Choosing a WhatsApp Business API Provider: 12-Point Checklist

Providers look identical on a feature grid. These twelve questions separate them.

Commercial

1. Is the Meta message cost passed through at cost? Ask for a sample invoice showing Meta charges and platform fees separately.
2. What is charged beyond messages? Per agent, per contact, per template, per chatbot session — hidden meters are common.
3. Are inbound and service conversations free? They cost the provider nothing; you should not pay for them.
4. What happens if you exceed plan limits mid-campaign? Hard stop or overage?

Technical

1. Cloud API or on-premise? Cloud is Meta-hosted, faster to onboard and continuously updated. On-premise is being retired — avoid new deployments.
2. Is Embedded Signup supported? If onboarding requires you to email screenshots of tokens, walk away.
3. Do you get a documented REST API and webhooks with retries and signature verification?
4. Number and WABA portability — can you move to another provider without losing the number? Ask exactly how.

Product depth

1. Template management — create, edit, categorise and track approval status in-app, with multi-language variants.
2. Automation — visual flow builder, delays, typing indicators, conditional branching, and API calls inside a flow.
3. Analytics — per-campaign delivery, read, click and reply rates, plus raw exportable logs for reconciliation.

Operational

1. Support SLA and escalation path to Meta. When a template is rejected or a number is flagged, how fast do they respond, and do they have a partner channel?

Red flags

• Any promise of "unlimited free WhatsApp messages".
• No mention of opt-in management or STOP handling.
• Refusal to share raw delivery logs.
• Contracts that lock the number to their portfolio.

How to run the evaluation

Give two shortlisted vendors the same trial task: connect a number, get one utility and one marketing template approved, send 500 messages, and export the logs. The one that finishes fastest with clean data is your answer.