Wazapi vs Octadesk: which WhatsApp platform fits your team and your budget?

Platform overview

What is Wazapi?

Wazapi is a customer-service, automation and sales platform for the official WhatsApp Business API from Meta, Instagram Direct and Facebook Messenger, built for Brazilian companies. It combines a team inbox, a visual flow editor, a kanban CRM, a WhatsApp storefront and an AI layer that runs from per-message sentiment to an autonomous agent with a knowledge base. Data is hosted in São Paulo and a DPA is available.

Launched in 2024, Wazapi has three publicly priced plans: Starter (R$149), Pro (R$259) and Business (R$699), billed monthly with no lock-in, no exit fee and no setup fee. The free trial lasts 14 days, needs no card and runs on the Pro plan. Weekly releases are listed in the public changelog.

What is Octadesk?

Octadesk, part of the LWSA (Locaweb) group, describes itself as an AI-powered service and sales platform. It centralizes WhatsApp (official API), Instagram Direct, Facebook Messenger and web chat, has a helpdesk module with tickets, e-mail and configurable SLAs, and ships its own AI called WOZ. The website cites more than 2,500 customers, with pages aimed at retail, education, healthcare and B2B services.

In 2026 Octadesk publishes plans billed by conversation allowance (DAUs) rather than per agent: One at R$2,499/mo, Flow at R$4,399/mo and Nexus on request (checked in Sep 2026 on the official site). The design targets mid and high-volume operations.

Feature comparison

Chatbot and automation

Both have a drag-and-drop visual editor. In Octadesk, the builder assembles a flow from messages, list questions (up to 10 options), buttons (up to 3) and multiple choice, validations on conversation fields, routing to groups, tags and business hours set inside the flow. "Superintegrações" connect the bot to external systems and store the response in variables. Outside the bot, automation rules assign a conversation, change its status or open a ticket by keyword, time or channel.

In Wazapi, blocks cover text, media, buttons, lists, data collection, conditions, HTTP request, business hours with holidays and named schedules, assignment to an agent or group, tags, fields, CRM stage, template, jump to another flow and AI Agent. Variables use the {{vars.field}} syntax and the simulator runs the flow in the browser before you publish. There are also sequences, keyword triggers and a default welcome flow.

The difference that weighs on conversion is how unexpected replies are handled. In Wazapi, the customer can answer with the option number, with approximate text or by tapping the button. The bot re-asks a limited number of times, handles taps on old cards and recognizes phrases such as "talk to a human" at any point. A lead stuck in a menu is a lost lead, and this mechanism exists to prevent that.

The Octadesk help center records limitations of the builder: no adjustable interval between messages, no configurable inactivity timeout in the bot, no flow export, and the bot does not resume after routing the conversation away. Confirm with Octadesk whether they still apply to the version you would be buying.

AI in service and sales

The Octadesk AI is called WOZ and has three services: WOZ Agent (answers around the clock, understands text and audio, reads the knowledge base), WOZ Copilot (suggests replies to the human agent) and WOZ Transcription. The 2026 pricing page includes all three on every plan, and you need no third-party API key, which is a real simplicity advantage. The underlying model is not disclosed, and the help center states that WOZ works in conversations, not in tickets.

In Wazapi, native AI lives on the Business plan (R$699/mo); Starter and Pro do not include it. There, every inbound message gets real-time sentiment, so the agent sees that the customer is upset before replying. The co-pilot suggests a reply in the context of the conversation. After the conversation closes, the quality review produces a score, dimensions and sentiment, and builds a coaching report per agent. Audio transcription is the exception: it works on any plan with your own OpenAI key, and inbound audio becomes text in the thread and in the webhook.

The Business plan also adds the autonomous AI Agent. Its knowledge base runs hybrid search over text, FAQs, files, URLs and the store product catalog, which re-syncs on its own. The agent executes actions from an allowlist (apply a tag, fill a field, move a CRM stage), understands images the customer sends, groups bursts of messages before answering, hands off to a human with context and stops by itself when someone takes over. There is a test playground and per-agent metrics. Details are at /ia.

