Pricing and terms

Is there a setup fee?

Answer

No. HushSMS charges no setup fee at any term, in any country, on any pool — the price shown at checkout is the whole price. The best-known competitor in this category charges $10 on the first invoice, which on a one-month order costs more than the line itself.

The longer version

A setup fee is a pricing device rather than a cost recovery. Provisioning a line is an API call against a range we already hold, and it costs the same whether it happens on day one or on renewal. What the fee actually does is punish short terms, which conveniently makes the annual plan look better while making it expensive to test whether the service works for you at all. Charging nothing is the more defensible position and it costs us very little, because the customers who try a monthly line and stay are worth more than the ten dollars.