charles alternative: Chatarmin is your affordable and functional WhatsApp marketing tool

Looking for an alternative to hello-charles? You are unsure if the high hello-charles costs are justified or if your case will pay off, let alone turn into a profitable WhatsApp marketing case? You are frustrated because you are dissatisfied with hello-charles? The case doesn't pay off, or the tool doesn't scale easily?

We have been in direct market support of hellocharles for about 18 months now. We have experienced a lot, heard a lot and compared a lot. We know the hello-charles customers, hello-charles knows our cases. A healthy competition between David and Goliath has emerged, in which we try to bootstrap an affordable WhatsApp marketing tool for Shopify Brands with Klaviyo CRM out of Vienna. As of September 2023, hello-charles is a company with over 120 employees, according to their LinkedIn, and about €30 million in investment, according to company founder Artjem Weißbeck. Chatarmin is a five-person team with no investor money. These structural differences are also reflected in the company culture and customer approach, some companies find one more exciting, the other more appealing.

In this blog post, we want to address all the relevant and above-mentioned points, sharing our experiences that we experience every day in direct pitches with hello-charles. We'll show you Chatarmin, as well as the pros and cons of the most popular WhatsApp marketing Charles alternative in the German-speaking world. Find the best WhatsApp marketing tool for the needs of your WhatsApp marketing team. This is our common goal.

General comparison: hello-charles and alternative Chatarmin

We compare hellocharles vs Chatarmin in this blog post in features, prices, and in general. Here is the table to overview the number one charles Alternative Chatarmin:

The Berlin-based startup hello-charles was founded in 2018 by Andreas Tussing and Artjem Weißbeck as a "basic fashion brand" and only developed over the years into a B2B SaaS as a "WhatsApp revenue engine". Chatarmin was founded in 2022 by Armin Daryabegi and Johannes Mansbart, and has since gone on to launch the best Klaviyo WhatsApp integration for Shopify D2C Brands.

Feature comparison hello-charles vs Chatarmin

As a charles alternative, features and product are of course key. Here's a quote from a CRM lead at an 8-digit brand who recently chose Chatarmin as a hello-charles alternative:

"Why should I pay €1,500.00 a month more for a tool that can do the same thing? I can't justify that to my manager anyway. And I don't want to either." - Michael K., CRM Lead 8-figure Brand

Source Client-Conversations, as of: September 2023

Book your Consultation Talk with the Founder and CEO of hello-charles alternative Chatarmin,

Price comparison

General price comparison hello-charles vs. Chatarmin

Here is an overview from a hello-charles sales presentation:

hello-charles pricing from the year 2022. Note the additional costs on conversations and the revenue share.

charles charges €0.07 per conversation, which equates to an average doubling of META costs for WhatsApp Business Platform.

'Here's an overview from Chatarmin's pricing overview from our website:.

Chatarmin Pricing Overview September 2023.

Chatarmin's goal is to offer simple and transparent pricing.

The charles prices include:

• variable incremental costs of approximately €0.07 per conversation.
• variable revenue sharing which can be a downfall if the tool is over-attributed
• High fixed costs from €349.00 to over €1,500.00
• Annual packages with long notice periods.

Let's now calculate a few examples of how the price comparison of charles vs. Chatarmin really looks in practice.

Monthly calculation example charles alternative, 1: 10,000 active leads, two WhatsApp marketing campaigns per month. Excluding variable META costs.

In this calculation example, we assume one of the cheapest monthly charles contracts. The company sends out two monthly WhatsApp marketing campaigns to 10,000 existing customers each. This results in a revenue per recipient (RPR) of €3.00, which is absolutely realistic in eCommerce. hello-charles' total costs are estimated to be over €2,000.00. In this case, Chatarmin costs about 10% as much as hellocharles. The price difference is 90% cheaper or almost 1,000% more expensive.

Calculated annually, this is about €25,680.00 charles costs compared to €2,988.00 Chatarmin costs. For that money you can hire a part-time employee.

Monthly calculation example charles alternative, 2: 50,000 active leads, one WhatsApp marketing campaign per month.

