Comparison
Hotline.tg is a genuinely clever Telegram-native support tool: the entire interface is Telegram's own forum topics, there is no separate dashboard, and it connects both bots and personal accounts. Entergram takes the opposite approach, building a dedicated workspace over your real accounts with ticketing, SLAs, analytics, privacy controls and MCP across every connected account.
Quick verdict
Hotline.tg is the right answer for a small team that wants support structure without leaving Telegram, and its free tier makes it almost risk-free to try. It becomes the wrong answer at volume: its own documentation describes flows above 50 requests per day per operator as inconvenient and message flows above 20 per minute as queuing. Entergram is built for the scale beyond that point.
Comparison
How Hotline.tg and Entergram compare when Telegram is the channel that decides the purchase.
| Hotline.tg | Entergram | |
|---|---|---|
| Core focus | Telegram-native support and sales built on forum topics | Telegram-native CRM, shared inbox and support workspace |
| Interface | Telegram itself: topic groups, with configuration done inside a setup bot | A dedicated web workspace built over your real Telegram accounts |
| Telegram connection | Both bots and personal accounts, and the two can be combined | Real personal accounts, each routed through its own unique proxy |
| Personal account support | Yes, a genuine strength | Yes, and it is the core object of the product |
| Account scale | Suited to a focused project rather than a large account estate | 100+ accounts in one inbox with no switching, filtered by account |
| Per-account network isolation | Not described | Each connected account runs through its own unique proxy |
| Stated throughput limits | Over 50 requests/day per operator described as inconvenient; over 20 messages/minute queue | No comparable published operator limit |
| Ticketing | Topics act as the unit of work | Dedicated tickets with priority, assignee, due date and SLA tracking |
| Custom fields | Limited by what a topic-based interface can express | Full custom columns: dropdowns, owners, tags, checkboxes and dates |
| Analytics | Not the focus | Response times, message volume, busiest hours and days |
| Internal privacy controls | Bounded by what Telegram's own interface exposes | Hide usernames, hide group member lists, block message editing and deletion by staff |
| AI and MCP | No MCP server | MCP across every connected account: Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini |
| Broadcast and outreach | Not the focus | Personalised sends from real accounts, spread across accounts with safe pacing |
| Hosting | SaaS, hosted on Google Cloud with servers in the Netherlands | SaaS, with self-hosting available on the Enterprise plan |
| Pricing model | Free tier that shows vendor attribution in the first message; paid plans by daily message volume | Per seat, unlimited chats and contacts |
Hotline.tg's elegance is that everything lives in Telegram, and that is also its ceiling. A topic is a thread, not a record: it cannot carry a dropdown, an owner field, a due date, an SLA target and a reporting dimension at the same time. Entergram gives each chat and group a real record with custom columns, and raises independent tickets from individual messages.
Hotline.tg is candid that intensive flows above roughly 50 requests per day per operator become inconvenient, and that message flows above 20 per minute get queued. That honesty is admirable and it is also the clearest sizing guide available. Past that volume you need a tool built for throughput.
Entergram reports response times, message volume and busiest hours and days across accounts, and exposes an MCP server so Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini can search history, fill CRM fields, open tickets and send through your own accounts. Neither has an equivalent in Hotline.tg.
Because Hotline.tg's interface is Telegram itself, what an operator can see is largely what Telegram shows them. Entergram can hide usernames, hide group member information and prevent staff from editing or deleting messages, which matters when the workspace contains your entire customer list.
The core difference
This is a comparison of two honest philosophies rather than a product with a flaw. Hotline.tg argues that the best interface for Telegram work is Telegram. Entergram argues that a team past a certain size needs a layer above it. Both are defensible, and the right answer depends almost entirely on volume.
Hotline.tg is built entirely on Telegram's forum topics interface. Customer conversations become topics inside a topic group, operators work them without opening any other software, and configuration happens inside a setup bot rather than a web dashboard. There is nothing to install and nothing new for the team to learn.
It connects both Telegram bots and personal accounts, and the two can be combined within one project, and connecting a bot in parallel does not affect that bot's existing logic. It is SaaS, running on Kubernetes in Google Cloud with servers in the Netherlands.
