Choosing a mass texting app can be difficult. This guide will help you pick the best platform to send text messages to everyone you need.
Sending one text to your whole list gets seen — recipients open 98% of text messages. But “group text software” covers a lot of very different tools, and picking the wrong one usually means paying for features you don’t need or hitting a contact ceiling right when things pick up.
Most comparisons don’t help much, because they repeat each vendor’s “starts at” price and stop there. The advertised number rarely includes carrier fees, overage rates, or what the next tier costs.
So here’s a different kind of comparison. We pulled the live pricing page for all 7 options in August 2026 and linked every figure so you can check it yourself. And full disclosure: SimpleTexting is our product — it gets the same critical treatment as the other six, tradeoffs included.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
No — and this trips people up constantly. A group chat (like a family iMessage thread) puts everyone in one conversation where they see each other’s replies. Group text software works differently: you send one message to your whole list, but replies come back to you individually — recipients never see each other’s numbers or responses.
If you want to text 500 customers about a sale without starting a 500-person group chat, this is the software category you’re looking for. (If you want a shared conversation, you want a messaging app instead.)
Four checks, applied to every option:
Prices are accurate as of August 2026 and come from each provider’s own pricing page, linked throughout.
| Service | Best for | Entry price | Segmentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleTexting | Personalizing a mass send without extra tools | $29/mo, 500 credits | Clicks, signup method, area code, custom fields |
| EZ Texting | Cheapest first group send | $25/mo, 500 credits | Basic list/keyword tagging |
| SlickText | Compliance-first teams | $29/mo, 500 credits | List-based segments |
| Textedly | High-volume senders on a budget | $29/mo | List-based segments |
| TextMagic | Irregular, pay-as-you-go sending | $0.049/text prepaid | Contact groups |
| Podium | Businesses already on Podium | Custom quote | Built into its CRM |
| Attentive | E-commerce running email + SMS together | Custom, usage-based | Advanced behavioral segments |
SimpleTexting starts at $29/month for 500 credits with unlimited contacts on every plan, so a growing list doesn’t change your price — only your sending volume does. Before a send, you can segment by link clicks, signup method, area code, or your own custom fields, and merge fields personalize each text without separate sends.
The complete entry cost: $29/month plus $10/month for a registered local number and a $4 one-time carrier fee; extra credits are 5.5¢ each, and incoming SMS replies are free. The group texting flow is exactly the send-to-many, reply-to-you pattern described above.
Tradeoffs, honestly: US and Canada only, and if you need a dedicated short code for very high-volume day-one sending, that starts at $1,000/month on the enterprise side.
EZ Texting’s Launch plan is $25/month, or $20/month billed annually, covering up to 500 contacts and 500 monthly credits with a local number, and setup is quoted at one business day.
Check two extra line items on that page before calling it the cheapest: a $5/month telecom fee on Launch, and 4¢-per-credit overages. The bigger jump is structural — pass 500 contacts and the next tier, Boost, is $75/month. For a list you expect to grow, that’s the real price.
SlickText’s Starter plan runs $29/month for 500 credits, with a 14-day, no-card trial — and credits roll over, which is genuinely uncommon at this price.
If you’re eyeing rich media beyond MMS, note that the same page prices RCS at a $500 one-time setup fee plus $200/year. It’s a real capability, just not a bundled one.
Textedly starts at $29/month with a 14-day trial that includes 50 free texts. Plans scale by message volume — past 300,000 messages a month on published tiers, custom above that — rather than by contact count, and annual billing takes 20% off.
That makes it a better fit for a modest list you message often than a huge list you message rarely.
TextMagic runs on prepaid credit at $0.049 per US text, and the credit doesn’t expire (accounts inactive for 24 months can be closed). Optional monthly subscriptions with discounted rates now exist too.
The fixed costs matter for group sending: a virtual number is $10/month and US 10DLC registration adds $10/month on top, per the same page. Occasional bulk sends? Fine. A monthly campaign rhythm? A credit-bundle plan is usually simpler math.
Podium doesn’t publish pricing for its texting tools — you’ll need a sales quote. It makes sense if reviews or payments already run through Podium and you want group texting in the same place; it’s just impossible to comparison-shop on price from the outside.
Attentive prices on subscriber count and message volume, with no public figures and a demo required. Its behavioral segmentation is genuinely advanced — it’s aimed at e-commerce brands running SMS and email programs together, not at a business sending its first group text.
Beyond price, a group texting tool worth paying for should let you:
If a broader business-texting comparison would help before you choose — support, reminders, and campaigns, not just group sends — our text services for business comparison covers that ground. And if you’d rather just try one: SimpleTexting’s free trial doesn’t ask for a card.
Drew Wilkinson is the Head of Marketing at SimpleTexting. Drew has more than a decade of experience managing successful integrated marketing programs to build brands, raise awareness, and generate demand.
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