The Bulk SMS Comparison site will make it simpler for you to compare UK providers based on their price, reliability, customer support, privacy and security.
Many British companies primarily use SMS for their marketing campaigns, alerts, reminders, offers, etc. as an effective way of communicating.
To compare SMS bulk providers in the UK, a number of important variables need to be considered such as pricing schedule, special features, customer care service support, reliability, present clients, and promotional offers.
Price is the major determining factor to be considered when engaging a bulk text message provider for a UK business. Price will vary depending on the volume of distribution of SMS over a period, which is usually calculated on a monthly distribution basis.
The number of SMS that are distributed can range from 500+ to over 1 000 000+ text messages during a month. When the volume is low, the charges can vary significantly with a variation of 20% difference. When it involves larger volume distribution, around 100,000+ per month, the charges vary from around 5p per credit (Excl. VAT) to around 9p per credit (Excl. VAT), a significant difference with these volumes of high distribution between different SMS bulk distributors, the difference in charges can be around 30% for the volume of SMS sent based on monthly accounts.
On the largest scale, when considering a distribution of one million or more text messages a month, the cheapest quote presented is 2.3p for a text message to the dearest quote of 4.7p for a message, and that is also significant a 50% price difference.
The table below shows the top bulk SMS companies and while exact prices couldn’t be provided as they differ by volume and circumstances, a range was provided based on quotes provided.
The above table shows that the WholesaleSMS provider has the lowest costs of all the providers compared and therefore offers the best value of the reputable SMS companies analysed. WholesaleSMS is one of the few providers who display a clear pricing schedule based on volume monthly. While the introductory offer is standard across any package, the ongoing rate ranges based on the volume of text messages purchased. This price schedule may vary and should be referred to the current website.
It should be stressed that pricing is not the only factor in considering which SMS bulk provider offers the best overall value. There are other indicators or features which will be discussed later in this overview. Therefore if you are a client or a prospective client, please check around to ensure you take note of all the factors in assessing value as well as the terms and conditions of these charges.
As stated above, there are many other features that need to be considered in valuing the UK bulk SMS provider other than purely on price.
Take for example the two-way process for the distribution of SMS. You need to be aware and see if the provider can send a message to a mass target audience and receive replies from those recipients. You should be able to easily view your website or be provided with the capacity to forward comments, ideas and inputs from specific contributions or emails back to you as the client.
Some of the features that should be looked at when assessing the suitability of the UK bulk provider could include:
The two-way process provides an immediate set of responses that can be analysed and action taken promptly and reliably. This process provides peace of mind and reassurance that the bulk provider can track and monitor SMS distribution and responses. Recording incoming and outgoing text messages, will ensure that a delivery tracking analysis can be done for any marketing or communication campaign. Records can be sent to Excel with a delivered report sent through APIs or their SMS gateway.
Offering a range of quality and diverse features for SMS gateway distribution, it was seen that ClickSend presents the best set of features for a bulk text message service to British consumers. Adopting a scale of 0 to 100, the calculations showed that the features offered by ClickSend have a rating of 95 out of 100, which is an excellent set of features it offers. This is followed closely by another bulk provider namely SMS Tech which has an excellent complementary range of features thereby ranking highly with a rating of 91 out of a maximum of 100. The other three SMS competitors’ rankings were lower. Although other providers did not score as high it should be stressed that they still offer a good range of valued features and therefore should not be excluded from consideration as prospective good bulk text message providers.
One of the significant features in the selection of a reputable UK Bulk SMS provider is the reliability and credibility of the company in sending out mass text messages to customers, clients, staff or any groups that require some form of communication promptly. There needs to be an assurance by the client that when a time and date is set for distribution, the message will be delivered and be reassured that such requirements are met whether it is as a reminder for appointments or an important date that someone needs to know about. The client can also set up a text message for a later date distribution to promote a marketing or communication campaign in the future and the business will know it will be distributed as directed.
Another important matter is that many bulk SMS companies need to let their clients know about any uptime guarantee whether it is 99% to 99.9% or better still, 100% uptime distribution supported by a Service Level Agreement (SLA) as part of their overall assurance. Uptime is generally the most important metric for a website, online service or web-based provider and is expressed as a percentage such as ‘99.9%’. For example, a 99.9% uptime equates to 43 minutes and 50 seconds of downtime.
Looking at the graph below, it is reassuring to know that all the five SMS bulk UK providers investigated showed a high level of reliability as part of their service. This put all these organisations in good stead with present and future clients and customers knowing that their arrangements and distribution requirements will be met effectively and efficiently. Even though SMS Broadcast, ClickSend and DirectSMS rate in the top 100, this is closely followed by Burst SMS and SMS Tech.
