Is TextNow A Scam? A Review of TextNow And What They Offer!

TextNow has been around for a while now, and offers a vast display of plans prices and phone services. They come highly recommended from the communities that I hang out from, and so, because of that, I decided to see what exactly they had to offer.

Is TextNow a scam? That’s the very question that we’ll get into as I dive into their product, website, and social media accounts. So come along for the ride, and learn with me as we check out TextNow together!

What Is TextNow?

Text Now Main Page

TextNow is as its name implies. Simply put, it’s a place where you can text and call people, all for free (if you so want to).

When you create an account with TextNow, they give you a phone number that you can text and call from. And the initial account is all free. No credit card, no upsells. Just give them an email address, and you should be good to go.

TextNow operates with numbers that run over VOIP. Basically, what that means is that instead of going through a typical phone service provider, like AT&T or Verizon, the phone request is actually going over your internet connection, and making the call/text. So you don’t need to purchase a plan for the phone to work.

Of course, there are downsides to this method, but when you’re looking for something for free, the downsides seem trivial enough.

Additionally, TextNow does have alternative paid plans, in the case that you want to have certain features, and more abilities with your calling.

TextNow Phone Plans

What About Their Social Media Accounts?

Anyone who is a frequent at We Get Scammed For You knows that we like to take a look at companies social media, and get a better glimpse of who they are, and how authentic they really look.

TextNow has a fairly large following on social media, as well as regular postings and updates, which is a good sign that they aren’t a scam.

Twitter and TextNowAs you can see from the screenshot above, TextNow seems to be fairly active on Twitter, with currently over 40K followers, as well as posting rather frequently (the last tweet was a day ago).

Their Facebook page also shows some similar results:

Textnow and FacebookGoing to Facebook though, does reveal something rather interesting. TextNow has a rating of 3.9 out of 5.0 stars. Why is this exactly?

The Reviews For TextNow

SiteJabber is a popular place for people leave reviews of companies and products. It’s a place for people to, well, jabber on about sites that they like or dislike. According to the reviews left within the site, it seems many people didn’t like it:

SiteJabber's Reviews

As you can see from the above screenshot, SiteJabber has TextNow with a 1.5 star rating. Why were they given such a low review?

Many of the reviews talked about how they used the free account, but when they purchased a paid plan, what they received wasn’t quite what they expected. Some complained about terrible customer service, others said ads were still around, and still others said other things didn’t work right.

According to the reviews, TextNow doesn’t seem like a useful program to use. But, just because reviews can be negative, doesn’t mean that the product is exactly as negative as it seems.

Because of this, I decided to sign up and see just how TextNow worked, and whether there were issues, or if people were just give a good program a bad review.

Personally Reviewing TextNow

Being one who is always interested in free things, and being able to use them, I had signed up for TextNow a while back, and used it on and off.

I was looking for something that I could use to link random things online with a phone, as well as pass any user verification that came my way.

Did it work the way I wanted it to?

Not exactly. There were many great things that I were able to use with it – like, for example, talking with a scammer who was trying to sell dogs to people. They didn’t quite realize that I would do my homework when they gave me their address:

Baiting A ScammerIt was actually a pretty fun conversation, and I was able to get to the bottom of who the scammer really was, and how he (or they) were operating.

And while TextNow did work every time I contacted someone with it, it didn’t quite work when I needed someone to contact me.

I had to verify something via a Google SMS text message, and even though I gave the right phone number, I never got the text. My guess is that it has something to do with Google, but I wasn’t able to test it too thoroughly.

I realize that TextNow may have some bugs, or some errors that doesn’t make it work properly. But, personally, for me, that doesn’t mean I should give it as low of a rating as I could.

Of course, if I were paying for TextNow, and didn’t get what I wanted, that would be an entirely different matter. But with TextNow being free (at least with what I’m using), and it doing what I wanted it to (for the most part), I would give TextNow a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

I’m not going to lie, TextNow doesn’t work all the time. But honestly, it worked most of the time, and did what I was wanting it to do. And because of that, I’ll give it 4 stars.

