You're being ripped off by your current SMS provider.
Why keep subsidising their biggest customers with your higher rates? We're probably the only independent SMS provider left in the UK, partnered directly with mobile networks.
How much they're charging you extra.
The Receipts
Here's what the rest of the UK market is charging right now. Grouped by who actually owns them, because most "providers" you compare are siblings.
| Provider | Their price | What you'd save with us |
|---|---|---|
| Commify group | ||
| Esendex | 5.72p | 51% |
| VoodooSMS | 3.71p | 25% |
| TextAnywhere | 6.5p | 57% |
| FastSMS | 6.5p | 57% |
| Sinch group | ||
| ClickSend | 4.27p | 34% |
| Sinch | 3.5p | 20% |
| MessageMedia | 9.72p | 71% |
| LinkMobility group | ||
| FireText | 5p | 44% |
| The SMS Works | 4.4p | 36% |
| Reach Interactive | 4.6p | 39% |
| Link Mobility | POA | They won't even tell you. |
| Listed on global stock markets | ||
| Text Magic | 4p | 30% |
| Twilio | 3.88p | 28% |
| Vonage | 4.2p | 33% |
| Text Local (Cisco) | POA | They won't even tell you. |
| Independent (us) | ||
| PureSMS | 2.8p | — |
Prices verified May 2026. Excluding VAT. Per-SMS rates for UK sends — competitor pricing pulled from public price pages where available.
Here's how the industry plays you.
Volume tiers you'll never hit.
"Just send 5 million messages a month and we'll match PureSMS's rate."
"Contact sales" for a quote.
If they wanted you to know the price, they'd put it on the website.
Minimum spends and monthly commitments.
Pay for messages you didn't send.
Top-ups that quietly expire.
Or sit on your balance forever, earning them interest, not you.
Per-message platform fees.
£0.005 here, £0.002 there — somehow always rounding up.
Charges for replies and delivery reports.
The thing the SMS does, billed separately.
We do none of this. 2.8p per UK SMS part. Billed monthly for what you actually sent. That's the whole pitch.
We're the only independent UK SMS provider that's been doing this for 10+ years.
No private equity. No parent group quietly setting margins from a boardroom in Stockholm or Sydney. No quarterly investor call that needs your bill to go up.
That's why our rate is 2.8p instead of 4p. It's not a loss-leader, it's not an introductory offer — it's just what an SMS should cost when nobody's skimming on the way through.
(Technically we've been sending SMS since 2008. The company was incorporated in 2013. Either way: we've been around longer than most of the table above.)
Charities pay less. Obviously.
2.35p per SMS, flat. No application form, no charity-tier paperwork. Tell us you're a charity, we'll set the rate.
| Country | Price per SMS |
|---|---|
Pricing Explained
How does pricing work?
2.8p per UK SMS. We tot up what you sent each month and bill you at the end of it. No top-ups, no balance, no expiry.
What about long messages?
SMS has a 160-character limit (or 70 for messages with emoji or special characters). Anything longer gets automatically split into segments — we charge per segment sent. A 200-character text is 2 segments, so 5.6p. Auto-splitting is on by default and handles unlimited length.
What's the GSM/Unicode thing?
Plain Latin characters use the GSM character set: 160 per segment. Add an emoji or a curly quote and the whole message switches to Unicode: 70 per segment. We'll show you the count in the dashboard before you send.
GSM segment lengths — 160 : 1 segment, 306 : 2 segments, 459 : 3 segments, 612 : 4 segments.
Unicode segment lengths — 70 : 1 segment, 134 : 2 segments, 201 : 3 segments, 268 : 4 segments.
How much is a PureSMS account?
Free to create, no card required. You'll be billed at the end of each month for whatever you sent — nothing more.
Do I need to commit to a volume?
No. Send one message a month or a million. Same 2.8p rate either way.
International?
Rates vary by destination — see the rate card above. Same monthly billing, no surprises.
Are there any other costs?
Two-way messaging needs a Virtual Mobile Number (£15/mo). Replies and delivery reports themselves are free — unlike most of the table above.
How do I sign up?
Free account, no card required, takes 2 minutes — head to new.puresms.app.
Why PureSMS by divergent?
We do far more than just sending your SMS.
divergent is a worldwide group of companies focused on using technology to build and support solutions that make peoples' lives simpler.
We're extremely proud to be a B Corp™, focused on what we can do not just to make money but to make an impact on the world. Our Corporate Responsibility outlines our commitment to charities, how we're carbon negative, and how we're just generally good people.
We're certified (to ISO 27001) to keep your data secure, our developers are focused on performance, and our support team fanatically backs your success. We also certify against ISO 9001 which is all about the quality of our services, and ISO 22301 regarding Business Continuity, meaning we're always going to be here when you need us.
Stop overpaying. Takes 2 minutes.
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