Difference between Microsoft Bot Framework and Azure Bot Service?

Question

I want to create a bot, but I am confused what is exactly Bot Framework and Azure Bot service? Can anyone explain in detail?

Answer 1

The best way to understand the difference is going through the docs. The Azure Bot Service documentation is available here.

In a nutshell, Azure Bot Service provides a set of templates to get started with the creation of Bots and accelerate the development since it provides an integrated environment. Of course, the templates that it creates are based on the BotFramework. With Azure Bot Service, you can even code your bot directly from the Azure Portal Editor, from the comfort of your browser.

If you don't want to start with Azure right way, and want to develop your Bot locally first, etc, you might want to use the BotFramework builder bits; but as I said; once you se Azure Bot Service, you are able to download the generated bot and continue the development from your machine if you want.

Answer 2

Admittedly you asked your question a year and a half ago, but in early 2018 it seems as though Microsoft uses the two terms interchangeably for one product.

Take, for example the documentation link from the bot framework home page, the title of this page is Bot Service Documentation:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bot-framework/

Also, in the Azure pricing calculator only Azure Bot Service is listed (under both "Analytics" and "AI + Machine Learning"). "Azure Bot Service" is what appears on the invoice.

Finally, when you go to create a new resource and search for "bot" the only related items that you will see are for Azure Bot Service, there is no mention of Azure Bot Framework there either.