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Marketing · head to head

CleverTap vs WebEngage

CleverTap logo

CleverTap

Marketing

Mobile-first engagement and retention analytics billed on monthly active users

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
WebEngage logo

WebEngage

Marketing

Customer engagement and retention automation for consumer businesses in India and Southeast Asia

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: CleverTap the platform assumes the mobile app is the main surface, so teams whose lifecycle runs mostly through the browser or through long B2B email sequences pay for capability they will not use.; WebEngage nothing about pricing is published, and since the entire commercial argument for WebEngage is that it undercuts Braze and CleverTap, you cannot evaluate the one thing that makes it interesting without entering a sales process.
  • They diverge on capability: CleverTap covers Cross-channel journeys, WebEngage covers Journey designer.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CleverTap and WebEngage actually diverge.

Attributes where CleverTap and WebEngage differ
AttributeCleverTapWebEngage
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, REST APIWeb, iOS SDK, Android SDK, React Native, Flutter, API

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Marketing).

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 CleverTap

  • Cross-channel journeys
  • Product analytics
  • TesseractDB
  • Clever.AI
  • Experiments
  • Web and app personalisation

Only in WebEngage

  • Journey designer
  • Behavioural segmentation
  • Push and in-app
  • WhatsApp
  • Analytics
  • Personalisation
  • On-site surveys
  • Customer data platform

What people use each for

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

CleverTap

  • A consumer app with millions of installs but low monthly activity that does not want to pay for dormant profilesnot WebEngage
  • Reactivating lapsed users with push and WhatsApp sequences triggered by behaviour rather than by list membershipnot WebEngage
  • Running holdout tests to prove that lifecycle messaging causes retention rather than correlating with itnot WebEngage
  • Consolidating a separate analytics tool and a separate messaging tool into a single event pipelinenot WebEngage

WebEngage

  • A consumer app in India or Southeast Asia with several million monthly users needs Braze-class journey automation at a price its marketing budget can absorb.not CleverTap
  • A fintech or edtech business needs WhatsApp as a primary retention channel rather than a secondary one, in a market where email open rates are low and WhatsApp is universal.not CleverTap
  • A media or ecommerce company wants behavioural segmentation and lifecycle journeys without building a customer data platform separately first.not CleverTap
  • A team wants funnels, cohorts and retention analysis in the same tool that sends the messages, so the analyst and the campaign manager are not reconciling two systems.not CleverTap

Where each one falls short

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

CleverTap

  • The platform assumes the mobile app is the main surface, so teams whose lifecycle runs mostly through the browser or through long B2B email sequences pay for capability they will not use.
  • Billing on monthly active users is cheaper for dormant-heavy bases but more expensive for products with high activity rates, and the definition of an active user is set in the contract rather than by you.
  • Event volume caps sit alongside the user caps, so a chatty instrumentation plan can trigger overage charges that are negotiated rather than published.
  • Deliverability support for email is thinner than at dedicated email providers, and teams sending high email volumes often keep a separate ESP for the largest campaigns.
  • Segmentation quality depends entirely on the event taxonomy, so without an owner who governs event naming the reports and segments diverge from reality within a couple of releases.

WebEngage

  • Nothing about pricing is published, and since the entire commercial argument for WebEngage is that it undercuts Braze and CleverTap, you cannot evaluate the one thing that makes it interesting without entering a sales process.
  • Message volumes across email, SMS and WhatsApp are metered separately from the platform fee, so a campaign that succeeds increases the bill in ways the monthly tracked user figure does not capture.
  • It requires genuine engineering investment to instrument events and user attributes correctly, and a poorly instrumented deployment produces segments that are wrong rather than merely incomplete, which is expensive to discover after launch.
  • Enterprise assurance is lighter than the American incumbents: procurement teams expecting extensive compliance documentation, regional data residency guarantees and 24 hour follow-the-sun support may find gaps.
  • Its centre of gravity is India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, so partner availability, agency expertise and support hours all favour those regions and a European or North American buyer is a peripheral customer.

Pricing, plan by plan

CleverTap

On request
  • Essentials$undefined/year
    • Billed on monthly active users rather than stored profiles
    • Push, in-app and web messaging
    • Standard segmentation and analytics
  • Advanced$undefined/year
    • Adds email, SMS and WhatsApp channels
    • Journey orchestration and experiments
    • Higher event and MAU allowances
  • Cutting Edge$undefined/year
    • Full AI and personalisation modules
    • Extended data retention
    • Dedicated technical account management

WebEngage

On request
  • WebEngage$undefined/year
    • Priced by monthly tracked users and channels enabled
    • Journeys, segmentation and analytics included
    • Email, SMS and WhatsApp volumes charged separately

Which should you pick?

Choose CleverTap if

  • You need cross-channel journeys.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, REST API.
  • You also want product analytics.
CleverTap review

Choose WebEngage if

  • You need journey designer.
  • You work on Web, iOS SDK, Android SDK, React Native, Flutter, API.
  • You also want behavioural segmentation.
WebEngage review

Questions people ask

Is CleverTap or WebEngage better?
Neither clearly leads. CleverTap starts at On request and WebEngage at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CleverTap or WebEngage?
CleverTap starts at On request and WebEngage at On request.
Does CleverTap or WebEngage run on more platforms?
CleverTap runs on Web, iOS, Android, REST API. WebEngage runs on Web, iOS SDK, Android SDK, React Native, Flutter, API.
What is CleverTap best used for?
CleverTap is most often used for a consumer app with millions of installs but low monthly activity that does not want to pay for dormant profiles, reactivating lapsed users with push and whatsapp sequences triggered by behaviour rather than by list membership, running holdout tests to prove that lifecycle messaging causes retention rather than correlating with it, consolidating a separate analytics tool and a separate messaging tool into a single event pipeline. Of those, a consumer app with millions of installs but low monthly activity that does not want to pay for dormant profiles and reactivating lapsed users with push and whatsapp sequences triggered by behaviour rather than by list membership are not what WebEngage is typically brought in for.
What can CleverTap do that WebEngage cannot?
CleverTap covers Cross-channel journeys, Product analytics, TesseractDB, Clever.AI. WebEngage covers Journey designer, Behavioural segmentation, Push and in-app, WhatsApp.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CleverTap: Does CleverTap charge for users who stopped opening the app?

No. Billing is on monthly active users, so a dormant account stops counting without you deleting anything, which is the opposite of contact-based email pricing.

WebEngage: How much does WebEngage cost?

It does not publish pricing. It is quoted by monthly tracked users with message volumes charged separately, and it typically comes in below Braze and CleverTap for equivalent volumes.

CleverTap: Can it replace a product analytics tool?

For funnels, cohorts and retention it usually can. For exploratory analysis across many custom properties, teams tend to keep a warehouse copy and query it directly.

WebEngage: Is it a CDP or a marketing automation tool?

Both, in practice. It assembles unified user profiles from event streams and then acts on them, though it is lighter than a dedicated CDP on data warehousing and identity resolution.

CleverTap: What happened to Leanplum customers?

CleverTap acquired Leanplum in 2022 and migrated customers onto its own platform, so Leanplum contracts are not a live option.

WebEngage: Is WebEngage owned by anyone else?

No. It remains an independent Mumbai-based company.

WebEngage: Which channels does it support?

Mobile push, in-app, web push, email, SMS and WhatsApp, with WhatsApp treated as a first-class channel rather than an add-on.

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