Relay vs Vendwa: flat price or transaction fee?
The short version. Relay's entry plan is GHS 208 a month with 300 conversations and no transaction fee — cheaper than our Starter, with a bigger allowance. If that fits what you need, take it. The fee only appears on Relay's plans that collect payment for you, and that's where the arithmetic below starts to matter: at GH₵50,000 a month of sales, a 1.5% fee is GH₵750 on top of the subscription. Vendwa is flat and takes 0% of your sales at any turnover.
What each product is
Relay (getrelaytech.com, by Phleroma) describes itself as AI WhatsApp automation that handles enquiries, books services, processes orders and collects payments. Bookings are the part worth noticing — Relay covers service businesses, appointments and enquiries, not only retail. That's genuinely broader than what we do.
Vendwa is narrower on purpose: a Ghanaian shop selling physical goods on WhatsApp and Instagram, where the price gets negotiated and the money comes by MoMo. We don't do bookings.
The pricing, as published
Read from Relay's own site on 4 September 2026. Check it yourself before trusting this table — pricing changes and a stale comparison is worse than none.
| Monthly | Fee per order | Conversations/month | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relay Starter | GHS 208 | None — payment collection is manual | 300 |
| Relay Growth | GHS 625 | 1.5% via Paystack | 1,500 |
| Relay Business | GHS 1,499 | 0.75% via Paystack | 5,000 |
| Relay Enterprise | Custom | 0.5% via Paystack | Unlimited |
| Vendwa Starter | GH₵199 | 0% | 60 |
| Vendwa Pro | GH₵399 | 0% | 150 |
| Vendwa Business | GH₵799 | 0% | 350 |
Vendwa's Founding Vendor offer takes the first 50 shops to GH₵99 / GH₵199 / GH₵399 for three invoices.
The arithmetic
Total monthly cost, subscription plus fees, at three levels of sales.
| Monthly sales | Relay Starter | Relay Growth | Relay Business | Vendwa Starter | Vendwa Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GH₵5,000 | GHS 208 | GHS 700 | GHS 1,537 | GH₵199 | GH₵399 |
| GH₵20,000 | GHS 208 | GHS 925 | GHS 1,649 | GH₵199 | GH₵399 |
| GH₵50,000 | GHS 208 | GHS 1,375 | GHS 1,874 | GH₵199 | GH₵399 |
Two things fall out of that table and one of them is not in our favour.
Relay Starter is the cheapest column at every level, and it isn't close on allowance. GHS 208 for 300 conversations against our GH₵199 for 60. If your only question is cost per conversation, that row wins and no amount of writing changes it.
The fee only bites where Relay collects the money. Their Starter has manual payment collection, same as running the free WhatsApp app — you send your own details and confirm it yourself. To have Relay handle payment you move to Growth at GHS 625 plus 1.5%, and at GH₵50,000 of sales that combination is GHS 1,375 a month against GH₵399 for Vendwa Pro.
So the real question isn't flat-versus-fee in the abstract. It's whether you want payment collection handled, and what that's worth to you.
Where Relay is the better choice
Written plainly, because a comparison page that only ever favours the author is one a reader can smell.
- You take bookings, not just orders. Appointments, services, scheduled jobs. Vendwa doesn't do that at all.
- You want the highest conversation allowance for the lowest monthly. Relay Starter, comfortably.
- Your volume is high and your order value is low. Lots of conversations, small sales — their allowance structure suits that shape better than ours.
- You already use Paystack and want card and payment links inside the chat as a first-class thing.
Relay also negotiates prices on its Growth plan and above, per their own site. So if you're comparing on negotiation alone, both products claim it, and you should test both rather than take either company's word for it.
Where Vendwa is different
0% of your sales, at every level. No percentage, no cap, no tier where it appears. Customers pay into your own MoMo wallet and we never touch the money. At GH₵50,000 a month that's the difference between a subscription and a subscription plus GH₵750.
MoMo prompts on the cheapest plan. Vendwa sends your MoMo details and the exact amount into the chat the second a price is agreed — on Starter at GH₵199, not on a higher tier. And nothing is marked paid until you confirm from your own alert. Vendwa can't do it by itself and won't accept a screenshot as proof. How MoMo works in Vendwa.
A public shop page, included on every plan. shop.vendwa.com/your-shop-name with photos, cedi prices, sizes and stock, and an Order on WhatsApp button on every item that opens a chat the agent answers. Free on every plan, Starter included.
Floor prices set per product, enforced by the system. Each item carries its own secret floor. The check runs before any reply is sent, so there is no phrasing that gets a customer below it. How the floor price works.
A cost you can predict. Your best month and your worst month cost the same. For a shop working on thin margins, knowing the number in advance is worth something on its own.
How to actually decide
Three questions, in order.
- Do you take bookings? If yes, Relay covers something we don't. Start there.
- What's your monthly turnover? Multiply it by 1.5%. If that number is smaller than the gap between the two subscriptions, the fee isn't your problem and you should compare on features instead.
- How many conversations do you really have? Count last month's unique customers. If it's over 150, our Business plan or Relay's allowance structure are the honest options, and ours is a cap you can top up at GH₵60 for 15 more — not an unlimited plan.
Both companies publish their prices. Open both tabs and check ours against theirs: Vendwa's plans in cedis. If you're still working out what a WhatsApp sales bot should do for a Ghanaian shop at all, start here: a WhatsApp sales bot built for Ghana shops.
There's a 14-day free trial and Vendwa sells for your shop the whole time, so you can compare on real orders instead of on tables.