Whato is a Chrome extension that tidies WhatsApp Web for one person. WaliChat is a hosted platform the whole team signs into.
Start free trial7 days free · No credit card · Cancel anytime
Whato reorganises WhatsApp Web on the computer it is installed on. WaliChat holds the number itself: the inbox opens for every agent from any device, and the automations run on our servers rather than inside a tab. Pick by the constraint you have actually hit. If a feature is missing, an extension may still fit; if the browser is the limit, no extension is going to fix that.
We build WaliChat, so treat what follows as a case we are making and not a neutral review. Where the Whato column comes from is set out under the table.
Both are described as WhatsApp CRMs, which hides the only distinction that changes what you can do with them.
It installs into Chrome and redraws WhatsApp Web with a kanban board, labels and quick replies on top. The layer is genuinely useful, but it can only take the shape of the thing underneath it: one browser, one session, one machine that has to be awake.
You connect the number to WaliChat once, by QR from the WhatsApp Business app or straight onto the official WhatsApp Business API. After that the inbox is a product your team signs into from any browser or the mobile app, and the automation runs on our infrastructure rather than in a tab.
This is the difference in one scene. A customer writes at two in the morning. Nobody is at a desk, no browser is open, and there is nothing to click. On a hosted platform the number answers anyway, captures what it needs and hands a complete thread to whoever opens the inbox at nine.
An extension cannot do this, and the reason has nothing to do with how well it was built. It is a page in a browser, and the browser is closed.
Illustrative example. The reply, the note, the label and the assignment all happened with nobody signed in.
None of these are add-ons you switch on later. They are what a hosted platform is for.
Auto-replies, no-code AI agents and scheduled sends run server-side. Nobody has to leave a computer on, logged in, with the right tab open, to keep the number responsive overnight.
Agents, departments, chat assignment, internal notes and per-person permissions replace a shared session on one desk. You can see who is handling what without asking.
Campaigns leave through a queue with a delivery state per recipient, so a send is something you can schedule, pace and read back afterwards rather than something you watch happen.
A REST API and webhooks on every plan let your shop, CRM or internal tool send a message and react to the reply. Nobody copies anything between windows.
Twenty-three lines of it, sorted by the question each one answers. Read the group that matches the problem you are actually trying to solve, and treat the rest as context.
| What you are comparing | WaliChat | Whato |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | ||
| Where the software lives | Hosted platform, always on | A Chrome extension on your computer |
| What has to stay open | Nothing | Chrome, with WhatsApp Web loaded |
| Where your team signs in | Any browser, plus iOS and Android | The computer the extension is installed on |
| Connects the number you already use | Yes, with the chats already on it | Yes, it runs on your own WhatsApp Web session |
| Official WhatsApp Business API available | Yes, alongside the QR connection | Not stated |
| Working as a team | ||
| Several agents on one number | Yes | Not stated |
| Chat assignment and departments | Yes | Not stated |
| Internal notes on a conversation | Yes | Not stated |
| Granular team permissions | Yes | Not stated |
| Organising customers | Contacts CRM: labels, custom fields, notes, files | Visual kanban board |
| Automation | ||
| No-code builder | Visual AI agents and Flows | Task automation and AI quick replies |
| Automatic replies and follow-ups | Yes | Yes |
| Runs with nobody signed in | Yes | Only while the WhatsApp Web tab is loaded |
| Automatic chat assignment | Yes | Not stated |
| Sending at volume | ||
| Bulk personalised messages | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduled campaigns | Yes | Not stated |
| Delivery state per recipient | Yes | Not stated |
| Building on it | ||
| REST API | Yes, on every plan | Not stated |
| Webhooks for inbound events | Yes, on every plan | Not stated |
| No-code connectors | Zapier, Make, n8n, Integrately | Calendar and CRM integrations |
| Resell under your own brand | Yes, reseller programme | Not stated |
| Trying it | ||
| Free trial | 7 days, card-free | 3 days, card-free |
Read the right-hand column as a reading of Whato's website, not a review of Whato. We have not run the product, which is why a cell says "Not stated" and never "No". Those two words record an absence from their pages and nothing more. Their pages are also the only thing we can keep pace with, so any row that would swing your decision is a question to put to them rather than a fact to take from us.
