If you've shopped for SMS in the last six months, you've probably noticed that "SMS provider" means at least four different things. Each category prices differently, sells differently, and is built for a different buyer. Picking the wrong category is how teams end up paying 3x what they need to for a worse experience.
This guide walks through all four — and explains why ReadySMS is the right answer for the largest segment of buyers.
Category 1 — Marketing Platforms (SMS Bundled with Email)
Examples: Klaviyo, Attentive, Postscript, Emotive, Community, Omnisend. Pricing model: Tiered monthly subscription tied to your contact list size. Effective per-message cost: $0.015-$0.04/segment (after you back out the subscription cost).
Built for ecommerce brands with $100K+/month revenue running SMS as a primary acquisition channel. The tools include browse-abandonment automations, Shopify-native flows, and post-purchase sequences that are worth the premium if SMS is your top revenue driver.
The catch: the per-message economics are 2-4x worse than ReadySMS, and the subscription floor often dwarfs your actual usage. Klaviyo's SMS plan starts at $50/mo and scales fast. If your contact list grows to 25,000 you're looking at $400-$700/month before any SMS revenue lands. For most teams, the marketing-platform tax is the worst money in your stack.
Who should pick this: Pure ecommerce, $200K+ MRR, willing to pay the premium for the integrated email-and-SMS automation suite. Almost nobody else.
Category 2 — Business Texting Tools (Per-Seat Subscriptions)
Examples: SimpleTexting, Salesmsg, OpenPhone, Heymarket, TextRequest, Avochato. Pricing model: $25-$50/user/month, or tiered subscription with included credits. Effective per-message cost: $0.02-$0.06/segment.
Built for small sales/support teams (2-15 people) who need a shared SMS inbox bolted onto HubSpot or Salesforce. The product replaces the workflow where reps were texting from personal phones.
The catch: the per-seat model gets ugly fast. A 10-person sales team at $40/seat is $400/month before the first message. Most of these tools also expire unused monthly credits — you pay for inventory you don't use, then pay again when you exceed it. The effective per-message rate is 3-7x what ReadySMS charges.
Who should pick this: Tiny support team that exclusively handles inbound conversations, never sends bulk, and doesn't care about per-message economics. A small slice of the market.
Category 3 — Developer-First CPaaS APIs
Examples: Twilio, Vonage, Sinch, MessageBird (Bird). Pricing model: Pay-per-segment, usually with carrier surcharges added separately. Effective per-message cost: $0.0105-$0.0124/segment all-in.
Built for engineering teams building custom messaging into their own product. You write code against the API. You handle opt-outs, retries, conversation threading, segmentation, 10DLC registration, and rejection retries yourself.
The catch: the per-segment rate looks competitive on paper, but you also build (and maintain) every higher-level feature ReadySMS ships out of the box. Campaign manager, conversation inbox, drip sequences, opt-out tracking, 10DLC dashboard — all of it costs you 3-6 weeks of engineering time before the first send, plus ongoing maintenance forever after. That's $25,000-$50,000 in labor that doesn't appear on the per-segment rate.
Who should pick this: Engineering teams with bandwidth to build and maintain their own SMS platform from scratch, sending volumes high enough to justify the build (typically 1M+ msgs/month). Niche.
Category 4 — ReadySMS (and the Right Answer for Most Buyers)
ReadySMS is built for the buyer that none of the above categories actually serve well: agencies, SaaS teams, and GoHighLevel operators who want to send transactional or marketing SMS at scale, with a campaign manager and inbox UI included, without writing code or paying a per-seat tax.
Pricing: Pay-per-segment via wallet, with the carrier fee passed through at cost.
| Tier | Per-segment | Carrier fee | All-in / msg |
|---|---|---|---|
| ReadySMS Enterprise | $0.0028 | $0.0045 | $0.0073 |
| ReadySMS Business | $0.0049 | $0.0045 | $0.0094 |
| ReadySMS Professional | $0.0064 | $0.0045 | $0.0109 |
| ReadySMS Growth | $0.0074 | $0.0045 | $0.0119 |
| ReadySMS Starter | $0.0084 | $0.0045 | $0.0129 |
What's included at every tier (no upcharge, no add-ons):
- Campaign manager with scheduling, segmentation, and A/B testing
- Two-way conversations inbox with team assignment
- Drip sequences and recurring scheduled messages
- 10DLC brand and campaign registration with support team handling rejections
- Native GoHighLevel marketplace install (one click)
- REST API for developer integrations
- Real-time delivery analytics
- Opt-out compliance and suppression lists
- 2,500 free credits on signup, no credit card
Compared to the alternatives:
- vs. Marketing platforms (Klaviyo, etc.): 2-4x cheaper per message, no contact-list tax, no subscription floor.
- vs. Business texting (Salesmsg, OpenPhone): 3-7x cheaper per message, no per-seat charges, scales without re-pricing.
- vs. CPaaS (Twilio): Comparable per-segment rate, but Twilio doesn't ship the campaign manager, conversations inbox, or 10DLC dashboard — you'd build them yourself for $25K-$50K in engineering time.
- vs. LC Phone (GHL default): 36-64% cheaper per message, identical carrier delivery, same GHL UI, one-click marketplace install.
Decision tree — which category fits your situation
``` Are you sending from inside GoHighLevel? ├── YES → ReadySMS marketplace install. Save 36-64% over LC Phone immediately. └── NO → Continue ↓
Are you a pure ecommerce brand doing $200K+/month with SMS as a top channel? ├── YES → Klaviyo or Postscript (you'll pay for it, but the integrated flows are worth it). └── NO → Continue ↓
Do you have an engineering team with 4+ weeks of bandwidth to build a campaign manager and inbox from scratch? ├── YES → Twilio (or roll your own — but expect to spend more in engineering than you save in per-segment cost). └── NO → Continue ↓
→ ReadySMS. Campaign manager, inbox, 10DLC dashboard, drip sequences, GHL install — all included. Pay-per-segment, no per-seat fees, no contact-list tax. Start with 2,500 free credits at readysms.io/sign-up. ```
What I'd warn buyers about
Three things most SMS buyers get burned on:
- 10DLC fees compound. Every category requires 10DLC registration in the US. Brand registration is one-time ($4-$15). Campaign registration is ongoing ($10-$25/month per use case). At 10 campaigns, that's $100-$250/month before you send a message. Most pricing pages bury this. ReadySMS includes brand registration support and bills campaign fees transparently.
- Subscription floors dominate at low volume. Marketing platforms and per-seat tools have monthly minimums that make sense at scale and ruin you below it. Pay-per-segment (ReadySMS) means you pay for what you send — no monthly bill if you're idle.
- The "free trial" is a trap if you don't read the fine print. Most platforms give you a tiny credit pool and hit you with subscription billing on day 8. ReadySMS gives 2,500 credits with no card required and no auto-conversion.
Start sending free → 2,500 credits on signup, no credit card | Run your own numbers in the calculator