.00 |
| Channel-specific UI configuration | Facebook Messenger | 4 | $160.00 |
| Configuration of rich UI | JavaScript, HTML, CSS or Adaptive Cards | 16 | $640.00 |
Step #3.Natural Language Understanding
The messages received from specific channels must be decoded. To understand the intents and entities out of the user messages, you need to take help of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) services. Most of the NLP services including Wit.ai, Api.ai, and Luis support both .NET and Node.js SDKs. The process involves with setting up an NLP service and processing the messages using an SDK for the service is straightforward. However, the real challenges lie in training the NLP intents and entities to understand the user?s context.
| Task | Tools | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup of NLP service with basic expressions | Wit.api, Api.ai, Luis | 8 | $320.00 |
| Training of NLP service on top of existing data | Wit.api, Api.ai, Luis | 40 | $1,600.00 |
| Data extraction and validation from NLP entities | NET, Node.js | 40 | $1,600.00 |
Step #4.Conversational intelligence
Conversational intelligence design is an essential milestone in the chatbot development process, and few chatbot development companies have genuinely aced the art. A chatbot developer needs to create an algorithm for each conversation, which can be of the types as follows: pure-decision trees, state workflows, slot-based algorithm or some advanced deep learning algorithms. The algorithm controls the conversation and makes the bot engage the users.
| Task | Tools | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision-tree algorithm to handle conversation based on NLP entities | .NET, Node.js | 160 | $6,400.00 |
| Integration with existing services (middleware) | . NET, Node.js | 40 | $1,600.00 |
Step #5.Integrations
A built chatbot or AI chatbot has to be integrated with the related business processes like sales and marketing, inventory, customer service and so on. The integration is based on business logic validation and rules. Here comes the significance of a backend with a good service layer. The later makes the integration process simpler, faster and more efficient.
| Task | Tools | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middleware API (business logic, validations, operations etc.) | .NET, Node.js | 200 | $8000.00 |
Step #6.Control Panel (Never Miss it)
Though optional, it?s vital. Unless you measure the outcomes of a technology investment, you can?t get to understand whether it?s serving the purpose well or not. Ask your chatbot developers to create a control panel roping in some analytics tool so that you can see the number of engagement, conversation history, and obstacles. The metrics will help you understand the performance of your talking bot.
| Task | Tools | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | SQL Server, MongoDB, Redis | 40 | $1,600.00 |
| Conversation history persistence and UI | .NET, Node.js + Angular 2 | 20 | $800.00 |
| Error login and uptime monitoring setup | Elastic Stack | 8 | $300.00 |
Bottom Line: Total Cost of a Chatbot
Summing up all the individual costs takes the cost of chatbot development to $23, 360. However, we have included all the fundamental steps of the design and development. To know the accurate cost, we urge you to contact us and share your details. This will help us provide you with a more practical estimate.
