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GTM AI Index
Index › Marketing › SMS & WhatsApp › Small business › October 2026 Edition

SMS and WhatsApp marketing platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “SMS marketing platform”, and as “text message and WhatsApp marketing tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 56 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
21%
Contested · Salesmsg 14%
21SimpleTexting14Salesmsg11Textedly54others

21% of first choices, contested.

ShowinginAll 112 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01SimpleTexting21%2%42accepted challenger
02Salesmsg14%0%13accepted challenger
03Textedly11%5%21accepted challenger
04SlickText9%10%30accepted challenger
05Brevo7%4%26accepted challenger
06WATI5%8%25accepted challenger
07EZ Texting5%9%23accepted challenger
08Klaviyo SMS4%14%22accepted challenger
09Twilio4%33%36criticized challenger
10TextMagic2%0%15accepted challenger
11Respond.io2%10%10accepted challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12Attentive0%50%14criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
S02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01SimpleTexting21%
02Salesmsg14%
03Textedly11%
04SlickText9%
05Brevo7%
06WATI5%
07EZ Texting5%
08Klaviyo SMS4%
09Twilio4%
10TextMagic2%
11Respond.io2%
12Attentive0%

What they warned about

Zero of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-6 Luna and Muse Glimmer 30B changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Twilio
33%
12 of 36 labels negative · 8 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“Verdict: Avoid this unless you have an in-house software engineer willing to build and maintain the integration yourself.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Attentive
50%
7 of 14 labels negative · 6 of 14 models
“Platforms like **Attentive**... **Why to be cautious:** **Budget bloat and restrictive contracts.**” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Klaviyo SMS
14%
3 of 22 labels negative · 3 of 14 models
“Even **Klaviyo**'s SMS system, while excellent for Shopify stores, can scale in price very rapidly if not managed carefully” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
SlickText
10%
3 of 30 labels negative · 3 of 14 models
“Slicktext: Not ideal for very small, local hobbies with only a few customers, or businesses that only need to send one or two messages a month.” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the fourteen in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

78 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1103 links across 248 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

vendor site · Salesmessage35 answers · 39 citations · 12 models
34 answers · 45 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Zapier31 answers · 32 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Sender30 answers · 32 citations · 12 models
27 answers · 35 citations · 11 models
vendor site · SlickText22 answers · 25 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Guideflow22 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Twilio21 answers · 27 citations · 11 models
20 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Sinch20 answers · 21 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Attentive19 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Respond.io18 answers · 23 citations · 10 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best sms marketing platform”, “sms marketing platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
SimpleTexting simpletexting.com21%11618,10066110,549$1,35576
Salesmsg14%2,4004
Textedly textedly.com11%798,10046155,557$345
SlickText slicktext.com9%885,40049168,404$20343
Brevo brevo.com7%38640,50032781,741$17,847106
WATI wati.io5%551,9001506,30924
EZ Texting eztexting.com5%6114,80019050,414$12390
Klaviyo SMS klaviyo.com4%7221019200,057$572204
Twilio twilio.com4%153135,0004,3431,028,633$935113
ActiveCampaign activecampaign.com4%44518,100307235,709$1,42432

