WhatsApp Business API
Spur
Trengo
Trengo is a credible omnichannel inbox with email and voice. Spur is the Trengo alternative for D2C and Shopify teams who live on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger — and don't want to pay for ten seats on day one. Cheapest plans: $31/mo vs Trengo's €299/mo annual.
No credit card. Live on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and web chat in a few hours.
Same 3-person Shopify team
AI Start · 2 seats · 2,000 AI credits
Boost · 10-seat bundle · 500 conv/mo
10-seat bundle, used or not
500/mo, 7-day window
Second meter, autopilot from #1
Sources: Spur Pricing · Trengo Pricing · Trengo AI pricing (May 20, 2026). Detailed math in Pricing section.
Instagram DM & Comments
MessengerWeb live chatIf you only read three things
Cheaper entry, simpler billing math, built for the commerce playbooks Trengo treats as side channels. The rest of this page is the receipts.
01 · The math
~10×
Trengo entry vs Spur entry on annual billing
Spur AI Start is $31/mo annual. Trengo Boost is €299/mo annual with a 10-seat bundle. For a 3-person Shopify team that's roughly €99.67 per active person per month before VAT, overage, AI or carrier fees.
See the worked example02 · Forecastable billing
One bill.
Trengo runs three: plan + conversations + AI
Trengo defines a "conversation" inside a 7-day window — the same customer messaging across 3 weeks counts as 3 conversations. AI is a second meter (€0.25–0.30 per AI conv above the included allowance, autopilot from conversation #1). Spur is plan + WhatsApp wallet, full stop.
Trengo's conversation definition03 · The right job
5.0★
/ 108 reviews — Trengo's center of gravity is omnichannel service — ours is commerce conversations.
Cart recovery on WhatsApp, comment-to-DM on Instagram, broadcasts and drips, Click-to-WhatsApp ads with Meta conversion-signal feedback, WhatsApp Commerce and Flows — core product surfaces, not add-ons gated to higher tiers.
Spur on ShopifyWhat you actually get
The same AI agent handles WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and web chat — with custom actions that hit your backend for order lookups, refunds, discounts and meeting bookings. Humans take over the moment something gets interesting. No email or voice channels — that's Trengo's lane, not ours.
Bot:Found it! Order #1234 · arrives Wed · ETA 2 days.
AI handled
"Loving the linen blazer — does it ship to Berlin?"
Comment → DM"Want to swap two items in my last order before it ships."
Handoff to Riya
Bot:Applied your loyalty discount — total updated to €52.40.
AI handledIllustrative — names, handles and order numbers are made up for this mock.
Is this for you?
Trengo is a credible Netherlands-based omnichannel platform with 3,000+ customers, $36M Series A backing, email and voice as native channels, and real depth in hospitality and travel. Spur is built for a different team — the D2C brand whose revenue lives on WhatsApp and Instagram, not email and phone.
The math, in full
Both prices below are pulled live from the public pricing pages on May 20, 2026. No "starting from" lines, no "talk to sales" math, no surprises in month seven. Older third-party pages still citing Trengo at €29 or €99 are stale — Trengo moved to usage-based pricing in 2024.
Boost
10 users bundled · 6,000 conv/yr (500/mo) · 50 AI suggested-reply conv/mo included.
€299/mo
Pro
20 users · 18,000 conv/yr (1,500/mo) · 100 AI conv/mo · custom channels, ecommerce triggers.
€499/mo
Enterprise
Custom users · custom conversation block · dedicated CSM · phone support.
Talk to sales
Monthly billing
Boost €349/mo · Pro €599/mo (no yearly discount).
+17%
Meters & surcharges
A "conversation" is restricted to a 7-day window — the same customer messaging across 3 weeks counts as 3 separate conversations. Monthly unused quota does not carry over.
View pricingAI Acquire
1 AI agent · 100 credits · 1 seat · 3 flows · Instagram + Click-to-DM.
$12/mo
AI Startvs Trengo Boost
+ Shopify + WhatsApp + Click-to-WhatsApp · 25 flows · 2,000 credits · 2 seats.
