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Compare the Best Business Text Messaging Services

Our recommendation for the best business text messaging service is SimpleTexting because of its versatility, reliability, ease of use, and fair pricing. Start your 14-day free trial today.

With consumers bombarded with dozens of promotional emails on a daily basis, it’s become increasingly difficult for organizations to reach their audience. Emails get ignored, deleted, or go straight to the spam folder. 

But texting is much more effective, as the message goes straight to someone’s phone—ensuring the message gets read. The business text messaging services in this guide will help you improve engagement, increase sales, and enhance customer service.

The Top 5 Best Business Text Messaging Services

The five text messaging services reviewed below are excellent options, and they each stand out for different reasons. SimpleTexting is the most versatile on the list, as it can be used for sales, marketing, mass messaging, and one-on-one texting. Try it free for 14 days. 

  • SimpleTexting – Best texting service for marketing and sales
  • Textedly – Best for bulk texting
  • OpenPhone – Best for unlimited calling and texting
  • Podium – Best for text-to-pay
  • Sendinblue – Best for texting combined with email services
Company logos for our best business text messaging services reviews.

Continue below for our business text messaging service reviews and buyer’s guide.

Match Your Scenario to the Right Business Text Messaging Solution

Our research team here at Quick Sprout identified the top five reasons why an organization would need a business text messaging service. Then we found the best texting solutions that fit within that category—making it easy for you to find the best texting service for your needs. If you see a scenario below that best describes what you’re looking for, you can jump straight to that section to see our top recommendations. 

You want to run SMS marketing campaigns

Best Option: SimpleTexting

SimpleTexting has customizable user segments and custom fields to help personalize your marketing campaigns. It integrates seamlessly with more than 1,000+ tools, so you can create automated workflows and connect data between your email marketing software and CRM.

Another standout feature is SimpleTexting’s results tracking. You can use it to monitor KPIs like deliverability, CTR, subscriber growth, and more. 

Another Great Choice: Textedly

Textedly has a unique feature for loyalty marketing. You can set up campaigns that reward customers based on visits or spending and track everything from their phone numbers. Then you can automatically send marketing messages to users, keeping them updated on their rewards and even letting them claim rewards via text. 

For SMS marketing campaigns, look for:

  • User segments: Ensuring the right message is delivered to the right person at the right time.
  • CRM integrations: So you can align your marketing campaigns across all communication channels with your customer database.
  • Analytics: To see what’s working, what’s not, and look for ways to make improvements.
  • Automation: So you can put campaigns on autopilot and schedule drips.

You have high-volume texting needs

Best Option: Textedly

With plans that support up to 240,000 messages per month, Textedly has the ability to accommodate organizations with massive contact lists. If 240,000 isn’t enough for you, Textedly will set you up with a customized plan—making it possible to send millions of messages every month.

You don’t have to worry about paying for contacts, either. Since Textedly plans are based on outbound messages, you can add an unlimited number of subscribers to your database at no extra cost. 

Another Great Choice: OpenPhone

Every OpenPhone plan comes with unlimited texting and calling in the US and Canada. So you can send as many texts as you want without having to ever worry about the cost. Every user on your account will also have a dedicated line.

For high-volume business texting, keep an eye on:

  • Reliability: Sending 200,000 texts is useless if only half are getting delivered.
  • Monthly limits: You don’t want the service to cap you at a maximum number of text messages every month.
  • Subscriber limits: Ensuring you won’t outgrow the platform. 
  • Auto reply: Because it can be tough to respond manually to recipients when you’re sending hundreds of thousands of messages simultaneously. 
  • Cost structure: Typically, the price per text should get cheaper as your volume increases.

You want a complete CRM to manage contacts

Best Option: Sendinblue

Sendinblue is a complete email marketing and SMS messaging platform with a built-in CRM. So you won’t have to integrate your software with a third-party tool to manage your contacts with multi-channel marketing. 

The software makes it easy for you to identify wins with each customer interaction, and you can quickly use it to close open deals in the sales pipeline. Users love Sendinblue’s ability to add notes, attach documents, and assign tasks to each contact so the entire team can be informed about a contact’s history.

Another Great Choice: Podium

Podium is a CRM built for local businesses. The platform makes it easy to track all of your customer interactions from every channel, and it keeps a full history of every conversation and payment. You can even use Podium’s CRM to segment your customers based on location, behavior, preferences, the amount they spend, and more. 

