Should I Enable Twilio Messaging?

ChurchTrac offers integration with Twilio for sending and receiving mass SMS messages in your church. This article covers their differences and offers use cases to help you make the decision.

Which one should I use?

Should you use ChurchTrac's built-in SMS or Twilio for messaging? The decision ultimately comes down to your messaging volume and the need for 2-way texting and custom auto-replies.

Built-In SMS

You should use ChurchTrac's Built-In SMS if...

Your ministry only needs to send an occasional SMS message to a small number of people and do not need the added functionality of giving your recipients the ability to reply back.

1-Way Communication
Recipients cannot reply to your messages. A default auto-reply is sent.

Shared Phone Number
Messages are sent from one of our phone numbers that may be shared with other ministries.

No Custom Auto Replies
Recipients are not able to respond to your messages, and you cannot customize or define auto-replies.

Limited Message History
You can only see recent messages and the number of recipients.

Cost
Get up to 250 free SMS messages (for Plus Plan subscribers). After that, $.03 per recipient for each message.

Twilio SMS

You should enable Twilio SMS if...

Your ministry needs to send SMS messages regularly and wants to give your recipients the ability to respond and/or send SMS messages back to you. When Twilio messaging is enabled in ChurchTrac, you also have the ability to set up custom auto-replies.

2-Way Communication
Interact with recipients. You can view and respond to replies in ChurchTrac.

Dedicated Phone Number
Use your own dedicated phone number for sending and receiving SMS messages.

Customizable Auto Replies
Recipients can reply or send SMS messages with specific keywords and have an automatic reply back.

Detailed Message History
All outgoing and incoming messages are viewable for each recipient in your database.

Cost
Pay Twilio $2/month for a dedicated toll free number. After that, roughly $.0075 per recipient for each message.

How much money will Twilio SMS save my ministry?

If you’re a ChurchTrac Plus Subscriber, here’s a quick estimate:

500 SMS recipients/month-Estimated Savings of $3.50/month or $42/year
1k SMS recipients/month-Estimated Savings of $13/month or $156/year
2k SMS recipients/month-Estimated Savings of $35.50/month or $426/year

*ChurchTrac Standard Subscribers will see an even higher estimated savings.

Text for FREE

Is your church a 501(c)3 organization? If so, you could qualify for a $500 credit with Twilio messaging by verifying your organization with Techsoup.

For more info, including steps to apply for this credit, read this post.

Why does ChurchTrac offer a Twilio Integration?

Short answer:

We want to simplify your ministry and save you money.

The Long answer that's actually worth reading:

We want to give your ministry the powerful messaging features offered in other expensive church apps without you having to sell the church van. Instead of incorporating all of these features into ChurchTrac and then charging a premium for it, we decided to take churches right to the source of SMS communication and integrate with it.

"Twilio is to SMS as Amazon is to the internet."

What does that mean?

It means that Twilio is the gold standard of SMS communication across the world. They send over 100 Billion (Billion with a B) messages/year and are trusted by organizations like instacart, Morgan Stanley, and thousands of others.

Fun fact: If you’re using another mass texting platform to send SMS messages to your church, there’s a good chance you’re already using Twilio and didn’t even know it.

Stop overpaying to text in church and start saving using ChurchTrac with Twilio!

Click to get started with Twilio