Marketing & growth
BYO-Carrier Flat-Rate SMS Marketing
SMB text marketing where the business uses its own Twilio or Telnyx number and pays messages at cost, for one flat monthly app fee.
Founder thesis
SMS marketing is a settled category that still charges by the message. Retail per-credit prices carry a roughly 7x markup over the Twilio rail that any buyer can reach, and the main reseller now sits inside a carrier, so its markup is protected. Charging one flat app fee while the customer pays the carrier at cost is the wedge.
What others got wrong
Incumbents meter messages and stack a per-credit markup on the wholesale rail. SimpleTexting's entry plan is $29/mo for 500 credits, about $0.058 per credit, against Twilio's published $0.0083 per segment.
Rollover credits are conditional. SimpleTexting's own FAQ says downgrading your plan loses rollover credits, so a seasonal business forfeits messages it already paid for.
Twilio is not a carrier. One HN commenter calls it "the DataDog / Microsoft of telecom APIs" with a "huge floor" and recommends a carrier API provider that "doesn't squeeze you on pricing."
What should work
Stop metering. Charge one flat app fee, sell unlimited contacts, seats and non-expiring sends, and let the customer pay the carrier directly.
Absorb 10DLC registration as guided onboarding. Textedly pays the entire first 10DLC registration and SimpleTexting advertises registration guidance, so handling that friction is a proven move.
Run a recurring affiliate program. Textedly pays 20% for twelve months per referred paying business, no quota, $400,000 annual cap per affiliate, a repeatable channel for a low-ACV product.
What kills it
- The 10DLC pain the pitch cites is the work incumbents absorb, so stripping their margin strips the onboarding customers pay for.
- No source shows SimpleTexting or Textedly customers want to leave. The switching intent is a guess.
- BYO-carrier setup may be too much friction for the local SMB this targets.
- Entry-volume savings are roughly 22-38%, not the larger figure first drafted.
What users want
5A cheaper but reliable sender that reaches personal mobile numbers
One HN commenter wrote he was "Somewhat worried about A2P 10DLC" and "would really just like a cheaper (but reliable) service that combines texts to exclusively personal mobile numbers."
Texting that does not cost about a cent per message each way
A developer called SMS "annoyingly expensive" at roughly a cent per message both directions, though his own idea was dumbphones, not SMB marketing.
Registration that does not break after you pay
A live GitHub incident: a company paid $19.50 in brand fees and $15.00 in vetting fees, held an APPROVED brand and a VERIFIED campaign, and still had only a Twilio-rejected toll-free number, with messages failing 30032 and 30006.
Deliverability that survives 10DLC
One operator wrote he "tried A2P 10DLC registration on Twilio when it first came out and our deliverability went to less than 50%", so he switched it off.
No ruinous fines for one bad message
A commenter who handled A2P 10DLC professionally warned of penalties "up to $10k fine per offending message."
- Sources
- 13
- Checked
- 13
- Competitors
- 3
- Gaps
- 9
- Page checked
- 13 · 100%
- Snippet only
- 0 · 0%
- Documented
- 12 · 80%
- Interpreted
- 3 · 20%
- complaint7
- pricing3
- revenue1
- playbook1
- market1
Competitors
3- SimpleTexting$10/mo
- Textedly$29/mo
Parsed from public pricing blurbs (entry paid tier when available). Max in set: $29/mo.
| Competitor | From | Free tier | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleTexting | $10/mo | — | simpletexting.com✓ |
| Textedly | $29/mo | Yes | textedly.com✓ |
| Twilio (the wholesale rail these platforms resell) | $0.5/mo | — | twilio.com✓ |
What customers complain about
9| Gap | Src |
|---|---|
Retail per-credit pricing carries a big markup over wholesale. SimpleTexting's entry is $29/mo for 500 credits plus a $10/mo number, or $0.058 per credit, while the same 500 outbound segments at Twilio's $0.0083 are about $4.15 before carrier fees, a roughly 7x spread on the plan fee and about 9x counting the number. | |
Credit rollover is conditional and expires. SimpleTexting's own FAQ states that "If you downgrade your plan, your rollover credits will be lost", so a seasonal business forfeits the balance it paid for. | |
10DLC registration is a hard blocker for small and new senders. A micro-business must register a brand and campaign, and a commenter who did this work professionally warns of penalties "up to $10k fine per offending message." | |
Registration can also hurt deliverability. One operator wrote he "tried A2P 10DLC registration on Twilio when it first came out and our deliverability went to less than 50%. I quickly switched it off." | |
Registration is a confusing delay even for willing buyers. One commenter wrote he was "Somewhat worried about A2P 10DLC" and "would really just like a cheaper (but reliable) service that combines texts to exclusively personal mobile numbers." | |
A rejected registration leaves paid 10DLC assets unusable. A live GitHub incident shows a company paying $19.50 in brand fees and $15.00 in vetting fees, holding an APPROVED brand and VERIFIED campaign, with only a Twilio-rejected toll-free number, so messages came back "undelivered / 30032 (Toll-Free Number Has Not Been Verified)" and 30006. | |
Wholesale pricing is resented as marked up. A developer calls Twilio "the DataDog / Microsoft of telecom APIs" with a "huge floor because they're not a carrier", and recommends a carrier API provider that "doesn't squeeze you on pricing." | |
A 2013 HN story, "Twilio quietly increase international SMS Price without letting you know", drew a complaint about an unannounced international price change. It is 13 years old and about international pricing, so it is historical color, not a current signal. | |
