Attentive

Attentive is a customer messaging platform for businesses coordinating personalized conversations across text and other channels. It is strongest for brands with customer journeys shaped by browsing, purchases, and engagement. Its broad channel coverage and included support are appealing, but custom pricing and no free plan make it a harder choice for businesses that need a clear cost before committing.

Overview

Attentive combines SMS, email, RCS, and push messaging, with two-way conversations that can serve marketing and customer support. Browsing, cart activity, purchases, preferences, and engagement help shape recipients, message content, and timing. That behavioral focus can make campaigns more relevant than broad list sends, particularly for ecommerce brands.

Automation, audience segmentation, inbound messaging, MMS, and compliance tools round out the platform. Concierge pairs AI with live agents and can route complex questions to a business's in-house team. Attentive was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Key features

Behavior-based messaging

Attentive uses customer activity and preferences to personalize who receives messages, what they contain, and when they arrive. Automated cross-channel journeys support welcome and abandonment messages. This is useful for businesses with meaningful customer signals and repeatable lifecycle campaigns; teams seeking only occasional, manual SMS sends may not need this breadth.

Sign-up and engagement

Patented two-tap sign-up gives businesses a dedicated way to grow their messaging audience. A/B testing frameworks and campaign and segment reporting help teams compare messaging and review performance, rather than treating each send as an isolated broadcast.

AI, support, and integrations

AI Essentials message and subject-line generation and automated retargeting are included with all plans. Other AI capabilities vary by plan, including automated cross-channel journeys and predictive tools for send-time optimization, audience segmentation, and subscriber identification. Concierge combines AI and live agents, with complex questions routable to a business's own team.

Attentive offers more than 100 pre-built integrations and flexible APIs for ecommerce, loyalty, customer data, and customer experience tools. All plans include strategic planning, onboarding and deliverability support, a dedicated support team, and 24/5 service. The security status page covers CCPA, GDPR, and SOC 2 compliance areas; it identifies a SOC 2 Type 2 report available by request. Listed controls include multi-factor authentication, SSO support, access monitoring, and encryption at rest.

Pricing

Attentive is paid, has no free plan, and offers free trials. Most pricing is custom, and the cost can depend on subscriber count, message volume, channels, or needs.

• AI Essentials: free, included with all plans. It provides AI tools for generating messages and subject lines plus automated retargeting, making it the baseline AI offering rather than a standalone free plan.
• AI Journeys: Custom pricing, billed per click at an unpublished rate. It adds personalized welcome and abandonment messages and automated cross-channel journeys.
• Text & email: Custom pricing based on subscriber list size and messages sent; includes SMS and email.
• AI Grow: Custom pricing with a flat monthly fee whose amount is not published. It includes automated sign-up units and personalized landing pages.
• SMS, email, RCS, & push: Custom pricing based on subscriber list size, messages sent, channels, and AI tools.
• Text: Custom pricing based on subscriber list size and messages sent; includes SMS, MMS, and RCS.
• AI Pro: Custom flat monthly fee. It adds predictive AI for send-time optimization, audience segmentation, and subscriber identification.
• Full platform package: Pricing based on volume and needs. It includes SMS, MMS, RCS, email, and push, the complete AI suite, a dedicated customer success manager, and full-service onboarding.

There are no published seat counts, message quotas, renewal terms, or trial length to compare. That makes it difficult to forecast spend without a provider conversation. Buyers should match the plan to their required channels and AI features, then confirm volume assumptions and trial terms directly.

Platforms

Attentive supports web and API access. The channel mix includes SMS, email, RCS, and push; SMS capabilities include MMS support.

Who it's for

Attentive is aimed at brands, with solutions presented for retail and ecommerce, food and beverage, entertainment and media, travel and hospitality, and fitness and wellness. It suits teams that want behavior-led messaging, cross-channel automation, and support alongside campaign tools. Smaller businesses seeking a free tier or a self-serve, publicly priced entry point should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Broad channel coverage: SMS, email, RCS, and push can work together, with SMS, MMS, and inbound messaging supporting two-way engagement.
• Useful behavioral targeting: Browsing, cart activity, purchases, preferences, and engagement can inform audiences, content, and timing.
• Support is included across plans: Strategic planning, onboarding, deliverability help, a dedicated support team, and 24/5 service are not limited to the full-platform package.
• Integration and security provisions: More than 100 pre-built integrations, flexible APIs, listed security controls, and compliance areas support integration and governance needs.

Cons

• No free plan: The included AI Essentials capabilities do not make Attentive a free service, so there is no no-cost plan for ongoing use.
• Costs are difficult to compare upfront: Plan prices are custom or unpublished, with several tiers tied to audience size, message volume, channels, or needs.

Alternatives

Consider Textmagic if you want a paid messaging option with a published Essential rate: $0.05 a month, billed 100% prepaid, with rates varying by destination country and 160 plain-text characters per SMS part. It has a free trial but no free plan; its Professional plan has no published price.

Postscript may fit buyers who want a free plan and SMS-focused campaigns and automations. Its Starter plan is free with a $49 monthly minimum spend, plus $0.009/SMS and $0.045/MMS and carrier fees; it includes unlimited segments and a dedicated toll-free number.

Remelo is a more fitting alternative for appointment businesses seeking a free web-based tool: its Newbie plan includes 25 appointments, reminders and confirmations by SMS or email, one staff member, one booking page, calendar integration, and online rescheduling.

Consider Bird Verify for verification workflows where verification is included and charges apply to channel messages sent; it has a free plan and web and API platforms.

Kenect is another paid option to compare for businesses looking at messaging software.

Textedly is worth comparing if you want a published entry price: its Basic plan costs $29 a month for 500 messages monthly, or 600 messages monthly with annual billing, which includes 20% more messages per month. It offers a free plan and trial.

Pulse SMS is another paid alternative for readers comparing messaging software.

SMSGlobal API may suit buyers who prefer pay-as-you-go API messaging: its listed rate starts at A$0.03, paid once per message, with rates dropping as single-transaction volume grows. The price is AUD excluding GST; a free plan and trial are offered.

For broader comparisons, browse Business Text Messaging Software, SMS Marketing Software, or Messenger Marketing Software.

Verdict

Attentive is a strong fit for brands that need personalized, two-way messaging across channels, behavior-led automation, analytics, and support across plans. Its extensive channel mix and included service make it more than a basic SMS tool. Choose another platform if a free plan, published pricing, or clearly stated trial terms are essential to your decision.