WhatsApp Business Solution Provider Checklist: 25 Questions

This checklist is for procurement leads, CX and marketing managers and CTOs anywhere in the world who are choosing, or replacing, a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP). It gives you 25 questions to send in an RFP or ask in a demo, what a good answer looks like, and a scoring method. If you are in the UAE or Saudi Arabia and also need SMS and data residency answers, pair it with our guide to choosing a business messaging platform in the UAE and Saudi.

What does a WhatsApp BSP actually do, and what does Meta do?

Meta runs the WhatsApp Business Platform, sets the policies and template categories, and charges for messages. A BSP connects you to that platform and adds onboarding, software, support and billing. Knowing the split tells you which questions a provider can genuinely answer.

Most providers today build on Meta's Cloud API and onboard customers through Meta's Embedded Signup flow, which lets you create or connect your business assets in a guided process.

The 25-question BSP checklist

Send these questions in writing and ask for written answers. Vague replies are themselves a signal.

Pricing transparency and Meta fee pass-through

1. Do you show Meta's per-message charges separately from your own fees, for every category (marketing, utility, authentication, service) and recipient market? Good answer: yes, as separate invoice lines.
2. Do you add a margin to Meta's fees? Good answer: a clear yes or no with the percentage or amount.
3. How do you pass on changes to Meta's rate card, and with how much notice? Good answer: automatic pass-through on Meta's effective date, with notification.
4. How are service messages billed? According to Meta's pricing documentation, from 1 October 2026 Meta charges service messages after the first 1,000 free per business phone number per month; confirm in Meta's rate card. Good answer: the provider explains Meta's current terms and its own handling.
5. What fixed fees apply (setup, monthly platform, per seat, per number, support tier)? Good answer: a complete price list.
6. How does billing work (prepaid, postpaid, currency, minimum commitments)? Good answer: terms you can model in a business case.

Onboarding and account ownership

7. Who owns the Meta business portfolio and WhatsApp Business Account? Good answer: you do, with the provider added as a partner.
8. Which onboarding flow do you use? Good answer: Meta Embedded Signup or a documented equivalent.
9. What help do you give for business verification and display name approval? Good answer: a document checklist and named contact.
10. Can you onboard multiple numbers, brands or countries under one account structure? Good answer: a clear model with examples.
11. How do you help with templates (drafting, categories, approval tracking, rejection fixes)? Good answer: in-product tracking plus guidance; see template categories and approval.

Support and operations

12. What are your support hours, channels and response targets, and are they in writing? Good answer: a published support policy covering your time zone.
13. What happens when a number is restricted or its quality drops? Good answer: alerts, a documented escalation path and practical advice; see messaging limits and quality rating.
14. How do you communicate incidents and Meta platform changes? Good answer: a status page or proactive notices.
15. Is there a named account or success manager at your volume? Good answer: a clear yes or no by tier.

APIs, integrations and features

16. Is your API documented publicly or on request, with a sandbox? Good answer: documentation and a test environment before you sign.
17. Which webhooks do you send (inbound messages, delivery statuses, template status, assignment)? Good answer: an event list with sample payloads; see our CRM and webhooks guide.
18. How do you handle retries, idempotency and rate limits? Good answer: documented behaviour, not "it just works"; see the messaging API integration guide.
19. What do the inbox, campaign and reporting tools include, and what needs a third-party product? Good answer: a demo using your scenarios.
20. Which other channels can share the same inbox and contact record (SMS, email, Instagram, Telegram)? Good answer: a precise list, not a roadmap.

Data, security and exit

21. Where is message content, media and contact data stored and processed, and for how long? Good answer: named regions, retention settings and sub-processors.
22. Can we export conversations, contacts, templates and reports in a standard format at any time? Good answer: self-service exports such as CSV.
23. Will you support migrating our phone number to another provider? Meta documents migration between WhatsApp Business Accounts. Good answer: yes, with the steps and timelines.
24. What notice period and termination terms apply, and are there exit fees? Good answer: reasonable notice, no penalty beyond committed spend.
25. What happens to our data after termination? Good answer: export window, then deletion with confirmation.

What happens to your number and templates if you switch BSP?

Your number can move; some things move with it and some do not. According to Meta's documentation on migrating phone numbers between WhatsApp Business Accounts:

• Kept: display name, quality rating, messaging limit and Official Business Account status.
• Copied: high-quality approved templates are duplicated and approved in the destination account, subject to space and categorisation checks.
• Not kept: template quality ratings, and low-quality, rejected or pending templates.
• Prerequisites: two-step verification on the number must be disabled, both accounts need approved business verification, and the destination needs a payment method.

Conversation history stored in the old provider's inbox is not part of Meta's migration, so export it before you leave.

How should you score the answers?

Weight what matters to your use case, score each answer 0–2, and compare totals.

Score 0 for no answer or a vague one, 1 for partial, 2 for a clear written answer with evidence. Any 0 on questions 1, 7, 22 or 23 is worth treating as a deal-breaker, because those determine whether you can control cost and leave.

Worked example: a European fashion brand selling into the Gulf

"Linea Verde" (synthetic), an online fashion retailer based in Spain, wants WhatsApp for order updates and promotions in Spain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

• Shortlist: three providers receive the 25 questions.
• Provider A bundles Meta fees into a single price per message with no breakdown: 0 on question 1.
• Provider B shows Meta fees separately but holds the WhatsApp Business Account in its own portfolio: 0 on question 7.
• Provider C passes Meta fees through separately, onboards via Embedded Signup into Linea Verde's own portfolio, offers CSV exports and documents number migration.
• Pilot: a four-week pilot with Provider C tests Arabic and Spanish templates, delivery webhooks into the order system and a holdout test on one promotion.

What mistakes do buyers make with BSPs?

• Comparing a single "price per message" without separating Meta's fee.
• Letting the provider own the business portfolio for convenience.
• Skipping the exit questions because switching seems unlikely.
• Accepting a feature list instead of a demo with your own templates.
• Ignoring support hours in your time zone.
• Assuming a provider can override Meta's template or quality decisions.

How OmniChannels.ai helps

OmniChannels.ai is powered by BroadNet Technologies, an official Meta Business Solution Provider. It onboards the WhatsApp Business API through Meta Embedded Signup and provides marketing, utility and authentication templates with phone preview and approval tracking. Campaigns run on WhatsApp, SMS, RCS, email and Telegram, and the Omni Inbox brings conversations together with assignment and tagging. The REST API and webhooks are publicly documented. WhatsApp is charged at Meta's rate with zero markup, there is no setup fee, and indicative list rates are in the cost estimator. Ask us these 25 questions on a demo.