Twilio SMS for Zoho Billing
Two-Way SMS Inside Zoho Billing
What makes it different
In detail
What each part will do
The same extension the Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk versions run, built for subscriptions and customers. It is written in Deluge and runs inside your own Zoho Billing, with no dashboard of ours in between. Renewals, failed payments and plan changes all need a nudge that gets read. A text from the billing record keeps that nudge with the account it belongs to.
Sending from the record
Open a customer record, choose a number and send. The message goes from the record your team is already working, rather than from a separate app they have to keep open.
Sending to many at once
Select the records you want, by hand or from a filtered view, and send once. Every recipient gets their own history entry, so the result can be reviewed person by person rather than as one batch.
Templates and dynamic fields
Reusable messages live in their own module and can carry placeholders. Each placeholder is replaced with that record’s value when the message is prepared, so a saved message still reads as specific to the person receiving it.
On a bulk send the placeholders are resolved separately for each recipient.
Scheduling
A message can be held for a date, time and timezone you choose. It is written to history as pending, then sent when it is due and marked as sent, with failures recorded rather than swallowed.
Replies that land on the record
When someone texts back, the reply is logged automatically and linked to the matching record in your Zoho Billing, so the thread stays with the customer rather than sitting in a separate inbox.
Numbers and history
The extension reads the phone fields the record actually holds instead of assuming one, and lets the sender pick. Sent, received, scheduled and failed messages all sit in your own Zoho account under your own permissions.
Your Twilio account, your credentials. You bring your own Twilio account and numbers, so Twilio bills you directly at their rates and no messaging is resold through us. This extension is not on the Marketplace yet. The Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk versions are.
What you get
What the Zoho Billing SMS extension includes
All 22 of these ship in the extension, which runs inside your own Zoho account.
Automation
- Built in Deluge only
- No phone home architecture
Data and records
- Full history on the record
- Automatic phone field detection
Setup
- History stays on the account
- Runs inside your Zoho account
- Your Twilio account and numbers
Messaging
- Two way conversations
- Search and send one to one
- Bulk send to selected records
- Send to a specific list
- Dynamic text from billing fields
- Reusable message templates
- Choose the number you send from
- Scheduled message delivery
- Inbound replies logged automatically
What sets it apart
- Nothing phones home
- Two way, not one way
- Your Twilio, your rates
- Personalized at any volume
- Every phone field on the record
- History follows the record
Want to know when Twilio SMS for Zoho Billing ships?
Leave your details and we will tell you as soon as it is available.
Texting inside Zoho Billing compared with a third party SMS platform
On paper this looks like a feature list. In practice it is about where your subscriber data goes, because that list is effectively your revenue ledger and every platform that touches it is one more vendor to account for.
| What to compare | How it works here |
|---|---|
| Data stays in Zoho vs data leaves Zoho | This extension works on the records where they already sit. Most alternatives first copy your contacts and accounts to their own platform, leaving a second customer list on servers you neither own nor can audit. |
| Your Twilio account vs resold messaging | You pay Twilio directly and keep your numbers. A reseller folds the carrier cost into its own per-message price, so you cannot see what you are paying for, and walking away often means losing the numbers. |
| Flat org price vs per user seats | One price covers the whole organization. With seat pricing, every person you add to the send list raises the bill, even when the number of messages stays the same. |
| Replies on the record vs a separate inbox | Replies are filed on the Zoho Billing record. A separate inbox leaves someone reconciling two systems, and the next person to open the account only sees half of what was said. |
| No vendor access vs vendor holds your data | Your messages never reach us, so there is nothing on our side for anyone to read. |
| Native Deluge vs an embedded web app | The extension is written in Deluge and runs on the Zoho platform, with no embedded third party interface or outside web app for your data to pass through. |
Cost
How it will be priced
This one is not on the Zoho Marketplace yet. Here is how the pricing works across the family, so there are no surprises when it lands.
The extension
Priced for the organization rather than per user, and bought through the Zoho Marketplace. Adding another person who needs to text does not change it.
The messages
Twilio bills you directly at their own rates, on your own account. We never resell messaging, so there is no margin added between you and the carrier.
Right now
Talk to us and we will tell you when it is listed, with the price at launch. Nothing to pay and nothing to install yet.
The Twilio SMS extensions for Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk are already listed if you need one of those today.