WhatsApp CRM on the Official WhatsApp Business Platform

The WhatsApp Business API is Meta's official programmatic interface that allows businesses to send messages, notifications, and engage with customers at scale. Unlike the WhatsApp Business App, the API is designed for businesses that need to integrate messaging into CRMs, dashboards, and custom backend systems. StartMessaging is a Meta Tech Provider: you connect your own WhatsApp Business Account through Embedded Signup and use it from our CRM and API.

You pay StartMessaging a flat subscription for the CRM: a Developer plan for the API alone (with a view-only dashboard), Team, Business, or Enterprise on contract. Every new workspace starts with a 14-day free trial of the Business plan, and plan prices include GST. WhatsApp message charges are separate: Meta bills them to the payment method on your own WhatsApp Business Account at Meta's published rates. Meta charges every delivered template — marketing, utility and authentication — even inside the 24-hour window; your free-form replies to customers are free up to a monthly allowance per number. We add no markup, and there is no wallet or credits.

A Business Solution Provider (BSP) usually provides WhatsApp access on your behalf and often bills Meta's message charges through its own account. As a Meta Tech Provider, StartMessaging builds software on the WhatsApp Business Platform that you connect to your own WhatsApp Business Account through Meta's Embedded Signup. The account stays yours, and Meta bills you directly.

Each workspace connects one WhatsApp Business Account and its phone number, and an account can be connected to only one workspace. To use a number from a different WhatsApp Business Account, create another workspace and connect it there. Each workspace needs its own plan.

You connect a number through Meta's Embedded Signup: you choose or create a WhatsApp Business Account and pick a phone number (you can add one in WhatsApp Manager first). The number must be one Meta lets you register on the WhatsApp Business Platform. If it is already connected to another StartMessaging workspace, remove it there first. If the number is currently in use with another provider, contact us before you connect it.

When a contact replies STOP (or a similar word), they're opted out, and every send to them is refused — from the inbox, campaigns, automations and the API — until they reply START or opt-in is switched back on with their consent. Removing the contact doesn't lift the opt-out.

When a customer messages you, you can reply with any message — text, media, reply buttons or lists — for 24 hours, and each new message from them restarts the 24 hours. Outside that window, only a Meta-approved template can be sent; the customer's next reply opens the window again. The inbox shows a countdown on each chat.