For CRM contact management, make sure you consider:

  • Built-in CRM: Eliminating the need to integrate with third-party platforms.
  • User segmentation: Ensuring your contacts are getting highly personalized messages.
  • Multi-channel support: So every text and email interaction is tracked from the same place.

You need to send texts internationally

Best Option: Sendinblue

Sendinblue makes it easy to pre-pay for SMS credits in different countries. So if you have customers or prospects overseas, you can still target them with text messaging campaigns. The credits never expire, so you’re not required to use all of them within a month, quarter, or year—which is great if you’re not planning on exhausting those credits immediately.

Another cool part about Sendinblue is the ability to purchase credits for WhatsApp messaging campaigns as well. This is one of the most popular messaging solutions worldwide and is great for contacts who may prefer WhatsApp over texting. 

Another Great Choice: OpenPhone

OpenPhone supports unlimited texts in the US and Canada. But they offer per-usage rates on texts in other countries worldwide—starting as low as $0.02 per text. You can send SMS messages anywhere and only get charged based on the country and how many texts you’re sending internationally.

If you’re sending international texts, be aware of:

  • Cost structure: SMS rates typically vary by location, so you’ll want to pay close attention to how you’re being charged to send international texts. 
  • Countries supported: The ability to text people internationally is useless if the countries you want to reach aren’t available. 

You need to send custom texts to single recipients

Best Option: Textedly

While Textedly is best known for its ability to send bulk texts, the platform is versatile enough to support one-on-one messaging as well. All of your subscribers have the option to reply to a text, making it easy to accommodate two-way chat. 

This is ideal if they need questions answered or want to continue moving through the sales process. Textedly sends you an instant notification whenever you get an inbound message so you can reply ASAP. You can also set up automatic replies that are delivered within three to five seconds of the inbound message. 

Another Great Choice: SimpleTexting

SimpleTexting makes it easy to have two-way conversations with people, which is perfect for sales teams. All incoming SMS messages are free and won’t count toward your monthly credits. You can also lend longer messages to your contacts and include phones, documents, zip files, and other MMS content. 

If you’re sending individual texts to one person, pay attention to:

  • 2-way messaging: So when the recipient replies, you can have a complete conversation via text.
  • Autoresponders: To ensure your audience gets a quick reply, even while your agents are away.
  • Extended messaging: So you’re not limited to just 160 characters or SMS only.

Business Text Messaging Services Company Reviews

Below you’ll find our in-depth reviews of the best business texting services on the market. Each solution shines above the crowd for a particular reason, a unique feature, or a use case, which we’ve highlighted in the review. 

Read on to learn more about these top business text messaging solutions. We’ll even call out areas where a particular service could use some improvements and give you more information on pricing so you can find the best value for your needs. 

SimpleTexting – Best texting service for marketing and sales

SimpleTexting, one of the best business text messaging services.

SimpleTexting lives up to its name in the sense that it’s ultra-easy to use. But don’t let that simplicity fool you. It’s still a feature-packed texting service that can be used for virtually any use case.

What makes SimpleTexting unique compared to other options on the market is its ability to accommodate multiple departments and needs within an organization. Your marketing team can use it for drip campaigns and bulk messaging. But your sales team can also use it to nurture leads with one-to-one conversations and two-way messaging.

The service can even be used for appointment reminders, interview scheduling, and HR job recruiting. It’s worth noting that SimpleTexting doesn’t have a built-in CRM or email marketing solution. But you can integrate it with the tools that you’re already using. 

What Makes SimpleTexting Great

When it comes to text campaigns, sales and marketing teams have very different approaches. Sales reps need to personalize messages and have two-way conversations with leads, while marketers need to blast bulk campaigns to thousands of people. Fortunately, SimpleTexting can handle both of these needs from a single platform.

Screenshot of SimpleTexting's features web page.
SimpleTexting supports both sales and marketing initiatives.

This really isn’t something that you’ll find from many other business text messaging services on the market, as most platforms tend to lean in one direction or the other. 

You can use it to announce sales promotions, improve customer satisfaction, find new customers, and follow up with leads faster than email. SimpleTexting supports more than 1,000+ integrations, making it easy for you to connect with business software you’re already using and create automated with a hands-off approach.

Pricing is based on how many texts you’re sending per month, and all incoming SMS messages are free. Plans start at $29 per month for 500 messages, and the price per message gets cheaper as your monthly volume increases. Try SimpleTexting free for 14 days—no credit card required. 

