Chatfuel SDK vs WATI
WATI is a WhatsApp Business API provider that rents you a team inbox: a plan, a price for each extra user, and messages at its own rate card. Among WATI alternatives, Chatfuel SDK is the one that hands you the application — your brand, no seat charge, one balance.
Side by side
| Feature | WATI | Chatfuel SDK |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | ||
What it is | An account on their platform | The application itself, handed over |
Source you can read and change | ||
Licence | A subscription to a hosted service | MIT |
Where it runs | Their platform, at live.wati.io | Vercel, your own server or Docker |
What leaves with you | Contacts as an export, chats as a .zip of .txt files, campaign statistics as a CSV | The app, its source, and the deployment you already control |
| Getting a number live | ||
How the number connects | Meta’s embedded signup, from a WATI account with an active subscription | Meta’s embedded signup, through Chatfuel — an official Meta partner and WhatsApp BSP |
Trying it first | 7 days, no card: messages reach your own number only, and templates cannot be submitted | A trial the wizard opens, and promo code SDK worth $100 of credits |
| What a month costs | ||
Published price | $69, $149 or $349 a month in US dollars; $59, $119 or $279 billed annually | $20 for one bot, $100 to $2,050 for an agency |
Which list you are shown | Set by your country: dollars, pounds, euros, rupees, reais and more, each its own ladder | One list, in US dollars |
People answering the inbox | 3 on Growth, and no more are sold; 5 on Pro and Business, then $39 or $89 a user a month | No seat charge |
A team of three | Growth, $69 | Business, $20 |
A team of eight | Pro: $149 plus 3 × $39 = $266 | Business, $20 |
On top of Meta’s per-message rate | Not published | 10%, from 1 October 2026 |
What messages are paid from | Credits kept in a WATI wallet | The same balance the AI draws on |
Broadcasts a month | 15,000 on Growth; unlimited on Pro and Business | Not metered |
Automation triggers a month | 1,000, 2,000 or 5,000 free, then $40 per 1,000 | Not metered |
Channels on a plan | One on Growth; all of theirs above it | All five, on every plan |
Another WhatsApp number | $29 a number a month, on Pro and Business | A number belongs to a bot; Agency S at $100 holds three bots |
API and webhooks | No webhooks on Growth; 10,000, 200,000 or 20 million API calls a month | The API is what the app is built on, on every plan |
What is metered | Users, broadcasts, triggers, API calls, AI credits and messages | AI tokens, and a cent a conversion event, from the plan’s balance |
| The inbox | ||
Shared inbox with human takeover | ||
Assigning a conversation | By hand on Growth, team routing on Pro, round robin on Business | To a person, to the AI, or to nobody |
Notes on a contact | ||
WhatsApp’s 24-hour window | Template messages from the inbox | Checked before you type; an approved template is the way back |
Roles | Nine named roles, from Administrator to Billing Manager | Owner, admin and member, with per-bot grants |
Saved replies | Quick replies | Kept per person |
Tags on a chat | ||
A mobile app for the inbox | ||
Operator reports | On Pro and Business | |
Phone number masking | On Business | |
| Automation and AI | ||
A visual flow builder | ||
An AI agent that answers customers | Astra, priced separately: $0, $99 or $399 a month, on web and WhatsApp | On every plan and all five channels; tokens come off the balance |
How the AI is set | Not published | Per entry point: fifteen settings across seventeen sources |
What the AI answers from | Training data per agent: 1 MB, 50 MB or 100 MB | A knowledge base: profile, FAQ, products, and gaps found in handed-over chats |
A bookings calendar the AI books into | ||
Conversions from click-to-WhatsApp ads | ||
A Shopify integration | $4.99 a month add-on | Free, with your own app |
| Broadcasts | ||
Campaigns on approved templates | ||
Choosing who receives it | Segments, prebuilt and your own | Conditions on contact fields, with a live recipient count |
When it goes | Scheduled campaigns | Now, later, or on a repeat in the bot’s timezone |
How it did | Read, replied and clicked, with a CSV of the campaign | Contacts reached; delivery and read rates are in WhatsApp Manager |
Retargeting from a campaign | By read on Growth; by replied, ignored and clicked above it | |
| Channels | ||
Where a conversation can come in | WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, RCS, SMS and website chat | Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok and the web widget |
RCS, SMS and WhatsApp calling | ||
| Your brand | ||
The address your client signs in at | “live.wati.io/companyname”, $50 once; “companyname.wati.io” is “not supported” | Yours, on your domain |
White label | The app carries your name and your logo, and nothing of ours | |
Your own sign-up and your own price | The auth module, on any plan | |
What you keep on a sale | A reseller’s “lifetime commissions or discounts” on a WATI licence | The price you set, in full |
Running several clients | Client bots in one workspace, on one balance | |
When to choose which
Choose WATI if
- You are one business and want nothing to deploy: an account, a number, a campaign out the same week.
- Campaign figures decide your next send. They show read, replied and clicked, and retarget on each; we show contacts reached.
- Your team answers from a phone. They ship a mobile inbox app; we do not.
- RCS, SMS or WhatsApp calling is a channel you need. We have five channels, and not those.
- You sell on Shopify and want abandoned-cart templates as a $4.99 add-on.
Choose Chatfuel SDK if
- The app your clients sign in to should carry your name, on your domain, down to the source.
- The team is growing. A sixth person in the inbox costs nothing here, and $39 a month there.
- You run numbers for several clients and want them on one balance, at a price you set.
- The AI should answer on every channel from the plan you already pay for, not from a second subscription.
- You want to know the markup on a message before you send it: Meta’s rate plus 10%.
Move a number over
One command scaffolds the app and writes only the modules you pick. Templates Meta has approved on the connected WhatsApp Business Account appear in the broadcasts catalog.
- Run the wizard, pick the modules, give it your name and your logo.
- Connect the number from inside your app, through Chatfuel, an official Meta partner.
- Set the AI per entry point: a direct message, an ad click, a click from a post.
- Deploy on your own domain, and add the auth module when clients sign in to you.
Questions
WATI alternatives divide by what they bill. respond.io bills users as WATI does: $99 to $349 a month, then $15 to $30 a user. 360dialog bills the number, from €49 a month with no markup on Meta’s fees. Twilio bills $0.005 a message on top of Meta’s. Chatfuel SDK bills none of those: the app is yours under MIT, and the workspace under it is $20 a month for one bot.
All comparisons