In this calculation example we assume one of the cheapest monthly charles contracts. The company sends a monthly WhatsApp marketing campaign to 50,000 existing customers. This results in a revenue per recipient (RPR) of €3.00, which is absolutely realistic in eCommerce.

This results in total costs of hello-charles estimated at over €5,000.00. In this case, Chatarmin costs about 10% as much as hellocharles. The price difference is 90% cheaper or almost 1,000% more expensive.

Calculated annually, this is about €63,468.00 charles costs compared to €10,188.00 Chatarmin costs. For that money you can already hire a good full-time CRM person in-house.

Monthly calculation example charles alternative 3: 100,000 active leads, two WhatsApp marketing campaigns per month. Excluding variable META costs.

In this calculation example, we assume one of the cheapest monthly charles contracts. The company sends two monthly WhatsApp marketing campaigns to 100,000 existing customers. This results in a revenue per recipient (RPR) of €2.00, which is absolutely realistic in eCommerce.

This results in total costs of hello-charles estimated at over €15,000.00. In this case, Chatarmin costs about 10% as much as hellocharles. The price difference is 90% cheaper or almost 1,000% more expensive.

Calculated annually, this is about €214,548.00 charles costs compared to €25,188.00 Chatarmin costs. For that money you can hire an entire marketing team full time in-house.

Conclusion price comparison hello-charles vs. chatarmin

Here again the three calculated scenarios hello-charles vs. Chatarmin WhatsApp marketing tools in monthly price comparison:

reviews and decisions charles vs. chatarmin

"hello-charles was not an option for us. In the first sales call they tried to sell us another jumper. It was clear to us that this was not a choice for us. We are happy to have found Chatarmin and to be able to play several markets internationally in WhatsApp marketing through Chatarmin from 2023.

• Andre P., Head of CRM, 9-figure FMCG Brand

The bottom line is that I would have liked to work with you, and I'm rooting for you. Only, if our brand wasn't so big yet, I wouldn't have had any reservations. Hello-charles has been on the market longer and is a bit more professional. We expect them to help us grow faster."_

• Mario S., Interim Head of eCommerce of a hardware and software tech tool, and your pet food brand

" "I was spoilt for choice. After a detailed analysis of all providers for WhatsApp marketing, I chose Chatarmin because of the integration with Shopify & Klaviyo and the value for money."

• Leoni H., Head of CRM, 7-figure brand in the food & beverage sector

My gut feeling was better with charles. Our Key Account M. is great and we are basically satisfied. We also analysed the incremental added value of WhatsApp marketing again and came to the conclusion that we definitely want to continue. Also, the fact that waterdrop® only scaled from April onwards didn't give me enough security. In the end, we are aware that we are choosing the much more expensive solution."_

• Saskia D., Head of CRM, 8-figure FMCG Brand

Johannes sent us another product presentation and price comparison at 23:00. With hellocharles, you just get an answer between 09:00 and 17:00 during the week. But we want to grow with our partners and know that we will be heard when our hat is on fire. That's why - and because it saves us thousands of euros a year - the decision was mega easy and we didn't go for hello-charles, but for Chatarmin."_

• Swen P., Managing Director of multiple 8-figure Brands

"We paid almost €2,000.00 per month, actually it is grossly negligent that my predecessor concluded such a contract under these economic conditions. To this day, it's still a mystery to me. I am glad that we are finally out of the annual contract."

• Philip A., Head of Marketing, 7-figure-Brand, Sleep and Home Textiles

Conclusion hello-charles alternative: how Chatarmin compares to charles

Generally speaking, Chatarmin is cheaper and offers largely the same, or additional, features to hello-charles. The reason why charles is bigger and growing faster than Chatarmin is that the Charles founders' ambition is market dominance and Europe-wide monopolisation in WhatsApp marketing. Chatarmin founders Armin Daryabegi and Johannes Mansbart simply want to bootstrap an awesome company on an independent basis. As a result, we at Chatarmin are probably more relaxed, smaller, more laid-back, but also a lot smaller.

In the end, only you can decide what suits you better.

Book your 25-minute consultation with me, Johannes Mansbart, to take a closer look at the charles alternative Chatarmin: