How to Choose an SMS Service Provider (SMS Gateway Provider, SMS Reseller, SMS Broker)?


Introduction

This article discusses 13 questions that you should ask yourself when choosing an SMS service provider. An SMS service provider is a business entity that provides SMS messaging services but is not a mobile network operator. It acts as a middleman between mobile network operators and SMS service users. An SMS service provider signs agreements with a lot of mobile network operators to obtain their permission to exchange SMS messages with their mobile networks, and offers an interface for users to send and receive SMS messages. Some of the interfaces are very simple to use since they hide most of the technical details of SMS messaging. Some others are more powerful that support more features. SMS service providers are also known as SMS gateway providers, SMS resellers or SMS brokers. This is because:

More information about SMS service providers can be found in the "SMS Service Providers (SMS Gateway Providers, SMS Resellers, SMS Brokers)" section of our SMS tutorial. Links to the web site of some SMS service providers and a comparison between their SMS messaging services are available in "Comparison Table of SMS Service Providers (SMS Gateway Providers, SMS Resellers, SMS Brokers)".


1. How much does it cost to send 1 SMS message?

Cost of service is an important factor that you need to consider when choosing an SMS gateway provider for your SMS application. Typically, SMS gateway providers can be divided into 2 categories in terms of how they require you to pay for their SMS service:

In general:

  Cost per credit (credit-based payment) < Cost per SMS message (SMS-based payment)

So, is credit-based payment always better? Not definitely. Let's take a look at the following example:


SMS gateway provider A (Credit-based payment): Cost per credit = US $0.06

SMS gateway provider B (SMS-based payment): Cost per SMS message = US $0.1

 

SMS gateway provider A

SMS gateway provider B

To country X

(Suppose 1 credit is required.)

Cost per SMS message = $0.06

Cost per SMS message = $0.1

To country Y

(Suppose 3 credits are required.)

Cost per SMS message = $0.06 * 3 = $0.18

Cost per SMS message = $0.1


From the above table, you can see that if your SMS messaging application targets on country X, you should choose SMS gateway provider A since sending an SMS message to country X with SMS gateway provider A is cheaper. Similarly, if your SMS messaging application targets on country Y, you should choose SMS gateway provider B. If your SMS messaging application targets both countries, then of course you should route all SMS messages destined for country X to SMS gateway provider A, and those destined for country Y to SMS gateway provider B.

For most of the SMS gateway providers, the cost for sending one SMS message decreases with your purchasing amount. For example, the pricing structure of SMS gateway provider B and SMS gateway provider C might be like this:


Number of SMS messages purchased

SMS gateway provider B

SMS gateway provider C

1 to 10,000

Cost per SMS message = $0.1

Cost per SMS message = $0.09

10,001 to 20,000

Cost per SMS message = $0.08

Cost per SMS message = $0.08

>=20,001

Cost per SMS message = $0.06

Cost per SMS message = $0.07


For the above table, you can see that if you plan to purchase 1 to 10,000 SMS messages at a time, you should choose SMS gateway provider C since its cost per SMS message is lower. But if you plan to purchase more than or equal to 20,001 SMS messages at a time, you should choose SMS gateway provider B.


2. Are there any hidden costs?

A few SMS gateway providers do not write clearly all the fees involved in the pricing page of their web site. They hide some of the fees so that their SMS messaging service looks cheaper. When you go checkout, you may find that some additional fees are required. For example, setup fees.


3. Are there any minimum purchase requirements or monthly minimum usage requirements?

Some SMS gateway providers have a minimum purchase requirement. For example, an SMS gateway provider might require you to buy 1,000 credits or more each time. If you are not sure whether your SMS application will be a success, an SMS gateway provider with no minimum purchase requirement will be your choice. You can start by purchasing a small amount of SMS messages or credits. Later as your SMS application gets more users, you can purchase more.

Usually SMS gateway providers do not have any monthly minimum usage requirements. Monthly minimum usage requirement is more common in SMS messaging services provided by mobile network operators. For example, a mobile network operator might only provide SMS messaging services to customers that have a monthly traffic of, say at least 50,000 SMS messages.

If your SMS application has a very small amount of SMS traffic, an SMS gateway provider with no monthly minimum usage requirement will be your choice. For example, if your SMS application is a remote monitoring system that sends an SMS alert to the system administrator whenever it finds any server is not responding, you should choose an SMS gateway provider that does not have any monthly minimum usage requirements. This is because the servers being monitored should be running properly most of the time and the remote monitoring system seldom sends an SMS message.


Page 1 of 3 Next Page


Feedback Form (ExpandCollapse)

What do you think about this web page?






(Optional) Please provide us more details. For example, suppose you select option 2 above, can you tell us specifically what information is missing? You can also suggest anything that can help us improve this web page.

(Optional) Your name:

(Optional) Your email address:

Please enter again to confirm:

Due to the amount of messages we received, we may not be able to reply to all messages.

A button for going back to the top of this page