Textedly – Best for bulk texting

Textedly, one of the best text messaging services.

Most business text messaging services cap you at around 50,000 messages per month. Some let you go up to 100,000 texts with enterprise plans. But Textedly blows all of those out of the water with the ability to send up to 240,000 text messages each month.

This is an excellent option for large organizations with massive customer databases. If you want to take advantage of your existing contact list, Textedly won’t hold you back.

But it’s also a great tool for businesses with growing contact lists. You’ll never have to worry about outgrowing Textedly. Even if you need to send more than the 240,000 monthly texts available in the Textedly Champion plan, you can just give them a call for a customized solution. 

One downside of Textedly is its lack of built-in features. But it does integrate with more than 3,000+ third-party tools for sales, marketing, CRM, and automation.

What Makes Textedly Great

The great part about Textedly is that you’re not locked into a contract. If you double your database overnight or you want to ramp up the frequency of your campaigns, you can upgrade to a bigger texting plan at any time. 

Screenshot of Textedly's home page.
You’ll never outgrow Textedly, regardless of your contact list size or monthly volume.

When you’re sending tens of thousands or potentially hundreds of thousands of texts, you need to consider how much it’s going to cost you if those conversations continue. Textedly gives you some relief here, as all incoming SMS messages are always free.

You can add an unlimited number of subscribers to your account at no extra cost. So if you end up with two million phone numbers in your database, you won’t be paying more than someone who has 200 numbers—making it easy to grow without limits. 

Plans are based on monthly messaging and range from $24 per month for 1,200 texts to $2,800 per month for 240,000 messages. You can try Textedly free for 14 days and send your first 50 texts at no charge.

OpenPhone – Best for unlimited calling and texting

OpenPhone, one of the best business text messaging services.

OpenPhone is an all-in-one solution for business text messaging, calling, and contact management. Every plan supports unlimited calling and messaging within the US and Canada.

All OpenPhone plans come with one local or toll-free number per user, so everyone on your team can have their own line. It’s the perfect solution for organizations seeking a complete business phone solution with the ability to send texts as well.

While OpenPhone has all of the standard features you’d expect in a business text messaging service, it does lack some of the more advanced marketing and sales features you’ll find from alternatives. That’s because the business phone solution is the primary service, and texting is somewhat secondary.

What Makes OpenPhone Great

One of the coolest features of OpenPhone is the ability for teams to simultaneously manage two-way texts with recipients. This is a huge bonus when you need someone from the right department to reply or the original sender is out sick or on vacation.

Screenshot of OpenPhone's home page.
Get the whole team involved, and your customers will never know the difference.

As a phone and text messaging service from a single platform, you can use OpenPhone to automatically send texts directly after a call. For example, you can follow up with surveys and post-sales campaigns. Or if you miss a call, you send an automated text apologizing for the delay and set up the engagement via text. 

Beyond SMS messaging, OpenPhone supports MMS messages, videos, files, GIFs, and more. You can even use it for group messaging—which is great for sales teams that want to keep multiple stakeholders involved in the process. 

OpenPhone plans start at $10 per user per month. Try it free for seven days to get started.

Podium – Best for text-to-pay

Podium, one of the best business text messaging services.

Podium is a versatile business solution that supports a wide range of features, from messaging to online reviews and more. It’s also a complete CRM that makes it easy to manage contact lists and keep track of interactions at every touchpoint.

But Podium stands out from the crowd with its built-in text-to-pay feature. This is handled directly through Podium’s platform, so you won’t have to set up any third-party integrations. 

One potential drawback of Podium is its pricing structure. It’s a bit more expensive than other services that are strictly for business texting. 

You’re getting so much more than just basic business texting. But the pricing is definitely something to consider if you’re not planning to take advantage of Podium’s other robust features. Organizations seeking a solution that’s strictly for text messaging should look elsewhere. 

What Makes Podium Great

Podium’s integrated text-to-pay feature is definitely its shining star. This capability is available on every Podium plan, including the entry-level tier. 

Screenshot of Podium's text payments web page.
Use Podium to get paid quickly via text.

This is so much better than emailing customers to collect payments or sending paper invoices through the mail. Podium says that the average text is opened within 15 minutes of delivery, ensuring you’re getting paid quickly. This also makes things easier for your customers, as they can pay for goods and services using a few clicks from their phones.

