Avid Mobile or Lime Cellular?

I'm looking for a stable company that will be around awhile (I know there's no guarantees), so I don't build up a large clientele list and then have to start over by transferring everything over to a new company.

I have an extensive background in marketing & customer service, so I know how important and critical both are. I'm looking for a company that offers extensive marketing training that pertains to mobile text/mobile websites (including marketing material ideas).

I'm also interested in WSO's that would help.

Thanks,
Scott

Thanks for the replies so far.

I like the fact that Lime doesn't compete with you, but also see Avid's point that by them having been out selling to businesses for four years, they have real world experience. They said that they only go after National brands now.

As far as extra fees, the person I'm talking to at Avid said that he would include the extras at no additional monthly fees. They are also running a promotion where the monthly fee is just $119 at the starter level.

My biggest concerns are finding a company that hopefully will be there for the long haul and a company that offers great training.

Both companies appear to be excellent companies, which is why I'm having a hard time deciding.

Thanks Again for the replies.

Scott

Between the two I would say I prefer Avid's platform, however, it is at a much higher cost. Lime offers a nice medium between platform and cost! The big question is going to be which of the two best suits what you need to accomplish with it so that you can be the most successful with it.
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I find Lime superior than Avid. Lime's overall cost is lower than Avid. I enjoy Lime and cant imagine any other in place of Lime.

I've actually researched many providers and narrowed it down to these two.

I feel that these two are offering more of what I'm looking for.

yeah, at 2pm est. I think someone quoted their message for the link but the original post with the link got deleted.

Anyone here familiar with their customer support? Do they offer phone support on every package or just the upper ones?

This is not true. It depends on the type of account you have with us.

As far as phone support, we answer every call we get. But we commit unlimited support to our premium members.

I see you are a bit confused. Please give us a call and we will be able to clarify this for you. Thanks.

Thanks for the great response. This is what I'm looking for and it appears many others are as well. I'm hoping many Lime and Avid users will post their experiences. Thanks Again.

Brother it is not a problem at all, we will talk when you are able. Also you are 100% accurate, our price per message does decrease as you reach higher volumes of messaging.

Jodi I also appreciate the kind words, I do my best to educate you on everything we have to offer & the industry as a whole.

Thanks for all of the replies. It will help me with my decision. I'm going back and forth. Not wanting to just jump out and choose one at this point, because of the hassles of switching over to another provider if I'm not happy with the first one I choose.

Thanks Again!!!

Even Steve Jobs (RIP) used to find the time to reply customers himself. To be a successful business man is also be attached to everything your business does (big or small). Good luck to all readers.

Hi Zenyatta,

I appreciate you posting your experience. This is what I'm looking for....REAL WORLD EXPERIENCES!

I read your detailed post in another thread.....and it was very informative.

Thanks Again,
Scott

RE Lime Keywords: It depends on the level you buy in at. Vanity keywords 5 included for standard, 10 for premium and if you go premium + then you get unlimited. With any of the packages you get unlimited system keywords. You also have to look at text pricing, if I remember right to get 1 cent texts you have to reach a level of 250K texts per month. With Lime if you go premium plus it is automatic. The reason that I went with Lime is they include so much as standard that Avid does as $29 a month add-ons.(starting next week - so if anyone is interested in being a reseller for Social Media Decoded, send me a PM and I will let you know when everything is set up.)

Hope that helps!
Suzanne

Hi Kiril,

I compared the two companies based on the 500k text messages per month in your example. Sending 500k messages per month would certainly be not the base plan for either company.

If I'm correct in my comparison, here are the results:

Avid has a certain number of free credits on their plans but they don't publish how many credits they allow on their mid level plan. They only say to ask your sales rep about it.

At the 500k texts per month, I would say a person would want to go with Avid's Mobile Marketing In A Box plan or with Lime's Premium+ plan which both get 30,000 credits per month.

If I were to go with Lime, I would chose their Premium+ account.
If I were to go with Avid, I would chose either their Private Label Plus or their Mobile Marketing Company in a Box.

