Guide · Business Texting
Past your bundle, the meter is a separate price — and Salesmsg's is the gentlest
The marginal cost of one extra text ranges from Salesmsg's 3.10–4.0 cents to Textedly's forced 6-cent block — and that overage rate doesn't track the sticker price you compared at signup.
If the question is strictly “who charges least for the 501st message,” the answer is Salesmsg. It meters extra credits at 4.0 cents on its entry 500 Messages plan ($25/mo), dropping to 3.10 cents on higher tiers. SimpleTexting charges 5.5 cents per extra credit, and Textedly doesn’t sell you one extra message at all — you buy another 500-message block for $30, which works out to 6.0 cents each whether you needed ten or four hundred. From gentlest to harshest, that’s a spread of roughly 3.10 to 6.0 cents — the top rate is nearly double the bottom — and none of it was visible on the plan tiles you compared at signup.
The marginal rate, vendor by vendor
The bundled monthly price answers “what do I pay to send my allowance.” The overage rate answers a different question — “what do I pay for the messages I didn’t plan for” — and it’s the one that actually stings, because overage happens on your busiest month, not your quietest.
| Vendor / entry plan | Monthly base | Bundled credits | Cost of one extra message |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesmsg 500 Messages | $25/mo | 500 | 4.0¢ (down to 3.10¢ on higher tiers) |
| SimpleTexting 500 Credits | $39/mo | 500 | 5.5¢ per extra credit |
| Textedly Basic | $29/mo | 500 | must buy a $30 block of 500 → 6.0¢ each |
| Heymarket Standard | $49/user/mo | none — metered | 3.0¢/segment, every message |
| EZ Texting Launch | $25/mo | 500 | not published |
Two things fall out of the table immediately. First, the overage rate does not follow the sticker. SimpleTexting has the priciest entry base here at $39 and the second-harshest per-credit meter at 5.5 cents. Textedly’s $29 sits in the middle of the pack on base price yet carries the steepest marginal cost of any bundled vendor. The cheapest sticker and the gentlest meter don’t have to be the same vendor — you have to check both axes separately, and most buyers only check the first.
Second, Textedly’s cost isn’t really a per-message rate at all; it’s a block. You cannot top up ten credits. Go a single message over your 500 and the smallest purchase available is another $30 for 500 more. If your overage is small and occasional — a missed-call-text-back line that spikes one week — you’re paying $30 to send a handful of texts, and the effective per-message cost of that overage balloons far past 6 cents. Salesmsg and SimpleTexting bill the overage credit by credit, so ten extra messages cost you 40 to 55 cents, not thirty dollars.
Rollover is the quiet mitigant
A gentle overage rate matters less if the vendor lets unused credits carry forward, because a heavy month draws down a reserve instead of triggering the meter. SimpleTexting states its credits roll over, which softens the 5.5-cent bite for senders whose volume is lumpy rather than consistently over. That doesn’t beat Salesmsg’s lower rate, but it changes how often you actually touch it. Textedly’s block model is the opposite posture — there’s no partial credit and no graceful overflow, just the next $30.
The vendors with no “overage” at all
Worth naming for contrast: some vendors have no overage cliff because they never bundle. Heymarket meters every SMS at $0.03/segment on top of a per-user base ($49/user, two-user minimum), so there’s no allowance to exceed — but there’s also no included volume, and the seat minimum makes it a poor fit for a light two-way line. EZ Texting’s Launch plan bundles 500 credits like the others, but its pricing page doesn’t publish a per-credit overage rate (it states only that credits roll over 60 days), so a buyer can’t price the 501st message before committing — which is its own kind of answer.
How to read this
Rank on the meter, not the tile. If you reliably send near your bundle and occasionally spill over, Salesmsg’s 3.10–4.0 cents is the lowest published marginal cost among the bundled vendors, billed one credit at a time. Avoid Textedly’s block model unless your overage is large and predictable enough to fill a fresh 500 — otherwise you’re buying 490 messages you won’t send. And treat any plan whose overage rate isn’t printed, like EZ Texting’s, as a number you’ll only learn on the invoice.