Businesses that want to add voice calling and text messaging to their applications can do so by using a cloud communications platform (also called communications platform as a service, or CPaaS). A CPaaS provides APIs (application programming interfaces) that make it easy for businesses to programmatically make and receive calls and send and receive text messages.
Twilio is one of the best-known CPaaS companies, but for many businesses a Twilio competitor may be a better alternative. Chief among those alternatives is Plivo, which has the highest customer satisfaction rating among all cloud communications platforms on the product comparison site G2.
Plivo’s APIs provide all the code a business needs to incorporate communication functionality into their applications. Plivo lets businesses integrate voice calls and SMS and MMS messaging into their applications. Companies use Plivo’s communications platforms as a service (CPaaS) to programmatically generate communications and deliver them to customers’ devices. Businesses use Plivo to handle more than a billion API requests every month.
Plivo’s voice and messaging APIs are backed by a global cloud communications infrastructure. In effect Plivo acts as a bridge between businesses and telecomm carriers to help companies get their messages out to where customers prefer to consume them — on their mobile devices.
Plivo offers best-in-class message deliverability and call quality. The Plivo Premium Communications Network, powered by an intelligent routing engine, relies on direct relationships with more than 1,600 carrier networks globally. It lets customers make calls and send SMS messages to any number in the world, ensures guaranteed SMS delivery, and provides low latency for voice calls.
Feature Parity at an Attractive Price
Companies that start with Twilio often find they want broader global coverage, lower prices, and better support than their existing CPaaS provides. Every task a business can do in Twilio can also be done with Plivo — and migration is easy. Plivo provides familiar API constructs to lower the learning curve and reduce time to migrate, and offers SDKs for seven popular web development languages so developers can call the APIs from languages they already know.
In addition to voice and SMS APIs, Plivo also offers SIP trunking services and phone number rentals. Customers can immediately rent phone numbers in dozens of countries, for more than 8,000 area codes.
One key differentiator for Plivo is white-glove customer support. The support team is available 24×7 to provide customers with all the technical guidance they need, as they need it.
In addition to excelling in features, Plivo outperforms Twilio on pricing. Plivo’s rates for SMS, voice, SIP trunking, and phone numbers are lower across the board than those of not only Twilio but all of the major cloud communications platforms.
Put Plivo to the Test
Does all of that make Plivo the best cloud communications platform? Realistically speaking there’s no one “best” — it’s a matter of which product or service meets a particular business’s needs at an acceptable price. But given all the advantages, there’s every reason for businesses of all sizes, from startup to enterprise, to put Plivo on their evaluation short list.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.