Avid states that their Private Label Plus features are:
Private Label PLUS: Some FREE Texts? Ask your Rep! $499 per month - 1 time set-up of $359
This PLUS package includes all of the features of the Private Label Basic Program, plus the 100% white-labeled URL and
SSL. This package is the 100% custom url that you select and is viewed when your clients login to the dashboard and
will state, login.yourcomanyname.com.
Note: All picture messages and mobile sites will contain the url http://login.yourcompanyname.com
Organizational Level: Optional Reseller of Resellers Level $199 per month (add on)
This enterprise level program features an extra hierarchy that allows for you to sub-license the software to other
resellers who want to sell mobile marketing, SMS campaigns, and mobile sites. In this program you have the ability to
set-up unlimited resellers of your technology.
Note: Organizational level is in addition to options Basic and PLUS ONLY.

Assuming you would want to market their mobile websites, that would be an additional $29 per month.

I would not want to use Avid's mobile website builder, because, in my opinion, it's pretty low on the totem poll compared with the new website builder that Lime just came out with this month. (Actually, I would say that I would not want to use Avid's at all when I compare it with most of the others I've looked at.) Limes website builder is, in my opinion, an awesome tool. There is no charge for Lime's website builder the Premium and Premium+ account plan. Both companies allow unlimited websites and webpages and data and bandwith.

For my purposes, the website builder and the text coupons, and the integrated billing features that Lime has is pretty positive.

Avid has text messaging which is just that, text. Lime has both text messaging and picture coupons which can have a bar code to be scanned a point of purchase. When it is scanned, or when a numeric code is entered, that coupon is processed as redeemed and that customers cannot use that coupon again.

Avid's Private Label Plus uses a shared URL and their Mobile Marketing In A Box is (as they state) 100% white label.

Both of Lime's plans are white label.

Avid sells to resellers and to retail.
Lime sells only to resellers and does not sell to retail.

Avid has a setup fee for the Private Label Plus of $359 and for the Mobile Marketing In A Box of $2815.

Avid's monthly fee for the Private Label Plus is $499 and for the Mobile Marketing In A Box is $615.

Lime has no setup fee for any of their plans.

Lime,s monthly fee for the Premium plan is $297 per month and for the Premium+ plan is $497 per month.

Avid has unlimited vanity keyword per account for their plan.

Lime has 10 free vanity keywords per account for their Premium plan and Unlimited free vanity keywords per account for their Premium+ plan.

If you want to add Sales Agents and Resellers with Avid, you must chose the Mobile Marketing In A Box plan or pay an additional $199 per month if you chose their Private Label Plus Plan.

If you want to add Sales Agents and Resellers with Lime, you can chose either the Premium or the Premium+ plan.

Both companies have a $4 per month charge for each active client.

Now on to the text message fees:

At 500k texts per month, I haven't see how many text credits Avid has on their Private Label Plus plan but on their Mobile Marketing In A Box they provide 15k credits per month.

Lime provides 15k on their Premium plan and 30k on their Premium+ plan.

Since I don't know how many credits Avid has on their Private Label Plus plan, I will do calculations based on assuming they provide 15k like Lime does.

On Avid's Private Lable Plus plan the extra 485k text will be $4365 per month. On their Mobile Marketing Business In A Box plan, the 470k extra texts will be $4230 per month.

With Lime's Premium plan the other 470k texts per month would be $7050 and with their Premium+ plan the would be $4700.

So the text's sent with Lime is more than with Avid. However Lime does not have any setup fees. I'm not positive, but it is my understanding that Avid's set up fees are charged every year. Don't quote me on that because I'm not certain of it. IF Avid charges the setup fee annually, on the Private Label Plus plan, that would average $30 per month and on the Mobile Marketing In A Box plan, it would average $51 per month.

Now, calculating all charges, including set up fees, text charges, and since I really favor Limes new mobile website builder, the website builder fee with Avid (no extra charge for this in the two plans we are comparing with Lime), Avid is cheaper in total cost than Lime but nowhere near the $13750 you quoted in your post.

Lime has integrated billing for your clients on both plans we are comparing here. As far as I know, I don't think Avid offers this feature.

Compare the coupon features that Lime has and, if you can, if it interests you, compare the website builders and I think you will agree that Lime beats Avid in those features hands down.

