Ranking vendors is easy to write and useless to read, because the right tool depends on your team, your systems and your budget. This guide gives you the questions to ask any WhatsApp marketing tool before you sign up, and the answers that should satisfy you. Ask them of Waki too.
Read alongside this guide: WhatsApp marketing software and Waki plans and pricing.
Key takeaways
- Official Meta API first; everything else is a feature comparison.
- Insist on INR pricing with GST, a tax invoice and clear conversation billing.
- You should own your WhatsApp Business Account, not the vendor.
- Pilot one real use case for a few weeks before deciding.
The first question: official API or not
Any tool that drives WhatsApp Web or a phone in the background to send bulk messages is unofficial. Those numbers get banned, often with the customer list gone. A tool on the official WhatsApp Business Platform connects your WhatsApp Business Account through Meta’s embedded signup or provides a number it manages for you. If the vendor cannot say plainly that they use the official Cloud API, stop there.
What the tool should include
The platform itself only moves messages; the tool is everything around them.
- Template management with Meta approval status.
- Campaigns with segments, scheduling and recurring sends.
- A shared inbox with assignment, notes and quick replies.
- An automation builder with triggers, delays, conditions and handover to an agent.
- Contact import, custom attributes, segments and opt-out handling.
- Reports per message, campaign and conversation.
- A REST API with webhooks and ready integrations.
- Tracked links, QR codes and a website widget to grow the list.
Questions about billing
Ask for the price in rupees with GST shown, whether you get a tax invoice, how Meta’s conversation charges are billed (directly by Meta on your own account, or through a wallet on a managed number), whether renewals are automatic or optional and how cancellation works. A vendor who cannot answer these in one paragraph will not be clearer on the invoice.
Questions about limits
Every plan has limits on channels, contacts, team members, workflows and API requests. Ask what they are, what happens when you cross one, and how the next plan is priced. Waki publishes its plan limits on the pricing page; expect the same from anyone else.
Questions about support and data
Who do you contact when a template is rejected or a number is restricted, and how quickly do they answer? Where is your data held, can you export contacts and conversations, and who owns the WhatsApp Business Account? You should. If the vendor owns it, leaving them means leaving your number.
How to run a pilot
Pick one use case you already handle by hand, connect a number, create one template and run it for a few weeks with a small segment. Judge the tool on how much of the manual work it removed and on how the reports helped you improve, not on the feature list.
Next steps
Conclusion
Choose the tool by asking the same questions of everyone: official API, what is included, how billing works, where the limits are, who owns the account. Then run one honest pilot. The tool that removes the most manual work with the fewest surprises is the right one.