Can I move my Chatbase sources over to Doug?

Yes. Paste your website and upload the same files. If you wrote Q&A pairs in Chatbase, paste them into Doug as Q&A pairs. Most businesses are set up in an afternoon.

Does Doug connect to Calendly?

Doug books from his own booking engine. You set your hours or connect your Google or Microsoft calendar, and bookings land there like any other appointment, with the deposit already taken.

Does Doug replace my website?

No. He sits on your site as a chat widget and can publish new service pages to it. If your site is hard to change, he can publish to a subdomain like services.yourcompany.com instead.

Does Chatbase book appointments?

Chatbase can book through Calendly and Cal.com actions. Taking a deposit at booking is not part of it. Doug books from your own calendar or set hours and takes a Stripe deposit that comes off the bill.

Is Doug cheaper than Chatbase?

At the entry level Doug is $49 a month for 2,000 messages and Chatbase is $40 a month for 700 credits. Compare on what you need: booking, deposits and getting found are included with Doug.

Doug vs Chatbase: which one fits a local service business?

Doug is the better Chatbase alternative for a local service business that books jobs, and Chatbase is the better pick for software, ecommerce and support teams. Both answer customers from your own website and files. Doug also books the job with a deposit through Stripe, lists you inside ChatGPT, Claude and Muse, and works every week to get you found on Google, Maps and in AI answers, from $49 a month. Chatbase starts at $40 a month for 700 message credits.

Updated September 28, 2026

	Doug	Chatbase
Starting price	$49 a month (free directory listing)	$40 a month Hobby plan, $32 billed yearly (free plan with 50 credits)
Monthly messages at entry price	2,000	700 message credits
What it answers from	Your website, PDFs, pasted text, Q&A pairs	Your website, files, text, Q&A
Booking	Books from your calendar or set hours	Calendly and Cal.com actions
Deposits	Takes a deposit through Stripe at booking	Stripe integration for billing lookups on higher plans
Getting found on Google and in AI	Weekly check and fixes: pages, Google profile, reviews	Not part of the product
Listed inside ChatGPT, Claude, Muse	Yes, opt-in, with booking	No
Setup	Minutes: paste your site, check answers, add one line	Minutes: add sources, embed the widget
Best for	Local service businesses that book jobs	Software, ecommerce and support teams

What do Doug and Chatbase both do?

Both learn your business from your own material. You point them at your website, upload a PDF or two, and write out the answers that have to be exactly right. Both put a chat widget on your site with one snippet of code, and both can take a visitor's name and number when they want a call back.

If all you need is a box on your website that answers questions from your content, either one will do that job. The difference is in what happens after the question.

What does Doug do that Chatbase doesn't?

A local business does not make money when a question gets answered. It makes money when a job gets booked and the customer shows up. Doug is built around that.

He books the job. You list your services, set your hours or connect your Google or Microsoft calendar, and he offers real open times.
He takes a deposit through Stripe when he books, so the customer has a reason to show up. It comes off the bill. Doug takes nothing off a booking payment.
He handles reschedules and cancellations with the refund window you set.
He can list you where AI assistants look. Verify your website, connect Stripe, and when someone asks ChatGPT, Claude or Muse who can fix their AC this week, the assistant can find you and book through him.
He works to get you found. Every week he checks how you show up on Google, Maps, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, then publishes service pages, keeps your Google profile right, and replies to reviews.

When is Chatbase the better fit?

Chatbase is a strong tool for a software company or an online store. On its Standard plan it connects to helpdesks like Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk and Help Scout, and CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot. It can look up a customer's subscription or invoice in Stripe, which matters for a SaaS support team and not much for a roofer.

If your agent's job is support for a product with logged-in users, tickets and a support team, Chatbase has more of the plumbing for that. If your agent's job is to turn a 9pm question into a booked Thursday appointment, Doug is the closer fit.

How much do Doug and Chatbase cost?

Chatbase's paid plans start at $40 a month for 700 message credits ($32 a month billed yearly), then $150 a month for 4,000 and $500 a month for 15,000. Extra agents are $25 a month each, and removing Chatbase branding from the widget is $99 a month. Those are the prices on Chatbase's pricing page in September 2026.

Doug starts at $49 a month for 2,000 messages. Growth is $149 for 10,000 messages and adds actions and live handoff to your team. Scale is $449 for 40,000. Extra messages are $10 per 1,000 and they roll over. Your whole team is included on every plan, with no seat pricing. If you want our team to run the get-found work for you, there is a done for you tier, priced when you talk to us.

Prices change, so check both pricing pages before you decide. The point is that at the entry price, Doug includes booking, deposits and the get-found work that Chatbase does not do at any price.

How do you decide between them?

Ask yourself what a good week looks like. If a good week means fewer support tickets, try Chatbase. If a good week means more jobs on the calendar and more people finding you when they search, try Doug.

Both have a free way to start. Paste your website into Doug, ask him the ten questions your customers ask most, and see whether he answers like someone who works for you. If he does, add the snippet and turn on booking.

Whichever you pick, watch the questions it couldn't answer for the first two weeks. Doug lists each one with a drafted answer for you to approve, so the gaps close fast and he gets it right from then on.

Questions

Can I move my Chatbase sources over to Doug?: Yes. Paste your website and upload the same files. If you wrote Q&A pairs in Chatbase, paste them into Doug as Q&A pairs. Most businesses are set up in an afternoon.
Does Doug connect to Calendly?: Doug books from his own booking engine. You set your hours or connect your Google or Microsoft calendar, and bookings land there like any other appointment, with the deposit already taken.
Does Doug replace my website?: No. He sits on your site as a chat widget and can publish new service pages to it. If your site is hard to change, he can publish to a subdomain like services.yourcompany.com instead.
Does Chatbase book appointments?: Chatbase can book through Calendly and Cal.com actions. Taking a deposit at booking is not part of it. Doug books from your own calendar or set hours and takes a Stripe deposit that comes off the bill.
Is Doug cheaper than Chatbase?: At the entry level Doug is $49 a month for 2,000 messages and Chatbase is $40 a month for 700 credits. Compare on what you need: booking, deposits and getting found are included with Doug.