Everything else about a messaging provider is swappable in an afternoon. Your API integration is a day of work to rewrite. Your number is not: customers have saved it, it is printed on your van, and every thread they have with you hangs off it. Treat this as the decision it is.
Ask about porting before you sign up
Not after you are unhappy. Get it in writing: can you port this number out to another provider, what does it cost, and how long does it take? A vendor that hesitates on this question has told you something important.
Shared pools are borrowed reputation
A shared number means your messages go out alongside strangers'. If one of them gets flagged for spam, your deliverability suffers for reasons you cannot see or fix. Pay for a dedicated line — this is not the place to save money.
Local area code or toll-free
- Local area code. Reads as a real neighbourhood business. Best for anyone serving a specific area — trades, salons, clinics, restaurants.
- Toll-free. Reads as an organisation. Fine for e-commerce or multi-region businesses, slightly cold for a local shop.
- Short code. Expensive, slow to provision, and built for bulk. Almost never right for a small business.
One number, or one per person
Start with one. A single business number means one thread per customer, spanning years, which is exactly how the customer experiences it. Per-staff numbers fragment that history and create the 'which Dave texted me' problem.
The exception is volume: providers cap daily sends per line, so past a certain size you will need multiple lines regardless. Plan for that being a scaling decision, not a starting one — pricing explained covers how caps drive line count.
Can it be the number you already use?
Sometimes, and it is worth asking. A number customers already have saved is worth a great deal. Be careful though: if it is currently a personal mobile or a landline that staff answer, moving it into a messaging platform changes how calls behave. Confirm exactly what happens to voice before you port anything.
Warm it up before you launch
A brand-new number sending a few hundred messages on day one looks exactly like a spammer. Ramp gradually over a week or two. Some providers hand you pre-warmed numbers, which is a genuine feature worth asking about.
Next step
Generate a tagged link for whatever you send next with the UTM builder, see what this looks like in your industry, or compare the services that can send it on the providers page.