Look at last month's platform wallet statement. If your CRM sends SMS through a built-in wallet - you top up a balance, the platform deducts per message - you are almost certainly paying more per text than the carrier route costs, and the gap compounds with every campaign you run. CRM SMS costs are one of the least examined line items in an agency's stack, partly because the wallet model is designed to be frictionless: you never see a Twilio invoice, so you never compare one.
This article does that comparison honestly. Full disclosure up front: we build and sell LeadHub, a self-hosted multi-tenant CRM that uses the bring-your-own-provider model this article argues for, so weigh what follows accordingly. The numbers, though, are just arithmetic - you can check every one of them against Twilio's and Plivo's public rate cards in ten minutes.
How wallet rebilling actually works
All-in-one platforms - GoHighLevel is the best-known example in the agency world - resell communications through an integrated wallet. You load credit, the platform routes your messages through its own upstream carrier accounts, and each send deducts from your balance at the platform's rate.
To be fair to the model: this is genuinely convenient. There is no second account to configure, no API keys to paste, no carrier relationship to manage. One login, one bill, and messaging works on day one. For a small operation sending a few hundred texts a month, the convenience can be worth more than the markup costs.
But the structure is worth naming plainly, because it is structural rather than a criticism of any one vendor: the platform sits between you and the carrier, and platforms that resell usage price it above their cost. That margin is not hidden or dishonest - it is how usage rebilling works as a business model. Rates and multipliers vary by platform, plan and country, so always check your own platform's current per-message pricing rather than trusting any article's snapshot, including this one. Two things follow from the structure alone:
- You pay the platform's rate, not the carrier's rate. Whatever markup exists - and rebilled rates commonly run meaningfully above direct carrier pricing - applies to every message, forever.
- Volume discounts land in the platform's pocket, not yours. Carriers cut per-message pricing as volume grows. When the platform aggregates everyone's traffic, the platform earns those discounts. Your rate typically stays flat.
The bring-your-own model, and what it changes
The alternative is simple: the CRM connects directly to your own Twilio or Plivo account. You paste your credentials, the CRM places calls and sends texts through your account, and the carrier bills you directly at its published rate.
In LeadHub this is a per-workspace choice - each workspace picks Twilio or Plivo, click-to-call and SMS run through whichever you chose, and every call is logged with status and duration. There is no wallet layer in between, which means:
- Every message costs what the provider charges you. As of mid-2026, Twilio's published US outbound SMS rate is commonly cited at roughly $0.0079 per segment - check Twilio's current pricing page, as rates change. That number is your cost, not an input to someone else's margin.
- Volume discounts are yours. When your traffic qualifies for committed-use or high-volume pricing, you negotiate it with the carrier and the savings hit your invoice directly.
- You can pick the cheaper carrier per region. Plivo is notably cheaper than Twilio for India and several other regions - which is exactly why per-workspace provider choice matters for an agency with clients in different markets. An Indian real-estate client's workspace can run on Plivo while a US client's runs on Twilio, each at the best available rate.
The same logic extends to voice: LeadHub's click-to-call runs through the same Twilio or Plivo account, and Twilio calls add recording plus AI transcription and summary on top - so the call log entry carries a short recap instead of just a duration.
CRM SMS costs: the honest math at 1,000 and 10,000 messages
Let's put numbers on it. Assumptions, all hedged: Twilio's US outbound rate at roughly $0.0079 per segment as of mid-2026, and a hypothetical rebilled wallet rate of $0.0158 - a 2x multiplier, used here purely as an illustration since actual platform markups vary and you should check yours. One segment per message.
| Monthly volume | Direct Twilio (~$0.0079) | Wallet at 2x (~$0.0158) | Monthly difference | Annual difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 SMS | ~$7.90 | ~$15.80 | ~$7.90 | ~$95 |
| 10,000 SMS | ~$79 | ~$158 | ~$79 | ~$948 |
| 10,000 SMS x 10 client workspaces | ~$790 | ~$1,580 | ~$790 | ~$9,480 |
Two honest readings of this table:
- At 1,000 messages a month, the markup is lunch money. If wallet convenience saves you an hour of setup, it can be a rational trade at low volume. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
- At agency scale, it is a real invoice. An agency running SMS follow-up across ten client workspaces at 10,000 messages each is looking at a four-figure annual difference under even a modest markup assumption - before any volume discount, which only the direct route can capture.
