SimpleTexting is solid for basic SMS marketing, but users often hit walls with strict compliance changes, limited message rollover, and support delays. After analyzing hundreds of online reviews from G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, SoftwareAdvice, and Gartner, we tested 10 alternatives that address these gaps with improved flexibility, deeper workflows, and stronger compliance support.
Ready to dive in deeper and uncover the top SimpleTexting alternatives in the market? We cover them all below, calling out key features, pricing structure, and considerations.
Please note: Features, pricing, and details mentioned for each product are as of the respective publish date, and may have changed since then.
What's "wrong" with SimpleTexting?
SimpleTexting is a highly capable SMS platform that many businesses rely on, but some recurring user complaints are hard to ignore. After analyzing hundreds of reviews online from G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, SoftwareAdvice, and Gartner, these were the most common issues that kept coming up:
- Compliance and account restrictions: Strict, frequently changing requirements that can lock accounts even when users are compliant
- Poor customer support: Significant delays in responses, unfulfilled callback promises, and difficult refund processes
- Feature limitations: Restricted character counts, technical glitches, and inability to roll most credits over
- Pricing concerns: The value doesn't justify the cost for many users, especially given the limited credit rollover policies
While SimpleTexting works great for small businesses needing basic texting functionality, there are dozens of other platforms that offer more and are better suited for particular industries. Let’s dive in:
(TL;DR) SimpleTexting alternatives at a glance
Now that you have the short version, let’s dive into what makes the other contenders on the list great alternatives to SimpleTexting.
1. Textline: The #1 SimpleTexting alternative in the market right now
Textline stands out as the most secure, team-friendly business texting platform built specifically for organizations that need to communicate faster while maintaining strict compliance. Unlike SimpleTexting's basic SMS focus, Textline centralizes SMS, MMS, and webchat into a single shared inbox with enterprise-grade security, which particularly benefits companies in regulated industries.
Textline vs. SimpleTexting: Key differences
Key Textline features:
- Compliance-first design: First platform with patented HIPAA consent process, plus SOC 2 and TCPA compliance built-in.
- Advanced team collaboration: Shared inbox with routing, whispers, transfers, and real-time claiming prevents missed messages.
- Multi-channel unified inbox: Manage SMS/MMS, Facebook, Instagram DMs, and webchat from one centralized location.
- True group messaging: Many-to-many conversations up to 10 participants, unlike SimpleTexting's broadcast-only approach.
- Enterprise integrations: Native connections to Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Freshdesk, and major business tools.
Pricing is custom
Textline's plan pricing is not publicly listed because it aims to suggest the right plan, feature set, and pricing for your organization. You'll need to speak with their team to determine the best fit, but they will learn your pain points and work with you. Textline also gives their users flexibility on the billing schedule, meaning they can pay monthly, or save with annual billing options (20% off annually upfront, 10% off annual month-to-month).
Message Credits: Additional Add-On Credits (those purchased to supplement your plan) cost $0.03 each and roll over if unused. 1 SMS segment = 1 credit; 1 MMS = 3 credits.
What else can you do with Textline?
Beyond core SMS, Textline offers landline texting that enables you to send or receive texts to your existing business phone number, provides built-in NPS/CSAT survey functionality, and a Chrome extension for messaging from any browser tab. The platform also offers an API and many native integrations, enabling businesses to build custom workflows and text in different top-used platforms. All of this is available while maintaining full HIPAA compliance across all features.
2. ClickSend: Multi-channel communication with lowest SMS rates
ClickSend is an all-in-one business communication platform that delivers SMS, MMS, email, voice, fax, direct mail, and webchat through a single interface, offering some of the most competitive SMS rates in the market with automatic volume discounts.
Key ClickSend features:
- Multi-channel reach: SMS/MMS, transactional email, voice calls, fax, direct mail, and web chat all from one platform.
- Global scalability: Enterprise-grade infrastructure with international coverage and 700+ app integrations.
- Developer-friendly APIs: REST APIs, SDKs, webhooks, plus HIPAA-compliant Special Delivery API for healthcare.
