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In 2022, messaging apps play a vital role in the communication strategy of almost any business. From WhatsApp to Facebook Messenger and Instagram to Google’s Business Messages. To work efficiently, businesses need a platform that combines all conversations from both new channels and traditional channels like email and phone in one place.
Chances are, you’ve come across Respond.io in the process of looking for such a solution. And now, you’re looking to see which Respond.io alternatives are out there. Just to be sure.
In this showdown, we’ll get into one of the best available Respond.io alternatives currently available: Trengo. We’ll examine the pros and cons of these two customer communication platforms. At the end of this guide, you’ll be equipped to decide which tool is right for you.
First off, let’s take an in-depth look at Trengo.
Trengo: overview, what’s included: pros and cons
Trengo was founded in The Netherlands in 2017 as an all-in-one customer communication platform.
A Trengo subscription includes several features, such as:
- Team inbox
- Channels: Email, live chat, WhatsApp Business, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, WeChat, Google’s Business Messages, Voice, Twitter
- Internal collaboration (@tagging)
- Chatbots
- WhatsApp Broadcasting (bulk messaging)
- E-commerce integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Lightspeed, and Magento
Trengo: pros
Honest, transparent pricing: What you see is what you get. No “custom pricing” or any other unpleasant surprises. Simply pay a standard fee per user.
All your essential channels in one view: Trengo enables you to keep all essential communication channels in one view: Voice, email, live chat, and all relevant messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Messenger. Respond.io doesn’t connect to Voice and Google’s Business Messages.
WhatsApp Business Solution Provider(*): Trengo is part of the list of carefully selected third-party solution providers across the globe licensed by Meta to help businesses connect with the WhatsApp Business API. Because of this, Trengo customers can be live on the WhatsApp Business API in a matter of minutes, without any extra costs.
Automation: Automate specific parts of the customer journey with quick replies, auto-replies, rules, and no-code chatbots.
Integrations with all important e-commerce solutions: Connect to all relevant e-commerce software solutions. This enables your team to look up order information or shipping statuses without having to switch to another tool.
Internal collaboration: @tag your colleague within a conversation thread to work together on answering a customer query. No need to click back and forth to Slack all day.
Trengo: cons
Although Trengo's price point starts a little higher, the overall plans are cheaper than Respond.io. Plus Respond.io’s pricing is way less flexible and transparent.
- If you need more than 25 users, you have to request a custom price for Respond.io’s Enterprise plan. There is no indication on their website as to what that price range might look like.
- Because Trengo is a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, adding a WhatsApp API channel to your inbox is free of costs. At Respond.io, customers have to pay an extra monthly fee to a third-party company such as 360dialog to connect to WhatsApp.
Now, let’s dive deeper into Respond.io.
Respond.io: overview, what’s included: pros and cons
Respond.io is a business messaging platform that was founded in 2019 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
A Respond.io subscription includes several features, including:
- Team inbox
- Channels: Email, live chat, WhatsApp Business, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, WeChat, Twitter, Viber, Line
- Drip campaigns
- WhatsApp Broadcasting (bulk messaging)
- E-commerce integration with Shopify
Respond.io: pros
Connect to Viber and Line: Aside from channels like WhatsApp, Messenger, and email, you can also connect Line and Viber to Respond.io. This is not possible with Trengo.
Build drip campaigns: Send out drip campaigns via messaging apps to keep customers engaged.
Supervisor dashboard: A daily dashboard that managers can use to get an overview of their team’s performance.
Respond.io: cons
Lack of transparent pricing: If you need more than 25 seats or more than 3000 active contacts, you’ll need Respond.io’s Enterprise plan. This comes with a ‘custom’ price.
WhatsApp via third-party providers: Because Respond.io is not a WhatsApp Business solution provider, they can only connect you to the WhatsApp Business API via third-party providers. This comes with extra monthly costs and a long-winded set-up process.
Respond.io can only connect customers to the WhatsApp Business API via third-party providers. This comes with extra monthly costs and a long-winded set-up process.
No internal collaboration (@tagging): When you need to collaborate on a customer query with a team member, your need to use an external app like Slack. This means that collaborating can become time-consuming. Besides that, it can be a complex process to retrieve what was discussed internally about a specific case, since it will not be stored in the platform.
Lack of key communication channels: It is currently not possible to add a Voice channel to the Respond.io inbox. This means your customer service team will still need another tool for phone calls. This leads to a lot of clicking back and forth, extra costs for the Voice solution, and customer conversations not all being in one place.
Aside from Voice, Respond.io also doesn’t connect to Google’s Business Messages. This is an up-and-coming communication channel that customers can use to reach businesses right inside of Google Search or Google Maps.
No chatbots: Respond.io comes with a couple of handy automation features, but it lacks the ability to build a chatbot.
Respond.io alternatives: choose wisely
Choosing a customer communication platform is a personal decision that only you can make. But there are a few key factors to consider as you decide between Trengo and Respond.io.
The main difference between Trengo and Respond.io is that Trengo offers a comprehensive, all-in-one solution. With Respond.io, you will need additional software to manage your Voice calls.
Trengo also is a WhatsApp Business solution provider, meaning they can get customers set up within minutes, without any additional monthly fees.
Besides that, you need a solution that enables easy collaboration. With Trengo, you can easily @tag each other within threads, while Respond.io requires you to use external tools like Slack. This will inevitably result in context switching.
