Trengo

Trengo is a Dutch customer engagement platform founded in 2017 and headquartered at Stadsplateau 30 in Utrecht, Netherlands. The platform brings all customer communication channels into a single unified inbox, enabling support teams to manage email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, live chat, SMS, and voice conversations from one centralized interface. Designed for growing businesses that want enterprise-level omnichannel capabilities without enterprise-level complexity, Trengo has become a popular choice among European SMBs looking for a GDPR-compliant alternative to American customer service platforms like Zendesk, Front, and Freshdesk.

The Omnichannel Inbox

At the core of Trengo is its shared inbox, which aggregates conversations from every connected channel into a single timeline view. When a customer sends a WhatsApp message, follows up via email, and then initiates a live chat, all three interactions appear in one thread tied to that customer's profile. This eliminates the need for agents to switch between different tools or platforms, reducing response times and ensuring no customer inquiry falls through the cracks. Each conversation can be assigned to specific team members or teams, and internal notes and @mentions allow agents to collaborate without the customer seeing backstage communication.

The inbox supports conversation tagging, custom fields, and labels that help teams categorize and prioritize incoming requests. Managers can set up views filtered by channel, priority, status, or assigned agent, giving them a real-time overview of the support queue. For businesses handling high volumes of customer interactions, this structured approach to inbox management can significantly reduce the chaos that comes with managing multiple communication channels separately.

WhatsApp Business Integration

Trengo's WhatsApp integration is one of its strongest differentiators, particularly for European businesses where WhatsApp is the dominant messaging platform with over 2 billion users worldwide. As an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, Trengo offers full access to the WhatsApp Business API, allowing businesses to send and receive messages, use pre-approved template messages for proactive outreach, and handle high-volume conversations through the shared inbox. Businesses can create WhatsApp chatbots, send automated replies, and even process orders or bookings directly through WhatsApp conversations.

The integration goes beyond basic messaging. Trengo supports WhatsApp broadcast messages for marketing campaigns, rich media messages including images, videos, and documents, and interactive message types like buttons and lists. For e-commerce businesses, this means you can send order confirmations, shipping updates, and post-purchase surveys all through the channel your customers use most frequently.

Flowbots and Automation

Trengo includes a visual no-code flowbot builder that allows teams to create automated conversation flows for common customer inquiries. These flowbots can qualify leads, answer frequently asked questions, route customers to the right department, collect information before handing off to a human agent, and even complete simple transactions. The drag-and-drop interface makes it accessible for non-technical team members to build and maintain automation workflows without developer involvement.

Beyond chatbots, Trengo offers rule-based automation for backend processes. Teams can set up automatic assignment rules based on channel, language, or conversation content. Auto-reply messages can be configured for off-hours, and SLA timers help ensure that response time targets are met. These automation capabilities help smaller teams punch above their weight by handling routine interactions automatically, freeing agents to focus on complex issues that require human judgment.

AI-Powered Features

Trengo has invested heavily in AI capabilities to help support teams work more efficiently. The platform offers AI-powered suggested replies that analyze the context of a conversation and recommend responses, which agents can accept, edit, or reject. AI summarization can condense long conversation threads into brief summaries, helping agents who take over a conversation quickly understand the context. These features are designed to augment human agents rather than replace them, maintaining the personal touch that customers expect while reducing the cognitive load on support teams.

Live Chat Widget

The Trengo live chat widget can be embedded on any website and customized to match your brand's visual identity. It supports proactive messaging, allowing you to trigger chat invitations based on visitor behavior such as time on page, pages visited, or scroll depth. The widget is multilingual, making it suitable for businesses that serve customers across different European markets. When a live chat conversation is initiated outside business hours, it can automatically convert into an email ticket or offer self-service options through the flowbot.

Team Collaboration

Trengo is built for team-based customer service. Conversations can be assigned to individual agents or teams, and reassignment is straightforward when escalation is needed. Internal notes allow agents to leave context for colleagues without the customer seeing the communication. The @mention feature enables agents to quickly pull in colleagues for advice on complex issues. Team performance metrics including response times, resolution times, and customer satisfaction scores are tracked automatically and presented in analytics dashboards that help managers identify bottlenecks and coaching opportunities.

Integrations Ecosystem

Trengo integrates with a wide range of business tools including CRM systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive, e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, and productivity tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. A REST API and webhook support allow custom integrations for businesses with specific technical requirements. The Zapier integration opens up connections to thousands of additional applications, enabling workflows such as automatically creating support tickets when a new order is placed or syncing customer data between Trengo and your CRM.

GDPR Compliance and Data Privacy

As a Dutch company operating within the European Union, Trengo is built with GDPR compliance at its core. All customer conversation data is stored in EU data centers, ensuring that sensitive customer information does not leave European jurisdiction. The platform includes features for data retention management, allowing businesses to set automatic deletion policies for conversation data. Consent tracking, data access request handling, and the right to be forgotten are all supported, making Trengo suitable for businesses in regulated industries that need to demonstrate compliance with European data protection regulations.

Pricing and Plans

Trengo offers tiered pricing starting with the Essentials plan at approximately EUR 99 per month for 5 users, scaling up through Boost and Pro plans with additional features like advanced automation, custom reporting, and priority support. An Enterprise plan with custom pricing is available for larger organizations. While the pricing is competitive for the feature set offered, some users have noted that pricing changes have occurred over time, so it is advisable to confirm current rates directly with Trengo. The platform offers a 14-day free trial that provides access to all features, allowing teams to thoroughly evaluate the platform before committing.

Limitations to Consider

While Trengo excels at omnichannel communication for SMBs, there are some limitations to be aware of. The platform may lack some of the advanced ticketing and workflow features found in enterprise solutions like Zendesk. Reporting capabilities, while adequate for most SMBs, may not satisfy data-intensive organizations that require highly customizable analytics. Some users have reported occasional pricing adjustments and changes to conversation caps, so it is important to understand the terms of your plan. The flowbot builder, while powerful for basic scenarios, may require API-level customization for complex automation use cases.

Who Should Use Trengo?

Trengo is ideal for small to mid-sized European businesses that need to manage customer communication across multiple channels from a single platform. It is particularly well-suited for e-commerce businesses that rely heavily on WhatsApp for customer communication, growing support teams that need collaboration features without enterprise complexity, and GDPR-conscious organizations that want to ensure their customer data stays within the EU. Companies currently using separate tools for email, chat, and social media messaging will find significant efficiency gains by consolidating everything into Trengo's unified inbox.