SMS vs WhatsApp: which is the best marketing tool?
SMS and WhatsApp marketing tools are becoming popular, providing businesses with effective ways to reach their target audience.
Over 91% of customers want to get SMS messages from businesses, and messages sent using the WhatsApp Business API have a 99% open rate. This just proves how both of these communication channels are essential for businesses looking to communicate with their customers in a timely manner.
Instant messaging, including SMS and WhatsApp, generates better marketing results with an impressive open rate of around 98%.
When comparing SMS marketing vs. WhatsApp marketing as business communication channels, enterprises of any size may wonder what the difference is.
Let's explore the basics of SMS and WhatsApp marketing campaigns to understand their differences.
Why use SMS marketing?
Businesses use a SMS marketing software as part of their overall marketing strategy for several reasons:
High open rate (~98%)
Instant delivery, effective for time-sensitive promotions or urgent messages
Wide reach, since almost everyone has a mobile phone
Does not require an internet connection
Requires a lower budget as compared to print advertising or TV commercials
Personalized communication through analyses of customer data
Opt-in ensures people who are interested in your products or services receive a SMS
Fast forward to 2025, we now have a variety of instant messaging apps to send text messages, and consumers are shifting from SMS to other popular social media channels such as WhatsApp. Hence, it is also crucial for businesses to start adopting WhatsApp marketing tactics to attract and retain customers.
Why use WhatsApp marketing?
Similar to SMS, WhatsApp is effective in capturing the attention of consumers and increasing customer engagement. They are also beneficial because:
High open rate (~99%)
WhatsApp has a large user base of over 2 billion monthly active users worldwide
Personalized communication and interactive features such as chat buttons and widgets
You can attach multimedia content (images and videos) to WhatsApp messages.
You can easily share updated WhatsApp catalogs.
Cheaper than SMS marketing, especially if sent to a smaller audience using the free WhatsApp Business App.
Real-time analytics for WhatsApp marketing campaigns
Opt-in ensures that people who are interested in your products or services receive messages.
Sending bulk WhatsApp marketing messages you can scale up your marketing activities and boost sales in ways email marketing has never reached before.
The limitations of SMS marketing and WhatsApp Marketing
Even though they have strength in their hands, they have limitations, too. SMS has only 160 Characters, which means your message is conveyed well. Compared to WhatsApp, it has a 65k Character limit.
Another thing is that SMS does not support an image or any media like WhatsApp does. You need to use another format MMS(Multimedia Messaging Service), so you can use a picture to send the messages, mind you the image will count as a character; once you go past the limit of 160 characters, it will count as another message, and that will charge additional costs per message.
The next thing is if you are an international brand that wants to spread the messages to your customers all around the world. Some cross-border restrictions prevent you from sending messages to some of your customers in some parts of the world. While WhatsApp, on the other hand, as long as you comply with the policies, you dont need to worry about any of that.
SMS marketing vs. WhatsApp marketing: Pricing
A quick comparison of the pricing for SMS vs WhatsApp marketing campaigns:
SMS marketing
SMS broadcast messages are charged per message sent. Pricing vary between $0.25 to $0.50 per message, depending on your chosen carrier.
This mean that sending marketing messages to a large customer base, you'll need to set aside a large budget for your SMS marketing.
Budget planning is a an important aspect of SMS marketing, to not overspending and ensuring to effectively reach the target audience. Working with an SMS marketing provider can be beneficial in managing costs. These providers often offer packages or bulk pricing options, which can lead to cost savings when sending messages to a larger audience. They also provide valuable features like message tracking and analytics, allowing you to assess the effectiveness of your campaigns and make informed decisions about your marketing budget allocation.
WhatsApp marketing
WhatsApp broadcast messages can be free on the WhatsApp Business App, but you will only be able to include 256 recipients. To send to a large audience, you will need to use the WhatsApp Business API platform.
There will be conversation fees charged by WhatsApp and a monthly subscription fee required for the WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP) assigned by Meta. The fee per conversation also varies depending on the country and the type of messages sent, making it more budget-friendly for businesses to scale.
To understand how WhatsApp conversation fees work, check out our latest 2025 pricing guide.
Difference between WhatsApp and SMS for marketing
Here's a table summarizing the main differences between WhatsApp and SMS for marketing:
Choosing the right instant messaging platform for your business goals
SMS marketing vs. WhatsApp marketing, both have their advantages and disadvantages, but the truth is, you don’t have to choose either one.
On SleekFlow, you can achieve your marketing goals using both SMS and WhatsApp marketing. You can compare the results and see which instant messaging strategy works best for your business, products or services. The fastest way to find the most effective solution is to test it out on your customers.
SleekFlow, as an omnichannel social commerce platform, understands your business needs. You can use a WhatsApp Business API to send marketing messages through SMS and WhatsApp.
SleekFlow, as the official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP), offers a wide range of cost effective solutions for you to guide customers through the shopping experience seamlessly. By completing your SMS and WhatsApp marketing strategy on SleekFlow, you can benefit from many other features:
A team inbox for working together on conversations and smoothly transferring tasks between departments, improving conversion rates.
In-chat payment links for customers to pay instantly for better customer experience
Automated workflows and chatbots to assist customers and sell through all popular social messaging channels 24/7
Social CRM tools for proper customer segmentation and accurate retargeting
Integrations with existing CRM platforms or e-commerce platforms. Complete customer details (such as lead stage or purchase history) right next to the chatbox
Want to see how other businesses succeed in doing WhatsApp and SMS marketing via SleekFlow? Check out our success stories.
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