4 of the top SMS marketing platforms of 2024—and why they might be right for your business

Every company that offers SMS marketing capabilities boasts dozens of features for brands.

But not all SMS marketing platforms are created equal, and that makes choosing the best one for your business a complicated challenge.

SMS marketing automation, or text message marketing automation, refers to the ability to create, send, and deliver SMS communications at scale. Vendors make promises ranging from sophisticated personalization and segmentation to A/B testing, artificial intelligence-led analytics, and more.

But what’s the best SMS marketing service for your specific business needs? Which one will best help you:

• Meet your goals?
• Appropriately track SMS attribution as part of your holistic marketing funnel?
• Segment your audiences based on zero- and first-party data?
• Use that data to personalize your text messages for higher, more sustainable customer engagement?

Below is our list, in no particular order, of 4 of the top SMS marketing tools for delivering the kind of customer experience today’s consumers demand. It’s not a comprehensive list, and of course we’re a little biased. But we’ve tried to select a list of SMS marketing platforms that encompasses a wide range of different business sizes and use cases.

Here, we break down why you might want to use each SMS marketing software—and why you might not.

1. Klaviyo

Founded in 2012, Klaviyo launched SMS in 2019 and now offers a unified email and SMS marketing solution for growing businesses, from solopreneurs to small businesses to large enterprise companies.

With high customer ratings on both G2 and TrustRadius, Klaviyo is “the leader of the industry,” says Elliot Scott, founder and CEO of London-based retention agency ElliotDigital—and it’s the only platform his agency uses for email and SMS.

“It’s just the place to be,” Scott says. “It’s clear Klaviyo is going to become, if it’s not already in certain parts of the world, the biggest player in SMS. You want to bet on a company that’s progressing and is innovative, and that’s Klaviyo at the end of the day.”

Why you might want to use Klaviyo for SMS

• All-in-one intuitive platform for:
  • SMS marketing in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, and Portugal
  • Email marketing
  • Mobile app push notifications
  • On-site sign-up forms, including pop-ups, fly-outs, and forms embedded in landing pages
  • Customer data platform for rich data intake and activation
• Fast, user-friendly set-up, including a variety of sending options:
  • Toll-free number
  • Short code
  • Vanity code
  • Branded sender ID (a.k.a. alphanumeric sender ID), popular for sending outside the US
• SMS marketing deliverability and compliance features including:
  • Automatic consent management when someone opts in or out of receiving SMS marketing
  • Customer profiles that show exactly when and how each subscriber provided consent
  • Active membership in compliance organizations like the CTIA and CWTA
  • Conservative approach to SHAFT to help keep Klaviyo customers safe
  • Automatic removal of phone numbers attached to:
    • Known litigators
    • Landlines
    • Subscribers who change carriers
  • Built-in SMS compliance tools, including:
    • Quiet hours
    • Mobile terms of service (TOS) builder
    • Smart Sending
    • Branded short links
    • Deliverability reporting to ensure your messages consistently reach your audience, including the SMS deliverability hub, which provides a comprehensive view into deliverability trends and proactive alerts to address issues in real time
• Deep ecommerce focus
  • Pre-built use cases for brands using Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Wix, Adobe Commerce, Prestashop, and custom ecommerce platforms via APIs
  • 300+ integrations with leading ecommerce tech platforms
• Wide array of powerful list growth tools, including:
  • Desktop and mobile sign-up forms
  • SMS sign-up forms targeted to current email subscribers
  • Multi-step sign-up forms
  • SMS consent at check-out
  • QR codes
  • Smart Opt-In: allows visitors to quickly join your list with a one-time passcode
  • AI-powered forms display optimization
• Extensive options for SMS communications, including:
  • SMS campaigns
  • SMS automations, or flows, including multi-channel flows that incorporate both email and SMS, as well as push notifications for brands with mobile apps
  • Guidance on when to use email vs. SMS
• Hyper-personalized SMS segmentation allows you to:
  • Include in-message syntax that makes messages feel personal
  • Include or exclude multiple segments based on real-time data from your entire tech stack, including factors like:
    • Granular purchase history, down to the SKU
    • Discount code usage
    • Predicted customer lifetime value
• Conversational SMS options including keyword response and helpdesk integrations with Zendesk and Gorgias
• Sophisticated SMS reporting and optimization functionality, including detailed deliverability reporting and a cooperative last-touch attribution model and customizable attribution windows
• AI features like SMS AI, which helps you generate SMS copy and SMS replies, and Segments AI, which allows you to quickly create a desired language by describing the people you want to reach in plain language
• Complete control over your account and data
  • Unlimited access to all your customer data and contact lists
  • Flexible month-to-month plans or long-term contracts
  • Ability to take your SMS marketing phone number with you
• Guided platform with SMS training, education, and support, including a wide array of free live trainings and on-demand learning

