The Best Text Message Marketing Services of 2024

In decades past, newspaper advertisements and television commercials may have been the best way to get your products in front of customers, but modern marketing requires businesses to think beyond traditional methods. Companies today need to meet consumers where they are: on their phones. With text message marketing services, you can interact with potential customers and existing clients through their mobile device, sending promotional SMS and MMS messages, answering customer service questions and even accepting payments.

If our top recommendations above don’t meet your text message marketing needs, there are alternative platforms on the market that may be a better fit. Here’s what stood out to us about these other solutions.

Twilio

Twilio is ideal for businesses seeking a customizable omnichannel communications platform that includes not just text messaging abilities but also voice, email and chat tools. The API and SDK documentation for the Twilio Flex platform will enable your developers to create a solution tailored to your company’s exact needs. At a cost of $150 per user per month, this is an expensive choice; however, you can opt to sign up just for pay-as-you-go text messaging at highly affordable rates. Find out more in our full Twilio Flex review.

SimpleTexting

We love that SimpleTexting bolsters its platform with valuable artificial intelligence and analytics tools, allowing businesses to generate text copy, drill down into campaign performance and more. There are no contracts, and you can pay a small fee to have the vendor’s professional programmers custom-build the integrations you want — an opportunity no other provider we evaluated offers. See our SimpleTexting review for a breakdown of monthly costs based on message count.

Thryv

Service businesses will find Thryv’s Business Center platform valuable in the way it combines text message and email marketing, social media management and a CRM in one solution. Beyond the texting capabilities, we especially like the tools that facilitate appointment setting, payment processing and online local listings. You’ll also get access to the vendor’s Command Center, which provides a centralized inbox for all customer communication. With unlimited 24/7 support and an add-on for HIPAA compliance, this is a multifaceted product blending marketing and sales. Learn more about Thryv.

Podium

If you’re looking to enhance local client relationships, you’ll love that Podium allows unlimited one-on-one text messages. We further appreciate that the platform integrates with leading customer review sites like Google and Facebook so you can ask customers to join your text message marketing list after they leave a review, a great tactic to drive retention and brand loyalty. With the AI tools included on higher-tier plans, you can quickly generate responses to reviews and text context for messaging campaigns. Get all the details in our comprehensive Podium review.

TextMarks

TextMarks specializes in helping transit agencies provide riders with timely updates via text message. Passengers need only text a keyword and the number associated with their bus, rail or streetcar stop to receive real-time, up-to-the-minute information on delays and cancelations. While this service is free for riders and doesn’t require a mobile app, transportation companies are charged a minimum of $199 per month, plus text messaging fees, and may require help from outside developers to set the system up. Find out more about TextMarks.

Text message marketing is a way of promoting your company through text messages. Using a highly rated text message marketing service, you can send SMS and MSM text messages to individual customers, subscriber lists or sub-groups. For marketing purposes, these messages could highlight an upcoming sale, offer the recipient a discount or request participation in a customer survey.

That said, text message marketing platforms can also be used for other purposes, such as delivering customer service. Programs that enable two-way communication allow a business and a customer to text back and forth with each other, with the company answering questions and addressing concerns. Other uses for text messages include SMS payments and shipping updates.

Virtually all businesses can benefit from using text message marketing, but the way in which it’s used may vary depending on your industry. For example, healthcare providers may use a HIPAA-compliant platform to send text messages with appointment reminders. Restaurants can send reservation confirmations, while retail stores might announce an in-demand clothing item is back in stock.

EZ Texting provides detailed statistics on how each text message campaign performs. (Source: EZ Texting)

The prime benefit of text message marketing is, of course, the chance to communicate directly with customers, but using these services comes with other advantages, too.

High open rate

SMS marketing has a much higher open rate than email marketing, so most recipients will see your text messages. If you include a link to your website in your text, this can also lead to site traffic and conversions.

Cost-effective marketing

Text messaging is a low-cost way to market your business. The number of texts included in monthly plans is often quite generous and above what most companies need, and a few pay-as-you-go options are available, too.

