Does Thikaa create orders?

Yes. Its AI searches the catalog and creates orders with hosted payment links, and supports cash on delivery and bank transfer. Hephon Commerce builds the basket and a checkout the shopper confirms with a tap, a signed page or keypad 1.

Which one works with Salla?

Both. Thikaa has a native Salla app. Hephon Commerce connects to Salla through the Hephon app, and to Zid, with stock per branch.

Do both understand Arabizi?

Yes. Thikaa lists Arabizi (Franco-Arabic). Hephon Commerce reads Arabizi such as "7aleeb" for milk and answers in the same script.

How do prices compare?

Thikaa publishes plans from $9.99 to $49.99 a month, plus per-minute voice prices. Hephon Commerce has no public price and sends each retailer a proposal.

Can I try Hephon Commerce without leaving Thikaa?

Yes. Keep Thikaa on social channels and try Hephon Commerce inside your app or on the phone line first. You can also talk to our demo store, Hephon Market, at commerce.hephon.ai/c/demo before booking a demo.

Hephon Commerce vs Thikaa: Grocery AI Comparison (2026)

In short

Choose Thikaa if your store runs on Salla and you want a self-serve WhatsApp and social chatbot from $9.99 a month. Choose Hephon Commerce if you are a supermarket or grocery chain with branches, an app and phone orders, and you need the assistant to build baskets with each branch's prices. Thikaa is the faster, cheaper start; Hephon Commerce goes deeper on grocery.

Updated 5 November 2026

Who should choose which

Choose Thikaa if

You sell on Salla.
You want to set it up yourself today.
Instagram, TikTok and Telegram matter to you.
You need Kurdish on calls.

Choose Hephon Commerce if

You run several branches with their own prices and stock.
Shoppers should order inside your app.
Recipes, budgets and pack sizes matter.
Halal rules must be enforced by the system, not the prompt.

Feature by feature

Every row comes from Thikaa's own pages, checked on the date above. "Not stated publicly" means we could not find it, not that it is missing.

Hephon Commerce and Thikaa, compared on 15 points. Numbers in the last column refer to the sources below.
	Hephon Commerce	Thikaa	Sources
Channels	Inside the retailer's iOS, Android and web apps (SDK, also React Native and Flutter) and website, its WhatsApp Business number, phone calls, and a hosted chat page.	WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, email and a website chat widget, in one inbox and mobile app.	[1] [2]
Languages	Arabic, English and French, and mixes of them, answered in the language and script of the question. By voice, more than 30 languages.	Arabic and English; WhatsApp calls in Arabic, English and Kurdish.	[3] [2]
Arabic dialects	Saudi and Gulf Arabic as people write and speak them, and Lebanese Arabic. Replies follow a phrasebook of approved phrases per dialect.	Voice notes in Gulf, Egyptian, Levantine, Maghrebi and Iraqi Arabic; matches the customer's dialect.	[4] [2]
Arabizi (Arabic in Latin letters)	Yes, for example "7aleeb" for milk, answered in the same script.	Arabizi (Franco-Arabic) is listed.	[3] [2]
Voice and phone ordering	Phone and WhatsApp calls: it builds the basket during the call, reads it back, and keypad 1 confirms. Replies in under a second; a caller can be handed to a person.	AI agent answers WhatsApp calls ($0.06 a minute) and phone calls on a real number ($0.50 a minute), with live transfer. Phone ordering is not stated publicly.	[5] [2]
WhatsApp ordering and checkout	On the retailer's own number: product cards, basket, and a checkout the shopper confirms with a tap. Voice notes and calls too.	Searches the catalog and creates orders with hosted payment links; cash on delivery and bank transfer.	[6] [2]
Catalog search, branch prices and stock	Keyword and meaning search over the live catalog, each result checked against the shopper's message before it is shown. Each branch's own prices and stock.	Catalog search across channels. Per-branch prices and stock are not stated publicly.	[7] [2]
Recipes to basket	Yes. "Kabsa for 10" becomes ingredient amounts, the cheapest pack that covers each line and how many, and "add all".	Not stated publicly.	[8] [2]
Checkout and shopper confirmation	Nothing is ordered without the shopper's explicit confirmation: a tap, a signed checkout page, or keypad 1 after the read-back. Orders go to the retailer's platform or team.	Creates the order and a hosted payment link; 13 gateways including Tap, Moyasar, Tabby and Tamara.	[7] [2]
Halal and content rules	Alcohol, pork and tobacco can be hidden by the server before the assistant sees the catalog; products not yet checked stay hidden. On WhatsApp, alcohol and tobacco are always excluded.	Not stated publicly.	[9] [2]
Handover to people	One live inbox for chats, voice notes and calls with transcripts; a person can take over any chat. Handover to your help desk by integration.	Multi-agent inbox with auto-assignment and routing; live transfer on calls.	[7] [2]
Integrations	Salla, Zid, Shopify, WooCommerce, product feeds, a REST API with signed webhooks, and custom connectors.	Native Salla app, Shopify and WooCommerce. Zid is not supported yet.	[10] [2]
Pricing	A proposal per retailer, based on stores and channels. No public price; access by invitation.	$9.99 to $49.99 a month by bot conversations; 7-day free trial; 17% off yearly.	[11] [12]
Hosting, data and certifications	Servers in the European Union today. No conversation is used to train an AI model. No ISO or SOC certification.	Cloud service with a stated 99.9% uptime SLA; says GDPR compliant. Data location is not stated publicly.	[9] [2]
Primary market	Saudi Arabia and the UAE first, and Lebanon.	Middle East and North Africa; headquartered in Bahrain, founded 2023.	[13] [2]

Sources

Where Thikaa is stronger

A native Salla app with one-click install, plus Shopify and WooCommerce.
Public prices from $9.99 to $49.99 a month, with a 7-day free trial and no card.
More channels in one inbox: WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, email and web chat.
Five Arabic dialects named for voice notes, plus Arabizi and Kurdish calls.
Thirteen payment gateways for in-chat payment links, including Tap, Moyasar, Tabby and Tamara.

Where Hephon Commerce is stronger

Each branch's own prices and stock.
An SDK for your iOS, Android and web apps.
Recipes to basket with pack sizes.
Phone orders read back and confirmed on the keypad.
Search results checked against the shopper's message, and a test suite on your catalog.

Hephon Commerce also has limits: access is by invitation, through a demo, and there is no public price, since each retailer gets a proposal based on its stores and channels.

Try it without switching

Keep Thikaa on social channels and try Hephon Commerce inside your app or on the phone line first.

Before any call, you can talk to our demo store, Hephon Market: about 15,000 products from a real quick-commerce catalog, priced in US dollars, that understands Gulf Arabic, Arabizi and English. Run the five tests from our buyer's guide on it, then run the same tests on Thikaa.

Hephon Commerce or Thikaa?

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Hephon Commerce vs Thikaa