If your business runs on WhatsApp, respond.io, SleekFlow and Wati are probably on your shortlist. All three give your team a shared inbox for the official WhatsApp Business API, broadcasts, automation and AI. This guide compares them side by side for Malaysian buyers — plans, prices in ringgit, AI, calling and who each one suits — and covers when it makes sense to look for a respond.io alternative instead.
Full disclosure: we sell one of those alternatives, JomConnect. We have kept the comparison factual, taken every price and feature from each vendor’s own website as of October 2026, and said plainly where one of the three is the better choice.
The short answer
- respond.io suits sales-led teams that want a mature, self-serve platform with strong automation, AI agents and integrations, from a company headquartered in Kuala Lumpur.
- SleekFlow suits retail and e-commerce teams that want broadcasts, AI agents and commerce integrations, with ringgit pricing on its Malaysian page.
- Wati suits small teams that want a lower entry price to get on the WhatsApp Business API and run campaigns and chatbots.
- None of the three is the obvious pick if phone calls are a big share of your customer service. That is where an all-in-one with a call centre built in — the model we describe in our omnichannel customer service guide — may fit better.
At a glance
| respond.io | SleekFlow | Wati | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | HQ in Kuala Lumpur; founded in Hong Kong in 2017 as Rocketbots, moved to KL in 2019 | Launched 2019; offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and the UAE | Started as a WhatsApp team inbox in 2020; operated by Clare.AI Limited, Hong Kong |
| Messaging channels | WhatsApp, chat, email and more | WhatsApp, chat, email and more | WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, website widget |
| AI | AI Assist on Starter; AI Agents from Growth | AI agents from Pro | AI credits on every plan; Astra AI Agents a separately priced add-on |
| Calls | WhatsApp calling; VoIP through a Telnyx number you connect | VoIP through Twilio; US numbers now, Singapore next | WhatsApp Business Calling |
| Free trial | 7 days, no card | 7 days of Pro, no card | 7 days |
| Sign-up | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
Sources: each vendor’s pricing page (linked below), the respond.io About page, the SleekFlow About page, the Wati About page and Wati’s terms.
respond.io, SleekFlow and Wati pricing (October 2026)
All three charge a monthly subscription, with yearly billing cheaper than monthly. Prices below are from each vendor’s own pricing page as of October 2026. Ringgit is rough, at about RM4.10 to the US dollar, before SST and card fees. SleekFlow publishes ringgit prices for Malaysia, so we quote those directly.
| Platform | Plan | Per month, billed yearly (monthly billing) | Rough RM | Users included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| respond.io | Starter | US$79 (US$99) | RM324 (RM406) | 5 |
| respond.io | Growth | US$159 (US$199) | RM652 (RM816) | 10 |
| respond.io | Advanced | US$279 (US$349) | RM1,144 (RM1,431) | 10 |
| SleekFlow (Malaysia) | Pro | RM399 (RM4,788 a year) | RM399 | 3 |
| SleekFlow (Malaysia) | Premium | RM1,199 (RM14,388 a year) | RM1,199 | 10 |
| Wati | Growth | US$59 (US$69) | RM242 (RM283) | 3 |
| Wati | Pro | US$119 (US$149) | RM488 (RM611) | 5 |
| Wati | Business | US$279 (US$349) | RM1,144 (RM1,431) | 5 |
| JomConnect | — | By quote | By quote | Sized to your team |
Each vendor also has an Enterprise tier at a custom price. Two notes on reading the table: SleekFlow’s global page shows different plans in US dollars (including an Essential plan it says is rolling out by country), and Wati shows prices by the visitor’s region — the US-dollar figures above are what its page shows to US visitors, so check what it shows you from Malaysia.
What the headline price leaves out
- WhatsApp fees. Meta charges per message for marketing, utility and authentication templates, and none of the three includes those in the subscription. Our WhatsApp Business API guide has Meta’s current Malaysian rates, and the source is Meta’s pricing page.
- Number hosting. SleekFlow’s Malaysian page lists a WhatsApp Business API number hosting fee of RM50 a month. Wati lists extra WhatsApp numbers at US$29 a month each.
- Contacts. respond.io and SleekFlow price partly by monthly active contacts — customers you actually talk to in a month. Go over and you pay per block of 100: respond.io lists US$12 per 100 on Growth and US$15 on Advanced.
- Extra users. respond.io lists US$12 to US$24 per extra user a month by plan; Wati lists US$39 on Pro and US$89 on Business; Wati Growth has no extra users.
- AI usage. respond.io includes AI credits and charges US$15 per 1,000 beyond them; Wati sells AI credits and its Astra AI Agents as add-ons.
