Understanding Zoko Pricing: A Comprehensive Analysis of their 2024 Plans

Selecting the right WhatsApp marketing software is crucial for businesses aiming to enhance their customer engagement and sales. Among the myriad of options available, Zoko has emerged as a notable player.

This blog delves deep into Zoko's pricing structure, providing a detailed analysis of its plans and features to equip businesses with the information needed to make an informed decision. Explore the ins and outs of Zoko's offerings that makes it a contender in the crowded field of WhatsApp marketing tools and how its pricing and features stack up against your business needs.

What is Zoko?

Zoko is a WhatsApp Marketing software tailpored for E-commerce businesses, known for its straightforward and user-friendly interface. It excels in facilitating WhatsApp Broadcasts, automation, and recovering Abandoned Carts, all from a single WhatsApp number. Zoko enables your business to engage with customers actively seeking to purchase, through features like order receipt via WhatsApp and Message Broadcasting.

It's designed to help you efficiently manage sales, marketing, and customer support, enhancing your ability to drive revenue and improve customer experiences on WhatsApp.

Exploring Zoko's Pricing Plans: A Detailed Breakdown

Zoko's pricing is available in two currencies: USD and INR. Your billing currency is determined by your location—customers in India are charged in INR, while those from other countries are billed in USD.

Zoko offers four pricing tiers:

1. STARTER Plan
2. PLUS Plan
3. ELITE Plan
4. MAX Plan

Zoko's USD Pricing

Zoko USD pricing starts from $34.99 per month:

• STARTER Plan: $34.99/month + $0.015 per Conversation
• PLUS Plan: $59.99/month
• ELITE Plan: $109.99/month
• MAX Plan: $399.99/month

Zoko's INR Pricing

Zoko INR pricing starts from ₹2,999 per month:

• STARTER Plan: ₹2,999/month + ₹1.25 per Conversation
• PLUS Plan: ₹4,999/month
• ELITE Plan: ₹9,199/month
• MAX Plan: ₹33,333/month

At a glance, Zoko's pricing seems attractive, especially with "Zero markup on Meta rates" for all plans except the STARTER. However, there are additional costs to consider. Every month, your Zoko subscription will include three types of charges:

• The platform subscription fee, which varies depending on your chosen plan.
• A per-conversation WhatsApp fee.
• Fees for additional features and fair use.

Understanding the hidden and additional costs associated with Zoko's pricing

Before we dive into each additional cost header for Zoko's pricing - let's first understand their Fair Usage Pricing Model.

It is designed to prevent excessive use by ensuring that all customers have equitable access to services. It typically involves setting limits on usage, with additional charges applied for usage beyond these set limits.

Understanding this model is key to comprehending the structure of Zoko's pricing and how it might affect your overall costs, especially as we delve into the various facets where the fair usage model impacts pricing.

1. Conversations:

This is how Zoko defines a WhatsApp conversation: Conversations are 24-hour increments, or "sessions", that start whenever the first message from a business is delivered. The first message can be initiated by the business or a business reply within 24 hours of a user message.

To understand the WhatsApp conversation pricing properly of Zoko, we need to understand the 4 categories of WhatsApp conversations created by Meta.

There are 4 categories of WhatsApp Conversations:

• Marketing: Enables you to achieve a wide range of goals, from generating awareness to driving sales and retargeting customers. Examples include new product, service, or feature announcements, targeted promotions/offers, and cart abandonment reminders.
• Utility: Enables you to follow-up on user actions or requests. Examples include opt-in confirmation, order/delivery management (e.g., delivery update); account updates or alerts (e.g., payment reminder); or feedback surveys.
• Authentication — Enables you to authenticate users with one-time passcodes, potentially at multiple steps in the login process (e.g., account verification, account recovery, integrity challenges).‍
• Service — Enables you to resolve customer inquiries

IMPORTANT: WhatsApp bills customers per conversation. A conversation simply means a templated or non-templated message initiated by the brand

Now that we understand the types of WhatsApp conversations, let's look at how Zoko charges for it.

