6 reasons for a WhatsApp Business API account!

Why is a WhatsApp Business account on the WhatsApp Business API worthwhile? Isn’t a regular business account enough? Spoiler: no! In the following, we’ll show you six reasons for getting a professional WhatsApp Business account.

Did you know that WhatsApp is currently the most popular social media app in the world? Meta’s green messenger app amasses two billion active users in countries from India to Brazil to England. And even in the U.S., WhatsApp is becoming more popular.

So it’s only the next logical step that companies should also integrate WhatsApp into their customer communication. But what’s the best (and safest) way to do it?

Companies have the choice between the free app “WhatsApp Business” account and a WhatsApp Business API account. We explain why the WhatsApp API is the better choice!

As a business, you have two options for using WhatsApp in your customer communication: the WhatsApp Business app and the WhatsApp Business Platform.

🚫 Attention: The private WhatsApp app, that we all use in our daily lives, is off-limits for corporate use!

You can download the WhatsApp Business app for free on any app store. It lets you create a business profile and set up some simple features, such as business hours or a product catalog. There are also some limited templates for a maximum of 256 push messages.

However, that’s already where it ends. If you want to get more out of your customer communication, you need the WhatsApp Business API.

The WhatsApp Business API, also known as WhatsApp Business Platform, offers companies access to the WhatsApp interface (API) and thus many more options and features.

Access to the WhatsApp API is available either directly on the WhatsApp’s cloud (but requires IT knowledge, infrastructure and good connections to Meta) or through Business Solution Providers. Business Solution Providers are official WhatsApp business partners who already provide companies with the corresponding infrastructure.

Sinch, for example, is an official business solution provider of WhatsApp. Overall, there are several advantages to a WhatsApp Business API account.

Let’s take a look at the features that the API offers (and the WhatsApp Business app is lacking).

WhatsApp Broadcast is one of the most exciting WhatsApp features for businesses. It lets businesses send direct marketing messages to users. And with WhatsApp boosting open rates of over 90% and click-through rates of 35%, that’s a very attractive marketing space to be in.

But with the free WhatsApp business app, you can only send 256 push messages. That won’t get you very far!

Be careful, though, if you think that you can just send out more than the allowed limit! WhatsApp takes very strong actions to prevent spam. If you send more than the allowed limit, WhatsApp will quickly stop your campaign or even block your business account! You don’t have to worry about that on the WhatsApp Business Platform.

Here, you already start with a minimum of 1,000 push messages. With successful campaigns and a high quality rating, you can increase the limit to 10,000, 100,000, or even an unlimited number of push messages.

This is of course much more efficient if you want to scale campaigns quickly and reach more users. And the use cases for marketing campaigns are almost endless, ranging from regular newsletters to special promotions to reactivating contacts.

Keep in mind that, even though you can reach many more people through the WhatsApp API, you only should initiate a chat with people that have given consent to receiving WhatsApp messages from your business. Also be mindful of the frequency of you WhatsApp broadcasts. WhatsApp has started to impose limits to its marketing messages to protect users from spam. Businesses can only send two marketing messages to the same user in a 24-hour window, and since February 2025, businesses can’t send marketing messages to U.S. phone numbers on WhatsApp anymore.

Anyone who sets up WhatsApp as a communication channel quickly realizes that customers love it! However, this also increases the volume of messages and the service team can hardly keep up.

This is exactly where the WhatsApp Business API offers the possibility to set up automation solutions such as chatbots. Even a simple FAQ bot can answer the majority of all recurring inquiries and significantly relieve the team.

You can set up an official company account on the WhatsApp Business app as well as on the API. But: only the API offers you the possibility to get a green tick.

Companies with the green badge show users directly that they are trustworthy because your company name and logo appear right away, even if a user didn’t save your number in their contacts.

The WhatsApp Business app works just like the private app: on a smartphone. While this may be comfortable for your customers, it’s difficult for customer service agents to answer inquiries on a single cell phone.

Requests are easily lost, unless the right person has the service phone. There is also no easy way to connect the app to the CRM system and integrate customer data. With the WhatsApp Business API, on the other hand, you can connect your CRM systems and process all requests conveniently on your desktop and assign them to the right employee via a central  inbox (either manually or automatically).

With a WhatsApp solution from Sinch, you can use the same inbox for different messaging apps. So, wherever your customers’ messages are coming from, you’ll still be able to manage them through the same inbox.

This means that no inquiry will ever be lost, and your team can also easily access the customer management system.

With the WhatsApp API, you could in theory develop your own WhatsApp communication platform, but that’ll take many developer hours for building, testing, and maintaining, legal consultations to ensure compliance, and on top of that, you’ll also have to negotiate with WhatsApp to become an official provider.

There are less headache-y ways to get access to the WhatsApp API. With Sinch, you actually have two easy options! You can either get started with Sinch Engage, an out-of-the box WhatsApp platform for straight-forward marketing cases, or choose the Conversation API for more diverse use cases. Both WhatsApp solutions offer you a centralized inbox to manage all your incoming and outgoing messages, access to other messaging channels, and a 100% data-compliant solution.

Speaking of data compliance… The regular WhatsApp Business app runs on Meta’s servers in the U.S. This means that strict data protection, as required in many countries, is not guaranteed!

With the WhatsApp Business Platform, that’s not an issue, and as mentioned, with any Sinch WhatsApp solution, you don’t have to worry about data compliance, as we guarantee it!

If you want to use WhatsApp in your customer communication to its full extent and protect your customers’ data, there is no way around the WhatsApp Business Platform.

A convenient software solution makes it easy to get started, guarantees 100% data protection, and you always have a competent team at your side to answer any of your questions.

Ready to take the next step? Reach out to our team to chat about all things WhatsApp!

Author: Marinela Potor Marinela Potor is a Senior Content Marketing Manager at Sinch. With a background in tech journalism, she specializes in messaging and AI.