Is it realistic to make a smart Telegram bot without a line of code

[CarderPlanet]

What if you are not a programmer, but you need a bot? I asked myself this question and that's what I found out.
The purpose of the article and a little about myself. I work as an assistant to a business coach for the promotion of social networks and everything related to this. A month ago, I was given the task of creating a Telegram bot that will be used at trainings and for sending homework after them.

Tasks that the bot should perform:

1. Provide information on frequently asked questions;
2. Be able to send messages from remote sensing to different groups of people;
3. Send mailings to former participants about new trainings;
4. Be able to correspond with users on behalf of the bot;
5. Block people who accidentally entered the bot;
6. Accept feedback from users;
7. Create sections in the bot that are accessible only to a specific team during trainings;
8. Have a free version without ads;
9. Have a mobile version, since I don't use a computer.

The tasks are not easy and all this despite the fact that my programming knowledge is zero. Without thinking twice, I went to Yandex to look for "bot constructors" and "services for creating chat bots."
As it turned out, there are not so many services for creating Telegram bots (there are more for other platforms), but if you know the services that I have not indicated, then I will be glad to your comments with links to them. Below I will give which ones I could find and their comparison with each other.

Manybot / Manibot (http://manybot.io/)
The service works exclusively through its Telegram bot, which is a plus in favor of mobility, but a minus in ease of use (especially for large tasks). Manibot allows you to create a bot with a multilevel keyboard, connect RSS feeds and send newsletters to the bot's subscribers.
Initially, I wanted to stay on this platform, but after a week of using the constructor, I found out for myself the following pros and cons:

Service advantages:

• Completely free;
• There is all the necessary functionality to create the simplest bot (button - answer);

Cons of the service:

• The project has not been supported since 2015 (I made a conclusion based on the year in the basement of the site and information that the founder of the project made a service for creating bots in VK);
• You cannot turn off ads (no tariffs / packages, nothing);
• Telegram bot management (which turned out to be inconvenient);
• Lack of knowledge base and support (I couldn't even find chats where the constructor was discussed);

Suitable for very simple bots with keyboards no more than 3 - 4 levels of depth. If you need a bot to create a regular keyboard (you cannot create an inline keyboard in it ( inline keyboard - a keyboard in transparent buttons immediately below the message )), then you can test this constructor.

Puzzlebot (https://puzzlebot.top)
Quite another (relatively Manybot) Opportunity Service Pazlbot. Convenient personal account, clear site structure, suitable for designing bots and working with channels (posting, statistics, moderation) and groups.

Service advantages:

• There is a free package (unlimited in time);
• Almost all functions are available in the free package (the difference between the packages depends mainly on the number of subscribers and the number of connected bots / channels / chats);
• Flexible setting of mailings (can be divided into categories and overlapping audiences);
• The ability to connect channels / groups and manage them (post, collect statistics, create a greeting for groups, moderate, etc.);
• Intuitive and quite simple interface;
• Live chat support;
• Low cost for paid tariffs (from $ 7);
• Mobile version;

Cons of the service:

• Advertising on a free plan (Bot made ...);
• Few users of the service (the service was launched in mid-September 2019, based on the first posts in the channel);
• More modest functionality (compared to the next constructor (no integrations, shopping cart, payment acceptance));
• It is in the open beta stage (which is why there are errors);

Compared to Manibot, the Puzzlebot constructor is great for implementing complex bots and more.

Botmother / Botmaser (https://botmother.com/)
Botmother - A very powerful bot creation service that supports almost all popular instant messengers and social networks (Telegram, WhatsApp (for a fee), Viber, Facebook, VK and Odnoklassniki).
It seemed to me difficult to master, since: a large number of different functions in the "palette", features for each platform and little information about the blocks themselves (what is the difference between the "Group of buttons", "Group of buttons with tips" and "Navigation buttons" without tests are very difficult to understand) all of the above creates a lot of confusion especially for users who are not familiar with the "device" of bots.
However, the great functionality still forces you to figure it out.

Service advantages:

• Free package (no time limit);
• There is no advertising on the free package (and the package itself is unlimited in time);
• Large functionality (chat with a user, shopping cart, integration with a large number of services, etc.);
• Availability of support (the speed of responses depends on the tariff);

Cons of the service:

• The high cost of tariffs ($ 20 per month);
• Limited free package (Statistics, mailings, dialogues - all sections are closed, except for the constructor);
• Difficult to learn interface of the personal account;
• Lack of a mobile version;

As well as with Manybot, I thought that I would focus on Botmother, but it turned out to be completely impossible to work from the phone (example: I cannot transfer blocks from the palette to the command screen). You cannot create private commands and set up mailings for groups of people, and the functionality of the free package is very limited (only a constructor with limitations is available).

Comparison.
Pluses and minuses are of course important, but I have specific tasks, so it is necessary to draw a conclusion based on them. Comparison by tasks is given in the table.

Output.
I decided to stay on the Puzzlebot service, since the service was able to close all the most important tasks and has a greater number of advantages compared to other platforms.
Since I am interested in a topic related to Telegram and bots, I will be glad to comments with suggestions about what to write about in the next article.
Thanks for reading!