SimpleTexting starts at $29 a month, forever, for 500 credits on top of effectively the same carrier network you're already paying for. Remindly sends templated reminders through your own Twilio account, so the metered SMS cost stays on your bill at carrier-ish rates and is never marked up. $34, once. A busy shop's reminders cost about $4/mo in real Twilio fees instead of a SaaS markup on them.
If you've searched for a SimpleTexting alternative, Remindly is the pay-once option worth putting at the top of the list: Remindly is $34, one time, and covers the same core job SimpleTexting charges $29+/mo for.
What makes Remindly the pick for 2026
- Appointments — Manual entry or CSV import with per-row validation and error reporting.
- Reminder rules — Any offset like 24h, 2h or 15min, by SMS or email, with per-rule templates and merge fields.
- Two-way confirm — Clients reply C to confirm or R to reschedule via the Twilio inbound webhook, with confirmed / pending / no-reply status.
- STOP/START opt-out — Compliant by design — STOP blocks all future sends to that number and is logged, START re-subscribes.
- Quiet hours — Reminders due at 3 AM wait politely until your quiet window ends, deferred and never dropped.
Remindly vs SimpleTexting, at a glance
| Remindly | SimpleTexting | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $34 once | $29+/mo |
| Cost after 1 year | $34 + your SMS fees | $348+ |
| 500 appts/mo SMS cost | ~$4 (your Twilio bill) | Included, then overage |
| Two-way confirm (C/R) | Yes | Yes |
| No-show analytics | Yes — per weekday and hour | No |
| Quiet hours | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted / your data | Yes — SQLite, your box | No |
| API keys | Yours (BYO) | Theirs |
Remindly costs about one month of SimpleTexting once — after year one you pay only the SMS fees you were already going to pay anyway.
Common questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — Remindly is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/appointment-reminder-sms-mvp. The $34 buys the packaged Windows installer with everything wired up; building from source is free.
Am I still paying for SMS?
Yes, but only the real carrier fee. Twilio charges ~$0.0079 per SMS on your own account and Remindly never marks it up — you skip the SaaS fee stacked on top, not the carrier cost.
Where does my client data live?
In your own SQLite file on your box, self-hosted with your own API keys — nothing goes to a third-party cloud.
The bottom line
Remindly won't out-feature SimpleTexting on every axis — no subscription tool with a bigger team and a bigger roadmap loses on everything. But for the core job, $34 once against $29+/mo forever is a trade most people should at least look at. Remindly is part of OneTimeSuite, a catalog of pay-once apps that replace subscription SaaS.
Try Remindly — $34, once
Self-hosted appointment reminder tool that sends SMS and email through your own Twilio and SMTP.