Strkr Messaging is a native SMS and MMS module. Send and receive from the contact, lead, or deal. Templates with merge fields, two-way threading, delivery receipts, opt-in and opt-out compliance, DND windows, A2P 10DLC and STIR/SHAKEN handling, bulk sends, Flow-triggered sends, and local-presence numbers. Bring your own carrier if you already run on one, or stay on Strkr Messaging out of the box.
Business SMS inside a CRM is text messaging where every send, reply, delivery receipt, opt-out, and templated response is attached to the contact, lead, deal, or account that it belongs to. The rep opens a record and sees the full conversation. The next rep that opens the record a month later sees the same history. The manager pulling a report sees message volume by owner. This is the baseline Strkr Messaging ships on every paid tier. The industry average response time to a text message from a known sender is 90 seconds. The industry average response time to a cold email from a prospecting rep is 90 minutes if it ever happens at all. Business texting closes that gap. The reason most teams never ship it is not the messaging value proposition; it is the stitched stack that sits between the CRM and the carrier. Strkr Messaging removes the stitch.
Open a contact, lead, or deal and the Messages tab shows the full two-way thread with timestamps, delivery status, read indicators where available, and the owner who sent each message. New reps picking up the account read the history in seconds instead of asking around for context.
A keyboard-shortcut composer opens on any record with a phone number field. Pick a template, drop in merge fields, attach a photo or PDF for MMS, hit send. The thread updates in place. No tab switch, no copy and paste a number into a texting app, no second login.
When a contact replies, Strkr routes the inbound to the record owner by default. Reassignable per thread, auto-escalates after a configurable idle window, and fans out to Slack or email when the owner is out. No unanswered reply sits in a shared inbox for three days.
Every outbound carries a delivery status that updates as the carrier reports back. Delivered, read where available, failed with a reason code, or bounced because the number is a landline. The rep sees whether to follow up or try a different channel without guessing.
Hi {{contact.first_name}}, following up on {{deal.name}} with {{deal.amount}} on the table. Merge-field tokens pull from contact, lead, deal, account, custom objects, and the sender's own profile. Fallback values guard against empty fields so the merge never ships "Hi ,".
MMS carries photos, PDFs, vCards, short video clips, and audio. Attach from the record, from the device, or from the account's shared files library. Carrier size caps enforced before send so the message does not bounce halfway through a bulk run.
Search by phrase, sender, date range, or template. Jump straight to the quoted message in its original thread. The search index is per-tenant, respects permission scopes, and returns results in under a second for workspaces with tens of thousands of threads.
Each sender gets a per-user signature line. The workspace controls a trailing compliance footer with opt-out instructions on the first message of a campaign. Both render as plain text so the character count stays visible before send.
Add a teammate to a thread as a viewer or a co-sender. Internal notes attach to the thread without going out to the contact. Mentions fire notifications. The deal that needs the SE on the next reply does not require a separate Slack message with context pasted in.
Compliance is where every bolt-on texting tool quietly loses the deal. The carriers tightened the rules in 2021 and have kept tightening since. Business SMS without A2P 10DLC registration gets filtered or rejected outright, and the fines for TCPA violations run $500 to $1,500 per message when consent cannot be proved. Strkr Messaging handles the registration flow, the brand and campaign setup, the ongoing attestation, and the per-tenant opt-out ledger so the sender does not have to think about it. The admin signs off on brand information once at onboarding and the rest runs under the hood.
The onboarding wizard walks the admin through brand registration (business name, EIN, website, support contact) and campaign setup (use case, sample messages, opt-in flow, opt-out language). Strkr submits to The Campaign Registry on the tenant's behalf and surfaces status without the admin ever leaving the app.
Carrier trust score drives messages-per-second throughput and daily volume caps. Strkr surfaces the current score, the throughput tier it unlocks, and the registration fields most likely to raise it. The sender knows why a bulk send is throttled and what to fix.
