The Best SMS Marketing Platforms for Shopify Brands
SMS platforms can feel a dime a dozen, but a few stand out — including enterprise-grade tools for eCommerce budgets of any size.
By Andrew Costaris · · 10 min read
We do not accept sponsorship in return for higher placement — our reviews, opinions, and ratings are our own.
If you've been in eCommerce for more than 15 minutes, you'll have no doubt received a cold email (or cold call, if deeply unlucky) from an SMS provider. There are dozens all vying for market share in a highly competitive space, which brings us to the purpose of this list: how do you choose the right one?
Our team has tested, demo'd, and learned about our fair share of SMS marketing platforms to provide a blueprint so you don't have to.
Through this process, we've found that while the executed product is always the same (SMS), the actual platform experience, as well as features like compliance and list growth, vary far more than we initially thought possible.
A quick word: a recent trend among SMS platforms is launching email as an adjacent offering. For the purpose of this list, we won't explore email as part of these companies' features — we'll only look at SMS in its purest form.
Our pick: Attentive
This is our top pick by a fairly wide margin. Not only does it have best-in-class functionality, like message retargeting, known litigator removal, and high-performance sign-up units (their word for pop-ups or forms) — it also features one of the best customer support teams we've come across.
We also appreciate Attentive's attempts to be on the cutting edge of SMS technology, especially when it comes to releasing tooling around business RCS. They seem to have found the right approach to a platform that powers both enterprise and SMBs, and the latter can especially benefit from a suite of features usually reserved for the biggest CPG and DTC players.
One thing to note is Attentive's heavy push to use AI in messaging and automations. While this may help some, the AI tends to push longer messages, which means a higher cost per message (Attentive bills in credits — 1 credit for every 160 characters).
SMS is an easy space to get right if you have a strong brand identity, especially given the need for brevity, so our recommendation is to avoid the AI tool. This is in no way a dealbreaker, though, as it's completely optional.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Industry leader, providing a great product to brands of all sizes | A contract is required |
| A great roadmap that is heavily discussed and advertised | Can be more expensive than competitors |
| Integrates with just about everything | |
| Frequent updates and product releases | |
| White glove service is more than a buzzword — their team genuinely goes above and beyond |
- Top integrations
- Shopify, Klaviyo, Gorgias
Pricing: For shorter contracts a platform fee is charged, but you can usually negotiate out of it if you sign a 2 or 3 year contract. Credits start at around $0.01 and can go lower if negotiated.
So, who's it for? We think Attentive is best for brands already familiar with SMS or that have begun capturing lists and consent. It's also a great option for eCommerce and marketing teams that want to onboard one SMS program in their brand's lifespan and be done with it.
In speaking with teams at brands across a wide range of CPG, we've found that once you've onboarded with Attentive, you're very unlikely to leave (while the same cannot be said of other SMS platforms).