SimpleTexting Review and Pricing

Why We Chose SimpleTexting for Small Businesses 

Small companies use business texting to reach prospects and customers and create relationships that can increase sales and loyalty. SimpleTexting is an excellent platform for these goals. It’s extremely user-friendly and includes a wide range of valuable features that can help small businesses maximize the power of texting. 

SimpleTexting offers various subscription plans at different price points, so you can pay for the message volume that fits your company’s size and customer base. As your marketing needs change, you can easily switch to a higher or lower volume plan directly from the platform. We especially love that almost every feature is included with all plans, so even businesses on a tight budget get access to SimpleTexting’s standout features, like unlimited keywords, automated responders and text surveys. Many competitors restrict these tools to expensive premium plans designed for larger businesses. 

Connecting to your other small business software is easy through Zapier. We appreciate that, for a fee, SimpleTexting will also assign its team of programmers the task of creating fully customized integrations unique to your business. For its price, features, flexibility and customer service, SimpleTexting is our pick for the best text message marketing platform for small businesses.

Ease of Use 

SimpleTexting is exceptionally easy to use. The image above shows the platform’s easily navigable in-browser dashboard. The left navigation menu has links to your inbox, campaigns, autoresponders, keywords, apps and contacts. Beneath those are links to analytics, integrations and settings, where you can add new team members and toll-free numbers.

SimpleTexting’s user interface is particularly appealing. New users won’t have any trouble understanding the platform’s functions. For example, to launch a new campaign, select Campaigns from the left navigation bar and choose New campaign. You’ll see the following screen:

We like that you can access templates directly in the message field, shorten URLs (to give you more characters to play with) and add custom fields, such as someone’s name, to personalize your messages. Choose your list (or lists), access the excellent AI function to help craft your message and schedule your campaign. 

It’s also easy to migrate contacts from another messaging platform or add them manually. Create and name a new list within the Contacts section. If you’re importing contacts, your file will need a header row, so SimpleTexting can correctly map the data. Next, select your newly created list, agree to SimpleTexting’s terms and import your contacts. Include as much contact information as possible during the import process to allow maximum personalization and segmentation options later. Similar to opt-in email marketing, subscribers will receive a free text message to confirm their interest in receiving your text messages.

SimpleTexting Features

SimpleTexting’s features include the expected, like keywords and segmentation, and the extra-appealing, such as custom-built integrations and audience engagement tools.

Inbox History and Two-Way Interaction

You can see all customer messages from your inbox, including all previous and ongoing conversations with every client. To start a new conversation, select the button in the middle of the screen. You can add emojis and links to your message. We like how easily you can implement templates without leaving the current screen. You can also create templates from existing messages to save time later. 

We were impressed with how easy SimpleTexting makes it to conduct two-way conversations with customers. Replies show up automatically in your inbox and can be filtered by status or time received. You can assign a conversation to a team member and leave an internal note to help provide the best service. Messages can be sent immediately or scheduled for later, so you can answer questions promptly, pitch a particular product or service or build client relationships — all critical components of increasing sales with business text messages. Businesses that receive numerous customer replies will appreciate that incoming SMS messages are free.

SimpleTexting allows you to declutter your dashboard by closing resolved conversations or snoozing messages so they won’t show up until you’re ready to handle them. This makes unanswered or unresolved threads more visible. We appreciate the degree of control you can apply to your inbox to determine what messages appear.

Personalized Messaging

We like that SimpleTexting’s unlimited custom fields help you grow customer relationships with personalized messages. The platform already includes fields for name, email and birthday, but you can easily collect other information, such as locations and preferences, with the Data Collection tool. This functionality allows you to send targeted messages to the right customers. Plus, you can include personal details in the copy, making recipients feel like the message was meant just for them. 

SimpleTexting also lets you add notes to each customer’s profile, so whenever you conduct one-on-one texting, you have all their relevant personal details at your fingertips. It’s another great tool to help show your customers that your business values them.

