When considering an appropriate channel to direct their marketing efforts, companies and businesses cannot afford to overlook the tremendous power of WhatsApp when it comes to creating brand awareness, engaging customers and making sales conversions. WhatsApp has made a phenomenal impact on the world by having a user base of over 3 billion people. WhatsApp also boasts an astounding 98% open rate far exceeding emails and any other mode of communication.
However, in order to successfully execute their WhatsApp marketing campaigns businesses and organizations require access to the WhatsApp Business API. Here is where most businesses and companies find themselves at crossroads, unable to decide upon a provider due to the vast number of options available out there.
One of the most popular WhatsApp API providers and the go-to choice for several businesses is Interakt. Built on the official WhatsApp Business API, Interakt is a recognized Meta Business Partner. Interakt helps businesses engage with customers at every stage of their buyer’s journey and maximize the number of conversions using highly effective automated workflows.
Interakt, however, may not be the ideal choice for your business. Interakt may be an impeccable WhatsApp API provider but may not be compatible with your business’s unique needs. There are other tools in the market that can provide the same if not better features for lesser costs and may prove to be more rewarding for your business.
Table of Contents
A Bit About Interakt
Before we jump into the alternatives let us get a better understanding of Interakt. Interakt is a WhatsApp API solution provider built for SMBs and D2C brands founded in 2020 whose parent company is Jio-Haptik. Interakt is adaptable to several industries spanning from real estate, health care, restaurants and food businesses, marketing agencies, ed-tech, spas and salons, banking and finance etc.
Interakt is used by well-known market leaders such as Pepperfry, Bluedart and Upstox and is trusted by 25000+ businesses worldwide. Interakt serves businesses of all sizes ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to large corporations. Interakt also enables access to many integrations such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Razorpay, Zoho, Hubspot, Zapier, Freshdesk etc.
Interakt gives its users a variety of top-grade features such as:
- Bulk and automated messages – Send pre-timed messages to a large audience
- Click to WhatsApp ads – Maximize your ROAS
- WhatsApp catalogs – Set up your online store on WhatsApp and accept payments
- WhatsApp CRM – Streamline your team collaboration
- WhatsApp chat widgets – Get a free WhatsApp chat widget for your website
- Real-time analytics – Get active performance reports and insights into how you can improve
- WhatsApp flows – capture customer intent and retarget for higher conversion
Pros
- Offers seamless integration to almost every other major third-party platform you can think of.
- Free green tick badge verification.
- Competitive and affordable pricing.
- Excellent quality customer support.
- Fast and easy access to WhatsApp API.
Cons
- Interakt doesn’t provide users with a chatbot builder and this can be a major drawback for businesses who wish to automate using chatbots and leverage the power of AI.
- Some users find the user interface complicated and hard to navigate.
- Lacks some essential segmentation capabilities.
- Some integrations may require customers to pay an additional fee.
Pricing
Interakt has decent pricing plans and they are as follows:
- Starter – Starts at $58/quarter (only available in quarterly and yearly plans)
- Growth – Starts at $49 per month
- Advanced – Starts at $63 per month
- Enterprise – Custom-made plans with an assigned account manager.
Click here to view Interakt’s pricing. Now that we have an idea of how Interakt works let’s take a look at its best alternatives.
5 Perfect Alternatives to Interakt
Interakt just like any other provider out there has its own shortcomings. If you are looking for an alternative to Interakt or if you are an Interakt user looking for a switch-up for a fresh start because you are not satisfied with the tools then let go of your worries as you will find the best alternatives to Interakt right below in this article.
1. WANotifier
WANotifier is an exemplary WhatsApp marketing tool suite that supercharges your WhatsApp marketing campaigns. It is the top alternative to Interakt. While being insanely simple to use and easy to navigate, WANotifier is also significantly cost-effective as it comes with 0% additional markup charges over standard WhatsApp API charges. This helps save a lot on WhatsApp marketing expenditures and makes it more compatible with smaller businesses.
WANotifier is used by well-known and prestigious organizations like BITS Pilani, ISKCON, Virtus Motors and charitable organizations such as True Hope Foundation. WANotifier also supports major integrations like Zapier, Pabbly, WooCommerce, Make and other popular third-party apps.
