Yalla vs respond.io, in short
respond.io is the better buy if you need breadth — Telegram, Viber, LINE, WeChat, SMS, Apple Business Chat and voice calling are all first-class there, and none of them are here. Yalla is the better buy if your business runs on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook and you want broadcasts, AI and unlimited contacts without watching a contact counter. Their Starter is $79/mo for 5 users but cannot broadcast; broadcasts start on Growth at $159/mo with 1,000 monthly active contacts and $12 per extra 100. Yalla Starter is $69/mo for 3 users with unlimited broadcasts and unlimited contacts.
Pick the one that matches how you actually sell.
Choose respond.io if…
- You need Telegram, Viber, LINE, WeChat, SMS or Apple Business Chat — we don’t have any of them.
- Voice matters: they have WhatsApp Business Calling, AI voice agents, call recording and transcripts. We have none of that.
- You want deep integrations out of the box — Salesforce, HubSpot, Zapier, Make, n8n and Meta/TikTok ad-click routing.
- Procurement asks for ISO 27001 certification.
- You run a large support org and want multiple workspaces with per-workspace API limits.
Choose Yalla if…
- Your list grows and you don’t want the bill to move with it — contacts are unlimited on every plan.
- You want to broadcast from day one, not from the $159/mo tier.
- You want content as well as conversations — AI captions, images, video and a social calendar are built in.
- You’d rather pay $69/mo for the full platform than $159/mo to unlock broadcasts.
- You want onboarding included rather than sold as a programme.
Yalla vs respond.io pricing, side by side.
Published list prices, read off their own pricing page on 29 August 2026.
respond.io
Per plan, plus monthly active contacts on Growth and above, plus per-seat above the bundled users. AI credits are metered separately with their own overage.
Yalla
One flat plan price. Seats and AI credits bundled. Contacts never metered.
Onboarding is free on every plan. WhatsApp message fees are billed by Meta at cost — estimate yours.
The full Yalla vs respond.io comparison.
38 rows across 5 categories — and 13 of them respond.io wins outright. A comparison table where one column is all green is an advert, not a comparison.
What it costs
respond.io sells on three axes — the plan, the monthly active contact tier, and seats above the bundle. Yalla sells on one, and gives you fewer seats for it at entry.
Channels
This is respond.io’s section. They are an omnichannel platform in a way we are not, and it is the strongest reason to buy them.
AI
Both bundle AI rather than selling it as a seat licence. The difference is what the AI is pointed at: their AI answers customers, ours also makes the content.
Sales, marketing and automation
Broadcasts are the row that decides most deals here, because of where they sit in each price list.
Platform, security and support
They are the bigger, older, better-certified company. Where that matters, it matters.
The differences that actually change your week.
The contact meter
On respond.io Growth, 1,000 monthly active contacts are included and each extra 100 costs $12. Talk to 5,000 people in a busy month and that is $480 on top of the $159. On Yalla the number of contacts you talk to is not an input to the bill at all — the plan price is the price.
Where broadcasts live in the price list
Their Starter at $79 cannot broadcast; you need Growth at $159. Ours broadcasts without limit at $69. If broadcasting to your list is the reason you are buying a WhatsApp platform, that single line is a $90/month difference before contacts are counted.
Conversations versus conversations plus content
respond.io is a conversation platform and an excellent one. It does not write your captions, generate your images, cut your videos or schedule your posts. Yalla does all four, from the $19 plan up, out of the same AI credit wallet that runs the agents.
Breadth versus depth
They cover more channels than we do — Telegram, Viber, LINE, WeChat, SMS, Apple Business Chat and voice. If your customers are on those, that is decisive and you should buy respond.io. We are deliberately deep on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok instead.
When respond.io is genuinely the better call.
Your customers are not only on WhatsApp
Telegram in Eastern Europe, LINE in Japan and Thailand, WeChat in China, Viber, SMS, Apple Business Chat — respond.io handles all of them natively and we handle none. No amount of price advantage fixes a channel you cannot reach.
