If you’ve been looking for a programmable communication tool for your web or mobile apps, you’ve likely heard of Twilio. While it’s a popular choice, it might not be the perfect fit for your specific requirements
For instance, you might be looking for other options with different features, better pricing models, and free access to customer support. 🙌
To help your search, we’ve compiled this list of the 10 best Twilio alternatives so you’ll have everything you need to make the right choice.
10 Best Twilio Alternatives for Better Communication in 2024
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is Twilio?
Twilio is a communication platform as a service (CPaaS) that provides developer tools for embedding voice, text, and video messaging features into web and mobile apps. Basically, it helps you simplify communications with clients and customers using APIs.
Many users love Twilio because it easily integrates into their apps and has software development kits (SDKs) in major programming languages like Python, Java, and PHP. Twilio’s detailed documentation also helps new users get started with projects quickly.
That said, you need strong coding skills to maximize Twilio’s capabilities. Also, as your transactional volume grows, costs can quickly increase—access to reliable customer support starts at $250 per month.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Should You Look for in a Twilio Alternative?
While Twilio is an effective tool for helping end-users communicate in the mode they prefer—like text messaging, phone calls, or email—it might not be the most practical business communication solution.
When exploring alternatives to Twilio, look for options that:
- Offer cost-effective pricing that matches your budget
- Integrate easily into your web and mobile applications
- Scale as your business and communication needs grow
- Support programming languages you’re comfortable with
- Deliver messages to countries where your audience resides
- Provide the communication channels (text, call, video, social media, etc.) you need
- Offer comprehensive documentation and responsive support
Summarize this article for me pleaseThe 10 Best Twilio Alternatives to Use in 2024
Don’t feel like sifting through countless Twilio alternative options? We got you. Our staff of software sleuths has narrowed it down to these top alternatives to Twilio that might be a better fit for your customer and team communication goals. Let’s take a look at what each option brings to the table. 🕵️
1. Vonage
Vonage is a CPaaS platform that makes it easy to add communication features to your app by providing SMS, voice, and video APIs. It also has user verification APIs via SMS, voice, email, WhatsApp, and silent authentication.
Vonage and Twilio have different call pricing models. While Twilio charges by rounding up to the nearest minute, Vonage charges by the second. This means you only pay for what you use and save money. 💰
Vonage best features:
- Set up interactive voice response (IVR) in 120+ languages including English, French, and Spanish
- Host in-app video conferencing with up to 16,000 participants
- Build no-code virtual assistants to answer inquiries across voice, SMS, and social media platforms
- Connect with 40+ external tools including Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Hubspot, and Microsoft Dynamics
Vonage limitations:
- 24/7 priority support starts at $750/month, which can be prohibitive for small businesses with limited budgets 💸
- Extra monthly fee for integrations like Salesforce and SugarCRM on the starter plan
Vonage pricing:
- SMS API: Starts at $0.0076 per outbound message and $0.0061 per inbound message
- Voice API: Starts at $0.0043 per minute for outbound or inbound calls
- Video API: Starts at $0.00395 per minute per participant
- Verify API: Starts at $0.053 per successful verification
Vonage ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.3/5 (434 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.1/5 (299 reviews)
2. Sinch
Sinch is an omnichannel platform that lets you connect with customers via SMS, MMS, RCS, email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. It has SDKs in Node.js, Java, .NET, PHP, and Python, making it easy to integrate these communication channels into your app. 📲
Besides messaging, Sinch also supports voice and video calls within your app. You can include a digital signature to your calls for customer trust and use number masking for privacy in both calls and SMS.
Sinch best features:
- Verify users via SMS or phone calls
- Maintain an active contact list with phone number lookup feature
- Personalize messages based on customer profiles and communication preferences
- Use automatic fallbacks to send failed message deliveries over a different channel
Sinch limitations:
- Few native integrations
- Support team may take a while to respond
Sinch pricing:
- SMS messages: Starts at $0.0078 per inbound or outbound message
- MMS messages: Starts at $0.010 per inbound message and $0.018 per outbound message
Sinch ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.0/5 (28 reviews)
- Capterra: No reviews
3. Podium
Podium is a cloud-based platform for local businesses looking to boost customer retention and online reputation. Send payment, review, and feedback requests to customers and respond to their inquiries across multiple online platforms.
You can also sign up leads for your marketing list and launch bulk text campaigns to turn them into customers. Podium tracks customer details, past interactions, and conversation histories to help you optimize marketing campaigns for better results. 📈
Podium best features:
- Access and respond to texts, website chats, calls, emails, social media DMs, and reviews in one place
- Customize message routing by topic or team availability
- Accept in-person payments with Podium readers or the mobile app’s tap-to-pay feature
- Connect with 180+ external tools like Airtable, ActiveCampaign, BigCommerce, Gmail, and Outlook
Podium limitations:
- Starter plan is limited to three team members and 1,000 contacts
- Inconsistent customer support
Podium pricing:
- Essentials: $249/month
- Standard: $409/month
- Professional: $599/month
Podium ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.5/5 (1,479 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (485 reviews)
4. Amazon SNS
Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service) is a push messaging service by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It uses a publish/subscribe model for broadcasting messages to customers (via SMS, email, and push notifications) and other HTTP and AWS applications.
