Free, printable
The WhatsApp platform buyer's checklist.
Vendor-neutral questions to take into any demo, including ours. Mark each answer as shown live, claimed or dodged, and compare quotes over a full year rather than the first month.
How to use it
Every WhatsApp platform sold in India runs on the same Meta platform underneath, so the differences are in the software, the pricing and the service. Print this page, take it into each demo, and ask the same questions in the same order. A vendor that does well on it is a vendor you can compare fairly with the next one.
1 of 5
Before any demo
Fifteen minutes of preparation makes every demo comparable.
- Write down what you send today: roughly how many messages a month, to how many people, and from which tool or phone.
- Pull your last two months of WhatsApp spend, including any platform fee, so you know the cost you carry.
- Pick one real customer journey to walk in every demo: an enquiry to a booking, or an order to a delivery update.
- Bring the person who will use it most, usually the front desk or the support lead, not only the owner.
- Check your number's current quality rating and messaging limit in WhatsApp Manager and note them.
2 of 5
Ask in the demo, and insist on seeing it live
Mark each answer: shown live, claimed, or dodged. Only shown live counts.
- Show me the exact rupee cost of a campaign to my list before it sends, by Meta category.
- Is that Meta's rate, or does it include your margin? Show me where the rate card comes from.
- Put three of my team on one number now. Route a message to one of them by a rule, not by hand.
- Show a conversation's 24-hour window counting down, and what happens when it closes.
- Import my spreadsheet now, with two bad numbers and one duplicate in it, and show me what happens to them.
- Send an opt-out from your phone and then try to include me in a campaign. Show me it being blocked.
- Build a three-step bot with a hand-over to a person, and test it on my phone before publishing.
- Show me the funnel for a past campaign: sent, delivered, read, clicked, replied, and cost.
- Export my contacts and a campaign report to Excel, now.
- What happens to my number's quality rating if I send too much? Show me what the product does before Meta reacts.
- Show me your API reference and a webhook delivery log, even if I do not have a developer today.
- Name two things your product does not do.
3 of 5
The written quote must include
Compare quotes over a full year, all in, never the first month.
- Every module included, by name, and the price of any that are add-ons.
- Seats: how many are included, and the price of each extra one.
- Meta's charges: passed through at cost, or with a stated margin.
- Onboarding: who connects the number, imports templates and contacts, and trains the team.
- Support: channel, hours, and who answers.
- Renewal terms: automatic or not, notice period, and what happens to the data after the end date.
- Data export and exit: what you can take, in what format, at what cost.
- Whether the WhatsApp number and its templates stay with your Meta Business account if you leave.
4 of 5
Compliance checks
Meta's policies and Indian law both apply, and the product should make the right thing the easy thing.
- Opt-in recorded per contact, with the date and the source.
- Opt-out by reply honoured automatically and enforced at the sending queue.
- Template categories reviewed before submission, with a warning when marketing copy is filed as utility.
- Frequency caps and quiet hours available and enforced across every campaign and automation.
- Data kept in an isolated workspace, encrypted credentials, and an audit trail of who did what.
- A privacy policy that names the vendor as data processor and you as data fiduciary under the DPDP Act, 2023.
5 of 5
Red flags
None of these makes a vendor dishonest. Each one moves risk onto your side of the table.
- Answers in the future tense: “that is coming next quarter.”
- A rehearsed demo only, and reluctance to use your own list or your own phone.
- No straight answer on whether Meta's rate is marked up.
- Exports, audit logs or the API “available on request” rather than shown.
- Per-seat pricing that is not in the headline price.
- No explanation of what protects your number's quality rating.
- A renewal that happens automatically, or a cancellation process nobody can describe.
Leapstream, leapstream.in. Free to print and share. See how we answer these on the pricing pagepricing page at leapstream.in/pricing.
Questions about choosing a platform
How do I choose a WhatsApp Business API provider?
Walk one real customer journey in every vendor's demo, insist that features are shown live rather than described, get a written quote for a full year with seats, add-ons, Meta's charges and exit terms spelled out, and check what protects your number's quality rating. This checklist is the list of questions to ask.
What should a WhatsApp platform quote include?
Every module by name and any add-on prices, the seats included and the price of extras, whether Meta's charges are passed through at cost or marked up, onboarding and support terms, renewal and notice terms, and what you can export if you leave.
Can I use this checklist with any vendor?
Yes. It is vendor-neutral by design, and it applies to us too. Bring it to our demo and mark each line the same way.
Talk to us.
In a forty-minute call we go through what you send today, what it costs you, and what a flagged number would cost you. Then we set up a workspace on your own Meta app and build the first campaign with you.