Second Life Bots · · 6 min read
Thunder Viewer vs SmartBots: Which One Fits You?
If you run a store, club or community in Second Life and you are weighing Thunder Viewer against SmartBots, the honest headline is this: they are not the same kind of product. One is a bot-hosting service with the deepest group tooling in Second Life. The other is a Second Life client that runs in your browser with an AI host built in. Choosing well starts with knowing which job you are hiring for.
We make Thunder Viewer, so treat our enthusiasm accordingly. Every SmartBots fact below comes from their own published documentation, verified in July 2026, with links so you can check it.
The one-paragraph answer
Choose SmartBots if your central problem is group administration: inviting members at scale, sending scheduled notices, moderating group chat, or translating it, and especially if you want to script custom behavior against an API. Choose Thunder Viewer if your central problem is presence and service: being reachable from any device, keeping avatars in-world around the clock, greeting visitors and answering their questions, and seeing what happened while you slept. Plenty of larger operations run both, because they solve different problems.
What each one actually is
SmartBots is a hosted bot service. You create a bot avatar, hand the service its credentials, and configure behavior from a web dashboard. Its heritage is group management, and it is genuinely programmable: LSL, JavaScript, their own SBSL language, and an HTTP API. You still use your own viewer to be in Second Life yourself.
Thunder Viewer is a browser-based Second Life client. You sign in with your normal avatar and get chat, IMs, group chat, spatial voice, calls, teleports, profiles and search in a tab on any device. The bot layer lives in the same place: the avatar you use is the avatar that can greet and answer when you are away.
Feature comparison
Rows are marked only where we could verify them. Where a cell says "see their docs," we did not find a published answer and would rather send you to the source than guess.
| Capability | SmartBots | Thunder Viewer |
|---|---|---|
| Group inviter at scale | Yes, a core service | See their docs; not our focus |
| Scheduled group notices | Yes | No |
| Group chat moderation tools | Yes, with antispam device | Keyword watch plus AI moderator |
| Group chat translation | Yes, separate service | No |
| Scripting and API access | Yes: LSL, JavaScript, SBSL, HTTP API | No public API today |
| AI conversation with personas | See their docs | Yes, with wake words and triggers |
| Instant FAQ answers | See their docs | Yes, exact answers without an AI call |
| Arrival greetings with cooldown | Yes, greeter offered with Inviter | Yes, deduped so regulars are not re-greeted |
| Discord bridge | See their docs | Yes, eight feeds plus two-way replies |
| Keeps avatars online 24/7 | Yes, hosted | Yes, and self-revives after restarts |
| A client you use yourself | No, dashboard administration | Yes, that is the product |
| Spatial voice and calls | No | Yes, in browser and on phones |
| Several avatars from one login | Per bot, per subscription | Yes, one login, one-click switching |
| Visitor analytics | Statistics and daily reports | Yes, visitors, returns and engagement |
| Runs on phones with no install | Dashboard is web-based | Yes, full client in a phone browser |
Pricing, side by side
SmartBots sells services à la carte on weekly subscriptions. From their pricing documentation, verified July 2026:
- Group Inviter, Chat Control, or Group Notices: L$79 per week each, L$339 per month, L$1,015 for three months
- Group Chat Translator: L$39 per week
- Member data export: L$1 per member, L$50 minimum
- Personal bots from around L$179 per bot; system bots from L$79 per group
The model rewards precision: you pay only for what you switch on. It also composes, so a community running notices plus chat control across two groups plus a personal bot is paying four subscriptions.
Thunder Viewer is billed weekly in Linden Dollars, paid from your avatar inside the app with no credit card, and one subscription covers your linked avatars rather than being priced per bot. There is a free tier, and new avatars get a full-featured trial on first sign-in so you can test the AI host and stay-online before deciding. Current figures are on our pricing section, and subscribers keep the rate they signed up at.
Verify both before you commit. Prices in Second Life move, and ours is launch pricing.
Where SmartBots wins
Said plainly, because pretending otherwise would waste your time:
- Group operations at scale. Nothing in our product replaces an inviter that processes a large membership queue, or scheduled notices that go out while you are asleep.
- Programmability. If you want to write scripts against your bot, SmartBots has years of API surface and documentation. We have none today.
- Translation. Their group chat translator is a genuinely useful service with no equivalent from us.
- Track record. A long operating history and in-world support presence count for a lot when something breaks at midnight.
Where Thunder Viewer wins
- It is your viewer too. One product to be in Second Life and to run your presence, from a laptop, a phone, a Chromebook or a work machine where you cannot install anything.
- Conversation, not just administration. Personas, wake words, and instant FAQ answers that respond with your exact wording without spending an AI call, plus greeting cooldowns that stop regulars from being welcomed twice a day.
- The Discord bridge. Eight in-world feeds land in your server, and a two-way channel lets staff answer in-world from their phones.
- Presence that repairs itself. Avatars stay in-world with the tab closed and re-log automatically after server restarts, staggered so Linden Lab rate limits are respected.
- Fleet management. Link every avatar you own to one login, switch in a click, see which one has unread messages, and act on several at once.
- Voice. Spatial voice and calls in a browser tab, including on a phone.
Can you use both?
Yes, and for a large community it is often the right answer. Run SmartBots for group administration on a dedicated bot avatar, and Thunder Viewer for the front-of-house avatar that greets, answers, and keeps you reachable.
The one hard rule: Second Life allows one active session per avatar. Give each job its own avatar so nothing kicks anything else offline, and flag every unattended automated avatar as a Scripted Agent on secondlife.com, which is required of both platforms' users alike. Our bots guide covers that setup end to end.
FAQ
Is Thunder Viewer a replacement for SmartBots?
Not exactly. It replaces the greeter, customer-conversation and presence side, and adds a full Second Life client you can use from any device. It does not replace group inviters, scheduled notices, translation or API scripting, which remain SmartBots strengths.
Which is cheaper?
It depends on your shape. SmartBots charges per service and per bot, so a single group inviter can be inexpensive while several services across multiple groups add up. Thunder Viewer charges one weekly subscription that covers your linked avatars. Price both against your actual list of jobs.
Do I need a separate avatar for the bot?
Yes, on either platform. Unattended automation makes an account a Scripted Agent under Linden Lab policy, so run it on a dedicated avatar flagged accordingly, and keep your main avatar for yourself.
Can Thunder Viewer send group invites and notices?
Not today. Group chat is supported for conversation, but the invite and scheduled-notice tooling is where SmartBots is the stronger choice.
Does either one work on a phone?
Thunder Viewer runs its full client in a phone browser, including voice, with nothing to install. SmartBots is administered through a web dashboard, which is reachable from a phone browser as well. See our Second Life on mobile guide for the wider picture.