Weighing the pros and cons between Wati vs respond.io to manage your WhatsApp conversations and do marketing and sales over chat? Wati is an affordable option for small businesses primarily using WhatsApp for customer communication. For growing businesses using multiple channels and sending high volumes of messages, respond.io may be the better choice. We’ll break down the differences between the two so you can make an informed decision that best suits your business.
Wati vs Respond.io: A Side-by-Side Comparison
When you’re selecting a conversation management platform, you’ll want to ensure it supports the channels your customers use most, offers sales and marketing automation to help you scale, provides prompt support when needed and can be trusted to keep your customer data secure.
First of all, let’s look at an overview of how Wati vs respond.io compare on these key features.
Wati vs Respond.io: Compare 6 Must-Have Features
Now that you’ve seen an overview of the basic features, we’ll get into the details of the benefits and limitations of Wati vs. respond.io for growing businesses like yours.
Wati vs Respond.io: WhatsApp API Capabilities
As the most popular communication channel in many countries, WhatsApp is essential for doing marketing and sales over chat. Growing businesses benefit from using WhatsApp API rather than WhatsApp Business App as it enables multi-user access along with robust broadcast and automation capabilities.
As WhatsApp API doesn’t have a front-end interface, you’ll need to connect it to a messaging platform like Wati or respond.io. The extent of the features you can use depends on your provider, so it’s important to make the right choice.
WhatsApp BSP
Both Wati and respond.io are WhatsApp Business Service Providers (BSPs) which means they have partnered with Meta to provide access to WhatsApp API. Meta charges conversation fees for certain business-initiated messages regardless of your provider.
Both Wati and respond.io allow you to sign up for WhatsApp API at no additional monthly cost, unlike some other BSPs. However, not all Meta Business Manager features are available with Wati as Wati focuses on WhatsApp rather than on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta Catalog Integration
Sending product photos via WhatsApp helps leads make a decision faster. Meta Catalogs allow you to upload items and descriptions to Meta Business Manager to easily send them in a message or use in ads shown on Instagram or Facebook.
Both Wati and respond.io directly integrates with Meta Catalogs so you can instantly access catalog images from Meta Business Manager and send them in messages.
WhatsApp Broadcasts
One factor many businesses look for in a conversation management platform is the ability to send broadcasts or bulk messages. WhatsApp API is essential for this as it allows you to broadcast to thousands of contacts whereas WhatsApp Business App only allows you to send broadcasts to 256 contacts at a time.
Both Wati and respond.io have WhatsApp API broadcasting capabilities, enabling you to segment contacts for retargeting, send promotions, newsletters, reminders and more. Create template messages directly in the platform and get them approved by WhatsApp. Broadcasts can be sent immediately or scheduled for specific dates and times.
Wati vs Respond.io: Omnichannel Capabilities
While WhatsApp is the most popular channel for many businesses, it’s most likely not the only channel your customers are on. Growing businesses require omnichannel capabilities to widen their audience and reach full potential.
An ideal conversation management platform allows you to manage messages and communicate on any channel.
Channels Available
Wati was initially designed to be used solely with WhatsApp, but it enabled Instagram DM connection starting in October 2024. Businesses can send and reply to Instagram DMs in their team inbox, but the capabilities are limited compared to WhatsApp. No other channels are supported by Wati.
Respond.io on the other hand, supports WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, Viber, WeChat, SMS, email, LINE, Webchat and custom channels. For custom channels, use our developer API to connect respond.io to any channel.
With respond.io, automation features are enabled for every channel, so no matter which channel your leads come from, you’ll have full potential to capture, convert and retain customers.
Wati vs Respond.io: Marketing and Sales Automation
To reach more leads and manage high volumes of inquiries coming in over chat, automation is essential. Here’s how Wati vs respond.io compare in terms of automating marketing and sales.
Chat Automation
Both Wati and respond.io provide businesses with no-code automation builders. Wati’s automation is referred to as a Chatbot Builder, focusing on responding to inquiries, while respond.io’s is called Workflows and has more comprehensive integrations.
While both platforms enhance your marketing and sales capabilities like instant responses, qualification questions, answering FAQs and appointment booking, Wati’s workflows only support WhatsApp. Respond.io’s workflows allow you to use these advanced automations across channels.
Click to Chat Ads
Want to get new leads into your inbox? Click to chat ads are the fastest way to get a large, targeted audience to send you a message. With Meta, you can create ads displayed on Facebook and Instagram that click to WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
While you can run click to chat ads with Wati’s WhatsApp API, the ads can’t be used to trigger an automation. Wati does offer an ad conversion tracking tool available for higher tier plans to help measure the success of click to chat ads.
Respond.io has automation triggers that are compatible with click to chat ads. That means that you can seamlessly send automatic replies, keep track of how many conversations are coming into the platform from ads and more.
