First you have to decide whether the WhatsApp Business Platform or the normal WhatsApp Business app is required for your company.
Small companies inspired the WhatsApp Business app. Basically an enhanced form of the consumer app, it allows you to include a company bio, opening hours and aproduct catalogue. You can also deploy some simple automation including quickr esponses and auto-replies.
The main drawback of this software is that four people at once can access it only and you need to verify by scanning a QR code to keep your access, however, this app is free!
For smaller companies with low message traffic, the app is helpful; yet, for bigger companies it is quite ineffective.
WhatsApp launched the WhatsApp Business Platform for companies who needed more than these apps have to offer.
These include but are not limited to:
There is no interface to the WhatsApp Business Platform by itself. You will therefore have to link it to a Meta Tech Provider, such as ourselves, Stitch.
The costs vary by provider, but are generally a mix of:
Some platforms charge a setup fee, others do not provide training, you may have to get an account from another provider to link it to the software, here at Stitch we completely end to end the solution to include a training sessions with our onboarding fee.
Software subscription fees vary from platform to platform, most having encompassing extremely complex pricing designed to start you off on a lower monthly cost with the aim of increasing this significantly as you start to build volume on the platform. These are in essence hidden costs that may or may not be published or easily understood. At Stitch, our platform fees are transparent, and we pride ourselves on this.
Users of WhatsApp Business Platform pay a charge per conversation which is applied by Meta. The client or the company might start a conversation and there are different rates depending on the content of the conversation you start. Rates in the UK vary between approximately 1.7p and 4p, the latter being categorised as marketing. If a client starts a conversation you only pay if you respond and Meta give you 1000 conversations started by a client free per month.
The conversation price covers any messages sent inside a24-hour period, there are no additional costs within this time period, so you can send as many messages as needed to communicate with the client.
Most providers apply a margin to these fees whereas Stitch simply pass these costs through to our customers.
Some providers have set their solution rates based on your monthly active WhatsApp contacts. With a lot of contacts, for example, with a medium-sized business, this might quickly become expensive. Stitch allow an unlimited number of active monthly contacts for no additional fees.
All providers offer a basic level of support, but will this suffice if you need help fast? Most providers offer varying levels of support at additional costs to the actual monthly subscription costs. Stitch have no additional fees and we believe offer the highest levels of support available in the industry.
In conclusion, choose the WhatsApp Business app for small-scale operations and the WhatsApp Business Platform for larger, more demanding needs, with Stitch offering a seamless and transparent solution for the latter.