STIR/SHAKEN attestation prevents the carrier from flagging legitimate business messages as spam-likely. Strkr Messaging attests at the A-level for registered 10DLC traffic by default. The attestation level is visible per campaign so a compliance review has one less question to ask.
Inbound STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, QUIT, END, CANCEL variants are recognized and the sender is auto-flagged as opted-out at the number plus tenant level. The ledger is immutable, exportable, and auditable. A subsequent send to that number is refused at the composer with a visible reason.
Every number carries the opt-in source (web form, verbal, imported with signed consent, inbound HELP reply, keyword opt-in to a shortcode). Required for A2P audits and for defense against TCPA complaints. Strkr prompts for the source at import time and refuses to send without one.
Workspace-level quiet hours (default 9 PM to 8 AM local to the contact) apply to triggered and bulk sends. Rep-initiated one-off sends warn before send during quiet hours. Timezone comes from the contact's state plus zip when set, with per-contact override.
Carrier regulations require a HELP response. Strkr auto-replies to inbound HELP, INFO, SUPPORT variants with a templated response that identifies the brand, points at support, and reminds the contact of opt-out keywords. The template is per-tenant and lives in Admin.
Every outbound records the sender, template, opt-in source, consent timestamp, and template body. The ledger is CSV-exportable per date range or per campaign. Legal and compliance teams get what they need without a ticket to engineering.
Toll-free numbers get a separate verification path with higher throughput caps than unverified toll-free. Strkr handles the verification submission (brand, use case, sample messages, opt-in flow screenshot) and surfaces the verification status alongside the number.
The rep sending one-off follow-ups is only half the story. Business SMS gets interesting when a flow fires a send on deal stage change, when a campaign goes out to 2,000 segmented leads with a merge-field body, when a local-presence number makes the inbound look like a local area code. Strkr Messaging handles the volume paths natively, without a separate marketing SMS tool bolted on. The same opt-out ledger, the same consent capture, the same throughput cap, and the same DND window gate the volume paths as the one-off sends. There is no path where a bulk send escapes a rule that a one-off send enforces, which is a common failure mode in stitched stacks.
Pick a segment (CRM saved view, static list, or imported CSV with consent). Pick a template. Preview the merged body on a sampled contact. Schedule or send now. Strkr paces the send against the current A2P throughput cap, logs delivery status per recipient, and surfaces aggregate open and reply rates when the campaign completes.
A Flow trigger (stage change, task overdue, no-reply-in-N-days, scheduled cron) can fire a Send SMS action against the triggering record. Templates, merge fields, DND window, opt-out ledger all apply. The flow run log records the send ID so you can trace the thread from the Flows run history.
Rent a pool of local numbers across area codes the sales team dials. Outbound picks the number that matches the recipient's area code so the inbound call-back lands on a local-looking line. Inbound replies route back to the same number for the thread's lifetime so the contact never sees a different sender.
Drop a long URL in the composer and Strkr auto-wraps it in a branded short link (your custom domain, your SSL). Click events attach to the outbound record. The CTR shows up on the campaign report and on the record's activity timeline. No separate link-shortener subscription.
A sequence sends three messages over seven days unless the contact replies. First reply pauses the sequence and surfaces to the owner. No reply after step three auto-closes the thread and tags the contact as cold. Common first-touch cadence baked in, editable per workspace.
The rep writing a message at 7 PM can schedule it to send at 9 AM local-to-the-contact without opening a calendar app. The scheduled send sits in a queue the sender can edit or cancel until it fires. The queue respects DND, opt-outs, and A2P throughput.
Admin maintains a suppression list of numbers that are not opted-out but must not be messaged (vendors, internal team, high-risk accounts). The suppression check runs at composer time and at bulk send time. A suppressed send is refused with a visible reason.
Strkr Messaging routes outbound across multiple downstream delivery routes under the hood. If one route sees degraded delivery to a specific destination carrier, traffic shifts automatically. The sender sees a stable delivery rate without touching routing config.
