Pony Express HQ is bulk text messaging software for sending one SMS or MMS to a whole group and handling the replies. You get a dedicated phone number, unlimited groups and keywords, and a shared inbox, without a subscription.
Questions · Answered
Everything people ask before their first text
35 answers about pricing, sending, numbers and the rules carriers hold you to. Short version: 100 free credits to start, texts from 1.99¢, credits that stay for as long as your account is active*, and no subscription.
- Cost per text
-
from 1.99¢
on the largest bundle
- Free to start
-
100 credits
no card required
- Credits expire
-
Not while active*
no subscription, no contract
- Coverage
-
US and Canada
dedicated number included
Getting started
07 answersSetting up an account, and where to get help.
Most accounts send within minutes of signing up. You create an account, import or collect contacts, write a message and send. There is nothing to install and no training required.
Every new account starts with 100 free credits and no card required. Registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits start with 1,000 instead.
Yes. Sub-accounts give each team member their own login with access to the features they need, at no extra cost, so nobody has to share one password.
Use the chat icon in the dashboard, or the contact page, and a person answers. The help center covers setup, keywords, billing and delivery questions in more depth.
Upload a .CSV exported from Excel or Google Sheets and the contacts land straight in a group. You can also add people one at a time, or let them join themselves by texting a keyword.
Create a web widget in the dashboard, then paste its embed code into your website. If you do not have a website, share the widget's link instead. Everyone who signs up lands in the group you chose, with their consent recorded.
Pricing and credits
10 answersWhat it costs, and what a credit buys.
One credit per SMS segment and 2 credits per MMS. A plain-text message under 160 characters is a single segment; longer messages and emoji can split into more.
Texts start at 1.99¢ each on the best-value bundle, 50,000 credits for $995.00. Credits are prepaid, so the rate you pay is set when you buy rather than by a plan tier.
No. Credits stay on your account for as long as it is active, meaning it has sent at least one group message in the last six months. There is no monthly minimum and no billing cycle to reset them.
Neither. You buy credits when you want them and send when you want to. A quiet month costs you nothing.
Nothing extra. A dedicated US local or toll-free number is included, along with unlimited keywords, groups and team members. Approval usually takes two to five business days.
No credits are used for a message that fails before it leaves our platform; they go straight back to your balance. A message the carrier accepted but could not deliver, for example to a phone that is off or a landline, is still charged, because the carrier bills for it too.
You pay by card through Stripe's secure checkout, and the credits are ready to use as soon as the payment clears. If you turn on auto-reload, the saved card is charged whenever your balance runs low.
There is no plan to change. You buy whichever credit bundle fits when you need it, larger bundles cost less per text, and you can turn auto-reload on or off at any time.
Registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits get 1,000 free credits instead of 100. Send us your documentation and we will apply it.
Auto-reload tops up your balance so a send can keep going, buying the lowest-cost package that covers what is missing. One automatic charge is capped at $500, so a send needing more pauses until you buy credits yourself.
Sending and replies
11 answersHow messages go out and come back.
There is no cap on group size or on the number of groups. The practical limit is your credit balance and the carrier throughput on your number, which matters for very large blasts.
No. There is no cap on the number of contacts, groups or keywords you keep. What limits a very large send is your credit balance and the carrier throughput on your number.
Yes. Replies land in a shared inbox your whole team can see, and you can forward calls and texts to your personal phone. Conversations stay in the dashboard rather than on a personal handset.
Yes. Any message can be sent immediately or queued for a specific date and time, which is how most reminders, alerts and promotions go out.
Delivered means the carrier confirmed the phone received the message. Sent means it reached the carrier but delivery is not confirmed yet; Pending and Scheduled mean it has not gone out, Pending approval means it is waiting for review, and Failed means it could not be delivered.
A keyword is a word people text to your number to join a group, such as JOIN. Each group can have its own keyword, and the group page gives you a QR code that opens a text with the keyword already filled in.
Your conversation history stays for as long as your account is open. If the account is closed, whether you close it or it is closed for inactivity under the Terms, your data is removed 30 days later, as the Privacy Policy describes.
Yes. Merge fields drop each subscriber's first name, last name or a custom field into the text, so one blast still reads like a note written to one person.
Yes. Picture messages are sent as MMS at 2 credits each, and links and emoji work in a normal SMS. Emoji can push a message into a second segment, so watch the character counter.
Smart Encoding rewrites lookalike characters, such as curly quotes pasted from Word, into their plain equivalents. The message reads the same and fits into fewer credits.
The most common cause is carrier filtering, which appears as error 30007 when a carrier blocks content it treats as spam. Shortening links, dropping all-caps and keeping consent clean usually clears it.
Numbers and coverage
04 answersWhere you can send, and from what number.
The United States and Canada. Numbers are US local or toll-free.
No, and that is deliberate. You get a dedicated business number, so your personal cell stays private, and incoming calls to it forward to whatever phone you carry.
Yes, for US local numbers. A2P 10DLC registration is a carrier requirement and includes a manual vetting step, which is why approval takes a few business days. Toll-free messaging is not subject to that vetting.
Yes. Number lookup identifies whether a number is mobile, landline or VoIP and shows the carrier behind it, so you stop spending credits on numbers that can never receive an SMS.
Compliance and opt-outs
03 answersThe rules, and what the product handles for you.
Yes. Pony Express HQ is a 100% opt-in service, so every recipient must have agreed to hear from you. Purchased and scraped lists are not allowed and are the fastest way to get a number blocked.
Anyone can text STOP and they are removed immediately and automatically, which also stops you paying to reach them. You can unsubscribe someone yourself from their contact page, and people who opted out can opt back in later.
Yes. Carriers forbid certain categories outright, including cannabis, most loan offers and gambling, regardless of consent. Those messages get filtered even on a fully registered number.
Still not answered?
Ask a person. Support answers from the dashboard chat, the contact form, or the help center, and the 100 free credits are there whether you ask first or not.