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 14 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (g2.com, guideflow.com, salesmessage.com, slicktext.com, zapier.com). The first result for “best sms marketing platform” is zapier.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best SMS marketing platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which text message and WhatsApp marketing tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top SMS and WhatsApp marketing platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best SMS marketing platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an SMS marketing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which SMS and WhatsApp marketing platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Salesmsg
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, EZ Texting, SimpleTexting
ActiveCampaign, Respond.ioChanged
Two alternativesCustomer.io, SendPulse
SimpleTexting, WATI
Four alternativesBrevo, Klaviyo SMS, Salesmsg, SlickText
Textedly
Two alternativesSendPulse, SimpleTexting
no first choiceagainst: Attentive, Klaviyo SMS, Listrak, Twilio, WebEngage, What-Sender
GPT-5.4 miniSimpleTexting
Two alternativesKlaviyo SMS, Twilio
TwilioChanged
Two alternativesBrevo, WATI
Twilio
Four alternativesBrevo, Klaviyo SMS, ManyChat, SimpleTexting
Mailchimp
One alternativePostscript
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashSalesmsg
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Sakari, TextUs
SleekFlowChanged
Three alternativesBrevo, Respond.io, Salesmsg
Brevo
Six alternativesKlaviyo SMS, ManyChat, Postscript, Respond.io, SimpleTexting, WATI
TextMagic
Three alternativesSender, Textla, Twilio
Klaviyo SMS
Four alternativesPostscript, Salesmsg, SimpleTexting, SlickText
against: Twilio
against: AWS End User Messaging, Attentive, Baileys, Bird, GoHighLevel, Klaviyo SMS, Twilio, WA-Automate
Perplexity SonarSimpleTexting
Three alternativesSender, SlickText, Textedly
against: Twilio
SalesmsgChanged
Three alternativesNutshell SMS, Sinch, TextUs
SlickText
Five alternativesKlaviyo SMS, Omnisend, SimpleTexting, Textedly, Twilio
SimpleTexting
Two alternativesSender, Textedly
against: Textla, Twilio
no first choiceagainst: Yotpo
Grok 4.1 FastSimpleTexting
Three alternativesEZ Texting, SlickText, Textedly
BrevoChanged
Three alternativesAttentive, Klaviyo SMS, WATI
SimpleTexting, WATI
Nine alternativesAiSensy, Brevo, EZ Texting, Gallabox, Respond.io, SleekFlow, SlickText, TextMagic, Textedly
EZ Texting
Five alternativesSimpleTexting, SlickText, TextMagic, Textedly, Textla
against: Twilio
SimpleTexting, SlickText
One alternativeTextMagic
against: Attentive
against: Attentive, Klaviyo SMS, SlickText, Twilio, Unknown or unverified WhatsApp Business API (BSP) providers
Mistral SmallGetVero, SimpleTexting
One alternativeTwilio
Twilio, WATIChanged
One alternativeSimpleTexting
SimpleTexting, WATI
Five alternativesBrevo, Gallabox, Klaviyo SMS, SlickText, Twilio
SlickText, Textedly
Two alternativesSender, Twilio
no first choiceagainst: Sender, WhatsApp Business API
DeepSeek V4 FlashSalesmsg
Two alternativesEZ Texting, SimpleTexting
BrevoChanged
One alternativeWATI
Brevo, WATI
Three alternativesAiSensy, Klaviyo SMS, Omnisend
against: Gallabox, Twilio
SlickText
Three alternativesEZ Texting, SimpleTexting, TextMagic
no first choiceagainst: Attentive, Brevo, EZ Texting, Interakt, Respond.io, SimpleTexting, SlickText, Textedly, WATI
Llama 4 MaverickGetVero
Four alternativesAttentive, Salesmessage, Sender, Twilio
no first choiceChangedno first choiceTextedly
Three alternativesSender, SlickText, Twilio
no first choiceagainst: SlickText
Qwen 3.7 FlashSalesmsg
Two alternativesBrevo, SimpleTexting
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaignChanged
One alternativeWATI
Postscript
Three alternativesManyChat, Simpler, WATI
YepText
Four alternativesEZ Texting, SimpleTexting, SlickText, TextMagic
no first choiceagainst: Twilioagainst: Attentive, Bhash SMS, CheapGlobalSMS, Infobip, Twilio
Kimi K2EZ Texting, SimpleTexting
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, TextUs
against: Twilio
Salesmsg, SimpleTextingChanged
Four alternativesBrevo, TextUs, Twilio, WATI
SimpleTexting, WATI
Seven alternativesBrevo, EZ Texting, Interakt, Respond.io, SendPulse, Textedly, Twilio
SlickText
Four alternativesCheapestTexting, SimpleTexting, TextMagic, Textedly
no first choiceagainst: Attentive, Bhash SMS, Postscript, Textlocal, Trumpia
GLM 4.7 FlashXSalesmsg, SimpleTexting
Four alternativesEZ Texting, Postscript, SendPulse, SlickText
against: Twilio
Klaviyo SMS, WATIChanged
Three alternativesBrevo, Insider, Respond.io
SimpleTexting, WATI
Two alternativesBrevo, Respond.io
Textedly
Two alternativesClickSend, EZ Texting
no first choiceagainst: AiSensy, WATI
MiniMax M2.5Ringy, Salesmsg
Two alternativesKlaviyo SMS, SimpleTexting
BrevoChanged
Five alternativesBird, ClickSend, Plivo, Twilio, Zoho Marketing Automation
Brevo, WATI
Four alternativesBrevo WhatsApp, Mobile Text Alerts, Statusbrew, Text-Em-All
Textedly
Two alternativesBrevo, SlickText
no first choicenothing named
GPT-6 LunaSakari
Two alternativesSalesmsg, SimpleTexting
BrevoChangedKlaviyo SMS
Three alternativesBrevo, ManyChat, WATI
EZ Texting
Two alternativesBrevo, Textedly
no first choiceagainst: Twilio Programmable Messaging
Muse Glimmer 30BSimpleTexting
Four alternativesRingy, SlickText, Textedly, Twilio
SimpleTexting, WATIChanged
Two alternativesRingy, Twilio
SimpleTexting, SlickText
Seven alternativesAiSensy, Bird formerly MessageBird, Brevo, Interakt, Respond.io, WANotifier, WATI
against: EZ Texting
Textedly
Four alternativesBrevo, EZ Texting, Klaviyo SMS, TextMagic
