Wati vs Zoko: WhatsApp Tools Compared (2027)

Quick answer: Choose Wati if you want rupee pricing, a native HubSpot link and a shared inbox for a team of three to a dozen people; its plans run from ₹2,699 to ₹16,799 a month. Choose Zoko if you run a Shopify store and want cheap extra agents and low per-conversation markups, accepting that Zoko bills in US dollars. Both charge Meta's WhatsApp message fees on top, so budget for those separately.

How we researched this: We read both vendors' pricing pages and homepages, Wati's help-centre indexes for number connection and campaigns, Meta's per-message pricing documentation and the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy. All figures are as published in October 2026; vendors change plans without notice, so confirm on the pricing page before paying.

Wati and Zoko side by side

This Wati vs Zoko WhatsApp software comparison starts from a shared fact: both products sit between your customers and the WhatsApp Business Platform. They give your staff a shared inbox, let you send approved template broadcasts and add automation. The difference is mostly commercial: how they bill, how they count seats and what they connect to.

Prices above are per the vendors' pricing pages (checked October 2026). Wati's page also offers monthly and annual billing and says "Save up to 10%", but it shows only the quarterly rate, so the monthly and annual figures are something to get in writing.

What each plan includes, Wati first and Zoko second

Wati

Wati's three plans differ less in the inbox than in automation allowance, integrations and API room.

Growth (₹2,699 a month, billed quarterly). Three users, no option to add more. It includes the omnichannel inbox, 15,000 broadcasts a month at standard rates, 1,000 free automation triggers a month, two selected commerce or CRM integrations and 10,000 API calls a month with no webhooks. Support is email, 24x5.

Pro (₹5,799 a month, billed quarterly). Five users, extra users at ₹1,299 each. Broadcasts are unlimited at standard rates, free automation triggers rise to 2,000, and you get five integrations (HubSpot is named), 200,000 API calls and limited webhooks. Forms, connected chatbots, intelligent routing and operator reports start here, as do two Astra AI agents and 5,000 Wati AI credits a month. Support moves to email and chat, 24x7.

Business (₹16,799 a month, billed quarterly). Five users, extra users at ₹2,199 each. It adds multiple accounts and numbers, Salesforce among unlimited integrations, 5,000 free automation triggers, number masking, IP whitelisting and dedicated customer success managers.

Treated as a Wati WhatsApp automation tool, the number that surprises first-time buyers is the automation trigger. Wati's page says each time an automation runs for a customer it counts as a chatbot session, and once the plan's allowance is used you must "respond to your customers manually". Extra triggers cost ₹1,000 a month for a block starting at 1,000. If your bot answers a "send me the price list" button for 40 customers a day, that is around 1,200 runs in a 30-day month, already past the Growth allowance. Do this sum with your own enquiry volume before choosing a tier.

Other add-ons on the page: an extra WhatsApp number is ₹2,499 a month per number, and the Shopify integration is listed at $4.99 a month. Wati states no cancellation fees but also no refunds on existing subscriptions or credits.

For the wider Wati family of alternatives, see our comparison of Wati, Interakt and AiSensy.

Zoko

Judged as a Zoko WhatsApp marketing CRM, the pricing page is built around one idea: you pay a subscription, you pay Meta directly for messages, and Zoko adds a small "markup" per conversation that shrinks as you move up. Zoko's FAQ defines a conversation as "a 24-hour session that starts when the first message from your business is delivered".

• Starter, $49.99 a month: unlimited agents at no charge and a $0.015 markup on every conversation.
• Plus, $79.99 a month: the first 5,000 conversations carry no markup, then $0.00199 each; five agents included, then $15 per extra agent.
• Elite, $139.99 a month (marked "most popular"): the first 100,000 conversations carry no markup, then $0.00099 each; ten agents included, then $12 per extra agent.
• Max, $499.99 a month: no conversation markup at all. The page lists agents as unlimited in the table but gives a different figure in its FAQ, so ask Zoko to confirm the agent count before you rely on it.

