Despite her ambition as a Shopify store owner, Sophia was struggling to connect with her customers. Her email open rates were not adequate, and the social media posts weren’t reaching enough people. Despite best efforts, her promotional campaigns did not generate the buzz she’d hoped for.

However, things changed when she discovered SMS marketing. With consistent and timely campaigns, Sophia saw optimistic outcomes—most of her messages were opened, and customers responded within minutes. The personal touch of SMS helped her reach customers in ways email and social media simply couldn’t.

If you are in a similar situation where SMS marketing is already helping you reap the benefits of one-on-one engagement with customers, here are the top 7 free SMS marketing tools to get the maximum ROI from your next campaigns.

Top 7 free SMS marketing tools to drive higher ROI

Choosing the right SMS marketing tool can make all the difference in scaling your e-commerce business. Here’s a quick comparison of the top free SMS marketing platforms:

Each tool in this list offers unique benefits to fit varying business needs. We have compiled the strengths and weaknesses, along with key features, to help you determine which SMS marketing tol best fits your business.

1. Plivo CX

Plivo CX is a cloud-based omnichannel customer engagement platform with advanced SMS marketing capabilities. It offers automated content creation, high personalization for better deliverability and exceptional reliability through its low-latency, proprietary carrier network that spans 220+ countries.

Moreover, Plivo's SMS API enables businesses to send and receive text messages globally with features like delivery tracking, two-way messaging, and high throughput. You can quickly set up a messaging application by configuring an SMS-capable phone number and integrating Plivo's REST API with your application.

With Plivo CX, you can cut down SMS marketing costs by up to 70%! 

Key features

• Audiences: Organize and segment customers based on key attributes for personalized marketing
• Timing and frequency: Schedule messages at optimal times across time zones for maximum impact, ensuring compliance with regulations
• Campaigns: Integrate SMS with other channels for unified messaging. Strategically schedule your campaigns to maximize reach and effectiveness at the right time
• Copywriter AI: Use AI capabilities to improve messaging and create highly customized content based on your campaign objectives and message length
• Channels: Engage customers across various channels for better conversion

With Shopify integration, easily sync SMS campaigns with your store, segmenting customers and sending personalized messages at optimal times. Connect with customers across their preferred channels, ensuring a smooth experience.

Pros

• Easy setup: Setting up is easy, with user-friendly API integration, and is affordable (source)
• Dedicated support: The platform offers timely customer support and quickly adapts to custom use cases, delivering tailored solutions to meet specific needs (source)
• Cost-effective: Global coverage and proprietary network help cut down SMS campaign costs
• Unified platform: Run outbound WhatsApp marketing campaigns AND provide seamless customer support, all within a single platform. Streamline your customer interactions and elevate the experience
• Flexible integration: You can also integrate the tool with homegrown systems 
• AI-powered SMS content: The Copywriter AI reduces reliance on lengthy content creation and optimization processes, aligning speed with data-driven personalization required for an impactful campaign

Cons

• Pricing is a concern for some users, especially with advanced features. (source)
• Currently, the engage capability is exclusive to Shopify stores, though it's designed for all e-commerce brands

Ratings & reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (728 reviews)
• Producthunt: 4.9/5 (45 reviews)

2. Klaviyo

Klaviyo is an email marketing, SMS, and marketing automation platform that helps businesses build stronger customer relationships. Klaviyo helps businesses optimize customer acquisition, retention, and growth through data-driven, personalized messaging.

Klaviyo key features

• Smarter sending: Personalize customer journeys by integrating SMS with other channels and data
• Multichannel flows: Create cohesive messaging strategies with cross-channel automation
• Multichannel segmentation: Target specific audiences to send relevant, timely messages

Pros

• Quick customer engagement via SMS and push notifications (source)
• The platform offers predictive analytics tools that help businesses forecast customer behavior (source)

Cons

• Expensive, and it lacks more customization options for pop-up blocks (source)
• Overwhelming for beginners, with a steep learning curve for advanced features (source)

Ratings & reviews

G2: 4.6/5 (1056 reviews)

Capterra: 4.6/5 (461 reviews)

3. Postscript

Postscript is an SMS marketing platform designed for e-commerce brands. It allows brands to create personalized SMS campaigns, drive sales, and improve customer retention.

Key features

• Audience growth: Build a compliant, engaged subscriber list with various opt-in tools
• Personalized messaging: Automate targeted conversations using segmentation and response branching
• Behavior-based offers: Drive revenue with tailored offers based on customer actions

Pros

• Deep integration with Shopify allows seamless synchronization of customer data (source)
• Many report significant improvements in engagement and sales metrics (source)

Cons

• The pop-up features are somewhat limited in customization options, which may affect the ability to tailor them to specific branding needs (source)
• No option to re-opt-in customers who had previously opted out (source)

Ratings & reviews

G2: 4.9/5 (159 reviews)

Capterra: 4.5/5 (6 reviews)

4. Omnisend

Omnisend’s email and SMS marketing platform is designed to help e-commerce businesses automate and personalize their communications. It offers a range of features to help businesses manage their customer relationships.