$31/mo
AI Accelerate
2 AI agents · 12,000 credits · 5 seats · 50 flows · webhooks · Custom AI Actions.
$127/mo
AI Max
3 AI agents · 20,000 credits · 10 seats · unlimited flows · dedicated AM.
$399/mo
Predictable add-ons
AI billed as flat credits — no separate per-AI-conversation surcharge, no autopilot meter starting at conversation #1, no auto-top-up wallet cascade.
View pricing3-person Shopify team · 2,000 WhatsApp marketing broadcast/mo · India contacts
Trengo path · Boost annual
~$324/mo + meters
Spur path · AI Start
~$52/mo all-in
Both vendors pass WhatsApp Meta fees through identically — service messages stay free inside the 24-hour window, Click-to-WhatsApp gets the 72-hour free entry point. India signal as of Jan 2026 is ~₹0.8631 per delivered marketing message. The gap is the subscription shape, not the Meta floor.
~$3,260/yr saved
Roughly 16% of Trengo Boost's annual base, for the same WhatsApp + IG + FB + web chat surface — before any conversation overage, AI surcharge or auto-top-up event.
Disclaimers: Trengo path assumes Boost annual converted at ~1 USD = 0.92 EUR (May 2026). Conversation, AI and auto-top-up meters can move the actual bill materially in either direction — that's the point we're making. Spur AI Start at 3 active users includes the third seat as a $15/mo add-on. Both prices exclude WhatsApp Meta pass-through, which is identical on either platform. For 20+ agent ops with email/voice needs and bundled seat usage, Trengo Pro's per-seat math can win — run your own numbers.
Why the gap exists
These themes show up across G2, Trustpilot, Capterra and Reddit threads about Trengo — and in conversations with founders considering us. We cite every one. Click any source to verify it yourself.
Trengo's help center confirms the move from user-based to usage-based pricing in 2024. A Dutch Trustpilot reviewer titled their review "280% price increase" — €79 to €223 for the same functions. Peter from the UK cites €66 to €244 and calls the product "clunky."
A "conversation" starts on outbound send or inbound reply, restricted to a 7-day window. Same customer messaging across 3 weeks counts as 3 separate conversations. Monthly unused quota does not carry over.
Boost includes 50 suggested-reply AI conv/mo; Pro includes 100. Beyond that, AI is €0.25/conv annual or €0.30/conv monthly. Autopilot is charged from conversation #1 — no inclusion.
WhatsApp/Meta and AI surcharges pull from a prepaid balance. If insufficient, auto-top-up triggers the over-used amount plus estimated extra (capped at €500 extra), can generate invoices up to €9.5k each, and balance is non-refundable by default.
Trengo's terms specify that 12-month-or-longer fixed-term contracts auto-renew unless cancelled at least 60 days before renewal. Mid-term termination isn't possible. Jeffrey D. on Capterra titled his review "Higher price for fewer features" and said he switched to Helpwise.
Trengo's 2025 roadmap leaned heavily into hospitality, travel and leisure — Roller, Viator, GetYourGuide, Vrbo, 22 new OTA integrations. Spur's center of gravity is the opposite: Click-to-WhatsApp ads, Click-to-IG Direct Ads, Comment-to-DM, cart recovery, broadcasts.
Capability map · zoom in
Green checks where the platform genuinely owns the capability. Amber when it technically supports it but the depth is shallow. Grey dash when it's not there. Sources: live product pages, public pricing, Trengo's own help center.
Scan signal
14
Spur-only clear edges
2
Shared clear capabilities
24 rows total. Use the chips first, then read the evidence where the answer is partial or unclear.
1 shared clear capabilities across 8 checks.
Spur
Trengo
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1 shared clear capabilities across 4 checks.
Spur
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0 shared clear capabilities across 7 checks.
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0 shared clear capabilities across 5 checks.
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Owns it · Supports it, shallow depth · Not offered
Honest take · summarised
If two or more items on the Trengo side describe your team, buy Trengo — don't waste a sales cycle. If two or more items on the Spur side fit, install on Shopify or start the trial. We mean it.