Amazon SNS excels at handling big message volumes with high reliability. This makes it perfect for sending out important updates and coordinating actions across different parts of your app.
Amazon SNS best features:
- Access one million publishes, 100,000 HTTP deliveries, and 1,000 email deliveries for free every month
- Create rules to determine who can publish or subscribe to a topic
- Get a summary of the number of topics, subscriptions, and connected applications on your dashboard 📊
- Integrate seamlessly with AWS services like SQS (Simple Queue Service), Lambda, and Kinesis Data Firehose
Amazon SNS limitations:
- Setup may be complex for newbies to the AWS platform
- Limited customization for unique use cases
Amazon SNS pricing:
- Mobile push: $0.50 per million notifications
- Email: $2.00 per 100,000 notifications
- HTTP/s: $0.60 per million notifications
Amazon SNS ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.3/5 (87 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (10 reviews)
5. Plivo
Plivo is a cloud communications platform that offers SMS APIs, voice APIs, and SIP trunking services. It’s got SDKs in the Node, Ruby, Python, PHP, C#, Go, and Java languages.
For SMS, features include delivery reports and message queuing for bulk sends. Meanwhile, the voice API allows for custom caller IDs, answering machine detection, and voicemail transcription.
Like Twilio, Plivio has a wide reach across 190+ countries, which is great if your business has an international audience. 🌍
Plivo best features:
- Auto-select local numbers for sending bulk messages to build trust and improve read rates
- Receive message failure alerts with error codes for debugging
- Use templates to build flows for call forwarding, call routing, voice, and SMS surveys
- Access comprehensive documentation and responsive support
Plivo limitations:
- Doesn’t support in-app and social media communication
- Priority support via ticket portal starts at $250/month
Plivo pricing:
- SMS API: Starts at $0.00550 to send or receive a message
- Voice API: Starts at $0.01000 per minute for outbound calls and $0.00550 for inbound calls
- SIP Trunking: Starts at $0.00650 per minute for outbound calls and $0.00250 for inbound calls
Plivo ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.5/5 (709 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (85 reviews)
6. MessageBird
MessageBird is a communications API platform for customer interactions via live chat, SMS, email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Google Business.
Thanks to its unified inbox, you can manage messages from all these platforms in one space. Create automated workflows to forward calls, route SMS to email, set reminders, and more, either from scratch or using templates. ✨
MessageBird best features:
- Add contacts manually or import from TXT, CSV, or XLSX files
- Centralize customer journeys from e-commerce shops, CRM, and app analytics for personalized campaigns
- Export SMS, voice, and flow builder usage stats to CSV
- Connect with 15 plug-ins including Salesforce, Google Sheets, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Zapier
MessageBird limitations:
- APIs may be slow to respond at times
- Priority support via email starts at $500 per month
MessageBird pricing:
- SMS: Starts at $0.0069 per message
- Voice: Starts at $0.015 per minute for outbound calls and $0.0033 for inbound calls
MessageBird ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.2/5 (66 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (150 reviews)
7. Bandwidth
Bandwidth is a developer platform that lets you add voice and messaging features to your apps. This includes conferencing for up to 20 people, call recording, live transcription, text-to-speech, and toll-free SMS and MMS.
A key feature of Bandwidth is that you can add an emergency calling function (aka enhanced 911) to your apps. This is super handy for getting police, fire, or medical services to your customers fast. If your app is all about security, personal safety, or remote healthcare, Bandwidth could be your new best buddy. 👫
Bandwidth best features:
- Use email to send SMS texts and receive SMS responses in your email inbox
- Track call volumes, message delivery rates, and communication performance
- Analyze customer sentiments so you can take the right action
- Get free customer support via contact forms and phone calls
Bandwidth limitations:
- Some APIs are difficult to use
- Doesn’t integrate with Zapier
Bandwidth pricing:
- Messaging API: Starts at $0.004 per outbound message
- Voice API: Starts at $0.010 per minute for outbound calls and $0.0055 for inbound calls
- Authentication API: $0.05 per authentication
Bandwidth ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.5/5 (374 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (127 reviews)
8. Infobip
Infobip is a customer engagement tool for sending marketing campaigns, reminders, and inquiry responses on your customers’ favorite social channels.
Customize its APIs to reach out via SMS, email, in-app messages, push notifications, and various social channels like WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Viber, and Facebook Messenger.
With this alternative to Twilio, you get a visual builder, so you can set up automated messages for events like user sign-ups, purchases, or birthdays. Plus, Infobip’s AI CRM tools help with recommending products, timing messages perfectly, and identifying at-risk customers.
