WhatsApp Assistant or WhatsApp for Platforms: which do I need?

We have two WhatsApp products in your dashboard, and they are for different people. One question decides it: is the WhatsApp number yours, or will each of your clients link their own?

WhatsApp Assistant: for your own business

• You link one number that belongs to you (or a few, depending on your plan).
• It answers your customers, takes orders and collects payment while you are away.
• Your own website or app can send one-time codes and updates about a person's order or booking through your number.
• You pay a monthly plan from your wallet, or pay per reply.

Examples: a shop selling on WhatsApp, a clinic confirming appointments, a ride app texting its riders, a school sending fee receipts, a company that sends login codes to its own users.

Start here: Choose and pay for a WhatsApp plan, then connect your number. To send codes and messages from your site, see add WhatsApp to your website.

WhatsApp for Platforms: for software companies and resellers

• You run a service that other businesses use, and you want to give each of them WhatsApp.
• You create a separate workspace for every client with one call, and each client links their own number on a page that carries your name, logo and colour. They never see ours.
• You pay per reply from one wallet and can see how much each client used.
• You can test everything free with a test key before you go live.

Examples: a website builder adding WhatsApp to every shop it hosts, a school software company, a bills app, an online store platform.

Start here: open WhatsApp for Platforms in your dashboard, or read the guide for developers at /docs/whatsapp-platforms.

Quick check

• Only your own customers will be messaged: choose WhatsApp Assistant.
• Many other businesses will each have their own number, under your brand: choose WhatsApp for Platforms.
• Not sure? Start with WhatsApp Assistant and its free 7-day trial. You can add Platforms later; nothing is lost.

You do not need Platforms just because you have an API. Sending codes and updates from your own website to your own users is part of WhatsApp Assistant.