Every plan includes bulk broadcasts, the WhatsApp catalogue, a chat widget, customer tags and segments, click-to-WhatsApp ad support, auto-distribution of chats, quick replies, pop-up campaigns, analytics, and API and webhooks. The pricing table marks the catalogue, widget and pop-ups as carrying Zoko branding on some plans, so check which ones on yours. Instagram is a flat $9.99 a month; Messenger is $0.

Add-ons include 11 essential flows free, premium flows at $5.99 a month per flow, and three Zoko AI agents: Guru for FAQs and Wismo for order tracking at $24.99 a month plus $0.09 per resolution (first 100 free), and Sello for order-taking at $24.99 a month plus 3% of order value (first 100 orders free).

Two practical points follow from the arithmetic. First, Starter looks cheapest but is not once you send volume: at 2,000 conversations a month the $0.015 markup adds $30, making Starter $79.99, exactly the Plus price. Beyond that, Plus wins. Second, Plus and Elite cross over at nine agents: Plus with nine agents is $79.99 plus four extra at $15, which equals Elite's $139.99.

Worked monthly costs for three Indian businesses

These are illustrations built only from the published prices above. Meta's per-message charges are excluded because they depend on category, country and volume (the India rates are in the Meta section below), and they are the same Meta fees whichever tool you pick.

A Jaipur jewellery D2C brand on Shopify, four support agents, about 8,000 business-started conversations a month. On Zoko Plus the subscription is $79.99, plus a markup on 3,000 conversations beyond the free 5,000 (3,000 × $0.00199 = $5.97), so $85.96, with four agents inside the five included. On Zoko Starter the markup alone would be 8,000 × $0.015 = $120, for $169.99. On Wati, Growth caps at three users, so a four-agent team starts at Pro: ₹5,799 a month on the quarterly rate, plus the $4.99 Shopify add-on if you use it.

A 25-person Pune fastener distributor, eight staff touching WhatsApp, leads tracked in HubSpot CRM. Wati Pro with three extra users is ₹5,799 + (3 × ₹1,299) = ₹9,696 a month, and HubSpot is among Pro's five named integrations. Zoko Plus with three extra agents is $79.99 + (3 × $15) = $124.99 a month, and every Zoko plan includes API and webhooks. Ask Zoko whether a native HubSpot connector exists; if not, a developer or an automation tool has to do the wiring. For this buyer, Wati's named HubSpot integration is worth more than the saving.

A three-person Coimbatore textile trader sending a monthly catalogue to 2,000 buyers. Wati Growth at ₹2,699 covers three users and 15,000 broadcasts at standard rates. Zoko Starter at $49.99 plus 2,000 × $0.015 = $30 comes to $79.99, and you pay for that in dollars. If the three of you need the inbox only for broadcasts and replies, Growth is the simpler rupee bill; if you expect to grow to a dozen agents, Zoko's cheap seats start to matter.

What Meta charges on top, and the 2027 billing change

Neither Wati nor Zoko controls WhatsApp's message fees. Per Meta's developer documentation, Meta charges per message, based on its category and the recipient's country calling code, and only when a message is delivered. Four categories matter to a business: marketing, utility, authentication and service. A service reply sent inside the 24-hour customer service window (it opens when a customer messages you and resets with each new customer message) is a non-template message. Meta also gives every business phone number a free tier of 1,000 service messages a month, applying from 1 October 2026.

If you run click-to-WhatsApp ads, Meta's documentation describes a free entry point window: when a user messages you from such an ad on the Android or iOS app and you respond within the service window, that first message is not charged and the window "may remain open for up to 7 days".

For India, Meta's INR rate card, effective 1 October 2026, lists ₹0.8631 per marketing message and ₹0.115 each for utility, authentication and service messages. At those rates, a broadcast of 8,000 marketing templates costs 8,000 × ₹0.8631 = ₹6,904.80 in Meta fees, a sum that sits on top of either tool's subscription. Meta also says billing localisation for India launched on 1 January 2026. Meta's page states that eligible customers must move all messaging accounts to INR by 31 December 2026, and that from 1 January 2027 Meta stops delivering messages from the non-INR accounts of eligible customers. Whether your account counts as eligible is Meta's call, so ask whichever vendor you choose to confirm your account's billing currency before the new year. Because Zoko says you pay Meta directly, that check is yours to make with Meta; on Wati, ask who the invoicing party is.