Email and voice as first-class channels
Email, voice/calling and SMS as native channels alongside WhatsApp and social — plus a new AI Voice agent that answers inbound calls without IVR. If voice is core, this is decided.
Hospitality, travel and leisure depth
2025 product roadmap shipped Roller, Viator, GetYourGuide, Vrbo, Belvilla, Holidu, dedicated Boards for hospitality workflows, and a 24/7 web widget toggle. We haven't built for that vertical and won't pretend otherwise.
AI Journeys for service routing
A genuinely interesting no-code journey builder with smart routing, round-robin assignment, 70+ language support and on-demand agent journeys. Currently labeled beta. Better service-process orchestration than us — we're built for revenue journeys.
European operating history and brand
Founded Utrecht 2017, $36M Series A from Insight Partners and Peak, 100+ employees, 3,000+ customers, 100m+ conversations/year. For EU procurement teams wanting a longer track record, this matters.
Public review surface
4.3/5 on G2 across 246 reviews, 4.2/5 on Trustpilot across 213, 4.1/5 on Capterra across 26. Larger, broader audit trail than ours (concentrated on the Shopify App Store at 5.0/108).
Per-seat economics at 20+ agents
Pro at €499/mo annual bundles 20 users. If you really run a 25-person comms operation across email/WhatsApp/voice/social with 18,000+ conversations/yr, the bundle math can beat stacking Spur AI Max + per-seat add-ons. Run your own numbers.
Named onboarding support reps
A recurring positive theme on G2 and Trustpilot is named reps — Charlotte, Lawrence, Felipe, Cesar, Adrià, Nicky — getting credit for tailored implementation help. When Trengo support clicks, it feels personal.
Pricing you can forecast
Entry at $31/mo vs €299/mo annual. No 7-day conversation window, no per-AI-conversation surcharge, no autopilot meter starting at conversation #1, no auto-top-up wallet cascade up to €9.5k/invoice. Plan + WhatsApp wallet, full stop.
WhatsApp as a revenue channel, not just a queue
Broadcasts, drip campaigns, abandoned-cart recovery, order updates, Click-to-WhatsApp Ads with Meta conversion-signal feedback, WhatsApp Commerce + Flows, DeliveryBoost, Blue Tick application. Core surfaces — not Pro-plan-gated triggers.
Instagram and Facebook automation depth
Comment-to-DM, story reactions, story mentions auto-DM, Click-to-IG Direct Ads with DM qualification flows and lead-quality signal feedback to Meta. The Instagram playbook is our product center of gravity — for Trengo it's a supported channel.
Shopify-native, not Shopify-adjacent
1-click public Shopify App Store install vs Trengo's "we know it's a long one" dev-app setup with multiple admin API scopes. Cart recovery, post-purchase DMs and customer segments by order history come out of the box.
AI ingests your real, messy KB
Websites, help docs, PDFs, YouTube videos and transcripts, custom Q&A. Multi-channel deployment from one trained agent — web + WhatsApp + IG + FB Messenger. Trengo handles snippets, websites and PDF/TXT/CSV.
India and SMB price accessibility
Click-to-IG Direct Ads plan starts at ₹999/mo for the IG-DM-ads use case. Broader plans accessible in USD with INR-published wallet rates. For Indian D2C brands the entry math is ~₹2,600/mo vs ~₹27,000/mo — a 10x difference.
MCP surface for AI-native ops
Native MCP server exposing template lifecycle, outbound messaging, conversation history, contact ops, CSV imports, Spur/Shopify segments and broadcast lifecycle — for Claude, Cursor and internal agents. Trengo offers REST + webhooks; no public MCP today.
Six head-to-head verdicts
Six common buying decisions, each with a one-paragraph verdict. Skim the headers — the labels tell you which way each one points.
Both have a Shopify integration. Trengo's setup involves creating a Shopify dev app, configuring multiple admin API read scopes and installing inside Trengo. Spur is a 1-click public App Store install with cart recovery, order updates and post-purchase DMs templated.