Key features

• Email & SMS automation: Efficiently reach customers through tailored messaging
• Advanced segmentation: Target customers with personalized campaigns based on their behavior and preferences
• Reporting & analytics: Track the performance of campaigns and make data-driven decisions

Pros

• Offers a variety of built-in templates and automation features, making campaign management easy and efficient (source)
• The platform allows users to build customized automated messages within its visual automation editor (source)

Cons

• Lacks advanced multi-channel marketing features, particularly for SMS and push notifications (source)
• The product picker feature can occasionally malfunction (source)

Ratings & reviews

• G2: 4.6/5 (907 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (803 reviews)

5. Twilio

Twilio enables businesses to build personalized customer relationships using communication tools across multiple channels. The platform enables easy integration of messaging, voice, email, video, and more with a scalable infrastructure.

Key features

• Multi-channel communication: Supports SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp for diverse messaging needs.
• Global reach: Operates in over 180 countries, enabling international communication.
• Real-time delivery tracking: Provides analytics for monitoring message delivery and engagement.

Pros

• The platform is designed to scale with your business, accommodating growth from startups to large enterprises (source)
• Twilio can connect with numerous popular platforms and services, streamlining workflows (source)

Cons

• The pay-as-you-go pricing model offers flexibility but can become expensive with high usage volumes (source)
• Setting up certain functions can be confusing (source)
• The function execution time is limited to 10 seconds, and an account can execute up to 30 Functions concurrently (source)

Ratings & reviews

• G2: 4.2/5 (476 reviews)
• TrustRadius: 7.1/10 (216 reviews)

6. Brevo

Brevo offers a comprehensive suite of email marketing, SMS campaigns, and customer relationship management tools. It provides an all-in-one solution for businesses to manage communications, automate workflows, and track performance.

Key features

• Automated workflows: Set up automated SMS workflows for timely customer interactions.
• Bulk and transactional SMS: Send both bulk promotional messages and transactional SMS for flexible communication.
• Pre-paid SMS credits: Manage costs effectively with SMS credits that do not expire.

Pros

• The pricing model is considered affordable, especially for small to medium-sized businesses (source)
• It allows users to send different versions of a campaign to two different test groups (source)

Cons

• The CRM features are considered by some to be confusing and somewhat limited (source)
• Some users find the available email templates to be limited (source)

Ratings & reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (2142 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (2548 reviews)

7. EngageBay

EngageBay is an all-in-one marketing and sales platform for small to medium-sized businesses, including email marketing, lead scoring, and campaign automation. Its budget-friendly plans make it ideal for small teams looking to implement SMS marketing without hefty costs.

Key features

• Email marketing: Create email campaigns, automate workflows, and track results effortlessly
• CRM: Manage contacts and automate workflows efficiently with their user-friendly CRM
• Marketing automation: Automate marketing workflows, nurture leads, and improve your conversions

Pros

• Users find the marketing automation tools particularly beneficial (source)
• Well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses due to its features and competitive pricing (source)

Cons

• The lack of autosaving emails and the complex UI are less user-friendly. (source)

Ratings & reviews

G2: 4.7/5 (400 reviews)

Trustpilot: 4.9/5 (632 reviews)

Plivo CX: The free SMS marketing tool for the best ROI

The free options listed here provide a solid starting point, but if you're looking for a powerful, integrated solution, Plivo CX offers exceptional features for launching effective SMS marketing campaigns.

Plivo CX helps small and midsized e-commerce businesses and Shopify merchants increase customer engagement with advanced messaging tools. With features designed to drive conversions and re-engage customers, it stands out as an ideal tool for Shopify users.

Here’s why Plivo CX is the perfect choice for your SMS marketing campaigns:

• Welcome new customers: Engage first-time subscribers with personalized messaging and exclusive discounts to encourage their initial purchase.

• Send exciting campaign announcements: Alert customers to product launches, flash sales, or restocks to drive immediate action.

• Recover abandoned carts: Send timely reminders with incentives to help customers finish their purchases.

• Leverage browsing activity: Use session data from your e-commerce store to create targeted SMS messages. 
• Segment customers effortlessly: Segment customers based on past behavior to send more relevant, personalized messages.

• Re-engage current customers: Send product alerts, reminders, and feedback requests to reignite interest and loyalty.

Scaling SMS campaigns with Plivo CX is cost-effective. As your business grows, you’ll benefit from volume discounts that reduce messaging costs. This flexible pricing helps e-commerce stores manage budgets efficiently and scale their SMS marketing.

This all-in-one tool simplifies SMS marketing, making it instantly easier to connect with customers and optimize your e-commerce strategy.

To see its impact for yourself, start for free today.