One more Meta rule affects both tools equally. The WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy allows you to contact people only if they have given you their number and opted in to receive messages, and requires you to respect opt-out requests. WhatsApp can also limit a business's volume based on blocks and reports. Wati's help centre carries articles on collecting opt-ins and letting people unsubscribe from campaigns; whichever tool you pick, build the opt-in into your checkout form or invoice before the first broadcast.

Getting set up: numbers, verification and templates

Both vendors present themselves as an official WhatsApp API provider India buyers can use: Wati's footer badge reads "Official Meta Business Partner" and Zoko's homepage says the same, so confirm the status in Meta's partner directory. Zoko's pricing page says that you can give it any valid number from any country and it sets that up as your official WhatsApp API number after an OTP check. To reuse a number already on WhatsApp, you must first delete that WhatsApp account, which is a real cost if your sales team has years of chats on that phone.

Wati's help centre shows two onboarding routes for the same problem. One is Embedded Signup on the Cloud API, with articles on phone number requirements and on registering an existing number. The other is WhatsApp Coexistence, with a separate article on its limitations. Read that limitations article before deciding whether staff can keep using the phone app alongside the platform. Wati's Meta Business Verification collection covers required documents by country, a step-by-step guide, how messaging limits work and how to raise them, and appeals if an account is restricted.

Both vendors lean on template messages for broadcasts. Wati's Campaigns collection has articles on creating and submitting templates, a rejected-template appeal, best practices to improve approval and to reduce reclassification of utility templates to marketing, plus a drip-campaign guide and a campaign calendar. Product catalogues are covered on both sides (Zoko lists the WhatsApp Catalog on every plan, and Wati's help centre has an article on sending catalog messages); our note on WhatsApp catalogue and shopping tools shows how stores use them. Plan on a few templates (order confirmation, payment reminder, back-in-stock, festival offer) being approved before launch day, so that a rejected template does not hold up your first campaign.

Who each tool is not for

Skip Wati if your support team will outgrow five people and you want flat pricing, because Growth cannot add users and Pro and Business charge for every user beyond five; or if you expect heavy chatbot traffic, since free automation runs are capped between 1,000 and 5,000 a month depending on the plan.

Skip Zoko if your finance team cannot easily handle a US-dollar subscription (its pricing page states charges are always in USD), if you need a ready-made HubSpot or Salesforce connector and Zoko cannot confirm one in writing, or if your business is not built around a storefront. Zoko calls itself "the WhatsApp platform built for Shopify brands" and says it serves "3,000+ Shopify brands in 84 countries", which is Zoko's own claim.

Wati makes its own claims as well: "16,000+ customers" and "12B+ messages" on its homepage. Treat both as marketing figures. If neither tool fits, AiSensy, Interakt, Gallabox and Gupshup WhatsApp are also listed on App Advisor; our guide to WhatsApp Business API providers in India compares them.

A 30-day rollout that works for either tool

1. Days 1 to 5: decide whether the WhatsApp number is new or existing, gather the business documents Meta asks for (Wati's help centre lists the required documents by country), and start the trial, which both vendors offer for seven days.
2. Days 6 to 12: submit four to six templates, import consented contacts only, and tag them by city or product so you can segment.
3. Days 13 to 20: connect the store or CRM. Zoho CRM and Klaviyo appear in Wati's integrations list, and WooCommerce is listed there too. For the CRM wiring, our guide to integrating the WhatsApp API with a CRM walks through it.
4. Days 21 to 30: run one small broadcast to a consented segment, review replies, then build one automation, for example an order-status reply. Measure replies and orders from the chat, not message counts.

For follow-ups after the first chat, see how teams sell on WhatsApp with a CRM. If your stack is e-commerce first, read our shortlist of WhatsApp automation software for e-commerce and the guide to cutting RTO and COD losses, where confirmation messages do real work. Browse CRM software and e-commerce platforms if the tool must plug into either.

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