--- title: "wacrm vs Interakt: an honest open-source alternative comparison" description: "Interakt includes unlimited agents on every paid plan, so the usual \"no per-seat cost\" argument for open source does not apply. Here is the honest comparison: what Interakt still meters, where it clearly wins for ecommerce, and the narrower case for self-hosting wacrm instead." canonical: https://wacrm.tech/blog/wacrm-vs-interakt datePublished: 2026-08-12 dateModified: 2026-08-12 author: "Arnas Donauskas" license: "content © wacrm; product is MIT-licensed" --- # wacrm vs Interakt: an honest open-source alternative comparison Most comparisons on this site lean on the same argument: hosted WhatsApp CRMs bill per seat, and wacrm does not. **That argument does not work against Interakt**, because Interakt includes unlimited agents on every paid plan. So this comparison has to be about something else. Here is what actually separates them. > **Disclosure:** wacrm publishes this comparison. Pricing below comes from > Interakt's own pricing page and was checked in August 2026 — plans change, so > verify before you commit. ## The short version - **Choose Interakt** if you sell on Shopify or WooCommerce, want a WhatsApp catalog and native payments, or operate primarily in India — it is built for exactly that and does it well, with no per-agent charge. - **Choose wacrm** if you want to own the data and the source, need an unmetered API, or want to rebrand and resell the product. ## At a glance | | wacrm | Interakt | | --- | --- | --- | | Licence | MIT open source | Proprietary SaaS | | Software cost | Free | Free tier; $55 Growth / $69 Advanced per month | | Agents | Unlimited | **Unlimited on all plans** | | API access | Included, free | Growth and above | | Webhooks | Included, free | Advanced tier | | Chatbot | Branching Flows, included | Linear on Growth; branching on Advanced | | Catalog / payments | Not built in | Native WhatsApp catalog and payments | | Shopify / WooCommerce | Via API or n8n/Zapier | Native integration | | Sales pipelines | Included | Separate Sales CRM plan (~₹2,499/mo, 5 seats) | | AI | Bring-your-own-key, at cost | $74.99/month add-on, metered | | Hosting | You self-host | Fully hosted | | Data ownership | Your own Supabase project | Interakt's infrastructure | Meta's messaging fees are billed by Meta and identical either way. ## Credit where it is due: the seat argument fails here Interakt's paid plans advertise **unlimited agents (all roles)**. If your reason for looking at open source was "I refuse to pay $25 per agent per month", Interakt already solves that at $55–69/month flat, with none of the operational work. For a 15-person support team, Interakt Advanced at $69/month is *cheaper than wacrm's total cost of ownership* once you price in the hours someone spends running a server. That is a real conclusion and we are not going to bury it. What Interakt does still meter: - **API access** is gated to Growth ($55) and **webhooks to Advanced** ($69). - **AI Agents** are a **$74.99/month add-on** — more than the plan itself — with $0.011 per message beyond 100. - **Sales pipelines** are a separate product (the Sales CRM plan, around ₹2,499/month), and *that* one is seat-based: 5 agents included, ₹499/month for each additional. So the unlimited-agent promise applies to the inbox, not to the pipeline CRM. If you want both, you are buying two products and the second one bills per seat. ## Where wacrm actually differs **Data ownership.** Everything in wacrm lives in your own Supabase project. Contacts, conversations, deals, automation logs — you can query it, back it up, or export it whenever you like. With Interakt it lives on their infrastructure under their terms. **Unmetered API.** wacrm's [public API](https://wacrm.tech/docs/public-api) and outbound webhooks are included on the free app with no call ceiling, because it runs on your server. Interakt puts API behind Growth and webhooks behind Advanced. **The source.** MIT licence, so you can read it, change it, fork it, rebrand it, and resell it to your own clients — the model described in the [WhatsApp CRM for agencies](https://wacrm.tech/blog/whatsapp-crm-for-agencies) guide. No hosted product offers that at any price. **AI at cost.** wacrm's [AI assistant](https://wacrm.tech/docs/ai-assistant) is bring-your-own-key: you paste an OpenAI or Anthropic key and pay the provider directly. Against Interakt's $74.99/month AI add-on, a low-volume team will typically spend a few dollars. **Pipelines included.** wacrm's kanban [pipelines](https://wacrm.tech/docs/pipelines) with deal values are part of the same free app, not a second subscription. ## Where Interakt is clearly the better choice - **You run an online store.** Native Shopify and WooCommerce integration, WhatsApp catalog, and native payments are things wacrm simply does not have. Our [ecommerce guide](https://wacrm.tech/blog/whatsapp-crm-for-ecommerce) is honest about this: wacrm connects to a store through its API or a tool like n8n, which is wiring you have to do. - **You are in India.** Interakt is built around that market — local payment rails, INR pricing, and rates tuned to Indian messaging costs. - **You want unlimited agents with zero ops.** Covered above. This is a genuine strength. - **You want a free tier to start on.** Interakt's Starter plan is free with unlimited owner-role agents. ## Migrating from Interakt Export contacts as CSV and import into wacrm. Chat history, catalog data, and chatbot flows do not transfer. Your WhatsApp number belongs to your Meta Business account and moves with you. Be realistic about the catalog and payments piece: if you use those, there is no equivalent in wacrm and migrating means giving them up or rebuilding them against Meta's APIs yourself. ## The honest bottom line Interakt is a good product with a pricing model that removes the per-seat objection entirely. If you are an ecommerce seller — especially in India — it is probably the better choice, and the fact that we publish this comparison does not change that. wacrm's case against it is narrower and specific: you want the data in your own database, an API nobody meters, and source you can fork. Those are the reasons to self-host. "It is cheaper per agent" is not one of them here. Start with [Getting started](https://wacrm.tech/docs/getting-started), or see [wacrm vs respond.io](https://wacrm.tech/blog/wacrm-vs-respond-io) and [wacrm vs WATI](https://wacrm.tech/blog/wacrm-vs-wati) for the other hosted comparisons.