Missed call text back software: three ways to buy it

The idea is small. A call to your business goes unanswered, and within seconds the caller gets a text from you: sorry I missed you, what do you need? The caller was about to dial the next contractor on the results page. Now there is a thread open with you instead.

The software has to do two things to make that happen. First it has to know the call went unanswered, which means either your business number lives on the platform (a VoIP line that sees every missed call) or your existing number forwards unanswered calls to a number the software watches. Second it has to send the text from a number the caller will recognise, ideally the one they just dialed. The second part is where carrier rules come in, and it is the part the pricing pages tend to be quietest about.

What happens after the first text is the real difference between products. Some send one canned reply and stop. Some land the customer's answer in an inbox for you to pick up later. Some run the conversation and book the job. The price list rarely tells you which, so the table below says what each pricing page does and does not state.

We read every vendor's own pricing page on October 7, 2026, one plain request each, and copied what it said. Kixie, Chiirp and Jobber could not be read that day (script-only or blocked pages), so they are not here rather than guessed. Enzak's pricing URL returned a 404; its prices are on its homepage. The last column is the honest one: whether the pricing page itself mentions missed-call text-back. Most do not.

Model one, a feature inside a platform. If you already pay for a VoIP line or a field-service platform, this is the cheapest check to make, because the text-back may already be in your plan. Quo and Allo say so on their pricing pages. GoHighLevel's pricing page does not mention it, but its help center documents a Missed Call Text Back workflow, so it is there if you build it. Housecall Pro's pricing page does not say either way, which means a question for their sales team, not a line you can read. The price buys the whole platform; text-back is a side feature of it.

Model two, a texting app you set up yourself. Textedly, SlickText, EZ Texting and SimpleTexting sell message volume: 500 messages or credits for $25 to $39 a month, more for more. Auto-replies are a feature you configure. What none of these pricing pages says is how a missed call would trigger one. Your unanswered calls have to reach a number the app can see, through forwarding or a line that lives on the platform, and you will be the one wiring that, writing the message, registering with the carriers, and answering whatever the customer texts back.

Model three, a service that does only this. Enzak sells missed call text back as the product: $99 a month for 1,000 texts, custom working-hours and after-hours messages, and extra user accounts at $10 each, with the first month at $20. Nova's is the same price, $99 a month flat, and the difference is who does the work: we set it up on the number your customers already call, tune it, and an AI runs the two-way conversation after the first text, asks what the customer needs, and books the job into a time slot. It is live in about seven days and it is also included from the Growth website tier.

A $29 plan is not a $29 bill. These are the charges that appeared on the pricing pages we read, in the vendors' own words, and they apply to almost any texting tool whether or not its page admits it.

• Carrier registration (A2P 10DLC). Allo lists SMS (10DLC) registration at $24 one-time. SimpleTexting adds a $4 one-time carrier registration. Textline charges a $15 campaign fee each month if you use a 10DLC number. Quo says US messaging requires registration with The Campaign Registry, with carrier review and setup fees billed on top. EZ Texting marks its Launch plan as subject to a telecom fee. Until the registration clears, carriers may filter your texts, which is the failure our post on why a text-back stops firing covers.
• Per-message charges. SimpleTexting bills extra credits at 5.5 cents each and passes through carrier fees it puts at roughly $0.0025 per US message. Textline sells add-on message credits at $0.03 each. EZ Texting's overage credits are $0.04 on the Launch plan. Picture messages usually cost multiple credits (SlickText: 1 SMS = 1 credit, 1 MMS = 3).
• Per-seat pricing. Quo and Allo price per user or seat, so a shop with three people on the phones pays three times the headline number.
• Annual billing in the headline. Several of the lowest figures are the annual-billing price: Housecall Pro's $59 is $79 month to month, Quo's $15 is $19, Allo's $10 is $15, EZ Texting's $20 is $25.
• First-month promotions. Enzak's $20 first month becomes $99 from month two.

Not on any pricing page we read. What exists is trials and discounts: Housecall Pro and GoHighLevel advertise 14 days free, SimpleTexting a free trial with no credit card required, Quo and Leadferno a free trial, Aloware seven days free, and Enzak's first month at $20. Textedly's page offers a free account, and we could not tell from the page what a free account includes, so we will not guess.

The honest version of free is doing it yourself on tools you already have, and that is a real option for a one-person shop. It costs the time to set up forwarding, register with the carriers, write the message, and then answer every reply by hand, which is the part people underestimate. The reply is the lead. If nobody picks it up for an hour, you are back to voicemail with extra steps.

This is our opinion, and we sell the done-for-you option, so weigh it accordingly.

• If you already pay for a VoIP line or a field-service platform that lists the feature, switch it on there first. It is the cheapest text-back you will ever buy, and the only cost is finding out what happens after the first message.
• If your business number is a cell phone and you do not want a new platform, a service that runs on your existing number is the least work: nothing to port, nothing to wire, and someone else owns the carrier registration.
• A standalone texting app earns its place when you also want mass texting, appointment reminders or promotions. The moment you send promotions, the consent rules get stricter, so read the legal post before you add a discount to the auto-reply.
• Whatever you pick, decide who answers the customer's reply within a few minutes. A canned reply with nobody behind it is a slower voicemail.

If you want to see what the arithmetic looks like for your own call volume, our missed call text back calculator takes your missed calls per week, your average job value and a recovery rate you choose. The rate is an assumption you set, not a benchmark we claim. And if you want it done for you, missed-call text-back is $99 a month on the number you already use.

• Vendor pricing pages, each read once on October 7, 2026: Quo, Allo, Weave, GoHighLevel, Housecall Pro, Textedly, SlickText, EZ Texting, SimpleTexting, Leadferno, Textline, Aloware, and Enzak's homepage (its pricing URL returned a 404 that day).
• Birdeye and Hatch published no plan prices on their pricing pages (read the same day) and are not in the table for that reason. Podium's pricing page, re-read on October 10, 2026, lists Core at $399 a month and Pro at $599 and tells HVAC businesses to contact sales; it is a messaging and reviews platform, so it stays out of this text-back table. Kixie, Chiirp and Jobber could not be read on October 7.
• Nova's own price and terms: missed-call text-back, with the same fourteen vendors tabled next to ours.
• On carrier registration and consent: Is missed-call text-back legal?. On delivery failures: Your missed-call text-back is not firing. Message templates: Missed-call text-back for contractors.

Prices change. Check the vendor's page before you buy, and tell us if one of these rows has moved so we can re-read it.