Guide · Business Texting
What a promo blast to your restaurant or salon list actually costs — and why per-segment pricing is the trap
For periodic blasts to a list you already own, audience-priced and high-credit plans beat per-message metering — a single 2,000-recipient send racks up $60 in metered fees on Heymarket before you've paid a cent of seat cost.
A promo blast is a different workload from a two-way texting line, and it should be priced differently. You are not holding conversations — you push one message to a list you already own, a few times a month, then go quiet. The vendors built for shared-inbox chat will quietly punish that pattern, because they meter every outbound segment. So before comparing logos, fix the workload: one blast to a 2,000-recipient list, sent a few times a month. That single send is 2,000 SMS segments. Here is what it costs.
The cheapest honest answer is Text-Em-All’s Monthly plan, from $19/mo, priced by contact-group size rather than message count — and with “no added carrier surcharges or fees for users, numbers, or registration.” Message the same group as often as you like and the monthly price does not move with send count. If your blasts are irregular, Text-Em-All’s credit model runs $0 base with credits from 9¢ each (1 credit = 1 text per recipient, never expiring), so a one-off 2,000-recipient send is roughly $180 with nothing recurring.
The contrast that makes the case is Heymarket. Its Standard plan is $49/user/mo billed annually, minimum 2 users — and SMS is metered at $0.03 per segment on top of seat cost. A single 2,000-recipient blast is 2,000 × $0.03 = $60 in metered fees alone, before the $98/mo of seats. Heymarket is excellent shared-inbox software; it is simply the wrong meter for one-to-many promotion.
The 2,000-recipient blast, vendor by vendor
| Vendor | Plan | Monthly base | Covers a 2,000 blast? | Metered fee per blast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text-Em-All | Monthly (by group size) | from $19 | Yes — priced by audience | $0 |
| SlickText | Business ($79 / 2,000 cr) | $79 | Yes (2,000 credits) | $0 within allowance |
| Textedly | Plus ($79 / 2,000 msgs) | $79 (+$8 telecom) | Yes (2,000 msgs) | $0 within allowance |
| SimpleTexting | 2,000 Credits | $89 | Yes (2,000 credits) | $0 within allowance |
| Heymarket | Standard ($49/user, min 2) | $98 (2 seats) | Metered, no bundle | $60 |
Two structurally different models sit in that table. The credit-bundle vendors — SlickText, Textedly, SimpleTexting — fold one full 2,000-recipient blast into the monthly base. The seat-plus-meter vendor, Heymarket, charges for inboxes and then bills the broadcast separately. For a list that mostly sits idle between campaigns, the audience-priced or bundled model wins on every reading.
Where SlickText earns the entry slot
For the salon or restaurant owner who wants the credits-included shape but a smaller commitment, SlickText’s Starter is $29/mo for 500 credits — with unlimited contacts and free incoming texts. That last detail matters: you can store your entire customer list at no per-contact cost and let replies land free, paying only for outbound sends. Five hundred credits won’t cover a 2,000-person blast, but for a list under 500 — a single salon’s regulars — the entry tiers cluster tightly: EZ Texting’s Launch posts the lowest base at $25/500 but layers a $5/mo Telecom Fee on top (an effective $30) and bundles only one seat; Textedly’s $29/500 adds an $8/mo telecom surcharge; SimpleTexting sits at $39/500. SlickText’s $29 carries no surcharge and is the only one of the four to pair unlimited contacts with free incoming texts. Scale up and SlickText’s Business tier ($79/2,000) ties Textedly on base and beats SimpleTexting’s $89 for the same 2,000-credit blast.
The overage question, if your list grows
Bundles only stay cheap while you live inside them. Send to 3,000 when you bought 2,000 and the marginal rates diverge sharply: SimpleTexting’s extra credits are 5.5¢ each, so 1,000 over runs $55; Heymarket simply meters all 3,000 at 3¢ for $90 on top of seats. Text-Em-All’s by-group Monthly plan sidesteps the question entirely for consistent senders, since you are buying the audience, not the message count.
How to read this
For periodic promo blasts to a list you own, the per-segment platforms are the expensive default and the audience-priced or high-credit plans are the right tool. Text-Em-All at $19/mo (by group size, no per-message fee) is the cheapest way to blast the same list repeatedly; SlickText at $29 for 500 credits with unlimited contacts and free incoming is the cheapest credits-included entry for a smaller list; and Heymarket’s $0.03/segment — $60 on a single 2,000-recipient send — is the meter to avoid for one-to-many work. Change the workload to two-way conversations and that ranking flips; that is exactly why we publish the workload, the math, and the source behind every figure.