AI agent builders: 5 no-code platforms sorted by what you need

Which AI agent builders are free?

Short answer, from the official pages on record:

• Tidio: permanent free plan, with 50 billable conversations a month. The Lyro AI agent only gets 50 conversations on it, granted once.
• Botpress: Free plan, which shows “100 conversations” without stating the period, with 3 AI agents and no top-ups or overages.
• n8n: no free plan on n8n Cloud, only a 14-day free trial. The tool is free when you self-host the Community edition; language models are paid for separately.
• Lindy: no permanent free plan. The “Free” column is a batch of free credits valid for 7 days.
• Relevance AI: free plan retired, for new signups and existing accounts alike.

So “free” does not mean the same thing from one line to the next: a monthly quota at Tidio, a quota with no period at Botpress, software you install yourself at n8n.

Three jobs under one label

“AI agent builder” covers three different things here, and that is the first sort to make.

1. Answering your customers. Tidio and Botpress are customer service tools: chat on the website, WhatsApp, an AI agent that answers from your content, a person who takes over.
2. Acting inside the team’s tools. Lindy and Relevance AI do not answer a website’s visitors: they carry out tasks in email, a calendar, a CRM.
3. Building the agent yourself. n8n is an automation tool: the agent is one node among others in a workflow you assemble.

If these ideas are new to you, the guide to AI agents explains them with an example.

Same request, five meters

Entry prices cannot be compared at a glance, because each tool counts a different unit. Take 300 requests a month, all handled by AI:

Tool	What 300 requests count as	Volume of the first paid plan
Tidio	300 Lyro conversations; no billable conversation as long as no person writes	100 billable conversations (human side); Lyro is paid for separately, from 50 to 1,000 conversations
Botpress	300 conversations, as soon as the user sends at least two messages	250 conversations
Lindy	600 to 75,000 credits if each request is an everyday task (2 to 250 credits)	5,000 credits per user
Relevance AI	300 actions if the agent runs one tool per request, 1,200 if it runs four	2,500 actions
n8n	300 executions: one full workflow run per request	2,500 executions

What the math shows:

• at Botpress, 300 conversations exceed the Plus plan’s quota: a pack of 100 conversations is added automatically once you reach 95% of the quota;
• at Relevance AI and n8n, the first quota covers eight times that volume. Relevance AI holds up to eight tools run per request;
• at Lindy, 5,000 credits are enough if a request costs 16.6 credits or less on average. The vendor only gives a range, from 2 to 250;
• at Tidio, the AI volume and the volume your agents handle are bought separately.

A second meter often comes on top for language models: “AI usage” at Botpress, Vendor Credits at Relevance AI (avoidable with your own API keys), your own keys or Gateway credits at n8n. At Lindy, everything goes through credits.

For n8n and the other automation tools, the cost calculator runs this math for your volume.

The five tools, one by one

Tidio: website chat with an AI agent

Tidio combines live chat, ticketing, the “Lyro” AI agent and “Flows” automations. Only conversations where a human agent writes are billable; Lyro’s conversations fall under a separate quota. The price does not depend on the number of agents, up to 10 seats on the self-service plans. On monthly subscriptions, the tier moves up on its own at 95% of the quota unless you turn the option off. Details in the Tidio profile.

Botpress: the support agent you design

Botpress sells a visual agent builder and a helpdesk on the same grid. Every conversation counts, with AI, with a person or in the emulator. The Plus plan costs $189 per month: that is the highest first paid price in this selection, and the automatic top-up in packs cannot be turned off. Details in the Botpress profile.

Lindy: the team’s assistant

Lindy connects to Slack, email, calendar and meetings. It is billed in credits, $49.99 per user per month at the first tier, and every active user is billed. The vendor’s pages contradict each other: the visible grid on the pricing page and the documentation do not list the same plans. Phone calling is limited to US numbers and calls. Details in the Lindy profile.

Relevance AI: agents you build, billed per action

Relevance AI is for building agents and teams of agents connected to apps. The Pro plan costs $29 per month for the whole organization. Three facts to keep in mind: the free plan is retired, the website’s pricing page shows only a plan on quote, and Pro and Team prices appear only in the documentation. Details in the Relevance AI profile.

n8n: to build the agent yourself

n8n is not an agent platform but an automation tool. Its AI Agent node is included on n8n Cloud and in the Community edition, and so is MCP (see the MCP guide). The Starter plan costs €24 per month, priced in euros. Self-hosting is free with the Community edition, but the vendor reserves it for experienced users. The steps are in the guide to building an AI agent, the rest in the n8n profile.

How to choose

• You want to answer visitors on a website or online store: Tidio.
• You want to design a support agent’s paths yourself, on a known conversation volume: Botpress.
• You want to hand off office tasks to an assistant connected to Slack and email: Lindy.
• You want custom agents connected to a CRM or to email, with your own API keys: Relevance AI.
• You want to keep the tool on your own servers, or pay per workflow run rather than per step: n8n.
• Where your data sits matters: Relevance AI lets you pick a US region at signup; Botpress states the United States or a location set by the customer; Tidio states AWS servers in the EU; n8n Cloud runs in Frankfurt, and self-hosted n8n runs wherever you install it; Lindy names no region.

What the table does not say

• Entry prices are not in the same unit. n8n publishes its prices in euros, the other four in US dollars, and Lindy bills per user. That is why no cell in the “Lowest paid plan” row is highlighted.
• “Not recorded” does not mean “not possible”. Only n8n has an answer on record about self-hosting; for Tidio and Botpress, nothing is on record about MCP. Those cells stay “not recorded” because no mention was read on the official pages.
• Nothing here comes from using the tools. This comparison rests on public pricing and documentation: the quality of the AI’s answers or the comfort of a visual builder is not in it.