If you're looking for a chatbot solution to generate content, you've probably come across ChatGPT. After all, it's one of the most popular options out there. But is it really the best choice for your needs?
To answer this question, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to sieve through dozens of ChatGPT alternatives to find the best of the best in their respective verticals.
The recent generative AI explosion has given us more choices than ever before. Let's take a look at some of them.
General
1. The Viral Sensation: ChatGPT by OpenAI
Built as an all-purpose chatbot for all kinds of instructions, ChatGPT has the ability to answer mundane questions, debug code, write sappy Shakespearean sonnets, solve quadratic equations, and more. By learning from vast datasets covering just about anything under the sun, ChatGPT can give you the exact answers you need in a fraction of the time it would take for you to comb through the research you gathered online. With a model that’s built upon 175 billion parameters, you can rest assured that ChatGPT will always have a tailored response for you. And you get all these without having to pay a single cent!
Pros
- Diverse abilities ranging from text generation to coding
- Free to use
- Simple user interface
- API integration
Cons
- Not connected to the Internet
- Not always accessible
- Generic sounding copy
Pricing
ChatGPT Plus at $20/month
Our take: All things considered, ChatGPT is the best all-purpose chatbot out there. Its ease of use and public accessibility makes it a useful tool for the average user. However, unless you're willing to shell out $20/month for guaranteed access, ChatGPT might not be a reliable option for everyday users or small teams looking to scale up their content fast.
2. The Sleeping Giant: Ernie Bot by Baidu
Ernie Bot, or WenXin Yiyan in Chinese, is Baidu’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Trained with 260 billion parameters (about 50% larger than ChatGPT’s model), Ernie Bot has been growing since 2019 to easily take on tasks such as language understanding, language generation, and text-to-image generation. According to a Baidu spokesperson, what sets Ernie Bot apart from its competitors is “its ability to integrate extensive knowledge with massive data, resulting in exceptional understanding and generation capabilities”. During its limited presentation at Baidu headquarters in Beijing, Ernie Bot showed off its capabilities in answering questions on popular Chinese sci-fi novel "The Three Body Problem", carrying out mathematical calculations, understanding Chinese dialects, as well as generating videos and images with simple text prompts.
Built as a general purpose chatbot, Ernie Bot excels in all the language tasks that it is trained to do. However, because Ernie Bot is meant to be a localized AI foundation model for the Chinese market, the generative language model is more suitable to Chinese language and culture and may not perform as well for non-Chinese generations.
Pros
- Largest commercial language model to date
- Text-to-image generation
Cons
- Localized AI model for Chinese market
- General purpose
Pricing
Unannounced
Our take: For a general purpose chatbot, Ernie bot excels on paper and is expected to be the ChatGPT equivalent for the Chinese market once released. Owing to its localized dataset, Ernie Bot could be a valuable asset for teams working with tools embedded in the Chinese landscape and Ernie ecosystem. Baidu’s Ernie Bot is currently open to a closed group of users with invitation codes.
3.The Bot Aggregator: Poe by Quora
In a clever move by the largest Q&A platform player in the market, Quora recently launched their very own chatbot app, Poe, marketing it as a bot aggregator that allows access to chatbots optimised for different tasks. Poe, which stands for “Platform for Open Exploration”, lives up to its name. Through the Poe app, users can switch freely between four different general knowledge AI chatbots: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Sage, and Claude, as well as Anthropic technology’s Dragonfly. Granted, while Quora’s aggregator app has not brought anything new to the table, there is immense potential for integration into its Q&A platform to serve its 400 million monthly visitors.
Pros
- Access to 4 different general knowledge chatbots
- Easily accessible
- Simple user interface
Cons
- All aggregated chatbots do not have knowledge of events after 2021
- Bots may make inaccurate statements and refuse to answer some questions
Pricing
Free
Our take: Poe is an elegant aggregator solution that offers easy access to leading general knowledge chatbots all in one place. However, as a free aggregator app, Poe is limited by the capabilities of the chatbots that it hosts on the platform.
Marketing
4. The Marketing Guru: HypoChat
When it comes to content marketing, HypoChat is a certified guru. The AI model is trained exclusively on high conversion marketing copies, making it the best tool for writing SEO-friendly descriptions that sell effortlessly.
Besides being incredibly fast, HypoChat has some other pretty cool features that make it a standout GPT alternative. It reads from URLs, so it can help you create content quickly and efficiently from online sources like websites and forums. Plus, it provides sources for your research and helpful content recommendations to spice up your writing.
HypoChat combines the best of both worlds with an integrated editor that makes it easy to create the content you want—insert HypoChat’s responses directly into the editor to begin drafting immediately. Work seamlessly with the editor and chatbot to craft campaign proposals or repurpose evergreen content for different social media channels.
Pros
- Connected to the Internet
- Able to read content from URLs* and cite online sources
- Integrated text editor for writing long-form content
- Trained on high conversion marketing copy using proprietary machine learning techniques
*URLs that are private, paywalled, require authentication, or contain only media (images, videos, PDFs, etc.) cannot be read
Cons
- No browser extensions
- Subscription cost
Pricing
Plans start from $29/month. Hypotenuse has a 7-day free trial that you can take advantage of anytime to try a whole suite of AI tools!
Our take: HypoChat's ability to connect to the Internet and scrape URL links makes it an extremely handy tool for quick research and writing. The integrated editor also makes crafting long-form content a breeze without having to switch tabs. While it’s priced a little higher than other similar AI tools in this list, HypoChat’s specialized training in high conversion marketing copy makes the initial investment more than worth it.
