If your business already works with Binotel, Online Chat is a logical candidate: a virtual PBX, a callback widget, call tracking, a CRM and website chat from one vendor and in one account. It's an operator chat with auto-greetings, reminders about unanswered dialogs, quick phrases and mobile apps for agents. Looma comes at the task from a different angle: it's not a chat "for the agent" but a bundle of AI chat + smart search that knows your catalog and answers shoppers itself before the purchase. Below: a quick take on each, two things that set Looma apart, a full feature table, a pricing comparison and a verdict on which fits whom. Spoiler: you don't necessarily have to pick one instead of the other.

The main difference

Binotel Online Chat is strong where conversations are handled by live agents and telephony is the center of communications. The chat greets visitors, invites them to talk, reminds agents about dialogs that haven't been answered yet and, after hours, offers to leave contact details. It can be run right inside SmartCRM, next to calls. It's a tool that gives a team already working with Binotel telephony one more channel in the same account — and in that role it's convenient and affordable.

Looma is strong where the goal is to turn more visitors into buyers, even when no agent is available. It doesn't just pass messages to a human — it advises like a salesperson: understands your catalog, picks products by meaning, helps shoppers find what they need in search and drives the dialog to an order or a lead. Two things set Looma apart fundamentally — and neither is the job of an operator chat.

1. Smart search — a sales channel of its own

An operator chat works with visitors who decided to write. But most shoppers never write anything — they just type a query into the search bar. And that's exactly where a store quietly loses money, before any conversation happens.

Picture it: a customer ready to buy types a query with a typo, in another language or in their own words — and sees "nothing found". To them the product doesn't exist, even though it's in stock. They leave for a competitor, no conversation starts, and the agent never even learns that a sale fell through.

Looma adds a dedicated smart search widget: it forgives typos, understands synonyms and other languages, and searches by meaning rather than exact string match. Analytics shows zero-result queries — so you see what people looked for and didn't find. Binotel focuses on business communications, and on-site product search isn't part of its product line, so this stage of the funnel stays outside the chat's scope.

2. AI that answers from the catalog, not only hands the dialog to an agent

Automation in Binotel Online Chat is rule-based: auto-greetings, proactive invitations, after-hours messages, reminders and templates. Questions of substance are answered by an agent. An AI chatbot or answers from a product catalog are not described on the official Online Chat pages — the product is built around a human talking to the customer.

Looma's AI is built around the catalog. It imports your product feed, understands attributes, synonyms, categories and ratings, and answers like a store consultant: "which model is quieter", "what's best-rated under $150", "how are these two different". Then it captures the order or lead right in the chat. When a human is needed, the dialog goes to an agent with full context: which products and pages the visitor viewed, plus AI lead scoring — "temperature" and mood. Chat and lead statuses work automatically: if a customer gets no reply for 5 minutes, the chat becomes "Unanswered" and doesn't get lost.

Together, search and the AI consultant cover the funnel at the choosing stage — when the shopper decides whether to buy or leave, and isn't willing to wait for an agent.

Where Binotel is strong

Let's be fair: Binotel is a Ukrainian company on the market since 2010, and by its own figures it serves 20,000+ companies. Its main strength is a single communications ecosystem: virtual PBX, chat, the GetCall callback widget, call tracking with source attribution for calls and SmartCRM from one vendor and in one MyBusiness account. The chat can be run right inside SmartCRM, next to calls. GetCall is free for Binotel PBX customers, and the telephony connects to 100+ CRMs, including KeyCRM and SalesDrive. The chat price is transparent and affordable — 220 UAH/mo per agent with a 14-day free trial — and there are iOS and Android apps and Ukrainian-language support. Looma focuses narrower: AI consulting and selling from the catalog through chat and search, not telephony or call tracking.

Full feature comparison

Binotel data is as of 2026-10-03; verify current features and prices on Binotel's official site.

Pricing

Binotel (as of 2026-10-03) charges per agent. Online Chat costs 220 UAH/mo per agent, with 14 days free and a "+1 month free" promo. A Telegram business number is 249 UAH/mo per number. The chat is sold on its own and doesn't require Binotel telephony. If you need a wider stack, the other products have their own plans: virtual PBX from 420 UAH/mo (Lite) to 2,600 UAH/mo (Enterprise), SmartCRM at 399 UAH/mo per employee, Call Tracking at 75 UAH/mo per number, and the GetCall callback widget has a free license for Binotel PBX customers — you pay only for outgoing calls to agents. For example, chat for 5 agents comes to 1,100 UAH/mo. The model is simple and clear: the price grows with the number of agents, and customers are answered by a human.

Looma: flat plans — Starter $29/mo (4,142 credits per month, up to 5,000 products, 1 site), Growth $59, Business $149, Enterprise on request. Agents are unlimited on every plan. AI conversations and search run on credits included in the plan, and unused credits roll over to the next month; yearly billing adds bonus credits. To start, you get 200 free test credits, and setup takes about 5 minutes. The key point — smart search and the AI consultant are part of the platform, not billed separately per answer. Current plans are on the pricing page →

Which to choose

Comparing other platforms too? See also: Looma vs JivoChat →