You need voice
WhatsApp Business Calling, AI voice agents, call recording, summaries and transcripts are all real, shipped respond.io features. We have no voice product at all. If your sales happen on the phone, this comparison is already over.
You have a procurement checklist
They are ISO 27001 certified, they publish subprocessors and a DPA, and they raised a $62m Series B. If your security review requires a certificate rather than a policy page, they clear the bar and we do not yet.
You have a big team on the entry plan
Their Starter includes 5 users to our 3, and extra seats are $12 against our $19. A ten-person team on the cheapest plan is genuinely cheaper with them.
If that sounds like you, buy respond.io. We’d rather you chose right than chose us.
Moving from respond.io to Yalla.
Both platforms sit on the official WhatsApp Business API, so the number itself moves rather than being rebuilt. Expect about a week end to end.
- Export your contacts and tags from respond.io as CSV — they support a full data export on every plan.
- We migrate your WhatsApp Business number between BSPs. The number, the display name and the green tick come with you; your history stays in respond.io as an archive.
- Re-submit your message templates for Meta approval inside Yalla — usually approved within a day, and we do the submission for you.
- Rebuild your workflows as Yalla Flows. Bring the ones that earn their keep; most teams find a third of theirs were never firing.
- Point your ad click-to-WhatsApp links and website widget at the new inbox, then run both side by side for a few days before you cancel.
Yalla vs respond.io: the questions people actually ask.
Is Yalla actually cheaper than respond.io?
It depends entirely on whether you broadcast. If you only need a shared inbox for a team of five, respond.io Starter at $79/mo is good value and includes more seats than our $69 Starter. The moment you need broadcasts you are on their Growth plan at $159/mo with a 1,000-contact ceiling and $12 per extra 100 — and Yalla Starter does unlimited broadcasts to unlimited contacts for $69.
What is a monthly active contact, and why does Yalla not have them?
On respond.io a monthly active contact is anyone you talked to over chat or calls during the billing month; Growth includes 1,000 and bills $12 per additional 100. It is a fair model — you pay for engagement, not for a dormant database. We chose not to use it because it makes the bill unpredictable in exactly the months you are busiest. Yalla charges for seats and AI, and never for contacts.
Does respond.io have channels that Yalla does not?
Yes, and it is not close. Telegram, Viber, LINE, WeChat, Alipay, SMS, Apple Business Chat and WhatsApp voice calling are all supported there and none are supported here. We cover WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, email and a website widget. If your customers are on a channel in that first list, buy respond.io.
How do the AI credits compare?
They are different units and not directly comparable — respond.io includes 5,000–40,000 AI credits depending on tier, Yalla includes 100–1,200 Brain credits, and one Yalla credit buys a whole AI reply, image or draft. The more useful difference is scope: their credits run conversational AI, ours also run image generation, video generation and social captions. Our AI credits page lists the exact cost of every action.
Which one is better for WhatsApp specifically?
Both are built on the official WhatsApp Business API and both are strong. respond.io adds voice calling and a Meta product catalogue; Yalla adds unlimited broadcasts on the entry plan and AI that writes the campaign for you. For a WhatsApp-first sales team on a budget, Yalla. For a WhatsApp-plus-everything support org, respond.io.
Can I move my WhatsApp number from respond.io to Yalla?
Yes. Both are official Business Solution Providers, so your number, display name and verification migrate between them — you do not start again with a new number. Templates need re-approval by Meta, which we handle and which usually clears within a day.
Is respond.io the bigger company?
By some distance. They raised a $62m Series B, hold ISO 27001 certification and support 13 platform languages. We are smaller, cheaper and more focused. That is a real trade and you should weigh it — if vendor scale is a requirement, it counts against us.
Sources & method
Every respond.io figure on this page is a published list price, read off their own pricing pages on 29 August 2026. Prices change and vary by billing region — check theirs before you decide, and tell us if we’ve got something wrong and we’ll fix it.
Offices
- United Kingdom
- United Arab Emirates
- United States