Avid has some great Powerpoint presentations and Lime has some great marketing material for the clients to use in their business. Lime also has some great short videos for making presentations to prospective clients, however they do have a small fee to customize them with your logo, phone number and website.

All in all, they are both excellent companies. Avid is cheaper monthly costs but some could say that the benefits of the advanced mobile coupons and the advanced mobile website builder that Lime has would very well cover the difference in the monthly charges.

I hope this information helps everyone with their comparisons. Do the calculations yourself from the figures I've provided and then make your decision based on your own perceptions of each company and your gut feeling. However, just DO something.

I think he might be working off of old pricing because none of Limes White Label Offerings have a .0275 Price point...

Yea but doesn't Avid charge for incoming and outgoing messages?

I'm 99.99% sure they don't as I recall reading it from their pricing sheet. Of course it would have changed the whole picture, but this is not the case.

Do you use Avid's mobile website builder? Did you compare Lime's mobile website builder with Avid's?

You're right! Unlimited REAL keywords for FREE is a big deal...especially when you are just starting out (when you need them the most because you lack customers).

Lime does offer unlimited keywords but its at their Premium+ level where you also get 1 cent texts. (Avid lowers text rates with your text volume, which you may or not achieve at Lime's Premium+ level). The monthly buy in for the Premium+ level is pretty reasonable once you get a subscriber base to support it (maybe 5-10 clients).

The two lower levels offer 5 and 10 REAL keywords per month respectively. However, after re-reading their flyer it looks like that is per account @ $4 per month. I believe that means per customer/client that we have. If that is the case its not a bad situation at all and may actually help your pricing strategy by charging for keywords above 5 or 10. The expense to you of course would go away as you progressed to the higher level meaning more profit or you could later offer unlimited keywords as a potential "new" loyalty bonus for your customers.

Correct, Jay Hanley has chosen to pursue a different career path. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

Jay was the man, sad to see him go.

I to looked at all the options, I chose Avid for a few reasons -

Technical know how and knowledge (from Jay)
Does exactly what I need it to do
15K free text a month for life
Free keywords, only $4 per client

I am a white-label reseller.

Ryan

I too have been kicking the tires of both the Avid Mobile and Lime Cellular platforms, and I've found both companies offer quality customer service and pre-sales consulting - and as nobody disputes, both platforms are A1 in terms of features and text messaging functionality.

The one thing that could be a game changer for me is Lime's Premium mobile website builder. It looks to be very powerful, but I'd love to see exactly how people are using it (for those of you who've been with Lime for quite some time). Does anybody have a Lime premium mobile website that they'd like to share? Does Lime have a demo showcase that they're willing to share with their White Label resellers? I'm especially interested in the GeoLocation widget features which look very powerful, and are uncommon in other mobile website builders that I've evaluated.

I was unaware you are in Canada as your profile doesnt specify...

Even if it isnt law...It may be required by the Carriers, that would take some checking to verify.

I am not really sure why it is of such concern, its only in the first message and even then, still leaves you 140 characters to work with.

You are correct

I am pretty sure I was told that there was a charge for incoming texts from you..or at least in the Canadian platform yet you have repeated that this is not so a couple of times here...

I can't speak for others, but with the charging of a Set up Fee the monthly nut is pretty much automatically covered from the get go.

Knowing there is a bill upcoming can be a great motivator when it comes to getting out there and getting clients.

SMS is not a hard sell, the trick is to stress the benefits to the Business Owner...

When a representative of a company decides to post in this thread, and provides inaccurate information -- maybe to avoid spilling "bad news" information -- it is only natural for us to argue its accuracy by posting questions here.

Really found this thread valuable - read each post.

Lime have just announced their availability in UK.

I've just applied for a demo account.

Thanks all.

Victoria,

You may have either incorrect or outdated info on Lime...

What are you basing a $700 price spread between the two on?

I am trying out Avid now, when you text help it comes up Advatext mobile with the phone number for Avid Mobile. Hope this helps

I wonder if there is anyway to change this because that would defeat the whole purpose of a whitelabel. If rep from Lime can chime in that would be helpful.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Our developers are working on a feature that will allow you to do a custom HELP message that will show the white label company name and a toll free number