Choosing a mass texting app can be difficult. This guide will help you pick the best platform to send text messages to everyone you need.
Nathan Ellering wrote in
A mass texting app is necessary for sending SMS messages to all of your customers at once.
But if you open Google and search for “best mass text app,” you’ll see dozens of service providers claiming to be the best.
Below, we’ll break down the pros and cons of the top players in the mass texting industry (yes, even alternatives to our platform) and tell you everything to look for in the best mass texting service for your business.
Even if you decide not to go with ours, we hope this guide saves you some time and helps you make an informed decision.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
To shortlist the best mass texting apps, I spent hours sending texts, creating templates, adding contacts, and testing out advanced features for 11 SMS platforms.
I was specially looking at how easy it is to:
These are core to any mass texting app worth its salt. I know this because besides working in the SMS marketing industry for 18+ months, I have experience owning and marketing a small business.
Not sure where to start with your search for the best mass texting service? I’ve got you. Here’s a quick rundown of the top eleven mass texting apps in the industry.
Admittedly, I’m a little biased about how amazing SimpleTexting is, but I have the data and testimonials to back it up.
More than 17,000 small and medium-sized businesses choose our platform because of its flexible pricing, user-friendly platform, and advanced features. From text-blasting services to lead generation, we have it all for you.
In an in-depth review of SimpleTexting on Business.com, contributing writer Mark Farlie said that “Having the type of connected system SimpleTexting’s developers created could give your company a competitive edge. That’s why we’ve selected SimpleTexting as the ideal text message marketing supplier for small businesses.”
If you want your SMS marketing strategy to work seamlessly with other tools your business relies on, our team can create custom integrations for your unique needs. We’ve worked with restaurants, healthcare practices, nonprofits, schools, and other organizations to automate text message campaigns and sync their contact lists. If you need inspiration, look no further than our small business podcast.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
SimpleTexting offers flexible pricing plans, with the lowest plan starting at $29/month for 500 messaging credits. Any unused credits in a given month roll over to the next month (but only for one month). You can add more credits at any time through the self-serve billing dashboard.
Free trial
To give users a chance to experience the platform’s features, SimpleTexting provides a 14-day free trial without requiring credit card information until you’re ready to upgrade.
Top features
SimpleTexting is best known for its:
Device availability
You can use SimpleTexting on desktop, smartphones, tablets, or any other wifi-enabled device. Our mobile app is available for iOS and Android.
With its flexible pricing model and international capabilities, TextMagic is great for small businesses and those with customers outside the U.S. and Canada.
TextMagic can identify invalid numbers to improve message deliverability, and it has email-to-SMS capabilities that make communication convenient. With TextMagic, you can send audio files via text and use text-to-speech to make phone calls. This means you can communicate beyond just words on a screen.
While most SMS platforms have pricing tiers, TextMagic charges $0.04 per text, making it a flexible option for businesses with variable sending volume.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
TextMagic’s pricing is pay-as-you-go. So, you only pay for the number of messages you send, rather than paying a fixed amount every month or year.
The cost begins at $0.049 per text to U.S. numbers. If you send more than 100,000 messages every month, you can request custom pricing.
Free trial
Try TextMagic free for 30 days with $0.40 in messaging credits.
Top features
TextMagic is best known for its:
Device availability
TextMagic offers a mobile app for iOS and Android that performs many of the same functions as its desktop app.
Textedly is a simple, yet effective, mass texting platform for businesses on a budget that are looking for a simple suite of features. If you’re looking for a straightforward SMS platform with a low price, add this one to your list.
When I was testing Textedly out, I noticed some of its features are add-ons. While most platforms include things like automated texts and personalization in their monthly subscriptions, Textedly offers them a la carte for a one-time fee.
Because its pricing tiers are so inexpensive, these add-on fees may not be a problem for businesses that need basic SMS functionality.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Textedly’s thirteen pricing tiers range from a $26/month plan for 500 text messages and one custom keyword to the $2,999/month plan, which includes 200,000 text messages and 50 keywords.
Free trial
Textedly’s 14-day free trial comes with 50 text messages.
Top features
Popular Textedly features include:
Device availability
Textedly has a standard desktop app, but they don’t have a mobile app as of January 2024.
With its free onboarding session, SlickText is an excellent choice for business owners who want a personalized onboarding experience.
In addition to standard features like two-way messaging, mass texting, MMS, and keywords, SlickText provides advanced capabilities like automated workflows, personalization, and loyalty program software.