The cost model differs. In Wazapi, usage runs on the OpenAI key of your own company, with no mark-up and a monthly budget cap that blocks or alerts. The price of that is opening an OpenAI account; in return you pick the model and see what you spend. In Octadesk the AI is bundled into every plan, from R$2,499/mo; in Wazapi it requires Business, at R$699/mo, plus OpenAI usage. The Octadesk help center documents consumption in credits of R$0.35 (1 per Copilot reply, 1 per transcribed minute, 15 per Agent resolution), but we could not confirm how that applies to the DAU plans. Ask sales before you forecast the cost.

One item has no documented equivalent on the other side: Wazapi exposes a remote MCP server with OAuth. Claude, ChatGPT and other agents operate conversations, contacts, flows, templates, the CRM and the store with the permissions of the user who connected them.

Sales, CRM and conversion

Octadesk handles sales through integration. The site lists Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and RD Station on the CRM side, and VTEX, Shopify, Nuvemshop and Tray on the e-commerce side. Inside the platform there are custom fields, tags (the company blog suggests using them to mark the funnel stage) and segmented template broadcasts. We found no native kanban pipeline in the public documentation. If you already run a CRM and want service to talk to it, this approach favors Octadesk.

Wazapi brings the kanban CRM into the service tool: pipelines per group, stages, opportunities and metrics. The closing policy can require a CRM stage when a conversation is closed, so no conversation ends without a recorded outcome. For a small team this removes the second system and the double typing.

The WhatsApp storefront closes the loop. You publish your own storefront with catalog, variants, stock and shipping, and checkout finishes on WhatsApp. The order appears as a card inside the conversation, and automation handles the post-purchase flow, the payment reminder and status notices. Orders from the native WhatsApp catalog land in the same place, the catalog can be imported from a Shopify CSV and the opportunity is created in the CRM automatically.

Marketing attribution stores UTMs, gclid, fbclid and Click-to-WhatsApp ad data on the contact, the conversation and the order, so you know which campaign produced the sale. The Wazapi limitation here mirrors the Octadesk strength: there are no ready-made connectors for third-party ERPs and CRMs. Integration goes through the API, webhooks, HTTP request and MCP.

Team management

The biggest asset Octadesk has for large teams is its user model: the conversations module does not charge per agent, so 30 people cost the same as 3. Its round-robin distributes conversations among the online users of a group, with a cap on simultaneous conversations per person. Groups can restrict who sees what, and there are custom access profiles, a real-time SLA dashboard and apps for iOS and Android. The ticketing Helpdesk is billed per user (R$100 to R$130/mo depending on the plan).

In Wazapi, agents come with the plan: 2 on Starter, 5 on Pro and 10 or more on Business. Round-robin distribution looks at real availability, which combines the chosen status with on-screen presence: someone who closed the tab gets no conversations. If an agent goes inactive, the conversation is transferred automatically. There are private groups, access profiles per module and automatic closing on inactivity that respects business hours.

Each agent has a performance page with first-response time (mean and median), resolution time, closing rate, volume and, on Business, the AI quality score. The inbox has 8 views (such as unanswered, overdue and mentions), internal notes with @mentions, canned replies with media, voice messages recorded in the browser and, on Business, WhatsApp voice calls.

Wazapi has no native app; the web interface is responsive. If your team works in the field, the Octadesk app counts. It is worth testing first: public App Store reviews mention crashes and desktop features missing from the app, and Capterra reviews (6 of them) mention instability and weak sound alerts.

Costs, reporting and channel health

Octadesk bills by DAU: a unique contact with an active conversation in a 24-hour window that starts at the first interaction. Instagram, Facebook and web chat consume DAUs too. A template that gets no reply consumes no DAU but still pays the Meta fee separately. In the example on the pricing page, 25 templates in the same window cost 1 DAU plus 25 fees. Overage is covered by prepaid packs of 500 DAUs whose price is not published. For a company that knows its volume the model is predictable. For an SMB with 300 contacts a month, it means paying for 3,000.