WANotifier helps you realize your WhatsApp marketing goals using its simple, user-friendly and powerful tools thereby making your business thrive by increasing sales and revenue. Some of the really cool features of WANotifier are as follows:
- Bulk and automated messages
- Detailed analytics reports
- Intuitive WhatsApp inbox
- Complex chatbots
- Transactional notifications
- A dedicated mobile app and so much more.
Pros
- At WANotifier we believe in WhatsApp marketing for all which motivated us to create a free forever plan that can be used by anyone and everyone free of charge for eternity. Such a free plan is not provided by other providers including Interakt.
- At WANotifier you need not pay any additional markup charges on top of the standard WhatsApp API charges. We offer 0% additional markup charges on your messages and conversations whereas Interakt imposes a significant markup percentage. This saves you big bucks as you only need to pay a one-time standard flat fee making WANotifer extremely budget-friendly.
- WANotifier has a simple and easy-to-use interface that is easy to navigate while also providing top-notch tools.
- Easy-to-operate chatbot flow builder that can be used to create complex chatbots that are tailored to answer customer queries effectively.
- Live-chat support to quickly sort out any issues that you may be facing.
Cons
- Sending replies from WhatsApp inbox is not available in the free plan.
- More advanced features are limited to higher-tier plans.
We at WANotifier work tirelessly to constantly improve and upgrade our product to meet user needs and to enhance customer satisfaction and user-friendliness. If you do come to face any issues or drawbacks with WANotifier please let us know so that we can deliver a much more refined consumer experience.
Pricing
WANotifier is relatively much lighter on the wallet when compared to the other tools in the market. Check out our detailed pricing plans with all the features here. We charge 0% additional markup charges on top of WhatsApp API charges so you won’t have to pay a single penny other than what you pay for your plan and the standard WhatsApp API charges that are levied per message. We have 4 different plans that you can choose depending on your needs:
- Free – Free forever, no charges.
- Standard – $49 or ₹1999 per month
- Growth – $99 or ₹3999 per month
- Pro – $249 or ₹9999 per month
Apart from these plans, you can get in touch with us to learn more about our Enterprise plans.
So what are you waiting for, sign up to get your free WANotifier account today!
2. Wati.io
Wati is the paragon of WhatsApp API providers with over 10000 users in over 160 countries. Wati is trusted by reputed and well-known companies such as J.P Morgan, ITC Limited, TikTok and Vedantu. Wati is versatile in providing several integrations including Zoho, Pabbly, WooCommerce, Shopify, Zapier, Hubspot, Klaviyo etc.
Wati provides innovative solutions to different industries like healthcare, education, marketing agencies, sales, support teams etc. Wati can be a fantastic alternative to Interakt. Here are the main features of Wati:
- Click to WhatsApp ads
- WhatsApp catalog
- Shared team inbox
- Broadcast bulk and automated messages
- Custom notifications
- No-code chatbot
- KnowBot: AI-powered chatbot
Pros
- Wati offers a seven-day free trial allowing customers to experiment before choosing them.
- Wati gives customers access to a no-code chatbot builder enabling them to create complex flows effortlessly.
- Wati’s support team actively guides you through the onboarding process of WhatsApp Business API making it fast and hassle-free.
- Wati allows customers to seamlessly integrate with third-party tools such as Zapier, Pabbly and Woocommerce.
- Wati has its own AI-powered chatbot called KnowBot that helps businesses easily automate the process of customer support by answering frequently asked repetitive questions.
Cons
- Wati’s pricing is comparatively higher than other platforms which provide similar if not more features. Wati may be suitable for large businesses while it may not be the ideal choice for small to medium-sized businesses.
- Wati only provides the standard chatbot builder and if you wish to acquire the robust flow builder you need to pay an additional amount of $49.
- To get green tick verification through Wati an extra amount is charged.
- Wati has received complaints regarding its customer support. The main drawback is that you can reach them only via email making it difficult to contact customer support and thus delaying the process.
- Wati only allows 5 users for every plan. To add more users a premium amount needs to be paid depending on your plan.
Pricing
Wati offers their customers 3 different plans to choose from. Apart from this they also offer custom plans based on specific requirements. Their pricing plans currently are as follows:
- Growth – $49 or ₹2499 per month
- Pro – $99 or ₹5999 per month
- Business – $299 or ₹16999 per month
Note that these prices can be lower if you choose to go for an annual subscription instead of a monthly subscription. On top of this, you need to pay an additional $30 for every 1000 chatbot sessions if you run out of the free chatbot sessions for your plan. If you need to integrate Wati with Shopify you also need to pay an additional $4.99.
