# Leaving Global Relay in 2026? Personal WhatsApp & Flat Fee Price Global Relay doesn't capture personal WhatsApp or Signal. Comma does, iMessage at point of delivery, not iCloud sync. Flat fee, no export charges, no lock-in. Source: https://commacompliance.com/compare/global-relay-alternative Last updated: 2026-04-18 --- Global Relay is one of the most recognized names in communications compliance. If you're evaluating Global Relay competitors or looking for a modern Global Relay alternative for SEC or FINRA compliance, this page compares Comma Compliance and Global Relay across capture, security, pricing, and exam readiness. ## At a Glance Global Relay is an enterprise platform with broad channel coverage. Its iMessage capture syncs with a user's Apple ID rather than capturing at the point of delivery. WhatsApp support is delivered via official Meta integrations, which cover WhatsApp Business only — not personal WhatsApp. Signal is not supported. Comma Compliance captures iMessages at the point of delivery, captures both WhatsApp Business and personal WhatsApp, captures Signal with open-source code, and offers flat pricing with no per-connector fees. ## Side-by-Side Comparison | Feature | Comma Compliance | Global Relay | | -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Architecture | End-to-end — capture, archive, supervision, policy matching, and exam-ready case management, with [open source transparency.](https://github.com/comma-compliance) | Enterprise - capture, archiving, supervision, and review within a managed platform | | Built-in archive | Yes — included in platform | Yes | | WORM storage | Yes — written at point of capture | Yes | | iMessage capture method | Point-of-delivery — not iCloud-dependent | Syncs with the user’s Apple ID/iCloud account to retrieve messages; dependent on Apple ecosystem synchronization rather than real-time capture | | WhatsApp capture | Captures both WhatsApp Business and personal WhatsApp | WhatsApp Business only via direct Meta BSP relationship. Personal WhatsApp not captured | | Signal capture | Yes — [open-source capture code](https://github.com/comma-compliance/signal-capture) published on GitHub | Not documented | | Transparency | WhatsApp and Signal capture code published openly on GitHub — no NDA, no request required | Proprietary; capture methodology not publicly disclosed | | Channels supported | [35+ channels](/platform-integrations) where conversations happen: iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, SMS, Voice, Microsoft 365, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, Gmail, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Webex, Bloomberg Chat, Salesforce, Telegram, and more. | 50+ data types including email, mobile, social, Bloomberg, financial messaging | | No duplicate messages or threads | Yes — each message captured once, at point of delivery | Deduplication features required to manage reply-chain duplicates | | Pricing model | Flat monthly [pricing](/pricing), all platforms included. No per-connector fees, no storage overages, no export fees. [$33/user active, $15/user archival.](/pricing) | Not publicly listed; enterprise pricing varies by deployment size and data sources; export fees set per Order Form | | Free trial | Yes | Yes | | Personal vs. business separation | Automatic contact-based filtering — personal contacts can be excluded automatically | Authorization-based — employees authorize Global Relay access to their corporate iCloud account | | Policy processing | Yes — built in | Yes | | Custom policy matching | Yes | Yes | | Case management | Exam-ready — built for regulatory examination prep | eDiscovery and litigation-oriented — built for legal holds and investigations | | AI compliance monitoring | Real-time policy scanning; human validation before escalation; no client data used for training without consent | Proprietary LLM with chain-of-thought reasoning | | Data ownership | Client retains full ownership; never sold or shared outside authorized sub-processors | Enterprise term | | Infrastructure | AWS and Azure, multi-AZ clustering | Owned and operated private data centers with mirrored redundancy | | Encryption | Transparent, cloud-native encryption (AES-256, KMS, Azure Key Vault) | Custom, HSM-based encryption model with per-message key layering | *Competitor feature descriptions reflect publicly available documentation and may not capture all capabilities. Information is reviewed periodically.*
Comma includes unlimited exports in the flat price — no order form negotiation required." /> ## When Global Relay might be a better fit - Firms with compliance workflows built around on-prem Exchange journaling - Firms that require compatibility with legacy systems such as HCL Notes (formerly Domino) ## **iMessage Capture Model per Global Relay** Global Relay’s Apple Messages connector works by linking to a user’s Apple ID/iCloud account. Setup requires user authorization and adds a trusted session to the Apple account to enable message synchronization. Because capture is based on syncing messages from Apple’s ecosystem rather than intercepting them at delivery, the archive reflects messages at the time they are retrieved, not necessarily at the moment they were sent. Comma Compliance captures messages at the point of delivery and writes them immediately to WORM storage, reducing the window for modification before capture. ## Global Relay's WhatsApp and Signal Coverage Global Relay supports WhatsApp Business. Personal WhatsApp and Signal are not supported.