Glossary
The legacy, self-hosted version of the WhatsApp Business API, now being deprecated by Meta.
The On-Premise API was the original form of the WhatsApp Business API, where businesses or BSPs ran the messaging client on their own servers or cloud infrastructure. It gave full control over hosting but required significant setup, maintenance, scaling, and updates.
Meta has since shifted focus to the Cloud API, which it hosts for free and updates first. Meta has announced the sunset of the On-Premise API, encouraging all businesses to migrate to the Cloud API to keep receiving features and support.
Understanding the difference matters mainly for businesses on older integrations that need to plan a migration, and as context for why most new providers use the Cloud API.
If you are on the legacy On-Premise API, you need to migrate to the Cloud API before Meta's sunset to avoid losing service.
Defuser AI runs entirely on the modern Cloud API, so you skip On-Premise maintenance and migrations on your WhatsApp Business API.
The legacy, self-hosted version of the WhatsApp Business API, now being deprecated by Meta.
If you are on the legacy On-Premise API, you need to migrate to the Cloud API before Meta's sunset to avoid losing service.
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