This last feature is helpful for retail companies, restaurants, and service-based businesses that want to keep customers coming back on a regular basis.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Like SimpleTexting, SlickText’s plans start as low as $29/month for 500 messaging credits. This plan comes with two keywords but doesn’t include automated workflows. Its top-level plan — the Monstro — includes 50,000 messages for $1,250/month.
Free trial
Try SlickText out free for 14 days with 50 messaging credits.
Top features
SlickText offers its users:
Device availability
You can use SlickText on iOS or Android, in addition to desktop.
EZ Texting is best for business owners with limited marketing experience who are looking for a robust, easy-to-use platform.
Customers rave about EZ Texting beginner’s guide, which helps you get up and running quickly without feeling overwhelmed. It’s not the cheapest platform on the market, but it’s built with busy marketers and business owners in mind. The ease of use could save you time and, ultimately, money.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
EZ Texting’s pricing plans range from $25/month for 500 credits and 500 contacts to $3,000/month for 60,000 credits and 50,000 contacts.
Free trial
You can try EZ Texting free for 14 days with 50 messages and one keyword.
Top features
Popular EZ Texting features include:
Device availability
In addition to its desktop app, EZ Texting has an iOS app that lets you review campaign performance and delivery, send and receive texts, and manage your contacts.
Podium is excellent if you’re serving local markets and need a reliable mass texting platform. Beyond texting, I like how its reputation management system simplifies the collection and tracking of customer reviews. Podium also lets you respond to reviews from Google My Business and Facebook.
While Podium users like their ability to request and collect customer reviews via SMS, the catch is, Podium isn’t cheap. Its steep basic plan costs $249/month for 1000 contacts. Other budget-friendly alternatives with similar features are DialMyCalls and MessageMedia.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Podium has the essential, standard, and professional pricing packages. The essential plan cost $249/month for managing 1000 contacts. This plan allows you to integrate 100+ apps and send up to 100 bulk messages monthly.
Free trial
None. Interested users have to book a demo to get started.
Top features
Podium has some brilliant functionalities, like:
Device availability
Podium is available on Android, iOS, and desktops.
Attentive is a conversational marketing platform with tools like SMS for e-commerce businesses. Their platform has responsive templates and integrates with eCommerce bigwigs like BigCommerce, Shopify, Gorgias, etc. Recently, they partnered with Stamped, a review management platform that enables you to request customer reviews via SMS. Besides the regular features of any SMS marketing software, Attentive has AI capabilities for creating personalized SMS and email campaigns quickly. That’s why, among other reasons, business owners like Paul Goodman recommend it.
However, users like Dave Rekuc claim Attentive isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. What Dave says:
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Attentive pricing packages are available on request.
Free trial
Attentive SMS doesn’t offer a free trial. This is limiting because even a demo may be insufficient for you to understand how a platform works.
Top features
Device availability
Attentive, unlike other platforms listed here, is only available on desktop.
Mailchimp is a conversation marketing platform. It offers robust tools for email marketing and SMS management, including AI-powered functionalities.
Mailchimp allows you to set automatic responses to customer messages based on preset actions and triggers. For instance, if a customer leaves your site without purchasing, you can trigger an automated follow-up message to encourage them to complete their purchase. This enables timely response while simultaneously improving your conversion rate.
Keep in mind that SMS is an add-on service and is only available to US users on standard and premium plans. Also, you can only send texts to customers in the US.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
SMS credits are required to send text messages, and it costs $20/month for 1000 credits.
Free trial
While Mailchimp has a free trial for its email marketing feature, the same doesn’t apply to its SMS marketing.
Top features
Device availability
Mailchimp is available on Android, iOS, and desktops.
MessageMedia is a US-based multi-channel marketing platform for businesses in eCommerce, healthcare, retail, education, etc.
One of its points of attraction is its reliability. They boast of a 100% gateway uptime and avoid network failures. The translation: they provide uninterrupted service to users. In case of a network failure, the system quickly switches to an alternative gateway to prevent further disruptions.
On MessageMedia, you can send over 40,000 text messages without glitches. Their robust system also promises to handle scalability challenges.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
MessageMedia offers competitive pricing plans. Its lowest starts at $49/month and lets you send up to 1000 SMS and MMS to unlimited users. Access to Pro integrations, advanced analytics, or keywords are available in higher plans.
Free trial
MessageMedia lets users test its platform for 14 days without making monetary commitments or linking their credit card.
Top features
Device availability
Android, iOS and desktop.
DialMyCalls is a solid choice for businesses that engage customers through texts and calls. Their automated calling system lets you send pre-recorded voice messages and texts to your contact list via SMS.
