Answers to the questions we hear most.
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About SmartChat
SmartChat is conversational AI software that answers customer questions, books appointments and follows up on WhatsApp and the web. It is built by Ruka Group, a South African technology company operating as a distributed team. SmartChat is designed for small and medium-sized businesses that want to capture more leads without being glued to their phones.
SmartChat is built for five types of businesses: solopreneurs running side businesses, growing SMEs with high message volume, established teams with multiple branches, agencies serving several clients, and enterprises needing custom integrations. Each tier has a plan designed around that scale, from Lite at R249 per month to fully custom Enterprise builds.
SmartChat runs on Echo, a conversational intelligence engine built in-house by Ruka. Echo is fluent in English, Dutch, Zulu, Xhosa and Swahili as first languages, hosted on Google Cloud in Johannesburg for POPIA compliance, and designed with a human-in-the-loop so conversations hand over cleanly when needed. Most off-the-shelf chatbots offer none of these together.
Pricing and plans
SmartChat has five plans. Lite is R249 per month for solopreneurs with up to 30 conversations. Growth is R1,499 per month for active SMEs with up to 185 conversations. Scale is R3,999 per month for teams with up to 500 conversations. The Agency Pack is R5,499 per month for white-label use. Enterprise is custom. You can change tier any month.
SmartChat does not offer a full free trial, but the WhatsApp demo line is open and unlimited. Anyone can send a message to the demo line and interact with Echo directly before paying anything. For the Scale and Enterprise tiers, Ruka runs paid pilots where the cost is credited back if the customer signs a full contract.
SmartChat does not cut you off mid-conversation. If you exceed your monthly conversation limit, the Scaling Engine takes over automatically and you are billed for the overage at the start of the next cycle. A conversation is defined as a unique 24-hour interaction with one customer, not a message count.
Security and privacy
SmartChat data is hosted on Google Cloud in the Johannesburg region. Customer data stays on South African soil, including data from European customers, unless explicitly agreed otherwise. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. This design meets POPIA requirements natively and is GDPR-compatible for EU customers.
Yes. SmartChat is built to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act. Ruka has a designated Information Officer, role-based access controls, audit logs, encryption at rest and in transit, and data residency in Johannesburg. A Data Processing Agreement is available from legal@ruka.africa.
No. SmartChat does not use customer account data to train public AI models. Echo is trained on curated datasets and improves through anonymised product telemetry only. Customer conversations are private to the customer account and are not shared with any third parties, including AI providers.
Integrations and setup
SmartChat integrates with WhatsApp Business API, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Drive, Stripe and Paystack for payments, and HubSpot and Salesforce on the Enterprise tier. A custom API layer is available for agency white-label deployments. SAP and other ERP systems can be integrated under Enterprise contracts.
Lite and Growth plans are live within 24 hours of signup, once the WhatsApp Business API number is approved by Meta. Scale is typically live within 5 to 7 business days. Enterprise deployments follow a scoped timeline, usually 4 to 8 weeks, depending on integrations and compliance reviews.
No. SmartChat is designed for non-technical business owners. Setup is handled by the Ruka onboarding team. Day-to-day use happens through a simple dashboard and through WhatsApp itself. The only technical work needed is providing existing business content like FAQs, which Echo learns from.
Languages and markets
SmartChat supports English, Dutch, Zulu, Xhosa and Swahili as first languages. These are not translated at the edge. Echo understands idioms, pacing and local phrasing natively in each. Additional languages including Afrikaans, French and Portuguese are on the roadmap for African market expansion.
SmartChat is live in South Africa and available in Zimbabwe, Namibia and the Netherlands. Nigeria and Kenya are planned for Q3 2026. European expansion beyond the Netherlands follows in 2027. Enterprise deployments have been delivered to customers operating across multiple African countries from a single SmartChat instance.