The 7 best text services for business, compared for 2026

A text gets read fast — 82% of consumers check a new text within five minutes of getting it. That’s why so many small businesses are shopping for a text service right now instead of leaning on email alone.

Here’s the problem with most roundups of text services for business: they compare “starts at” prices. The advertised number is rarely what you’ll pay once carrier fees, overage rates, and contact-tier jumps kick in.

So we did this one differently. We pulled the current pricing page for all 7 services in August 2026 and linked every number, so you can check each one yourself. Full disclosure up front: SimpleTexting is our product. The same critical lens applies to it as to everyone else — including where it’s not the right fit.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How we compared these text services for business
• The 7 best text services for business at a glance
• What should a text service for business actually do?
• Is a text service for business actually legal to use?
• FAQs about text services for business

How we compared these text services for business

Four things, for every service on the list:

• The real entry cost — the published entry-tier price plus the fees that page discloses further down: carrier surcharges, telecom fees, per-credit overages.
• What’s actually included — contacts, credits, a textable number, two-way replies.
• Compliance handling — whether the service registers your number with carriers and processes opt-outs for you, or leaves that to you.
• What happens when you grow — the price of the next tier, because that’s the number that surprises people six months in.

We didn’t score subjective things like dashboard beauty. Prices are accurate as of August 2026, from each provider’s own pricing page — every one is linked so you can verify before you buy.

The 7 best text services for business, at a glance

SimpleTexting: easiest all-around option for small teams

SimpleTexting starts at $29/month for 500 credits, with unlimited contacts and free incoming texts on every plan. Mass campaigns and two-way replies come from the same dedicated number, carrier registration is handled for you, and you can segment your list by link clicks, signup method, area code, or custom fields without a separate tool.

The full entry cost, since we promised real numbers: $29/month plus $10/month for a registered local number and a $4 one-time carrier registration fee, with extra credits at 5.5¢ each and carrier fees passed through at cost. There’s a free trial, and it doesn’t ask for a credit card.

The honest tradeoffs: it’s a US and Canada platform only, and a dedicated short code for very high-volume sending starts at $1,000/month — that’s an enterprise add-on, not an entry-tier feature.

EZ Texting: cheapest way to get a first campaign out

EZ Texting’s Launch plan runs $25/month, or $20/month billed annually, for up to 500 contacts and 500 monthly credits with a local textable number, and setup is quoted at one business day.

Two line items to notice on that same pricing page before you compare it to the $29 crowd: Launch adds a $5/month telecom fee, and credits past your allotment bill at 4¢ each. And the entry tier caps out fast — the next plan, Boost, runs $75/month once you pass 500 contacts. That’s the real number to budget against if your list is growing.

SlickText: compliance built into the pitch

SlickText’s Starter plan is $29/month for 500 credits, with a 14-day free trial that doesn’t require a card — and unused credits roll over, which not every competitor at this price offers.

The catch is channel add-ons: if you want RCS messaging on top of standard texts, the same page prices it at a $500 one-time setup fee plus $200/year in maintenance. Don’t assume rich messaging is bundled at this tier.

Textedly: built for high-volume, budget-conscious senders

Textedly starts at $29/month, with a 14-day trial that includes 50 free texts before you commit. Its plans scale by message volume rather than contact count — up past 300,000 messages a month, with custom plans above that.

That structure fits a smaller list you message often better than a huge list you message rarely. Annual billing takes 20% off.

TextMagic: pay mostly for what you send

TextMagic is built around prepaid credit: $0.049 per US text, and the credit itself doesn’t expire (though accounts inactive for 24 months can be closed). It also now offers optional monthly subscriptions with discounted rates, so “no plans at all” is no longer quite true.

Budget for the fixed costs the per-text price doesn’t show: a virtual number is $10/month and US 10DLC campaign registration adds another $10/month, per the same pricing page. For irregular senders that’s still cheap; for steady monthly campaigns, a credit-based plan usually works out simpler.

Podium: worth a look if you already use it for reviews

Podium doesn’t publish pricing — you’ll need a sales quote. It’s a natural fit if you already run review management or payments through Podium and want texting in the same dashboard. The lack of public pricing does make it the hardest service on this list to comparison-shop.

Attentive: built for e-commerce, not a first mass text

Attentive prices on list size and message volume, with no public starting price and a demo required to get numbers. It’s built for e-commerce brands running SMS alongside email at scale — powerful, but oversized for a small business sending its first campaign.

What should a text service for business actually do?

Whichever way you lean, don’t pay for a service that’s missing these:

• A dedicated business number — not your personal cell phone. Customers don’t want texts from a random number they don’t recognize, and neither do you.
• Unlimited contacts, so your price doesn’t spike the moment your list grows. (Notice above how often the contact cap, not the sticker price, is the real cost driver.)
• Automatic compliance handling — the service should register your number with carriers and handle opt-outs on its own, not leave that step to you.
• Two-way replies, so customers can text back and you can actually have a conversation, not just broadcast at people. Incoming texts should be free.

Is a text service for business actually legal to use?

Yes — as long as the service handles registration and consent properly. Any local number used for business texting needs to be registered with carriers: on SimpleTexting that’s a one-time $4 fee plus $10/month, and most customers register and start sending within a day. On the consent side, when someone texts STOP, a compliant service removes them from your list automatically, so you’re not tracking opt-outs by hand.

This is informational only and not a substitute for legal counsel or your organization’s compliance team. SimpleTexting serves the US and Canada only, and the sender is always ultimately responsible for compliance.

FAQs about text services for business

Whichever service fits, start with a trial and send a real campaign before you commit — that beats any comparison table, including this one. SimpleTexting’s free trial doesn’t require a card, so testing it costs you nothing but an afternoon.