A Twilio alternative for texting employees, without writing code
Twilio is the infrastructure a lot of texting products are built on, and per message it’s hard to beat. The question isn’t the price of a text — it’s who builds and maintains everything around it.
What Twilio costs
Sending a US text through Twilio costs $0.0083 per segment, plus carrier fees of roughly a third to half a cent, plus about $1.15 a month for a phone number. For a 20-person team getting 15 texts each a month, the messages come to a few dollars. On paper, that’s cheaper than any ready-made tool.
What you’d be building
- 10DLC registration. Registering your brand and campaign with US carriers before you can send reliably, with fees and a review that can take days or weeks.
- A roster. Somewhere to add, edit, and remove employees, and keep it in sync as people come and go.
- Opt-in. A confirmation text, a record of who agreed and when, and nothing sent to anyone who hasn’t.
- Opt-out. Twilio handles basic STOP keywords, but your app still has to respect them and keep records.
- Sending and replies. A way for managers to write, schedule, and send, and to see what came back.
- Maintenance. Keeping all of it working as carrier rules and APIs change.
Side by side
| Airhorn | Twilio | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A finished tool | An API to build on |
| Setup | Minutes | Development, plus carrier registration |
| Message cost | Included in $0.75/employee | $0.0083/segment + carrier fees |
| Phone number | Included | ~$1.15/mo |
| Registration | Handled at the platform level | You register and pay fees |
| Opt-in, roster, dashboard | Built in | You build them |
| 20-employee estimate | $20/mo | A few dollars, plus your build and upkeep |
Twilio figures reflect their published pricing as of October 2026 and may have changed — check their site for current rates before deciding.
Which to choose
Choose Twilio if you have a developer, you need texting woven into your own software, or your volume is large enough that per-message savings outweigh the build.
Choose Airhorn if you want to send your first message today, and an afternoon of a developer’s time costs more than years of the subscription.
Skip the build
Roster, opt-in, STOP handling, scheduling, and replies — done. Send your first broadcast today for $5/mo plus $0.75 per employee.
Free for 7 days and 60 messages — no credit card. Your trial starts when you send your first broadcast, not when you sign up.