3. Infobip
Infobip is an omnichannel marketing platform that helps businesses streamline the complex process of customer communications using a wide range of software tools and solutions. Infobip is trusted by some of the world’s top brands like Oracle, Samsung, Toyota, Vodafone, Strava etc.
Infobip not only provides you with the WhatsApp Business API but also assists with other social media platforms, emails and SMS messages. All-in-all Infobip can be a flawless alternative to Interakt. Some of the key features of Infobip include:
- WhatsApp flows
- Message templates
- Product messages
- Chatbots
- Analytics & reports
- Rich media support
Pros
- Dedicated mobile app
- Omnichannel capabilities
- Wide range of integrations
- Quality customer support
- Highly scalable for large businesses and enterprises
- Strong global presence with reliable support
Cons
- Pricing can be relatively higher when compared with other WhatsApp marketing software providing the same or even better features.
- As an omnichannel platform, it isn’t specifically built for WhatsApp as WhatsApp isn’t their primary concern.
- The platform can be difficult to navigate for new users. Omnichannel in general can be more complicated for new users.
Pricing
Infobip only offers custom pricing plans based on a company’s needs and requirements. Speculating based on user reviews the cost is towards the higher end, especially for small businesses without a dedicated development team.
4. QuickReply
QuickReply is a one-stop WhatsApp business solution for e-commerce brands to streamline marketing, customer relationship management and more with smart automations and two-way conversations. QuickReply is trusted by 500+ brands such as Farmley, Rage Coffee, Renee, Glamly and Meadbery. It supports many integrations like Zoho, Freshdesk, Zapier and Razorpay. Let us take a look at some of QuickReply’s features:
- Multi-agent inbox
- AI chatbots
- Drip marketing campaigns
- Personalized bulk messaging
- Pre-designed WhatsApp templates
- Monitoring and analytics
Pros
- Tailored for D2C brands
- Advanced segmentation
- Customizable chatbots
- Direct WhatsApp support
Cons
- No free version
- No advanced analytics
- Designed for D2C and ecommerce brands, might not be just as useful for other sectors.
Pricing
QuickReply has the following pricing plans:
- Starter – $35 or ₹2999 per month
- Standard – $80 or ₹7499 per month
- Plus – $199 or ₹14999 per month
- Enterprise – Talk to their sales team to get a customized plan according to your needs.
All-in-all QuickReply is an exceptional alternative to Interakt. Click here to view QuickReply’s pricing plans.
5. Sinch
Sinch is a leading communications platform provider pioneering the way the world communicates. Sinch provides software services to some of the world’s most popular companies such as Google, Uber, Paypal, Visa, Tinder and many other organizations including several Fortune 500 companies.
Sinch being the epitome of communication software also provides access to the WhatsApp Business API. Here are some of the distinguishing features of Sinch:
- Chatbots
- Verified business account
- Pre-built templates
- Multimedia engagement
- WhatsApp broadcasts
Pros
- Easy setup
- Cross-platform (iOS, Android, web)
- Great support (voice call, video call, MMS, SMS)
- Personalized communication
- AI integration
- Global communication
Cons
- More suited for developers i.e. developer oriented
- You cannot run 2-way campaigns with Sinch
- Sinch doesn’t support click-to-WhatsApp ads
- Sinch is resource-intensive and premium-priced making it infeasible for smaller businesses unlike WANotifier
- No free version
Pricing
Sinch offers users four unique pricing plans based on their requirements:
- Starter – ₹2,999 per month
- Scale – ₹15,999 per month
- Large – ₹29,999 per month
- Custom – Ideal for large enterprises with a high volume of interaction and specific requirements. Price is estimated depending on user needs.
Click here to view Sinch’s pricing plans. Overall Sinch would make a phenomenal alternative to Interakt.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you have found the best alternative to Interakt in this article. Interakt, as good as it may be, might not be compatible with your business. Make sure to test out different providers before settling down with a single provider for an extended period of time. You might be surprised at the number of features, better functionalities and quality customer support that other providers may offer.
With that said, be sure to explore, experiment and mess around with various providers before sticking to one so you truly know you have picked the right one for your business.
