[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":100},["ShallowReactive",2],{"pseo:compare:evolution-api-vs-whapi":3},{"a":4,"b":10,"faqs":15,"pick_a_when":25,"pick_b_when":26,"related":27,"rows":36,"seo":83,"slug":96,"tier":97,"updated":40,"url":92,"verdict":98,"wapito_in_pair":5,"why_compared":99},{"is_wapito":5,"name":6,"slug":7,"type":8,"url":9},false,"Evolution API","evolution-api","self-hosted","\u002Falternatives\u002Fevolution-api\u002F",{"is_wapito":5,"name":11,"slug":12,"type":13,"url":14},"Whapi.cloud","whapi","unofficial-saas","\u002Falternatives\u002Fwhapi\u002F",[16,19,22],{"a":17,"q":18},"For a handful of numbers, rarely, once you count the server, the database, the media storage and the hours spent upgrading a stateful service. It becomes genuinely cheaper at volume, or when data residency rules mean the sessions must stay on your own infrastructure. The comparison worth doing is total cost of ownership over a year, not the software licence against the monthly price.","Is self-hosting Evolution API cheaper than paying Whapi.cloud per channel?",{"a":20,"q":21},"Evolution API is open about it: a Baileys release candidate, pinned in its dependencies, which on the day we checked was five candidates behind upstream. Whapi.cloud does not publish its engine; what you can verify is that each channel is a linked device paired by QR or pairing code, which means the same class of session and the same class of ban risk as any unofficial API.","Do both use the same underlying engine?",{"a":23,"q":24},"Its licence is Apache-2.0 plus conditions: a visible notice to system administrators that Evolution API is in use, no removal of the logo or copyright in its frontend components, and the producer may require a commercial licence when those conditions are not met. Read the licence file in the repository before you deploy it inside a commercial product, and confirm the current wording, because it can change.","What are the additional licence terms on Evolution API?","Sessions must stay on your own infrastructure, you already run Docker and Postgres in production, and you have someone on call for a service that holds live WhatsApp sessions.","You want a working REST API this afternoon, a dashboard for the team, and you would rather pay per channel than run and upgrade a server.",{"alternatives":28,"hub":31,"pillars":32},[29,30],{"title":6,"url":9},{"title":11,"url":14},"\u002Fcompare\u002F",[33],{"title":34,"url":35},"Create Group","\u002Fwhatsapp-api\u002Fcreate-group\u002F",[37,45,52,56,63,70,75,79],{"a":38,"a_source":39,"b":42,"b_source":43,"dimension":44,"feature":43},"Apache-2.0 with additional terms: a visible notice to administrators that Evolution API is in use, and the producer may require a commercial licence.",{"as_of":40,"url":41},"2026-09-16","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fevolution-foundation\u002Fevolution-api\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002FLICENSE","Proprietary hosted service under its terms of service.",null,"License",{"a":46,"a_source":47,"b":50,"b_source":43,"dimension":51,"feature":43},"Self-hosted REST server over Baileys, pinned to 7.0.0-rc.9 (five release candidates behind upstream on 14 September 2026).",{"as_of":48,"url":49},"2026-09-14","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fevolution-foundation\u002Fevolution-api","Hosted. One linked-device session per channel; the engine is not published.","Engine and protocol",{"a":53,"a_source":43,"b":54,"b_source":43,"dimension":55,"feature":43},"Your own Docker deployment with a database and media storage. You run the upgrades and the on-call.","Hosted by the provider. Nothing to run.","Hosting",{"a":57,"a_source":58,"b":59,"b_source":43,"dimension":60,"feature":61},"Groups (create, participants, invites, settings) and status posts (sendStatus) as REST endpoints.",{"as_of":48,"url":49},"Groups, communities, Channels (newsletters) and stories as REST endpoints.","Groups, Channels and status",{"name":34,"slug":62,"url":35},"create-group",{"a":64,"a_source":65,"b":66,"b_source":67,"dimension":69,"feature":43},"Free to download. The cost is the server, the database, the storage and the hours; read the additional licence terms before commercial use.",{"as_of":48,"url":49},"Sandbox free with published ceilings. Premium quoted at $29 per number per month with a five-day trial; the annual figure is shown inconsistently on the pricing page.",{"as_of":48,"url":68},"https:\u002F\u002Fwhapi.cloud\u002Fprice","Pricing",{"a":71,"a_source":72,"b":73,"b_source":43,"dimension":74,"feature":43},"0 public commits in the 90 days to 14 September 2026. Newest tag 2.4.0-rc2; last stable release 2.3.7 (December 2025).",{"as_of":48,"url":49},"Managed by the provider. No public source repository to measure.","Maintenance cadence",{"a":76,"a_source":43,"b":77,"b_source":43,"dimension":78,"feature":43},"Per-instance webhook URL with a configurable event list.","Multiple URLs per channel, per-event routing, retries, a secret header and custom headers.","Webhooks",{"a":80,"a_source":43,"b":81,"b_source":43,"dimension":82,"feature":43},"REST only. No first-party SDK packages are listed in its documentation.","No OpenAPI document. Example bots rather than maintained SDKs; documentation on ReadMe with an llms.txt.","SDKs and client code",{"breadcrumb":84,"canonical":93,"description":94,"h1":91,"lastmod":40,"title":95},[85,88,90],{"name":86,"url":87},"Home","\u002F",{"name":89,"url":31},"Compare",{"name":91,"url":92},"Evolution API vs Whapi.cloud","\u002Fcompare\u002Fevolution-api-vs-whapi\u002F","https:\u002F\u002Fwapito.com\u002Fcompare\u002Fevolution-api-vs-whapi\u002F","Whapi.cloud if you want a REST API without running a stateful service; Evolution API if data residency or volume makes self-hosting worth the operations.","Evolution API vs Whapi.cloud (2026): WhatsApp API | Wapito","evolution-api-vs-whapi","t5b","Whapi.cloud if you want a REST API without running a stateful service; Evolution API if data residency or volume makes self-hosting worth the operations. Read Evolution's additional licence terms before a commercial deployment, and note that its pinned Baileys candidate lagged upstream at the time of checking.","This is the self-host-or-rent decision in its clearest form. Evolution API gives you a REST server you run yourself on top of Baileys; Whapi.cloud gives you the same shape of API as a hosted service with a dashboard. Teams compare them when they know they want a REST API rather than a library and are deciding who carries the operations.",1790464905422]