CleverTap vs MoEngage - Which is better for you in 2025?

You have product, traffic, and some data, but growth has hit a ceiling. Now you are choosing your customer engagement stack and two names keep coming up: CleverTap and MoEngage. Both look powerful, both talk about AI and personalisation, and both ask you to “book a demo”. So which one actually fits your use case in 2025?

As a WhatsApp Business API provider that already integrates with CleverTap and works with MoEngage users, we at Heltar see this confusion often. In this blog, we will break things down in plain language and also show how WhatsApp fits into the picture.

Quick summary

If you are in a hurry, here is the short answer.

• Pick CleverTap if you are mobile or app heavy, want strong experimentation, and like the idea of an AI layer (CleverAI) guiding segments, content and paths across many channels.

• Pick MoEngage if you want a strong insights led view of customers with cross channel campaigns, and prefer their “Growth” vs “Enterprise” packaging to align with your stage.

• For WhatsApp, both platforms rely on WhatsApp Business API providers. CleverTap can act as a BSP itself or plug into third party BSPs. MoEngage offers a native WhatsApp module and certified integrations with providers like Gupshup, Karix, AiSensy, 8x8 and others.

• Where Heltar helps: we provide official WhatsApp Business API access, flat low markups on Meta fees, AI chatbots, shared inbox, flows and a ready integration with CleverTap so you can use either platform while keeping WhatsApp costs and operations in control.

Now let us go deeper.

What CleverTap and MoEngage actually do?

CleverTap is a customer engagement and retention platform. It combines analytics, segmentation and multi channel campaigns in one place. The platform tracks what users do in your app or on your site, builds segments, runs targeted campaigns, and then measures the impact on behaviour and business metrics.

Core elements include:

• A dashboard to build segments, campaigns and reports

• SDKs and APIs to send event and profile data in and out

• Support for many channels such as push, email, SMS, WhatsApp, in app messages and web messages

On top of this, CleverTap now has CleverAI, which adds AI agents for things like predictive segments, offer decisioning, copy suggestions and path optimisation.

MoEngage describes itself as a cross channel, insights led customer engagement platform. It focuses on giving marketers and product teams a 360 degree view of customers and turning that into campaigns across push, email, SMS, WhatsApp, in app, on site and more.

Key pieces include:

• Cross channel marketing

• Customer insights and cohorts

• Web and app personalisation

• Real time alerts and predictive segments powered by AI

So at a high level, both tools promise similar outcomes. The real difference is in how they package features, how pricing works, and how they handle channels like WhatsApp.

Plans and pricing in 2025

CleverTap Pricing

CleverTap lists three main plans on its pricing page: Essentials, Advanced and a top tier plan.

• Essentials

  • Entry level plan for core engagement use cases

  • MAU based tiers (for example up to 5,000, 20,000, 40,000 and higher) with a monthly subscription shown when you select your range

  • Includes multi channel campaigns (email, in app and more), segmentation, basic analytics and experiments

• Advanced

  • Includes everything in Essentials plus more automation and analytics features

  • Focuses on richer personalisation, automated segmentation and premium channels such as paid media syncs

  • Pricing is quote based and you need to speak to sales

• Top tier

  • Adds advanced AI features like AI driven recommendations and predictive segments on top of Advanced

  • Again, pricing is custom

CleverTap often runs time bound offers, such as discounts on Essentials for a fixed duration, which may help for short term trials but you should still model long term costs.

MoEngage Pricing

MoEngage follows a simpler two tier structure on its pricing page: Growth and Enterprise. 

• Growth plan

  • Aimed at growing teams

  • Includes core engagement features, behaviour based personalisation, visual flow builder, and AI to optimise send time and content 

• Enterprise plan

  • Built for large, multi function teams

  • Adds things like product catalog sync, advanced recommendations, stricter access controls and enterprise compliance options such as local data servers and IP whitelisting

In both cases, MoEngage asks you to talk to sales for a quote. There is no public per MAU price listed, so you will need to share your volumes and channels to get a number.

How this feels in practice

• CleverTap is more transparent for early stage teams because Essentials pricing is visible once you input MAUs, at least as a range.

• MoEngage is fully quote based, so you get a custom package but less public benchmark data.

