orca.floOrcaFlo vs respond.io: a sales assistant, not another platform to run
respond.io is a powerful omnichannel inbox (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, email and more) with AI Agents from its Growth plan up. It is built for teams that want to design workflows. OrcaFlo is built for owners who want WhatsApp answered and followed up tonight, without a project. Figures from respond.io’s pricing page (Checked 7 October 2026.).
Updated
Side by side
| OrcaFlo | respond.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | From $14.99 a month + 3¢ per message, after a 14-day free trial. | Starter $79/month, Growth $159/month, Advanced $279/month, Enterprise custom |
| AI replies | Included from day one | AI Agents on Growth and above; the Starter plan has no AI agents, broadcasts or workflows |
| What grows your bill | Only your message count | Contacts above 1,000 ($12 per 100 on Growth), AI credits above 10,000 ($15 per 1,000), extra users ($20/month on Growth), plus Meta’s fees |
| Meta’s fee on replies | None (your own WhatsApp app) | Charged per message since 1 October 2026, after 1,000 free a month |
| Setup | Minutes, with a starter pack for your type of business | Connect channels, then build workflows and AI agents |
| Channels | WhatsApp, email, website chat and Telegram, one assistant and inbox; Instagram and Messenger waiting on Meta’s review | WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, WeChat, LINE, Viber, SMS, email, web chat |
| Gulf Arabic | Built in, with voice notes | Multilingual AI, not tuned for Gulf Arabic |
| AI assistant connection | Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and six more apps, with every change logged and undoable | Hosted MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT |
What would you pay?
Work out your own monthly cost
- Messages (customer and assistant): 3,000
- No Meta fee: connects to your WhatsApp app
- Growth plan$159
- Meta’s WhatsApp fee for replies (official API)$8
OrcaFlo costs about $62 less a month at this volume.
Estimates from public prices, checked 7 October 2026. Meta’s fee is an estimate from its rate card. Your volume and their quote decide the real number.
Where teams get stuck with platforms like this
The real price is the second plan
The cheapest plan has no AI agents, broadcasts or workflows, so most businesses that want AI start at Growth, then add contacts, credits and users.
Meters on top of meters
Monthly active contacts, AI credits, extra users and Meta’s message fees each move separately, which makes a month hard to predict.
A tool you have to run
Workflows and AI agents are powerful, and they take time to design, test and keep working.
From respond.io’s pricing page (Checked 7 October 2026.); see their plans
What OrcaFlo does instead
One price you can work out yourself
Free for 14 days, then from $14.99 a month + 3¢ per message. No setup fee. AI replies included, no seat fees, no contact tiers, no AI credits to top up, and no Meta fee on replies because OrcaFlo connects to your own WhatsApp app.
Set up for your business in minutes
Scan a QR code, pick a starter pack for your type of business (store, clinic, salon, real estate, restaurant, gym) and the instructions, quick replies, pipeline and automations are ready to edit. No flows to build.
It sells, not just answers
Quotes from your price list, books real slots, sends payment links, follows up people who went quiet and fills your CRM pipeline on its own. Hard questions go to your team with the whole chat.
Arabic that sounds like the Gulf
Replies in the language the customer writes in, Gulf Arabic or English, switching per customer, and understands voice notes and photos. Voice replies (it answers a voice note with a voice note) are in early access.
You know before your customers do
The WhatsApp health light shows green, yellow or red for your number’s connection and delivery. If it goes red you get a notification and an email, with what to do.
It gets better every week
Fix-It Feed finds the questions your assistant fumbled and suggests a one-tap fix: a knowledge answer, a product detail or a rule. Early access.
Go live gently
Shadow Launch: for your first days the assistant drafts each reply and a person sends, edits or skips it. Topics switch to automatic once the drafts are reliably right. Early access.
A person answers
Questions, changes and cancelling all go to a real person on the OrcaFlo team at support@orcaflo-panel.com, not a ticket bot.
How OrcaFlo connects, and the trade-off
OrcaFlo links to the WhatsApp Business app on your phone by QR code, the way WhatsApp Web does. You keep your number, your chat history and the app on your phone, there’s no Meta business verification, no template approval, and no Meta fee on your replies. The trade-off: it isn’t Meta’s official Business API, so there’s no green tick, and WhatsApp can restrict numbers that behave like spam. That’s why we ask for an account at least 10 days old, pace broadcasts, and show a WhatsApp health light in your dashboard that turns red (with a notification and an email) the moment your number disconnects or messages stop going through.
Choose respond.io if…
- You need one inbox for WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, email, SMS and more today.
- You run a larger support team with routing rules, SLAs and reporting, and someone to build workflows.
- You need the official WhatsApp Business API.
Choose OrcaFlo if…
- WhatsApp is where your sales happen and you want it answered and followed up automatically.
- You don’t want to design workflows or count contacts and credits.
- You want it live tonight, in Gulf Arabic and English.
Questions
Below a few hundred customers a month, usually yes, because there’s no plan fee and AI is included. Above that, respond.io’s Growth plan can cost less on paper. The calculator above uses respond.io’s published prices; try your own volume.
Not for everyone yet. Instagram and Messenger are built and waiting on Meta’s app review. Email, website chat and Telegram are live, answered by the same assistant. The integrations page shows the current status of each.
Yes. OrcaFlo has step-by-step setup for Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI and n8n/Make, and every change your AI makes is logged with Undo.
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Read moreStop losing customers to slow replies.
Free for 14 days, then from $14.99 a month + 3¢ per message. No setup fee. Let OrcaFlo answer tomorrow’s messages.