- Budget-optimized pricing: Volume-discounted SMS rates without contracts or monthly minimums.
- Seamless chat-to-SMS: Webchat widget transitions conversations to SMS for continued mobile engagement,
Considerations before going with ClickSend: Multiple reviews report unresponsive support with chat-only options and 5+ day wait times. Some businesses report taking up to 9 months to get accounts functional, with conflicting answers from support staff causing delays in texting outreach.
ClickSend pricing starts at $0.0256/SMS
Pay-as-you-go model with automatic volume discounts:
3. Heymarket: Team messaging with AI-powered features
Heymarket centralizes SMS/MMS plus OTT channels (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram Messaging) and email (in beta) into a shared inbox with AI assistance and per-user pricing designed for team collaboration.
Key Heymarket features:
- AI-powered assistance: Suggested replies from knowledge base, message tuning, conversation summaries, sentiment analysis, and translations.
- Omnichannel shared inbox: SMS/MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, plus email (currently in beta)
- Team collaboration tools: Routing, assignments, private comments, presence indicators, do-not-disturb, and transfers.
- Campaign management: List broadcasts, drip campaigns, scheduling, and performance reporting.
- Enterprise security: HIPAA-compatible,, SOC 2, SAML, SSO, directory sync, custom roles, 2FA, configurable data retention.
Considerations before going with Heymarket: Longer messages can be split into multiple texts which increases costs significantly on the per-message pricing. Additionally, the per-message billing also can make large-volume outreach expensive. Some customers on review sites have also reported poor customer support with slow responses and lack of product knowledge, with support staff sometimes denying existence of features.
Pricing starts at $24 per user per month
Minimum 2 users required for all plans. Annual billing saves up to 18 percent.
All Pro + custom configurations, higher-volume support, white-glove onboarding, priority support
4. Klara: Patient communication and collaboration platform
Klara is a patient communication platform designed to simplify interactions between practices, patients, and care teams through multi-channel messaging, workflow automation, and telemedicine in a HIPAA-compliant environment.
Key Klara features:
- No-login patient communication: Patients can text practices anytime without password, email, or app downloads required
- Multi-channel communication: Text messaging, web chat, call-to-text conversion, and voicemail transcriptions
- Workflow automation: Automated appointment reminders, no-show engagement, post-visit follow-ups, and broadcast messaging
- Team collaboration: Shared inboxes, internal notes/mentions, and AI-powered routing to correct staff/departments
- EHR integration: Seamless sync with AthenaHealth, Veradigm, Nextech, AdvancedMD, and other systems.
Considerations before going with Klara: Difficult for older or less tech-savvy users who aren't comfortable with smartphones. Can have missed notifications that delay communication, limited automation customization options, and interface issues that confuse some users.
Pricing is unavailable publicly
Klara doesn’t publish their pricing plan rates. Interested clients must instead contact sales for personalized demo and quote. However, it does state that
- Monthly and annual billing options available
- No free trial or free version
- Cancellation possible without long-term commitment
5. OhMD: HIPAA patient communication with EHR integration
OhMD is a HIPAA-compliant patient communication platform that centralizes messaging, call-to-text, voicemail transcription, live chat, referral management, and video visits into one workflow, helping medical practices reduce phone volume and improve patient experience.
Key OhMD features:
- Landline texting capability: Text-enable existing office phone numbers so patients use the same number for calls and SMS.
- Comprehensive EHR integration: Integrates with 85+ EHR systems including Epic, Cerner, and athenahealth.
- Automated workflows: Smart routing, keyword-based triggers for prescription refills, appointment reminders, and broadcast messaging.
- Video visits and calling: One-tap HIPAA-compliant video visits launched from text links, no downloads required.
- Referral management: Dedicated referral lines with automated intake that pushes information into EHR.
