“Forrester research discovered that only a meager 3% of US companies were customer-centric in 2022!”

Whereas, it was widely discussed that providing greater customer experience is crucial to driving ROIs. So, don’t delay, kickstart 2024 with an aim to improve your customer engagements. Here we have planned to help you with that by suggesting a software platform, called Twilio.

What is Twilio?

Twilio is an American-based company located in San Francisco, California. It is a customer engagement platform that offers various communication tools to power up your customer conversations using data-driven solutions.

These tools are put to use to create personalized interactions between you and your customers via messaging channels, emails, calls, and videos. Using this platform requires some technical developer knowledge though to work with APIs.

They cater to businesses of all sizes and categories. Be it an eCommerce company or a taxi service company, Twilio has products for all.

In this article, we are giving you a closer and magnified look at Twilio by digging deep into some of its pricing plans and offered features.

• Twilio Flex
• Twilio WhatsApp Business API
• Twilio Conversations API
• Twilio Plans Comparison Table

Twilio Flex

Now, you can also save up to 34% on your contact center operational expenses just like fellow Twilio Flex users. It is a 100% cloud contact center that you can easily deploy in just days. With this, you can any time inspect trends, adapt, and modify any part of your contact center operations.

Key Features

1. Customizations – easily update workflows, routing rules, UI design, etc., according to your required conditions.
2. Give your agents access to centralized contextual information from any backend application.
3. Multiple channel support – Email, voice, SMS, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, and WebChat from one UI.
4. Custom channels – add multiple messaging and email channels using APIs on the same UI window.
5. Automation – incorporate chatbot conversations for faster resolutions.
6. Multitasking – your agents can simultaneously handle multiple conversations across channels without losing data.
7. Business insights – to learn generating and managing reports, dashboards, and KPIs without codes.
8. An intelligent routing engine smartly routes conversations of all the channels embedded into the UI dashboard.
9. Integrates with Google contact center AI, CRM applications, payment systems, knowledge base, ERM, etc.
10. Performance reports – build custom reports to include cross-channel metrics. Agents can also retrieve individual and team performance reports.
11. Quick assessments – for agents to attempt and get the supervisor’s feedback on their KPIs.
12. Flex partners – add-ons to help you build a contact center using Twilio and 3rd party tools.

Twilio Flex Pricing

• Start for free – get 5K active user hours for free. You cannot access insights and self-hosted UI with this free plan.
• Pay $1/per hour – can be used to create accounts for part-time agents.
• $150/per month – per user rates with full access.

Twilio WhatsApp Business API

“Will Cathcart the Head of WhatsApp confessed that 175 million people contact businesses through WhatsApp every single day. And another known fact is that there are more than 2 Billion users globally.”

Owing to instant access and convenient messaging, people prefer businesses to use WhatsApp as a primary means of communication. With Twilio, you can do just that by using its pay-as-you-go WhatsApp plans. Using this API, you can enable branded template messaging, push notifications, read receipts, etc.

Key Features

1. Whatsapp conversations are of two types: user-initiated and business-initiated. Twilio plan supports both.

User-initiated conversations – your customer initiates conversations (eg: product query, order updates, etc.)

Business-initiated conversations – you start communicating with your customers (eg: post-purchase notifications, cart alerts, due-date reminders, etc.) These can be only outbound messages to your customers (one-way) or two-way.

2. Free-entry points – these are only user-initiated conversations by clicking on a call-to-action WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page. This first conversation is free.

3. Developer sandbox – use it for application testing.

4. Customizations – design API-powered text messaging, branded messaging templates, notifications, and alert messages.

5. Plus all other regular WhatsApp Business messaging features.

Twilio WhatsApp Business API Pricing

• Conversation rates – WhatsApp Business charges each conversation (post free 1000 messages/month) for $0.01 approx with a 24-hour window. In detail, it is $0.0088 for user-initiated conversations and $0.0147 for business-initiated conversations.

But Twilio charges a separate flat rate of $0.005 for both user-initiated and business-initiated conversations with the same 24-hour window.

• Country rates – the cost of WhatsApp messaging differs country-wise. For example, if you choose the United Kingdom, the estimated rate is $0.04. Whereas, Twilio still charges the same $0.005 per conversation.
• WhatsApp template messaging rates start at $0.0042/per message.

Please note: First 1000 Whatsapp Business messages are free per month, yet you have to pay the Twilio per-message costs.

Twilio Conversations API

This is a pay-per-user plan from Twilio used for conversational messaging solutions. Utilize this tool for customer support in eCommerce and other service industries. Pay only for what you use. No need to pay for any subscriptions. A user is the participant’s unique chat id, phone number, or WhatsApp number.

Key Features

1. Active user – logs into front-end SDK, sends or edits messages from Twilio’s API.
2. Supported channels – chat, SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business Messages.
3. States and timers – can set alerts and timers to manage conversations.
4. Orchestration logic – to enable intelligent routing and grouping of conversations across channels.
5. Archive and recall – save and retrieve conversations when required.

Twilio Conversations API Pricing

• Twilio Conversations pricing is a combo of usage and media data. Both are calculated as follows.

Usage at $0.05/per active user per month – user count based on their unique address or identity is performed every month.

Plus Media storage at $0.25/per GB per month – enrolled users can add media like photos, videos, etc., to their conversations.

• You can also avail of volume pricing as follows – 

Free for up to 200 users

$0.05 for 201 to 5000 users

$0.0475 for 5001 to 10000 users

$0.0450 for 10001 to 20000 users

• Special customized volume pricing for above 20K active monthly users.

Twilio Plans Comparison Table

Were you able to choose?

Until here, you have read about three different plans from Twilio’s conversational engagement products. We have also compared the Twilio costs for each plan. Certainly, one size cannot fit all. So, better compare with your business needs and choose the right solution.

If you are still confused, we humbly suggest you also check out Saufter, an eCommerce helpdesk software. It is an all-in-one omnichannel customer service software that integrates with your major eCommerce stores (Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce)with just a click.

Automate your eCommerce workflows – orders/returns management, a self-service portal, UGC promotions, and anti-refund marketing strategies. All these and more for very affordable prices as compared to Twilio. Don’t wait, as you can try this software with its full features risk-free (credit card info not required).