respond.io
Tool · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
respond.io is a platform for communicating with customers in messengers. The self-description on the home page: "Trusted by 10,000+ B2C businesses to scale customer chats, calls & campaigns. Unify WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram & Facebook in a team inbox with AI Agents on respond.io". The figure "10,000+ businesses" belongs to the tool: it is its own claim about itself, not an independent measurement.
The subject of the work is correspondence and calls, not publications. Social networks get in here by their private side: Instagram direct messages, Facebook messages, TikTok correspondence. A shared inbox for the team is the main idea of the self-description.
Many language versions of the site are declared: the hreflang markup on the home page declares ar, de, en, es, fr, id, it, pt, ru, th, vi, zh-hans and one more. The language of the home page itself is en. The qualification "one more" is our own count of the remaining links in the markup, not a number named by the tool: there is no such number on the page.
A machine-readable index llms.txt is present on the site and is fairly large — 19,932 characters on the date of the check. That is our own measurement of the file, not a claim by the tool.
An address with the marker "api" in the address itself was found on the home page, but it returns an image, not a documentation page. It does not follow from this that the tool has no developer interface — all that follows is that no verifiable link leads to it from the home page.
Which platforms it works with
The list of channels on the integrations page contains sixteen entries, and some of them carry a status that should be read literally: WhatsApp Business Platform, WhatsApp Business Calling API, TikTok Business Messaging (Beta), Facebook Messenger, Facebook Messenger Calls (Coming soon), Instagram, WeChat, Viber, Telegram, LINE, SMS, Twilio, MessageBird, Vonage (Nexmo), Web Chat, VoIP Calls.
Two channels from this list work at less than full strength: TikTok correspondence is marked as beta, and Facebook Messenger calls as "coming soon". Both words were put there by the tool itself.
Half the list is not social networks at all but means of contact: SMS, web chat, calls and the communications providers Twilio, MessageBird, Vonage. Messengers and social networks proper are eight entries of the list (our own count, the tool does not make such a division): WhatsApp, TikTok, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WeChat, Viber, Telegram and LINE.
Other integrations — with CRMs and other systems, including HubSpot, Salesforce and Zapier — were deliberately not included in this list: it is about channels of communication.
How you earn with it
The tool has two programmes, and the addresses between them are muddled in a way worth remembering: /affiliate, /affiliate-program and /partners lead not to the referral programme but to the resellers page /reseller. The referral one lives at the address /referral, with the portal on PartnerStack.
The commission is fixed: "one-time $100 reward when your referral becomes a customer", and the number of clients you bring in is not limited ("No limits on referrals"). The payout is one-off — the programme announces no recurring credits for a single client.
The click tag lives for 90 days: "If your referral signed up more than 90 days after clicking your link, the signup won't be tracked". It is lost on a change of browser or a clearing of cookies — the tool warns about this itself.
Withdrawal of money is through PayPal, Stripe or a direct transfer, depending on what is available in your country; withdrawal opens around the 13th of the following month. The minimum sum for payout is not named.
The conditions of admission are described by halves: about requirements for the participants themselves the page says nothing, but it does name a condition on the client's side — they must register through your personal link. There is also a stipulation that matters to the client: those who come through a referral link have no right to a refund.
The programme does have a separate document with terms after all — the referral programme rules.
What it will not do
The confirmed refusals of respond.io concern both channels and money.
Facebook Messenger calls do not work at present: the tool itself marks them as "coming soon". TikTok correspondence works in beta mode — that is its own marking, not our assessment. A refund is not due to a client who came through a referral link: the condition is named directly. There will be no recurring partner credits — the commission is one-off, however much the client pays afterwards.
Finding developer documentation from the home page will not work: the only suitable address turned out to be an image.