Text-to-pay works great within industries like healthcare, automotive, home services, dental, professional services, and more. 

After customers pay you via text, you can automatically send them a follow-up message asking them to leave a review. The message will include a link directly to the review platform of your choosing. 

Plans start at $289 per month for up to three team members and $449 per month for unlimited team members and unlimited contacts. Text-to-pay processing rates range from 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction to 2.7% + $0.30 per transaction, depending on your plan. Read our full Podium review to learn more. 

Sendinblue – Best for texting combined with email services

Sendinblue, one of the best business text messaging services.

Most business texting messaging tools do just what you’d expect—they allow you to send text messages. But Sendinblue is unique in the sense that you’re getting a text messaging service and email marketing solution from a single platform.

This means that you won’t have to worry about setting up integrations between your text service and email platform or CRM. You’re getting all the tools you need from a single interface.

It’s worth noting that Sendinblue is generally considered an email marketing platform first, with SMS messaging capabilities second. While the text messaging service is not an afterthought by any stretch of the imagination, it does lack some of the features you’ll see from platforms that are strictly for business text messaging. 

What Makes Sendinblue Great

The great part about using Sendinblue is that all of your contacts can be managed in one place. So you’ll see exactly how your database interacts with both email campaigns and targeted SMS messages.

Screenshot of Sendinblue's sms marketing web page.
Get SMS marketing and email under one roof with Sendinblue.

This is great information, as you can adjust your strategy to see when emails are more appropriate and when texts are more effective. Whether you’re sending texts, emails, or both, your team can keep track of all customer interactions from a single inbox with every interaction in a customer’s history.

Another cool part of Sendinblue is the ability to set up powerful marketing automation that moves customers through your flow based on their engagement and interactions. You can even set up both emails and texts from a single campaign or automation so your database gets a mix of both.

Plans start at $25 per month for the email marketing platform, with SMS credits available as an add-on. Rates are based on volume and country, such as $5.45 per month to send 500 texts in the US. Try Sendinblue for free today. 

Quick Sprout Business Text Messaging Services Related Content

For more about business messaging, how it works, and how to succeed with it, check out the related resources below—hand-picked from the Quick Sprout blog:

Business Text Messaging Services Guides and How-Tos

Business Text Messaging Services Company Reviews

Business Text Messaging Services Related Top Lists

The Top Business Text Messaging Services in Summary

SimpleTexting is the best business text messaging service for most organizations because it’s versatile enough to support both sales and marketing initiatives. You can use it to send mass messages to your entire contact list or start two-way conversations with individual recipients. 

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that SimpleTexting is right for you. Use the reviews, recommendations, and considerations highlighted in this guide to make sure you find a business text messaging service that aligns with your needs. 

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How to Text From a Laptop

Want to get going right away? Sign up for SimpleTexting and start texting from your laptop today.

Texting and cell phones usually go together like peanut butter and jelly. But if you want to leverage the power of text messaging to market your products or services, reach prospects quickly, or alert your workforce to time-sensitive information, it’s actually really hard to do from your phone. That’s why business text messaging services exist. 

With these services, you can easily use your laptop to send a text message to a single recipient or a group text to larger audiences. This type of quick and efficient outreach can play a big part in your company’s success. Read on to learn how to quickly and effectively text from a laptop.

Quick Start Guide to Texting from a Laptop

Whether you want to send bulk texts to your entire customer database or an individual message to a high-value contact, SimpleTexting is software that makes it easy to do both. Sending a text to a single contact takes just two steps.

First, sign up for a SimpleTexting account. There are a variety of plans available there, with pricing determined by how many texts you plan to send each month. 

There’s also a 14-day free trial, so you can test the waters with no obligation. You don’t even need to provide a credit card. Once you create your account, you’ll be assigned a toll-free number and taken to a home screen like this:

SimpleText home screen

Next, send an individual text. Now that you have your account, sending a text couldn’t be easier. Just select Inbox from the menu on the left, then click New and type in the telephone number of your recipient. If you already have created a contact for this person in SimpleTexting, their information will auto-fill. After that, you can type your message in the box at the bottom of the screen and select Send SMS. That’s it! Your message is on its way.

It’s equally as easy to use SimpleTexting to send group texts to all of your contacts or to specific subsets that you can define. 

