TL;DR
A CRM with text messaging built in costs $29 to $599 a month in 2026, and which tier the texting arrives on matters more than the headline price. For a one-truck service business, GoHighLevel Starter at $97 plus about $10 a month in message fees is the cheapest way to get two-way texting, missed-call text back and a registered number in one login. For a crew on Jobber, Grow at $149 a month (billed annually) is where two-way SMS switches on. For an office that wants a shared inbox and unlimited one-to-one texts, Podium Core at $399 is the polished option. HubSpot, Zoho and Pipedrive text only after an add-on, a second product or a marketplace app, and the real cost of each is worked out below.
Disclosure: Skill Mammoth is a Jobber partner (readers get 20 percent off through our link, and we earn a commission). We have no arrangement with any other vendor on this page. Every price was read from the vendor's own pricing page or product catalog on October 11, 2026, except where an earlier dated check is cited.
What "CRM with texting" has to mean before you compare prices
Four things separate a CRM that texts from one with a texting checkbox on its feature grid. Is it two-way, or does the customer's reply land nowhere? Which tier? Jobber lists two-way SMS on Grow only; HubSpot sells none below Professional. How is it metered? Jobber and Podium bundle texts; GoHighLevel bills by the segment; HubSpot counts inbound against a 1,000-segment cap. And who registers your number with the carriers, since unregistered business texting gets blocked? The table has a column for each.
If you only want the automation that texts a caller you missed, the missed-call text-back guide prices that on its own, and the appointment reminder roundup covers tools that price on message volume. This page is for the business that wants the conversation on the customer's file, next to the quote and the invoice.
2026 prices, eight CRMs with texting compared
| CRM | Native two-way texting | Tier it arrives on | Message cost | Missed-call text back | Carrier registration (A2P 10DLC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoHighLevel | Yes, every plan | Starter, $97 a month | $0.00747 a segment each way plus $0.0025 to $0.0100 carrier fees; number $1.15 a month | Built in, workflow template | Filed through the platform: $22.50 once, then $1.50 to $10.50 a month |
| Jobber | Yes | Grow, $149 annual or $199 monthly; also Plus from $399 | Bundled; no per-message rate on the pricing page | Not a built-in toggle; the $29 AI Receptionist answers calls and texts instead | Not stated on the pricing page; confirm with Jobber |
| Podium | Yes, unlimited one-to-one | Core, $399 a month | Bundled for one-to-one; bulk texts metered at 250 credits (Core) or 500 (Pro) | Built in | Handled by Podium, $5 a month per US location |
| Housecall Pro | Yes, from a custom messaging number with real-time replies | Not stated on the plan cards; Basic $59, Essentials $149, Max $299 annual | Bundled; no rate published | Not listed; CSR AI and Voice add-ons are unpriced | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Keap | Yes, one-to-one in US and Canada; broadcasts US only | The single platform plan, $299 a month | 500 texts and 100 voice minutes included; tiers from $24 for 1,000 to $279 for 25,000; $0.015 a text over | Buildable in automations; not a named feature | Toll-free number included; local number $10 a month |
| HubSpot | Yes, with the SMS add-on | Sales, Service or Marketing Hub Professional and up; nothing on Free or Starter | $75 a month for 1,000 segments, inbound counted; $15 per extra 1,000 | No named feature | Included in the $75 add-on (10DLC number and registration) |
| Zoho CRM | Not in the CRM; two-way SMS through Zoho Voice or a marketplace extension | CRM $14 to $40 a user; Zoho Voice Basic $34 a user, billed annually | Zoho Voice meters SMS in credits; US and Canada only for two-way | Not a named feature | Zoho Voice activates SMS only on registered 10DLC numbers; you file it |
| Pipedrive | No; marketplace apps such as Kixie PowerCall & SMS | Lite $14 to Ultimate $79 a seat, plus the app's own subscription | Set by the app, not Pipedrive | Depends on the app | Depends on the app |
| Verdict | Three tools text out of the box on their entry plan: GoHighLevel at $97, Podium at $399 and Keap at $299. Jobber makes you climb to Grow. HubSpot makes you climb to Professional and then buy the add-on. Zoho and Pipedrive make you buy a second product. Price the tier where the texting lives, not the tier in the ad. | ||||
1. GoHighLevel: the cheapest full set, metered by the segment
Starter is $97 a month with unlimited contacts and users, and the core feature list on October 11, 2026 includes "Email + SMS Marketing" and "Unified Conversations," each with an asterisk that says usage charges apply. A local number is $1.15 a month. A text costs $0.00747 a segment, inbound or outbound, plus carrier fees of $0.0025 to $0.0100, and a segment is 160 characters, so a 200-character review request is two. A2P registration is filed through the platform for $22.50 once and then $1.50 to $10.50 a month. The rates are from GoHighLevel's billing documentation, read for our pricing breakdown on October 1, 2026.
