Shape Software vs. Twilio

Shape Software is well suited when using "mainstream" ad platforms that have robust integrations. It also works well when budgets are set less frequently and are allowed to run unchanged for a set period of time. Shape Software gets less accurate when frequent budget changes need to be made and when using ad platforms with little to no support built into Shape Software.

I found Twilio to be excellent and very easy to use for a programmer in all aspects related to voice, SMS, and other features utilizing their API. I found the node client to be excellent and helpful. We previously used the Apex client for Salesforce before it was discontinued. Although we try not to use Twilio from Apex anymore, using that client was easier than implementing our own.

Incentivized

• Platform integrations
• Pacing accuracy
• Automated notifications

• Easy to see my team in one place, when they log in and out and what call status they are in.
• Twilio is a simple, user friendly way to log in and out of work activities.
• Excellent services and support.
• The omnichannel feature which allows agents to get request from all channels.

Incentivized

• Automated budget pacing could be more sophisticated - it tends to conflict with platform best-practices in my opinion.
• Integration with LinkedIn leads would give more accurate picture of conversion volume I believe.
• More customizable alerts

• Segment’s email identifier is case-sensitive, which is ridiculous because emails themselves are not case-sensitive. This means that if I send a capitalized email address in an identify call, it will create a duplicate user rather than matching it with the lowercase email. I think this is a technical oversight that should be corrected.
• I’d like to see more information about the eventual transition of existing Frontline customers to Twilio Flex
• I’d like to see some integrations between Twilio Studio and OpenAI or another open source LLM to provide automated responses, if this hasn’t been done already
• I would like to be able to drag and move the actual lines connecting the steps in Twilio Studio, sometimes mine can get pretty messy
• I think a Bug Report form would be beneficial for developers

Incentivized

Unless we can get this handled quickly -- less than 1 week -- we will likely switch to another provider who, in my opinion, we'll have to spend close to $3,000 in development time to build a new integration for texting. Our clients need texting and I feel Twilio has failed us miserably.

Incentivized

Shape Software is very easy to set up and use. The core functions and features require little explanation. The options and settings are easy to find and the capabilities of the platform are apparent to the user after just a few minutes of use.

Twilio has well documented APIs and examples. There are several tutorials, videos and Q&As regarding their services. So, usability is very good. I must say that advanced knowledge of telephony, API/Programming and error-handling is essential to make good use of Twilio. It's not just plug-and-play unless you are integrated with a system that has all of the programming built for it.

Incentivized

Twilio executes what it is designed to do: send SMS messages at scale while providing very good deliverability. I believe that Twilio is very good at what we use for adding SMS messages to our comms strategy. We can see those messages get opened and replied to, which is exactly what we are looking to achieve.

Incentivized

I never had the need or opportunity to work with support.

I have not had to communicate with Twilio support in the last 3 years but my past experience with them has been very positive. They replied to my previous requests promptly and kept me well informed to resolve my inquiries. With their documentation that's available, I hardly imagine why anyone would need to contact support since it's all there in a concise and easy to understand format. It would probably take you longer to type out a support ticket than to just open their doc websites.

Incentivized

The developer APIs and SDKs are super easy to follow.

Incentivized

Shape Software is very user-friendly and easy to set up. The controls and settings are very straightforward and the core functions (onboarding new accounts, creating new budgets, managing budgets, etc) are easily understood. The customizable alerts and budget intervals provide modularity for different situations and provide significant peace-of-mind. The automations are less impressive in that they generally conflict with ad platform automation in my opinion. Automated bidding and budgeting is hindered by third-party automations like Shape Software and the performance Shape Software features provide doesn't justify forgoing that technology in the ad platforms in my opinion.

We evaluated many fundraising-based text-to-give programs and found the subscriptions prohibitively expensive for our small scale and uncertain first few years of development. While we may be willing to invest that kind of money after discovering how things work, we're happy with Twilio now and have no desire to start over.

Incentivized

Being in South Africa, direct local currency support would be nice

Incentivized

• Reliable protection against overspend
• Precise budget control
• Cross-platform visibility

• It helps drive the adoption of multi-factor authentication by making second-factor authentication quick and easy.
• Decreases the number of times a user spends migrating to a new device from an old one.
• Enables easy access to second-factors of authentication by offering multi-device support, making multi-factor authentication painless.

Incentivized