Is TextNow A Scam?

texting from a phone

TextNow is definitely no scam. In fact, it’s (so far) the best free texting platform I have yet to find online. If comes with your own number, which is great, since other sites make multiple people use the same number. Additionally, it comes with an app that you can download, and use directly on the particular device that you are using.

I would highly recommend anyone interested in TextNow to use it. And you definitely can’t go wrong when it’s free! Check out TextNow today, and start chatting away!

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is based on our research and analysis. However, we are not liable for any inaccuracies or errors, and readers are encouraged to conduct their own investigations. If you have concerns about the legitimacy of a website, feel free to reach out to us via our contact form to initiate a discussion.

12 thoughts on “Is TextNow A Scam? A Review of TextNow And What They Offer!”

  1. Definitely, do not recommend text now. They take your money and don’t give it back. Customer service is virtually zero, chat with a bot that gives you links to pages on their website. No contact number and no email address for anyone that works there. Do not use it for anything other than a free account, because if you do give them money you won’t get your money back.

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  2. meh- been using the free version and texting and calling for free on old abandoned cell phone we were just gonna junk- works actually very well so far- only thing i have encountered so far is when trying to call sometimes you get a ‘call rejected’- but if you keep trying- 2-3 times, it will connect just fine- doesn’t happen too often

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  3. I bought a useless sim card for $9.99 with a gaurantee my phone number wouldn’t expire, but it did anyway. They kept texting me to buy the lock in phone number deal as well, but why would I after getting ripped of on the activation sim card. Take my advise and stay clear of this crooked company.

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  4. It’s companies like TextNow that enable Indian scammers (and others) to call people relentlessly and pretend to be the IRS, Amazon, and Social Security. Do NOT support companies that allow criminals to thrive in anonymity.

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    • I wish there was a way to prove this, and I agree with you. I guess the only math I can do is, if it’s free, they sell your info. I was hoping that because they said they get revenue through advertising it might not be the case but I definitely got a spam text within an hour of signing up. So frustrating and really unnerving that I feel like I can never really privatize my phone number again.

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  5. Will you let me know if you do have proof it is reliable to RECEIVE a text, please? I am going to get a text message from the USA and I am in BC Canada with a PC, a tablet and WIFI. I have a landline phone only. Thanks if someone lets me know, from MM

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  6. The free version only works when you are connected to WiFi. That makes is WORTHLESS for 99% of the reason I have a phone.

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  7. I just signed up today and got a spam text to my paid primary number within an hour. I found the sign up process easy and would love to have a spare number to use in less secure settings – but if they sell my info to scammers it really defeats the purpose.

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  8. It sucks. I paid to have the number and I cannot even type a word without pop up ads. It is impossible to text because of this. I would not recommend. It truly sucks.

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  9. Personally I like textnow. The only major downside i’ve come across is that some companies don’t accept any of their numbers as a way to 2nd factor auth an account or register for one if your number is a wifi only account. For numbers attache to a simcard I couldn’t say. You can pay for your number to become acceptable for 2nd factor auth or to register an account with companies who otherwise wouldn’t allow it. However it doesn’t always work regardless of the upgrade you make. Also certain types of texting aren’t allowed like texting to numbers that aren’t numbers but are words. Also you can’t use a VPN to use their services either. Also calling a certain number can very rarely result in your account being blocked until it’s sorted out. I’ve only had that happen once in all the years I’ve used them. I was able to still text back and forth and receive calls but not make them.

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    • Other than the above the only other issue I have is with the level of adverts on the free service. However plentiful though they are and frustrating it is to accidentally tap one after the page moves the send button out of the way when it loads the advert the annoyance is so worth it. I am in Canada and just recently they have increased simcard service to my country. Something I will be getting very soon.

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