5. The ChatGPT Twin: Jasper Chat
Jasper Chat is a free AI writing assistant that can rival ChatGPT in the recency of its training data (up till Summer 2021), and it even remembers what you said earlier—which is really cool. Jasper Chat helps you write better, faster and more effectively by suggesting words and phrases for your articles, blog posts and videos. Plus, it has incredibly useful grammar and plagiarism checkers that will help you identify any mistakes in your writing.The downside to Jasper Chat is that it's not connected to the internet—which means if you want to use it while on the go, you'll need to download the app first. However, this isn't a major issue since Jasper Chat is built into Google Docs, making it available almost everywhere.
Pros
- Understands 29 languages
- Chrome browser extension
- Simple user interface
Cons
- Not connected to the Internet
- Generic copy from GPT-3 model
- Steep subscription cost
Pricing
Plans from $59/month
Jasper.ai offers a 5-day free trial.
Our take: Built on the GPT-3 model, Jasper Chat is the closest twin to ChatGPT you will find, along with additional features that help you write better and more efficiently. However, as it is not connected to the Internet, Jasper Chat suffers from the same problems as ChatGPT and cannot be used reliably for any projects requiring real-time data. At $59/month, Jasper Chat is one of the priciest options in this list.
6. The Shapeshifter: ChatSonic
If you're on the hunt for a ChatGPT alternative, then you've no doubt heard about ChatSonic. It's regularly mentioned as the leading ChatGPT alternative, and it's easy to see why. ChatSonic uses the same technology behind ChatGPT (GPT 3), so you can be sure you are getting the same quality of service. Powered by Google Search, ChatSonic can provide you with the latest information found online. Moreover, ChatSonic offers both natural language processing and image generation capabilities in a single platform. You can also choose from a wide range of Personality Avatars to spice up your conversations—who knows, maybe ChatSonic could be your go-to relationship coach from now on?
Pros
- 16 Personality Avatars to choose from
- Text-to-image generation
- Connected to the Internet
- Chrome browser extension
Cons
- Generic copy from GPT-3 model
- Unreliable at times*
- Subscription cost
*There are reports that Chatsonic can be unreliable at times. Reviewers noted Chatsonic's tendency to "repeat the same corrections or thoughts", which can be frustrating for users to navigate. Like many off-the-shelf AI writers out there, careful proofreading is necessary for generated content to have high readability.
Pricing
Plans start from $12.67/month. WriteSonic has a 2,500 word free trial for new users.
Our take: ChatSonic is a great option for those seeking a cost-effective alternative to ChatGPT. Despite its generic copy, ChatSonic offers a variety of features, including image generation capabilities, browser extension integration, as well as a variety of personality avatars to choose from. At just $12.67 per month, it's a more affordable option compared to other AI writing assistants in the market.
Education
7. The Student’s Choice: Socratic by Google
Socratic is a powerful studying tool that assists students with their homework by walking them through the thinking process one step at a time. Unlike most of the ChatGPT alternatives listed in this article, Socratic isn’t designed to just pump out correct answers for students. Instead, it offers in-depth explanations of how each question is tackled, nudging students to get to the answers on their own. Built as a free educational tool for students, Socratic boasts a huge repository of online resources that students can tap into for both self-study and group learning. Its simple yet aesthetic design also makes for an appealing tool to learn on!
Pros
- Text and speech recognition
- Easy to use
- Free
Cons
- No desktop version
Pricing
Free
Our take: Socratic is a simple tool that serves its purpose perfectly. The way Socratic is designed makes it ideal for learning and not just to complete homework—an important feature for any successful chatbot in the education vertical. The best thing? It’s completely free!
Social
8. The Soulmate: Replika AI by Luka, Inc.
Ever felt like you needed someone to talk to but there was no one available? Replika can be that “person” for you.
Replika is a messaging app that serves both as a friend and a personal journal—the more you talk to your personal Replika companion, the more it learns about you. Over time, your Replika can be trained to know exactly what to say to elicit the best response and reactions from you.
Unlike other large language models, Replika is designed to be ultra sensitive to your inputs, providing an extremely tailored experience that feels like you’re chatting with a friend who knows you from the inside out. While your Replika may not know a lot of things about the world, it certainly knows how to hold a conversation—with you in particular.
Pros
- Customized AI avatar
- Natural and human-like responses
Cons
- Chatting only
- Available only on mobile apps
Pricing
Replika Pro plans from $14.99/month
Our take: Having an AI companion is most certainly acquired taste. If you’re looking for a fun and uniquely different social connection, give their free version a shot! Who knows, you might end up finding your soulmate.
Final Thoughts
Now that you've seen some of the best ChatGPT alternatives out there, you’re probably still caught in a dilemma. Here are a few points that might help you make the right decision:
- Consider your budget – Are you looking for free options or are you willing to pay for a more sophisticated solution?
- Think about your use case – Do you need something that can write high conversion marketing copies or something that can double as a general support platform?
- Research each option – What features does each offer and what kind of support do they provide? Does the subscription plan also come with other AI tools that might be useful?
- Testing is key – Make sure to test out each solution thoroughly before committing to it! Take advantage of the free trials offered and consider subscribing for one month first to conduct more extensive testing.
At the end of the day, selecting an alternative to ChatGPT depends on your needs, wants, and financial constraints. What works for one team may not necessarily be the best fit for yours. So take your time and evaluate your options carefully—only then will you be able to find the perfect solution that fits all of your requirements.
Happy scouting!