And segments compound the picture: a 300-character message is two or three segments, not one, so every rate difference multiplies by your average segment count. Long templated follow-ups make the gap wider, not narrower.
Where BYO genuinely costs you more
Bring-your-own is not free money, and pretending otherwise would undercut everything above. The real costs the wallet model absorbs for you:
- A2P 10DLC registration. In the US, application-to-person traffic on local numbers requires brand and campaign registration. On a wallet platform, the vendor typically shepherds this. On your own Twilio or Plivo account, the registration forms, campaign descriptions and monthly campaign fees are your paperwork. Budget a few hours and small recurring fees per campaign - check current carrier requirements, as the rules have tightened repeatedly.
- Number rental. Phone numbers cost roughly a dollar or two per month each on major carriers (hedged - check current pricing). Wallet platforms usually rebill this too, so it is rarely a new cost - but it is now a line item you manage.
- Deliverability is your problem. Sender reputation, opt-out handling and carrier filtering land on your account. Your Twilio or Plivo console reports delivery status for every send, so the visibility exists - but nobody else is watching that dashboard for you.
The rule of thumb: BYO trades a recurring percentage markup for a mostly one-time compliance effort. The higher your volume, the faster that trade pays for itself.
The same logic applies to email
Everything above about SMS wallets applies to email rebilling, usually with less drama because email is cheaper per unit. A platform that rebills email sends is marking up a commodity you can buy directly from any SMTP or transactional provider at rates that round to fractions of a cent.
LeadHub takes the same BYO position here: SMTP is configured from the admin panel with a built-in test-email feature, and any Laravel-supported mail driver works. Your email sequences - with delays, conditions, stop-on-reply, stop-on-won and open/click/reply tracking - and the platform's 15+ automated email types, from booking confirmations with 24-hour and 1-hour reminders to dunning notices, all route through the provider you chose at the price you negotiated. For shared hosting where queue workers can't run, an optional sync mail driver keeps sending working anyway.
WhatsApp follows the pattern too: LeadHub's WhatsApp automations send approved templates through your own channel, with template variables mapped to lead fields - useful for reaching a brand-new lead outside the 24-hour session window, and again with no reseller between you and the message.
A worked decision rule
Skip the ideology and run your own numbers this week:
- Pull last month's wallet statement. Total SMS spend, total messages sent. Divide to get your effective per-message rate. Include segment counts if your platform reports them.
- Look up the direct rate. Twilio's and Plivo's pricing pages, for your actual destination countries. If you message India or similar regions, price Plivo specifically - the difference there is not marginal.
- Multiply the gap by 12, then by your growth plan. A markup that costs $8 a month today costs a lot more at the volume you are hoping to reach - and the wallet rate does not fall as you grow, while the direct rate can.
- Price the switching cost honestly. A2P registration paperwork, an afternoon of configuration, and owning your own deliverability. If the annual gap from step 3 does not clearly exceed that one-time effort, stay on the wallet and revisit in six months.
- If the math says move, pick a CRM where BYO is the native model rather than a workaround. That is the model LeadHub ships: Twilio or Plivo per workspace for calls and SMS, your own SMTP for email, your own WhatsApp templates - and, running self-hosted on your own server, no wallet anywhere in the stack.
The wallet model earns its markup at low volume and loses the argument as you scale. The only question that matters is which side of that line your send volume sits on - and that is a five-minute calculation away.