Its pricing is unusual and rather likeable: a free tier in exchange for showing vendor attribution to users in the first message, with paid plans based on daily message volume and payment term, removing the attribution and unlocking further features.
Hotline.tg is refreshingly direct about its own constraints, which makes sizing straightforward. It describes intensive flows above roughly 50 requests per day per operator as becoming inconvenient, and message flows above 20 per minute as entering a queue, while noting that some projects handle 5,000 or more daily requests.
The structural limit is the interface. A Telegram topic is an excellent thread and a poor database row. It cannot simultaneously hold a stage dropdown, an owner, a deal size, a due date, an SLA clock and a filterable tag, and it cannot be aggregated into a report on response times by account or by hour of day. That is a property of Telegram's UI, not a flaw in Hotline.tg's execution.
The other consequence is scale of identity. Running a large estate of personal accounts, each isolated on its own network path with per-account permissions, is not something a topic group expresses.
Entergram connects real accounts and builds above them: assignment, internal comments, tickets raised from individual messages, priorities and due dates, SLA targets and a Kanban board for working the queue. A group chat becomes a record with an owner and custom columns rather than a thread.
It also adds the two things a topic list structurally cannot provide: analytics across accounts, and an MCP server spanning every account on the seat so an AI model can search history, populate CRM fields, triage and open tickets, run live Telegram search and send through your own accounts.
If you are two or three people handling a manageable stream of requests and the idea of another dashboard is unappealing, Hotline.tg is a genuinely good choice and its free tier means the evaluation costs nothing but the attribution line.
If you are past its published throughput guidance, need reporting, run many personal accounts, or need controls over what staff can see and export, the topic interface will be the constraint rather than the tool. See the pricing page to compare.
Cost
Hotline.tg is cheaper, including a free option, and that is a real advantage for a small team. The comparison is about what each price buys rather than the number itself.
| Hotline.tg | Entergram | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes, in exchange for vendor attribution in the first message | No, 3-day free trial |
| Pricing driver | Daily message volume and payment term | Seats only, unlimited chats and contacts |
| Interface | Telegram forum topics, no separate dashboard | Dedicated workspace |
| Throughput guidance | ~50 requests/day per operator; 20 messages/minute before queuing | No comparable published operator limit |
| Analytics | Not the focus | Response times, volume, busiest hours and days |
| AI | No MCP server | MCP across every connected account, no per-action fee |
| Self-hosting | Cloud only, Google Cloud with servers in the Netherlands | Available on the Enterprise plan |
Size it by volume, not by price
For a two-person team handling perhaps thirty requests a day, Hotline.tg's free tier does the job and Entergram would be an unnecessary purchase. That is a real recommendation, not a courtesy.
The moment to reconsider is when you cross the thresholds Hotline.tg itself publishes, or when someone asks a question a topic list cannot answer: what is our median response time by account, which conversations breached SLA last month, who owns this group. Those questions need records and reporting, which is what the workspace layer is for.
Competitor pricing and limits reflect publicly listed information at the time of writing and change without notice. Entergram's plans are on our pricing page.
Honest recommendation
Volume decides this one, and Hotline.tg has helpfully published the numbers to decide it with.
Switching
Because both products work with real Telegram accounts, this is a change of interface rather than a data migration. The conversations already live in Telegram and come with the accounts.
Authorise each account carrying customer conversations. History, groups and channels sync automatically, and each account routes through its own unique proxy.
Decide which of your topic conventions were standing in for fields. Most teams find two or three naming conventions that become proper custom columns, at which point the naming discipline stops being necessary.
Define ticket statuses, priorities and SLA targets to match how you were already working. This is the part a topic list could not express, so expect it to take a little thought rather than a copy.
Decide whether usernames and group member lists should be hidden, and whether members may edit or delete messages. Start restrictive and relax later.
Nothing forces a hard cutover. Move one operator across for a week while the rest continue as they were, then switch once the field structure has settled.
After a fortnight, look at response times by account and busiest hours. This is usually where the change justifies itself, because it answers questions that were previously unanswerable.
Connecting an account is a Telegram session, not a data export, and disconnecting leaves every chat untouched. See the security page.
FAQ
Practical guides
Claims about Hotline.tg reflect publicly available information at the time of writing. Verify current terms with the vendor.
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