LINE Official Account or a website, and what each one is actually for
Almost every Thai business has LINE. Far fewer have somewhere for a stranger to land.
LINE · 2026-08-19
A LINE Official Account is a conversation channel: it keeps people who already know you, and it is where Thai customers prefer to write. A website is a discovery channel: it is what Google shows to someone who has never heard of you. LINE cannot be found on Google, and a website cannot chat. Most small businesses in Thailand need both, and the order to build them in depends on where your customers come from today.
What each one does
- LINE keeps existing customers, answers fast, sends broadcasts, takes no search traffic
- Website gets found on Google and Maps, works for tourists who do not use LINE
- 888 ฿ one-off cost to verify a LINE account, without which LINE now shows a warning
The verification badge is not cosmetic any more
Since 1 April 2026 LINE shows a caution notice on unverified official accounts, aimed at scam prevention. A new customer opening your chat sees that notice before they see your first message. Verification costs 888 baht once and requires business documents. If you sell anything through LINE, this is the cheapest trust you will ever buy.
What LINE cannot do, no matter how good your account is
A LINE account does not appear in Google results. It does not appear in Google Maps. It cannot be linked from a directory, and an AI assistant asked to recommend a spa in Chiang Mai will never quote it. Everything that brings you a customer who does not already know your name happens outside LINE, and it needs an address of your own.
Which one first, honestly
If most of your business comes from people walking past or from friends recommending you, set up LINE properly first and get it verified. If you need people who are not here yet, tourists, expats, companies from Bangkok, then the website comes first and LINE is the button on it. Both cost money, and doing both badly at once is the most common mistake we are asked to repair.
Put LINE on the website, not the website on LINE
We would not build a business on a chat channel we do not own. LINE can change its rules, its pricing and its reach whenever it likes, and it has. Your website is the one address that stays yours, and every LINE button on it is a customer you keep. Doing it the other way round, with LINE as the only shopfront, means renting your entire customer base.
The site, with LINE where it belongs
Every site we build has the LINE button where a Thai customer expects it, and everything behind it still belongs to you.
See how we build websites