In our experience at Heltar, most mid market brands end up doing a custom deal with both vendors anyway, so the key is to align features and long term volumes rather than chase the headline number.

WhatsApp and Channel Coverage

For many Indian and emerging market brands, WhatsApp is not just a channel. It is the main sales and support pipe. This is where the CleverTap vs MoEngage choice also touches your WhatsApp Business API provider.

CleverTap and WhatsApp

CleverTap is now an official WhatsApp Business Service Provider (BSP). That means you can get direct access to a WhatsApp Business Account from the CleverTap dashboard and create WhatsApp campaigns without a separate third party setup if you choose their BSP path.

At the same time, CleverTap also supports:

• No code integration with BSPs such as Gupshup, Nexmo, ValueFirst, Exotel

• A Generic WhatsApp API option that lets any WhatsApp provider build an integration using standard request and callback formats

This is how Heltar plugs into CleverTap: we use the generic connector route, so CleverTap handles segmentation and campaigns, while Heltar handles template approval, message sending, delivery and replies on WhatsApp.

MoEngage and WhatsApp

MoEngage offers a WhatsApp Native module that lets you integrate WhatsApp Business into your engagement flows, sync templates in real time, and use rich media in campaigns.

Under the hood, MoEngage works with several certified WhatsApp providers, including Gupshup, Karix, AiSensy, Infobip, Route Mobile, Airtel IQ, 8x8 and others. These integrations allow MoEngage to send templated messages and show delivery and read analytics. 

So the pattern is similar:

• Both platforms rely on a BSP to talk to WhatsApp.

• CleverTap can be the BSP itself or connect to one.

• MoEngage connects to external BSPs through its partners and “WhatsApp Native” module.

If your growth strategy is WhatsApp first, the BSP choice will heavily affect your costs and operations, which is where Heltar comes in.

Data, AI and Usability

On data and AI, both tools are strong, but with slightly different angles.

• CleverTap is very strong on funnels, cohorts, events, unified profiles and campaign analytics. CleverAI then layers AI agents on top to suggest segments, content and flows.

• MoEngage focuses on “insights led engagement”. Its product pages highlight predictive segments, recommendations, and tools like Intelligent Path Optimizer and Flow Assist (AI helpers for flows and content).

From customer teams we speak with:

• CleverTap often appeals more to teams with a strong experimentation culture who like detailed control over funnels and flows.

• MoEngage often appeals to teams that care deeply about dashboards, cohort trends and an “insights then action” rhythm rather than constant manual tests.

Both have learning curves, and both require some setup support.

Where Heltar fits into your decision?

Whichever way you go, you still need:

• A reliable WhatsApp Business API setup

• Simple pricing you can explain to finance

• Automation and bots that do not require a separate dev team

Heltar’s role here is very clear - Heltar is a WhatsApp Business API provider built for these needs.

• Shared inbox, roles, and assignments so sales can work from one place.

• Automation inside the inbox, plus quick setup for keywords, menus, and forms. You can create a WhatsApp chatbot using a drag-and-drop, no-code chatbot builder. Just one AI prompt, and you have your automation ready to be deployed. You can't get this luxury on Zapier.

• Template workflows for approval, variables, and safe bulk sends. You create templates and get them approved within seconds, ready to be launched as part of bulk messaging campaigns.

• Campaigns and segments with schedules and rate control. Schedule and Fire any campaign in less than a minute, marketing made simple!

• Live reports for delivery, reads, failures, leads, and outcomes.

Comparison table: CleverTap vs MoEngage 

So which one should you pick?

• Choose CleverTap if you are app heavy, want deep analytics and experiments, and like the idea of an AI engine helping you build segments and flows across many channels.

• Choose MoEngage if you want an insights heavy view of your customer base with strong cross channel flows and prefer their Growth vs Enterprise structure.

In both cases, you can plug in Heltar as your WhatsApp Business API provider to:

• Keep WhatsApp pricing simple and predictable

• Get a no code WhatsApp bot builder, flows and shared inbox

• Use our ready CleverTap integration and our support for MoEngage friendly BSP setups

If you want to see how CleverTap or MoEngage would work with your WhatsApp use cases, book a quick demo with Heltar. We will walk you through the combined setup, show expected monthly costs for your volumes, and help you pick the engagement platform that actually fits your stage.