Why you might not want to use Klaviyo for SMS

• You need your provider to offer a fully managed SMS program. While Klaviyo doesn’t run your SMS program for you, we do work with a wide range of SMS-certified agency partners that can. Klaviyo also offers onboarding to help you get your SMS program up and running, as well as customer success managers to help your SMS and email program see better results.
• You’re looking for a more ad-hoc pricing model, rather than one that’s inclusive of carrier and platform fees. Klaviyo offers transparent month-to-month plans and annual contracts with no additional fees, so you can choose whatever path makes the most sense for your business.
• You need access to SMS campaign features such as audio and video messaging. Klaviyo does not support these features at this time.
• You need to send transactional SMS notifications in an ecommerce platform other than Shopify. Klaviyo only supports Shopify transactional SMS at this time.
• You need advanced conversational SMS capabilities. Klaviyo does not offer live sales agents or a concierge team to respond to customer inquiries via two-way conversation at this time.
• You need to send SMS in South America, Asia, and/or Africa.

2. Postscript

Founded in 2018, Postscript is an SMS marketing point solution that calls itself “the SMS marketing platform built for Shopify brands.”

Why you might want to use Postscript for SMS

• SMS marketing available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
• Strong deliverability and compliance features
• SMS list growth tools, including desktop and mobile sign-up forms, keywords, QR codes, and SMS consent at check-out
• SMS campaign features including campaign templates
• SMS segmentation capabilities for personalized messages, based on factors like Shopify purchase history, message tags, and SMS engagement
• Conversational SMS capabilities including:
  • Keyword response
  • Flexible conversational branching flows
  • Conversational campaigns
  • AI for sentiment analysis and topic labeling so users can filter their inbox
  • SMS Sales: US-based sales associates who proactively engage with your subscribers over two-way conversations
  • Helpdesk integrations with Zendesk, Gorgias, Gladly, Help Scout, Re:amaze, Kustomer, Richpanel, DelightChat, Slack, and Front
• SMS analytics and reporting features including:
  • Exportable subscriber and revenue reports
  • Customizable attribution windows, with a minimum 1-hour attribution window for a received text message
  • Dashboard analytics for high-level overviews
• Self-serve platform with SMS training, education, and support
  • Wide array of learning resources, including SMS certification program
  • Access to Fantastic Texts, a collection of high-performing SMS campaigns and flows from real-life Postscript users
  • Access to automation template library
• Fully managed professional services and support available for an additional cost

Why you might not want to use Postscript for SMS

• You need a unified platform for email and SMS marketing. Postscript is a point solution for SMS only.
• You use an ecommerce platform other than Shopify, such as BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Wix, or Adobe Commerce. Postscript only supports Shopify at this time.
• You want access to a broader array of built-in ecommerce integrations. Postscript offers around 70; Klaviyo, for example, offers over 300.
• You’re looking for an all-inclusive pricing structure. Postscript’s pricing plan is complex, with additional platform and carrier fees. Some features, like API access, are only available on higher-level plans.
• You’re interested in using AI to work smarter. Postscript’s suite of AI functionality is limited and not available on all plans.
• You need visibility into multi-channel attribution and reporting. Because Postscript is a point solution, it can only report attribution for SMS.
• You need visibility into SMS deliverability reporting. Postscript does not support this at this time, although they do not charge for failed messages.
• You want to modify the short link you use to your own domain to help boost deliverability. Postscript does not allow for this flexibility.
• You need to send SMS outside of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Technically you can send SMS outside of those regions with Postscript, but the platform is not designed to solve for international needs—for example, support for local number types, or compliance features that cater to local regulations.

3. Yotpo

Founded in 2011, Yotpo acquired SMSBump in 2018 to round out its suite of offerings for loyalty and referrals, subscriptions, reviews, and visual user-generated content. The company’s mission is to help ecommerce brands “create better shopper experiences in every way imaginable” across the entire customer journey.

