Totally understand that concern. Our goal's always been to have Twilio be free (or really close to it) while your app is in development. We've got a trial acco

Totally understand that concern. Our goal's always been to have Twilio be free (or really close to it) while your app is in development. We've got a trial account that will let you play around before spending any money. You'll only be able to text numbers that you've verified with us, but it should give you a feel for things (this is what the vast majority of students at Hackathons use). If you want to give it a try: twilio.com/try-twilio When you're ready to make the leap, $20 buys you about 2500 text messages in the US. (disclaimer: work on Developer Community team)