13 Best SMS Marketing Software - Pros, Cons & Pricing [2024]

SMS marketing is more and more becoming a norm.

Why?

Because everyone reads their text messages—and businesses recognize that, so they want to take advantage of the opportunity SMS provides.

But here’s the rub…

There’s now a lot of SMS marketing software out there.

How do you know which ones to compare against?

In this article, we’ve compiled 13 of the top SMS marketing software available.

Take a look so you can determine which one would be the best fit for your business.

But first, some of the basics…

What Is SMS Marketing Software?

SMS marketing software is software, typically offered online, that allows you to send and receive SMS messages on a mass basis.

With SMS marketing software, the messages you send on a mass basis are delivered to each recipient individually. In other words, each recipient will receive the message on their phones as if they were the only recipient.

This differs, then, from group messaging apps that are created more for personal messaging, such as WhatsApp or GroupMe.

Why Use SMS Marketing Software?

It’s commonly accepted and understood that SMS is one of the best ways to reach people.

(By some of the most recent data, SMS has an open rate of 55% and a “view rate” of 100%.)

Using a manual process is feasible for some very small businesses, and some email service providers offer SMS services—but an SMS marketing software gives the most user-friendly and scalable experience for engaging in SMS marketing.

Here are some ways that SMS marketing software makes SMS more feasible…

• Platforms designed for SMS—this means your experience of creating and sending out SMS marketing campaigns will be more user-friendly, since that’s what the platform is actually designed for.
• Robust options—an SMS marketing platform will give you robust options such as automated responses and triggered campaigns, so you can set up your marketing in a way that’s more efficient.
• Easy list management—SMS marketing software makes handling opt-in’s and opt-out’s breezy; when people opt in to your texts, they’re automatically added to your list, and when they opt out, they are automatically removed.
• Analytics—an SMS marketing platform provides online reporting so you can see helpful data on your messages and subscribers.

What all of this means is that a robust SMS marketing plan is not only possible but scalable as you grow in your business and your SMS efforts.

What Can SMS Marketing Software Do?

So what can SMS marketing software actually do?

Here’s a brief runthrough of some of the things you can do with an SMS marketing software…

• Send out text blasts
• Schedule text blasts for specific dates/times
• Program your SMS marketing efforts via an SMS API
• Create message templates to save for future use
• Set up automatically triggered responses for when people send text messages into your number
• Create automated drip campaigns
• Send out mobile survey questions
• Monitor and analyze multi-message campaigns of SMS messages
• Manage individual 1-on-1 conversations with your subscribers
• Manage contact data
• Organize your contact list into groups
• Load in contact lists from other sources
• Create opt-in keywords that make it easy for people to opt into your SMS marketing list by sending a text message
• Create web sign-up forms you can share online or embed on your website, to get more people loaded into your subscriber list
• Analyze reports to help you understand the effectiveness and impact of your SMS marketing campaigns

What to Look for in SMS Marketing Software

There are a lot of different SMS marketing software services out there.

But there are a few non-negotiables that you’ll want to make sure the SMS marketing service includes before you consider using it…

• User-friendly interface—look for a solution with an intuitive, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to set up campaigns, manage subscriber lists, and view analytics without excessive training.
  • ALTERNATIVELY (or ADDITIONALLY), a robust SMS API—if you want to have robust customization options, your best bet is to use a service that comes with a robust SMS API you can use to set up your SMS marketing service the way that you’d like it to be.
  • ALTERNATIVELY (or ADDITIONALLY), a user-friendly mobile app—a mobile app will allow you to manage your SMS marketing efforts on the go or when you don’t have access to a computer.
• Solid deliverability—if an SMS marketing software uses shortcuts or doesn’t follow all the carrier regulations on the back end, you may not see good delivery with the messages you send, so make sure the software offers solid delivery for your messages.
• Helpful and available customer support—an SMS marketing software may offer a decent product, but if the customer support is the pits, you won’t have a good experience.

If an SMS marketing software doesn’t have all of those elements, you’ll want to look elsewhere for a solution.

Regarding SMS Marketing Software Pricing…

One major question on top of everyone’s mind when researching a solution is pricing.

