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Twilio - often paying more is worth it!
March 13, 2018

Twilio - often paying more is worth it!

Rich Warren | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Programmable SMS

Overall Satisfaction with Twilio

Twilio SMS is used for our transactional notifications and lender alerts.
  • Very reliable service
  • Consistent deliverability
  • Well documented
  • Copilot telephone number pooling
  • Expensive compared to competitors
  • Version control can be wayward in docs
  • Unable to download more than 10,000 logs at one go
  • Ease of use has saved time implementing our messaging system
  • All ease of implementation has saved time/money, the service is expensive in the long run though
  • Reliability has ensured our users consistently receive notifications
  • voodoo sms, firetext and Nexmo
Twilio is considerably more expensive than its competitors but has far better documentation. If cost is a problem then I would recommend Nexmo over Twilio, although the customer service and documentation is nowhere near as good. I have also had a much less reliable service on Nexmo. In my opinion, the ease of implementation and reliability is well worth the additional cost. If you are looking to be able to send one off campaigns then Twilio is not the tool for you, I would recommend FireText if you are in the UK. That enables texts to be sent via uploading a CSV file, perfect for nontechnical team members. If you want to use a much simpler API that can be accessed via a GET request and no required modules look at Voodoo SMS. Voodoo SMS is also significantly cheaper per message. Twilio customer service is superior to all its competitors, it really is a premium service. Customer support ticket response times are normally well below 24hrs, the only negative is the difficulty in finding a telephone number. Above a certain threshold, you are given an account manager to solve this for you. Two-factor authentication tool saves a lot of time setting up your own service.
Twilio is perfect for transactional notifications where high deliverability and reliability trump cost. Inbound messaging is comprehensively covered so works well for scenarios where auto responses are necessary like a chat bot. Only available via the API so not helpful for one-off marketing campaigns, better to use a competitor like FireText if a non-technical team member needs to create a campaign. Copilot feature makes pooling US numbers very simple and user-friendly - easy to get around the 1 message per second and to ensure the same user is only reached from the same number. Copilot also enables international phone number pooling, choosing the nearest available number. Purchasing telephone numbers is very cheap (typically $1 per month per number) and easy - we've only had one time where they have run out of US numbers. International texts can be reasonably priced, especially in the US. Very expensive in the UK compared to some other competitors such as Voodoo SMS. Denmark and Aus oddly expensive. Generous discounts available for Y Combinator alumni with and ongoing discount if you have the volumes. Live reporting is difficult to filter and slow to use. Live texts typically do not appear until at least 2 minutes after sent. Support is fantastic, although good luck getting someone on the phone!