Free vs Paid Chatbot Starter Kits for Home-Service Shops: What You Actually Need
Home-service shops such as aircon cleaning, house cleaning, moving and plumbing get the same message all day: "How much?" The honest answer is usually "it depends", on the unit type, the quantity, the area, the floor and whether there's an elevator. A quote bot asks those questions in order and rep
Home-service shops such as aircon cleaning, house cleaning, moving and plumbing get the same message all day: "How much?" The honest answer is usually "it depends", on the unit type, the quantity, the area, the floor and whether there's an elevator. A quote bot asks those questions in order and replies with a price range, or hands the chat to a human when the job is risky.
This article compares two AI-assisted starter kits from the same itch.io store: a free Lite quote engine and the paid LINE AI Quote Helper Kit. The goal is to help you pick the cheaper option whenever it's enough.
Strip away the chat UI and a quote bot does four things:
Notice what's missing: a large language model. Neither kit calls an LLM. Quoting is deterministic rules in a JSON file, so the same inputs always give the same range, and you can test it.
Lite = MIT-licensed quote engine + rules.json + static demo. It's the free cut of the paid kit:
https://harrisonlineai.itch.io/line-ai-quote-helper-lite
Based on the package contents, Lite includes:
The sample shop and its prices are fictional.
{ "units": { "Split type": { "price": 1800, "human": false }, "Ceiling concealed": { "price": null, "human": true } }, "serviceAreas": [ "Taipei City", "New Taipei City" ], "handoffKeywords": [ "discount", "warranty", "leak" ], "rangePct": 0.1 } Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode (The shipped sample uses Traditional Chinese labels; English is shown for illustration.) Then update the expected values in test.js and rerun it.
The LINE AI Quote Helper Kit (US$24) ships the same engine, rules.json, tests and web demo. On top of that, it includes:
It still needs basic terminal and Node.js comfort. No API keys are included; you create your own LINE channel and set secrets with wrangler secret.
Pick Lite and don't pay for anything if:
If none of those apply, the free version is the better choice.
The inputs matter more than the code. Before editing rules.json, collect the shop's real price list, service areas, hours and the questions that must always go to a human. The Free AI Chatbot Client Intake Pack is a free questionnaire, knowledge-base CSV and go-live checklist for that step.
Also: label the bot as an automated assistant, say the final price is confirmed on site, never let it promise discounts, and replay a few real past inquiries before going live.
All three are AI-assisted templates: starting points to review and adapt, not finished products or guarantees of results.
This article was written with AI assistance.