It takes quite some time for British businesses and organisations to find the right bulk text message provider who can provide a text messaging service that can be distributed quickly and to the right people as a means of letting individuals know about either a new marketing or communication campaign or letting people know about a reminder notice or to receive deals and alerts. Many companies and organisations in the UK are finding out now that mass SMS distribution is the way to go.
In the review of preferred UK bulk SMS providers investigated it showed that of these companies outlined provide a promotional offer of a free trial to review the range of services. Such free trials may vary from 5 free SMS to 50 free SMS dependent on the provider’s offer. This way the business or organisation can see how the system operates and how it can be easily integrated into the existing messaging system, website or applications.
From a reputation perspective, comparing bulk SMS providers, there appeared to be quite a diverse range of offers available. From the research done reviewing the websites, SMS Tech was regarded as the most reputable organisation ranking as a solid performer and scoring a full complement of services. This was closely followed by ClickSend and Burst SMS with high rankings. SMS Broadcast was also well placed with a good reputation scorecard.
It needs to be emphasized that it is one issue to offer a selection of good features and provide relatively cheaper prices for SMS, it is another matter to be aware that there is, with most providers, a nearby customer contact or support centre available in the UK to answer queries or assist with the distribution of text messages. Look for support forums on the bulk SMS providers’ websites as to whether they contain answers to commonly asked questions and problems. Good SMS providers will have a sales and technical support contact number, in most cases, during business hours Monday to Friday and the exceptional providers will have an out-of-hours number for availability issues regarding the internet SMS gateway situations.
This factor has led a number of large reputable British and multinational companies to become clients of bulk SMS British providers. A list of some of the clients can be viewed on the providers’ websites or Bulk SMS UK Comparison Table.
Any information you provide to the bulk SMS providers (including the recipient’s phone number) needs to remain the property of you as the account holder. The Provider should not redistribute this information to third parties without the client’s consent, except where legally required by law to do so. This is with particular reference to any database, numbers and/or recipient details that may be delivered to the client, or stored on the Provider’s databases. The Bulk SMS Provider should not use supplied phone numbers to send advertising or marketing messages.
Internet security – when interacting with the provider’s services via a web browser, sensitive and personal data should be encrypted using SSL/HTTPS. When the client login to the account section of the website there should be a lock or a key in the browser window. When interacting with the provider’s service through one of their programming APIs, the client must take action to select a secure SSL/HTTPS channel.
So discovering the best bulk SMS company does require lots of research, investigation and analysis to understand the most suitable factors that will make your decision safe before engaging their services. Features like price, reliability, reputation and ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 for quality and being SPAM complaint and GDPR complaint for security and privacy are important requirements that need to be looked at. That’s why a Bulk Text Message Comparison Table was developed for you to compare and is now provided to compare at your own time, so view the link.
There are a number of bulk SMS companies in the UK that will be able to provide a Short Message Service (SMS) to you for ease of distribution, whether it is via mobile phone, Web or any other communication devices. By notifying the providers as to what device or devices they wish to use and supplying the database of customers or consumers or any other groups, everything else is done by the bulk SMS company. It only takes a few seconds or minutes from when you instruct to send until the SMS is received at the other end. It does not matter if the database sends out hundreds or thousands of contacts, it is an extremely efficient way of communicating.
The major advantage of bulk SMS distribution is that there is no requirement for any software to be installed into your system. Why, you may ask? The simple answer is that the bulk SMS companies are web-based so the only need from your side is to have a web browser and internet access. What is only needed is to provide the provider with your name and contact details for distribution purposes. Then, when you are ready to send a message out, it is just a matter of notifying the provider which group or groups of people need to receive the SMS and it will be sent in a matter of minutes.
It needs to be noted that in formulating this SMS comparison table and site through analyzing providers’ websites on an ongoing basis, sometimes changes do take place in the pricing schedule and features, and this can occur without notice. Therefore it is recommended that readers should check prices and features before engaging bulk providers. If you believe that any information on this comparison table needs to be updated, please use the ‘Contact Us’ section to notify the owners of the site. Such changes will be made as soon as possible.
This Bulk SMS Comparison information is provided for free to the readers. A commission to the owners of this site may be asked from the provider’s site if you click through their website and engage their services. There are no forms of advertising on this site and the authors have made price and other key features the key selection elements that have led to the recommendations made on the site.
This page was last updated on 24th of March 2024.