WhatsApp Business API platform purpose-built for Indian SMBs and startups
Wati is the most popular WhatsApp Business API platform for Indian SMBs and growth-stage startups. It gives you a shared team inbox for WhatsApp, broadcast messaging, chatbot builder, CRM integration, and automation workflows — all without WhatsApp's direct API complexity. For Indian businesses where customers ONLY respond on WhatsApp (not email or phone), Wati is often the most important customer communication tool.
The $49/mo starting plan is accessible for Indian teams, with INR billing available. Key insight: Wati works on the WhatsApp Business API (requires Meta approval), not the regular WhatsApp Business app — this distinction matters for setup timelines.
Wati is a WhatsApp Business API platform — a layer of tooling built on top of Meta's official WhatsApp Business API that makes it usable for non-technical teams. The raw WhatsApp Business API requires developer setup, webhook configuration, and message template management. Wati abstracts all of that into a no-code interface: a shared team inbox, a drag-and-drop chatbot builder, broadcast message scheduling, and CRM integrations that work out of the box.
For Indian businesses, this matters enormously. WhatsApp has 500M+ users in India. Customer response rates on WhatsApp are 5-10x higher than email — a 70-80% open rate vs 15-20% for email. Many Indian D2C, fintech, and edtech companies run their entire customer support operation on WhatsApp. Wati makes that operation manageable at scale: multiple agents sharing one number, automated responses for FAQs, and broadcast campaigns to opted-in customers.
Wati is particularly strong for Indian D2C brands, e-commerce businesses, and any company doing high-volume customer communication in a market where WhatsApp is the primary channel. It has India-specific pricing, INR billing, and customer support that understands the Indian market context.
WhatsApp is India's #1 messaging app with 500M+ users. Wati has India-specific pricing, INR billing option, and is purpose-built for the Indian market where customer response rates on WhatsApp are 5-10x higher than email. Many Indian D2C, fintech, and edtech companies run their entire customer support on Wati.
The platform is deeply embedded in India's D2C and e-commerce ecosystem: Shopify and WooCommerce integrations work natively, Zoho CRM is well-supported, and the India-focused support team understands local compliance and Meta approval nuances. If you're an Indian business and WhatsApp is your primary customer channel, Wati is the default choice.
Multiple agents handle conversations on one WhatsApp number simultaneously. Assign conversations, add internal notes, set SLAs, and see who is handling what. No more passing phones around the office.
Send template messages to thousands of opted-in contacts simultaneously. Requires Meta-approved message templates. Open rates of 70-80% vs 15% for email campaigns — the highest-impact channel for Indian consumer businesses.
Build keyword-triggered and flow-based chatbots without writing code. Handle top 20 FAQs automatically, collect customer information, and route conversations to human agents when needed.
Native integrations with HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Freshdesk, and Shopify. Customer conversation history syncs to your CRM. Shopify order data appears in the Wati inbox when a customer messages about an order.
Auto-reply rules, conversation assignment logic, SLA alerts, and out-of-hours messages. Trigger WhatsApp messages from external events via webhooks — order confirmed, payment received, delivery dispatched.
Response time tracking, agent performance, conversation volume by day/hour, and broadcast campaign delivery/read rates. Sufficient for tracking support team efficiency and campaign ROI.
5 agents, 1,000 conversations/mo. Good starting point for small support teams and D2C brands with moderate volume.
Unlimited agents, 3,000 conversations/mo. The right plan for growing Indian startups with active support teams and regular broadcast campaigns.
Unlimited conversations, dedicated support, custom SLAs. For high-volume Indian businesses running WhatsApp as a primary support channel at scale.
Note: WhatsApp Business API also charges per conversation (Meta's pricing). Conversations are free for the first 1,000/month; business-initiated conversations cost ~$0.0083 each for India. Factor this into your total cost of ownership.
Wati uses the WhatsApp Business API, which requires Meta Business Verification (takes 1-5 business days). You also need a dedicated phone number not used on regular WhatsApp. Broadcast message templates each require individual Meta approval (24-48 hours per template). Factor 1-2 weeks into your launch timeline for the full approval process before your first broadcast goes out.
(1) Order confirmation + delivery updates via template messages — reduces inbound "where is my order?" queries by 40-60%. (2) Abandoned cart recovery — 60% WhatsApp open rate vs 15% email. (3) COD confirmation to reduce RTOs — send a WhatsApp confirming COD order before dispatch, reducing return-to-origin rates by 20-30%. (4) Customer support chatbot handling top 20 FAQs — frees agents for complex cases. (5) Post-purchase NPS survey — higher response rates than email-based surveys.
| Platform | India Pricing | Chatbot Builder | CRM Integrations | Broadcast | INR Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wati | $49/mo | No-code, good | HubSpot, Zoho, Shopify | Yes | Yes |
| Interakt | ~$15/mo | Basic | Shopify, WooCommerce | Yes | Yes (INR native) |
| AiSensy | ~$20/mo | Flow-based | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Freshchat | $15/mo | No (email-first) | Freshdesk native | Limited | No |
| Gupshup | API-based | Advanced (developer) | Custom API | Yes | Yes |
Teams using Wati also use these customer support and engagement tools:
Freshdesk — multi-channel helpdesk with ticketing and SLA management Zendesk — enterprise helpdesk for complex support operations Crisp — live chat and customer messaging for SaaS products Gupshup — developer-grade WhatsApp API with advanced bot capabilitiesWe help Indian product and growth teams set up WhatsApp automation, chatbots, and customer communication workflows that reduce support load and improve CSAT.
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