Here are a few points to keep in mind in regards to pricing…

Pricing Models

Most SMS platforms operate on a subscription basis.

You’ll pay a regular monthly or annual fee which will allow you to send a certain number of messages per month. (You can upgrade to a higher plan or purchase more credits if you run out.)

With this model, your unused messages may or may not roll over into subsequent months (depending on the policy of the SMS platform you choose).

Another somewhat common model is the “pay-as-you-go” model. With this option, you may pay a monthly phone number or maintenance fee, but other than that, you will pay for messaging credits as needed.

Another model (that’s rare, but exists) is a subscription-based model that’s focused on number of users. With this approach, you’ll pay a certain amount per user, and you may also pay an additional amount for messaging credits.

“Hidden” Fees

Be aware that with most SMS marketing platforms, the prices that they list for their plans don’t include everything you’ll need to pay.

You may also need to pay a regular phone number fee to maintain your phone number, and you may need to pay pass-through carrier fees in addition to the listed subscription fees (or message fees).

Keep that in mind when you’re researching pricing—you may need to do some digging or contact the company to determine the actual amount you’ll be paying.

13 SMS Marketing Software Solutions

Now that we’ve gone over the basics of what SMS marketing software is and does, let’s go over some specific solutions.

You can use this list to help with your own research in order to determine which software will work best for your own situation.

Mobile Text Alerts

Mobile Text Alerts is a straightforward SMS marketing platform and API service that aims to simplify text messaging for businesses.

Its web-based interface is designed to be user-friendly, allowing you to create text campaigns with just a few clicks. And its custom API allows you to program SMS services according to your needs. With either option, you can send out and automate text blasts, reminders, alerts, notifications and more to your entire subscriber list or segment it into groups.

One of Mobile Text Alerts' key strengths is scheduling capabilities. You can easily schedule texts to go out at specific dates/times so that your audience receives a message at the exact time you’d like them to receive it. The platform also provides tools for contact management, such as organizing subscribers into lists.

In terms of deliverability, Mobile Text Alerts follows best practices for mobile carrier requirements in order to achieve the best delivery possible. You can track real-time metrics like delivery statuses, clicks, and opt-outs within the reporting dashboard.

For extra capabilities, through its API or through its partnership with Zapier.com, Mobile Text Alerts integrates with popular services like MailChimp, Constant Contact, Salesforce and others. This allows you to sync your email lists and CRM data for a unified view of your contact database across multiple channels.

Also, unlike most SMS marketing software, the plans at Mobile Text Alerts involve no required added fees (many other platforms require carrier fees and/or number hosting fees).

Overall, it provides an effective messaging solution for businesses.

PRICING:

SlickText markets itself as providing text messaging capabilities to help you grow. The platform has the expected range of features - from basic text blasts to advanced automated campaigns (although automated flows are not available on the smallest plans).

With its automated messaging flows, you can create flexible multi-branch journeys for your subscribers based on their actions, interests, and real-time behaviors. For example, you can automatically send follow-ups for those who clicked a link in your messages.

Overall, SlickText combines affordability with a large feature set suitable for small businesses all the way up to enterprises requiring more text marketing automation capabilities.

PRICING:

Attentive

Attentive is a mobile messaging platform focused on commerce brands, particularly at the enterprise level. Presented as an “AI marketing platform,” it incorporates AI technology with SMS and email capabilities.

Attentive also offers personalization options for messaging journeys, so that you can customize messaging workflows based on customer activity.

While Attentive has both SMS and email capabilities and is known for its enterprise-level quality, some users report that the email functionality is limited.

PRICING:

Not provided.

SimpleTexting

SimpleTexting aims to provide an SMS marketing toolkit suitable for small businesses. It covers all the essentials you'd expect - mass text blasts, drip campaigns, scheduling, contact management and more.

Additionally, SimpleTexting is focused on making sure messaging is compliant with the wireless carriers and touts its integration capabilities. Incoming messages are also easy to see and respond to

Like Mobile Text Alerts, its team collaboration tools are particularly useful for companies wanting to provide text-based customer support. Multiple team members can receive and respond to incoming messages from a shared inbox interface.

SimpleTexting also provides a data collection tool you can use to help personalize your messages, as well as AI assistance for writing your texts.

