Looking for a Wati alternative?

Wati is a capable, well-established platform — plenty of Indian businesses run happily on it. This page is for the teams who have outgrown it in one of three specific ways: message cost at volume, cost per agent seat, or the need for a real sales pipeline rather than a support inbox.

Where Wati is genuinely the better pick

  • A mature, well-documented product with a large install base and an established integration ecosystem.
  • Strong Shopify and e-commerce integrations, which suits D2C brands running catalogue and cart flows.
  • Broad template and chatbot tooling that most small teams can operate without help.

If your requirement is a mature support inbox with deep Shopify integration and you are comfortable with per-seat pricing, you may well be better served staying where you are. We would rather tell you that than sell you a migration you regret.

The differences that actually matter

Feature checklists are easy to game. These are the four structural differences that change what you pay and what you can do.

Structural comparison of ChatSathi and Wati
What to compareChatSathiWhat to ask Wati
Who bills you for messagesMeta bills you directly against your own WhatsApp Business Account, at their published conversation rate. We never handle that money, so there is no margin for us to take.Does Meta invoice me directly, or do you resell message credits? If you resell, what rate am I paying per conversation category, and how does it compare to Meta's published rate?
Who owns the WhatsApp Business AccountYou do. We connect to your WABA as an approved Meta Tech Provider. If you leave, the number, the templates and the quality rating stay yours.Is the WABA registered to my business or to yours? If I cancel, can I take the number to another provider without re-verifying from scratch?
How cost scales with your teamAgent seats are included up to your plan's limit, listed openly on our pricing page. Growing the team does not trigger a per-seat invoice line.What does the eleventh agent cost? Is there a per-seat charge once I pass the bundled allowance?
Sales pipeline, not just an inboxA real Kanban pipeline with deals, custom stages and values, attached to the same contact record as the conversation — so a WhatsApp chat becomes a tracked opportunity without a second CRM.Can I track deal value and stage inside the tool, or will I need to sync to a separate CRM to see my pipeline?

We deliberately frame the right-hand column as questions rather than as claims about Wati's current terms. Pricing and policies change, and the markup figures circulating in “Wativs” blog posts are mostly published by its competitors. Ask them directly, get it in writing, and compare that against what we have put in writing here.

What it costs to add the next agent

Headline plan prices are the easy part to compare, and the least useful — what decides your bill in year two is what happens when the team grows. Below are Wati's published India plans as shown on their own pricing page on 12 August 2026, with the per-seat cost that sits behind each one.

Wati — published India plans

PlanPriceSeatsEach extra seat
Growth2,699/mobilled quarterly3Not available
Pro5,799/mobilled quarterly5₹1,299/user/month
Business16,799/mobilled quarterly5₹2,199/user/month

Read the billing cycle, not just the number. Those figures are the quarterly-billed monthly rate — a true month-to-month commitment costs more. Quarterly billing saves up to 10%; annual up to ~25%, with dedicated onboarding included. Message charges are billed on top of the plan fee in every case.

They also have a ₹999 pay-as-you-go tier. A one-time ₹999 fee with no recurring subscription, aimed at businesses that only want to send bulk campaigns. The ₹999 comes back as message credits, good for roughly 500 messages. Single user only. Account validity is 3 months, extended by sending regularly. If bulk campaigns from one login are genuinely all you need, that is worth knowing about before you read the rest of this page.

Add-ons are charged separately: Shopify integration — billed separately; Additional WhatsApp numbers — charged per number, per month. Verify current pricing at www.wati.io/pricing/. Plan names, inclusions and prices change.

ChatSathi — seats by plan

Agent seats are included up to each plan's limit, and that limit is printed on our pricing page rather than quoted on request. There is no per-seat add-on charge — growing the team moves you up a plan at a published price instead of adding a line item per person. Our headline prices are the monthly rate, not a quarterly-billed equivalent, and our trial runs 14 days against Wati's 7.

