Zoho Arattai vs WhatsApp: Can India’s Homegrown App Really Compete and change WhatsApp Habit of users?

Zoho Arattai vs WhatsApp: Can India’s Homegrown App Really Compete and change WhatsApp Habit of users?

New Delhi: India’s messaging app space is getting a new face as Zoho Arattai, a made-in-India app by Chennai-based Zoho Corp, gaining popularity among users.

Now topping app store charts in the social networking segment, Arattai is being seen as a competitor to Meta’s WhatsApp, which dominates the Indian market with over 500 million users.

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Features Compared

Both Arattai and WhatsApp offer familiar tools—private and group chats, audio clips, file sharing, voice and video calls, status updates, and broadcast channels. However, Arattai brings in a unique addition: an Android TV version, something WhatsApp has yet to launch.

Data Security and Infrastructure

Zoho highlights data sovereignty as its biggest advantage. Unlike WhatsApp, which uses Meta’s global cloud infrastructure, Arattai is hosted entirely on Zoho’s in-house servers built with open-source technologies like Linux and PostgreSQL. Zoho insists this independence ensures greater privacy control for Indian users.

WhatsApp, on the other hand, offers end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default for messages, calls, and videos—something Arattai is yet to fully implement. Currently, Arattai does not provide default E2EE for text conversations, raising concerns among privacy-conscious users.

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User Benefits and Challenges

Arattai’s usage rise has also brought growing pains. Users have reported delayed OTPs, slow contact sync, and occasional lags during sign-ups due to heavy demand. Zoho has admitted to these issues and confirmed that it is “expanding server capacity” to meet the rising traffic of users.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp continues to enjoy stability, global reach, and a mature feature set, though some users remain concerned about data sharing with Meta.

Verdict

Arattai is making a step ahead with its local infrastructure, independence from global cloud providers, and new features like Android TV support. But the absence of default end-to-end encryption means it has ground to cover before it can be seen as a fully secure alternative to WhatsApp.