The platform gives you the option to self-clean lists for any dead numbers. That way, you don’t have to waste messaging credits on illegitimate numbers.

PRICING:

Textmagic positions itself as a business texting platform that’s “really easy to use.” It’s meant to be a simple yet powerful SMS service suitable for businesses ranging from small- to medium-sized organizations.

It presents as a comprehensive service for implementing business text messaging.

In addition to SMS services, Textmagic also has an email and voice offering.

Some users express complaints about customer service.

PRICING:

While seeming to be primarily an email-first marketing automation platform for ecommerce brands, Klaviyo offers both SMS and push marketing as well. So as an omnichannel solution for ecommerce brands, it allows you to engage customers on multiple levels.

Klaviyo goes beyond an SMS-only platform as a more comprehensive marketing platform. It offers a marketing dashboard to help you manage and track your various marketing initiatives. It also incorporates AI to allow you to segment your prospects and customers based on data.

Klaviyo combines email, SMS messaging, and push notifications into unified customer profiles - which gives you a single view of all historical interactions across channels. This data gets fed back into Klaviyo's machine learning models to continually optimize your messaging timing, content, and channel selections.

Klaviyo is intended for retail, agencies, and enterprise-level brands and offers an API to allow users to program their own messaging initiatives. Another point to note is that Kalviyo gives you the ability to collect reviews for your business.

By some reports, the platform is so robust that it can be difficult to get started as the learning curve can be steep. And while some report good experiences with customer support, others report support issues.

PRICING:

EZ Texting seeks to provide an all-in-one text marketing platform suitable for small businesses across different industries - from photography to apparel. Its features cover the typical SMS marketing platform offerings, such as sending text and multimedia blasts, contact management options, and 2-way texting.

Unlike most SMS platforms, EZ Texting offers a unique Shutterstock integration that helps users pull stock images from Shutterstock’s database. They also offer a unique image editing option as well.

While EZ Texting provides a good range of messaging capabilities out-of-the-box, it also offers direct integrations with Constant Contact, Mailchimp, and Squarespace, among other services. Plus, it includes an API to build even more customized SMS applications and journeys tailored to your unique needs.

Overall, EZ Texting users comment on its ease of use and seem to have a broadly positive experience, though some comment that it seems too expensive.

PRICING:

Twilio is a cloud communications platform that provides APIs and developer tools for building customized voice, messaging, video and other communications channels and workflows. For SMS marketing specifically, Twilio's APIs enable programmatically sending and receiving text messages on a scalable level.

One of Twilio's biggest strengths is its developer focus, providing extensive documentation, code samples, helper libraries and implementation guides. That way, developers can build and integrate in regards to the specific SMS use case that they are interested in.

Since it’s a multi-channel tool, Twilio also allows you to send WhatsApp messages, engage in voice calls, and send emails, so it’s more versatile than many other SMS platforms. It also has robust reporting logs that help you troubleshoot any issues you run into.

The Twilio platform takes a usage-based pricing approach, which can end making it low-cost. However, pricing is a bit confusing as they charge not only base messaging fees but carrier fees and fees for the capability to include trackable links.

While Twilio requires more technical skills compared to no-code SMS platforms, it provides good customization capabilities for developers building tailored SMS solutions embedded within their software products and business workflows. Some customers do report bad customer service experiences, however.

PRICING:

Heymarket takes a conversational, AI-assisted approach to SMS marketing. While other SMS platforms primarily emphasize the bulk SMS aspect, Heymarket focuses primarily on tailored 1-on-1 conversations with your audience.

Customers seem to find Heymarket to be a good solution in terms of communication with their teams. They also have an overall positive opinion of Heymarket’s customer service.

Pricing is more confusing than some other SMS platforms, with plans being based on how many users you want to have the capability to send messages. In addition to the user fee, you can select a messaging package for how many texts you think you’ll send on a per-month basis.

The overall impression of Heymarket seems to be that it is a good product with good customer service for small- and medium-sized businesses—particularly when using it for individual conversations with users.

PRICING:

Podium is a multi-channel messaging platform that brings together various communication touchpoints like webchat, SMS/MMS messaging, social messaging, voice and more into a single solution. It also emphasizes AI capabilities as an important way for you to communicate with customers so you can grow sales.

