JawabkanStart with the free WhatsApp Business app, because it is genuinely useful
Meta's own WhatsApp Business app is free, official, and safe for your number. Most Malaysian SMEs already have it installed and are using perhaps a third of it. Before paying anyone for anything, switch these on.
Greeting message. Sent automatically to anyone who messages you for the first time, or after 14 days of silence. Good for setting expectations: what you sell, and when you reply.
Away message. Sent outside the hours you set. This is the single highest-value free feature, because the after-hours enquiry is the one most likely to be lost — and an away message that says "we'll reply at 9am, meanwhile here is our price list" holds a customer that silence would lose.
Quick replies. Saved answers you fire off with a shortcut. If you type the same delivery-charge explanation eight times a day, this removes most of that work for nothing.
Labels and a catalogue. Labels sort enquiries into New, Waiting on payment, Done. The catalogue puts your products in the chat itself so you stop sending the same photos.
🔑 If your enquiry volume is low and predictable, this may be all you ever need. We would rather say that here than sell you a subscription you will cancel in two months.
Where free stops, precisely
The free features are broadcast, not conversation. Every one of them fires the same fixed text regardless of what the customer actually asked, and none of them can answer a question.
An away message tells a customer you are closed. It cannot tell them whether the blue one is in stock, what delivery to Johor costs, or whether there is a slot on Saturday morning. Those are the questions that decide whether they buy, and they are the ones still sitting unanswered when you open the phone the next morning.
The second limit is that the free app is one phone, one person. Two staff cannot work the same inbox properly, and when the enquiries arrive faster than one person can type, the free tier has nothing left to give.
| Customer asks | Free WhatsApp Business app | Jawabkan |
|---|---|---|
| "Are you open now?" | Away message, if you set one | Answers from your hours |
| "Is the blue one in stock?" | No answer — greeting and away messages ignore the question | Answers from your own list |
| "How much to deliver to Johor?" | No answer | Answers from your own rates |
| "Ada slot Sabtu pagi?" | No answer | Answers in BM, English or Mandarin, including rojak |
| Two staff on one inbox | One phone, one person | Runs on your number regardless of who is free |
| Cost | Free | RM199/month (1,000 conversations) or RM399/month (2,500) |
| Setup | You do it | We load your prices, hours and FAQs for you |
The free app is not a worse version of this. It is a different thing: it announces, it does not answer. Every row above where it says no answer is an enquiry still sitting unread the next morning.
"Free chatbot" tools: what the word free is doing
Search for a free WhatsApp chatbot and you will find plenty. They fall into three groups, and the differences matter more than the price.
Free tiers of real platforms. A genuine product with a capped free plan — a limited number of contacts or conversations a month. Honest, useful for testing, and the cap is usually reached quickly by a shop with real traffic. Nothing wrong with these; just read the cap.
Open-source builders you host yourself. The software is free. A server, a developer, and the official API access are not. This is a real option if you already have technical people, and a trap if you do not, because the bill arrives as your own time.
🚨 QR-code tools and modded APKs. These are the ones that are actually free, and they work by scanning a code and driving your ordinary WhatsApp account like a robot. Meta classes that as unauthorised automation and bans numbers for it permanently. For a shop whose entire customer list lives in that one account, that is not a service interruption — it is losing the contact book with no appeal and no support line. This is the most common meaning of "free WhatsApp chatbot" in search results, and it is the one to avoid.
The honest test for whether paying is worth it
Not a feature comparison. Two numbers you already have.
How many enquiries arrive outside your working hours? Look at the last week in your own WhatsApp. Count the ones that came in after you closed, and the ones you replied to the next morning where the customer had already gone quiet.
What is one customer worth? If a lost enquiry costs you RM40 and you lose two a week, that is roughly RM320 a month walking away. If it costs you RM5 and you lose one a fortnight, no subscription on earth is worth it and you should stop reading.
That arithmetic, not a feature table, is the reason to pay for anything — ours included.
Where we sit, said plainly
Jawabkan is RM199 a month. It is not free, there is no free tier, and there is no trial of the paid plans. It answers from your own price list, hours and FAQs, in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin including the mixture, on the official WhatsApp Business API and on your existing number.
The free way to try it is the self-test on this site. Paste your own prices and business details and ask the assistant up to ten questions yourself — no call, no booking, no payment details. That exists because a demo built by us to succeed tells you nothing, and because we would rather you found out here that it does not fit.
And if the free app's away message plus a couple of quick replies solves your problem, use those. That is a real answer, it costs nothing, and it is the right one for a lot of businesses.
Frequently asked
Is there a free WhatsApp chatbot for business?
Not in the sense most people mean. The free WhatsApp Business app gives you greeting messages, away messages and quick replies, which are automatic but fixed — they cannot answer a question. Tools that genuinely answer questions either run on a capped free tier, are self-hosted at your own cost, or drive your account unofficially and risk a permanent ban.
What does the free WhatsApp Business app actually automate?
A greeting message to first-time senders, an away message outside hours you set, quick replies you trigger with a shortcut, plus labels and a product catalogue. All useful, all free, and all sending fixed text rather than responding to what was asked.
Are free WhatsApp bot apps safe to use?
Tools that ask you to scan a QR code to link your WhatsApp are not. Meta treats that as unauthorised automation and permanently bans numbers for it, which for most small businesses means losing their entire customer list with no appeal.
Does Jawabkan have a free plan or a free trial?
No free plan and no trial of the paid plans. The free way to try it is the self-test on this website, where you paste your own price list and ask it up to ten questions yourself, with no payment details and no commitment.
When is a paid WhatsApp assistant actually worth it?
When you are losing enquiries you can count. Look at how many arrive outside working hours and what one customer is worth to you. If a lost enquiry costs RM40 and you lose two a week, the arithmetic is clear; if the numbers are small, the free app is the right answer.
Can I start free and move to a paid assistant later?
Yes, and that is the sensible order. Set up the free app's away message and quick replies first, run it for a few weeks, and you will know from your own inbox whether the unanswered questions justify paying anyone.
