Is Gupshup or Novu better?

Neither clearly leads. Gupshup starts at $0.001/message and Novu at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Gupshup or Novu?

Novu has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $0.001/message for Gupshup and Free for Novu.

Does Gupshup or Novu run on more platforms?

Gupshup runs on Web, API. Novu runs on web, api.

Can I use Novu for free?

Yes. Novu has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Gupshup starts at $0.001/message.

What is Gupshup best used for?

Gupshup is most often used for an e-commerce brand sending order and delivery notifications over whatsapp to customers across india and southeast asia, a bank or fintech running one-time passcodes and transactional alerts with fallback from whatsapp to sms, a company deploying a whatsapp chatbot for tier one support with handover to human agents for anything it cannot resolve, a marketing team running whatsapp template campaigns to opted-in lists in markets where email engagement is low. Of those, an e-commerce brand sending order and delivery notifications over whatsapp to customers across india and southeast asia and a bank or fintech running one-time passcodes and transactional alerts with fallback from whatsapp to sms are not what Novu is typically brought in for.

What can Gupshup do that Novu cannot?

Gupshup covers WhatsApp Business API, Flat platform fee, RCS messaging, SMS and voice. Novu covers Multi-channel workflows, Advanced email editor, Activity feed, Multi-environment support.

Communication · head to head

Gupshup vs Novu

Gupshup

Communication

Conversational messaging and CPaaS with a flat platform fee stacked on top of Meta per-message rates

From: $0.001/message
Rated: -

Full review Website

Novu

Communication

Open-source notification infrastructure for multi-channel messaging

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Novu has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Gupshup the Gupshup platform fee of about 0.001 dollars per message is negligible next to Meta pass-through rates, so comparing providers on their own fee is misleading, and the country and category mix of your traffic determines almost the entire bill.; Novu free plan activity feed retention is limited to 24 hours, restricting how far back teams can debug delivery issues.
They diverge on capability: Gupshup covers WhatsApp Business API, Novu covers Multi-channel workflows.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Gupshup and Novu actually diverge.

Attributes where Gupshup and Novu differ
Attribute	Gupshup	Novu
Starting price	$0.001/message	Free
Pricing model	Per message sent	freemium
Free tier	No	Yes

Identical on both: platforms (Web, API), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Communication).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Gupshup

WhatsApp Business API
Flat platform fee
RCS messaging
SMS and voice
Bot Studio
Agent inbox
Campaign manager
Emerging market reach

Only in Novu

Multi-channel workflows
Advanced email editor
Activity feed
Multi-environment support
Role-based access control
Self-hosting

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Gupshup

An e-commerce brand sending order and delivery notifications over WhatsApp to customers across India and Southeast Asianot Novu
A bank or fintech running one-time passcodes and transactional alerts with fallback from WhatsApp to SMSnot Novu
A company deploying a WhatsApp chatbot for tier one support with handover to human agents for anything it cannot resolvenot Novu
A marketing team running WhatsApp template campaigns to opted-in lists in markets where email engagement is lownot Novu

Novu

Building multi-channel notification workflows for a SaaS productnot Gupshup
Self-hosting notification infrastructure for data controlnot Gupshup
Managing separate notification environments for staging and productionnot Gupshup
Tracking notification delivery history and activitynot Gupshup

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Gupshup

The Gupshup platform fee of about 0.001 dollars per message is negligible next to Meta pass-through rates, so comparing providers on their own fee is misleading, and the country and category mix of your traffic determines almost the entire bill.
Gupshup publishes no single flat rate for a full send, so accurate cost modelling requires you to build a country by country and category by category forecast before any provider comparison is meaningful.
Meta moved from conversation-based to per message billing in July 2025, which materially changed the economics of high-frequency messaging, and any budget or ROI model built on the old conversation pricing is now wrong.
Template approval sits with Meta rather than Gupshup, so rejections and category reclassifications can stall a campaign regardless of provider, and support quality on chasing them is a common complaint.
The product surface is broad, spanning CPaaS APIs, bot building and campaign tooling, and the non-API tools are less refined than dedicated conversational marketing platforms, so many buyers use Gupshup purely as a pipe.

Novu

Free plan activity feed retention is limited to 24 hours, restricting how far back teams can debug delivery issues.
Overage on Pro and Team plans is billed at $1.20 per 1,000 additional workflow runs, which can add up at scale.
HIPAA BAA compliance and dedicated SSO are Enterprise-only and require custom pricing.

Pricing, plan by plan

Gupshup

$0.001/message

Messaging$0.001/message
- About 0.001 USD Gupshup platform fee per outgoing template message
- Same fee on outgoing and incoming session messages
- Meta per-message charges passed through on top, varying by country and category

Novu

Free

FreeFree
- 10,000 workflow runs/month
- All channels included
- Up to 20 workflows
Pro$30/month
- 30,000+ workflow runs/month
- Advanced email editor
- Remove Novu branding
Team$250/month
- 250,000+ workflow runs/month
- Up to 10 environments
- 90-day activity feed retention

Which should you pick?

Choose Gupshup if

You need whatsapp business api.
You work on Web, API.
You also want flat platform fee.

Gupshup review

Choose Novu if

You need multi-channel workflows.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, api.
You also want advanced email editor.

Novu review

Questions people ask

Is Gupshup or Novu better?: Neither clearly leads. Gupshup starts at $0.001/message and Novu at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Gupshup or Novu?: Novu has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $0.001/message for Gupshup and Free for Novu.
Does Gupshup or Novu run on more platforms?: Gupshup runs on Web, API. Novu runs on web, api.
Can I use Novu for free?: Yes. Novu has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Gupshup starts at $0.001/message.
What is Gupshup best used for?: Gupshup is most often used for an e-commerce brand sending order and delivery notifications over whatsapp to customers across india and southeast asia, a bank or fintech running one-time passcodes and transactional alerts with fallback from whatsapp to sms, a company deploying a whatsapp chatbot for tier one support with handover to human agents for anything it cannot resolve, a marketing team running whatsapp template campaigns to opted-in lists in markets where email engagement is low. Of those, an e-commerce brand sending order and delivery notifications over whatsapp to customers across india and southeast asia and a bank or fintech running one-time passcodes and transactional alerts with fallback from whatsapp to sms are not what Novu is typically brought in for.
What can Gupshup do that Novu cannot?: Gupshup covers WhatsApp Business API, Flat platform fee, RCS messaging, SMS and voice. Novu covers Multi-channel workflows, Advanced email editor, Activity feed, Multi-environment support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Gupshup: What does Gupshup charge?

About 0.001 USD per outgoing template message and per session message in each direction, plus roughly 0.0001 USD per second on voice. Meta per-message charges are passed through on top.

Novu: What does Novu cost?

Novu offers a Free plan for 10,000 workflow runs per month, Pro from $30/month for 30,000+ runs, Team from $250/month for 250,000+ runs, and custom Enterprise pricing for 10M+ runs.

Source

Gupshup: Is Gupshup cheaper than other WhatsApp providers?

On its own platform fee it is competitive, but that fee is a small fraction of the total. Meta pass-through rates dominate, so provider choice rarely changes your bill much.

Novu: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

Yes, the Free plan includes 10,000 workflow runs per month, all messaging channels, up to 20 workflows, 2 environments, and up to 3 team members.

Source

Gupshup: Did WhatsApp pricing change?

Yes. Meta retired per 24-hour conversation pricing on 1 July 2025 and moved to per message billing, and Gupshup followed.

Novu: How is usage metered?

Billing is based on the number of workflow runs per month rather than per user or per message, with overage on paid plans charged at $1.20 per 1,000 additional runs.

Source

Gupshup: Is it only for India?

No, but its strongest carrier and operator reach is in India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Gupshup vs Novu

Gupshup

Novu

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Gupshup

Only in Novu

What people use each for

Gupshup

Novu

Where each one falls short

Gupshup

Novu

Pricing, plan by plan

Gupshup

Novu

Which should you pick?

Choose Gupshup if

Choose Novu if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Gupshup

More on Novu

Keep looking

Other head to heads