I'd really love to see it drop it to Twillio's levels ($1 per month for U.S./Canada numbers). Having spent many, many hours comparing Tropo and Twillio, I'm prefering the Tropo-can-do-more-even-if-it-might-take-a-bit-longer-to-pick-up, especially since the APIs don't look all the much more (or even if) complex than Twillio's. The thing that's holding me back from Tropo is cost: the app I'm looking to build is a consumer-facing one where pricing is key. $36 dollars per year for just the cost of numbers is higher than what I am hoping to actually -charge-, whereas $12 works for my business model. Crossing my fingers here: I'm impressed with Tropo's technology stack, and I'm happy to see that Tropo's active in responding to people. I'm not sure if Twillio lowered their prices to match Tropo's or vice versa, but it would make a world of a difference for developers like me to develop all my apps and integrations on Tropo vs Twillio if some costs like this were just as competitive. Thank you!
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tw33ter Hi Kaz, A couple of things: 1) Quite impressed with the speed of response from you, much appreciated! 2) I intended for the topic to be open, similar to this one: https://www.tropo.com/forums/home.jsp?xt=1306029671903&&bb-cid=100&bb-statusBitToShow=0&bb-tid=1387586 Wasn't expecting it to be moved aside to an account ticket. I imagine I'm not the only person hoping for what i'm asking, and would like to get some input from people. 3) I think you're right in that Tropo does quite a bit more, but the issue I'm running into is that my apps would use none of those services, but all of what Twillio (which reflects parts of what Tropo) currently does. If I were using any of those, I can justify the price difference, but we're aiming for a pretty defined segment for whom price sensitivity is key. Hope to hear your thoughts on these, Kaz. Do appreciate that you want to hear from developers like me. Thank you!
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Tropo Import Bot Hi Chef, I understand the pricing and the perception of public. Certainly if I were told to pay $60 for the year, I would think about it; however, I were told that the monthly charge is $6, I might not care that much. It's just my thought, though. I will ping senior Tropo engineer regarding this discussion for his/her input. Kaz
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Tropo Import Bot sent over to Chris M via email
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Tropo Import Bot handoff to chris matthieu via email status 2
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tw33ter Hi Kaz, Definitely not a "group of people who is just looking for the cheapest services": it's a product through and through, I'm not interested at all at playing the "Provide __Commodity_Service__" game. Here's an example: say I'm building an app that checks the weight of certain groceries for a housewife/househusband and, if the weight is too low, sends the chef an SMS or phone call for the need to replenish his/her supplies. If I'm charging the individual $30 a year, many would *consider* it, and some of them would sign up. If I charged them $60 a year, there might be a psychological barrier of "this is too expensive". Now, that's not the app I'm actually building, and the real-world analogue would be a bit more involved. The bottom line is that if the cost is low enough, we believe the app has a good chance of succeeding, and through planning, forecasting, and a bit of customer research, we're validating those initial assumptions plus the need for the cost of the product to be low. I hope that helps, Kaz, and I hope that this is something that can be helped along. For what it's worth, I'd be happy to pay for developing on Tropo, though it's obvious the actual costs will be from production. Otherwise, Twillio does seem like the only option for us, as much as we would want to be on Tropo. Thank you Kaz! (P.S. I'm amazed that you put this ticket back into the general discussion forum: it just goes to show how important Tropo values the importance of honest, open communications)
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tw33ter Kaz, I want to thank you for handling my concern here. I understand what you mean by the whole monthly charge perspective, and it's one we've considered before: unfortunately, we found that it still brings the bar higher than the typical customer profile and use case would find acceptable. If you have one latte a month, you'd be paying more than $60 a year, but tell that to Apple app developers who are selling $1 apps. Just a different fit. Chris, thanks for responding to my query, and again, I want to mention that Kaz has done great here. I'm excited to see that you're doing so, as you've been quite actively addressing discussions I've seen. To your response, it's what I had mentioned before. I have no doubt in my mind that Tropo offers more features and facilities than Twillio: I think it's a real advantage for Tropo. In my case, though, the app we're looking to build won't 1) Use the additional features listed as competitive advantages to Twillio 2) Work/scale at a cost that drives the base product price to double or triple what Twillio would've otherwise cost us I'd like to use Tropo, but given the two concerns above, I can't justify going the route of Tropo. If Tropo offered the same Twillio services for the same prices, it'd be a no-brainer for me - I'd be happy to pay more if I started using features that Tropo has. As it stands, I'm forced to go with Twillio, and I'm hoping this is something Tropo has plans to change soon (or offer to do so for a "base" plan like what Twillio has). Hope that makes sense Chris. If it's not possible, it's not, and that's fine: I thought it would only make sense to point this out as an issue this developer has (and I imagine I'm not the only one - in fact, I know I'm not). It looks like Tropo's been quite open about communicating its advantages and its role as the superior alternative to Twillio, and I thought I would at least voice this up if it were possible to make it an obvious choice to adopt Tropo for situations like ours. Thanks!