A one-truck shop sending five texts a job across 80 jobs a month, replies counted, uses about 600 segments and pays roughly $10 in fees on top of the $97. Missed-call text back is a workflow template you switch on. The trade-off: no dispatch board and no job costing, so it runs beside a field service tool or alone for a business that does not dispatch.
2. Jobber: two-way SMS on Grow, $149 a month
Jobber bundles the texts into the plan price. The catch is the tier. On October 11, 2026 the pricing page lists Core at $29, Connect at $99 and Grow at $149 a month billed annually ($49, $139 and $199 monthly), and "Connect with customers through two-way SMS" appears under Grow alone, plus the Plus team plans from $399. Core and Connect send automated notifications ("on my way" texts and reminders) but no two-way inbox.
For missed calls, Jobber's answer is the $29 AI Receptionist add-on, which answers calls and texts around the clock and books into your calendar. The page says nothing about who registers the number with the carriers, so ask on the trial. Our Jobber pricing guide has the team tiers and the 20 percent partner discount; Skill Mammoth is a Jobber partner and earns a commission through that link.
3. Podium: unlimited one-to-one texts, from $399
As of October 5, 2026 Podium's page lists Core at $399 a month and Pro at $599, both with unlimited contacts, one-to-one texts and team members. The meters sit elsewhere: 250 bulk credits on Core and 500 on Pro, a $5 monthly 10DLC fee per US location, and Phones seats at $30 a user, so a one-location shop with four seats pays $539 a month on Core; the detail is in our Podium pricing teardown.
What you get is the best shared inbox in the category, with missed-call text back built in and the registration handled. What you do not get is a job: Podium does not schedule, dispatch or invoice, so it is a second subscription for any contractor. Buy it when the inbox is the problem, on an itemized quote, because the page says plans "may vary based on industry, partnerships, integrations, volume, and carrier fees."
Not sure which tier your texting actually lives on?
Bring the plan you are on or the quote you were sent. We will tell you whether the two-way inbox, the missed-call reply and the carrier registration are in it, and the cheaper route if they are not.
4. Housecall Pro: texting from a custom number, tier unstated
The plan cards on October 11, 2026 read Basic $59, Essentials $149 and Max $299 a month on annual billing ($79, $189 and $329 monthly), with 1, 5 and 8 users. The customer-management page says: "Send 'On my way' texts from a custom messaging number and let customers respond in real time," plus automated texts to confirm bookings and follow up after jobs. Neither page says which plan the two-way inbox arrives on. When we priced the same tools on October 5 we listed it on Essentials, and that is the plan to assume, but confirm it on the feature grid during the 14-day trial.
Two more blanks: the CSR AI and Voice add-ons carry no published price, and missed-call text back is not named anywhere. For a 2-to-5-person crew Essentials at $149 is the floor; the Housecall Pro pricing guide has the higher quotes the plan-picker gave us.
5. Keap: 500 texts included at $299, then tiers
Keap sells one plan: "Starting at $299/mo" on October 11, 2026, billed monthly or $2,988 a year, with two user licenses, extra users at $39 a month, a required implementation package with no listed price, and a $299 early termination fee on the annual contract. Texting is the clearest line on the page: Tier 1, with 500 messages and 100 voice minutes, is included; Tier 2 is $24 a month for 1,000; Tier 4 is $79 for 5,000; Tier 6 is $279 for 25,000. Overage is $0.015 a text, a toll-free number is included and a local number is $10 a month.
Read the footnotes first. One-to-one texts work in the US and Canada; automated texts and broadcasts are US only; the trial cannot send or receive texts. A missed-call reply can be built in the automation builder but is not a named feature. For a home service business that mostly needs texts on a job record, $299 plus implementation buys more automation than it will use.
6. HubSpot: texting starts at Professional, plus $75 a month
HubSpot's free CRM and its $7-to-$20 Starter tier do not text. The product catalog on October 11, 2026 lists three SMS add-ons at $75 a month each: Marketing SMS and Transactional SMS on Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise, and Sales and Service SMS on Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional and Enterprise. Each includes "setup and maintenance of a 10DLC phone number and registration plus 1,000 message segments per month," and "both incoming and outgoing SMS messages count against your message segment limit." Extra volume is $15 per 1,000 segments, US numbers only.