Transactional sends (shipping notifications, appointment reminders, two-factor codes) can override the DND window on a per-template basis. The override is logged, audit-visible, and the template is tagged as transactional at creation so a compliance review knows the overrides are intentional.
The question most comparison articles sidestep: should your business texting live inside the CRM or bolt on top? The stitched stack is a CRM plus a texting app plus a Zapier recipe plus a separate opt-out ledger plus a separate A2P registration. Native wins on five fronts.
In a stitched stack the rep logs in to the texting app, sees a flat list of threads keyed by phone number, and remembers which deal belongs to which number. In Strkr the thread lives on the contact record alongside email, calls, tasks, and deal history. The next rep picking up the account inherits the full context without asking.
In a stitched stack a STOP reply opts the contact out of the texting app but the marketing-automation tool keeps sending because it reads a different list. In Strkr the opt-out hits one shared ledger that gates every outbound (one-off, bulk, triggered, transactional) across the tenant.
Stitched stack: $99 to $299 per month for the texting app, $20 to $200 per month for middleware operations, $4 per phone number per month to the texting app, $500 to $1,500 per year for A2P registration via a third party. Strkr Messaging rolls the subscription, the number rental, and the A2P flow into one bill on the Strkr line item.
Stitched stack: build a webhook from the texting app into the CRM to log every outbound, build another webhook for inbound replies, maintain the mapping when the texting app changes its payload format. Strkr Messaging writes the thread directly to the CRM record. There is no mapping to maintain.
In a stitched stack the texting app runs under its own user accounts with its own permission system that drifts from the CRM. In Strkr the permission that controls who sees a contact also controls who can text the contact. A revoked seat revokes texting access in one step.
In a stitched stack a legal review pulls the opt-out ledger from the texting app and the consent capture from the CRM and reconciles them by phone number. In Strkr both live on the contact record. The audit pulls one export instead of two.
Some teams land on Strkr with an existing carrier account, a seasoned number pool, and a messaging service that already carries the brand. Rebuilding on a new carrier would mean renumbering, redoing A2P registration, and losing throughput reputation. Strkr Messaging ships a bring-your-own-carrier path for exactly this case. The CRM-side experience is identical; the carrier billing lives on your existing invoice instead of the Strkr invoice. The decision between carrier paths is purely a question of where the per-message cost should land and whether you want to consolidate accounts. Both paths deliver the same Strkr product, the same compliance treatment, and the same workflow surface area on the CRM side.
Admin pastes the external account credentials and an API key into the Carrier settings panel. Strkr verifies the credentials, lists the Messaging Services on the account, and prompts for the one that should carry Strkr's outbound. The connection takes under two minutes end to end.
The numbers already on the external carrier account appear in the Strkr number picker. The team keeps their seasoned numbers, their A2P 10DLC registration under the existing brand, and their trust score. No porting, no renumbering, no outreach to tell contacts the number changed.
The Messages tab on the record, the merge-field templates, the Flow-triggered sends, the DND windows, the opt-out ledger, the bulk send runner, the Messages inbox: all work identically on the external carrier. The only thing that changes is which invoice shows the per-message carrier fee.
Per-message fees, number rental, A2P campaign fees, and carrier surcharges hit the external account invoice directly. Strkr does not mark up the carrier cost on BYO. The Strkr subscription stays flat; the messaging volume cost belongs to the team's existing carrier contract.
If a team starts on the external carrier and later wants to move to Strkr Messaging to consolidate the bill, the switch takes a Carrier setting flip. Historical threads stay on the record. New outbounds route through the newly selected carrier. Numbers can be ported if desired, or new numbers provisioned.
Teams running automation inside the external carrier's studio product can retire those flows and move the logic into Strkr's native Flow builder, which has the full CRM record graph underneath. Keep the external account as the carrier of record, run the automation inside the CRM where the records actually live.
