OneSignal’s omnichannel customer engagement platform offers push notifications, email, in-app messages, and SMS. OneSignal’s automated customer Journeys and one-off campaigns allow users to create messaging strategies that convert, inform, and retain audiences, with little to no coding required for setup.
$9
per month
Twilio Zipwhip (discontinued)
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Zipwhip, a texting-for-businesses application for two-way text between a company and its customers, was acquired by Twilio, and discontinued.
I think One Signal is very well suited for mobile app owners who want to be in touch with their user base more easily by sending push notifications and in-app messages. I'm not sure how well that works for SMS messaging as I haven't yet tried it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it if your in-apps are very rare.
Zipwhip is well suited for brief communication at scale. Our Fan services reps after close to 1,000 accounts, and this allows them to get out quick messages at scale. It is less appropriate for longer messages where email or a phone call is the better route to reach out.
I give an 8 in this question mainly for 2 reasons: the products even if they look like complete and are highly customizable and usable, they are still missing some logical features. For example, send messages to a list of users - now days you can do it with postman and get calls. A second example is App messaging that is still in development and has many opportunities.
It was very easy for users to use, straight forward, and user friendly. The desktop app is very basic but easy to reply to an incoming text, but the user had to know to allow Chrome notifications to see new incoming text via the web browser, which is how they mainly used it.
Their customer support has been top-notch. They are able to assist you in getting through any problems that you may have and respond in a very timely manner. I've dealt with them on 4-5 instances over the years and my issues were always resolved within a matter of a few business days.
Swift response time, multiple people have been willing to help with any issue, really anything you could be looking for from a service standpoint, they offer.
Look Firebase is a complete platform that includes a Push notification/InApp space. We had a lot of troubles while implementing Firebase: sometimes we thought it was ready until we tried to attach an image for Push notifications. This being said, the developers had to review the integration several times until we decided to change to OneSignal. Also while using Firebase I was not convinced with the look and feel of the Notifications. My vote here is OneSignal.
We hadn't really looked at other services before choosing Zipwhip as there were not a lot of test-to-landline companies when we began looking. The price was right and the customer service was amazing. It was easy to learn the software and to onboard our entire team. When we began letting our customers know about the new texting capability we had, they were curious about it and grew to love it. Because we're able to link it with their trip, they not only can receive status updates but also a link to our GPS, so they can see where their chauffeur and vehicle are in real-time, along with a photo of the chauffeur and the vehicle. This function is perhaps our corporate clients' most favorite feature as they don't have to call to see where the vehicle for their VIP is; they can watch it in real-time. For group work, Zipwhip lets us send the program manager customized updates for all of their booked trips. This is such a time saver in so many ways. Time is money and for a small business, there are many ways that this helps. Our employees spend less time on the phone and productivity is increased. Texting is great too as it serves as documentation should any issues arise.
