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Whatsapp for Business: Complete Comparison of Whatsapp CRM Integration and Whatsapp Shared Inbox Services
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Whatsapp has recently crossed the mark of 2 billion users, and among others has a major market share in LATAM, UK, Singapore, Israel, Italy, Germany, India, Africa, and the Netherlands.
According to Whatsapp marketing success cases published by Facebook, using Whatsapp increases reply rates by 30 to 40%, helps to get 10 to 20% new customers, and increases sales by 10 to 45% depending on your niche.
If you use Whatsapp in your business, or just want to try it as a new channel, you may be choosing from a variety of services. Below you will find a detailed Whatsapp tools comparison, brought down by the most popular use cases with using Whatsapp as a sales or customer support channel.
Whatsapp Shared Inbox services comparison
Let’s say you want to scale your sales/support operations on Whatsapp, or need to control the performance of your managers/Whatsapp as a channel. You’ve most likely tried the Whatsapp Multidevice already, but it doesn’t quite fit your requirements.
The main drawback of Whatsapp Multidevice is that it’s limited to only 4 additional users. What if you have a bigger team of 10 or even 100 agents? And what if there is more than 1 Whatsapp account you need to share across the team?
In such a case, you will be looking at Whatsapp Shared Inbox services. We recommend you choose between TimelinesAI, Twilio, MessageBird, Wati, or Trengo.
| Whatsapp Web/Business | TimelinesAI | Twilio, MessageBird (Whatsapp API) | Wati, Trengo (Whatsapp API) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share Whatsapp inbox with more than 5 users | ✕ | ✔️ | ✕ | ✔️ |
| Connect multiple WA numbers to one workspace | ✕ | ✔️ | ✕ | ✔️ |
| Supports contacts&history from existing number / Whatsapp account | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Provides access to the chat history | up to 1 year | up to 1 year | ✕ | ✕ |
| Advanced collaboration features (notes, comments, agent assignment, reminders, email notifications) | ✕ | ✔️ | ✕ | ✔️ |
| Requires payment for messages | Yes (Whatsapp business rates) | No (flat subscription with no extra charge) | Yes (Whatsapp Business API) | Yes (Whatsapp Business API) |
| Setup | Scan QR code (1 minute) | Scan QR code (1 minute) | Get approved by WA & integrate API (days) | Get approved by WA & integrate API (days) |
Summary
The best choice to get Whatsapp Shared Inbox for your business is TimelinesAI. It enables your entire team to get shared access to Whatsapp, keep the existing history of communication with your contacts, connect multiple Whatsapp accounts at once, and provides a flat subscription with unlimited messaging on Whatsapp.
If you want to connect a virtual Whatsapp number (that’s not connected to your Whatsapp mobile app), or need to introduce a lot of automation for your Whatsapp messaging, look at Wati, Trengo, or MessageBird as these services are based on Whatsapp Business API and are better geared for Whatsapp automation.
Whatsapp to CRM integration services comparison
Whatsapp to CRM integration helps to achieve better control of the Whatsapp communication with your clients, or simply record data in your CRM. Depending on the CRM and requirements, you may be choosing among TimelinesAI, Pipechat, Whatslly, WhatHub, and Woztell.
| TimelinesAI | Pipechat | Whathub | Whatslly | Woztell | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supported CRMs | Pipedrive (native integration), Hubspot, Salesforce (webhooks) | Pipedrive, ZohoCRM | Hubspot | Salesforce | ZohoCRM |
| Type of message sync | Automatic (Whatsapp Web API) | Manual (Chrome extension) | Manual (Chrome extension) | Manual (Chrome extension) | Automatic (Whatsapp business API) |
| Send Whatsapp messages from CRM interface | Yes (Pipedrive) Other CRMs coming coon | ✕ | ✔️ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Whatsapp Mass messaging | Coming soon | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✔️ |
| Supports attachments | ✔️ | ✕ | ✔️ | ✕ | ✔️ |
| Group messaging sync | ✔️ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Works with Whatsapp mobile app | ✔️ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✔️ |
| Additional automations (automatic Whatsapp message sending) | ✔️ (inbound webhook) | ✕ | ✔️ | ✕ | ✔️ |
Summary
Whatsapp Pipedrive integration. If you want to automatically synchronize Whatsapp messages in the background, or need to connect more than 1 WA account, TimelinesAI is the best fit for your needs.