The dedicated business-texting market splits into two camps. Marketing-first tools (SimpleTexting, EZTexting, TextMagic) are strong on bulk sends but weak on CRM record context and two-way inbox workflow. Sales-first tools (Salesmsg, Heymarket) are stronger on two-way but still require stitching into your CRM through a per-seat integration subscription. Strkr Messaging is both camps rolled into the CRM.
SMS and MMS, two-way threading on the record, bulk and triggered sends, A2P 10DLC and STIR/SHAKEN handled, opt-out ledger per tenant, Flow integration, local presence, toll-free verification, bring-your-own-carrier optional. One subscription, no texting-app tab.
Strong on bulk sends and short-code campaigns. Weak on two-way inbox workflow for sales reps and on native record-level context. Requires a middleware recipe or a built integration to attach threads to a CRM contact. Starts at $39 per month per 500 messages and scales up quickly with number rental and MMS surcharges.
Volume-oriented pricing, usable for one-way campaigns and simple two-way workflows. Thin on API depth, thin on native CRM integration, and the per-message pricing climbs on MMS. The sales-rep inbox experience is a browser tab, not a record view.
Credible feature set across templates, scheduling, and two-way messaging, with a reasonable API. The constraint is the same as the others: the rep logs in to a second app, maintains a second permission model, and bridges data back into the CRM through a third-party integration.
Teams can wire into a raw carrier API directly, which means the team builds the composer, the inbox, the templates, the opt-out ledger, the bulk runner, the Flow triggers, and the A2P submission flow themselves. The engineering lift is real; this is why Strkr offers a native module and also offers a BYO path for teams that already run on one.
Salesmsg targets sales reps with a two-way inbox and HubSpot or Salesforce integrations. Pricing adds a per-seat line on top of the CRM subscription (around $25 per user per month plus number and message fees). Strong UX, but every rep that texts is a second subscription line.
Heymarket offers team shared inboxes and templated responses, popular with support teams. The inbox is strong; the sales workflow of send-from-the-deal-record is weaker. Integrates into Salesforce and HubSpot but the record view still points at the external app for the thread.
A CRM that promises native texting but hides number provisioning behind a sales call is not a native experience. Strkr Messaging exposes number search, purchase, assignment, and verification inside Admin so a rev-ops lead can go from blank workspace to first send in the same session. The common case is a single local number for a small team taking under three minutes to provision. The complex case is a pool of 30 local-presence numbers plus a toll-free line plus a short code, which still runs end to end inside Admin with no sales call required.
Search by area code, state, or digit pattern (contains, starts with, ends with). The picker shows SMS capability, MMS capability, voice capability, and monthly rental. Add one or many to the cart in one pass. Numbers reserve for ten minutes while the admin finishes the checkout step.
Toll-free numbers unlock higher throughput for carriers that still throttle long-code A2P traffic. Verification happens inside Strkr via a short form (brand, use case, opt-in flow, sample messages). Status surfaces in Admin so the admin knows when to switch bulk sends over.
A number can belong to one user, to a team (inbound routes to the on-call owner), or to a shared pool used for local presence. Changes are instant. The record thread always associates with the number that was in use at send time so historical attribution does not shift.
For high-volume campaigns, shared and dedicated short codes are available on request. Short-code sponsorship, keyword registration, and campaign approval route through Strkr's compliance team so the admin does not sit on the phone with carriers.
In markets where alphanumeric sender IDs are permitted (most of EMEA, parts of APAC), Strkr Messaging supports alpha-sender outbound. Carrier rules vary by country; the composer warns when a recipient country does not permit alpha sender and falls back to a numeric sender automatically.
Port an existing number from another carrier or from a legacy telephony provider into Strkr Messaging. The porting form captures the current carrier LOA, routes to the losing-carrier release process, and surfaces status. Typical port completes in five to ten business days.
Outbound SMS reaches recipients in 180 countries plus. Per-destination pricing surfaces at the composer. MMS reach is narrower (US, Canada primary); the composer warns and falls back to a short-link SMS when MMS is not supported on the destination carrier.