Respond.io also supports TikTok Messaging Ads, allowing you to reach new audiences on TikTok and convert them through ads.
Reports
When you’re doing marketing and sales over chat, you’ll want to see the results of your efforts, for example, by tracking how quickly conversations are being responded to and which channels the most leads are coming in on.
Wati and respond.io both offer reporting capabilities to help you maximize team efficiency and gauge agent performance.
Respond.io also includes reports on channels to help you focus on channels that convert.
Wati vs Respond.io: AI Features
Since the advent of generative AI, the number of AI-powered platforms have exploded. Everyone wants to take advantage of the opportunities AI offers, but how can you best do that? Let’s look at Wati vs respond.io’s advanced AI features.
AI Agent
Wati has an AI powered chatbot called KnowBot that can answer basic FAQs based on provided information. However, it is separate from chat automation and cannot route customers to a human agent. That means agents need to manually check the AI conversations to see if they need to intervene.
Respond.io offers a more advanced AI Agent that you can train with your own knowledge sources, so you can reply to messages 24/7, even when human agents aren’t available. Use AI agent to answer common questions or even complete a sale. Use Workflows automation to route customers to a human agent when necessary.
Assistance in Drafting Messages
Respond.io includes GPT-powered assistance in drafting messages for efficient, professional responses. Agents can ask AI to compose a reply and choose to send as is or edit it. They can also type a message and ask AI to polish the tone or check grammar.
Learns from Your Own Business Documentation
AI features work best when trained directly with your business knowledge. Wati enables businesses to do this by uploading PDF documents to train the AI bot. Respond.io not only supports uploading documents but also has a URL crawler so the AI can learn from your entire website.
Wati vs Respond.io: Platform Security and Stability For Scaling Your Business
When you’re scaling your business, security and stability are vital to any platform you choose. Data breaches and platform downtime can have a serious impact on a business’s reputation. You want to ensure your customer data remains confidential and that messages keep coming through smoothly.
Security Features
Wati helps businesses protect customer privacy with a phone number masking feature so numbers aren’t visible to agents. However, it does not have ISO 27001 certification which may be a concern for large businesses with compliance requirements. They also lack 2FA and SSO features, opening up further risks.
Enterprises requiring tighter security standards should choose respond.io as it is ISO 27001 certified, offers 2FA and SSO and provides the option to mask sensitive customer information so you can rest assured all data is protected.
Ability to Handle High Volumes of Messages
Both Wati and respond.io are able to handle high volumes of messages without lagging or crashing, so you can rest assured communication will flow smoothly as your business scales.
But as we’ve covered above, Wati only supports WhatsApp and Instagram. If your growing business starts getting a large influx of chats on Facebook Messenger and other channels, it will be a challenge to handle manually. Respond.io is the better choice for businesses with any plans to expand to channels beyond WhatsApp.
Wati vs Respond.io: Customer Support
Getting started on a new platform is a learning process, so you’ll want to know that the one you choose can support you through onboarding and help optimize your experience for success. If you have any issues, you don’t want to leave your leads and customers hanging while you’re waiting for a response from support. Here’s how Wati vs respond.io compare on support.
Onboarding Support
When your enterprise has complex needs, a dedicated customer success manager can make all the difference.
Wati offers basic onboarding support to help customers get set up on WhatsApp API, but the assistance stops there.
With respond.io, you’ll get personalized support for planning and setting up Workflows, connecting to WhatsApp API, integrating with third-party tools and more.
Availability
Wati only offers email support to customers on lower tier plans and bot support to those on higher tier plans. That means if you want to contact a human, you’ll need to wait for them to reply to an email, possibly losing leads and deals in the meantime.
Respond.io offers 24/5 live chat support and 24/7 AI agent support to all customers. If you need any assistance, you’ll be sure to get it fast and get back to chatting with your leads and customers.
Wati vs Respond.io: Make the Right Choice for Your Business
Wati and respond.io both help businesses enhancing marketing and sales over chat. But for medium to large businesses, respond.io stands out as the better choice, especially if you require multichannel automation and dedicated support and are aiming to scale.
Wati lacks key features like multichannel automation, security certification and advanced AI. Their support is also limited, which means you’ll be kept waiting if you have an urgent inquiry.
For businesses aiming to scale, respond.io streamlines and automates your sales and marketing efforts on every channel, not just WhatsApp. AI features enable you to provide fast, high-quality responses. With our dedicated support, we help you make the most of our tools so you can convert leads and close deals without delay.
To get full experience of what respond.io can do for your business, sign up for a free trial or contact us for a customized demo today.
Further Reading
If you’re interested in more comparisons to help you choose a conversation management platform, consider the following articles:
- Unlock Growth Potential with a Wati Alternative for Businesses Using Multiple Channels
- Respond.io Alternatives: 4 Respond.io Alternatives to Consider
- Best 6 Twilio Alternatives: Comparing Features and Pricing
