How we rate SMS providers
How historical review scores are averaged, which providers have scores, and how dated provider facts differ from numeric ratings.
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Published review scores
This site holds 45 provider records, of which 8 carry criterion scores. The scores use six labels inherited from the site's historical review criteria: Value for money, Features, Reliability, Reputation, Compliance and Customer service. Records without a score have no published score, not a zero.
The scores sit apart from the current factual comparisons. Separate fields cover published rates, sender types, sending methods, carrier-route claims, reliability terms and support, each with source information and a date where evidence is available. Those fields are not the six numeric score labels.
Provider facts we verify
| Factual comparison | What it measures | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Published cents per outbound SMS at 1K, 15K, 125K, 250K messages a month, plus the monthly cost of a dedicated virtual mobile number and any setup fee. | The published pricing page, read on a dated visit. |
| Numbers and sender types | Whether there is a dedicated virtual mobile number, a shared number and an alphanumeric sender ID, and what each costs. | The pricing and product pages. |
| Sending methods | REST API, SMPP, email to SMS, two-way replies, and the documented integrations. | The developer documentation. |
| Routes | What the provider states about its connections to Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. | The provider claim, quoted. Carrier relationships cannot be verified from outside. |
| Reliability | The uptime figure or service level published, and whether it carries remedies. | The SLA or status page. |
| Support | Channels, hours, whether support is Australian, and whether it is 24/7 or business hours. | The contact and support pages. |
How the overall is calculated
An overall score is the mean of the available numeric criterion values. We sum the scored criteria and divide by the number of scored criteria, then round to two decimal places. Every included criterion carries equal weight. There is no special weighting for price or any other criterion.
A missing criterion is excluded from the mean and never inserted as zero. Most scored records have six criterion values. SMS Broadcast is the exception: its Compliance score is withheld, so its overall score is the mean of its five remaining values. The site has no published Compliance rubric that would support re-scoring it, and no future re-scoring is promised.
Where the scores come from
Each scored record's source reference points to this site's own review page, with the note "Score block published on this review page". The existing criterion values were recovered from those score blocks. They are historical review scores, not figures taken directly from provider sources. The read date of 9 September 2026 records when the source was read, not when a score was awarded or re-evaluated.
The surviving score blocks do not supply a detailed evidence trail or published thresholds explaining each numeric judgement. Fresh verification of provider documentation does not automatically re-score a provider. When you weigh a score, read it alongside dated provider sources and current market conditions rather than treating it as a current measurement.
What we do not do
The current research does not open accounts or send test traffic. Published documentation cannot establish real delivery performance, actual support response times or hands-on API usability. Trial conditions must be checked with the provider before you commit.
Missing facts are omitted rather than filled. An empty field does not mean a product lacks a feature, and an unscored record is not a zero. The same rule applies to the factual comparisons: absent evidence says nothing either way.
Australian presence tier
Every provider is also classified on its Australian footprint, into one of three tiers. This is separate from the score: a provider with no Australian entity can still publish the cheapest rate, and the tier says nothing about price or quality, only about who a buyer would actually be contracting with.
| Tier | Definition |
|---|---|
| Tier 1: Australian HQ | An Australian-registered company with its head office in Australia and support based here. |
| Tier 2: Registered AU entity | A global company with a registered Australian entity, office, or support presence, even though its head office is overseas. |
| Tier 3: No AU entity | A global platform serving Australian numbers, sometimes with local virtual numbers, but no Australian company, office or entity that a buyer can find. |
39 of the 45 brands we review have been classified so far, from what each one publishes about its own registered entity, office and support. A brand not yet classified carries no tier rather than a guessed one.
Who enters the price comparisons
We review 45 brands. 17 of them trade under the name we review them under and publish a per-message rate in Australian dollars that maps onto a monthly volume, and those 17 are the priced comparison. A further 5 publish an Australian delivery rate in US cents. Those sit in the ranked tables at their landed cost in Australian dollars, the US-cent price converted at the RBA rate on 2 October 2026 plus a 3.5% card FX fee (median of the four major banks), labelled as billed in USD with the US figure beside it, because an Australian buyer pays the exchange rate and a card fee on top of the US price. Where we name the cheapest provider, the answer is worked out on providers that bill in Australian dollars, and a USD-billed provider is named beside it only where its landed cost is lower. The remaining 23 price on prepaid credit or a monthly plan rather than on volume, publish no rate at all, or have been renamed, absorbed or withdrawn since we first reviewed them. The reason is printed beside each one, because ranking a provider that publishes no price against ones that do is a comparison with a hole in it.
Rates were last checked against the providers' own pages on 28 September 2026.
Independence
Some providers pay a commission when a reader signs up through a link here. That is how the site is funded and it is disclosed on every page that carries such a link.
Commission does not affect a score or a position. Existing scores use the calculation above, whether a provider pays nothing or pays something. No provider has been offered a position, and none has been removed for declining one.
Corrections
If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will check it against the source and correct it with a dated note. Send a correction.