Trengo has WhatsApp as a channel and supports broadcasts as an add-on from Boost. Spur treats WhatsApp broadcasts, drips, cart recovery, Click-to-WhatsApp and WhatsApp Commerce as core product surfaces, not Pro-plan-gated triggers.
Trengo supports Instagram and Facebook Messenger as channels. Spur is built around the loop — Comment-to-DM, story reactions, Click-to-IG Direct Ads with lead-quality signals back to Meta for campaign optimization.
See Instagram playbookIf most of your support volume is email — gmail sync, internal comments, assignment workflows, label-driven routing — Trengo's inbox is genuinely good at that. Spur doesn't do native email. Picking us for email-heavy support would be a bad call.
Spur has no voice channel. Trengo ships native voice plus an AI Voice agent for inbound calls without IVR (2025/26 launch). If inbound phone is core to your customer experience, Trengo wins by default.
Hotel chains, tour operators, attractions, multi-property hospitality. Trengo's 2025 roadmap shipped 22 new OTA integrations including Viator, GetYourGuide, Vrbo, HomeAway, Belvilla and Holidu, plus a Roller integration. We don't compete in this vertical.
What real customers are saying
Pulled directly from G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, Reddit and the Shopify App Store. Nothing is invented — every excerpt links back to the public source. Trengo has a much larger review surface than us, so we're showing the polarized signal you'll find there too.
“280% price increase. We went from €79 to €223 for the same functions.”
“Higher price for fewer features. Pricing increased while critical features were phased out. I decided to switch to Helpwise — felt held hostage because exporting data required a complicated API process.”
“Once Trengo's AI is set up properly, it can remove 90% of your workload in customer service.”
The Trustpilot split for Trengo runs polarized — 61% 5-star, 34% 1-star. Positive reviewers regularly name specific reps (Charlotte, Lawrence, Felipe, Cesar) for tailored implementation help. The pattern is inconsistency, not failure.
Featured case study · Libas
“Comment automation + DMs took our IG Live from a 1,000-viewer event into 64 paid orders at ~6% conversion.”
Parul Chanana · Sr. Marketing Manager · Libas · Spur case study
“Abandoned cart flows were running within hours and the team helped us map our WhatsApp and Instagram strategy during onboarding.”
“Quick support, easy implementation, WhatsApp/Instagram automation, comment-to-DM, responsive bug fixes — all in one tool.”
Honest disclosure. Trengo has a much larger third-party review surface than us — 246 G2 reviews to our 12, 213 Trustpilot reviews to our 2. Our deepest public proof sits on the Shopify App Store at 5.0/108. We're newer and smaller. We'd rather show you that than hide it.
Migration · honest version
Most "alternative" pages skip the migration math. We're not going to. Budget 4–6 weeks for a clean cutover with a 1–3 person team. Don't sign the new vendor before reading your existing vendor's termination clauses — Trengo's auto-renewal needs 60 days' notice on 12-month-plus contracts.
A common low-risk path
Release your WhatsApp number
Meta supports BSP-to-BSP migration. Trengo releases the number; we re-add it under Spur. Budget ~7–14 business days.
Re-submit WhatsApp templates
Approved templates don't transfer between BSPs. If they were approved at Trengo, they'll typically clear again at Spur within 1–3 days.
Export contacts and segments
CSV via Trengo's API or export tooling. Import to Spur via CSV or programmatically through the Spur MCP. Recreate segments in Spur's segment builder.
Rebuild AI Journeys and flowbots
Trengo's flows don't export to a portable format. You'll rebuild in Spur's visual workflow builder — and likely simplify the flows that weren't firing anyway.
Re-ingest your KB into Spur's AI agent
Point at your website. Upload PDFs and help docs. Share YouTube product walkthroughs. Add custom Q&A. 5–15 min basic; half a day for a tuned agent.
Install on Shopify + turn on flows
1-click public App Store install. Cart recovery, order updates and abandoned-checkout flows are templated. Customize per brand voice.
Re-point Meta ad campaigns & cancel Trengo on the renewal date
Re-point Click-to-WhatsApp / Click-to-IG destination flows to Spur funnels. Reconnect conversion-signal feedback. Plan the cutover around your Trengo renewal date — auto-renew applies unless cancelled 60 days before. If you miss the window you may owe through the next period regardless.