DialMyCalls’s lowest pricing tier costs $6.74/month. This is affordable. However, you still need to pay for basic features like 2-way texting, MMS, and conference calls.
If you’re looking to test the waters with SMS marketing, DialMyCalls may be a fit. But if you need a comprehensive mass texting app with features like enterprise-grade deliverability, advanced reporting, and API access, SimpleTexting is your best bet.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
DialMyCalls offers three pricing tiers: standard, premium, and pay-as-you-go plan. The standard plan costs $6.74/month, which covers SMS to 25 contacts, an SMS opt-in widget, and a couple other basic features. Standard features like MMS, 2-way texting, and conference calls come as an add-on and incur separate charges.
Free trial
Unlike the other mass text apps listed here, DialMyCalls allows you to send 25 emails, SMS, or calls without adding your credit card. Once this is out, you have to subscribe to any of their packages to retain access to the features.
Top features
Device availability
You can access, send, track, and manage text messages from the DialMyCalls mobile app (Android and iOS supported) and a Chrome extension for the web version.
Messente is under two decades old, but it still ranks as one of the best mass text apps. Its comprehensive mass texting features made it a top choice for businesses. This includes SMS encryption, OTP generator via Verigator, multichannel messaging (WhatsApp and Viber), etc.
Another standout feature is the security. Besides providing 2FA authentication to verify users, it uses SHA-256 with RSA encryption for securing your account and database. This mitigates the possibility of cyberattacks or phishing scams.
Messente’s affordability doesn’t deliver sub-par functionalities. The features are enterprise-grade with seamless integration capabilities.
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Messente uses a pay-as-you-go system. First, you select the region(s) you’re targeting and the number of texts you want to send. The system then auto-generates a pricing structure based on the information provided. You can also request a custom pricing plan if you send over 10,000 messages.
Free trial
Signing up for the Messente mass text app gives you free credits to test its features. After using up your credits, you can opt for a paid plan if you’re satisfied.
Top features
Device availability
Messente offers a web version but doesn’t have a mobile app yet.
Everyone promises their group messaging service or text message marketing platform is the best in the industry. And there are certainly several great ones out there.
To ensure you’re signing up for the best mass text app that’d give you a positive ROI, look out for this seven elements:
Many users just need an app for personal group texting. However, business text messaging goes beyond sending and receiving SMS texts. Here’s how texting brings value to several industries.
Leaders in the food industry use mass text message apps to take reservations, send coupons, and inform customers about weekly specials.
Top-performing real estate agents use SMS messages for lead generation. How? They create a keyword and place it on their riders. Interested buyers can text in this keyword to request more information!
Retailers who need to drive more sales rely on texts to engage customers and move products. They do this by creating customer loyalty programs and offering exclusive discounts by SMS.
Text messages facilitate communication between schools, parents, and students. The best mass texting services make it easy to send important school alerts or host fundraisers.
Successful churches find inspiring ways to connect with their congregations. Texts allow ministries to send inspirational and devotional texts, including information about upcoming events.
These are just a few of the industries that use text messaging. Read our in-depth industry guides and handbooks to learn how mass text apps can make your message heard.
Every mass text app can send SMS messages to large groups of people at once. If you’re using text messaging for your business or organization, you probably want an app that does beyond mass texting.
Before you sign up for a texting service, make sure it can deliver to multiple recipients and has the following features:
Sometimes you don’t want to send a text right away. Scheduled texts let you specify a future date and time for your SMS. And with autoresponders, you can set up group texts that go out at a set period of time after someone joins your list.
Before sending a bulk text message, you need contacts. Keywords help with that. Simply set up a word or phrase that customers can text to your number to subscribe to your SMS texts.
Lists and dynamic segments let you organize your contacts and send the right messages to the right people.
A good mass text messaging app lets you send more than just SMS texts. MMS allows you to include photos, videos and other files in your messages.
You shouldn’t be guessing if your SMS campaigns are working. Link tracking and easy-to-understand analytics let you know if your mass text messaging app is bringing value to your business.
Texting should feel personal. The best mass texting service gives users the ability to include Custom Fields such as first name and last name when sending messages.
Depending on how you plan to use SMS, for mass or one-on-one messaging, you’ll want the option of selecting a phone number to fit your needs. For example, a standard 10-digit number or a memorable dedicated short code unique to your business.Use the features above as a rule of thumb to assess mass texting apps that make the cut. In some instances, you may need fewer features, and in others, you may need more. Check out everything you can do with our mass text messaging app here.
We’ve covered the how, the why, and the who. Now let’s review some real-life examples of companies who have seen success with a mass text message app.
