Use a WhatsApp button when the customer should continue the conversation in WhatsApp. Use a live chat or helpdesk app when agents must work a queue, assign chats, and keep a transcript in a shared tool. Squadkin’s WhatsApp Chat Button documents the first job. It opens your number from a theme app embed. It does not document a shared inbox, so it is the wrong product when the queue is the point.
Comparison posts often treat the two as substitutes. They are different habits. A shopper who already messages brands on WhatsApp will ignore a website widget and then email you anyway. A support team that lives in a helpdesk all day will not see a WhatsApp thread that exists only on one person’s phone. Pick the channel your customer will finish in, and the tool your team will actually watch.
The job of each channel
WhatsApp click-to-chat starts on your storefront and ends in the WhatsApp app. The shopper sees your number, a pre-filled greeting if you wrote one, and then the normal WhatsApp thread. Replies, photos, and voice notes stay in that thread. Your staff answer the way they answer any other WhatsApp chat.
A live chat app stays on the website, or it pulls chats into a helpdesk where agents can assign a conversation and leave a note the customer does not see. This article does not review any named helpdesk’s current feature list, including Gorgias, because that documentation was not collected. Verify inbox claims on the vendor’s own docs before you buy.
The practical test is one afternoon of real questions. If customers ask you to “just WhatsApp me,” the button matches them. If agents ask “who owns this chat, and where is the note from yesterday,” they are asking for a queue. Buying the button will not create that queue.
What the Squadkin button actually opens
The widget is a floating button in a shadow DOM, placed with a theme app embed. Styles are a round logo, a pill with text and an image, or a custom logo, in a small, medium, or large size. Popup mode shows a header, a greeting bubble, and a text area. Send builds the WhatsApp link from that text. Direct-link mode makes the button the link. The only documented variable in the default message is {{ current_page_url }}.
- Agent list: the shopper chooses a name, each with a number, avatar, greeting, and optional page-type limit. This is not assignment.
- Hours: per weekday, with a timezone. Offline hours change the popup text and dim the button. The button stays on the page.
- Consent: a checkbox you word yourself can disable Send and agent links until it is ticked. The state is stored in the browser, not as an exportable archive.
- Rules: show or hide by device, and include or exclude by page type or URL.
- Counts: button clicks, popup opens, and send taps, with optional Google Analytics and Meta Pixel passthrough on trackable clicks.
The catalog’s free plan includes button design, the popup, business hours, the consent checkbox, page rules, and analytics. There is no documented shared transcript, no internal note, and no WhatsApp Business API. After the tap, you look at WhatsApp.
What an inbox app is for
Choose an inbox when more than one person must handle the same stream without handing around a phone. The jobs to look for, on the vendor’s current documentation rather than in this article, are assignment, a shared view of the thread, internal notes, and a record that survives an employee leaving. If the product also claims WhatsApp on one business number, confirm how that connection works and what it costs. This catalog does not provide that connection, and this article does not quote another company’s price.
Live chat on the website has a second use even without WhatsApp: shoppers who will not install or open WhatsApp can still type. If a large share of your buyers are in that group, a website chat or a form remains necessary. The WhatsApp button does not become a web chat for people who have no WhatsApp account. Extra rows under the Squadkin popup can link Telegram, Instagram, phone, or email. Those are more doors, not a unified queue.
A shopper-chosen agent list is the furthest this app goes toward a team. Two numbers, two greetings, the visitor taps one. If Sam is at lunch, nothing in the app moves Sam’s chats to Priya. An inbox is how teams solve that. Pretending the chooser is a queue leads to missed messages and a false sense that Shopify is logging them.
Cost shape without invented prices
Squadkin’s documented WhatsApp plan is free for the widget controls listed above, billed through Shopify Managed Pricing. Read the install screen in case the offer changes. That price covers click-to-chat. It does not cover a helpdesk seat.
Helpdesk products are usually priced on agents, conversations, or both. No helpdesk pricing page was collected for this article on 13 October 2026, so there is no competitor figure here. Open the vendor’s price page yourself before you switch.
Keep both when they do different jobs. Uninstall the helpdesk only after you confirm nobody uses its queue or notes.
A decision you can make this week
Write down the last twenty customer questions and where they were answered. If most were finished in WhatsApp, install the button, set hours, write an honest greeting, and turn on click counts. If most were finished in a shared queue with assignments, keep that queue and do not ask a button app to imitate it.
- One person, one phone, customers already on WhatsApp: the free button matches the team you have.
- Two or three separate numbers, and shoppers can tell sales from delivery: add the agent chooser, and test both handsets.
- Several agents, one number, notes, and a transcript in a tool: shortlist an inbox and verify its current WhatsApp docs before you subscribe.
Measure the button with clicks, opens, and send taps for fourteen days. Measure the helpdesk with its own queue reports. Neither number is a reason to claim a revenue lift you have not calculated from orders. The Squadkin catalog does not document a WhatsApp conversion rate.
Questions about the choice
Can a WhatsApp button replace a helpdesk?
Only when you do not need the queue. The button opens WhatsApp. A helpdesk holds assignment and a shared transcript. This article does not claim the button replaces any named helpdesk.
Where do transcripts live?
With this app, they live in WhatsApp on the number you configured. They are not stored as Shopify tickets. An inbox product is what you evaluate when the transcript must live in the tool.
Should I compare prices from memory?
No. Squadkin’s catalog lists this widget on a free plan. Other products’ prices were not collected for this article. Read the current price on each vendor’s page before you decide.
The button’s scope is spelled out on the WhatsApp Chat Button page. Install WhatsApp Chat Button when WhatsApp is where the conversation should stay. Keep a live chat or inbox app when agents need a queue.