Podium aims to streamline communications for both retail and service-based businesses. Its marketing tools also include features like AI support agents, the ability to request mobile reviews, and the ability to send automated messages.

The review collection tool is a major benefit. For example, your business could automatically text customers after their appointment with a link to leave feedback and an online review.

The biggest drawback with Podium is that since it’s a multi-channel solution, the cost is far more prohibitive than SMS-focused platforms. Users such as you may already have solutions for many of their communication channels, so you may not be ready to make a change and shell out the cash.

While Podium may be a good tool that can help businesses get more reviews and optimize their communications, since SMS marketing isn’t its only (or even its primary) feature, it may not be quite what you’re looking for.

PRICING:

Like most SMS platforms, SalesMsg enables teams to use text messaging as part of their outreach and engagement with prospects, leads, and customers. It offers both SMS and calling and provides integration capabilities with popular services like HubSpot and ActiveCampaign.

Users find SalesMsg easy to use and set up. Users who are integrating with HubSpot seem to find it especially useful.

One unique feature that SalesMsg offers is ringless voicemail. While this isn’t related to SMS, it allows you to drop an audio message directly into recipients’ voicemail boxes. It also has IVR capabilities to help you automate the calls you receive.

Overall, SalesMsg provides an SMS and voice calling solution that’s particularly effective for HubSpot users, at a reasonable price point. One potential downside, depending on the type of tool you’re looking for, is that it’s not solely focused on SMS, so the calling features may or may not prove to be useful to you.

PRICING:

Textedly brands itself as an SMS marketing solution for businesses to run effective text messaging campaigns across multiple use cases. Its capabilities correspond to similar SMS platforms, covering everything from sending bulk promotional texts and alerts to managing inbound message flows and automated messaging workflows.

In addition to the typical SMS offerings, Textedly also has a “text-to-pay” feature, which allows you to ask for payments via SMS. They also offer a “reviews” option to help you collect more reviews for your business.

Platform adoption appears to be easy and intuitive, and users report positive experiences with customer service. Additionally, they have a focus on compliance to help make sure your messages see the delivery you’re hoping for.

Overall, Textedly aims to provide a well-rounded and versatile SMS solution suitable for businesses across different industries and doesn’t appear to have any glaring issues.

PRICING:

Narrowing It Down to 5 Options

In all reality, most of the SMS marketing software mentioned above are very similar in terms of what they offer.

Several of them have similar features and when it comes down to it, there’s not much difference between them.

So we can simplify things by taking some representative examples and narrowing it down to 5 categories of SMS platforms that hold more substantial differences.

Here are those examples…

The SMS-Specific Platform: Mobile Text Alerts

Mobile Text Alerts represents the “standard” SMS platform.

This platform and others like it are perfect for those who want a simple yet robust SMS platform & API at a reasonable price.

It’s flexible, not financially prohibitive, and out-of-the-box ready while also being customizable.

(Bonus for Mobile Text Alerts specifically: its listed prices are inclusive of carrier fees, so you don’t have surprise charges.)

The Developer-Centric Service: Twilio

Twilio represents and SMS service that’s focused on being developer-centric rather than on having a user-friendly platform that’s ready for you to use.

The primary benefit of this type of service includes the ability to program and customize it to your specific needs.

These types of services may also be more used to enterprise-level customers and traffic, which could be a consideration if you have a large database of contacts and/or will be sending large numbers of messages.

However, you won’t have the benefit of an out-of-the-box platform or mobile app readily available. (And you may not get to have as individualized of customer service.)

The Email & SMS Marketing Platform: Attentive

Some platforms, such as Attentive, offer both SMS and email marketing services.

These types of platforms can be useful if you don’t already have an email service provider that you’re happy with.

You may find, however, that services tend to be strong in one area or the other (SMS or email) but not particularly in both.

Also, costs may be more prohibitive since it’s a more robust tool than only SMS—so you may en up paying for something you don’t need.

The Multichannel Marketing Platform: Podium

Other platforms, such as Podium, go beyond SMS and even email to be an even more robust multichannel marketing tool.