AI-Powered SMS and MMS Campaigns

SimpleTexting’s platform includes all the essential features to create SMS and MMS text messaging marketing campaigns. You can quickly set up recurring campaigns, drip campaigns and audience engagement drives. Plus, with AI Assist, you’ll always have compelling copy that closes the deal. 

The AI-powered text generation tool creates five message options based on your prompt. You can also use the tool to rewrite your messages for a specific tone, like formal or short and sweet. Generating messages in seconds makes it even easier to run A/B tests to see what copy works best for future engagement.

Automated Responses

We appreciate that SimpleTexting allows businesses to set different autoresponses for certain types of incoming messages. Autoresponses can be programmed to send whenever a contact subscribes to your list. You can personalize messages to include the customer’s name and set response times to acknowledge their sign-up and continue to engage them periodically through drip campaigns. We especially love that you can set delivery windows so messages never go out at inopportune times. 

You can use automations for away messages when you’re out of the office or for appointment reminders via Zapier and Google Calendar integrations. SimpleTexting also lets you set up triggers, or sub-keywords, that send out a preset message whenever a customer texts a specific word or phrase. Triggers can be used to automatically provide information like store hours or a link to a menu. They can also send automatic responses to common customer questions.

Audience Engagement

SimpleTexting has several features designed to engage your current audience and grow your subscriber base. Many other platforms we reviewed either lack these features or offer them only as paid add-ons. These tools include text-to-vote surveys or polls and text-to-win contests. Beyond building a loyal customer base, these tools help you gather useful customer information for future marketing efforts.  

We especially liked SimpleTexting’s birthday text function, which lets you invite people to text you with their date of birth. An autoresponse will go out acknowledging receipt. They’ll receive a “happy birthday” text from you on their special day, perhaps with a special offer or coupon, helping to boost engagement and loyalty.

Custom-Built Integrations

Compared to its competitors, SimpleTexting’s built-in integrations are quite limited, but it does include popular tools like Mailchimp and Zapier. While smaller businesses might not need to integrate with many business solutions at first, as they grow, they may come to rely on more tools. 

While Zapier is an option, we like that SimpleTexting makes it easy for expanding businesses by offering integration assistance. For $49 a month, SimpleTexting will sync your contacts between the platform and other software, like Constant Contact and Wix. For SimpleTexting users on plans higher than $549 per month, the company will create custom integrations tailored to your business. However, there’s a $1,000 setup fee and a $199 monthly cost.

Analytics

SimpleTexting’s comprehensive analytics dashboard shows the number of responses and unsubscribes to individual campaigns, autoresponders and API messages against the number of text messages sent. You can choose the time frame for which you want the analytics function to create statistics. We appreciate that you can also monitor subscriber growth over time, broken down by list, segment, keyword, web form and clients shared with Mailchimp.

We like SimpleTexting’s ability to measure campaign performance according to the individual team members responsible for specific campaigns. This function helps evaluate and measure employee performance and is another unique feature that differentiates this product from competitors.

Mobile App

SimpleTexting’s mobile app helps you use its text messaging services on the go. Unlike many competitors, the mobile app offers the same functionality as the full platform. It also benefits from a well-designed, user-driven interface that’s simple to navigate — more reasons why SimpleTexting stands out for small businesses.

SimpleTexting Pricing

SimpleTexting’s pricing is based on the number of texts you want to send per month. We like that messaging, contact management and support services are available to all clients regardless of their plan.

There are no contracts, and you can move up and down the following service plans monthly:

Note the following additional pricing factors: 

• If you prefer a local number, you’ll pay an extra $10 per month on top of your plan fee, plus a one-time carrier registration fee of $4. 
• Businesses that pay annually receive a 20 percent discount. 
• SimpleTexting offers custom pricing for businesses that need more than 50,000 messages a month. These clients also receive personalized onboarding and a dedicated customer success manager.
• If you want any plan with a short code, you must speak with the sales team.
• Each plan includes three user seats; additional users cost $20 per month per seat.
• Additional numbers cost $10 per month.
• Unused credits roll over to the next month but expire after 30 days. 
• You can try out SimpleTexting with a 14-day free trial. 
• A 30-day money-back guarantee is also available for extra peace of mind.

