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respond.io alternative: Haiya and respond.io compared.

Stay with respond.io if you answer customers on many channels, such as Instagram, Messenger, TikTok, email and SMS, and by phone call, or need its HubSpot and Salesforce connectors. Pick Haiya if WhatsApp is the channel that matters and your team works from their phones: flat plans with the team included, set-up inside the Haiya app, and Meta's fees billed to you by Meta.

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3-day free trial on every plan, through the App Store or Google Play. Meta bills its message fees to you directly, with no Haiya markup.

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Haiya and respond.io at a glance.

The questions that decide it.

Haiya and respond.io at a glance
What you getHaiyarespond.io
Phone appsNative iPhone and Android appsThe iPhone app is not live yetNative iOS and Android apps with the full inbox and calls
Set-up from the phoneConnect the number, invite the team and subscribe in the appAutomations and WhatsApp forms are built on the web; the apps run and show themThe app is a companion product; workflows, automation and settings are configured on the desktop platform
ChannelsWhatsApp onlyOne channel, done in depthWhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, TikTok, email, SMS, WeChat, RCS and calls
Pricing model and entry priceFlat plans from $8 a month, billed monthlyThe plan includes its team members; no charge per contactBy monthly active contacts: Starter from 99 US dollars a month billed monthly, or 79 a month billed yearlyAt 1,000 monthly active contacts
Meta's message feesBilled to you by Meta, with no markup from HaiyaNo markup on Meta's fees; WhatsApp credit is topped up on respond.io
Team members2 on Hobby to 20 on Business, included in the plan5 users on Starter, 10 on Growth and AdvancedExtra users 15, 25 and 30 US dollars a month on monthly billing
Trial3 days through the App Store or Google Play, with a card7-day free trial, no credit card needed

Where respond.io is the better choice

  • You answer on many channels, and by phonerespond.io connects WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, email, SMS, WeChat and RCS, with WhatsApp, Messenger and VoIP calls. Haiya is WhatsApp only.
  • You want to try it without a cardrespond.io offers a 7-day free trial with no credit card needed. Haiya's trial runs through the App Store or Google Play and asks for a card.
  • Your team works in HubSpot or Salesforcerespond.io has HubSpot and Salesforce connectors that show and edit CRM fields in the inbox. Haiya has its own CRM and connects other tools through its API and webhooks.
  • Your buyers ask for ISO 27001respond.io's security page says it is ISO 27001 certified. Haiya holds no security certification yet.

Haiya and respond.io, area by area.

Haiya and respond.io compared by area
What you getHaiyarespond.io
Phone and channels
What the phone app doesConnect the number, invite the team, subscribe, answer customers, run the CRM and send broadcastsChats, calls, assignments, contact history and team visibilityIts page calls the app a companion to the desktop platform
ChannelsWhatsApp onlyWhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, email, SMS, WeChat and RCS
CallsNot offeredWhatsApp calls, Messenger calls and VoIP calls
Price and Meta's fees
Plans, billed monthlyHobby $8, Professional $39, Business $89 a monthStarter 99, Growth 199, Advanced 349 US dollars a month, at 1,000 monthly active contactsEnterprise is priced on request
Plans, billed yearlyHobby $80, Professional $390, Business $890 a yearStarter 79, Growth 159, Advanced 279 US dollars a month, billed yearly
What sets the priceThe plan: team members and numbers are included up to its limitsThe plan and the number of monthly active contacts
Who bills WhatsApp messagesMeta bills your business directly, through your own Meta payment methodHaiya adds no markupWhatsApp fees are not in the plan; you top up WhatsApp credit on respond.io
Markup on Meta's feesNoneNone
AI and connections
AIAn AI agent on every plan, taught with your FAQs, files and web pagesThe Team assistant on Business and Custom runs on your own AI provider; Haiya sells no AI creditsAI credits on every plan, growing with the contact tier
CRM connectorsA built-in CRM with pipelines; other tools through the API and webhooksHubSpot and Salesforce connectors
Automation toolsZapier, Make and n8n through the API and webhooksAn n8n node, Zapier, webhooks and an MCP server
Security
Security certificationsNone held yetISO 27001 certified

Competitor details are from their public websites, . respond.io is a trademark of its owner; Haiya is not affiliated with it.

respond.io pricing and Haiya pricing, side by side.

