WhatsApp Business app vs API: what is the difference?
The app is a free phone app for one person on one number; the Platform (the API) is Meta's cloud service that lets software — a team inbox, campaigns, an AI — work the number, free to access and charged per message.
The app is a free phone app for one person on one number; the Platform (the API) is Meta's cloud service that lets software — a team inbox, campaigns, an AI — work the number, free to access and charged per message.
The app is a free phone app for one person on one number: chats, labels, a catalogue, a greeting and an away message, broadcast lists of 256. The WhatsApp Business Platform — what everyone calls the API — is Meta's cloud service that lets software work the number: a shared inbox for a team, templates for messages you start, an assistant that replies, campaigns of any size, a payment card in the chat. It is free to access and charged per message.
A number can be on one or the other, not both. Businesses move to the Platform when two people need the number, when nobody can answer in the first minute, or when reminders and confirmations are being typed by hand.
App vs API is the full comparison.
Read next
More questions
Ready to put your sales on autopilot?
Start freeNo coding required. No credit card required.