Considerations before going with OhMD: Setup and onboarding takes considerable time and can feel slow or fragmented. Additionally, you MUST have an office line to text-enable with OhMD. It doesn’t support text-only numbers. Other OhMD reviews found that there were some message deliverability issues, such as patient messages disappearing when staff closes threads. While others stated that they were frustrated with the inability to categorize messages, no "mark as unread" option, and messages auto-opening.
OhMD pricing starts at $250/month
OhMD has one Pricing Plan, called Reach, publicly posted on their website. It starts at $250 per month, and includes:
- Text-enabled landline for two-way SMS
- Automated message workflows
- Appointment reminders & broadcast texts
Other pricing plans are available, but a user must contact their sales team.
6. Podium: AI-powered business communication platform
Podium is an AI-powered business communication and marketing platform that acts like a 24/7 virtual employee, handling leads, customer conversations, and review requests across multiple channels with minimal human intervention.
Key Podium features:
- AI employee functionality: A pre-trained AI agent that is packed with 10+ years of industry data and responds to inquiries, and provides 24/7 availability.
- Consolidated lead management: Collects leads from calls, text, website chat, reviews, social platforms into single view
- Automated review management: Automatically sends SMS review invites and AI drafts professional responses on major platforms
- 200+ integrations: Connects with Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, Stripe, QuickBooks, and other major business tool.
Considerations before going with Podium: Year-long lock-in contracts that are difficult to exit without paying full balance. "Upgrades" can secretly extend contracts another year, 30-day cancellation requires mandatory "exit meeting," and support may delay cancellation requests.
Podium’s pricing is hidden from public view
Podium offers custom pricing quotes, so its pricing information is not readily available online. However, it does offer different pricing tiers. Podium’s Core plan includes:
- Essential AI features for lead conversion
- Consolidated lead platform
- AI review response suggestions
- Basic automations and reporting
- 200+ integrations
7. TextMagic:Global SMS with Prepaid Credits
TextMagic is a robust business texting platform designed to help companies streamline communication strategies through SMS, email, voice, and chat with a usage-based prepaid credit model offering 100% refunds on unused credits.
Key TextMagic features:
- Omnichannel capabilities: SMS, email campaigns, voice calls, WhatsApp integration, Facebook integration, and chat widgets.
- Email-to-SMS gateway: Send SMS directly from email inbox with no coding or plugins required.
- Advanced contact management: Dynamic fields, email validation, phone/carrier lookup, and list building tools.
- Developer-friendly: REST API with ready-to-use scripts for Java, Ruby, PHP, Python, Perl, plus Zapier integration.
- Global reach: Unicode SMS support for international characters and destination-based pricing.
Considerations before going with TextMagic: Users on G2 and other review platforms noted false positives on delivery reports that resulted in charges for undelivered texts. Some other reviews noted poor customer service with long delays in resolving issues. Additionally, there are some media limitations showing photos and videos only as links, plus slow message delivery speed.
TextMagic’s pricing is destination-based
While TextMagic’s pricing is not available on its website, it does mention that its pricing is based on the user’s destination and credit usage. For example, the usage-based prepaid credit model offers:
- 100% refund on unused credit
- No hidden fees, destination-based pricing
- Free account setup, no card required initially
8. TigerConnect: Clinical Communication and Collaboration
TigerConnect is a leading clinical communication and collaboration platform trusted by thousands of healthcare organizations, unifying messaging, alerts, scheduling, video, and paging systems into one secure, cloud-native platform.
Key TigerConnect features:
- Role-based messaging: Contact clinicians by role (e.g., on-call surgeon) instead of searching by name with dynamic team creation
- CareConduit integration engine: Vendor-agnostic integration that normalizes data from EHRs, nurse call, lab systems with intelligent routing
- FDA-cleared alarm management: Connects to patient monitors, infusion pumps, ventilators with configurable escalation logic
- Patient communication tools: HIPAA-compliant two-way communication via text, video, or voice
- Enterprise security: End-to-end encryption with HITRUST certification.
Considerations before going with TigerConnect: Users can’t copy, paste, or print messages. Additionally, messages auto-expire which can lead to the loss of key information. Other reviews noted that there are occasional downtimes, speed issues, and challenges with core integrations.
