Peerly vs TextNow

Peerly is a high-volume political texting platform for sending messages at scale and managing recipient replies. Its peer-to-peer workflow handles individual texts in volume and replies through a user interface. Canvasser AI assists with outreach, replies, and sorting. Messages can include video, picture MMS, and up to 2,000 characters of accompanying text. Campaign tools include scheduling, canned responses, dynamic personalization, landline scrubbing, and real-time link click tracking. Peerly says it integrates with major political databases, supports CRM exports, and offers an API. It describes its human-powered system as designed to fit the FCC definition of legal peer-to-peer texting. The homepage advertises no-cost 10DLC registration and approval within four hours. Peerly lists a 10-day trial on all plans, but no free plan. Pay as you go is $1, paid once, billed per successfully delivered message; Enterprise is $12, paid once, with rates discussed by call. Credits roll over, and the company says it does not require long contracts or automatic billing. Its web interface requires no download.

TextNow is a VoIP service for calls and texts to U.S. and Canadian numbers, with international long-distance calling available through purchased credits. Its ad-supported free service provides a phone number and unlimited North American calling and texting over Wi-Fi or a carrier data plan. The Free Plan costs nothing and includes unlimited talk and text plus 5G data for select apps; it requires an active TextNow SIM. With an active SIM, users can also get wireless coverage and free data for listed essential apps away from Wi-Fi. Those apps must first be downloaded over Wi-Fi. The service works on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web, and Windows, and account details, messages, and call history are accessible across Android, iOS, and web. The Unlimited Plan costs $35.99 a month, with unlimited data and up to 10GB at up to 5G speeds before speeds drop to 2G. Ad-Free+ removes ads and adds features including number locking, call forwarding, voicemail transcription, and unlimited photo and video history.