Why teams tell us they moved

  • Agent seats are charged per user beyond the bundled allowance: Pro includes 5 users and adds ₹1,299/user/month, Business adds ₹2,199/user/month. Cost scales with headcount rather than with value.
  • The entry tier caps you at 3 users with no option to add more, and connects a single channel — so growing past a three-person team means a full plan upgrade rather than one extra seat.
  • The headline monthly prices are the quarterly-billed rate, so a genuine month-to-month commitment costs more than the number on the card suggests.
  • It is built primarily around support and broadcast workflows, so teams that want a genuine sales pipeline with deals and stages tend to bolt on a second CRM.

What switching actually involves

  1. 1

    Export your contacts

    Pull your contact list out of your current platform as CSV. ChatSathi imports it with field mapping and deduplication, so existing records merge rather than double up.

  2. 2

    Move the number, or start on a new one

    A WhatsApp Business number can be migrated between providers, and because you own the WABA there is no permission to negotiate. Some teams prefer to start on a second number and cut over once flows are tested — both work, and we will recommend one based on your volume.

  3. 3

    Recreate templates and rebuild flows

    Message templates live with Meta against your WABA, so approved templates generally carry across. Automations and chatbot flows are platform-specific and need rebuilding — we do this with you during onboarding rather than handing you a blank canvas.

  4. 4

    Run both in parallel briefly, then cut over

    We recommend a short overlap where the old platform stays live while your team learns the new inbox. Once response times are stable, cancel the old subscription.

Switching questions

What is the best Wati alternative in India?

It depends on what pushed you to look. If your problem is message cost at volume, prioritise a provider where Meta bills you directly at its published rate with no reseller margin. If your problem is that your team is growing, prioritise one that does not charge per agent seat. If your problem is that you are managing deals in a spreadsheet alongside your WhatsApp inbox, you need a platform with an actual sales pipeline. ChatSathi is built for all three, but be honest about which one is your constraint before you migrate.

Can I keep my existing WhatsApp number if I switch?

Yes. A WhatsApp Business number can be migrated between providers on the Cloud API, and because ChatSathi has you own your own WhatsApp Business Account there is no lock-in on our side to negotiate away. We walk through the migration with you so the number is not offline during business hours.

Will I lose my approved message templates?

Generally no. Templates are approved by Meta against your WhatsApp Business Account rather than against a provider, so they usually carry across with the number. We verify which templates came through and help resubmit anything that did not before you start sending.

Do I have to rebuild my chatbot flows?

Yes — automation logic is specific to each platform and there is no import path between them. This is the real cost of switching and we will not pretend otherwise. What we do is rebuild them with you in your guided onboarding session rather than leaving you to reverse-engineer your own flows.

Is ChatSathi cheaper than Wati?

On platform fee our plans start well below theirs, and the gap widens as you add agents — their two paid tiers charge ₹1,299 and ₹2,199 per extra user per month, where our seats are included up to each plan's published limit. Two honest caveats. Their headline prices are the quarterly-billed rate, so compare like for like on billing cycle. And if you only send bulk campaigns from a single login, their ₹999 pay-as-you-go tier may genuinely cost you less than any subscription, including ours. Send us your current bill and message volume and we will model the comparison rather than guess.

Is ChatSathi an official Meta partner?

Yes. ChatSathi is an official Meta Tech Provider building on the WhatsApp Cloud API. Every message is sent through Meta's own infrastructure, which is what keeps deliverability high and your number compliant — as opposed to unofficial gateways that risk a permanent ban.

How long does migration take?

For a single number with a modest contact list and a handful of templates, most teams are sending from ChatSathi within a few days, with the bulk of that time spent on Meta's verification steps rather than on our setup. Complex multi-number setups with extensive automation take longer, and we will give you a realistic estimate before you commit.

Compare it on your own numbers

Send us your current monthly bill and message volume. We will model the like-for-like total on ChatSathi — platform fee plus Meta rates — and tell you honestly if switching is not worth it.