Most Australian companies need SMS services that deliver cheap, non-critical and non-time-sensitive messages.
Compare the cheap SMS providers on the detailed Comparison site presented below.
The latest update was in April 2025
Broker Reviewed
Pricing
SMS Functions
Reliability
Customer care service
Overall
Our 2025 analysis found that Cellcast is the cheapest. The table below, updated monthly, highlights that the provider has the lowest rate for most text message volumes.
Updated on 09-04-2025. Currency is in AUD $
Cellcast is an SMS provider that offers mobile messaging services to businesses in Australia and worldwide. Founded in 2004, Cellcast provides a suite of messaging solutions, including SMS marketing campaigns, two-factor authentication (2FA), and transactional SMS messaging.
One key feature of Cellcast’s SMS messaging solutions is its cloud-based platform, which allows businesses to send and receive SMS messages from any internet-connected device quickly. The company also offers tools such as message scheduling, personalization, and detailed delivery reports to help businesses optimize their messaging campaigns.
Cellcast also offers 2FA solutions for businesses needing more security for their logins or transactions. Their 2FA solution uses SMS messaging to deliver a one-time passcode (OTP) to the user’s mobile device, which they must enter to complete the login or transaction.
Cellcast’s pricing plans are customized based on business-specific needs and messaging volume. They also offer a free trial for businesses to test their SMS messaging solutions before committing to a paid plan. Overall, Cellcast is a reliable and feature-rich SMS provider that offers a range of messaging solutions for businesses looking to enhance their mobile messaging capabilities.
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Based on an SMS comparison made on the pricing schedules of several reputable SMS providers, the best value SMS providers in Australia were found to be CellcastTM and Notifyre. This assessment was made based on:
CellcastTM is a relatively new player in the Australian market and is working towards becoming one of the country’s largest premium SMS providers. It is a leading mobile communications provider, SMS programming and MMS interactive mobile messaging for the fast-growing mobile digital communication platform. Cellcast Australia is 100% Australian-owned and independently operated.
Cellcast and Notifyre are cloud-based SMS organisations that focus on sending and receiving SMS through their API platform, email, and voice services.
There are two types of SMS networks in Australia that you should know about. The first network type is the Premium (or Tier 1), which covers the major Australian telecommunication carriers, including Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. SMS providers that offer this text message service through these networks pay a premium charge for each SMS but ensure that end-user customers receive the SMS almost instantly with nearly 100% reliability.
The best example of Australia’s major users of premium SMS providers (which exclusively use premium networks) is the banks, such as NAB, Westpac, ANZ, and Commonwealth Bank. They all use SMS for services such as Internet banking, which requires the service to be secure, instantaneous, and reliable.
Most businesses don’t meet the requirements of banks or large enterprises, such as for large-scale marketing, promotions, communication, reminders, etc. In these cases, the end-user must receive the text messages with minimal delays, even though there may be a delay of a few minutes or a carrier problem, which occurs 1 in 1,000 times and could be viewed as minimal and acceptable. It’s also worth noting that premium SMS providers often will not deal with customers who send small monthly quantities.
The alternative network type is for businesses or organisations considering a cheaper distribution method based on price alone. Cheap SMS providers use grey networks, also known as hybrid networks, which usually refer to networks with their carrier system overseas or providing a lower tier of Australian networks.
Sending an SMS from an overseas network to Australia is relatively reliable. The only real downside is the delivery time, which in most cases is less than 15 minutes (due to the distance it needs to travel). Reporting from these providers is often on par with premium networks and can show good delivery statistics and response rates.
When comparing a pricing schedule from a cheap SMS provider, you also need to look closely at their features, conditions, gateway carrier, reliability, and customer care available when using their service.
As you will see from the SMS Comparison table, the providers vary in their offers. A cheap SMS provider will offer a reduced charge if the volume of text messages is significant. The larger the volume, the more affordable the charge per SMS distributed. Also, it should be noted that the charges depend on the number of messages each month, so companies that send a large number of SMS each month have a cheaper rate.
Take the example of Cellcast,. With numbers over 100,000 SMS per month, their charge is 2.9 cents. When comparing cheap pricing for lower volumes of text messages, the charges differ by around 50% between these two bulk SMS providers for lower distribution numbers.
Several SMS providers do not disclose their prices or show only a few charges dependent on volume distribution. Take the examples:
>250K+
>100K+
>10K+
>2000
5.0c
5.5c
6.5c
2.8c
2.9c
3.1c
N/A
14c
15.5c
6.9C
7.9c
Cheap SMS Providers are ideal for large to medium-sized enterprises that require over 99% assurance that most of their text messages are delivered within a short time, less than two minutes. In a review of the pricing of several reputable and reliable cheap SMS providers, Cellcast offered the most affordable rates for different ranges of bulk text message distribution.
Other factors that need to be considered are summarized in the table below:
Many of these cheap SMS providers aim to attract large to medium-sized companies rather than smaller ones. However, they do not necessarily eliminate these smaller organisations as there are pricing schedules for them. It should be noted that pricing can change without notification, so please review the pricing structure on individual websites.
When a company wants to engage a cheap SMS provider, it wants the reassurance that its pricing will not change once it employs the company and that the reliability of distribution will be paramount. Most Australian companies that want to use cheap SMS providers realize that a more affordable service is more aimed at non-critical and non-time-sensitive message distribution to customers.
The essential factor is that customer service’s pricing, features, and availability are still high quality. Clients want to have as part of the SMS and MMS service, the support system present in case a system fails and have a delivery reporting system to gauge the effectiveness of the SMS distribution, whether it is for a campaign or an important message needing attention.
Several Australian companies use Australian cheap SMS providers as they are competitive with other overseas SMS providers and offer the same range of services as overseas competitors.
SMS comparison is run by an Australian set of experts who have worked within the SMS industry for some years and understand how confusing it can be to compare the range of features and services of SMS providers.
Now that the authors have moved to other IT areas and no longer work in SMS, they can be unbiased and independent in their reviews of the SMS providers. Therefore, they can focus on comparing the most reputable companies that deliver text messages to Australian end-users.
While over 10 cheap SMS providers were found and compared in the original SMS comparison chart, most were removed due to non-competitive pricing or poor reliability, which are critical for any Australian business.
You can compare SMS providers for free on any of our SMS comparison tables and sites provided on the site without any commitment. The website only receives a referral fee for some of the providers listed. The information is constantly updated using the providers’ website content and policy disclosure documents.
As no automation is used and all content is manually collected and analysed, providers may update their products or change their prices without notice. As such, this website is indicative and should be used only as a guide.
Updated in April 2025