Plan prices as each company lists them, with the currency and the billing period.

Haiya

Flat plans, teammates included

  • HobbyA month$8
  • ProfessionalA month$39
  • BusinessA month$89
  • Hobby, a yearBilled once a year$80
See Haiya pricing

respond.io

respond.io plans

  • Starter5 users, 1,000 monthly active contacts$99per month, billed monthly
  • Growth10 users, 1,000 monthly active contacts$199per month, billed monthly
  • Advanced10 users, 1,000 monthly active contacts$349per month, billed monthly
  • Starter$79per month, billed yearly
  • Growth$159per month, billed yearly
  • AdvancedKenyan businesses can ask its sales team for special pricing$279per month, billed yearly
Currency
USD
Billing period
month, billed monthly or yearly, at 1,000 monthly active contacts

A worked example

Plan prices only, before Meta's message fees and before any add-ons.

What a team pays on Haiya and on respond.io
TeamHaiyarespond.io
Five people, up to 1,000 customers a month, billed monthly$39 a monthProfessional99 US dollars a monthStarter (5 users included)

How Meta's message fees add up

A month's bill from Meta, worked out in four steps.

  1. Count the messages you expect to deliver in a month, by category: marketing, utility, authentication and service.
  2. Take away the monthly free tier of service messages for each business phone number. Only service messages above it are charged.
  3. Count every utility message, whether or not a customer service window is open.
  4. Multiply each count by Meta's rate for that category in the recipient's country. Meta bills the total to your own payment method; Haiya adds nothing.

Where Haiya is the better choice.

The Haiya app on a phone: a new chat from Amara Okafor arrives in the chats list, Daniel Mensah opens it, takes it and replies, and the reply is read.

Phone apps

Set up and run the team from the phone.

respond.io's own page calls its app a companion product: workflows, automation and settings are configured on the desktop. In Haiya, the phone is where you start: you connect your number through Meta's sign-up, invite the team, subscribe, answer customers, run the CRM and send broadcasts. Automations and WhatsApp forms are built on the web too; the apps run and show them.

  • Native apps for iPhone and Android, plus iPad, Android tablets and the web; the iPhone app is not live yet
  • Sign-in codes by email, no passwords
See what the apps do
Colleagues in an office smiling at one phone, beside a Haiya chat with its owner and a team note: one shared WhatsApp inbox

Flat plans

Priced by plan, not by how many customers you talk to.

Haiya's plans start at $8 a month and include their team members, from 2 on Hobby to 20 on Business. A busy month with more customers does not move you to a higher tier. Message fees go on Meta's bill to your business, through your own Meta payment method.

  • WhatsApp numbers included up to the plan, from 1 to 10
See Haiya's plans
Two support agents in headsets looking at one screen together, beside a WhatsApp help request and its assigned teammate

Customer ownership

Every customer has one owner.

When an owner or admin answers a customer nobody owns yet, that reply makes them the owner. Owners and admins can assign a customer to a teammate, or offer it for the teammate to accept or decline, and customers with no owner wait under one filter.

  • A customer's lead in the CRM has the same owner as their chat
See how leads follow the owner in the CRM
The Haiya app on a phone: a broadcast with the Weekend restock template is sent to Customers, 840 recipients, and the sent, delivered and read counts rise.

Broadcasts

Broadcasts sent and watched from the phone.

Send an approved template to all your contacts or a tagged group, now or scheduled, from the Haiya app, and see the delivered and read counts for each broadcast as they come in.

  • Up to 1,000 broadcast recipients a month on Hobby and 50,000 on Business
How broadcasts work

How to switch from respond.io to Haiya.

  1. Your number stays in your own WhatsApp account

    Under Meta's new account model, generally available from 23 September 2026, the number sits in a WhatsApp account your business owns, and you share it with the providers you work with. Meta says you can add or change providers without migrating the number.