Send A Group Text From A Laptop In 5 Steps

With a business text messaging service, it’s never been easier to reach your customers or employees with just a few clicks. Here’s how:

  1. Sign Up With A Business Text Messaging Service
  2. Create A Contact List
  3. Add Records To Your Contact List
  4. Start A Text Campaign
  5. Send Your Campaign

I’ve selected SimpleTexting for this how-to guide because it’s one of the best all-around services on the market today. Depending on the business text messaging service you choose, the instructions that follow may be different.

1. Sign Up With A Business Text Messaging Service 

First, create an account with SimpleTexting. You can begin with their 14-day free trial, and you won’t even have to provide any credit card information to get started.

SimpleTexting signup and pricing page

To activate your free trial account, you will need to provide some basic contact information and answer a few questions about how you plan to use SimpleTexting. With no credit card requirement, this is a truly no-commitment way to try out a business text messaging service. 

2. Create A Contact List

Before you can send group texts, you’ll need to create a list of contacts. When you activated your free trial account, SimpleTexting automatically created a list called, appropriately, My First List. Feel free to add records to that list or create a new list with a more informative name.

For this tutorial, I’m going to create a brand new list. Here’s how to do it.

Select Contacts from the menu on the left of the home screen, then click the + New list button.

Contacts window with arrows pointing out contacts and new list buttons

Choose a name for the new list. Here, I chose Customer List, since I eventually plan to send a group text to current customers alerting them to an upcoming sale. Then click Create list.

new list window with arrows pointing to list name box and create list button

You will then see the newly created list on the Contact screen, as shown below.

contacts window with an arrow pointing to the newly created list

Of course, at this stage, your new list is empty. You’ll need to populate it in order to send a group text. The next step shows you how to get that done.

3. Add Records To Your Contact List

If you sign up for a monthly SimpleTexting subscription that includes 7,500 texts per month or higher, you unlock SimpleTexting integrations. This allows you to easily import your contact list data directly from your CRM or another source. You’ll actually get access to more than 400 apps, including some of the most popular CRM tools, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Infusionsoft, and Zoho CRM.

However, if you opt for a lower service tier or are testing out the free trial version of SimpleTexting, you still have several options to populate your contact list. You can import a limited number of CSV, XLS, or XLSX records, connect to a MailChimp list, create Zapier automated workflows that require coding, or manually enter data. 

To keep things simple here, I’ll walk you through the process of manually creating records in your list.

In the Contacts screen, click on your customer list to open it in a new screen. Select Add contact to create your first record in the empty list.

List screen with arrow pointing to the add contact option

You will then see a pop-up screen, like the one below. Fill in the desired information, then select Add contact to save the record. Note that only a phone number and list name are required, but that you can personalize the contact more than that. I’d suggest making sure to include the contact’s first and last name at least, and their email address would likely be helpful as well. 

Add contact pop-up window with arrow pointing to the add contact button

To add additional contacts in the list window, click the Add Contacts drop-down arrow, then select Manually add contact. 

List window with arrows pointing to the add contacts drop-down arrow and manually add contact selection

This will bring up another pop-up box for the new contact. Repeat these steps to add all your contacts.

And that’s it. You’ve created your first list of future text recipients.

4. Start A Text Campaign

Once you have your contact list populated, you are just a few steps away from sending out a group text. Here’s how to start the process.

From the SimpleTexting home screen, select Campaigns from the menu on the left, then choose New. 

Campaigns menu selection screen

You will see the following Compose campaign screen. Enter your Campaign name and choose whether your message will be formatted as SMS (text only) or MMS (media plus text).

Next, create your message. You can include emojis, custom URLs, media, and even custom fields to personalize your message. As you create your message, you can see how your message will look in the Message preview screen on the right.

Compose campaign screen with text preview window visible on the right side

In the Send to field, use the drop-down arrow to display all the lists you’ve created. Select the list you wish to use. Here we’ve chosen the Customer List we created in Steps 2-3.

List selection screen with arrows pointing to drop-down button and new list

You’re now almost ready to send your message to the recipients on your chosen list. Don’t close this screen, though. You’ll need to complete a few more steps to finish the process. 

5. Send Your Campaign

It’s almost go time. Your contact list is built and your campaign is designed and approved. All that’s left is to decide when to send it. SimpleTexting offers several options.

Scroll down the Compose campaign screen to the Send on section. Here you can choose when to send your text message. Your options are:

  1. Immediately – your campaign will go out as soon as you confirm it.
  2. Scheduled – your campaign will go out at a future date you select.
  3. Recurring – your campaign will go out multiple times on dates you select.