In Wazapi the plan has a fixed price and the Meta cost is passed through with no mark-up, visible by category (marketing, utility, authentication, service) in the dashboard before the invoice. The Octadesk help center documents a table in credits of R$0.35, in force since December 2023: marketing consumes 2 credits, and utility, authentication and service consume 1. The charge in the service category is described as an Octadesk software service, not a Meta pass-through. We could not confirm whether that table applies to the DAU plans, so ask for the rule in writing.

On deliverability, Wazapi monitors number health at Meta (quality, tier and restrictions, with the cause and the fix Meta indicates) and applies send protection: automatic opt-out through STOP-style keywords, a per-contact marketing frequency cap, deduplication and send pacing. The inbox checks eligibility before sending a template and shows why, and until when, a send is blocked. Coexistence lets you use the same number in the WhatsApp Business phone app and in the API.

Octadesk offers reports on response time, SLA, volume per channel and CSAT, with XLS export. Equivalent number-health and send-protection features are not publicly documented.

Pricing and plans

Note: Octadesk prices checked in Sep 2026 at octadesk.com/precos; billing policy at help.octadesk.com. DAU overage and the consultancy have no public price. In the example, the subscription gap between Pro and One is R$2,499 − R$259 = R$2,240/mo (R$26,880 a year), but One already includes AI and Pro does not. With AI on both sides the math is against Business: R$2,499 − R$699 = R$1,800/mo (R$21,600 a year), before Meta, OpenAI and consultancy. For a large team it flips: from 57 agents (R$699 + 47 × R$39 = R$2,532), the One subscription is lower than Business, provided the volume fits in 3,000 DAUs. Confirm the figures on the Octadesk website before deciding.

Support and migration

Wazapi supports every plan by chat, with priority on Business. Octadesk offers WhatsApp, e-mail, in-app chat and a help center; its contact page lists Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, and its pricing page mentions support with a 15-minute SLA. Octadesk onboarding is a paid, mandatory consultancy. That is a cost, but it is also a guided rollout, which can weigh in its favor for complex operations.

To move from Octadesk to Wazapi, you import contacts by CSV with their custom fields, transfer the approved templates and get help configuring the number. Flows have to be rebuilt, because the Octadesk help center states there is no export, and the simulator helps you validate before publishing. The 14-day trial lets you run both in parallel. An honest warning: ticket history has nowhere to go in Wazapi, which has no helpdesk.

Who is Wazapi for?

• SMBs and teams of up to ten or so agents that sell and support over WhatsApp and want the official API for R$259/mo
• Sales teams that want the kanban CRM, store, orders and campaign attribution in the same place as the conversation
• Teams that want control over AI (Business plan, R$699/mo): own key, choice of model, spending cap and quality review with coaching
• Teams that want no contract: public pricing, no setup, no lock-in, 14 days free with no card
• Technical teams and agencies that use the REST API, webhooks, the Node SDK, MCP and white-label (Business)

Who is Octadesk for?

• Operations with a formal helpdesk: tickets, e-mail, forms and configurable SLAs, which Wazapi does not have
• Large teams: with unlimited users in conversations, 30 or 50 agents do not change the subscription, and from about 57 agents One costs less than Wazapi Business with extra agents
• Companies already on Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, RD Station, VTEX or Shopify that want a ready-made connector
• Teams that want AI without managing an API key, included in every plan
• Teams that need a native mobile app or web chat

Verdict

The two platforms solve problems of different sizes. Octadesk is a service suite for volume operations, with a ticketing helpdesk, e-mail, unlimited users and bundled AI. The R$2,499/mo entry price plus mandatory consultancy makes it clear who it was designed for in 2026.

Wazapi is for companies that live on WhatsApp and measure results in fast replies and closed orders. For R$259/mo a team of 5 gets the official API, kanban CRM, store and MCP; for R$699, Business adds co-pilot, sentiment, quality review and the AI agent with a knowledge base, still R$1,800/mo below the Octadesk entry plan. There is no contract, no setup and no mark-up on Meta.

If you need SLA tickets, e-mail, a native app or dozens of agents, choose Octadesk. If your channel is WhatsApp and the goal is to sell more at a predictable cost, try Wazapi for 14 days and compare against your own numbers.