SMS Gateway Comparison: SMSGlobal Vs Tropo • Hacker News Board

Re: SMS Gateway Comparison: SMSGlobal Vs Tropo

#11

Post by akalsey » Fri, Nov 12, 2010, 5:25 PM UTC

dmpayton wrote: post #3

Has anyone used Tropo in a serious capacity? I'm currently using Twilio for SMS, but Tropo's integration with various IM services and very slightly cheaper SMS pricing may be compelling enough for me to switch.

I'm Tropo's product manager. We've got quite a few companies using Tropo in significant capacity. In fact, because of our ability to scale and telephony expertise (Tropo's a product from Voxeo, the largest worldwide voice application host), we regularly see customers switch from other providers to Tropo.

Re: SMS Gateway Comparison: SMSGlobal Vs Tropo

#12

Post by ulf » Fri, Nov 12, 2010, 5:43 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #2

Twilio has been a dream for SMS implementation, though I don't think they are appropriate if you need SMS outside Canada / the US at the moment. Their customer service is quite nice, too. Words cannot describe how crazy I think picking a platform based on $10 of costs for development is, by the way.

Exactly right on the international thing. I tried a couple of things with Twilio and liked it a lot. But their SMS get rejected by most german carriers, which does not make it a viable option at the moment...

Re: SMS Gateway Comparison: SMSGlobal Vs Tropo

#13

Post by jeffiel » Fri, Nov 12, 2010, 5:45 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #2

Twilio has been a dream for SMS implementation, though I don't think they are appropriate if you need SMS outside Canada / the US at the moment. Their customer service is quite nice, too. Words cannot describe how crazy I think picking a platform based on $10 of costs for development is, by the way.

Thanks Patio. BTW, do you know who the blogger is who wrote the review? I'm curious to know his background, as this is the only post on his blog, and this is his only HN post. Seems a bit odd.

-jeff twilio.com

Re: SMS Gateway Comparison: SMSGlobal Vs Tropo

#14

Post by akalsey » Fri, Nov 12, 2010, 5:51 PM UTC

vampirical wrote: post #6

iwr wrote: post #4

The cheapest small-traffic solution I've found is to hook one or more phones to a PC and communicate with them via Hayes AT commands. Can look a little hacky, but once you have the box set up, you don't have to worry anymore. Switching "gateways" is the same as switching sim cards.

I'm always a bit surprised this doesn't some up more often in these discussions. I used to use little serial GSM/GPRS modems anytime I needed to handle SMS, and that was while working for a voip company with lots of infrastructure in place for that kind of thing (the modems always won based on simplicity, speed, and consistency). At the small scale spending $100 or so to have an unlimited test system seems comparable…

There's lots of do it yourself ways to do SMS. You can also grow all your own food, but grocery stores tend to be the more popular option.

Companies choose to work with an SMS provider because they don't want to have to solve uptime, scale, and service issues themselves.

When you're small, running your company on a web server under your desk connected to your cable modem probably works just fine. Doing the equivalent with SMS might make sense at that stage, too. As you grow, your needs change.

One thing to note is that in the US, "unlimited" plans aren't actually unlimited. Read the fine print on your contracts. Carriers define a limit to the number of messages they consider to be reasonable use. It's a soft limit, so they don't immediately block or ban you for going over once in a while. But if you do it consistently, they'll start to charge for the overage.

Re: SMS Gateway Comparison: SMSGlobal Vs Tropo

#15

Post by akalsey » Fri, Nov 12, 2010, 5:57 PM UTC

jeffiel wrote: post #13

patio11 wrote: post #2

Twilio has been a dream for SMS implementation, though I don't think they are appropriate if you need SMS outside Canada / the US at the moment. Their customer service is quite nice, too. Words cannot describe how crazy I think picking a platform based on $10 of costs for development is, by the way.

Thanks Patio. BTW, do you know who the blogger is who wrote the review? I'm curious to know his background, as this is the only post on his blog, and this is his only HN post. Seems a bit odd. -jeff twilio.com

Jeff,

His name's David Wilkie (not betraying any confidence - he lists his name in those email threads he posted).

I don't know him personally, but he's been a regular in our IRC channel over the last couple of months. I believe he's a web developer living in Vietnam. Why do you ask?