- Onboarding. SleekFlow lists 60-day dedicated onboarding at RM4,000 one-off on its Malaysian page (included in Premium).
respond.io: strengths and who it suits
respond.io is a customer conversation platform built around lead capture, sales and support over messaging. Its pricing page lists team and custom inboxes, AI Assist and AI Agents, workflow automation, broadcasts, HubSpot and Salesforce integrations, a developer API, and on the calling side WhatsApp calls, VoIP through a Telnyx number you connect, AI voice agents and AI call recording, summaries and transcripts.
Good fit if: you want a self-serve platform you can trial today, your team is sales-led (click-to-WhatsApp ads, lead routing, follow-ups), you need integrations and an API, or you sell across several countries. It is also headquartered here in Kuala Lumpur.
SleekFlow: strengths and who it suits
SleekFlow positions itself as an omnichannel AI platform for customer-centric businesses, with a strong retail and e-commerce slant. Its Malaysian pricing page lists AI agents, broadcast campaigns, a Flow Builder for no-code automation, Shopify, Google Sheets, Zapier and Facebook Lead Ads integrations on Pro, and HubSpot, Zoho and role-based access on Premium. For voice, it offers SleekFlow Voice over Twilio; its own FAQ says IVR, voicemail and call queuing are “not today”.
Good fit if: you sell online, broadcasts and catalogue messages drive revenue, you want ringgit pricing and a Malaysian office, and you want guided onboarding on the higher plan.
Wati: strengths and who it suits
Wati started as a WhatsApp team inbox and has grown into a WhatsApp-first engagement platform. Its pricing page lists free WhatsApp API setup with Blue Tick verification help, broadcasts, chatbots, click-to-WhatsApp ad lead capture, Instagram and TikTok automations, WhatsApp Business Calling, and integrations such as HubSpot (Pro) and Salesforce (Business).
Good fit if: you are a small team getting onto the official WhatsApp API for the first time, marketing campaigns and simple bots are the main job, and you want the lowest entry price of the three.
Looking for a respond.io alternative? Where JomConnect differs
The three platforms above are messaging-first. JomConnect is built for businesses where the phone matters as much as WhatsApp. The differences are specific:
- Calls, SMS and fax in the same inbox. WhatsApp Business (official API), website live chat, email, phone calls, SMS, web forms and fax arrive in one shared inbox, with one customer history across all of them.
- A real call centre built in. Call queues, agent status, after-call work, recording, voicemail and supervisor listen, whisper and barge — the same kind of tools as our contact centre service, next to your chats.
- Managed local setup and support. JomCloud sets it up, trains your team and supports it from Kuala Lumpur. You do not configure it yourself.
- By-quote pricing. We quote on your channels and team size rather than publishing a per-plan price.
- Hosted in Singapore, with Malaysian PDPA terms.
It also has an AI agent that answers from your own knowledge base in English, Bahasa Malaysia and more, and hands over to a person (with a ticket) rather than guessing — see our AI chatbot guide — plus tickets, AI call summaries and reports across conversations, tickets and calls.
When one of the others is the better pick
Be honest with yourself about what you need. One of the three is likely the better choice if:
- You want to sign up and start today. All three offer a self-serve 7-day trial. JomConnect starts with a conversation and a quote.
- You want a published price to budget against. Theirs are on their websites; ours is by quote.
- Marketing broadcasts are the main job. Campaigns, click-to-WhatsApp ads, catalogues and Shopify flows are what these platforms are built around.
- You need many integrations or an open API — HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, Make, Shopify.
- Social DMs matter. They connect Instagram, Facebook and TikTok messaging; JomConnect’s inbox covers WhatsApp, chat, email, calls, SMS, web forms and fax.
- Calls are rare. If customers almost never phone you, a call centre adds nothing.
JomConnect is the stronger fit when calls and WhatsApp carry equal weight, when you run a call queue today, when fax or SMS is still part of the job (clinics, law firms, logistics), or when you have no IT staff and want one local team to set up and run it.
How to choose: a checklist
- Rank your channels by volume. WhatsApp only? Messaging plus social? Or WhatsApp plus a busy phone line?
- Count users and monthly active contacts honestly, then price the plan you would actually need, not the cheapest.
- Add Meta’s message fees, number hosting, extra seats and AI usage.
- Test AI answers in Bahasa Malaysia and English with your own questions, and check what happens when the AI does not know.
- Ask where customer data is stored and what PDPA terms the vendor offers.
- Decide who will set it up. Self-serve is cheaper in cash; a managed service costs less of your team’s time.