Implementation and Onboarding 

SimpleTexting setup is quick and straightforward. You’ll get an email from the vendor’s team a few minutes after registering, complete with tips on using the platform’s most popular features.

As the product’s name suggests, inviting employees to join the system and send texts is, well, simple. Go to Settings and select Team > Invite Team Member. You can designate each person as a member or manager (managers can alter platform settings). You can also decide whether a new team member can access all contacts or just contacts from assigned lists.

There is no software to download, making implementation effortless. However, you can’t configure the dashboard’s functionality or appearance, which is a drawback shared by every text message marketing platform we reviewed.

One aspect we appreciate is the speed with which SimpleTexting rolls off numbers. You can often start using the system the same day with a local number, and the company handles compliance.

Customer Support 

SimpleTexting’s support options are relatively generous compared to some rivals that offer support only during standard business hours.

• Chat support: SimpleTexting’s customer service team is available via web chat from 8 a.m. to midnight Eastern time Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on weekends. If an agent isn’t available, a chatbot can handle most basic inquiries. 
• Phone support: You can also call the vendor between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET on weekdays and 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET on weekends. 
• Online resources: Over 180 articles are available in the company’s self-service knowledge base, separated into 17 categories ranging from getting started to settings and billing. The answers are clear and straightforward, and the search function makes it easy to find the information you’re looking for. However, the front end would benefit from better on-screen organization and perhaps a list of links to the top 20 most requested articles to save customers time.

Limitations 

SimpleTexting is a solid choice for small businesses exploring text marketing, but a few things may concern them:

• Lack of intermediate offerings: While we like that SimpleTexting provides flexible, fully featured plans, it would better serve growing small businesses if there were more mid-tier options. The current plan structure includes some large jumps in monthly message limits. For instance, a business moving from 3,000 to 7,500 texts per month would need to scale up quickly, which may not be realistic for many teams. If your business needs more intermediate options, read our review of Textedly, which offers 13 different plans for businesses of all sizes.
• Minimal integrations: We were disappointed that SimpleTexting offers so few built-in integrations. While you can connect other apps with Zapier, this might be challenging for some small business owners. We appreciate that SimpleTexting offers custom-built integrations — something other platforms lack — but the $1,000 setup fee and additional monthly charge could be prohibitive for many businesses on a budget. Check out our review of Campaigner if more extensive e-commerce and social media integrations are a priority.
• Help center navigation could be smoother: Although SimpleTexting’s help center is thorough, it would benefit from easier navigation and better integration with the dashboard. We’d like to see SimpleTexting add an AI-powered question bar to the dashboard that pulls personalized answers from the help center. Read our review of Textline — a service that can handle complex communication needs — to learn about its extensive, well-organized online help resources.

Methodology

We spent several weeks researching the top text message marketing services to determine the best solutions for various business segments. As part of our analysis, we looked at ease of use, features, pricing, customer support and integrations. To determine which text messaging service is best for small businesses specifically, we paid particular attention to affordability, scalability, included features, support availability and ease of use.

Bottom Line

We recommend SimpleTexting for …

• Small businesses that want to use text message marketing to build a customer base and grow sales.
• Companies looking for automated actions and customer engagement features without added fees.
• Organizations that need to conduct SMS marketing from a mobile app.

We don’t recommend SimpleTexting for … 

• Larger businesses with more complex communication needs.
• Businesses that need flexible pricing tiers between entry-level and high-volume plans.
• Companies that want a text messaging platform with a wide range of built-in integrations.

Tom Anziano contributed to this review.