Why choose Tropo over Twilio • Hacker News Board

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#11

Post by AlexMuir » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 12:34 PM UTC

Absolutely agree that Tropo is better than Twilio. Here are my reasons:

1. Cheaper

2. Multiple voices and accents (UK British Male & Female)

3. Use any number as caller ID.

4. Calls during development are free.

5. Recordings are a breeze

6. Voice recognition from a set of options instead of pressing digits (eg. "Say yes, no or repeat").

On the downside, I've found their system wasn't quite as easy to get going with as Twilio, but it is much more powerful.

Twilio have been more visible and active - Tropo seem slightly behind in evangelism and generally pimping their product.

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#12

Post by jdee » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 12:39 PM UTC

ra wrote: post #6

nivertech wrote: post #4

Twilio always seems like a hack to me. Once VoiceXML/CCML was hot market with many startups competing, with biggest exit being Tellme acquired by Microsoft for $800M (same people who founded Zappos). So what's new Twilio can offer here? I have no idea why USV invested in them...

I kind of agree. Although I think the underlying assumption is that it's an infrastructure as a service play, and so Twilio et al are creating value. Obviously their target market is the web app developer crowd. To do it yourself you need to line up your outbound SIP providers, inbound DID providers (not one and the same once you dig into the details), then you need to operate a bunch of Freeswitch / Asterisk / whate…

I get your point, but feel you are overplaying the difficulty. You can code in plain ol javascript on freeswitch to create complex inbound and outbound comms apps in a couple of hours. Plug it into a sip provider ( i use sipgate ) and there is nothing more complex to it. Far far cheaper too.

You dont need a bunch of servers either. If you are doing more than 200 simultaneous calls ( freeswitch easily achieves this on 1 box ) you shouldnt be looking at these entry level systems; Voxeo, Tropo's parent company has an incredibly powerful platform.

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#13

Post by asanwal » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 1:20 PM UTC

garply wrote: post #3

I have a gripe against Twilio. Aside from their China service sucking, they keep sending me newsletters or emails that are tailored to look like they're personally written to me. The subject looks like "RE: Twilio's Developer Community" and then the text preview in gmail looks something like "Hi Joe, I wanted to drop..." Effective at getting me to open the email, but I always feel deceived when I open it up to see th…

So is the alternative/your expectation that they send each developer a custom email? If Twilio was to do that, that doesn't sound practical, scalable or smart.

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#14

Post by tomjen3 » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 1:24 PM UTC

asanwal wrote: post #13

garply wrote: post #3

I have a gripe against Twilio. Aside from their China service sucking, they keep sending me newsletters or emails that are tailored to look like they're personally written to me. The subject looks like "RE: Twilio's Developer Community" and then the text preview in gmail looks something like "Hi Joe, I wanted to drop..." Effective at getting me to open the email, but I always feel deceived when I open it up to see th…

So is the alternative/your expectation that they send each developer a custom email? If Twilio was to do that, that doesn't sound practical, scalable or smart.

The alternative is that they don't lie about their content.

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#15

Post by asanwal » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 1:26 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #14

asanwal wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is the alternative/your expectation that they send each developer a custom email? If Twilio was to do that, that doesn't sound practical, scalable or smart.

The alternative is that they don't lie about their content.

Personalization of this type is pretty common in marketing communications of all types (direct mail, emails, etc). Calling it a lie seems a stretch.

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#16

Post by mgkimsal » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 1:33 PM UTC

asanwal wrote: post #13

garply wrote: post #3

I have a gripe against Twilio. Aside from their China service sucking, they keep sending me newsletters or emails that are tailored to look like they're personally written to me. The subject looks like "RE: Twilio's Developer Community" and then the text preview in gmail looks something like "Hi Joe, I wanted to drop..." Effective at getting me to open the email, but I always feel deceived when I open it up to see th…

So is the alternative/your expectation that they send each developer a custom email? If Twilio was to do that, that doesn't sound practical, scalable or smart.

The alternative would be to not include "RE:" in the subject, which makes it looks like a reply to an earlier thread. The subject is subject enough already. Don't manipulate it with a "RE:" to imply something more.

That said, I've been working with Twilio on and off for 2 years and have never received an email like this from them.

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#17

Post by asanwal » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 1:36 PM UTC

mgkimsal wrote: post #16

asanwal wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is the alternative/your expectation that they send each developer a custom email? If Twilio was to do that, that doesn't sound practical, scalable or smart.

The alternative would be to not include "RE:" in the subject, which makes it looks like a reply to an earlier thread. The subject is subject enough already. Don't manipulate it with a "RE:" to imply something more. That said, I've been working with Twilio on and off for 2 years and have never received an email like this from them.

Fair enough. The use of Re: is def a bit manipulative/not truly representative.

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#18

Post by garply » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 1:54 PM UTC

mgkimsal wrote: post #16

asanwal wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is the alternative/your expectation that they send each developer a custom email? If Twilio was to do that, that doesn't sound practical, scalable or smart.

The alternative would be to not include "RE:" in the subject, which makes it looks like a reply to an earlier thread. The subject is subject enough already. Don't manipulate it with a "RE:" to imply something more. That said, I've been working with Twilio on and off for 2 years and have never received an email like this from them.

Interesting, maybe it's something they rolled out more recently for their newer members. I only started with them a couple months ago.

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#19

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 2:04 PM UTC

progrium wrote: post #8

nivertech wrote: post #4

Twilio always seems like a hack to me. Once VoiceXML/CCML was hot market with many startups competing, with biggest exit being Tellme acquired by Microsoft for $800M (same people who founded Zappos). So what's new Twilio can offer here? I have no idea why USV invested in them...

I bet in 1997 people were asking the same about Apple.

[deleted]

Re: Why choose Tropo over Twilio

#20

Post by nivertech » Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 2:07 PM UTC

nivertech wrote: post #4

Twilio always seems like a hack to me. Once VoiceXML/CCML was hot market with many startups competing, with biggest exit being Tellme acquired by Microsoft for $800M (same people who founded Zappos). So what's new Twilio can offer here? I have no idea why USV invested in them...

What I meant is that both Tellme and Zappos got investments from Venture Frogs

http://www.vfrogs.com/investments.html