Botpress or a white-label AI platform for client chatbots?
Botpress is a builder you run yourself. A white-label platform sells you the build at wholesale. Here is what each costs an agency, where each wins, and where ours falls short.
Lumina7 min read
Use Botpress when you want to build and maintain each client's chatbot yourself and you are comfortable owning that work. Use a white-label platform like Lumina Sales when you want to sell the build, keep the margin, and hand fulfillment to someone else. Both can put your client's logo on a chatbot. They differ in who does the building, and that decides your margin and your calendar.
This comparison is for agency owners and independent reps deciding how to deliver chatbots to local service businesses. We sell one of the two options, so read our side with that in mind. Every Botpress and Voiceflow figure below comes from their own pages as of today.
What does Botpress actually cost an agency?
Botpress publishes its plans on its pricing page. As listed there, Plus is $150 a month billed annually, with 250 conversations a month, $25 of AI usage, and white-label webchat. Team is $750 a month billed annually, with 1,500 conversations and $150 of AI usage. Extra conversations come in packs of 100 for $65 on Plus and $50 on Team. Enterprise is custom.
Botpress also explains what white-labeling covers in its own white-label chatbot guide: custom UI, domain, branding, API access, and removal of the Botpress watermark from webchat. That is real white-labeling, and it starts on the $150 plan.
Two things the pricing page does not tell you. It lists no agency pricing or reseller terms, only links to become a partner or hire an expert. And it does not say how many of your clients fit inside one plan. Before you quote anyone, confirm with Botpress whether each client needs its own workspace and its own subscription, because that changes the math completely.
What does the same chatbot cost on a white-label platform?
On Lumina Sales, the platform is $49 a month for your demo site, branded client portal, and fulfillment access. Each client build is separate. The published guide for a website plus AI chatbot is $550 setup and $125 a month wholesale. Tier One, which bundles more services, runs $650 to $775 setup and $170 to $215 a month. Those are what you pay us. You set the retail price, and the gap is yours.
The other difference is labor. On Botpress, the $150 buys you a tool. You still design the conversation flows, load the knowledge base, test, connect the calendar or CRM, and fix things when a client changes their hours. On a white-label platform, the wholesale price includes the build. You collect intake through the portal, and we deliver. If you want the longer version of that tradeoff, we wrote it up in build your own stack or use a white-label one.
Where does Botpress win?
Botpress wins on flexibility. If a client needs a chatbot wired into an unusual system, with custom logic and its own data model, a builder platform lets you do that. A fulfillment-based platform gives you a tested pack for the client's trade and the standard integrations. It does not give you an open canvas.
It also wins if building is your product. Some agencies sell craft. They want to own the flows, tune them over months, and charge for that expertise. If that is you, wholesale fulfillment would take away the thing you sell.
And it wins on starting small. A single client on a $150 plan with a few hundred conversations is a simple setup. Our $49 plan is built around selling many demos, not running one chatbot.
Where does a white-label platform win?
It wins on time to first sale. A prospect can talk to a working receptionist for their own trade on a live demo link under your brand before you have built anything. With a builder, the prospect usually sees a slide deck or a half-built bot, because the real build costs you hours you have not been paid for yet.
It wins on margin per hour. Say you sell a chatbot for $1,200 setup and $300 a month. On a builder, your cost is the subscription plus your own build time, maybe a day or two the first time. On wholesale fulfillment at the $550 and $125 guide, your cost is $550 and $125 a month, and your time is one intake call. The setup gap is $650 and the monthly gap is $175. Your numbers will differ, but the shape holds: you trade flexibility for hours back.
It also wins on capacity. A builder agency tops out at the number of bots one person can maintain. A fulfillment agency tops out at how many calls you can sell. We covered the economics in what you actually keep on a white-label AI client.
What about Voiceflow and other agency-focused builders?
Voiceflow's pricing page has a section for agencies and partners. It lists multi-client workspace management, white-labeling, and client handoff tools, with usage-based billing and no credit card for the trial. It does not publish plan prices or white-label terms, and business pricing is on request. So we cannot tell you what it costs, and neither can the page.
That puts it in the same category as Botpress for this decision. It is a builder with agency features. You still do the building. The question to ask any builder is the same: who builds, who maintains, and what do I pay per client once I have ten of them?
What are the limits of the white-label route?
This is the part vendors skip, so here it is for ours. The $49 plan caps you at three published demos at once, 100 live voice minutes, 500 chat messages, and 50 website audits a month, with calls limited to five minutes. That covers roughly forty demo calls a month. If you run a heavy outbound motion with dozens of prospects a week, you will feel the cap. We wrote about whether 100 voice minutes cover your demo pipeline.
You also give up control over the build. We deliver from a pack and a standard set of integrations. If your client wants something truly custom, you may be better off with a builder, or with hiring a developer. And this is not for anyone who wants to brag about hand-crafting every flow. If that is the business you want, buy the builder and charge for the craft.
How should you decide?
Ask three questions. First, do you want to be paid for building or for selling? Second, how many clients do you expect in the first six months? One to three favors a builder. Ten favors fulfillment. Third, how custom are the jobs you actually win? Local service businesses mostly want calls answered, bookings made, and missed calls texted back. That is a pack, not a puzzle.
Many agencies end up with both. They sell standard chatbots and receptionists on wholesale fulfillment and keep a builder account for the one client a quarter who needs something unusual.
FAQ
Can I remove the platform's branding on both options?
On Botpress, the white-label webchat and watermark removal start on the Plus plan, according to its own pricing and white-label pages. On Lumina Sales, the demo site, portal, logo, colors, and subdomain are yours, and your clients do not see Lumina. Check any platform's current terms before you promise a client a specific surface.
Is $150 a month cheaper than $49 plus wholesale?
Not a fair comparison. The $150 is a tool subscription for a chatbot you build. The $49 is the sales and delivery stack, and the build is a separate wholesale cost per client. Compare total cost per client including your hours, not the headline subscription.
What if my client outgrows the conversation limits?
On Botpress, extra conversations are sold in packs of 100, at $65 on Plus and $50 on Team per the pricing page. On our side, limits apply to your own demo usage on the $49 plan, and client lines are priced on the 30-minute pricing call, with voice billed per minute where a line takes calls. Ask for the overage terms in writing either way.
Can I switch later?
Yes, but plan for it. Flows built in one builder do not move to another, so a switch means a rebuild. Keep client data and intake in your own records from day one.
Next step
Open the live demo, pick the trade of a prospect you already have in mind, and talk to the receptionist. If a standard pack would win that deal, start the $49 plan and price the build on the 30-minute call. If you would need custom logic, price a builder account instead.
