How we rate SMS providers
How the six-criterion rubric scores each Australian SMS provider from dated published fields, which criteria are withheld and why.
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Published review scores
This site holds 56 provider records, of which 21 carry an overall score. The scores use six criteria: Value for money, Features, Reliability, Reputation, Compliance and Customer service. From 22 October 2026 every score is computed by the applied rubric. A record without an overall has none, 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.
Scores give one view, and the ranked comparison of Australian bulk SMS providers adds the published rates and carrier routing claims behind each score.
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 provider gets an overall only when Value for money is scored and at least four criteria are scored in all. Value for money is required because the site helps a business choose on price at volume, and an overall with no price behind it would rank a provider the reader cannot price.
A missing criterion is excluded from the mean and never inserted as zero. The review names each withheld criterion and what it lacked. SMS Broadcast's Compliance value, previously withheld because no Compliance rubric was published, is now scored like every other provider's.
Where the scores come from
Every score is computed from dated fields in the provider record. The eight historical scores of 9 September 2026, recovered from this site's earlier review pages, were replaced on 22 October 2026. One method now scores every provider. Each field carries the date it was read from the provider's own page or a named third party.
Each review prints, under every scored criterion, what the threshold read and when. A score moves only when a field behind it is re-read, and the read date on the review moves with it. The research does not open accounts or send test traffic, so the scores rest on what providers publish, not on measured delivery or support response times.
The rubric for the six criteria
The rubric proposed on 21 October 2026 was applied on 22 October 2026. Reliability and customer service now read a coded category taken from the dated note, and only tier 1 and 2 trading providers are scored. A provider with no Australian entity, or a retired brand, is reviewed but not scored, because it sits in no table a score would order. A criterion whose field is absent is withheld, never scored zero, and the overall stays the equal-weight mean of the criteria that were scored.
Value for money. The published rate per SMS at 15,000 messages a month, in Australian cents, at landed cost for a US-dollar provider, against the field median of the ranked providers. Twenty per cent or more below the median scores 10; below the median, 8; within five per cent either side, 6; above the median, 4; twenty per cent or more above, 2. A provider with no published band at 15,000 a month has this criterion withheld. One point is added, to a ceiling of 10, where the record says inbound replies are free.
Features. The count of sending methods and sender types the provider publishes as supported: API, email to SMS, two-way SMS, SMPP, MMS to Australian mobiles, dedicated number, shared number and alphanumeric sender ID, eight in all. Seven or eight scores 10; five or six, 8; three or four, 6; one or two, 4. A record with nothing published either way on every one of the eight has this criterion withheld.
Reliability. What the provider publishes about uptime. A stated uptime figure with a published remedy, credit or response target scores 10; a stated figure with no remedy, 7; a public status page or outage procedure with no figure, 5. A provider that publishes none of these has this criterion withheld, because an unpublished service level is not a failed one.
Reputation. The public review rating on the platform the record names, with its count and read date. A rating of 4.5 or more from 100 or more reviews scores 10; 4.0 or more from 50 or more, 8; 4.0 or more from fewer than 50, or 3.5 to 3.9 at any count, 6; 3.0 to 3.4, 4; below 3.0, 2. A provider with no listing on a public review platform has this criterion withheld.
Compliance. The provider's standing on the ACMA approved list for the SMS Sender ID Register, read on the date the register page states. Listed under its own name as a certified telco scores 10; listed as an originating telco or a partner of a certified telco, 8; not listed under its own name but publishing alphanumeric sender IDs for Australian numbers, 6; not listed and publishing nothing on sender IDs, 4. One point is added, to a ceiling of 10, where the record carries a security certification the provider states it holds with the page it was read from.
Customer service. The support the provider publishes. Phone and live chat around the clock scores 10; a published phone line at any narrower hours, 8; email or chat with no phone line, 6; a ticket or help-centre form only, 4. The plan a new customer gets without a paid support add-on is the one coded. A provider that publishes no support channel or hours has this criterion withheld.
Three things changed on 22 October 2026. The eight historical scores, read from this site's own review pages on 9 September 2026, were replaced by computed ones, and SMS Broadcast's withheld Compliance value is now scored like every other provider's. A score moves whenever a field behind it is re-read, with the new read date on the review. A provider is scored on fewer than six criteria wherever it publishes less, with the withheld criteria named on its review, so two providers with the same overall can rest on different evidence.
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, from what it publishes about its registered entity, office and support and from the Australian Business Register. The tier is separate from the score and says nothing about price or quality, only about who a buyer would actually be contracting with.
Since 21 October 2026 the tier also decides who is compared. This site compares Australian SMS providers: only a tier 1 or tier 2 provider enters a ranked table, a shortlist or a "best" or "cheapest" answer. A tier 3 provider, one with no Australian company, office or entity a buyer can find, keeps its review, which says at the top that it is not ranked and names ranked Australian alternatives. Before that date tier 3 providers sat in the tables at their landed cost, and one of them led the homepage board. A brand its operator has retired keeps its review too, under a dated notice naming the operator, and sits in no table. 7 reviewed providers are tier 3 today and 4 are retired.
| 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. |
56 of the 56 brands we review are classified, from what each one publishes about its own registered entity, office and support and from the Australian Business Register, each with its sources on its review. A brand not yet classified would carry no tier rather than a guessed one, and would not be ranked until it did.
Who enters the price comparisons
We review 56 brands. 20 of them trade under the name we review them under, have an Australian entity (tier 1 or 2 above) and publish a per-message rate in Australian dollars that maps onto a monthly volume, and those 20 are the priced comparison. A further 2 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 23 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 34 price on prepaid credit or a monthly plan rather than on volume, publish no rate at all, have no Australian entity, or have been renamed, absorbed, retired 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.
The same priced set is the population of the Australian SMS price index: the median and quartiles of the published rate at each volume, with the data as CSV.
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.