Ability to be where the customer is

Nearly all Americans carry a cell phone that they check multiple times a day, so text message marketing ensures you can reach your customers and stay top of mind wherever they are.

Stronger customer relationships

You can use text message marketing to personalize your outreach to different customers, offer special discounts that engender loyalty and study analytics data that helps you optimize future campaigns. The end result is a stronger relationship with your customers as you get to know their preferences better.

The cost of your text message marketing service will depend on whether you only want basic texting abilities or also access to other features, like SlickText’s survey tools. (Source: SlickText)

Prices for text message marketing services vary by provider. Some charge per text, but most charge by the month, with the latter fee covering a certain number of texts and keywords for campaigns depending on the plan you select. For example, for $29 per month, SlickText will allow you to send up to 500 messages. In contrast, Textline’s base rate is $59.97 per month with no text credits included; instead, there are varying rates for sending and receiving SMS and MMS messages.

Adding more users, keywords, phone numbers and features may incur additional one-time or monthly charges. We recommend making a list of exactly what you want to do with text message marketing and asking providers to quote you for a package that includes those tools and functions. Note that free plans are available with some vendors, but they are extremely limited in what you can do with them.

To choose the right text message marketing service for your business, we recommend following the steps below.

1. Identify your business’s needs and research the market.

The first step when searching for a text message marketing service should begin before your actual search: The very first thing to do is make a list of your business’s needs. What do you want your ideal text message marketing platform to be able to do? What objectives are you seeking to achieve? What features are must-haves and what can you live without? How much can you afford to pay each month and what budget constraints do you need to keep in mind?

Armed with the answers to those questions, you should start scouring the market for text message marketing services that meet your parameters. Consider which of our best picks and alternative options above have the features you’re seeking at the price point you’re eyeing. Select up to five programs to explore further.

2. Participate in vendor demos and free trials.

For the five or fewer text message marketing services now on your shortlist, contact each vendor to set up demos. These are sales presentations where company representatives, yes, will try to sell you on their platform but, more importantly, will give you an up-close look at how the software works. As the term suggests, the providers will demonstrate their service’s functionality, point out its strengths and discuss how it can aid your business.

Based on those demos, pick up to three services you’d like to test. Almost every vendor offers a free trial, which is your opportunity to try the platform yourself. Use the program to the fullest extent the trial allows — build a contact list, create and send SMS and MSM messages, set up workflow automations and generate analytic reports. As you do, make note of which features were easy to use, how intuitive the platform’s navigation was and whether you needed support from the provider’s customer service team.

Following this hands-on testing, try to narrow your service list down to the two platforms you like best.

3. Study customer reviews.

Now that you’ve tried a few services and decided on your top two choices, continue researching those vendors on independent customer review sites like Trustpilot. As you read testimonials from real users, consider whether their experiences match up with your testing. Also make note of any customer service complaints or praise. Keep this information in mind as you move on to the final steps below.

4. Request and compare custom quotes.

While almost all text message marketing services advertise their prices, negotiate with your top two vendors to see if they will customize a deal for you. Explain how you’ve tested their program and are interested in moving forward, but you need the package and price to be right before you can do so. Ask about any discounts or fees that can be waived. Tell one provider what the other is promising and see if they’re willing to match the offer — or do better.

5. Make your final decision.

Thanks to the information you acquired during every step of the buying journey, you’re now ready to make a purchase decision. To put it simply, go with whichever of the two vendors is offering the best value for your dollars and whose platform you believe best meets your business’s needs.

There may still be a learning curve as you implement the program and it’s unlikely you’ll find a service that ticks every single one of your boxes. But you should be able to make an educated choice to suit your business for the near-term and, hopefully, long-term future. Should you end up with buyer’s remorse, take comfort in knowing you can switch to your runner-up’s service or even start your research anew.

The best contact management tools, like those from Textline, let you tag and segment subscribers based on different groups and characteristics. (Source: Textline)

High-quality text message marketing services do much more than send texts. They can help you find your target audiences, engage with them and track how they interact with your messages.