So the cheapest HubSpot that texts is Sales Hub Professional at $90 a seat on annual billing, plus the required $1,500 onboarding fee, plus the $75 add-on: $3,480 in year one for one seat. Registration is the one thing HubSpot does better than most of this list, because it sits inside the add-on. The rest is in the HubSpot pricing guide; for a contractor it is $3,500 to do what Jobber Grow does for $1,788.
7. Zoho CRM: texting through Zoho Voice, $34 a user on top
Zoho CRM is $14, $23 and $40 a user a month for Standard, Professional and Enterprise on annual billing, with a free edition for three users. Standard includes built-in calling and no texting. The route Zoho sells is Zoho Voice, Basic at $34 a user a month billed annually with call charges on top; its pricing page says "Two-way SMS service is available only within the US and Canada" and that SMS is activated "only to 10DLC registered Business phone numbers." SMS is metered in Zoho credits rather than dollars, so get the per-message cost from a trial. A marketplace extension built on Twilio is the other route, and a third bill.
That puts a texting Zoho seat at $48 a user and up before messages, registration filed by you: the cheapest named-brand route for a sales team of ten, and three products for a two-person office to do what Jobber Grow does in one.
8. Pipedrive: no native texting, marketplace apps only
Pipedrive's pricing page on October 11, 2026 lists Lite at $14, Growth at $39, Premium at $59 and Ultimate at $79 a seat a month billed annually, with no onboarding fee and no SMS on any tier. Texting comes from the marketplace, where a search for SMS turns up Kixie PowerCall & SMS ("automated calling and texting") and dialers such as JustCall, each its own subscription with its own registration and no price on Pipedrive's site. Pipedrive is a strong pipeline for a commercial estimator with a long sales cycle; the contractor CRM guide says where that shape fits. Where the text thread is the sale, start elsewhere.
The same 600 segments a month on each tool
| Tool | Plan that texts | Monthly cost for 600 segments | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoHighLevel | Starter $97 | About $107 | Message, carrier, number and campaign fees at published rates |
| Jobber | Grow $149 annual | $149 | $199 on monthly billing; texts bundled |
| Keap | Platform $299 | About $301 | 500 included, 100 over at $0.015; add $10 for a local number |
| Podium | Core $399 | $404 | Unlimited one-to-one texts plus the $5 10DLC fee; $30 a seat for Phones |
| HubSpot | Sales Pro $90 plus SMS add-on $75 | $165, plus $1,500 once | 600 of the 1,000 included segments used, inbound counted |
| Zoho CRM plus Zoho Voice | Standard $14 plus Voice Basic $34 | $48 plus SMS credits | Credit price not published in dollars; US and Canada only |
| Twilio, built yourself | No CRM | About $10 | $0.0083 a segment each way, carrier fees, $1.15 number, $1.50 campaign; you write the inbox |
| Verdict | At this volume the message fees are noise on every tool; the plan tier decides the bill. GoHighLevel at about $107 and Jobber Grow at $149 are the two sane answers for a service business, and the gap between them is whether you need a dispatch board (Jobber) or a funnel builder (GoHighLevel). Everything above $300 is paying for an inbox or a marketing suite the texting rides on. | ||
A2P 10DLC: the registration step that decides your launch date
US carriers require business texting from a regular 10-digit number to be registered: a brand (your company, verified against its EIN) and a campaign (what you will send and why), filed through The Campaign Registry. Unregistered traffic is filtered or blocked, and Twilio's fee page on October 11, 2026 adds that unregistered senders "will receive additional carrier fees." The fees are small: $4.50 one time for a sole proprietor or low-volume standard brand, $46 for a standard brand with secondary vetting, $15 to vet the campaign, then $1.50 a month for a low-volume mixed campaign, $10 for a standard one and $2 for a sole proprietor.
The cost that matters is time. Approval runs from a few days to a few weeks, and a brand-new EIN, a legal name that does not match your website, or a missing opt-in statement on your form will bounce it. Start the registration the day you start the trial, and check who files it. GoHighLevel and Podium file through their platform and pass the fees through. HubSpot bundles it into the $75 add-on. Keap gives you a toll-free number, which has its own verification. Zoho Voice only switches SMS on for a registered number. Jobber's and Housecall Pro's pages do not say, so ask on the trial.
Three to skip
Thryv for the texting. Thryv's pricing page on October 11, 2026 lists Starter at $99 and Signature at $399 a month ($4,068 billed annually), and neither feature list mentions texting, SMS or an inbox; the older Business Center is $185 a month plus $250 onboarding and describes "automated texts and emails," not a two-way conversation. If a rep quotes two-way texting, get the plan and the message allowance in writing.
HubSpot Starter bought for texting. The $7 promotional seat is a good CRM, and it will never text; the SMS add-ons are Professional and Enterprise only. Signing up for Starter planning to add texting later is signing up for the $1,500 onboarding fee later.