Diligence checklist
We've seen teams buy the wrong tool and stay locked in. Asking these up front saves the messy email thread in month seven.
Questions buyers ask
If your question isn't here, message us on WhatsApp or email — we usually reply within the hour during business hours, often faster.
Talk to a humanFor 1–10 person teams, yes — significantly. Spur AI Start is $31/mo billed annually vs Trengo Boost at €299/mo billed annually. For 20+ agent operations with email/voice needs and bundled seat usage, Trengo Pro at €499/mo (20 seats included) can be more cost-efficient on pure per-seat math. Run your own numbers including WhatsApp wallet costs, AI usage and any add-ons.
Yes — that's the current annual-billing price for Boost on trengo.com/prices as of May 2026. Monthly billing for the same plan is €349/mo. Older third-party pages citing Trengo at €29/account/month or €99/user/month are stale — Trengo moved from user-based to usage-based pricing in 2024.
Per Trengo's help center, a conversation starts when you send an outbound message or reply to an inbound one. It's restricted to a 7-day window — after that, the next message counts as a new conversation. A single customer messaging across 3 weeks counts as 3 separate conversations. Monthly customers lose unused quota; yearly customers can carry monthly unused quota forward within the annual cycle.
Yes. Boost includes 50 suggested-reply AI conversations/mo or 600/yr; Pro includes 100/mo or 1,200/yr. Beyond those, AI is €0.30/conversation monthly or €0.25/conversation yearly. Autopilot mode is charged from the first conversation with no inclusion. AI charges deduct from your prepaid balance, with auto-top-up triggering if balance is insufficient.
Yes. Meta supports BSP-to-BSP migration of WhatsApp phone numbers. The source BSP (Trengo) releases the number; we re-add it under Spur. Plan ~7–14 business days for the full migration including template re-approval. Approved templates do not transfer between BSPs — they'll need to be re-submitted through Spur for Meta approval, typically clearing within 1–3 days if they cleared at Trengo.
Stay with Trengo, or pick a dedicated email helpdesk like Help Scout. Spur's shared inbox is WhatsApp + Instagram + Facebook Messenger + website live chat. We don't do native email or voice. Picking us for email-heavy or voice-heavy support would be a bad decision and we'd talk you out of it on a sales call.
Probably yes. Trengo's 2025 roadmap shipped 22 new OTA/booking/distribution integrations (Viator, GetYourGuide, Vrbo, HomeAway, Belvilla, Holidu), a Roller integration for attractions, dedicated Boards for hospitality workflows and a 24/7 web widget toggle. We don't compete in that vertical and you shouldn't switch to us for it.
We host core data on AWS Frankfurt and set WhatsApp Cloud API data localization to Europe at number setup. Our DPA also names Google US (CDN/NLP) and Cloudflare (CDN/edge/serverless edge) as subprocessors, so the data flow isn't pure-EU. Trengo's DPA names AWS Frankfurt, PlanetScale Frankfurt, Elasticsearch Frankfurt, OpenAI US, LangSmith EU and Google EU — also mixed. Request the current DPA, sub-processor schedule and AI-model-data retention terms during diligence. Email security@spurnow.com for our security packet under NDA.
For a Shopify store running WhatsApp + Instagram + Facebook + web chat: a few hours, with the AI Agent crawled from your website and help docs and live the same day. Our Shopify merchant reviews repeatedly mention going live within hours with the onboarding team's help. The full BSP-to-BSP WhatsApp migration from Trengo, including template re-approval, runs ~7–14 business days.
Bottom line · take it for a spin
Install Spur on Shopify in a few hours. Crawl your store + help docs to train the AI. Connect WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and your live chat widget. See whether it's the tool your team's been missing — without touching your existing Trengo seat count or 60-day notice window.
Live pricing, help-center docs and review data from Trengo, Spur, Shopify App Store, G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and Reddit. Last refreshed May 20, 2026.
Pricing and feature data last refreshed May 20, 2026.