SMS Marketing Platforms Pricing Comparison 2026

SMS marketing platforms in 2026 split cleanly by vertical and scale. Shopify DTC (Postscript $0-$500/mo + message rates): purpose-built for ecommerce with Shopify-native automations (cart abandon, browse abandon, welcome, upsell). Mid-market to enterprise (Attentive quote-only, typically $500-$10K+/mo): usage-based with AI Pro/AI Grow/AI Journeys add-ons and full SMS + email + RCS + push multichannel. SMB general (SimpleTexting $39/mo + 500 credits, EZ Texting $20-$100/mo annual): credit-based or contact-based pricing for any industry — restaurants, salons, real estate, nonprofits. Pay-as-you-go (TextMagic $0.049/SMS outbound, $0.01 via CPaaS): prepaid credits for low-frequency or international use. The category's key pricing question is 'per-subscriber vs per-message vs flat-tier' — DTC brands with 50K subscribers sending 3 campaigns/month do the math differently than a restaurant with 500 contacts sending one promo/week. Post-2023 A2P 10DLC registration requirements (US carrier policy) added compliance overhead — every SMS platform now handles this, but at different price points (EZ Texting includes free, TextMagic $10/campaign/mo).

First: are you Shopify DTC ecommerce? If yes, Postscript is the default answer — no other platform has Shopify-depth integration for SMS. Start at Starter ($0 + $49 min spend + $0.015/SMS), upgrade to Growth ($100) when you need unlimited keywords, Professional ($500) when you want branded (no 'Powered by Postscript') messaging. Klaviyo users can bundle Klaviyo SMS (not covered here) for unified email+SMS workflow. Second: what's your subscriber list size and send frequency? SMB (<2,000 contacts, <10K sends/mo): SimpleTexting ($39/mo + 500 credits + $0.055/overage) or EZ Texting Launch ($20/mo annual, 500 credits). Growth (2K-50K contacts): EZ Texting Boost/Scale or Postscript Growth/Professional. Mid-market+ (50K+ subscribers): Attentive enterprise quote or Postscript Enterprise. Third: are you SMS-only or multichannel (email + SMS + push)? Multichannel brands should seriously evaluate Klaviyo (email-first + SMS bolt-on) or Attentive (SMS-first expanding into email) — avoid running separate email and SMS tools if audience overlap is high. Fourth: two-way/conversational vs broadcast-only? Postscript's conversational SMS with AI Shop agent handles post-click flows brands can't build in-house. SimpleTexting's two-way messaging is adequate for support use cases. EZ Texting and TextMagic are broadcast-first. Fifth: international sending? TextMagic is the best for multi-country campaigns (global coverage, per-country rate transparency). US-focused platforms (Postscript, Attentive, SimpleTexting, EZ Texting) charge per-message rates that vary by carrier and country.

For Shopify DTC brands: Postscript is the default. Starter tier with $49 minimum spend (~3-5K messages/mo) is genuinely low-commitment; Growth at $100/mo covers most $500K-$2M GMV brands. The Shopify integration depth, Visual Flow Builder, and conversational SMS with AI Shop are category-leading. For mid-market to enterprise DTC ($5M+ GMV): Attentive quote-only — expect $2-5K/mo entry for 50K subscriber list + AI Pro + AI Journeys. The unified SMS + email bundle (advertised '6x spend' vs SMS-only) is compelling if you're ready for the integration work. For SMB general business (restaurants, salons, real estate, nonprofits) under 2,000 contacts: EZ Texting Launch at $20/mo annual (500 credits included) is the cheapest real option. Scale up to Boost ($60 annual, 500-2K contacts) when you grow. For SMB wanting more features than EZ Texting at same price point: SimpleTexting $39/mo with 500 credits + richer automation + AI Assist message generator + 3 user seats is the better choice if you can pay slightly more for capability. For low-volume prepaid or international use: TextMagic $0.049/SMS outbound (or $0.01 via CPaaS like Twilio) with no monthly commitment.