Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover dm & comment automation and social media management. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Respond.io | Wati | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $79 | From $59 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Annual only |
| Free trial | 7 days | 7 days |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | DM & Comment Automation, Social Media Management | DM & Comment Automation, Social Media Management |
| Works with | Instagram, Facebook | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
One inbox for DMs across every messaging app
Respond.io pulls Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and the rest into a single queue, so a brand deal conversation does not get lost because it started on the wrong app. Routing and automation sit on top, and a person can take over from the bot mid-thread. Pricing counts the contacts you talk to each month, which punishes a big audience of light senders.
Only on this side
WhatsApp broadcasts and a shared team inbox
Wati sits on the official WhatsApp Business API and gives a team one inbox for it, plus broadcast campaigns and keyword automations. For a creator whose audience lives in WhatsApp groups, that is the difference between a personal phone and something two people can answer. Message charges from Meta land on top of the subscription, which is the part that surprises people.
Our note
Meta's per-message charges sit on top of the subscription and move with message category, so the $59 is a starting point rather than a bill. Whether it is worth paying is a question about where the audience already is, not about features.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.