respond.io vs WATI for Telegram
Short answer: for Telegram, respond.io and WATI are not two prices for the same thing. Checked on 13 October 2026, respond.io’s pricing page includes a Telegram Bot channel and prints plan prices. WATI’s pricing page and plan comparison do not mention Telegram at all. WATI is priced as a WhatsApp Business API product. If your customers message ordinary Telegram accounts rather than a bot, neither page is the setup. A desktop multi-account inbox is a third kind of tool, and TGDesk (coming soon) is that kind. It is not a cloud CRM and it has no public download.
Sources and the date
Every competitor figure in this article comes from a page fetched on 13 October 2026:
- respond.io: pricing, pricing guide, Telegram channel help, integrations.
- WATI: pricing and pricing comparison.
Where a number is not in the HTML, it is left out.
Telegram, specifically
respond.io’s help center says a Telegram channel needs a bot from @BotFather. You paste the bot token under Settings, then Channels, then Telegram. Messages people send to that bot arrive in the workspace. The FAQ answers “Can I connect to a personal Telegram account?” by saying a bot is required. It also answers “Can I add Telegram Business Account or Telegram Premium bots?” with no: respond.io connects BotFather bots, and a BotFather bot cannot be converted into a Telegram Business bot. The pricing comparison’s channel row says you can connect one or more Telegram bots, and that row is marked for every plan column. The integrations page uses the same bot wording and tags the integration Starter, Growth and Advanced.
The help page we reviewed does not list a per-message fee for Telegram. It does say a Telegram bot can receive video files up to 20MB.
WATI’s two pricing pages, same day, have zero mentions of Telegram. The pricing card’s inbox line is WhatsApp messages, WhatsApp Business Calling, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, a widget and wa.me. The comparison page’s channel cells read “All (WA, RCS, IG, FB, Tiktok)” on Growth and Pro, and “All (WA, RCS, SMS, IG, FB, Tiktok)” on Business. SMS shows up on the Business cell, not on the other two. The Growth pricing card separately says “Connect any 1 Channel,” so this article does not treat the comparison cell as “Growth includes every channel at once.” It treats it as the set of channel names WATI prints, which does not include Telegram.
Prices that are actually on the page
| respond.io | WATI | |
|---|---|---|
| Plans named | Starter, Growth, Advanced, Enterprise | Growth, Pro, Business |
| Month-to-month | $99, $199, $349. Enterprise custom. Same figures in the pricing guide | Not printed in the static HTML. Not quoted here |
| Billed yearly | $79, $159, $279 per month, shown as $948, $1,908 and $3,348 per year | The page says up to about 25% off, plus free dedicated onboarding, on an annual subscription. The discounted amounts are not in the HTML |
| Users included | Yearly comparison: 5, 10, 10, then unlimited | Growth: 3, and the card says “No additional users.” Pro: 5. Business: 5 |
| Extra users | Yearly comparison: $12, $20 and $24 per month on Starter, Growth and Advanced | Pro $24/user/month. Business $69/user/month. Growth does not list an extra-user price |
| Usage meter | Monthly active contacts. Unlimited on Starter. Growth and Advanced start at 1,000. Extra: $12 per 100 on Growth, $15 per 100 on Advanced | Message charges vary for marketing, utility and authentication, from the WATI rate card. Amounts not printed in the HTML. Growth lists 15,000 broadcasts per month and 1,000 free automation triggers |
| Trial / setup | Starter and Growth cards say “Start Free Trial.” Trial length is not stated on the pages used here | Pricing page: 7-day free trial. FAQ: no setup fee for the WhatsApp API |
respond.io also lists AI credits on the comparison (5,000 on Starter, then starting amounts of 10,000, 20,000 and 40,000) and on-demand credits at $15 per 1,000, with a cap at 200% of the allowance. Those credits are for respond.io’s own AI features. They are not a Telegram translation price.