The requirements for participants in the affiliate programme and the minimum sum for payout are not named; nor does the tool publish prices, the composition of plans, terms of a free plan or trial period, or limits on the number of messages, users and connected channels.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as follows: «Trusted by 10,000+ B2C businesses to scale customer chats, calls & campaigns. Unify WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram & Facebook in a team inbox with AI Agents on respond.io»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
Platforms
WhatsApp Business Platform, WhatsApp Business Calling API, TikTok Business Messaging (Beta), Facebook Messenger, Facebook Messenger Calls (Coming soon), Instagram, WeChat, Viber, Telegram, LINE, SMS, Twilio, MessageBird, Vonage (Nexmo), Web Chat, VoIP Calls
the channels section of the integrations page; CRM and other integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier and so on) are not included in the list
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
Affiliate programme. yes: the respond.io Referral Program (the dashboard is on PartnerStack); separately there is a reseller programme at https://respond.io/reseller
the addresses /affiliate, /affiliate-program, /partners redirect to /reseller
source, checked 2026-08-04
Commission. one-time $100 reward when your referral becomes a customer; No limits on referrals
a fixed amount per paying customer
source, checked 2026-08-04
One-off or recurring. one-off: a single payment for a client brought in
no recurring payments are announced
source, checked 2026-08-04
Click-tag lifetime. 90 days: If your referral signed up more than 90 days after clicking your link, the signup won't be tracked
the tag is lost if the browser is changed or cookies are cleared
source, checked 2026-08-04
How they pay. You can withdraw your rewards via PayPal, Stripe or Direct Deposit, depending on availability in your country; withdrawal opens around the 13th of the following month
the wording of the page
source, checked 2026-08-04
Where the terms are. https://respond.io/referral-terms-conditions
the referral program terms
source, checked 2026-08-04
Who is admitted. the client brought in must sign up through the participant's personal link; clients who came through a referral link are not entitled to a refund
no requirements for the programme participants themselves are listed on the page
source, checked 2026-08-04
Pricing
Four plans, prices on yearly billing: Starter — 948 USD a year, 5 users in the plan; Growth — 1908 USD a year, 10 users; Advanced — 3348 USD a year, 10 users; Enterprise — price not published, referral to the sales department, unlimited users. On monthly billing the page names 79, 159 and 279 USD a month respectively
The yearly sums are exactly twelve times the monthly figures (79 × 12 = 948, 159 × 12 = 1908, 279 × 12 = 3348), which is what produces the inconsistency with the 20 per cent discount described in the min_price line.
source, checked 2026-08-07
There is no free plan. The pricing page has four cards — Starter, Growth, Advanced, Enterprise — and none with a zero rate. Entry without money is only through a seven-day trial period
Recorded explicitly, because for a service of this class the absence of a free tier is a notable difference from Jivo and SendPulse, which do have one.
source, checked 2026-08-07
There is a trial period: 7 days, no card required. Verbatim: «Enjoy a free 7-day trial» and «💳 No credit card needed.»
Both statements are given on the pricing page itself and confirmed by two readings.
source, checked 2026-08-07
A double model: per team seat and per number of active contacts, with the second part switched on not on every plan. Seats: the plan gives a fixed number of users, and each further one is paid for separately — «Additional Users at $12/month» on Starter, «Additional Users at $20/month» on Growth, «Additional Users at $24/month» on Advanced. Volume: the unit is a monthly active contact, «A Monthly Active contact is someone you have talked to over calls or chat during the billing month.» By the comparison table, active contacts on Starter are «Unlimited», on Growth and Advanced «Starts with 1,000», and on Enterprise a value by agreement
The grid is built non-linearly: on the lowest plan contacts are not counted at all, while on the middle ones a quota of a thousand appears with a surcharge above it. That is, moving from Starter to Growth adds a restriction that Starter did not have. The charge for an additional user grows with the plan — 12, 20, 24 USD a month.
source, checked 2026-08-07
The cheapest paid plan is Starter. On yearly billing: «$1,188 $948/yr (billed yearly)» with the note «Save up to 20%», that is, 948 USD a year against a struck-through full price of 1188 USD. In monthly terms that is 79 USD a month. On the monthly-billing switch the card shows «$79/month»
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source, checked 2026-08-07
API access
the address https://assets1-proxy.respond.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F11f7a662b80a4675973850b067c01fa5%2F27139cbc486b41a981c075d53bb4af15 was found on the home page by the «api/dev» marker in the address; it returns an image rather than a documentation page
CORRECTED the previous version declared any address containing the word api or dev found on the home page to be a developer section. All 57 such records were checked by opening the address: 24 turned out to be documentation. See data/technical/dev-links-verified.tsv and docs/research/S195-догадка-по-адресу.md
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: en; declared language versions: ar, de, en, es, fr, id, it, pt, ru, th, vi, zh-hans and 1 more
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang. The "and N more" figure is OUR count of the remaining hreflang links in the markup, not a claim by the source: that number does not appear on the page.
source, checked 2026-07-28
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