Consider the features below, deciding which ones will be most valuable to your business. Then, look for vendors who offer the tools you want at a cost your business can afford.

• Message templates: Templates for your most common message types can save you a lot of time. Choose a provider with templates you can use as inspiration for your campaigns. The platform should also allow you to create and save your own templates.
• Multimedia messaging: MMS messages allow you to send pictures, videos and audio clips as well as up to 1,600 characters of text. Not all providers offer MMS messages, so check with each vendor before signing up for their service.
• Scheduling: Many systems allow you to schedule text messages in advance to your target audiences. It’s best practice to plan campaigns weeks ahead, and scheduling allows you to set up these future campaigns and make sure they go out to customers at the optimal times.
• Contact management: If your contact list is full of old numbers, customers won’t receive your messages and your campaigns won’t succeed. The best text message marketing solutions make it easy to add contacts, import existing lists and scrub lists to ensure they only include active numbers.
• Free incoming text messages: It’s important to show customers you’re open to dialogue and allow them to respond to your messages. Most highly rated services don’t charge you when a customer texts you back.
• Customization: You can make your campaigns more successful by personalizing each text message to its recipient. Look for services that allow you to target your messages based on data like a customer’s full name, birthday and ZIP code.
• Drip campaigns: Drip campaigns are automated customer journeys with actions triggered by conditions you set. For example, you can set up a workflow where a welcome text automatically goes out when a customer subscribes to your message list and a workflow where they receive a thank-you message when they make their first purchase.
• Analytics and reports: You can improve your future campaign performance with a texting platform that tracks responses and other metrics, showing you what went well and what didn’t with your current and past campaigns.
• AI: Many text message software solutions now include generative AI to help you compose marketing campaigns and formulate automatic replies to customer queries. This can save marketing and customer service teams a lot of time.
• Automation: The best text message marketing companies offer automation tools, which are helpful if you want to send the same text message regularly, such as recurring reminders.
• Integrations: Most text message platforms can integrate with other business software, such as the best email marketing services like Mailchimp and Constant Contact, allowing you to sync data and functions seamlessly. [See our Constant Contact review.]
• Mobile keywords: The system should allow you to create multiple keywords to reflect different tastes and preferences among your customers. A new subscriber can choose the keyword that best reflects the products and services they want to receive messages about.
• Surveys: The best services make it easy to gather customer feedback with text-based polls and surveys.
• Text-to-landline: This feature lets you send and receive text messages through your business landline phone number with no changes to your voice service.
• Payment processing: We love platforms that allow businesses to accept payments via SMS messages. You can text customers the link to a secure payment page, a convenient option for both merchants and their clients.

In addition to the specific features above, Sidharth Ramsinghaney, director of corporate strategy and operations at Twilio, advised buyers to focus on usability and scalability when evaluating platforms.

“The interface should not require a lot of time invested in learning it,” he said.

Pointing out that Amazon “uses a scalable SMS marketing service for their big peak shopping seasons … to send millions of branded text messages to their recipients,” Ramsinghaney said business owners should ensure their chosen service is “capable of growing with you and your business, and can start handling a lot more messages over time.”

Jamal Miller, senior director of product marketing at Mailchimp said that when deciding on a text message marketing service, it’s most important to choose a solution that “allows [the user] to orchestrate SMS with other marketing channels from one tool. Without that integration, business owners would have to contend with different logins, different types of software and inconsistent branding and designs across different elements of one campaign.”

“Easy opt-in and opt-out and regulation compliance are also critical for protecting customers,” said Miller, adding, “Ultimately, you should be able to consider your SMS marketing platform as a partner you can trust with your customers’ data and [that] will support you when needed.”

Textline boasts features that help ensure compliance with HIPAA and other legal regulations. (Source: Textline)

When using a text message marketing service, be sure to follow text message marketing laws and best practices.

“Text message marketing is a fun way to reach people but you want to stay on the right side of the law so you don’t get in trouble and so your customers can trust you,” said Ramsinghaney, who recommended only using “marketing services that put compliance first and provide tools for opt-in and opt-out list management.”