As with the “email & SMS” example above, these types of platforms could be useful if you don’t have solutions for different marketing channels and you want something more all-in-one.

And also as with the “email & SMS” example, you may find tools like these to be too robust so as to be overkill. Thus, you may be paying for a lot of features you don’t need.

The Customer Service Platform: Heymarket

Heymarket is an example of an SMS service that seems to cater more toward a customer service use case (although mass SMS is still an option).

This type of service can obviously be great if you’re looking to primarily use SMS for 1-on-1 conversations.

However, most SMS marketing will be done on more of a mass scale. So when considering an SMS platform, be mindful of the emphasis of the software you’re considering.

SMS Marketing Software FAQ

Here are some more answers to frequently asked questions regarding SMS marketing software…

How Much Does SMS Marketing Cost?

SMS marketing costs can vary widely depending on the type of software you use and the volume of messages you’ll be sending.

To give a point of reference, Mobile Text Alerts would be on the lower end, and the cost is a minimum of $20 per month for up to 500 messages per month.

One thing to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t expect the costs to be comparable on a per-message basis to email, because the processing fees that SMS marketing providers need to pay are much higher than what it costs to send an email.

However, although SMS costs more than email on a per-message basis, the higher open rates and engagement make it worth it for many businesses.

Also, generally speaking, you will get more discounted pricing for higher volumes of messages.

How Does SMS Marketing Work?

The process for SMS marketing is similar to email:

• You get subscribers to opt in (your SMS marketing software will give you various ways that you can do this)
• You automate or manually send out messages either via an online platform or an API
• Your subscribers will receive messages individually on their phones (even if you send out a mass message)
• You can monitor results via reporting tools
• People can opt out by replying with the word STOP to any of your text messages

Is SMS Marketing Effective?

Yes!

According to the most recent data, 55% of people open their text messages and 100% of people view their text messages.

So even if your recipients don’t actually open your text, they are almost guaranteed to at least see it.

In other words, people pay a lot more attention to their texts than they do their emails, social posts, or other methods of communication.

How to Collect Phone Numbers for SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing software solutions typically provide you with a few different ways you can collect phone numbers for your marketing efforts:

1. Text-to-join keywords: People can text in a particular word to your account’s phone number, and their phone will be automatically subscribed to receive your text messages.
2. Web sign-up form: People can fill out a form online in order to be added to your subscriber list.
3. QR code: People can join your subscriber list by scanning an automatically-generated QR code and then sending in the pre-filled message that appears on their phone.
4. Your own means: If you have your own way to collect phone numbers (such as your CRM database or a form on your site), you can continue to use that and can load your contacts into SMS marketing software via integrations, an SMS API, or a spreadsheet import.

How to Use SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing has several beneficial use cases.

You can use it for purposes such as:

• Special promotions
• Reminders
• Updates
• Announcements
• Product launches
• Cart abandonment follow-ups
• Lead nurturing

The list could go on.

Basically, any potentially beneficial scenario of communication with a prospect, lead, or customer could be an opportunity to use SMS.

Is SMS Marketing Legal? (Best Practices for Compliance)

Yes, SMS marketing is legal.

The legal requirements used to be more stringent, but in the past couple of years they’ve laxed up a bit.

There are a few best practices you’ll want to keep in mind, however, so that you can maintain a good standing with the mobile carriers and therefore get the best message delivery possible:

• Make sure you get clear opt-in consent from your subscribers
• Make it easy and obvious for people to know how to opt out
• Submit registration documents (these should be provided for you by your SMS marketing software provider)
• Don’t send objectionable content related to controversial topics such as sex, alcohol, drugs (including marijuana), firearms, gambling, and loans—if your business pertains to topics such as these, you’ll need to be careful not to specifically mention these items in your messaging

Which SMS Marketing Software Is Right for You?

Now that we’ve gone through the in’s and out’s of SMS marketing software and provided several examples of different services you could explore.

So which SMS marketing software is the best fit for you?

There are so many choices that it can all be overwhelming—so if you’re looking for a place to start, get a free Mobile Text Alerts trial (no credit card required) and you can test it out for yourself.

Go ahead and try Mobile Text Alerts out now.