All of the customers below used SimpleTexting (yes, that’s us.) You can download our app for free on the App Store or Google Play.
Delta Sonic is one of the largest car wash and convenience store chains in the U.S.
They use a mass text message app to communicate with thousands of customers every week. During slow seasons, they send out text blasts about promotions and services. Their text club was so well received by customers that they grew their list from zero to tens of thousands of subscribers in just a few years.
Get all the details about how Delta Sonic uses SMS.
Honey + Thyme is changing the way people think about food delivery services.
Their menu highlights local, in-season ingredients and changes every week. Text messages help them keep customers up-to-date on the latest items that are available to order. Read more about how they drive orders with text messages.
As we explained in this article, a mass text message app should do more than just send messages to lists of people.
South Arkansas Community College uses the 2-way messaging feature of SimpleTexting to connect with current and prospective students. Check out their success story to see how they use texts for recruitment and organizing campus tours.
You can use SMS to market your business by sending targeted promotions, event reminders, and exclusive offers to your customers or prospects. Before you start sending marketing text messages, though, you have to get explicit permission from your customers. You can do this through opt-in forms, where customers voluntarily provide their mobile numbers and agree to receive promotional messages from your business.
SMS — which stands for Short Message Service — is a text messaging service that allows users to send short texts to other mobile phones. SMS messages are 160 characters or fewer and can be sent between any two mobile phones that support the service. It’s also a cost-effective method of communication for both businesses and individuals.
MMS (or Multimedia Messaging Service) is a type of text message that contains multimedia content like photos, videos, and audio messages. While an SMS message (a text-only message) is limited to 160 characters, an MMS message can be up to 1,600 characters long.
A text message keyword is a word or phrase that your contacts can text to your number to sign up for your messaging program. For example, a sandwich shop owner might invite their audience to text SUBDEALS to receive deals and updates.
You can use QR codes to make it easier for your audience to sign up for your mass texting lists. When someone scans your QR code, it’ll open their text messaging app with your number and SMS keyword already entered. It’s a quick and convenient way to build your contact list. Learn how to set up QR codes for text messages.
Email-to-SMS is a messaging service that allows users to send texts to mobile devices from their email account. With this service, you can send a message via an email address that’s designed to convert into the email into a text message format. This might be a useful option for someone who wants to send a text from a device that’s not SMS-enabled, but you can send mass texts more easily from a text messaging service provider that’s available on desktop and mobile.
Text forwarding is a feature that allows you to receive text messages on multiple devices. Here’s an example: If you want to receive all texts from your mass texting software to your email or mobile device, you can set up text forwarding so you never miss a message.
A mass texting inbox is a dashboard in your SMS software where you can have one-on-one conversations with your contacts and see replies to your text campaigns. In SimpleTexting’s mass texting inbox, you can organize messages, assign them to team members, snooze them for later, and see contact details.
A mass texting app API allows developers to integrate mass texting functionality into their own software programs. Many of our customers use our API to integrate other business tools they depend on with SimpleTexting. To use an API, developers sign up for an account and obtain an API key, write code to integrate the API into their application, and send a request to the API with the necessary information to send text messages to a recipient list. The API then processes the request and sends the text message to the recipient list using the SMS gateway provided by the mass texting app provider, and the API returns a response to the developer’s application indicating the success or failure of the message sending operation.
Bulk texting software can be secure if used properly and by reputable companies. It’s important to learn about potential security risks, like unauthorized access to customer data or non-compliance with data privacy regulations. To keep your customers’ data safe, research and select a reputable SMS service provider with proper security measures in place.
After working together with thousands of customers, including Fortune 500 companies and small businesses, we’ve learned exactly what makes a text message app the best. We’re confident in our app, which is why we let anyone try it completely free for 14 days. No credit card needed.
Nathan is the head of content and SEO at SimpleTexting. With the help of an awesome team, he’s attracted more than 65 million website visitors, converted 10 million email subscribers, and supported 300,000 software users. He's written for the likes of Fast Company and his work has been referenced in publications like Forbes. Nathan has 15 years of proven corporate and startup marketing experience and continues to venture off the beaten path. When he’s not marketing, you’ll catch Nathan canoeing in the Boundary Waters or training for his next ultra marathon. Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn. More Posts from Nathan Ellering
Link copiedFind out how to use text message advertising to grow your sales with best practices and examples from our SMS experts. Read
It happens. Sometimes people unsubscribe from your messages. The good news is there's plenty you can do to make sure you keep as many contacts as possible. Read
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