Lead creation fires a Flow: wait 45 seconds, send a templated SMS from the assigned rep's number, log the send on the lead's thread, create a follow-up task if no reply within 30 minutes. Reply times drop from several hours to under five minutes without rep behavior change.
30 days before contract end, a Flow fires an MMS to the economic buyer with a one-page renewal summary attached. The CSM's number sends it so inbound replies route back to the right human. Open rate on an MMS is high enough that renewal motions start earlier.
Tasks tagged as on-site appointments trigger an SMS confirmation 24 hours out and a "we are 20 minutes away" SMS from the tech's number when the job status flips to en-route. Both are transactional sends that override DND. No-show rate drops meaningfully.
Marketing picks a saved view of 2,000 opted-in contacts, writes a merge-field template, schedules the send for 10 AM in each recipient's timezone. The send paces against A2P throughput automatically. Replies route to the owner. Reply rate on SMS runs 10x to 20x email for the right segment.
Starter includes 500 SMS segments per month plus one phone number. Pro lifts that to 5,000 segments and three numbers. Scale and Enterprise are tier-priced per message with volume discounts. The BYO path keeps the carrier bill on your existing account; Strkr's subscription stays flat.
It is a native module included on every paid Strkr tier. There is no separate texting-app subscription, no per-seat integration fee, and no middleware recipe required. Phone-number rental and per-message carrier fees are the only usage-based line items, and they bill under the Strkr invoice unless you choose the bring-your-own-carrier path.
A2P 10DLC is the US carrier framework for application-to-person messaging over long-code numbers. Since 2021, business SMS traffic must be registered through The Campaign Registry (TCR) with a verified brand and an approved use-case campaign. Unregistered traffic gets filtered or rejected. Strkr walks the admin through brand registration (business name, EIN, website, support contact) and campaign setup (use case, sample messages, opt-in flow, opt-out language), submits to TCR on the tenant's behalf, and surfaces status inside Admin. The admin never leaves Strkr to complete the registration.
Yes. The BYO carrier path lets admins paste existing account credentials and an API key into the Carrier settings. Strkr verifies the credentials, lists the Messaging Services on the account, and prompts for the one that should carry Strkr's outbound. Numbers already on the external account appear in the Strkr number picker. Templates, Flow-triggered sends, bulk runs, DND windows, and the opt-out ledger all work identically; the carrier cost hits the external invoice directly instead of the Strkr invoice.
Inbound STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, QUIT, END, CANCEL and the common variants are auto-recognized. The sending number plus tenant pair gets flagged as opted-out immediately. The ledger is immutable, exportable, and auditable. A subsequent send to that number is refused at the composer with a visible reason, and bulk runs skip the opted-out numbers automatically with the skip count surfaced on the campaign report.
Pricing is tier-based with volume discounts. Starter and Pro include a monthly segment allowance (500 and 5,000 SMS segments respectively) with modest per-segment overage pricing. Scale and Enterprise are usage-tier priced. MMS runs higher than SMS due to carrier surcharges. On BYO carrier, the per-message carrier fee hits the external invoice at the external carrier's own rates and Strkr does not mark it up. Live rate card is published on the Pricing page.
Yes. The Send SMS action is available as a block inside the Flow builder. Any Flow trigger (record created, stage changed, task overdue, scheduled cron, inbound reply) can fire a send against the triggering record. Templates, merge fields, DND window, opt-out ledger, and A2P throughput cap all apply automatically. The flow run log records the send ID so the thread is traceable from the Flows run history and from the record itself.
STIR/SHAKEN is a caller-authentication framework that attests the origin of a message or call. Properly attested traffic is less likely to be labeled spam-likely by downstream carriers. Strkr Messaging attests at the A-level for registered A2P 10DLC traffic by default. The attestation level is visible per campaign so a compliance review has one less question to answer.
No sales call, no migration consultant, no four-month implementation. Enter your card, get 14 days of the full Pro tier, cancel any time before day 14 with zero charge. Spin up a workspace, import your CSV, and have something useful before lunch.
