If you found this page searching for a respond.io Telegram alternative, the two products are answering different questions. Scalegram is the Telegram CRM for IBs and forex affiliates: one AI bot on your own Telegram answers every lead in the language it arrived in, checks the deposit against the broker's own records over a read-only API, opens the paid group and files the client. respond.io is a customer conversation platform built to unify WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, email and voice calls in one team inbox, with Telegram as one of its connected channels.
The split shows up in three places: whether Telegram is the main channel or one of several, who verifies a deposit, and how the bill is built.
What respond.io says it sells
The respond.io home page describes "an AI-powered customer conversation platform that helps businesses manage conversations, automate workflows and scale sales, marketing and support operations." The channels named on that page are WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, email and voice calls over WhatsApp Business Calls, Messenger Calls and VoIP. Telegram is not one of the channels listed on the home page itself.
Telegram has its own page. The respond.io Telegram integration page lists handling inbound conversations ("welcome customers, let them know if you're away or send them to the right agent"), responding to chats by transferring customers, creating support tickets or submitting orders, conversation supervision and reporting on agent performance, "Telegram Marketing" to nurture leads and send abandoned cart messages and newsletters, marketing analytics to judge campaigns, and transactional notifications such as appointment reminders, payment receipts and delivery updates. The page frames the goal as helping a team "communicate with your audience, generate leads and build long-lasting customer relationships" through Telegram.
That is a support and marketing inbox, built for a team of agents working several channels at once. A business that already runs WhatsApp and Instagram through respond.io can add Telegram to the same queue. Scalegram does not try to be that. It has one channel and one job.
What respond.io costs
The respond.io pricing page lists Starter at $79 a month, Growth at $159 a month (marked "Most Popular"), Advanced at $279 a month, and a custom Enterprise plan, all shown at the yearly-billing rate. It says the plans run on a usage model: you "pay only for the contacts you talk to," so the bill moves with how many people write in during the period, not with seats or messages sent. The page offers a 7 day free trial with no card required.
Scalegram is priced by counts of things you connect, not by how many contacts reply that month. Lite is $99 a month with one bot, one Telegram account, one tracked link, one seat and 10,000 clients. Scalegram is $999 a month with unlimited bots, accounts, links, seats and clients. Every feature sits on both plans; the pricing section lists the counts. A channel with a busy month costs more on a per-contact plan even if nothing else changed; a Scalegram plan does not move with volume.
What Scalegram is built to do
Scalegram starts from one sale. A lead arrives from an ad or a post, signs up with the broker, deposits, and the owner needs to know that before opening the paid group. The product is built around that sequence.
- The bot answers every message in the language it arrived in, from the product knowledge, saved replies, pictures, PDFs and cloned voice you gave it.
- An AI condition reads the conversation and decides whether the person is ready to buy, still deciding or not a buyer, and each gets a different branch.
- The ready branch sends your broker link and asks for the email or account number when it needs one.
- The bot looks that email up in the broker's IB portal or the prop firm CRM over a read-only API: whether the account exists, whether a payment completed, which plan, whether KYC passed. Every call is a GET.
- When the records say yes, it approves the join request for the paid group, writes UID, email, broker, deposit and a dated note onto the client card, and moves the stage forward.
- Anyone who goes quiet gets a follow-up that cancels itself the moment they reply.
The flow is laid out in the AI bot for Telegram leads guide, and the deposit check has its own page: how to verify a broker deposit automatically.
Side by side
| Question | respond.io, from its own pages | Scalegram |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Omnichannel conversation platform for support, marketing and sales teams | Autopilot sale for IBs and affiliates, with a Telegram CRM behind it |
| Where Telegram sits | One of several connected channels, described on its own integration page | The only channel, run from your personal Telegram account |
| Who answers the lead | Agents in a shared inbox, with automation and workflows around them | The AI bot, in the lead's language, at any hour |
| Chat history | Kept in the shared inbox for the team to review | No message is ever stored |
| Broker deposit check | Not described on the pages read | Looked up live in the broker's records, read-only |
| Pricing basis | Usage based, "pay only for the contacts you talk to," from $79 a month billed yearly | By counts: $99 or $999 a month, monthly |
Where the difference shows up
Who verifies "I already deposited"
In an inbox product that claim lands on an agent, who has to go check a broker portal by hand. In Scalegram the bot asks for the email, looks it up at the broker and answers from the record. The lead who deposited gets into the group without waiting for anyone to be online, and the one who did not gets a plain answer. respond.io's Telegram page describes creating support tickets and submitting orders, which is a different job from confirming a deposit at a broker.
