3 Textline Alternatives for Team Texting and AI Replies
Carly, Heymarket and Salesmsg are three Textline alternatives worth evaluating for different reasons: AI conversation handling, CRM-connected team messaging, and calling alongside texting. Before replacing Textline, check whether the friction comes from credit accounting, agent seats or a workflow your current plan does not include.
Shared business texting has two separate costs. There is the software bill, and there is the work of keeping conversations assigned, answering questions and following through. A cheaper credit rate will not fix an unowned customer thread. An AI assistant will not automatically reproduce a department’s reporting and permissions.
Carly publishes this guide. We reviewed original customer feedback and public vendor documentation on November 9, 2026, without conducting a hands-on comparison. The trial scenarios are evaluation suggestions, not reported test results.
What Textline customers say about credits and price
Lisa P., an owner, rated Textline 4.5/5 in an October 8, 2026 G2 review. She liked its shortcuts, ease of use, integrations and responsive support, but wrote: “Hard to discern messages vs credits used.” The review was marked incentivized through a seller invitation.
Jessica M., another owner, gave it 5/5 on November 4 and praised its form-to-text and departmental routing workflows while reporting that pricing had risen substantially. Her review was marked incentivized through G2 on the seller’s behalf. That is an individual account experience, not proof that every current customer received the same increase.
Together, these reviews suggest a specific purchase question: can your team understand the bill while preserving the routing it relies on? They do not establish poor overall service. Both reviewers rated the product highly.
Ask for a usage report from a representative month. Separate the number of conversations from billable message credits. If staff count one photo as one message while the billing system counts several credits, the dashboard can feel surprising even when the pricing rules are documented.
Textline plans: agents, history and credits all matter
The current Textline pricing page lists three agents and a minimum of 600 included monthly credits for Essentials, versus five agents and 2,000 credits for Pro. Essentials includes three years of history; Pro lists unlimited history, custom roles and more advanced routing and automation. MMS consumes three credits. The page lists add-on credits at three cents each, with registration charges separate.
The plan comparison lists additional agents at $50/month on Essentials and $70 on Pro, with bonus credits. Those seat costs matter when occasional users need access. Obtain the current base subscription quote rather than assuming an older plan announcement is your price.
A simple example illustrates the credit issue: 200 outgoing MMS messages use 600 credits. That matches the minimum Essentials allowance before other billable traffic. It is a calculation from the published units, not a claim that every Essentials customer has exactly that allowance.
Textline also distinguishes credit types. Its credit documentation explains that included credits expire at the end of the cycle. Ask which pool is consumed next and how additional or backup credits are purchased. An allowance and a cash balance are not interchangeable.
Keep Textline if its routing is already doing valuable work
A team with trusted department assignments, useful history and established escalation rules has something worth preserving. If the complaint is billing visibility, first ask for a usage walkthrough. If the issue is one expensive seat, check whether the person’s access is actually necessary and what permissions they need.
Leaving becomes more compelling when the desired operating model changes: you want an agent to handle routine inquiries, a different CRM workflow, or staff to make calls from the same customer context. Those are product-fit reasons, rather than a reaction to a single invoice.
Compare the work, not just the message price
| Alternative | Main reason to evaluate | Important limitation or cost question |
|---|---|---|
| Carly | AI answers, qualification and appointment handling | Communications add-ons and the exact rules the agent can follow |
| Heymarket | Team messaging tied to CRM records | Seat minimum, paid workflow tier and message credits |
| Salesmsg | Staff calling and texting from a common workflow | User, number, calling and message usage together |
1. Carly: when a person should not have to answer every routine text
Carly provides AI agents for customer conversations and administrative work. Email labeling and sorting, advanced calendar work, phone and SMS are core strengths. Carly connects to thousands of apps, and you can work with it inside ChatGPT, Claude, Grok Bot, Meta Muse and Perplexity.
The relevant Textline replacement case is a repeated conversation with a clear outcome. A customer asks about a service, supplies the required information and wants an appointment. Your team should be able to define which answers are approved, which calendar to use and when the conversation must go to a person.
For example, a repair business could evaluate a booking workflow for one routine service. The agent should ask the approved intake questions, avoid diagnosing an unfamiliar problem, offer suitable times and leave the details for the staff member. If the customer sends an image that requires expert judgment, define a handoff rather than expecting the agent to make an unsupported decision.
