On Goose‘s own current, published pricing page, SMS and MMS messaging isn’t unlimited, it’s a $50-a-month add-on capped at 1,000 messages, with additional blocks of 1,000 messages available for $20 a month more, and every message counts against that allowance regardless of length. PocketSuite powers 7,000+ service businesses, including 1,000+ pet service businesses, whose clients have collectively processed nearly $1 billion in income and scheduled over 9.2 million appointments. For a high-volume boarding or daycare facility texting clients about drop-offs, pickups, and daily updates, that cap is the kind of detail that’s easy to miss during a sales conversation and expensive to discover after the fact.
It’s worth being precise about what’s confirmed here directly from the source and what would require further verification: Goose’s own pricing page, as published, describes SMS/MMS as a metered add-on with a defined monthly allowance, not an unlimited feature. Whether that specific structure represents a change from an earlier “unlimited” marketing claim is a separate historical question this article can’t independently confirm, but the current, live terms speak for themselves regardless of how Goose has described the feature in the past.
What Goose’s Own Pricing Page Actually Says
According to Goose’s published pricing, the SMS/MMS Messaging add-on includes 1,000 messages each month for $50, with additional capacity available in blocks of 1,000 messages for $20 each. Each SMS or MMS counts as a single message regardless of length or the number of segments it’s split into, and all messages, whether appointment reminders, drop-off confirmations, or general client chat, share the same monthly allowance.
That structure matters specifically for a high-volume pet care business, since texting is often the single most frequent point of contact with clients, drop-off confirmations, pickup reminders, daily photo updates, incident notes. A facility sending several messages per pet per stay can burn through a 1,000-message allowance well before the month ends during a busy season, at which point the business either pays for another block of 1,000 or the texting stops.
PocketSuite’s Two-Way Texting Isn’t Metered the Same Way
Business Messaging is built into every plan without a separate metered add-on structure gating how many messages a business can send in a given month, and Scheduled and saved messages run on that same unmetered allowance, so a batch of drop-off or pickup reminders queued ahead of time doesn’t draw down a separate capped pool. A dog trainer walkthrough video in PocketSuite’s own library put it directly: “Two-way texting in PocketSuite is completely unlimited, so you no longer need to use your personal cell phone to communicate with customers,” a claim specific to PocketSuite’s own product, not a comparison to any particular competitor’s terms.
A Real Trainer’s Perspective on Switching Platforms
Cybill Stilwell, owner of Sit Means Sit East GA, evaluated HubSpot, Monday CRM, Keap, and GoHighLevel before choosing PocketSuite for her home-based and mobile dog training franchise, and specifically called out how well the platform matched her actual day-to-day needs rather than a generic CRM built for a different kind of business. “PocketSuite answers exactly what I was just saying the other ones don’t have, that client retention aspect,” she said. “No matter what you do in this industry, there’s a lot of complexity in the back end, PocketSuite does a really good job of making it simple.”
What to Actually Verify Before Switching Off Goose
A business currently on Goose and wondering whether messaging costs are eating into margin has a straightforward way to check: pull the last three months of texting volume from Goose’s own reporting and compare it against the 1,000-message monthly allowance the base add-on includes. If the business is regularly buying additional message blocks, that’s a real, quantifiable cost worth factoring into any comparison against a platform that includes texting without a separate metered cap.
It’s also worth confirming Goose’s current terms directly on their own site before making a decision, since pricing structures change over time and the specific numbers cited here reflect what’s published as of this writing. The responsible standard for evaluating any vendor, including PocketSuite, is checking current, primary-source pricing rather than relying on secondhand claims from either side of a comparison.
Why Texting Volume Is Easy to Underestimate
A single overnight boarding stay can easily generate several client texts on its own, a drop-off confirmation, a mid-stay photo update, a pickup reminder, and an occasional incident or medication note, before counting any general back-and-forth about scheduling or questions. Multiply that across even a modest daily volume of stays and drop-ins, and a facility can reach a four-figure monthly message count without anyone consciously deciding to text more than usual, it’s simply the natural byproduct of running a communicative, high-touch pet care business.
That’s exactly why a metered cap tends to catch businesses off guard rather than being something they budgeted for deliberately from day one. A facility that signs up during a slower season, when its texting volume comfortably sits under the included allowance, can find itself buying extra message blocks every month once business picks up, turning what looked like a fixed monthly cost into a variable one tied directly to how communicative, and how busy, the business actually is.
Compare the Real Cost, Not Just the Headline Feature
A useful way to evaluate this for any specific business is estimating actual monthly texting volume first, then checking that estimate against a competing platform’s specific terms rather than trusting a single word like “unlimited” without reading the fine print behind it. A facility that regularly sends 2,000 to 3,000 client texts a month, not an unusual volume for a mid-sized daycare and boarding operation, would need to purchase two to three additional message blocks under Goose’s published structure, adding $40 to $60 a month specifically for texting capacity beyond the base add-on.
A Metered Feature Can Also Change Staff Behavior
A subtler cost of a capped messaging plan is what it does to staff behavior once everyone knows a monthly limit exists. A front desk employee aware that texts cost real money past a certain point may start hesitating to send a proactive update, a quick photo, a reassuring note during a first overnight stay, exactly the kind of communication that builds client trust and differentiates a high-touch business from a bare-bones one. A texting feature without that ceiling removes the incentive to ration communication that actually strengthens the client relationship.
That hesitation compounds specifically for a first-time boarding client, whose anxiety about leaving a pet overnight is often highest and whose need for reassurance is greatest. A business that has to think twice about sending one more reassuring photo because of a message cap is, in a small but real way, working against its own client experience at exactly the moment that experience matters most.
None of this means Goose is a poor platform in every respect, a business evaluating any vendor should weigh its full feature set, not a single line item in isolation. But for a business where client communication volume is genuinely high, and for pet boarding and daycare, it usually is, understanding exactly how a platform’s texting is priced before signing a contract is the kind of detail that’s cheap to check up front and expensive to discover after the fact.
Ask for the Number, Not Just the Word
The single most useful question a business can ask any vendor during a sales conversation about texting isn’t “is it unlimited,” it’s “what’s the exact monthly message allowance, and what happens when I go over it.” That framing forces a concrete answer rather than a marketing adjective, and it applies equally whether a business is evaluating Goose, PocketSuite, or any other platform in this space, since the honest answer to that specific question is what actually determines the real monthly cost of staying in touch with clients.
No, not per Goose’s own current published pricing. It’s a $50-a-month add-on capped at 1,000 messages, with additional blocks of 1,000 messages available for $20 a month more.
Yes. Per Goose’s pricing page, each SMS or MMS counts as a single message regardless of length or the number of segments, and all messages share the same monthly allowance, so photo updates and quick check-ins draw down the cap just as fast as any other message.
No. Business Messaging is included on every plan without a separate metered add-on capping how many messages a business can send in a given month.
Pull your recent texting volume from your current platform’s own reporting and compare it against any monthly message cap, then factor in the cost of any additional message blocks you’re regularly purchasing.
Ask for the exact monthly message allowance and what happens when you exceed it, rather than accepting a marketing word like “unlimited” at face value without the underlying number behind it.
