TextMagic, Textedly and Square texts: pricing and alternatives

If you're comparing TextMagic, Textedly and Square's marketing texts, you're probably looking at three tools that seem to do the same job. They don't. One is a pay-as-you-go messaging service with an API. One is a subscription built around monthly message allotments. The third is a texting add-on inside a point-of-sale system. The right choice depends less on the sticker price and more on how you send, how much, and how much compliance work you want to do yourself.

This post compares them on pricing model, limits and compliance depth, and shows where Ready fits. We make Ready, so treat our section with appropriate skepticism. We say plainly where each of the others is the better pick. We won't quote competitor prices, because they change often and we can't verify them for you. Check each vendor's current pricing page, then plug the numbers into the math below.

The three pricing models, side by side

Each tool charges in a different way, and the model matters more than any single rate.

• TextMagic uses pay-as-you-go credits. The per-message cost depends on the destination country. You buy credits as you need them, with no monthly commitment for messaging itself.
• Textedly sells monthly plans. Each tier comes with a message allotment, and you pay overage or move up a tier when you exceed it. You pay for the plan whether or not you use it.
• Square marketing texts lives inside Square Marketing. It's priced as part of that product and tied to the Square customer directory your point of sale already builds.

The "check current docs" cells aren't a dodge. These vendors update their compliance features, and we'd rather send you to their source than guess.

When each competitor is genuinely the right choice

Pick TextMagic if you text many countries. Ready is built around US carrier registration (10DLC). If your list spans Europe, Asia and Australia, a service priced per destination is a better fit than we are.

Pick Textedly if your volume is steady and you like a fixed monthly bill. A subscription is easy to budget, and the keyword, contest and signup features suit retail and restaurant promotions. The tradeoff is that you pay for the tier in months you barely send.

Pick Square marketing texts if you run on Square and only want to text people who already bought from you. Your customer list is already there, and you don't need another login. If texting is a small side channel for your shop, this is probably the least effort.

Where Ready fits, and what it costs

Ready is a messaging API and platform. Teams use the app directly. Software companies use it to text on behalf of their own customers, and each customer gets a sub-account with its own numbers and its own 10DLC registration. It also installs natively into GoHighLevel. That installation is optional, not a requirement.

Pricing is one Standard rate: $0.0075 per segment plus a $0.0045 carrier fee, sent or received. Replies you receive bill the same way. The carrier fee is itemized on your bill, so you can see exactly what the carriers charge. That line item is explained in the $0.0045 line item post. Billing is prepaid credits via Stripe. Enterprise pricing is custom, so talk to us if that's you.

Ready isn't the lowest per-message option on the market. Raw APIs like Twilio (around $0.0083 a segment) and LeadConnector inside GoHighLevel (around $0.0083 a message) cost less per text. What you get with Ready is self-serve registration, a compliance layer, the inbox, campaigns, drip campaigns and the API in one place.

Worked example: a monthly promo list

Assumptions: a 2,000-contact opted-in list, four campaigns a month, each message 150 plain characters (one segment), on Standard.

• Segments: 2,000 × 4 × 1 = 8,000
• Rate: 8,000 × $0.0075 = $60
• Carrier fee: 8,000 × $0.0045
• Registration: $27/mo ($25/mo for registration + $2 per number)

That totals $60 plus 8,000 × $0.0045 plus $27/mo for registration. Replies add to it at the same per-segment rate. This "all-in" figure excludes the optional compliance surcharge, covered below.

The emoji tax

Now add one emoji and stretch the message to 175 characters. Unicode drops a single segment to 70 characters, or 67 per part on a multipart message. That makes the message 3 segments instead of 1:

• 2,000 × 4 × 3 = 24,000 segments
• 24,000 × $0.0075 = $180, plus 24,000 × $0.0045

The emoji tripled the bill. Every vendor that charges by segment works the same way, so run this check against whatever tool you choose. Ready swaps curly quotes, long dashes and ellipses for plain characters before sending, so those don't push you into unicode. A real emoji still will. For more ways to cut the count, see our bulk SMS cost breakdown.

Compliance depth is the real differentiator

Most cheap texting goes wrong in compliance, not in price. Unregistered A2P traffic gets filtered by carriers. TCPA exposure runs $500 to $1,500 per text. Here is what Ready does, stated precisely:

1. Registration in-app. You submit brand and campaign registration in the app. There's no setup fee, and the charge at submit is the first month, $25. Most approvals take 2 to 7 days. The full fee breakdown is in 10DLC cost: every fee explained.
2. Automatic STOP handling. An opt-out applies across every campaign, and the API refuses opted-out numbers up front without charging you.
3. Quiet hours. Ready holds campaign and automation sends outside permitted hours for the recipient's area and sends them later; a one-to-one or API text is held only if the window opens within about 6 hours, otherwise it is refused. You're charged only when a text actually goes out.
4. Litigator and DNC scrubbing, plus landline validation. Each is off by default. When you turn one on, it adds $0.003 per segment to the send. A standalone scrub is $0.005 per contact.
5. Attestation capture. Each bulk send and each API send that sets consent_attested records who sent it, to how many people, and when. This is an audit trail of your attestation, not a per-contact consent record. You still need to store each contact's opt-in time, wording and page yourself.

None of this makes you lawsuit-proof. Compliance is still the sender's responsibility. These tools reduce risk; they don't replace consent. Ready's stance is the same as good practice: text people who opted in or replied, and reach cold contacts by phone and mail.

One more note: advocacy, political and fundraising texts need our written OK first. Email support@tryready.com before your first send and wait for our reply.

Limits and getting started

Before you register, an account can send up to 500 texts a month at its normal rate. After that, it has to register. If you buy a number before registering, you can send on Ready's shared registration while yours is in review.

The first 20 texts are free one-to-one sends. Campaigns are paid from the first text, and to send any text you need a card and a number ($2 a month, the first month charged when you get it). The free texts end as soon as you pay for registration, so use them first.

For developers, sending a text is one request: POST /v1/messages to https://api.tryready.com, with an X-API-Key header and an Idempotency-Key. Bulk sends take up to 100 recipients per call. See the messages docs.

The practical takeaway

• Mostly international: TextMagic is likely the better fit.
• Steady volume and a fixed monthly bill: Textedly is straightforward.
• Square merchant texting past buyers: stay inside Square.
• US-based, need registration done properly, want an API or sub-accounts: Ready is worth a look. Its per-segment math is transparent enough to check yourself.

Whichever you choose, compare by segments, not messages, and add registration and compliance costs before calling anything cheap. If you're weighing other subscription tools too, our CallHub and EZ Texting comparison covers similar ground.

When you're ready to try it, sign up, use your 20 free one-to-one texts, and see whether the workflow suits you before you register.