WhatsApp Business VS WhatsApp Cloud API: what are the differences

A very high number of companies use WhatsApp every day to get in touch with their customers. WhatsApp provides users with three different channels: The personal profile (the one we all have), the business profile (WhatsApp Business), and direct access to the channel via API (official WhatsApp APIs).

WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business Cloud API are both solutions offered by WhatsApp for companies that want to use the messaging platform as a communication channel with their customers. However, there are some important differences between the two options that are important to consider when choosing which one to use for your business.

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WhatsApp Business

WhatsApp Business is a free application available for mobile devices that allows companies to create a business profile on WhatsApp, use automation tools such as predefined replies and welcome messages, and manage conversations with customers efficiently. With this option, companies can use WhatsApp as a sort of digital “toll-free number“, allowing customers to contact them directly via the messaging platform.

It is possible to use features such as the product catalog, automatic messages, and labels to organize and manage contacts, create ads and usage statistics, and use a professional phone number to communicate with customers.

WhatsApp Business is a very valuable tool for small businesses that have the ability to manually manage contacts and activities in the app. In addition to manual management, it has other limitations, such as:

– the inability to integrate with other tools, CRMs, or CMSs. This does not allow the creation of integrated communication.

– Limited Broadcast lists: it is possible to create lists that contain a maximum of 256 contacts.

– Message reception: the message sent to contacts in the broadcast lists will be received ONLY by users who have saved the number in their address book.

– Inability to create automatic personalized messages, with fields that vary based on the recipient, for example, the name.

Inability to include buttons with CTAs in the message.

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WhatsApp Business Cloud API

WhatsApp Business Cloud API is a paid solution offered by WhatsApp that allows companies to integrate WhatsApp with their business systems, such as CRM or order management systems. With the API, companies can send and receive automated messages, manage mass conversations with customers, and track conversation metrics. This option is ideal for medium and large companies that want to automate and integrate their communication on WhatsApp with their business systems.

The main advantages of the WhatsApp API are:

• Message automation and conversation management: with the API, companies can automate welcome messages and predefined responses, allowing them to respond quickly to customers without having to dedicate human resources to conversation management.
• Integration with business systems: the API allows companies to integrate WhatsApp with their existing business systems, such as their CRM or order management system, allowing them to easily manage conversations with customers and collect data about them.
• Conversation metrics tracking: with the API, companies can track conversation metrics, such as the number of messages sent and received, the response rate, and the duration of conversations, allowing them to evaluate the effectiveness of their communication on WhatsApp.

Although WhatsApp Business Cloud API is a high-performance product, not all companies have the ability to integrate it.

To integrate the APIs, companies need to invest in development, thereby creating systems and software capable of internalizing the APIs and integrating them with their own tools.

However, there is a solution: the possibility of using conversational platforms like Spoki.

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The Spoki platform

Spoki is a WhatsApp-based conversational marketing platform that allows users to automate and manage conversations with customers on the world’s most used channel.

Spoki integrates the official WhatsApp APIs, which allows you to overcome all the limitations of WhatsApp Business and benefit from the advantages of using the APIs. Using the Spoki platform, you can:

–create automated conversation flows (chatbot type) to automatically manage the conversation with the customer.

– Create and schedule promotional campaigns overcoming the limit of 256 contacts to be included in the list.

– Security in message reception: the message will be received by ALL contacts in the list.

– Ability to include multimedia content, text, and chat buttons within the message to prompt the user to take a subsequent action.

– Integrate WhatsApp with the main marketing, CRM and CMS tools.  

In addition, it also offers an API (Application Programming Interface) that allows developers to integrate the Spoki platform with their own systems.

Do you want to integrate WhatsApp Marketing into your business?

Start with a free account on  Spoki and start your first campaigns with 5 € of included credit.

Or contact us to build your winning strategy together. We are waiting for you!