SMS reminder services in Australia
This comparison covers reply-to-confirm appointment reminders, where the customer replies to accept or decline. The table defaults to 1,000 reminders a month, each one SMS part, plus one dedicated reply number. Among providers publishing both a matching rate and a number fee, Mobile Message has the lowest listed benchmark cost, $35.00 a month excluding GST. Setup fees and other account fees are excluded, so this is not a full invoice or a total all-in cost.
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Mobile Message
$35.00 a month for single-part reminders and the first reply number, AUD excluding GST. Setup and other account fees excluded.
99.9% gateway SLA with a published remedy
What reminders cost a month, with the number replies come back to
At the 1,000-reminder benchmark, Mobile Message has the lowest listed monthly cost, at $35.00 a month: 3.50c a message plus a number at no monthly fee.
| # | Provider | Rate a message | Number a month | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mobile Message | 3.50c | no fee First dedicated number free after your first credit purchase; additional numbers $100 a year excluding GST Review number terms | $35.00 |
| 2 | Cellcast | 3.70c | $18.00 $18 a month, or $169 a year Review number terms | $55.00 |
| 3 | touchSMS | 5.00c | $15.00 $15 a month for an Australian virtual number with SMS and MMS; $30 a month with call forwarding (100 minutes a month included); $10 a month for SMS on a linked VoIP number (VoIP customers only). No setup fee, no contract, AUD excluding GST. Review number terms | $65.00 |
| 4 | SMS Broadcast | 7.00c | $14.92 $179 for a one-year lease, no setup cost Review number terms | $84.92 |
| 5 | 160.com.au | 6.70c | $18.18 $20 a month including GST for an Australian virtual mobile number, cancel any time; overseas numbers from $10 a month Review number terms | $85.18 |
| 6 | Chatti | 6.90c | $19.00 $19 a number a month; a dedicated shortcode is $295 a month plus a $695 establishment fee Review number terms | $88.00 |
| 7 | Textmagic | 7.00c | $19.00 A$19 a number a month, first month free; an alphanumeric sender ID is A$10 per campaign a month, first month free, with approval taking up to 14 days Review number terms | $89.00 |
| 8 | ClickSend | 7.20c | $19.00 $19 a month for SMS; the MMS section of the same page lists $29 a month Review number terms | $91.00 |
| 9 | MessageWorks | 6.90c | $25.00 $25 a month for a dedicated phone number; a dedicated sender ID is $25 a month plus a one-time $90 setup fee Review number terms | $94.00 |
| 10 | Vision6 | 9.20c | $31.82 $70 one-time setup fee plus $35 a month including GST for a dedicated virtual number Review number terms | $123.82 |
| 11 | BE Messaging | 6.00c | $79.00 The 04 service number is the Desk: $79 a month each for 1 to 2 numbers, $69 for 3 to 10 and $59 for 11 or more, excluding GST, with 1,500 conversational SMS and 150 MMS included per number Review number terms | $139.00 |
| 12 | Telstra | 14.00c | no fee One mobile service number included as standard; additional numbers are quoted on request Review number terms | $140.00 |
Guni SMS: $15 a month for a dedicated virtual number; GST treatment not stated. GST treatment of the dedicated number fee is not stated in the source read, so an excluding-GST monthly benchmark is not calculated. Number fee source (read 2026-10-03).
Choose a published benchmark. Bundle purchases and quote eligibility at other volumes are not calculated.
The number fee is the first dedicated number as each provider publishes it: a yearly lease is shown by the month, a fee quoted including GST is shown without it, and a number included with the account or free after the first purchase is shown as no fee. One-off setup fees are not spread into the month; each provider's review names its own. Not ranked here because no dedicated number fee is published: Notifyre, Twilio, Bird, Vonage, Kudosity, SMS Fusion, Bulk SMS Australia.
Monthly cost shortlist: 1,000 reminders
- Mobile Message , not yet scored. 99.9% gateway SLA with a published remedy. $35.00 a month for 1,000 single-part reminders and the first reply number, AUD excluding GST, before setup and other account fees.
- Cellcast , 9.0 out of 10. 2.83c at 125,000, bundles not volume tiers. $55.00 a month for 1,000 single-part reminders and the first reply number, AUD excluding GST, before setup and other account fees.
- touchSMS , not yet scored. Established Australian SMB gateway. $65.00 a month for 1,000 single-part reminders and the first reply number, AUD excluding GST, before setup and other account fees.
- SMS Broadcast , 7.0 out of 10. Onshore connections with Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. $84.92 a month for 1,000 single-part reminders and the first reply number, AUD excluding GST, before setup and other account fees.
- 160.com.au , not yet scored. Sydney gateway, local support team. $85.18 a month for 1,000 single-part reminders and the first reply number, AUD excluding GST, before setup and other account fees.
