Remind’s New Pricing Got You Down?

Some big changes in the school communication world recently as Remind (formerly Remind101) has implemented a firm pricing strategy and has been handing out quotes to schools across the USA and Canada that have surprised teachers and administrators. We have spoken with a number of schools that have received quotes from $4000 to $15000 per year – for a platform that last year was free. So what’s going on?

The Problem Explained

To understand what’s happening we need to get a bit technical and a bit business. First off, the Remind platform uses text messaging (also known as SMS) to deliver most of the hundreds of thousands of messages it sends every day. The simple answer to all of this is that text messaging costs money. A large text message services provider, Twilio, charges about 0.7 cents per text message. If you send a message with Remind to 1000 people, that costs $7. Remind sends A LOT of messages, so their pricing is likely better, but you get the idea. Even if they get 50% better pricing, it still costs them $3.50 EVERY TIME YOU SEND A MESSAGE to those 1000 people. So, at the end of the day, if long-term cost is an issue, sending messages to all your teachers, students and parents via text message IS NOT a good strategy.

Secondly, every company needs to make profit to stay alive long-term. The simple math we learn in business class is Revenue must be greater than Expenses. Even if you’re using a free version of a product, someone else has to be paying enough money for their products to cover all the costs. We know education loves FREE, but the fact is that totally free is not sustainable for anyone long term. Remind raised a lot of money from investors to help get a large user-base, but may that money is starting to run low.

So Now What?

Now for our selfless pitch… Minga is a great option to replace Remind at your school. Minga is all about simplifying and improving communication. We do a lot more than just send out messages to teachers, students, staff and parents. With Minga, you can:

  • create events
  • share photo albums and videos
  • delivery polls and surveys
  • create unlimited groups for all the sports teams, clubs, classrooms and school groups
  • and more!

Minga is also very “social” and creates and safe and intentional place to collaborate with your entire school community. And we’ve taken pricing into account from the very start to deliver you the best product at very affordable prices that also include AMAZING support! What’s our downside? Well we don’t have a free version but Minga is a modular system and you can check out our prices here.

So if you’re suffering from a bit of sticker shock and want to see how Minga can really help you improve communication and help you create an amazing and connected school or classroom community, at a price that doesn’t make you faint, we’d love to chat and you can connect with us here.

Appreciate you taking a few moments to read.

Sincerely,

Jason Richards
Founder at Minga

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