Why you might want to use Yotpo for SMS

• You want to consolidate your SMS with Yotpo’s other marketing tools, such as:
  • Reviews
  • Loyalty
  • Subscriptions
  • Email
• List growth tools for capturing SMS subscribers, including spin to win and social opt-in
• SMS campaign features including campaign templates
• SMS segmentation capabilities, based on cross-product data from integrated Yotpo products
• Conversational flows, including keyword response and helpdesk integrations with Zendesk, Gorgias, and Re:amaze
• SMS performance tracking and reporting features, including:
  • Subscriber growth report
  • Customizable attribution and UTM settings

Why you might not want to use Yotpo for SMS

• You need your provider to offer a fully managed SMS program. Yotpo only offers chat support and support from customer success managers. They do have a professional services team, but not for SMS program management.
• You want access to a broader array of built-in ecommerce integrations. Yotpo offers around 50 for SMS; Klaviyo, for example, offers over 300.
• You want to consolidate your SMS program with an experienced email provider. Yotpo officially launched email in 2023 and now supports just a few thousand brands. Klaviyo, by contrast, supports email marketing for over 143K brands and has been an industry leader for over a decade.
• You have advanced segmentation needs, such as including or excluding multiple segments from an SMS campaign. Yotpo does not support this at this time.
• You need visibility into multi-channel attribution and reporting. Yotpo reports attribution separately.

4. Attentive

Attentive was launched in 2018 as a point solution providing SMS marketing services for midsize to enterprise online retailers. In 2022, Attentive also launched email marketing.

Why you might want to use Attentive for SMS

• SMS available in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, UK, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland
• SMS deliverability and compliance features
• Full suite of list growth tools, including mobile and desktop sign-up forms, consent at check-out, and social opt-in
• SMS campaign features including AI copy assistant and voice/video messages
• Multi-channel automations, which include both email and SMS
• Transactional SMS notifications
• SMS segmentation capabilities for personalized communications
• Conversational SMS capabilities including:
  • Keyword response
  • Conversational branching flows
  • Helpdesk integrations with Zendesk, Gorgias, Freshdesk, Gladly, HelpScout, Re:amaze, Kustomer, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Richpanel
  • SMS concierge service, with live agents and conversational AI (additional message costs per message sent)
• SMS reporting and analytics features, including SMS subscriber growth report
• Fully managed professional services and support available for an additional cost

Why you might not want to use Attentive for SMS

• You need a self-serve SMS marketing software. Interaction with your Attentive customer success manager and support team is required to accomplish even basic tasks, such as changing your attribution window or scheduling a pop-up.
• You want access to a broader array of built-in ecommerce integrations. Attentive offers around 100; Klaviyo, for example, offers over 300.
• You want to consolidate your SMS program with an experienced email provider. Attentive officially launched email in 2023. Klaviyo, by contrast, has been an industry leader for over a decade.
• You’re not ready to commit to a long-term contract. Month-to-month services are available, but long-term contracts are the default with Attentive. Make sure you understand the full costs, including potential platform fees, additional carriers, and professional services fees.
• If you send a lot of MMS, Attentive’s pricing might not be the best fit for your brand. Unlike other SMS marketing services—Klaviyo, for example, gives you 1,600 characters, with or without emojis, as part of a single MMS—Attentive gives MMS the same character count as an SMS message (160 characters plain text; 70 with emojis). The result is that the same MMS message may cost slightly more on Attentive.
• You want to pick the attribution model that makes most sense for your specific business. Attentive’s default SMS attribution model is aggressive: 1-day view, 30-day click. Technically windows are customizable, but only with help from your CSM.
• You require sophisticated segmentation capabilities. Attentive’s segment builder only supports a few segment conditions, which limits your ability to reach the right people with the right messages.

How to choose the right SMS marketing solution for your business

Keep in mind that when it comes to maximizing your SMS ROI, each text message marketing platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. Selecting the one that’s best for your brand is a daunting process, and a lot of it comes down to asking the right questions.

Choosing the best SMS marketing service for your business depends on what you’re trying to accomplish with your SMS marketing strategy. For example:

• Are you more focused on engaging customers and potential customers, driving revenue, or both?
• Does your SMS program cater to specific segments such as VIPs and loyal customers, or does it need to have broader appeal?
• Where does SMS fit in relation to your email marketing program? For example, do you need the ability to launch hybrid flows that involve both emails and text messages?
• What kind of SMS marketing attribution model makes the most sense to you?

Before you make your final decision, there are a few text marketing features no business should compromise on. At a minimum, your text messaging service should:

• Provide built-in SMS marketing compliance in the countries of your interest.
• Offer short code and toll free numbers.
• Offer options for multi-step sign-up forms, click-to-text forms, and gathering SMS consent at check-out.
• Integrate seamlessly with third-party technology.
• Allow for A/B testing of text campaigns.
• Provide sophisticated metrics, data and predictive analysis functionality.
• Enable data capture through actions like browse abandonment and personalization through MMS, dynamic images, coupon codes, and more.

In an economically challenged, data privacy-forward world, where paid targeting is getting less precise and consumers are getting more selective about which brands they deem worthy of their money, SMS marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your audience.

Your SMS marketing platform is what powers it all.

Choose wisely.

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