SimpleTexting, SlickTextnothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:29yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:22yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:02yes1824 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:55yes184 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:52yes2111 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:57yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:19yes2024 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:15yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:55yes837 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:11yes1538 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:18yes13278 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:22yes1020 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 23:57yes416 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 23:48yes1314 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 23:58yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:04yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:32yes1430 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:46yes192 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:21yes207 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:28yes106 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:37yes2428 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:45yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:20yes1052 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:48yes2021 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 23:53yes1974 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:36yes1195 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:33yes321 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 23:57yes1524 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:22yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:32yes68 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:48yes2127 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:12yes174 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:57yes2211 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:29yes157 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 23:20yes2550 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:38yes51 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:14no024 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:20yes2433 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:33yes25146 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:28yes1516 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 23:12yes629 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:39yes2439 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:28yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:50yes33 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:25yes1723 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:44yes183 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:40yes228 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:40yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 23:39yes2427 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:53yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:07yes1321 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:32yes923 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:13yes2436 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:59yes1012 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:41yes317 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 23:12yes1314 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:54no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:19no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:31yes1433 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:44yes194 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:16yes149 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:24no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:30yes2331 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:58yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:43no022 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:42yes1523 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:24yes1023 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:15no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:59yes318 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 23:34yes1523 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:25yes188 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:47yes79 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:12yes2625 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:19yes185 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:11yes2410 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:52yes107 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:51yes2442 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:06yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:31yes2041 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:44yes2524 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:16yes2448 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:01yes2336 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 23:59yes428 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:33yes2532 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
HubSpot read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
Klaviyo read as Klaviyo SMS
Klaviyo (SMS add-on) read as Klaviyo SMS
Unresolved, counted raw
AWS End User Messaging (EUM)
Bird formerly MessageBird
Brevo WhatsApp
CheapGlobalSMS
CheapestTexting
MSG91
Message IQ
Meta WhatsApp Business Platform via a provider
Nutshell SMS
Retainful
Simpler (formerly Massreach)
Superchat
Trumpia
Twilio
Twilio (raw API)
Unknown or unverified WhatsApp Business API (BSP) providers
WhatsApp API
YepText
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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