Try Textline for HIPAA-compliant texting instead ->
Pricing is custom and quote-based
TigerConnect doesn’t publicly list its pricing. However, it does offer an Annual Pricing plan, which offers:
- Fixed-price annual contracts based on user/license count
- No cancellations before term end
- Auto-renewal unless advance notice given
9. Twilio: Full stack communications platform
Twilio offers a full-stack communications platform with APIs across messaging, voice, video, email that's highly scalable with global reach and seamless enterprise workflow integration. It is best for developer-friendly organizations that want to build communication into their existing platforms. The product is not an out-of-the-box solution.
Key Twilio features:
- Comprehensive messaging APIs: SMS, MMS, RCS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, in-app chat with programmable REST API for custom-built messaging solutions.
- Global infrastructure: Get phone numbers across 100+ countries with number porting and regulatory compliance tools.
- Enterprise security: Fraud Guard, Verified Messaging, compliance enforcement, secure APIs, helper libraries.
Considerations before going with Twilio: This is not an out-of-the-box texting solution and it is instead best for teams looking to build texting into their workflow or app. Additionally, costs can add up quickly at scale. Additionally, there are some high costs for acquiring phone numbers. Some reviews also mentioned that support is unresponsive or inadequate unless on Premier Support.
Pricing is pay-as-you-go
In the U.S., pricing is pay-as-you-go and dependent on texting phone number type. Here are some of the pricing notes from Twilio’s website:
- Per-segment pricing: 160 characters
- Volume discounts applied automatically
- Failed message fee: $0.001 per failed message
- Billing varies by message type (long code, toll-free, short code)
10. SlickText: SMS marketing with visual workflows
SlickText is a dedicated SMS/MMS marketing and business texting platform built to help organizations grow subscriber lists, send personalized messages at scale, and automate customer communication with advanced workflow tools.
Key SlickText features:
- Audience growth tools: Web forms, website popups, QR codes, keywords, age verification, and self-cleaning lists.
- Visual workflow automation: Set up triggers, actions, conditions, waits, A/B testing, and revenue attribution tracking in a visual flow.
- E-commerce integrations: Link the platform to ecommerce tools like Shopify for abandoned cart and order-triggered messages.
- Comprehensive inbox: Shared inbox with assignments, routing, internal notes, office hours auto-replies, and analytics.
- Marketing optimization: AI Compose, custom domains for branded links, unlimited custom fields, and segmentation.
Considerations before going with SlickText: There are a few issues that commonly popped up in online review websites, including users reporting that messages were not sent due to unexpected errors. Additionally, some users said its pricing can be misleading and they experienced slow turnaround for error fixes.
Pricing starts at $29/month
SlickText offers a variety of plans, largely priced by the number of credits a user would need per month. Here are a few of the pricing plans:
- $29/month = 500 credits
- $49/month = 1,000 credits
- $79/month = 2,000 credits
- $939/month = 50,000 credits
Credit Structure: 1 SMS = 1 credit (per 160 chars), MMS = 3 credits
The Verdict: Which SimpleTexting alternative should you choose? (Our top 3 picks)
When it comes to picking the best alternative SMS platform for your business, consider one of these three that outperform SimpleTexting for various use cases.
- Textline: Best overall for regulated industries and team collaboration. If you need HIPAA compliance, advanced security, or sophisticated team workflows, Textline's patented consent process and shared inbox make it the logical choice for enterprises prioritizing compliance and collaboration.
- ClickSend: Best value for affordable multi-channel communication. With the lowest SMS rates that decrease with volume ($0.0087 at 150k+ messages), plus multi-channel capabilities including email, voice, and fax, it's ideal for cost-conscious businesses needing diverse communication tools.
- SlickText: Best for ecommerce and SMS marketing automation. The visual workflow builder, revenue attribution tracking, and Shopify integration make it perfect for online retailers who need sophisticated campaign management with clear ROI tracking.
Try Textline today, and see why it’s the top SMS platform for teams that care about security and compliance.