No source shows SimpleTexting or Textedly customers wanting to leave for a BYO-carrier tool. The switching intent is a guess, and the wholesale rail is already open to any buyer. The 10DLC pain cuts both ways: it is what incumbents absorb, so stripping their margin may remove the onboarding customers are paying for. |
Documented Interpreted
How competitors find customers
3| Tactic | Src |
|---|---|
| Textedly runs a recurring affiliate program paying 20% commission for twelve months per referred paying business, no quota, $400,000 annual cap per affiliate. | textedly.com✓ |
| SimpleTexting pairs a free trial with 466 five-star Capterra and G2 reviews and a large free-tool and industry-guide library, capturing local-SMB search intent. | simpletexting.com✓ |
| SimpleTexting uses its own SMS channel as lead capture, with "Text Us" and "Call Us" actions in its pricing-page menu. | simpletexting.com✓ |
Your angle & pricing wedge
| Piece | Claim | Src |
|---|---|---|
| Angle | A flat-fee SMS marketing app for SMBs that lets the customer plug in their own Twilio or Telnyx number so messages bill at carrier cost, with unlimited contacts and seats, sends that never expire, and a guided 10DLC/TCR registration flow. The software is the same commodity incumbents sell, the carriers are reachable directly, and the only real difference is the pricing model. | |
| Wedge | It works by not metering messages: charge one flat app fee and let the customer pay the carrier. At 500 messages, SimpleTexting runs $39/mo plus about $1.25 in carrier fees, around $40.25/mo, while a BYO setup at a $25/mo app fee lands near $30.90 to $31.55/mo, about 22-24% below retail, and at $19/mo about 36-38% below. |
How others got traction
3| Move | Why | Src |
|---|---|---|
| Free trial plus an outsized review-site footprint and a large free-tool and industry-guide content library | SimpleTexting credits "466 five-star reviews on Capterra and G2 Crowd"; for local SMB buyers the review count stands in for a sales team, and the free tools capture high-intent searches at near-zero marginal cost. | simpletexting.com✓ |
| A recurring affiliate program paying 20% for twelve months | Textedly pays "a 20% commission for every business you refer for a full year", no quota, with a stated $400,000 annual per-person cap; for a low-ACV SMB product, paying a year of 20% of revenue beats paid acquisition. | textedly.com✓ |
| SimpleTexting was acquired by Sinch, a CPaaS provider, in 2021 | Once a reseller is owned by a carrier-connected CPaaS, the per-credit retail markup is protected, which is why retail prices have not fallen toward wholesale. The link to pricing is a guess, not a statement by either company. | simpletexting.com✓ |
Market heat
SimpleTexting says it has more than 15,000 customers and grew over 800% in three years.
Textedly publishes a live price ladder from $29/mo for 500 messages up to $5,520/mo for 300,000 messages, a monetized SMB market at every size.
An Ask HN thread, "Do 10DLC Requirements make it impossible for hobby projects to send SMS?", has a commenter who handled A2P 10DLC professionally describing registration queues, undisclosed trust scores and penalties "up to $10k fine per offending message."
More ▾A developer calls SMS "annoyingly expensive" at about a cent per message each way; his niche idea is dumbphones, not an SMB marketing tool, so it is sentiment only.
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Revenue signals
4| Signal | Src |
|---|---|
SimpleTexting: more than 15,000 customers, over 800% growth in three years, Inc. 5000 in 2020 and 2021, all self-reported, plus part of Sinch since 2021. Not independently audited. | simpletexting.com✓ |
Textedly: self-serve pricing runs $29/mo (500 messages) to $5,520/mo (300,000 messages) with all features on every tier; no self-reported revenue figure turned up, so category revenue is not established. | textedly.com✓ |
Wholesale rail cost: Twilio lists US outbound SMS at $0.0083 per segment plus carrier fees and a $1.15/mo leased long-code number ($0.50/mo bring-your-own), the cost floor against which retail per-credit pricing is measured. | twilio.com✓ |
Effective retail rate at entry: $29/mo for 500 credits is about $0.058 per credit before carrier fees, against Twilio's $0.0083 per segment, a roughly 7x spread. | simpletexting.com✓ |
Should you build this?
The category monetizes: SimpleTexting self-reports more than 15,000 customers and over 800% growth and sits inside Sinch, and Textedly publishes a live ladder from $29/mo to $5,520/mo. The cost floor is low and public, with Twilio at $0.0083 per segment against a retail entry of $29/mo for 500 credits. But the wedge is pricing, not technology: the app is a commodity wrapper, the wholesale rail is open to anyone, and no source shows customers wanting to leave. A solo founder should not build this blind. One test first: recruit 15 SMBs or small agencies sending at least 2,000 texts a month on SimpleTexting or Textedly, compute their true per-message cost from last quarter's invoice, and ask for a paid pre-order at $25/mo, then kill it if fewer than 5 of 15 pre-pay, fewer than 8 show under 30% savings, or more than 3 refuse to manage their own carrier account.
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All sources
13| Source | Kind | Status | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| pricing | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| pricing | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| pricing | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| complaint | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| complaint | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| complaint | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| complaint | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| revenue | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| playbook | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| market | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| complaint | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| complaint | page checked | 2026-09-18 | |
| complaint | page checked | 2026-09-18 |