Zoko's approach to WhatsApp conversation pricing for all plans except the STARTER involves no markup fees on Meta’s messaging rates. This means the cost per conversation is directly aligned with Meta's current rates, varying by the user's country location. For example, here are the pricing rates for India in both USD and INR:

Meta’s WhatsApp Conversation Pricing Rates:

• In USD:
  • Marketing: $0.009 per conversation
  • Utility: $0.004 per conversation
  • Authentication: $0.001 per conversation
  • Service: $0.004 per conversation
• In INR:
  • Marketing: ₹0.726 per conversation
  • Utility: ₹0.308 per conversation
  • Authentication: ₹0.115 per conversation
  • Service: ₹0.290 per conversation

Users on Zoko's PLUS, ELITE, or MAX plans are charged according to these rates.

Those on the STARTER plan face an additional $0.015 per conversation, or ₹1.25 in INR.

Free Service Conversations:

Zoko offers 1,000 free service conversations monthly across all plans, a standard practice supported by Meta across WhatsApp marketing tools. This free tier is refreshed monthly based on the WhatsApp Business Account's time zone. Note that marketing, utility, and authentication conversations do not qualify for the free tier.

Fair Usage Limits and Additional Charges:

Zoko implements fair usage limits on its PLUS, ELITE, and MAX plans with additional charges applied beyond set conversation thresholds:

• PLUS Plan: Charges of $1.99 for every additional 1,000 conversations beyond 5,000 per month.
• ELITE Plan: Charges of $0.99 for every additional 1,000 conversations beyond 100K per month.
• MAX Plan: Charges of $0.49 for every additional 1,000 conversations beyond 5 million per month.

Higher-tier plans benefit from lower additional costs for exceeding conversation limits. Conversely, the STARTER plan incurs a charge of $0.015 per additional conversation, not per 1,000.

This explanation clarifies Zoko’s pricing strategy for WhatsApp conversations, highlighting how each plan is structured to accommodate different levels of usage efficiently. Next, we will explore Zoko's pricing for Agents.

Agents:

Agents here refer to company users or team members authorized to interact with customers through the Zoko platform. They can manage conversations, respond to queries, and provide support or sales assistance. Essentially, they are a business's representatives, handling customer communications on WhatsApp and other channels offer by Zoko.

Zoko structures its agent pricing according to the fair usage policy within its PLUS, ELITE, and MAX plans, detailed as follows:

• PLUS Plan: Includes 5 agents. Each additional agent costs $15 per month.
• ELITE Plan: Comes with 10 agents. Adding an extra agent incurs a charge of $12 per month.
• MAX Plan: Offers 30 agents. Any additional agent beyond this limit is charged at $9 per month.

Additionally, Zoko's STARTER plan offers the flexibility of unlimited agents, making it an attractive option for businesses looking to maximize their team's potential without worrying about incremental costs.

This summary provides an overview of how Zoko's agent pricing is organized. Next, we will explore Zoko's pricing structure for Teams.

Teams:

In Zoko, "teams" are groups that streamline customer chat management by directing conversations to the right agents. They allow any agent within the team to view and engage in chats assigned to them, enhancing collaborative support efforts.

Zoko's team pricing is structured according to its fair usage policy, which applies to the PLUS, ELITE, and MAX plans. The pricing details for each plan are as follows:

• PLUS Plan: Includes 5 teams. For each additional team, the charge is $0.99 per month.
• ELITE Plan: Offers 10 teams. Each additional team beyond this is also charged at $0.99 per month.
• MAX Plan: Provides 30 teams with the same additional team charge of $0.99 per month.

Across all plans, the cost to add a new team remains consistent at $0.99 per team per month. However, it's important to note that the feature to create teams is not available in Zoko's STARTER plan.

This overview outlines the specifics of Zoko’s team pricing structure. Next, we will delve deeper into the pricing details for Segments.

