WhatsApp is everyone’s beloved chat app. We love to connect with our friends and family through its ergonomic chat UI. Its global popularity has also led the parent company Meta to introduce its WhatsApp Business suite, which includes the free WhatsApp Business app and WhatsApp Business API.
While the free mobile app is best suited for small businesses, the WhatsApp API is built for enterprises. It allows larger organizations to connect and interact with multiple users at scale.
Earlier, Meta offered the WhatsApp Business API through its chain of Business Solution Providers (BSPs), but the recently launched Cloud API has revamped the accessibility.
In this blog, we will talk about the differences between WhatsApp Cloud API and WhatsApp On-premise API. Let’s get into it.
What is WhatsApp On-premise API?
WhatsApp On-premise API is one of the two hosting options available to businesses to use WhatsApp Business’ extended capabilities. It uses the REST API protocol using JSON data formats.
Businesses using the On-premise API need to host the API software on their own servers or on their BSP’s servers. On-premise API works better for much larger organizations with extensive customer communication needs.
What is WhatsApp Cloud API?
To diversify its API usage, Meta eventually launched the WhatsApp Cloud API. Unlike the regionally hosted version of the business platform, WhatsApp Cloud API allows businesses to send and receive messages using WhatsApp’s cloud servers.
WhatsApp Cloud API uses Meta’s proprietary Graph API, which is the key way to get information in and out of the Facebook platform. Since the Cloud API is Meta’s patented service, businesses don’t need to worry about updating and maintaining the API.
The Cloud API has simplified the accessibility of the Business API. Now, most small and medium businesses can use the cloud-hosted version on top of their WhatsApp to seamlessly connect and interact with their users. While it’s a much more accessible option of the Business API, the Cloud API may pose some integration and automation limitations. This is mostly because, the Cloud API is a fairly new offering, and not every third-party vendor has solutions built to suit the API.
What’s the difference between WhatsApp On-premise API and WhatsApp Cloud API?
Built to let businesses easily send and receive messages with users, both versions of the API have their pros and cons. Let’s understand the difference between WhatsApp Cloud API and WhatsApp On-premise API.
1. Accessibility to businesses
The top difference between WhatsApp Cloud API and WhatsApp is the method to avail both of them. Cloud API is Meta’s direct offering, which requires no intermediary. And so, it can be set up through Meta in the shortest time. Whereas, the On-premise API must be availed through a WhatsApp BSP. The BSP works as the middleman to provide access to the comprehensive WhatsApp Business API.
2. Investment and costs involved
When comparing the two, WhatsApp Cloud API might be a more cost-effective choice for businesses of most sizes with realistic communication needs. If you choose the Cloud API, Meta will cover the hosting costs for you. You will only be required to pay per message sent or conversation held.
Whereas, the WhatsApp On-premise API depends on the BSP through which you’re availing it. In this case, you or your BSP will bear the costs of setup and maintenance. Businesses also follow the same message sent/conversation charges.
Meta follows conversation-based pricing which is categorized on two grounds:
- User-initiated conversations
- Business-initiated conversations
You can know more about it here: WhatsApp Chatbot pricing
3. Messages per second throughput
The On-premise WhatsApp Business API supports throughput of 250 messages per second (MPS). Whereas, the WhatsApp Cloud API supports 80 messages per second, sent and received combined. Cloud API users can also raise a ticket with Meta to upgrade their throughput to 500 messages per second.
4. Certificate management
Certificate Authority (CA) is an organization that issues digital certificates to authenticate content sent from websites and servers. WhatsApp API users hosted on the premise are required to manage their own CA certificate and webhook authentication certificates.
Cloud API users, on the other hand, have their CA certificates handled by Meta directly. It’s wise to note that your Webhooks server must support HTTPS with a valid CA-chained TLS/SSL certificate installed to receive your Webhooks CA certificate.
WhatsApp cloud API vs On-premise API
| Differences | Cloud API | On-premise API |
| Hosting | Through Meta | Through BSPs |
| Upgrade and maintenance | Features are automatically updated and maintained by Met | Businesses and BSPs bear the responsibility for periodic updates/maintenance |
| Costs Involved | No extra costs to maintain data servers. Only have to adhere to conversation-based pricing | Set up costs borne by businesses/BSPs. Also, have to abide by conversation-based pricing |
| API protocol | Graph API | Rest API |
| Message throughput | Max limit of 500 messages per second, which combines sent, and received, including media messages.
High server load may also result in lower message throughput |
Send up to 70 text messages per second for single-connect.
Send up to 250 text messages per second for multi-connect. Sending media messages may reduce these numbers. |
| Certificate management | Meta manages CA certificates. | Individual business and/or BSP responsibility to manage Certificate Authority (CA) certificates and Webhook CA certificates |
| Media Provider API | Deprecated | Supported |
Know more about Meta’s official resource on WhatsApp Cloud API vs WhatsApp Business API (On-premise) from here.
WhatsApp Cloud API vs WhatsApp On-premise API: Reach and connect at scale with Chat360
Both API versions can help you boost your business on WhatsApp. For large enterprises with heavy incoming and outgoing message loads, WhatsApp Business API (On-premise) suits better than WhatsApp Cloud API. With those with definitive communication needs, Cloud API seems to offer a wide array of WA bot features.
The biggest benefit WhatsApp Business API offers to businesses is its comprehensive automation capabilities. The API allows you to implement chatbots trained to interact and engage users for you with high relevancy and quick TAT.
Chat360’s WhatsApp Solution helps you sell and provide helpful chatbot support in real time with highly accurate conversational AI. Sign up with us today to experience it yourself!
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How to add WhatsApp bot for groups?