Features a support lead actually feels
| respond.io | WATI | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox | Team inboxes and custom inboxes on every plan column | Shared team inbox listed for every plan. The card says assign, track, automate follow-ups, tag and report |
| Contact record | Contact tags, custom fields, closing notes and lifecycle stages on every plan column | Contact management listed for every plan. Growth includes 2 select Commerce/CRM integrations. Pro’s card says 5 integrations, including HubSpot |
| Automation and AI | Plan cards put broadcasts, workflows and AI Agents on Growth and above. Starter’s card lists AI Prompt and AI Assist | Chatbot builder on every plan. Pro adds Astra AI Agents for web, WhatsApp and voice, priced as an add-on on the card. This article does not quote that add-on amount because the card does not print it |
| A primary channel. Outgoing WhatsApp message text on the pricing page starts at $0.0002 and varies by country and type. Incoming WhatsApp messages are described as unlimited and free on that row | The product the pricing page is about. Multiple WhatsApp numbers are listed under Business | |
| Other channels | The integrations page also describes Instagram, TikTok Business Messaging (beta) and others, beside the Telegram bot | Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, RCS. SMS on the Business comparison cell |
| In-chat translation | Not described on the Telegram or pricing pages reviewed | Not described on the pricing pages reviewed |
Telegram’s own translation, including what Premium adds, is a separate topic: translate messages in Telegram Desktop. Support teams that currently forward chats to a translator bot can also read translate-bot alternatives. Neither of those is a respond.io or WATI feature.
Where each one is the wrong purchase
Choose respond.io when Telegram can be a bot, you want that bot next to WhatsApp and Instagram, and you want contacts, tags and lifecycle stages in a cloud workspace several people can open. Budget the month-to-month or yearly figures above, plus monthly active contacts once you leave Starter, plus whatever WhatsApp charges if you turn that channel on.
Choose WATI when the customer is on WhatsApp and you want the shared inbox, broadcasts and contact tools its pricing page describes. Read the channel list before you assume a messenger is included. On 13 October 2026 that list does not include Telegram. Confirm the live checkout price yourself. It was not in the HTML this article was written from.
Choose neither for a stack of regular Telegram accounts your customers already know by username. A bot inbox cannot sign into those accounts. respond.io says so on its help page. WATI’s pages do not offer the channel. The nearby product shape is a desktop app that keeps each login separate and shows the chats in one list.
TGDesk, in one paragraph
TGDesk is an independent desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux. It is built for several regular Telegram accounts in one inbox, with each session encrypted on the computer, and with unread, needs-reply and human-takeover filters. It is paid, coming soon, and not downloadable. It is not a respond.io or WATI replacement: there is no WhatsApp, no multi-agent cloud seat, and no deal pipeline. CRM-style tags and notes are planned. In-chat translation, speech-to-text and OCR are planned. None of those are in a public build. It does not send bulk messages, and it is not affiliated with Telegram, respond.io or WATI.
Related reading: Telegram CRM for a small team, respond.io alternative for Telegram, WATI alternative for Telegram, and Trengo, SleekFlow and Chatwoot.
FAQ
Does WATI support Telegram?
On 13 October 2026, WATI's pricing page and plan comparison do not mention Telegram. The channels they name are WhatsApp, RCS, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and, on the Business column, SMS.
How does respond.io connect Telegram?
The help center says a BotFather bot is required. Personal Telegram accounts cannot be connected that way. Telegram Business accounts and Telegram Premium bots cannot be added. The pricing comparison marks a Telegram Bot channel on every plan column.
What does respond.io cost?
The pricing page's plan data, checked 13 October 2026, lists Starter $99, Growth $199 and Advanced $349 per month. Billed yearly, the cards show $79, $159 and $279 per month ($948, $1,908 and $3,348 per year). Enterprise is custom.
What does WATI cost?
The static pricing HTML names Growth, Pro and Business, a 7-day trial, and extra users at $24/user/month on Pro and $69/user/month on Business. The base subscription amounts are not in that HTML. This article does not guess them. Message fees are described as varying for marketing, utility and authentication, from a rate card that is also not printed there.
Coming soon — paid launch, no public download yet