The test is the final state: one correct appointment, useful notes and a clear owner for exceptions. Do not score the trial only on whether the first response sounds natural.
Carly pricing and what to keep in your evaluation
Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Organization seats are $35 per seat/month. Business SMS, calling and the AI receptionist are separately billed add-ons. Include the appropriate AI usage tier and communications charges in the estimate.
That makes a direct comparison with a bundle of Textline agents and credits incomplete unless you price the same workload. Request an estimate for your actual number of conversations, messages, calls and team members.
Carly may be useful alongside an existing communications process. It is not a blanket promise to reproduce Textline’s history retention, department controls or reports. Ask to see any requirement your team considers essential. The SMS booking guide gives a more focused view of the appointment use case.
2. Heymarket: when CRM context is the central requirement
Heymarket pricing lists Standard, Plus and Pro at $49, $99 and $199 per user/month with annual billing and a two-user minimum. Time- or event-based multistep workflows are a Plus-level consideration. Ask for the full quote with your credit bundle and required integrations.
Heymarket is worth evaluating when staff should see and act on customer messages in the context of a CRM. Its HubSpot integration documentation describes sending and receiving texts in HubSpot and using texting in workflows; it also specifies North American support for that integration.
Bring a case with imperfect data. Perhaps the customer has both a work number and a mobile number, the contact owner changes, and a reply arrives after the handoff. Ask which number is selected, where the message appears and who receives responsibility.
This is where a CRM-centered alternative can justify its cost. If employees currently copy messages into the CRM or ask colleagues who owns a conversation, demonstrate whether the proposed setup removes those steps. A logo on an integrations page is not enough evidence.
Heymarket’s seat minimum also affects small teams. A solo operator should compare the minimum qualifying purchase, not one advertised seat. Larger teams should include the workflow tier they actually require.
3. Salesmsg: when the next step is often a phone call
Salesmsg’s published pricing starts Basic at $25/month with one user and one number, with extra seats at $10 and numbers at $5. Its credit units cover texts and calls, so quote them together rather than treating the phone portion as free.
Salesmsg is worth comparing if your staff often switch from a written exchange to a call. A customer can explain a complicated request faster by voice, then receive a written confirmation. The important question is whether staff can understand that whole interaction when someone else picks up the thread.
Use a two-person trial: one employee receives a question, another calls the customer, and the first follows up the next day. Check the record after each step. Include a missed call and a customer who replies after business hours.
This choice is about supporting employees’ communications. If your main requirement is autonomous qualification or appointment handling, ask for a separate demonstration of those capabilities and costs. The Salesmsg comparison discusses that distinction in more detail.
Reconcile a sample bill before migrating
Choose a week of real activity and categorize it: short SMS, longer texts, images, incoming replies and calls. Remove customer identifiers before sharing examples. Have each vendor explain how the activity translates into its billing units and which charges are outside the subscription.
Next, include staff access. A manager who only checks reports may have different requirements from an employee who answers all day. Do not reduce seat count on paper if the actual process requires everyone to sign in.
Finally, test a busy period. A seasonal service business can have a reasonable average and an expensive peak. Ask what happens when the allowance runs out: additional credits, automatic purchases, service interruption or a plan change. Record the answer in the proposed configuration.
Preserve open conversations, not just the address book
Before cutover, list every open promise: appointments awaiting confirmation, quotes awaiting a reply and issues escalated to a manager. Assign each one a person and a destination in the new process.
Keep a usable archive of history and clarify what the new system can import. Do not assume an imported contact brings its past messages, assignments or attachments. Verify number transfer or hosting separately, and keep the old account active until the agreed communications tests pass.
In the first week, review unresolved threads daily. A lower bill is not a successful migration if customers have to explain their issue again.
For a Carly evaluation, bring one routine inquiry and one exception that your staff currently handles in Textline. Ask to see the approved response, booking result and human handoff, then compare the complete quoted cost.
Test an AI workflow against your real texting queue
Start with one repeatable inquiry and verify the booking, notes and escalation before expanding.
Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.
# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app
> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.
MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)
## Setup
Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.
1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/account (API key under Carly Teams) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.
2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.
3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.
4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.
## Email, calendars and workflows
Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.Want Carly answering your phones?
Book a short call. We'll map how your calls and texts should flow, show you the AI receptionist live, and set up your number with you.
Book a call
