Starlix vs Chatbase: which AI agent fits a small store or support team?
You've narrowed it to two tools, both promise an AI agent trained on your own docs, and both pricing pages look reasonable. Then you notice one counts conversations and the other counts message credits, and the comparison stops being simple.
Short answer: Starlix and Chatbase do the same core job: train an AI agent on your content and put it on your website and messaging channels. Starlix has a free plan and paid plans from $19.99/month, counted in AI conversations. Chatbase has no free plan, starts at $40/month ($32 billed yearly) and counts message credits. If you want to start small and pay per conversation, Starlix costs less to try and less to run at low volume.
We make Starlix, so read this with that in mind. Every Chatbase number below comes from Chatbase's pricing page as of October 2026; check it before you decide.
Pricing side by side
| Starlix | Chatbase | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, 50 AI conversations/month | No |
| Entry plan | $19.99/mo: 100 AI conversations, 3 seats | $40/mo ($32 yearly): 700 message credits, 2 members |
| Mid plan | $68.99/mo: 500 AI conversations, 10 seats | $150/mo ($120 yearly): 4,000 message credits, 3 members |
| Top self-serve plan | $199/mo: 1,000 AI conversations, unlimited seats | $500/mo ($400 yearly): 15,000 message credits, 5 members |
| Usage unit | One conversation, however long | One credit per AI reply |
| Over the limit | $0.40 per extra AI conversation | $40 per 1,000 credits |
| Trial | 7 days on paid plans | 7 days on paid plans |
Two Chatbase costs are easy to miss: each plan includes one agent (extra agents are $300 per year each), and removing "Powered by Chatbase" is $1,188 a year. On Starlix, conversations your team handles don't count toward the limit at all, which means handing a chat to a person never costs you usage. See Starlix pricing for the full plan list.
Conversations vs message credits
This is the difference that decides your bill. Starlix counts a conversation: one customer, one chat, however many messages it takes. Chatbase counts a credit per AI reply, so a shopper who asks three follow-ups uses several credits.
Neither is wrong, but they aren't directly comparable. Pull twenty real chats from last month and count the AI replies in each. If most chats are one question and one answer, the gap narrows. If your customers troubleshoot in long threads, a conversation count is cheaper and easier to predict.
Where Starlix is the better fit
You want to test before you pay. The free plan has no card and no time limit, which means you can train an agent on your real site and judge it on your real questions.
You sell online. Starlix reads your live Shopify catalog and order data, which means "where is my order?" gets the actual status at 2am instead of a link to your shipping policy.
You want control over what the agent can do. AI Actions call your own systems through webhooks, and each one is marked read, write or irreversible, with optional human approval. That means the agent can look things up freely but can't issue a refund unless you've allowed it.
You want to check its work. Every conversation keeps an audit log of the knowledge sources and tools it used, which means a wrong answer points you to the doc that needs fixing.
Where Chatbase may be the better fit
You need integrations listed on its Standard plan, such as Salesforce, or features like telephony and outbound campaigns, and the budget fits. Or you'd rather buy capacity in credits than conversations.
How to decide in an afternoon
Write down the ten questions your customers ask most. Train a free Starlix agent, start a Chatbase trial, and ask both the same ten. Score three things: did it answer from your content instead of guessing, did it hand off cleanly when it couldn't, and what would a month of your volume cost on each model.
FAQ
Does Starlix have a free plan? Yes. 50 AI conversations a month, 1 seat and 50 trained records, with no card required.
Does Chatbase have a free plan? Not as of October 2026. Paid plans have a 7-day trial, starting with Hobby at $40/month.
Can I move from Chatbase to Starlix? Yes. Both train on your website and documents, so moving mostly means pointing Starlix at the same sources and connecting the same channels.