A Wassenger alternative for linking the number you already use

Wassenger is a hosted WhatsApp platform with a shared team inbox, campaigns, automation flows and an API. Many people who search for it remember it as a service that linked a number by QR code. That has changed: its pricing page now describes plans that run on the official WhatsApp Business Platform and need a verified business number, and its API docs say the older gateway plans are closed to new subscriptions. This page compares what Wassenger is today with what wuapi does.

#What Wassenger is today

Wassenger sells a workspace per WhatsApp Business number, with a team inbox on top. Its pricing page lists three plans, each with one number:

• Platform Professional at $39.90 a month, with 3 agents, 10 campaigns a month and a sending speed of 15 messages a minute.
• Platform Business at $69.90 a month, with 6 agents, 20 campaigns and 60 messages a minute.
• Platform Enterprise at $99.90 a month, with 9 agents, 100 campaigns and 150 messages a minute.

Annual billing gives two months free, and there is a seven day trial without a card. The page served to us was in Spanish and shows dollar signs while its title quotes euros, so confirm the currency at checkout. The official platform's own template and conversation fees are billed separately, which Wassenger says it passes on at cost.

On top of the plans you get a shared inbox with assignment and departments, contacts and pipelines, campaigns, no-code flows with AI agents, and connectors for Zapier, Make and n8n. The API is at api.wassenger.com, authenticates with a Token header, and has a hosted MCP server.

#Who Wassenger suits

If you want the official platform, Wassenger is a sensible way to get it with a finished inbox on top.

• A support team that lives in an inbox. Several agents answering one number, with assignment and departments, is exactly what the plans are built around.
• Marketing campaigns to opted-in lists. The official platform, with approved templates, is the model designed for messages that start with you.
• A business that wants the green tick path. Verification and an official sender are only available on the official platform.

wuapi has none of that inbox tooling. It is an API: you build the product, and the number sends and receives through it.

Teams that come to wuapi from an inbox product usually keep a helpdesk they already pay for and connect it to our webhooks, or they are building the inbox themselves as part of their own product. An agency that runs WhatsApp for many small businesses is the typical case: each customer gets a project with its own numbers, keys and usage, and the agency bills them from the per-project usage we report.

#Where the models differ

The bigger difference is the model, not the vendor. Wassenger's plans now sit on the official Cloud API, and wuapi links a number as a device, the way WhatsApp Web does. Linked device or Cloud API covers the split in full. The short version, for this comparison:

Templates and the 24 hour window. On the official platform, a message you start outside a 24 hour customer service window needs an approved template, and template messages carry a fee from the platform on top of your plan. A linked number has no templates and no window. It sends what you send it, and the per-number price does not change with volume.

Your existing number. A linked device is your number as it is, still working in the WhatsApp app on the phone. A number on the official platform is registered as a business sender, which is a separate step with its own verification.

Groups. Wassenger's API docs note that group messages are not supported on numbers on the official API. A linked number is a full member: it can create groups, add and remove people, and post.

Throughput. Wassenger's plans set a sending speed per plan. On wuapi a number sends one message at a time, as fast as WhatsApp accepts, unless you turn on pacing for it: a per-minute cap, a lower cap for first contacts and a typing indicator, which we recommend for anything that starts with you.

#The October 2026 pricing change

One more thing to know if you are choosing the official route now. The official platform's pricing docs say that from October 1, 2026 it will charge for service messages, the replies a business sends inside the 24 hour window, which had been free. The rate per market is the same as for utility and authentication templates, and utility templates sent inside the window stop being free as well. Each business phone number keeps 1,000 free service messages a month, service messages get no volume tiers, and free entry point windows stay free. On a provider that passes those fees through at cost, as Wassenger says it does, a support inbox that answers a lot of customers will see a new line on its bill from that month, for every service message past the first 1,000.

A linked number is not part of that system. It has no templates, no window and no per-message fee, so the price of a wuapi number is the same whether it answers ten people a month or ten thousand. The limits on it are the ones WhatsApp applies to any account, and the pace you choose.

#What wuapi gives a linked number

• A price per number. $6 for the first, $4.50 each from the second to the fiftieth, $3.50 after. No per-message fee from anyone.
• A residential proxy. Every number connects through a sticky residential exit in the country and city you pick, with 0.5 GB of traffic a month included. If the proxy is down the number waits offline and never falls back to a datacenter IP.
• Signed, retried webhooks. Wuapi-Signature carries an HMAC-SHA256 of the timestamp and the raw body. A failed delivery is retried at 30s, 2m, 10m, 1h and 6h. Wassenger documents retries but no signature.
• Safe retries on sends. An Idempotency-Key on any POST is kept for 24 hours.
• A typed contract. OpenAPI 3.1, the @wuapidev/sdk TypeScript package, and a local and hosted MCP server.
• A Free plan. 1 number, 2,000 messages a month and 0.5 GB of proxy traffic, no card and no end date. See pricing.

We cannot promise a number is never restricted. WhatsApp decides that for every account, linked or official, based on what it sends and how people react. Keep your number healthy is how we suggest sending.

#Side by side

#Moving from Wassenger

If you are moving a number from Wassenger to a linked device, the API side is short.

// Wassenger
await fetch("https://api.wassenger.com/v1/messages", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { Token: WASSENGER_TOKEN, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ phone: "+447911123456", message: "Your appointment is at 10:00." }),
})

// wuapi
await wuapi.messages.send({ accountId, to: "+447911123456", text: "Your appointment is at 10:00." })

The steps that take real time:

1. Release the number from the official platform. A number registered there has to be removed from it before it can live in the WhatsApp app again. Ask Wassenger how they handle that for your plan.
2. Link it. Install WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business on the phone with that number, then link it to wuapi with a QR code or a pairing code.
3. Move the inbox. wuapi has no inbox, so point your helpdesk or your own tool at our webhooks and verify each delivery as the docs show.

#Questions people ask