Infobip best features:
- Capture leads with online forms 📝
- Conduct A/B testing across multiple channels
- Track campaign performance and export results as CSV and XLSX files
- Integrate with e-commerce and CRM apps like Salesforce, Hubspot, Shopify, and BigCommerce
Infobip limitations:
- Customer support may take long to respond
- Some users say the pricing plans are expensive
Infobip pricing:
- Contact for pricing
Infobip ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.4/5 (53 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (13 reviews)
9. Telnyx
Telnyx is a CPaaS solution offering voice, messaging, and user verification APIs, plus SIP trunking services. Unlike Twilio, it has cheaper rates and free access to 24/7 customer support. 📞
Additionally, this alternative to Twilio owns a private global IP network. This ensures high-quality communication worldwide and faster resolution of call issues.
Telnyx best features:
- Clear and consistent voice call quality
- SDKs are available in Python, Ruby, Node, PHP, Java, and .NET
- Has a multi-cloud network with AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure for redundancy and high uptime
- Comprehensive documentation and enables businesses with its responsive support team
Telnyx limitations:
- Advanced programming is required to use certain features
- IoT SIM card setup can be complex compared to other communication solutions
Telnyx pricing:
- Messaging API: Starts at $0.004 per outbound or inbound message
- Voice API: Starts at $0.007 per minute for inbound and outbound calls
- Video API: Starts at $0.002 per minute per participant
- Verify API: Starts at $0.03 per verification
Telnyx ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.7/5 (328 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (47 reviews)
10. Wati
Wati (WhatsApp Team Inbox) is a WhatsApp messaging platform with ready-made tools and APIs to engage with prospects and customers. It’s easy to set up, even for non-developers. Link your WhatsApp Business account, add your contacts, and launch your marketing campaigns. 🤹
All customer inquiries land in one unified inbox where your team can jump in and sort things out quickly. And if you’re not around, set up a chatbot with the no-code builder to keep the conversation going.
Wati best features:
- See who on your team is online or offline
- Preview your campaigns before broadcasting them
- Track message volumes, message statuses, and employees with the fastest response times
- Connect Wati with eight apps: Zoho CRM, Shopify, WooCommerce, Hubspot, Pably Connect, Google Sheets, Make, and Zapier
Wati limitations:
- Users are limited on each plan, with an extra user costing $30 per month
- Plans are limited to 1,000 conversations per month, so you’ll have to buy credits for more
Wati pricing:
- Standard: $39/month (5 users)
- Pro: $69/month (5 users)
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing (10 users)
Wati ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.6/5 (205 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (55 reviews)
Summarize this article for me pleaseOther Communication Tools
While these Twilio alternative options focus on customizing customer interactions, tools like ClickUp provide ready-made features to support your workplace communication strategies.
From project discussions to task comments to documents, everything is in one place. This makes it easy to stay organized, maintain context, and track communication history with everyone at any time. 🎯
Summarize this article for me pleaseClickUp
ClickUp is a project management tool with endless communication features to handle your team’s needs.
Use ClickUp Chat for department- or project-specific discussions. In addition to text, upload files from your computer or cloud storage directly into the chat or share voice and screen clips with your team.
With ClickUp Docs, you can collaborate in real-time on business documents. And thanks to ClickUp AI, you can quickly brainstorm ideas and generate first drafts in seconds.
ClickUp AI also helps with improving your writing, summarizing long documents, and even turning your notes into action items. ✅
Managing these action items is a breeze with ClickUp’s project management capabilities. Assign tasks, set deadlines, and check progress. To make your workflows smoother, ClickUp’s automation tools handle repetitive tasks so your team can work on more important stuff.
ClickUp best features:
- Visualize projects inside the List, Table, Kanban, Calendar, and Gantt views
- Access AI tools in task descriptions, comments, chat, and Docs
- Tag team members with @mentions to notify them of your comment
- Connect ClickUp with 1,000+ apps via its native integrations, Zapier, and ClickUp API
ClickUp limitations:
- Some web and desktop features aren’t available on mobile
- ClickUp AI is only available on paid plans
ClickUp pricing:
- Free Forever
- Unlimited: $7/month per user
- Business: $12/month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- ClickUp Brain: Available on all paid plans for $5/Workspace member/month
ClickUp ratings and reviews:
- G2: 4.7/5 (9,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,800+ reviews)
Summarize this article for me pleaseIt’s Time to Level Up Your Customer Experience
Twilio offers many useful features, but it’s not the only game in town for integrating team and customer communication services into your apps. With this handy list of Twilio alternative options, you can easily assess each platform based on your needs to find the best fit.
Moreover, if you’re ready for a tool to streamline business operations, project management, and internal communication plans, look no further than ClickUp.
This one-stop shop keeps your team on the same page to get work done easier and faster. Plus, with 1,000+ integrations, ClickUp works with your current tech stack for a winning combo. 🏆
Sign up for ClickUp now—it’s free!
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