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Tropo Import Bot Hello, Currently we do not have plans for lowering the pricing further since we just lowered the SMS pricing. Twillio is a good product; however, Tropo offers far more than Twillio: Tropo has 24x7 support, runs on the largest and most scalable voice network in the world and has considerably more features, including: Voice Recognition Instant Messaging Skype VoIP support Phone numbers in 41 countries Voice recognition and text to speech in 9 languages not to mention advanced SMS services, like international delivery and short codes. Could these justify our pricing and offering even more for your buck? Please let us know what you think. Best regards, Kaz O. Voxeo Support (image: http://evolution.voxeo.com/images/summit2011footer.jpg) (link: http://www.voxeo.com/summit2011/ ) Join us October 10-12 in Orlando for Customer Summit 2011 REGISTER NOW! (link: http://www.voxeo.com/summit2011/ )
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Tropo Import Bot Sorry Chief, I moved this back to forum for further discussion in public. As for "definted segment for whom price sensitivity is key," do you mean for a group of people who is just looking for the cheapest services? Best regards, Kaz Voxeo Support
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Tropo Import Bot Tropo offers leading-edge technology that is substantially better than Twilio. Here are just a few advantages that Tropo has over Twilio. We believe that our prices are justified and we do offer volume discounts when you surpass 1M minutes or messages per month. 1. Speech Recognition (in 24 languages) 2. Text-to-speech also in 24 languages (male and female voices in each language) 3. Ability to receive calls from SIP, Skype, and iNum (in addition to PSTN). 4. Ability to place calls to SIP endpoints (in addition to PSTN). 5. PSTN phone numbers in 41 countries 6. Phono (http://phono.com - web-based softphone that can place/receive calls without a download) 7. International SMS support 8. SMS short code support in US and Canada 9. SMS receive capabilities in US and Canada 10. Instant Message (Jabber, GTalk, Yahoo, MSN, AOL) 11. Twitter integration Please let us know if you have any additional questions. Regards, @ChrisMatthieu Director, Business Development http://tropo.com | chris@tropo.com Mobile: 623-252-DIAL (3425) Skype: ChrisMatthieu
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Tropo Import Bot We understand the importance of working with your business model. Twilio is not profitable at a penny per minute on phone calls. Matching their prices just to do so would not be prudent for us; however, I have a couple of other options that may work for you. 1. If you were to use the Tropo platform for SIP (VoIP) traffic only, we could offer you an even better rate around $.015 per minute or lower based on volume. 2. We also offer two-year agreements with monthly minimums that allow you to drive your per minute rates down to $.02 per minute for starters. These agreements can also offer you dedicated Tropo ports with a low monthly fee and even unlimited SIP (VoIP) traffic at no additional per minute cost. 3. We can also license Tropo to you to run in your own private cloud or datacenter to further control your deployment and rates. Please let me know if you would be interested in learning more about any of these options. I would be happy to coordinate a conference call for us to discuss these options in more detail. Regards, @ChrisMatthieu Director, Business Development http://tropo.com | chris@tropo.com Mobile: 623-252-DIAL (3425) Skype: ChrisMatthieu
