Welcome back! If you’ve been following the past few months , I’ve been going over WHMCS Notify Extended and the upcoming V2 release, featuring WhatsApp. Today, I’ll wrap up the blog focus on WhatsApp with an entry on the interaction between WHMCS and WhatsApp, and a bit more on pricing (on the provider end, not the software).
WHMCS Notify Extended will interact with WhatsApp in two specific ways. Both will come included with each purchase of WHMCS Notify Extended, however it’s important to note that provider (Clickatell / Twilio) pricing may vary depending on which you utilize more.
Method #1: Bots (twilio only)
Your bot will interact with your clients, allowing them to do things like pay invoices, view domains, reply to support tickets, etc.
Each of these methods will be completely controlled by you. You can turn them on or off, as you desire. No major setup is necessary, just point the hook URL in twilio (explained in docs once released) and you’re good to go
Method #2: Templates
Because WhatsApp doesn’t allow open communication with clients unless they start the communication (see method #1), templates are required in order to send programmable messages to the client. These templates will be provided once the software is released, as well as how to get them setup in your WhatsApp interface. Each template will have to be approved by WhatsApp, but this should not be a problem, as I’ll be approving the same templates before release (must be approved on each account).
This second method is the method used now, among WHMCS Notify Extended, for notifications like invoices, support ticket responses, domain renewal reminders, etc…
As far as pricing:
The pricing from WHMCS Guru will always be a one time (or annual, depending on your preference) price. This simply covers the cost of development time, and everything like that. This is a fairly standard pricing system for software. If you have an active update and support license, you’ll be able to download V2 once it’s completed. If not, you’ll need to re-purchase, so make sure your license is active.
There is third party pricing to consider here, and I’ll cover this in a bit more detail here. This is not charged by us, or controlled by us at all, so, it may change between publication and current time. I’ll try to keep this as updated as I can though.
Clickatell:
Clickatell is the more expensive of the two, if you run a small business. Their month to month subscription prices start at $125/month and go all the way up to $999/month.
It should be noted that Clickatell does NOT cover the WhatsApp per message fees in this subscription price, which makes this a bit more costly in the end
Twilo:
Twilio’s pricing on WhatsApp messages is fairly straightforward. It is done on a per message basis, currently at 0.0135 USD for templated messages, and 0.005 per message for session based (bot) messages. This makes Twilio a more small business friendly overall
It should be noted that Facebook only charges fees for messages that require templates, so all bot related messages are simply priced by your provider of choice. Additionally, this is per message, so both incoming and outgoing messages are charged here. It IS under consideration to add an option to allow only bot messages before release.
Up next: More of a sneak peak at what’s coming in v2. This time, the client area. Look for that in the next couple of weeks!