  2. The display name and quality rating stay with the number

    Meta lists display names, quality ratings and messaging limits as unchanged by the new model. When two providers serve one number, they share its messaging limit.

  3. Templates are written again in Haiya

    Templates belong to each provider's own messaging account and are not shared, and Meta gives Haiya its own messaging account when you connect. So the templates you use with respond.io do not appear in Haiya: you write them again in Haiya and Meta reviews them.

  4. Your chats in respond.io stay in respond.io

    Conversations already in respond.io's inbox are not copied into Haiya; Haiya has no import from other providers. New WhatsApp messages to the number arrive in Haiya once it is connected; other channels stay where they are. If respond.io stays on the number too, Meta's conversation routing decides which provider receives customer messages, and Haiya tells you on the number's page if they are going elsewhere.

  5. Connect the number from the Haiya app

    Meta's sign-up opens inside the Haiya app. You choose your business portfolio and the number, and Meta gives Haiya its own messaging account on it.

  6. Add your Meta payment method

    Each provider's messaging account has its own payment method on Meta. With Haiya, Meta bills your business directly, so there is no WhatsApp credit to top up in Haiya.

What teams say after they switch.

  • At Zinen Technologies Ltd we use Haiya every day, and it has made team communication much easier. When a WhatsApp message comes in, we assign the lead to the right team member. From there, they can create a quote, send an invoice and even request payment through M-Pesa, all in one place. This has helped us a lot. We’re very satisfied and looking forward to more features.

    James MwangiDirector, Zinen Technologies, KenyaTrustpilot,

Questions and answers

Is Haiya a good respond.io alternative?

For a team whose customers are on WhatsApp, yes: Haiya is one WhatsApp inbox run from native iPhone and Android apps, on flat plans with the team included. If you also answer on Instagram, Messenger, TikTok, email or SMS, or take calls, respond.io covers those channels and is the better fit.

How is respond.io priced, and how is Haiya priced?

respond.io prices by plan and by monthly active contacts. In November 2026, its pricing page showed Starter at 99 US dollars a month billed monthly, or 79 a month billed yearly, at 1,000 monthly active contacts, with 5 users. Haiya's plans are flat, from $8 a month, with team members included and no charge per contact.

Who bills WhatsApp message fees on respond.io and on Haiya?

respond.io's pricing page says WhatsApp fees are not in its plans and that you top up WhatsApp credit on its platform; its WhatsApp page states no markup on Meta's fees. With Haiya, Meta bills your business directly and Haiya adds no markup. Under Meta's rate card (November 2026), Meta charges per delivered message, by category, and each number has a monthly free tier of 1,000 service messages.

Does respond.io have a mobile app?

Yes. respond.io has native iOS and Android apps with its inbox and calls, and its own page calls the app a companion product, with workflows, automation and settings configured on the desktop. Haiya's apps also connect the number, invite the team and take the subscription; Haiya's automations are built on the web too.

Can I move my WhatsApp number from respond.io to Haiya?

Yes, without moving it. Under Meta's new account model the number stays in a WhatsApp account your business owns, and Meta's page says you can add or change providers without migrating it; in Meta's sign-up inside Haiya you share that account with Haiya. Its display name, quality rating and messaging limit stay with the number. Templates are written again in Haiya for Meta to review, and conversations already in respond.io stay there.

Does Haiya answer Instagram, email or calls?

No. Haiya is WhatsApp only, on purpose: one inbox for the channel most of your customers use, run from the phone. If you need Instagram, email, SMS or calls in the same inbox, respond.io offers them.

Other comparisons.

About the author

Founder, Haiya

Edward Mwangi is the founder of Haiya and a software developer with more than 15 years of experience building custom applications. He is a co-founder of Quest Website Developers Ltd, the company behind Haiya, which offers web design and custom software solutions to clients around the world. On the Haiya blog he writes about running WhatsApp Business as a team from the phone.

More by Edward Mwangi

Try Haiya beside respond.io.

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