A per-contact bill against a flat one
respond.io's own pricing page ties the bill to how many contacts write in that month. A channel that has a strong week for ad spend then pays more for the same plan. Scalegram's price is set by what you connect, unlimited bots, accounts, links, seats and clients on the top plan, so a busier month does not change the invoice.
Chat history kept or not kept
respond.io is built for a team to read a shared conversation log, which is exactly right for a support desk. For an IB the same log is a pile of screenshots, account numbers and emails sitting somewhere. Scalegram was built the other way: there is no message table in the product, and the bot reads an earlier chat only when the per-bot Earlier Conversations switch is on, for that one reply. The reasoning is in why a Telegram CRM should not store messages.
Personal account against a connected channel
respond.io connects Telegram as a channel into its inbox alongside WhatsApp and Instagram. Scalegram connects your own Telegram account, imports every contact and everyone who ever wrote to you as client cards, and the conversation stays where your leads already are. The connection is read-only: no bulk automation of the account, and the one write it can make is saving an address-book contact when you click it.
Who should pick which
Pick respond.io if your team already handles WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook support and wants Telegram folded into the same inbox with agents, tickets and campaign reporting. Its own pricing page offers a 7 day free trial to try that setup.
Pick Scalegram if you are an IB, forex affiliate, prop firm affiliate or channel owner and the sale ends with a checked deposit and an opened door. It runs on your own Grok, OpenAI or DeepSeek key, and it sends no signals, gives no trading advice and promises no results. How it works shows the flow, and the Telegram CRM for IBs guide covers the setup. For the wider field, read the best Telegram CRM 2026 list.
Sources
- respond.io home page, respond.io, checked 27 September 2026
- Telegram integration, respond.io, checked 27 September 2026
- Pricing, respond.io, checked 27 September 2026
An omnichannel inbox gives a support team every channel in one queue. A Telegram CRM for IBs answers the lead, checks the broker and opens the door.
— The Scalegram Team
Key takeaways
- respond.io is an omnichannel conversation platform priced per contact talked to, with Telegram as one connected channel among several.
- Scalegram is an AI autopilot for the IB and affiliate sale, priced by counts at $99 or $999 a month.
- Scalegram checks the email against the broker's records over a read-only API before it opens the paid group, and stores no messages.
- Choose respond.io for a support team spanning many messengers, and Scalegram for IB and affiliate sales inside Telegram.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best respond.io alternative for Telegram sales as an IB?
For an IB, forex affiliate or channel owner whose sale ends with a deposit, Scalegram: it answers in the lead's language, checks the deposit against the broker's records read-only and opens the paid group. For a support team working WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram in one inbox, respond.io is built for that.
Does respond.io support Telegram?
Yes. Its own Telegram integration page lists inbound handling, ticket and order workflows, campaign reporting and marketing messages such as newsletters and abandoned cart follow-ups.
What does respond.io cost?
Its pricing page lists Starter at $79, Growth at $159 and Advanced at $279 a month, billed yearly, on a usage model priced by contacts talked to. Scalegram's Lite plan is $99 a month and the full Scalegram plan is $999 a month, unmetered by contact volume.
Does Scalegram store my chats?
No. There is no message table in the product. The bot can read an earlier chat for a single reply when the Earlier Conversations switch is on, and it is never written down.
Put one bot on your own Telegram
Scalegram answers every lead in the language it arrived in, checks the deposit against the broker's own records, opens the paid group and files the client. Lite starts at $99 a month.