Whichever delivery option you choose, when you select Next you’ll be prompted with a final confirmation screen. This is where you can double-check and edit details of your campaign before you finalize it for delivery. 

Once you are sure your campaign is as you want it, click Send now (for immediate delivery) or Schedule (for scheduled or recurring delivery). In this example, we chose immediate delivery. If you choose a future date or recurring delivery, you would see a Schedule button instead.

Final approval screen with an arrow pointing to the send now button

Congratulations, you’ve just created your first campaign and sent or scheduled your first group text using a business text messaging service. 

Final Thoughts About Texting from a Laptop

With a business text messaging service, your laptop becomes a powerful tool to reach new and existing customers in an efficient and highly effective way. With it, you can send a single text to a VIP client or a group text to a targeted list–without having to squint at a mobile screen or set up everything using only your thumbs.

Text messaging boasts a nearly 100% read rate, so in just a few clicks you can get your important information in front of the eyes that really matter–all from your keyboard. It’s easy with a business text messaging service.

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Grasshopper Review

With over 135,000 users, Grasshopper is one of the most trusted phone service providers for small businesses on the market. Grasshopper stacks up well against the other products on our list of best phone services, as it offers more customer support and no restrictions—making it an excellent choice for small businesses.

Priding itself on separating personal work from business work at a low cost, Grasshopper is the best phone service provider for small business owners and solo entrepreneurs.

With multiple product offerings that help users improve their phone service, the system can transform your business and increase clientele by providing a more professional phone service with custom greetings and extensions.

Grasshopper Pros and Cons

Pros

  • High mobile functionality
  • Affordable at $28 per month
  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Unlimited calls

Cons

  • Voicemail transcription issues
  • Fewer app integrations
  • No video conferencing capabilities
Visit Grasshopper
Compare The Best Cloud-Based Phone Systems
We reviewed dozens of cloud-based phone systems and narrowed them down to the best options.
See Top Picks

How Grasshopper Compares to Top Virtual Phone System Software Providers

Compared to the top five other best cloud-based phone systems, Grasshopper comes in at number three, because it offers unique features for small teams at an affordable price.

Grasshopper takes this position in our top list because most of the other phone systems offer better packages for office settings and are a tad cheaper. However, this doesn’t mean that your business won’t benefit from Grasshopper. With a focus on small businesses or solo side businesses, Grasshopper is the easiest way to find a unique variation of phone numbers and make unlimited calls, unlike our top picks for phone service providers.

In terms of our top picks, we think Nextiva and RingCentral are excellent alternate options. Nextiva is the best enterprise-level phone system that offers supportive features and hardware for your business space, whereas RingCentral is the most popular with more than 350,000 users with specifically designed plans for small businesses.

Grasshopper’s Remote Access

In the past year, working remotely has seen a shift and increase due to the pandemic. Now, it’s crucial for all business models to include remote tools that are reliable for teams to work from home, in a more virtual space. Fortunately, if you’re looking for a phone service provider that offers extensive remote access, Grasshopper is an excellent option.

Grasshopper homepage

Grasshopper offers comprehensive mobile and desktop apps that seamlessly sync up to your phone service system. The mobile app is easy to use and displays all your business calls and text messages in one place. The great thing about this mobile app is that your personal calls and texts stay completely separate from your business ones, while still being on one phone. It’s a lot more convenient for small business owners or solo entrepreneurs to operate with the least amount of tools and equipment to avoid overworking and stress.

The desktop app is just as helpful, with an intuitive interface—so even the least experienced user can find their way around. The app lets you use your internet connection to make and receive VoIP calls and text messages. So, you really can do business anywhere under any internet connection, whether that be at a library or local cafe.

What makes this app even more efficient is that you can also view your voicemails and call history, so you can continue to respond to clients and follow-up on missed calls efficiently and professionally.

With such supportive remote access for small teams, you can experience the freedom and flexibility of working anywhere without the stress of being unorganized. Compared to other phone service providers, we think Grasshopper has the most simple remote tools that will suit most business owners.

