Frequently Asked Questions

What does MessageMyWay cost?

We charge an annual fixed fee that depends on the size of your organisation.

Under 500 peopleUSD 199
500 - 999 peopleUSD 299
1,000 - 1,499 peopleUSD 399
1,500 - 1,999 peopleUSD 499
2,000 - 2,499 peopleUSD 599
2,500 - 2,999 peopleUSD 699
3,000 - 3,499 peopleUSD 799
3,500 - 3,999 peopleUSD 899
Over 4,000 peopleUSD 999

Apart from telco costs (see below), there are no other charges. You can send as many alerts and have as many administrators as you like, at no extra cost.

What are telco costs?

NORMAL alerts are always free, but URGENT alerts may use SMS and voice services if your recipients have chosen to be contacted those ways. Because the telcos charge us to deliver SMS and voice, we have to pass these charges on.

However, unlike many messaging services, we pass telco charges on at cost. Because we don't make a profit on them, we have no vested interest in forcing you to use them. Indeed, we offer several free alternatives (like Facebook Messenger), and by encouraging your community to switch their URGENT preferences to one of these free alternatives, you can minimise telco charges.

We update telco pricing from our suppliers every 24 hours. Current prices for US delivery are:

SMS delivery:0.84cents per message
Landline voice:1.32cents per minute
Mobile voice:1.32cents per minute

Can I try it without a credit card?

Yes! Just sign up for a free trial, and seconds later a temporary password for your new account will arrive on your mobile phone. You can then log in to your account, and explore how MessageMyWay works.

Your new account is fully functional with no limitations, except that it expires after seven days. We even give you a $2 credit so you can try the SMS and voice delivery options.

If you like what you see, simply click the payment link and generate an invoice or pay by credit card. Or if you decide MessageMyWay isn't right for your organisation, contact us and we'll cancel your account without any fuss.

How are normal, urgent and critical alerts different?

  • Normal alerts go to parents' emails. Normal alerts are always free.
  • Urgent alerts go to SMS texts, as well as emails. If the parent has a non-mobile phone number, alerts are delivered by voice call. Urgent alerts do cost money, so your account must have enough credit to send them.
  • Critical alerts are delivered as voice calls to all phones, as well as emails. Critical alerts also require account credit to send.
When you select urgent or critical priority, MessageMyWay shows you our best estimate of the cost to make sure you are aware of it. You can also control costs by disabling urgent and critical alerts for selected staff.

How does voice delivery work?

Voice is a great option for more technophobic recipients, and is often cheaper than SMS. MessageMyWay takes your alert text and turns it into surprisingly realistic speech using voice synthesis, which we then play down the line to your recipients.

We add "This is an alert from (your organisation name)" to the start and "This message will now repeat - hang up when you are ready" to the end, and then repeat it three times so people can confirm anything they missed the first time around.

This also resolves problems with answering machines. Answering machine detection has an error rate of at least 20%, and false negatives and false positives both badly confuse recipients. Instead we simply start the message immediately the call is answered, and although the first part may not be recorded, the second and third repeats will be.

How do recipients update their preferences?

MessageMyWay provides a unique preferences link for your organisation. We recommend you include this on your website, and we also include it at the end of every email alert.

The first time a recipient clicks the preferences link, an authentication process makes sure they are who they say they are. From then on, clicking the link takes them straight to MessageMyWay's simple mobile-friendly preferences page.

The preferences page allows people to update their details, including adding or changing email addresses and phone numbers. They can also choose how they want to be contacted for both normal and urgent alerts, and what they want to be contacted about (which lists they should be included in).

Is my information safe?

Your information is as safe as we can make it, and we're pretty good at web security. Our development team has more than 20 years of experience in building secure web services, including one used by a high-profile bank. This service regularly passes audit and random penetration-tests by the bank’s security team, so we are confident that our security framework is effective and up-to-date with best practises.

MessageMyWay's data is encrypted and held in several redundant international datacenters. Contrary to public perception, we strongly believe that this is far more secure than if it resided on a server in your office. Everyone accepts that their money is far safer - and more useful - in an online bank account than it would be in a locked safe in their house; and we hold that the same thing applies to your data.

Finally, unlike some online services, we believe your data is your property. You have trusted us to hold it and we will protect it to the best of our ability, but it is not ours to use, sell or give to anyone else. See our privacy policy for more details.

What hardware and software do we need?

Probably nothing. MessageMyWay works well with all modern browsers on mobile or desktop devices:

  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Apple Safari
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 9 and above)