Compare any two
| Measure | Mobile Message | Cellcast |
|---|---|---|
| Overall out of 10 | not published | 9.0 |
| Reminder cost at 1,000 a month | $35.00 | $55.00 |
| Rate at 1K | 3.50c | 3.70c |
| Rate at 15K | 3.00c | 3.10c |
| Rate at 125K | 2.50c | 2.83c |
| Rate at 250K | 2.50c | 2.83c |
| Cost at 15,000 a month | $450 | $465 |
| Carrier routes | "Direct Australian tier-1 carrier connectivity and Australian servers ensure your data never goes offshore." No carrier is named individually. | "Local carriers best in class messaging for single messages & bulk messaging"; no Australian carrier is named. |
| Uptime | 99.9% gateway availability in any calendar month, with a $52.50 account credit as the sole remedy, claimable within 30 days | "100% uptime SLA" and a "100% delivery rate guarantee"; no SLA document, credit schedule or remedy is published behind either |
| Dedicated number | Yes | Yes |
| Shared number | not published | Yes |
| Alpha sender ID | Yes | Yes |
| Email to SMS | Yes | Yes |
| SMPP | not published | not published |
| Two way | Yes | Yes |
| MMS | No | Yes |
| Support | Live chat 24/7; email monitored seven days a week, with replies mostly 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, Melbourne time | 8am to 8pm AEST staffed, with 24/7 emergency tickets; phone, email and SMS |
| Head office | not published | South Melbourne, Victoria |
| Public reviews | 4.9/5 from 273 reviews on ProductReview.com.au | 4.2/5 from 6 reviews on Trustpilot |
What a reminder service has to do
An SMS reminder service sends a message at a set time before each appointment, and you choose that interval. Some reminders run one way from a branded sender, with a reschedule link or a phone number. Others ask the client to reply to confirm or cancel, so they need a number that can receive replies. The wording can come from the appointment reminder templates guide on this site.
The reply side needs a number rather than a sender ID. ACMA explains that a sender ID cannot receive replies, so a reminder that asks the client to reply must come from a number. Each reply should show up in the service against the appointment it answers.
The diary link is the third requirement. A provider reaches your bookings through a built-in integration, through Zapier, or through its SMS API when nothing ready-made exists. The reminder then carries the client's name and appointment time straight from the booking record.
The reply number can add a fee of its own on top of the message charges.
The reply number is part of the price
The table lists original dedicated-number terms and links to provider reviews. A dedicated reply number may carry a monthly fee or an annual lease. An included first number may depend on a qualifying credit purchase. For comparison, fees quoted including GST are converted to exclude GST, and annual leases are shown as monthly equivalents. The actual payment schedule is unchanged.
The benchmark covers single-part message usage plus the monthly fee for the first reply number. It excludes one-off setup fees and other account or access fees. Check the review for actual payment terms and applicable extra fees.
After comparing those costs, check how appointment confirmations are handled.
Confirmations by reply keyword
ClickSend's inbound messaging rules can send an auto-reply only when the reply contains a given word, for example "Confirm". Mobile Message runs keyword automations on a dedicated number, for example someone who texts "JOIN" is added to a contact list and receives a welcome text. Cellcast says you can automate responses via keyword triggers.
Test a booking through the flow you intend to use before the first real reminder goes out.
- Create a test booking with your own contact details, then check the date, the time and the timezone the reminder actually uses.
- Edit, reschedule or cancel that booking, and check whether an out-of-date unsent reminder stays scheduled.
- Reply with the confirmation or reschedule keyword the message promises. Check where the reply lands for staff, and whether the appointment record itself shows the change. A receipt or an auto-reply does not prove the diary changed.
- Inspect the delivery status, and distinguish delivery to the handset from a read message or a confirmed booking.
The reminder data has to reach the provider from your diary, and that is a connection question.
Connecting your booking system
The Acuity Scheduling integration page from Mobile Message, which runs through Zapier, says the reminder trigger is usually set 24 or 1 hour before the appointment starts. ClickSend, Cellcast and Mobile Message publish a Zapier integration.
A booking or practice system with no built-in integration can still send through the provider's SMS API. Check which providers your own booking or practice system lists before you compare price.
With the connection settled, the last question is what the law lets you put in the reminder.
Reminders and the Spam Act
A message that consists of no more than factual information, plus the sender's name, logo and contact details, is a designated commercial electronic message under the Spam Act 2003. Schedule 1 exempts designated messages from the consent rule and the unsubscribe rule, but they must still identify who authorised the message and how to contact them.
ACMA tells consumers that appointment or payment reminders are generally not spam.
ACMA says a message that promotes a product or service must comply with the spam rules even when the promotion is only one part of the message. ACMA's Chair said in October 2023 that a factual message which also includes marketing content, or links to marketing content, can only be sent with consent.
The OAIC's November 2017 guidance for health service providers, Communications with patients, says it is generally reasonable to imply a patient's consent to a reminder to attend a scheduled longer appointment.
Scores and comparison method
Where a score is shown, it is the mean of the recovered historical criterion values from this site's own review, each criterion weighted equally. Missing criteria are excluded from that mean, not counted as zero. Unscored providers have no published score rather than a low one. Read the method.