Messaging
WhatsApp Business API or SMS: which one for your notifications?
Order confirmation, appointment reminder, login code: two channels dominate when notifying your customers, SMS and WhatsApp Business. They do not play in the same league. Here is how to choose, message by message and budget by budget.
SMS: universal and immediate
SMS works on every handset, with no app and no internet connection. It is read more than 90% of the time, almost instantly. For a short, critical message (a code, an alert, a confirmation), it is hard to beat.
WhatsApp Business: rich but regulated
WhatsApp allows richer messages: logo, buttons, images, conversation. But professional use goes through the official API, and it has a cost. Since 1 July 2025, Meta charges per message rather than per conversation, with categories priced differently.
- Authentication (codes, verification): the lowest rate.
- Utility (confirmations, updates): a moderate rate.
- Marketing (promotions): the highest rate.
- Service (replying to a customer who wrote first): free within the 24-hour window.
The detail is in Meta's official documentation. Worth noting: volume tiers reduce the unit cost of utility and authentication messages.
The question is not “which is better”, but “which one for which message”. SMS wins on the universal and the urgent; WhatsApp wins on relationship and richness.
How to decide, case by case
- Login code, critical alert : SMS, for the certainty of arriving everywhere.
- Order tracking, after-sales service : WhatsApp, for conversation and visuals.
- Promotional campaign : depending on audience and budget, often both together.
Do not choose “once and for all”
The most effective companies combine the two and route each message to the right channel. That is exactly what our messaging solutions allow. Discover them on the Servicespage, and for the wider framework, revisit SMS, WhatsApp or email: choosing the right channel.