In short: Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform, usually through a provider, charges for each template message on top of the provider’s fees. A linked number such as TextBot sends from the number you already have, for a flat annual price, without Meta’s approval. Either way, POPIA requires consent before you send marketing.
Route 1: Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform
Meta’s official API. Most South African businesses reach it through a Business Solution Provider, who sets up the number, submits templates for approval and supplies an inbox, and charges its own platform fee — often monthly, and often in US dollars.
- Approval: Meta verifies your business, and each template you send to start a conversation must be approved first.
- What you pay: Meta’s rate for each template message, by category — marketing, utility or authentication — and by country, plus the provider’s fees. Replies within 24 hours of a customer’s last message are free. Meta lists its current rates on its pricing page.
- Suits: large marketing lists, high volumes, and businesses that need a verified, official channel.
Route 2: a linked number
The service links to the WhatsApp number you already use, the way WhatsApp Web does, and sends from it over a simple API. There is no approval and no template, and you pay a flat price. The trade-off is that Meta does not endorse linked-device services, so they are for conversations with people who expect to hear from you. Our guide to the unofficial WhatsApp API covers the risks and how to keep them low.
TextBot’s plans, paid once a year through PayFast in rand:
- Starter: $30 a year, for 1 number
- Growth: $100 a year, for 5 numbers
- Enterprise: $300 a year, for 20 numbers
All plans include unlimited messages, media, documents, reply buttons and a webhook for replies. AgentDesk adds a shared inbox, CRM and AI agents.
What it costs: an example
A shop sends 1,500 order and delivery updates a month and answers customers’ questions.
- On the Business Platform, an update sent outside a 24-hour conversation is a utility template message, so the month costs 1,500 times Meta’s South African utility rate, plus the provider’s fee.
- On TextBot’s cheapest plan, the whole year costs $30, however many updates go out.
POPIA: the opt-in rules for WhatsApp
The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) treats WhatsApp messages like SMS and email when you use them for direct marketing. Section 69 sets the rules:
- Consent first. You may send marketing only to people who have agreed to receive it, and you may ask a person for that consent only once.
- Your own customers are the exception. You may market your own similar products to people who bought from you, if you got their number in that sale and gave them a chance to opt out — at the time, and in each message after.
- Say who you are, and how to stop. Each marketing message must identify the sender and give a way to ask for the messages to stop.
Messages people expect as part of a service — an order update, an appointment reminder, an answer to their question — are not direct marketing. The Information Regulator enforces POPIA.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Which route to choose
- Choose the Business Platform for marketing to large lists, very high volumes, or when you need an official, verified channel.
- Choose a linked number to message your own customers from the number they already know, for a flat price, starting today.
Many businesses start with their own number and move high-volume marketing to the Business Platform later.