Ramsinghaney further stressed the importance of educating your team on the latest regulations, like those below.

Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

The TCPA is overseen by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. It outlines the laws you must abide by when collecting contacts and sending text messages. Not everything in the TCPA applies to text message marketing, but you should review the regulations specific to texting to ensure you comply.

“If you fail to comply, you can be sued and receive penalties in the form of fines per text sent,” said Wilson.

One TCPA requirement is that you get permission from each contact before you send text messages to them. Another is that you only send texts between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. (in the recipient’s time zone, not yours).

CAN-SPAM Act

The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, designed by the Federal Trade Commission, prohibits sending unsolicited email and text messages that contain explicit or offensive content. The law also mandates advertising messages be readily identifiable as such and have clear opt-out options. Additionally, the law forbids sending marketing messages without consent. However, whether any given message is subject to the CAN-SPAM Act depends in part on whether it is considered commercial content (like an advertisement) or transactional content (like an appointment reminder).

Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

The CTIA and MMA guide companies on the appropriate use of text message marketing to consumers. Although these guidelines are not laws, they are considered best practices. Some of the recommendations include getting the consumer’s opt-in approval before sending messages to them, providing an easy mechanism to unsubscribe and not using the term “free” unless what you’re offering is truly free to the end user.

Campaign Registry

In recent years, consumers have been plagued by spam text messages. To address this, the Campaign Registry was established by the major cellular network operators, including Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T. Their goal was to stop spam text messages so that, as a channel of communication, it would retain and strengthen the trust of consumers. Now, before any company can send a text message marketing campaign via a 10-digit-long code (10DLC), they must be on the Campaign Registry.

To apply, you must first provide information about your company, including its brand name, type of business, address, website address, company size and contact details. You also need to share why you want to use texting, the type of content you want to send out (including sample messages) and how you’ll manage subscribers opting in and out. Once registered, you’ll get higher deliverability on your text campaigns and be able to send more messages. There is a fee of $15 a month to stay on the service and all phone numbers from which campaigns are sent out must be on the Registry. Your text message marketing platform provider will normally assist you in this process.

To determine the best text message marketing services on the market, our team of marketing experts and software analysts evaluated an initial list of 18 platforms. After narrowing our list down to 12, we chose five text message marketing services as our top recommendations. Our experts and analysts studied each solution’s functionality and evaluated the programs on nearly 45 factors.

These factors were weighted differently in our overall conclusion. The weights were determined based on how much business owners prioritize these criteria when shopping for business software and services and making purchasing decisions.

• Pricing (30%): Our experts and analysts compared and contrasted each vendor’s plans, judging which packages offered the best bang for your buck. They took into account monthly subscription fees, inclusive text credits, keyword allowances and add-on costs for services like additional phone numbers.
• Features (25%): We looked for standard text message marketing functions like incoming and outgoing texting abilities, MMS options, message templates, contact management and scheduling tools. We also assessed the available integrations and awarded extra points for advanced services, like automated workflows, AI-powered tools for generating content and text-to-pay capabilities.
  
• Ease of Use (20%): We tested the messaging platforms ourselves, gauging each solution’s learning curve, user-friendliness and customization options. We also considered whether the program was accessible via a browser-based app or required a software download, offered API access and had a comprehensive mobile app.
  
• Customer Service (15%): We evaluated the range of customer service options, including whether phone assistance was provided with all package tiers. We also examined each vendor’s online resources for businesses interested in self-guided help.
  
• Expert Analysis (10%): Given that our marketing experts know and understand text message marketing services better than anyone, their personal insights from years of experience and hands-on testing were also considered when deciding our best picks.

Based on these criteria, we not only determined which text message marketing services our readers could trust but also the ways in which each solution could best serve different business needs. Some programs were better at certain tasks than others or more suited to a particular type of company. These takeaways informed the “Best for” use cases you see on this page.

To learn more about our methodology, see our full editorial process.