An Evolution API alternative you do not have to host

Evolution API is an open-source REST server for WhatsApp that you run yourself. It is one of the most searched names in this space for good reason: it is free to run, it speaks both a linked-device connection and the official Cloud API, and it plugs into a long list of chat and automation tools. This page is for the team that has it running, or is about to, and wants to know what a hosted API changes.

#What Evolution API is

Evolution API is a Node.js and TypeScript server, maintained by the Evolution Foundation, that exposes WhatsApp over HTTP. It started as a fork of CodeChat, and its linked-device connection is built on Baileys, the open-source library that speaks the WhatsApp Web protocol.

A few facts worth knowing before you compare anything:

• Two connection modes. An instance can be a linked device (WHATSAPP-BAILEYS) or a number on the official Cloud API (WHATSAPP-BUSINESS), chosen when you create it.
• Many integrations. Typebot, Chatwoot, OpenAI, Dify, Flowise, n8n and others connect to an instance, and events can go out by webhook, WebSocket, RabbitMQ, SQS, Kafka, NATS or Pusher.
• The license. The code is Apache 2.0 with added conditions in the LICENSE file: keep the logo and copyright in its console, and show a notice in your system that it uses Evolution API, or buy a commercial license. Read the file yourself if you ship it inside a product.
• Activation. The docs say that from version 2.4.0 a free license activation runs on first access, and the server then sends periodic heartbeats with its version, aggregate counts and IP. The latest stable release when we checked was 2.3.7, with 2.4.0 in release candidates.

#Who should keep running it

If you already operate servers, Evolution API is a reasonable choice, and several situations favour it over any hosted service.

• Your data cannot leave your network. Messages, media and session keys stay on machines you control. No hosted provider can match that.
• You need the integrations. Chatwoot, Typebot and the queue connectors are built in. wuapi has webhooks and a REST API, so a Chatwoot inbox is something you would wire up yourself.
• You want both connection modes behind one API. wuapi is linked-device only. If part of your traffic must go through the official Cloud API, Evolution API covers both.
• Your volume is large and your ops team is cheap. At hundreds of numbers, a flat server bill beats any per-number price, as long as someone owns the proxies and the on-call.

If one of those is you, keep it. The rest of this page is for the team whose real cost is the running, not the license.

#What running it actually takes

The server is the easy part. The repository's docker-compose file brings up four containers: the API, its web manager, PostgreSQL and Redis. That gets you a working instance in an afternoon. What takes longer is everything that decides whether the numbers stay connected.

A proxy for every number. Evolution API lets you set a proxy per instance with POST /proxy/set/{instance}, over HTTP, HTTPS or SOCKS. It does not supply one. You choose a provider, buy residential IPs in the right countries, keep each number on the same exit, and notice when an exit dies. A number that reconnects from a datacenter address, or from a new country every day, is a number that draws attention. Why WhatsApp bans numbers goes through the signals.

Pacing. A linked device sends as fast as you call it. If your product ever writes first to people, you need a per-number rate, a lower one for contacts who never wrote to you, and ideally a typing indicator before each message. That is a queue you build and tune.

Upgrades. Breaking changes arrive with WhatsApp protocol changes, and you schedule the upgrade, the migration and the rollback. Sessions live in your database and on the instance volume, so both need backups.

Reconnects and alerts. Linked sessions drop and come back all day. You decide which drops are noise and which one means a phone logged out, and you page someone for the second kind.

#Where wuapi is different

wuapi is a hosted API for the same linked-device model: each number is a device linked by QR or pairing code, the way WhatsApp Web links. The difference is what comes attached to each number.

• A residential exit per number, included. You pass proxyLocation when you create the account, pick from 134 countries on the proxy locations page, and the number keeps a sticky exit there. If the proxy is down, the account waits offline. It never falls back to a datacenter IP.
• Pacing you can turn on per number. messagesPerMinute, firstContactPerMinute and a typing indicator, set with PATCH /v1/accounts/{accountId}. They are off by default, so replies go out at once; we recommend 12 a minute, 5 to new contacts and typing on for any sending that starts with you. Keep your number healthy explains when.
• Webhooks signed and retried. Every delivery carries Wuapi-Signature: t=<unix>,v1=<hex>, an HMAC-SHA256 over the timestamp and the raw body, and a failed one is retried at 30s, 2m, 10m, 1h and 6h, six attempts in total.
• Idempotent sends. An Idempotency-Key on any POST is remembered for 24h, so a retry from your queue never sends twice.
• A typed contract. An OpenAPI 3.1 file, the @wuapidev/sdk TypeScript package, and an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and other agents.
• Projects. One organization holds many projects, each with its own accounts, keys, webhooks and usage, so an agency can keep customers apart.

Nothing here makes a number safe from WhatsApp's own decisions. A proxy removes a network signal. What you send, and how people react to it, is still yours.

#What ten numbers cost each way

Take ten linked numbers in one country, a mix of support and order updates.

On Evolution API, the software is free and the bill has three lines. A server, which is small. A residential proxy per number, which is the line that grows: providers sell by the gigabyte or by the IP, and a number that also sends and receives media uses more than a text-only one. And the time of whoever upgrades the server, watches the numbers and answers the page when one drops at night. The third line is the one teams leave out of the spreadsheet.

On wuapi, ten numbers cost $46.50 a month: $6 for the first and $4.50 for each of the other nine. The proxies are part of that price, with 5 GB of traffic a month pooled across the ten, and anything past it is billed at $0.99 per GB. There is no server line and no on-call line for the connection itself. You still own your webhook endpoint and what your product does with the messages.

Which one is cheaper depends almost entirely on the third line. If someone on your team already runs servers at night, self-hosting wins. If not, count the hours.

#Side by side

#Moving from Evolution API

The concepts line up closely, so a move is mostly renaming.

A send, before and after:

// Evolution API
await fetch(`${EVOLUTION_URL}/message/sendText/support-line`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { apikey: EVOLUTION_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ number: "5511999999999", text: "Your order has shipped." }),
})

// wuapi
import { Wuapi } from "@wuapidev/sdk"
const wuapi = new Wuapi({ apiKey: process.env.WUAPI_API_KEY })
await wuapi.messages.send({ accountId, to: "+5511999999999", text: "Your order has shipped." })

Three things to plan for:

1. Every number links again. A session cannot be exported from one server to another, so each phone scans a new QR code or types a pairing code. Tell the number's owner before you start.
2. Webhook verification changes. Replace whatever check you had with the signature check in the docs, and handle events idempotently by id, because a delivery can arrive twice.
3. History does not come across. Messages you stored in your own database stay yours. After linking, WhatsApp sends the new device the amount of history it decides.

The Free plan lets you move one number and run it next to your server before you move the rest.

#Questions people ask