Most Australian companies need SMS services that can deliver cheap, non-critical and non-time-sensitive messages.
Compare the cheap SMS providers on the detailed Comparison site presented below.
Latest update was on 28 January 2024.
Broker Reviewed
Pricing
SMS Functions
Reliability
Customer care service
Overall
Our 2024 analysis found that Cellcast is the cheapest. The table below is updated monthly and highlights how for most text message volumes the provider has the lowest rate.
Updated on 13-04-2024. Currency is in AUD $
Cellcast is an SMS provider that offers mobile messaging services to businesses in Australia and around the world. Founded in 2004, Cellcast provides a suite of messaging solutions including SMS marketing campaigns, two-factor authentication (2FA), and transactional SMS messaging.
One of the key features of Cellcast’s SMS messaging solutions is their cloud-based platform, which allows businesses to easily send and receive SMS messages from any internet-connected device. They also offer tools such as message scheduling, message personalization, and detailed delivery reports to help businesses optimize their messaging campaigns.
Cellcast also offers 2FA solutions for businesses looking to add an extra layer of security to their logins or transactions. Their 2FA solution uses SMS messaging to deliver a one-time passcode (OTP) to the user’s mobile device, which they must enter to complete the login or transaction.
Cellcast’s pricing plans are customized based on business-specific needs and messaging volume. They also offer a free trial for businesses to test out their SMS messaging solutions before committing to a paid plan. Overall, Cellcast is a reliable and feature-rich SMS provider that offers a range of messaging solutions for businesses looking to enhance their mobile messaging capabilities.
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Based on an SMS comparison made on the pricing schedules of several reputable SMS providers, the best value SMS providers in Australia were found to be CellcastTM and ClickSend. This assessment was made based on:
CellcastTM is a relatively new player in the Australian market and is working towards becoming one of the country’s largest premium SMS providers. It is a leading provider of mobile communications, SMS programming and MMS interactive mobile messaging for the fast-growing mobile digital communication platform. Cellcast Australia is 100% Australian-owned and independently operated.
ClickSend is a global leader in business communication solutions. Its reputation is built on technical expertise, industry experience, quality support and service reliability. From bulk marketing to mission-critical solutions, it is a business messaging provider, with offices around the world and has been operating since 2013. Its head office is located in Perth, Australia.
Cellcast and ClickSend are cloud-based SMS organisations focusing on sending and receiving SMS through their API platform, email & voice services.
There are two types of SMS networks in Australia that you should know about. The first network type is known as the Premium (or Tier 1) which covers the major Australian telecommunication carriers including Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. SMS providers that offer this text message service through these networks pay a premium charge for each SMS but ensure that end-user customers receive the SMS almost instantly with nearly 100% reliability.
The best example of Australia’s major users of premium SMS providers (that exclusively use premium networks) is the banks such as NAB, Westpac, ANZ and Commonwealth Bank. They all use SMS for services such as Internet banking which requires the service to be secure, instantaneous and reliable.
Most businesses don’t have the requirements that banks or large enterprises have, such as for large-scale marketing, promotions, communication reasons, reminders and so on. In these cases, the text messages must be received by the end-user with minimal delays even though in some cases there may be a delay of a few minutes or a carrier problem but that occurs 1 in 1,000 times and could be viewed as minimal and acceptable. It’s also worth noting that premium SMS providers often will not deal with customers who send small monthly quantities.
The alternative network type is for businesses or organisations that need to consider a cheaper distribution method based simply on price alone. There are cheap SMS providers who use grey networks also known as Hybrid which usually means networks that have their carrier system overseas or provide a lower tier of Australian networks.
Sending an SMS from an overseas network to Australia is relatively reliable with the only real downside being the delivery time which in most cases is less than 15 minutes (due to the distance it needs to travel). Reporting from these providers is often on par with premium networks and can show good delivery statistics and response rates.
When comparing a pricing schedule from a cheap SMS Provider, you need to also look closely at their features, conditions, gateway carrier, reliability and customer care available for using their service.
As you will see from the SMS Comparison table, the providers vary in offers. A cheap SMS provider will offer a reduced charge on the provision that the volume of text messages is significant. The larger the volume the cheaper the charge per SMS distributed. Also, it should be noted that the charges are dependent on the number of messages for each month so those companies who do send a large number of SMS each month have a cheaper rate.
Take the example of Cellcast with numbers over 100,000 SMS per month, their charge is 2.9 cents similar to the charge by ClickSend of 5.5 cents for an SMS. When comparing cheap pricing for lower volumes of text messages, the charges differ by around 50% for lower distribution numbers between these two bulk SMS providers.
Several SMS providers do not disclose their prices or show only a few charges dependent on volume distribution. Take the examples:
>250K+
>100K+
>10K+
>2000
5.5c
6.0c
6.5c
5.0c
2.8c
2.9c
3.1c
N/A
14c
15.5c
6.9C
7.9c
Cheap SMS Providers are ideal for large to medium-sized enterprises that require over 99% assurance that most of their text messages are delivered within a short time, which is less than two minutes. In the review of pricing of several reputable and reliable cheap SMS Providers, it was found in general, that ClickSend and Cellcast offered the cheapest rates for different ranges of bulk distribution of text messages.
Other factors that need to be considered include and are summarized in the table below::
Many of these cheap SMS providers aimed at attracting large to medium-sized companies rather than smaller organisations. However, they do not necessarily eliminate these smaller organisations as there are pricing schedules for them. It should be noted that pricing can change without notification, so please review the pricing structure on individual websites.
With a company wanting to engage a cheap SMS provider, they want the reassurance that their pricing will not change once they employ the company and that the reliability of distribution will be of paramount importance. Most Australian companies who want to use cheap SMS providers realize that a cheaper type of service is more aimed at non-critical and non-time-sensitive message distribution to customers.
The important factor is that the pricing, features and customer service availability are still of high quality. Clients want to have as part of the SMS and MMS service, the support system present should a system fail and have a delivery reporting system to gauge the effectiveness of the SMS distribution, whether it is for a campaign or an important message needing attention.
Several Australian companies use Australian cheap SMS providers as they are competitive with other overseas SMS providers and offer the same range of services as overseas competitors.
SMS comparison is run by an Australian set of experts who have worked within the SMS industry for some years and understand how confusing it can be to compare the range of features and services of SMS providers.
Now that the authors have moved to other IT areas and no longer work in SMS, they can be unbiased and independent in their reviews of the SMS providers. Therefore, they can focus on comparing the most reputable companies that deliver text messages to Australian end-users.
While over 10 cheap SMS providers were found and compared in the original SMS comparison chart, most were removed either due to non-competitive pricing or poor reliability, two factors that are critical for any Australian business.
You can compare SMS providers for free on any of our SMS comparison tables and sites provided on the site without any commitment. The website only receives a referral fee on only some of the providers listed. The information is constantly updated using the providers’ website content and policy disclosure documents.
As no automation is used and all content is manually collected and analysed there is the possibility that providers may update their products or change their prices without notice. As such, this website is indicative and should be used only as a guide.
Updated on 28 January 2024