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Twilio Review
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Get Real, Honest Maker Commentary
Twilio is the go to tool to use to send text messages. But the hidden secret that is not widely known, is using Twilio in combination with Zapier.Â
Twilio by itself is not no-code friendly and has a high learning curve. In the case of my project and I’ve seen others, Twilio paired with other no-code tools drastically reduces the learning curve and actual need to learn how to implement Twilio. Think of Twilio like your email sender like Mailchimp, Sendgrid, ConvertKit. No imagine having to learn the development behind it and codify it to actually work. With Zapier, Parabola and others, it takes that part completely out and uses Twilio as a sender. Eliminating any of the hard part. That’s the beauty of no-code.
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Below I have added a successful project launched on Product Hunt called Dream Vacay. Below are my stack notes and video tutorial of how I linked together this stack to create a product that automates saving money reminders for your dream vacation. The stack consists of Carrd>Typeform>Zapier>Twilio.Â
What’s more is you will see outstanding Makers like Isaac Medeiros build a product and launch it for live streamers. He does a really informative concise breakdown of how he did it.Â
Finally, make sure to check out Max Katz who also contributed to the resource section that help you automate sending text messages as notifications or other use cases.Â
Take these, re-create them and then tweak them for your own idea.
I’ll be adding more of the best no code actual applications created by some insanely talented Makers who launched using Twilio as part of their side project stack.
Pros and Cons of Twilio
Positives
- Twilio makes it easy enough to send text messages with extensive documentation and guided setup
- The most helpful feature is the ease to which it integrates with Zapier. I'd recommend whether just starting out or creating a quick MVP, use Zapier to create customized Zaps that use Twilio as a sender. An analogy using email service like Mailchimp, using Zapier to create the copy and logic for the text message as a WYSIWYG for is for creating the email and Twilio like Mailchimp actually delivers the text/email.
- If you are a developer you should have plenty of documentation to use and go
- Pricing is fair and can buy small amounts to get started when creating an MVP without a big commitment
Negatives
- Twilio is not as intuitive to use if you are new to development or no-code.
- Even if you are experienced product manager, twilio can be overwhelming as it core audience is developers. Twilio is not as user friendly as say Zapier. However it does not need to be. Just use Twilio as an means to an end.
- Sending text messages is not cheap. It's not expensive. You really need to think through why you are needing to implement with Twilio. Are you trying to send a message that has a high urgency or need for response tied to the value of your product? If not I would not consider this tool. Text message has the highest open rate out of any medium. However, that comes at a cost.
Where to Start?
If you want to build a project without code, what tools should use? I've created a free tool to save you days and weeks by not building with the wrong tools.
Each recommendation is based off the hundreds of data points from actual projects made with no-code. Try for free. Save your time and effort by not building with the wrong tools.
Twilio Courses and Tutorials
Build a SMS Membership Platform
How to build a sms membership platform with Webflow, Zapier, Twilio, Memberstack by Isaac Medeiros
Build a SMS Reminder Product
How to build an sms reminder system. Product: Text message reminders to save towards your dream vacay
Twilio Tutorial - Text Information
Building a no-code application to text positive news with Parabola, News API, Watson NLU and Twilio. By Max Katz
Twilio Tutorial - New user notification
How to build a no-code application that sends email and a text message when a new user registers. By Max Katz
Makers and Their Products Using Twilio
Use this list of Makers to find project inspiration and see what they used to make something without using code.
Would you like to add your no-code project?
Add it here and we will highlight to our growing community of 1500+ Makers.
Web App – Notifications
What advantage will this stack give you? Isaac built a membership app for sending text messages to your audience.
Side Project Stack
Web App – Notifications
What advantage will this stack give you? This stack allows you send daily positive news articles about a subject through text mesage.Â
Side Project Stack
Web App – Notifications
What advantage will this stack give you? This stack allows you build a no-code application that sends an email and a text message when a new users registers.Â
Side Project Stack
Automated Text Messaging App
What advantage will this stack give you? Automate sending text messages easily with this side project stack.Â
Side Project Stack
Would you like to add your no-code project?
Add it here and we will highlight to our growing community of 1500+ Makers.
"In Their Words" No Code Maker Commentary and Reviews
Web App – Notifications
What advantage do you have using this stack? Isaac provides helpful advice: “Iteration/Speed: NoCode is lightning fast. If I built RingDaddy with code, it would have taken several weeks. Instead, I built it over a single weekend. This gave me time to get to market quicker and focus almost entirely on the business/marketing logic.”
“I’ve used the part of this stack in a previous project: Zapier and Twilio. Zapier is key to simplifying sending text messages with Twilio. Twilio is a bit intimidating if you are not a developer and you’d like to try and send text messages. Zapier is a gamechanger to be able to send text messages because you can build the entire workflow in Zapier.”
Side Project Stack
Automated Text Messaging App
Full stack tutorial:Â Carrd>Typeform>Zapier>Twilio
+ Twilio is essential to launching an app that sends text messages. Twilio was easy enough to quickly create a custom phone number, get API authorization connected to Zapier and also has a nifty dashboard to track text messages sent.Â
+ Twilio used in association with Zapier makes it possible to do these things: 1) create logic of when to send text messages 2) House the copy and text in the message 3)trigger when to send the text messages using Twilio as a sender
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Side Project Stack