One subscription per WhatsApp number, and all of this inside it. Official WhatsApp Business API provider, used by 5,000+ businesses.
One number, the whole team on it. Assign a chat, leave an internal note, drop a label, resolve it and reopen it later, while departments decide who sees which conversations.
See the feature listDrag the route: answer the common question, collect the detail, escalate to a person when the answer stops being obvious. No developer, and no keyword table to maintain by hand.
How Flows workSend a templated message to thousands, personalised from contact fields, scheduled for a sensible hour and tracked afterwards. It all sits inside the same subscription as the inbox.
See campaignsEvery conversation becomes a contact with notes, labels, custom fields and shared files, so the history is on the screen instead of in somebody's memory.
See the contacts CRMFull REST API and webhooks on every plan, with runnable samples and a tester in the docs. Zapier, Make, n8n and Integrately cover the no-code half.
Read the API sideAgencies and consultants can run the whole platform under their own brand and their own billing, which is a different business from adding one more browser extension per client.
The reseller programmeSwitching platforms costs an afternoon and a subscription. Here is when it is not worth either.
There is nothing to migrate, so there is no migration project. The number is already yours and it stays where it is.
Scan once from the WhatsApp Business app and the number is on the platform with its existing conversations. Nothing has to be announced to your customers, because nothing about the number changes.
Labels, quick replies and the automations you actually run get recreated once. Copy across the ten you use every day rather than the ninety that accumulated.
Add each agent, set departments, decide who can see what, and turn on automatic assignment so new chats land somewhere instead of everywhere.
Keep it installed until the inbox is answering properly. A browser extension takes its data with it when it goes, so export anything from the board you want to keep before that happens.
Replace it when the ceiling you have hit is the browser rather than the feature list. WaliChat is a hosted platform: the number connects once, every agent gets a login, and auto-replies, AI agents and scheduled campaigns run whether or not anyone is at a computer. It also brings a contacts CRM, a full REST API with webhooks, iOS and Android apps and the option of the official WhatsApp Business API. If one person is organising one number on one laptop, an extension is the cheaper answer and we would say so.
Where the work happens. A Chrome extension improves the WhatsApp Web page in front of you, which limits it to acting while that page is open, on that machine, signed in as that person. A platform holds the connection to your number itself, so the inbox is a product that several people open at once and the automation is a service that runs on a schedule. That is why multi-agent access, overnight automation and API integrations are the three things that arrive together when you move.
No. WaliChat runs on our servers. Close every browser, shut the office, and the auto-replies still answer, the AI agent still qualifies leads, the scheduled campaign still goes out at the hour you set, and the webhook still posts to your endpoint. Your team opens the inbox when they want to read and reply, not to keep the system alive.
Yes. Connect the number you use today by scanning once from the WhatsApp Business app, and the conversations already on it come with it. There is no new number to announce and nothing for customers to relearn. If message templates and higher throughput become a requirement, that same number can move onto the official WhatsApp Business API instead.
Treat configuration as something you rebuild and history as something you export. Labels, saved replies and automations are quick to recreate and worth pruning while you do it. Conversation history rarely travels between platforms, so anything you need for your records has to come out before you uninstall. Leaving it until afterwards is not a plan.
Compare the billing unit before you compare the figures, because the two do not scale the same way. An extension has to be installed by each person who uses it, so that side of the bill tracks headcount. Six people need six installs, and a seventh hire adds a seventh. WaliChat is billed per WhatsApp number: the shared inbox, the automation, campaigns, the contacts CRM and the full REST API sit inside one subscription however many agents sign in, so hiring changes the rota and not the invoice. Run that arithmetic against your own team and the answer falls out on its own. One person on one number will find the extension cheaper, though the crossover arrives earlier than most people expect. Live figures for our plans are on the pricing page, and Whato publishes theirs on their own site.
Join 5,000+ teams already using WaliChat to grow faster.