Segments:

The segments feature in Zoko allows for the creation of dynamic lists to send personalized broadcasts to customers. By utilizing criteria like order history, customer behavior, or broadcast interactions, segments ensure messages are relevant and targeted to the right audience, enhancing personalization and engagement.

Zoko includes different numbers of segments in its PLUS, ELITE, and MAX plans, tailored to meet various business needs with a fair usage policy:

• PLUS Plan: Offers 5 segments, charging $0.99 for each additional segment monthly.
• ELITE Plan: Provides 10 segments, with an extra segment cost of $0.99 monthly.
• MAX Plan: Comes with 20 segments, also at $0.99 for each extra segment per month.

Across all plans, the cost to add a new segment remains consistent at $0.99/segment per month. However, it's important to note that the feature to create segments is not available in Zoko's STARTER plan.

This overview outlines the specifics of Zoko’s segments pricing structure. Next, we will delve deeper into the pricing details for Routing rules.

Routing Rules:

Routing rules in Zoko allow automatic assignment of chats to specific agents or team members, streamlining task management and saving time. This feature enables the prioritization and efficient distribution of customer conversations across your team, based on predefined criteria such as message content or customer details.

Zoko includes different numbers of rules in its PLUS, ELITE, and MAX plans, tailored to meet various business needs with a fair usage policy:

• PLUS Plan: Offers 5 rules, charging $0.99 for each additional routing rule monthly.
• ELITE Plan: Provides 10 rules, with an extra routing rule cost of $0.99 monthly.
• MAX Plan: Comes with 30 rules, also at $0.99 for each routing rule per month.

Across all plans, the cost to add a new routing rule remains consistent at $0.99/rule per month. However, it's important to note that the feature to create routing rules is not available in Zoko's STARTER plan.

This overview outlines the specifics of Zoko’s routing rules pricing structure. Next, we will delve deeper into the pricing details for Shopify App plugin.

Shopify App:

Zoko offers a Shopify app plugin to seamlessly integrate WhatsApp marketing for e-commerce businesses, enhancing their Shopify store experience. Features include syncing the Shopify catalog with WhatsApp, optimizing cash on delivery processes, and utilizing broadcast and dynamic segments for targeted customer outreach. Additionally, it supports chatbots, notifications, and cart recovery functionalities.

Zoko charges a flat fee of $4.99 per month for this plugin, which is an extra cost on top of any Zoko plan you select.

FlowHippo Custom Flows:

FlowHippo is an add-on tool extension tool created by Zoko to automate & create robust, detailed e-commerce workflows for e-commerce merchants. Zoko offers 19 FREE Prebuilt Flows but they can't be modified to your custom requirements.

The paid plan pricing for FlowHippo is $5.99 per flow, per month which offers the ability to:

• Ability to customize Flows
• Premium advanced automations

The fair use policy applies here as well for the pain plan, you are subject to a fair use limit of 500,000 ops per month on your account. If you exceed that, you have to pay additional fees of- ₹0.02 per operation i.e. ₹2000 per 100K additional ops (India)- $0.0002 per operation i.e. $20 per 100K additional ops (All other Countries)

How does Zoko define an operation for FlowHippo?

An operation is counted every time an automation flow successfully moves data or completes an action for you. For example, if your flow has an action to add a tag to an order on Shopify,  each tag that is added will be counted as 1 operation. Every time a card that you drag and drop from the tool box is used in the flow, it is counted as 1 operation.

Pros & Cons of choosing Zoko as your WhatsApp marketing software

Pros

• Ideal for beginners
• Interactive chat capabilities
• Simplified ticket handling

Cons

• No 2-way campaigns due to the absence of a chatbot builder
• High cost due to additional expenses
• Inability to create product-specific abandoned cart journeys
• No opt-in mechanisms
• No dedicated point of contact
• No dynamic coupons
• A limited number of customer nurturing sequences

Conclusion

In our comprehensive analysis of Zoko's pricing, we've explored its pricing models for various services. Weighing the benefits of Zoko's extensive features against the costs and understanding the fair use policy is crucial for businesses considering Zoko as their WhatsApp marketing platform.