Whatsapp Pipedrive integration by TimelinesAI is a perfect solution for medium or big teams using Whatsapp with Pipedrive. This service can simultaneously sync more than 100 accounts per Pipedrive organization. It features automatic 1-click Pipedrive integration via Pipedrive API. The integration is capable of automatic Person/Deal creation for new contacts, displays the Whatsapp messages in Person and Deal section of Pipedrive, and syncs all messages and attachments from Whatsapp with no effort from your managers.
Pipechat is worth trying if you need to connect 1 WA account and don’t mind syncing WA contacts manually. This solution is a good choice for single users that want to sync only selected contacts from their Whatsapp communication.
Whatsapp Hubspot integration. If you’re a small team of 1-5 people, Whathub will cover your needs. It partially supports automatic syncing of Whatsapp messaging (for selected chats enabled by agents manually, disabled by default). This service also provides workflow automations on Hubspot via Whatsapp Business API.
If you need a fully automatic sync of several Whatsapp accounts to achieve full control over your data, TimelinesAI is a better fit. You can connect multiple Whatsapp numbers and sync business communication from Whatsapp while your managers are focused at work.
Whatsapp Salesforce integration. When it comes to the integration of Whatsapp with Salesforce, Whatslly is a go-to service. Users can insert canned response templates in their replies on Whatsapp Web, synchronize messages from selected contacts, and quickly start new Whatsapp chats. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support any automation.
If you’re interested in Whatsapp Salesforce automation, try the TimelinesAI integration via inbound&outbound webhooks (Zapier/Integromat).
Whatsapp Zoho integration. Both Woztell and Pipechat support the integration of Whatsapp into ZohoCRM. Woztell offers an automated experience via Whatsapp Business API, while Pipechat is a Chrome extension that supports regular Whatsapp numbers as well.
Whatsapp Broadcasting/Mass Messaging services comparison
It may be important for your team to have an option to reach out to customers at scale. Whatsapp Business app only offers broadcasting that is severely limited in size (up to 256 contacts per campaign), and requires pre-moderation and approval each time you need to send a message.
We compared Whatsapp Business and Whatsapp Business API API with other services such as TimelinesAI and WhatCetra to help you choose the best fit for the needs of your team.
| Whatsapp Business | TimelinesAI | WhatCetra | Whatsapp Business API-powered services (Twilio, Message Bird, Trengo) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technology | Whatsapp Web API | Whatsapp Web API | Chrome browser extension | Whatsapp Business API |
| Requires payment per message | Yes (outside of 24-hour window) | No (included in subscription) | No (included in subscription) | Yes |
| Whatsapp Group Messaging | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Support Multiple Whatsapp accounts in one interface | ✕ | ✔️ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Provides access to the chat history | yes (1 year backwards) | yes (1 year backwards) | yes (1 year backwards) | ✕ |
| Can send messages in bulk/broadcasting | limited (up to 256 per campaign) | ✔️ | ✔️ | limited (limitations depend on your WA account tier) |
| Can import contacts via CSV | ✕ | coming soon | ✔️ | ✕ |
| Whatsapp CRM integration | ✕ | automatic | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Whatsapp Mass Sending from CRM interface | ✕ | coming soon | ✔️ | Depending on a service |
| Whatsapp automation | ✕ | yes (via webhooks) | ✕ | ✔️ |
Summary
Whatsapp Business API is suitable for enterprise-sized companies with teams of thousands of people as it is best utilized using APIs. Account creation requires approval, takes time, and requires development for implementation. Sending Whatsapp campaigns has to be pre-approved, and the campaign size is limited according to the tier of the Whatsapp account.
If you’re looking for a solution that doesn’t have the Whatsapp API limitations we suggest you try TimelinesAI or WhatCetra. TimelinesAI is a good choice if you need a shared inbox interface or easy CRM integration. WhatCetra might be a good choice if you’re looking for the option to upload a CSV with your contacts, or need a dedicated server to run the campaigns.
Kyrylo Taranenko
I wear many hats at TimelinesAI in order to hear from our users and help the development team choose the right direction