Texting customers from a personal cell or a consumer VoIP number. Free, which is why half the trades do it, and it fails three ways: the number is unregistered, so carriers can filter it; the thread lives on one phone, so the office cannot see what the tech promised; and the number leaves when the tech does.
Which one for you
| Situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One truck, quotes and books, no dispatch board needed | GoHighLevel Starter, $97 plus about $10 usage | Two-way texting, missed-call text back and registration in one place for the lowest total on the page |
| Already on Jobber Core or Connect | Upgrade to Grow, $149 annual | Two-way SMS and job costing arrive together; add the $29 Receptionist if calls go unanswered |
| Already on Housecall Pro | Confirm texting on your tier before buying anything | Custom messaging number with replies is described on the site; the plan cards do not name the tier |
| Office staff, high call volume, reviews matter | Podium Core, $399 plus $5 10DLC | Unlimited one-to-one texts and the best shared inbox; price the Phones seats too |
| Marketing-heavy business that lives on automations | Keap, $299 with 500 texts | Texting tiers are published to the message; implementation fee is not |
| Already paying for HubSpot Professional | Sales and Service SMS add-on, $75 | 1,000 segments with registration included; the cheapest way to add texting to a HubSpot you already own |
| Sales team of ten on a tight per-seat budget | Zoho CRM Standard plus Zoho Voice Basic, $48 a user | Cheapest named-brand route, two-way in US and Canada, registration is yours to file |
| Commercial estimating, long pursuits, texting is incidental | Pipedrive plus a marketplace dialer | Best pipeline of the group; texting is a bolt-on priced by the app |
| Verdict | Pick the tool that runs your day, then check that its texting tier is the one you are paying for. For most home service companies that is Jobber Grow or Housecall Pro Essentials with the texting confirmed, with GoHighLevel as the cheaper answer when there is no crew to dispatch. | |
Want the texting wired into the website too?
Every site we build ships with missed-call text back and a registered number feeding the CRM you pick from this page. Fifteen minutes on a call will show you how many after-hours callers you are losing and which tier above pays for itself first.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best CRM with text messaging for a small business?
For a service business that dispatches a crew, Jobber Grow at $149 a month billed annually, because two-way SMS is bundled and the texts sit on the job. For a one-person business without a dispatch board, GoHighLevel Starter at $97 plus roughly $10 a month in message fees, with missed-call text back and carrier registration included. For an office that wants a shared inbox with unlimited one-to-one texts, Podium Core at $399.
Which CRMs have built-in two-way texting?
GoHighLevel (every plan), Jobber (Grow and Plus), Podium (every plan), Housecall Pro (tier not stated on its site) and Keap (the $299 plan, 500 texts included). HubSpot texts only on Professional and Enterprise with a $75 a month add-on. Zoho CRM needs Zoho Voice or a marketplace extension; Pipedrive needs a marketplace app such as Kixie.
How much does CRM texting cost per message?
Where it is metered, $0.0075 to $0.075 a segment. GoHighLevel bills $0.00747 a segment plus carrier fees. HubSpot's add-on works out to $0.075 a segment at the 1,000 included, or $0.015 on the $15-per-1,000 increase. Keap charges $0.015 a text over its allowance. Twilio is $0.0083 each way. Jobber and Podium bundle one-to-one texts with no published rate.
Does HubSpot include SMS?
Not on Free or Starter. HubSpot sells SMS as a $75 a month add-on for Sales, Service or Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise, with 1,000 segments a month, a registered 10DLC number included, and inbound counted against the cap. Extra segments are $15 per 1,000. The cheapest HubSpot that texts is Sales Hub Professional, about $3,480 in year one for one seat including the $1,500 onboarding fee.
What is A2P 10DLC and do I need it to text customers from a CRM?
Yes, if you text from a regular 10-digit US number. A2P 10DLC is the carrier registration of your business (the brand) and your messaging purpose (the campaign); unregistered traffic is filtered or blocked. The fees are small, $4.50 to $46 for the brand, $15 to vet the campaign and $1.50 to $10 a month after that, but approval takes days to weeks. GoHighLevel, Podium and HubSpot file it for you; Zoho Voice requires it before SMS is switched on; Jobber and Housecall Pro do not say on their pricing pages.
Does Jobber have two-way texting?
Yes, on Grow ($149 a month billed annually, $199 monthly) and on the Plus team plans from $399. Core ($29) and Connect ($99) send automated reminders and "on my way" notifications but do not list the two-way inbox. The $29 AI Receptionist add-on answers calls and texts and books into your calendar.