# WhatsApp or Telegram

> Our bot should reach users in a messaging app. WhatsApp or Telegram, and why did yours get blocked? Telegram is a pleasure to build on and WhatsApp fights you, not with its technology but with its approvals and its bans. But you go where your users are. What I learned moving a live product from one to the other.

- A decision guide from The Stack by Nicolas Dao (Cloudless Labs, Sydney)
- Web page: https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/guides/whatsapp-or-telegram/. The whole stack in one file: https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/brief.md
- Tools: [WhatsApp Business Platform](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/whatsapp/index.md) (Use when it fits), [Telegram Bot API](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/telegram/index.md) (My default), [PayPal](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/paypal/index.md) (Skip)

## The short version

| | WhatsApp Business Platform | Telegram Bot API |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started | Business verification, display-name review, approved templates. Direct through Meta's Cloud API since 2022, or through a partner like WATI | Talk to @BotFather. A few minutes |
| Starting a conversation | Only with a template Meta approved | Once the user has started the bot |
| Limits | 250 people a day for a new business, rising with verified volume | About 30 messages a second in bulk, one a second per chat |
| Cost | Per template message, by country; replies beyond 1,000 a month per number since October 2026 | Free |
| Enforcement | Accounts locked or disabled, often without warning; slow appeals | Developer terms against spam and scams; bots can be banned |
| Users in Australia | About 16 million | About 2 million |
| Users worldwide | More than 3 billion | About 1 billion |

## The story: a crowd paid by the task

The project was a platform that paid people to do small tasks only a human can do, mostly testing and quality assurance: a few minutes each, paid about 20 cents, the model Amazon Mechanical Turk made famous. The tasks went to workers' phones, in many countries, because that's where they'd see them fastest. Behind it sat an admin panel with a rules engine, so staff could define precise tasks for every scenario, and PayPal Payouts to pay the workers, since most of them already had a PayPal account ([Stripe or PayPal](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/guides/stripe-or-paypal/index.md) explains why).

We started on WhatsApp, because that's where the workers were. At the time you couldn't connect to WhatsApp directly without a WhatsApp Business account, and getting one was a long, painful process, so we went through WATI, an official partner that helped us get approved. Once we were, the API was easy to use. A month after launch, with paying users, WhatsApp blocked the account without warning. Users complained, the appeal went nowhere fast, and we moved everything to Telegram.

On Telegram the experience was the opposite: a direct integration, clear documentation, a flexible API, and nobody to ask for permission. The product ran well there, and the users were happier.

## Why WhatsApp blocks accounts

I never got a reason. Looking at the policy today, I can see the likely one. WhatsApp bans business models it judges misleading, and a business that messages thousands of new people in many countries to offer them a few cents per task looks exactly like the "get paid to…" scams the platform fights every day. Sudden volume from a new number, and a few users who report or block it, are enough.

None of that is about technology. WhatsApp's API is fine. The platform is rigid and heavily policed, the rules are enforced by machines first, and recourse is slow. That's the real cost of building on it.

## What's changed since

- **You can integrate directly.** Meta opened the Cloud API to every business in May 2022 and retired the self-hosted API in October 2025. On AWS, End User Messaging Social connects WhatsApp to your account with no partner at all.
- **You can start unverified, but not grow.** Without business verification you're held to 250 people a day, and Meta still reviews your display name and every template. Past that, you verify the business with official documents whose details must match exactly (Meta allows three resubmissions), or prove 2,000 good-quality messages in 30 days. Approval is still the hard part. On Telegram, nobody asks.
- **Partners like WATI are now a choice, not a requirement.** They're worth it when non-developers need a shared inbox, broadcasts and a chatbot builder without code. They don't protect you from a ban: you appeal yourself.
- **Pricing is per message** since July 2025, and since October 2026 even replies cost money beyond 1,000 a month per number.
- **General-purpose AI chatbots are banned** from the platform since 15 January 2026. A business bot that uses AI to serve its customers is fine; a product whose AI assistant is the product isn't.

## How I'd choose today

1. **Ask where the users are.** This decides it. If they won't install Telegram, its developer experience is worth nothing. In Australia, that's usually WhatsApp.
2. **If you can choose, choose Telegram.** Same job, a fraction of the rules, no fees.
3. **If it has to be WhatsApp, treat it as a compliance project.** Verify the business before launch, design and approve the templates first, collect opt-in on your own website, keep the wording far from anything that looks like a scam, and ramp the volume up gradually.
4. **Either way, keep a second channel ready.** Email, SMS or the other app. The day an account goes dark, users should hear from you within hours, not weeks.

## Related

- [A bot users message](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/use-cases/messaging-bot/index.md): the use case this guide works through
- [WhatsApp Business Platform](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/whatsapp/index.md): the full entry (verdict, pricing, gotchas)
- [Telegram Bot API](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/telegram/index.md): the full entry (verdict, pricing, gotchas)
- [PayPal](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/paypal/index.md): the full entry (verdict, pricing, gotchas)
- [Every decision guide](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/brief.md): listed at the end of the brief
- [Map of every Markdown file on cloudlesslabs.com, with what each one answers](https://ask.cloudlesslabs.com)