There are no additional costs to download both apps, but to install the desktop app, you will need:

  • 64-bit macOS 10.9 or later
  • 64-bit Windows 7 or later
  • Minimum 4GB RAM

Grasshopper’s Audio and Video Connection Quality

Having high-quality audio and video connection is certainly one of the most significant roles of a phone service provider. Luckily, Grasshopper’s audio connection quality is impressive, and they offer a few alternative options for users having trouble with poor connection or weak signal. In terms of video connection, Grasshopper currently does not offer video conferencing–one of its few major weaknesses compared with other cloud-based phone service providers.

Grasshopper VoIP webpage

As stated above, Grasshopper lets you make business calls using VoIP and WiFi. Straight away, it’s quite substantial that Grasshopper offers two ways to make calls, where users can utilize either option if one of them happens to drop out. The difference between these options is that VoIP is commonly used to make calls through an internet connection, whereas users will use WiFi calls through any WiFi network.

But what happens if your internet or WiFi connection is weak? Well, Grasshopper has a solution for that. While using the mobile app, if Grasshopper identifies any weak signals, it will automatically transfer your inbound or outbound call to its normal calling network. There’s no notification or interruption when this happens so call quality will remain at its highest. Subsequent calls will revert to an available WiFi network once your signal strengthens.

However, if you do experience poor phone quality, the Grasshopper team over on the support forum has an in-depth guide on how to troubleshoot both the mobile and desktop applications with ease. This just goes to show how much Grasshopper cares about the user’s experience.

As for video connection, since Grasshopper is yet to offer this service, we think RingCentral or Vonage are great alternative options for anyone looking for video conferencing. RingCentral offers a service called Glip, which uses carrier-grade infrastructure to operate high-quality video calls for up to 100 people. On the other hand, Vonage offers a video call feature that’s similar to Zoom, with a highly intuitive interface.

Grasshopper’s SMS and MMS Texting

Being able to connect with and keep in touch with your clients is paramount for success. And most business owners don’t want to rely on just phone communication. So, many phone service providers will offer either SMS text messaging and MMS texting, or a mix of both or none—however, Grasshopper offers both that are easy-to-use channels, which will make communication better.

Grasshopper business SMS landing page

Unlike other phone service providers we reviewed, Grasshopper offers unlimited texts for no additional cost, which is an enormous benefit for small businesses on a budget. To make it even better, business texting is free for all virtual phone numbers when you sign up for a seven-day free trial—which is an excellent option for beginners who are looking for a phone service provider as a starter.

The most beneficial feature of Grasshopper’s SMS texting tool is called the instant response. If you miss a call, the instant response feature will automatically send an SMS message to your new client, letting them know you’re unavailable. The caller can even write back with their details and let you know why they’re calling.

This feature can potentially eliminate the risk of losing future clients by responding promptly and professionally and will save you time while you’re busy. You can also use this feature to your full advantage and create a text that provides new callers with information about your business.

Grasshopper also offers MMS for picture and video messaging, however, it is currently not possible from toll-free numbers and is only available for local numbers. Group texts are also possible from local numbers. International SMS and MMS are only available between the United States and Canada, so Grasshopper may not be ideal for remote teams working internationally.

Grasshopper’s Responsive Customer Support

Prioritized support is so important for phone service providers because no calls mean no profits or new clients. If your phone lines go down because of technical issues, it’s crucial for a support team to immediately jump in and help. This is where Grasshopper shines because it happens to have the best responsive customer support of all the service providers on our top list.

Grasshopper webpage with headline that says "Affordable options built for small businesses"

Grasshopper offers 24/7 US-based live customer support in every plan, which is a great option for a distributed company, working remotely all over the United States. What’s so great about Grasshopper’s support is that it’s also responsive and active on its social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This means you can contact the support team on these platforms for a quicker response, rather than through an email query.

Not only does it offer 24/7 live chat and telephone support, but Grasshopper also has an updated and relevant support forum that has frequently asked questions, knowledge-based topics, case studies, and a ‘how-to’ section. This support forum is a great way for users to save time instead of waiting on a phone call or waiting a couple of business days for an email about an issue you can solve by reading through its helpful forum.

Grasshopper’s Product Offerings

Grasshopper offers a few products that relate to phone services, which give a variety of options for different user needs. Here is an in-depth look at the different products Grasshopper offers for phone services:

Vanity Numbers

If you want to make your business number more memorable, Grasshopper offers local and toll-free vanity numbers at no additional cost. You have the freedom to choose up to seven letters or numbers that relate to your specific business niche with the number lookup tool. It’s important to note that some numbers may already be taken, and according to Grasshopper, it suggests opting for a shorter term to return a match.

