Every Indian business owner has heard that WhatsApp is where customers are. It's true — but bulk SMS isn't dead, and choosing wrong wastes real money. Here's the honest comparison after watching hundreds of SMB campaigns.
Attention: WhatsApp messages are read at 60–70%, SMS at 6–8%. For offers and catalogues, that gap is decisive. A broadcast that costs slightly more per message but is read ten times as often wins on cost per order almost every time.
Cost: transactional SMS runs ₹0.12–0.20 per message. WhatsApp marketing conversations are metered per 24-hour conversation window, with utility messages cheaper than marketing ones. At typical Indian rates, a well-targeted WhatsApp campaign costs less per actual read than SMS.
Compliance: this is where amateurs get burned. SMS needs DLT registration and approved headers and templates. WhatsApp needs genuine opt-ins and Meta template approval — buying scraped numbers gets your number banned, sometimes permanently. Both channels require you to respect frequency; festival-week blasts to cold lists are how trust dies.
Where SMS still wins: OTPs and time-critical alerts, reaching numbers that aren't on WhatsApp (rare in India but real in B2B), and as a fallback nudge when a WhatsApp message goes undelivered.
Where WhatsApp wins nearly everything else: broadcasts to opted-in customers, catalogue browsing with cart flows for D2C, automated replies that answer 70–80% of routine questions, and two-way conversations that feel personal at scale.
The practical split we see working: OTP and critical alerts on SMS; everything promotional, transactional and support-oriented on WhatsApp with the official Business API. If you want this set up properly — templates, opt-ins, catalogue, CRM sync and reporting — our WhatsApp Marketing partners do it from ₹9,999/month.
Want a partner to run this for you?
Get a free 30-minute consultation and a written plan — built around this exact playbook, scoped for your business.
Book free consultation