Grasshopper landing page for how to get a vanity number

Creating a custom phone number is a great way for people to easily remember your number in advertising, which might generate more leads and increase your clientele. Apart from seeming more identifiable, using a vanity number will make your small business look larger and more established. It’s also a great option to address what your company offers while aiming for consistency across your business cards and website.

Grasshopper lets you make business calls and texts with your US-based toll-free vanity number. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support text messaging for toll-free or local vanity numbers in Canada or internationally—so you may be better off choosing a provider like Phone.com in that regard.

The good news is that Grasshopper allows you to port your existing vanity phone number for free, so you don’t have to lose the number you love. The transfer process is straightforward because Grasshopper does all the nitty-gritty behind the scenes once you sign up, and it will confirm with you once the transfer has gone through.

Toll-Free Numbers

If vanity numbers aren’t for you, you can still maintain your professional appearance by choosing a toll-free number instead. Grasshopper lets you specify digits or select a number at random using its lookup tool. All the toll-free prefixes are assigned by an entity known as ‘Responsible Organization’ and include the numbers 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, and 833.

Grasshopper landing page for getting a toll-free number for your business

The major benefit of a toll-free number is the fact that it is free for the caller, even if you happen to call from a long distance in the same country. Grasshopper makes sure that you aren’t charged for these calls, however, charges will apply if you call an international toll-free number, even when it costs nothing to receive an international call.

Just like Grasshopper’s vanity numbers, you can send unlimited texts and calls with your toll-free number. Some other benefits of using a toll-free number include:

  • Customized business greeting
  • Be available to your clients everywhere with a national presence
  • Professional image
  • Better for customer service

Again, there are no additional charges to add a toll-free number to your plan with unlimited calls and texts—and porting your number is also available.

Ruby Virtual Receptionists

As a unique function, Grasshopper introduces the new Ruby virtual receptionists add-on that can help improve your business while you’re busy. Ruby will help small business owners look more professional, as a US-based receptionist or an auto-attendant system answer all your calls by greeting new callers with a personalized message based on your instructions and needs.

Grasshopper virtual receptionist service landing page

With Ruby, you can boost business by operating during extended business hours. You can also save a lot of time and money by trying to find and pay for a full-time hire that suits your every need. Speaking of saving time, Ruby is a great opportunity to take up more work and focus less on daily administrative tasks.

Another significant thing about the Ruby service is that the receptionist can transfer calls to your mobile or home phone—under any number you wish. Additional fees may apply for phone lines outside of North America, however, Grasshopper recommends to provide multiple phone numbers, so there are a variety of ways to reach you.

There are three Ruby pricing plans that are 35% off under Grasshopper, these include:

  • Starter: $130 per month with 50 receptionist minutes
  • Grow: $195 per month with 100 receptionist minutes
  • Elevate: $370 per month with 200 receptionist minutes

These prices may seem a little expensive, but if you are a solo entrepreneur or small business owner, sometimes a little help is all you need—and we think it is worth the price to boost your business and save you time.

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Summary

Overall, Grasshopper is an excellent phone service provider for small business owners. It’s affordable starting at $28 per month, and it offers reasonable products at no additional cost like vanity and toll-free numbers. It also offers a great mobile and desktop app for remote teams and high-quality VoIP and WiFi calls. With unlimited texts, calls, and 24/7 live support, anyone using Grasshopper is sure to improve and transform their business and call system.

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Robot Skills and Messaging APIs

Messaging services set the stage for humans to interact with programmable robots using the same devices we already use to talk with each other. That kind of interaction feels a little like magic, but it’s magic that anyone who codes can conjure. To show you what I mean, we need to look at Misty’s Photo Booth skill, which Misty demoed at Twilio SIGNAL 2019.

When this skill runs, you can send an SMS to ask your Misty robot to take your picture. When Misty gets your text, she stops what she’s doing, turns to look at you, and snaps your portrait with the camera in her visor. She then sends that picture right back to your phone via MMS.

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Twilio Announces Conversations API for Multi-Channel Messaging

Twilio has announced Twilio Conversations, a unified API that allows developers to build conversation experiences across multiple channels and platforms. Modern messaging platforms exist across multiple channels (e.g. SMS, MMS, Chat, and WhatsApp). The Twilio Conversations API allows developers to take input from all of these disparate channels and create a single experience for users to interact with.