This pairing comes up because the two vendors sit at opposite ends of the same shortlist. Both send blue bubbles from a dedicated business number with webhooks for inbound. Everything else about how they are bought is different.
The short version
| Linq Blue | Blooio | |
|---|---|---|
| Price visible | No — sales conversation required | Yes — $39/month flat, on the pricing page |
| Per-message fee | None; billed per line | None; billed per line |
| Setup fee | Reported, not published | None advertised |
| Time to first message | A sales cycle | Under an hour |
| Channels | iMessage, RCS, SMS, voice | iMessage with RCS and SMS fallback |
| SOC 2 Type II | Yes (vendor claim) | No comparable public claim |
| CRM | Publishes a GoHighLevel integration | Partial; webhooks and the API |
| Developer surface | REST plus a sandbox before contract | REST with an OpenAPI spec and SDKs in four languages |
| Trial | Sandbox, via sales | No card required |
Three names, two companies, one letter apart
Linq Blue is Linq's iMessage product — the dedicated page is here. Blinq is a digital business card company with no messaging product, which ranks for these searches because Linq used to be one too. If you arrived from a search for 'linqblue', you want the first. Why business card companies keep appearing in these results.
Choose Linq Blue if
- A security review stands between you and launch. SOC 2 Type II narrows the whole category to Linq and Photon, and when it is decisive it is completely decisive. What a review will actually ask.
- You need more than iMessage. Four channels behind one API is genuinely less integration work than assembling it from two vendors and reconciling the delivery events afterwards.
- You run GoHighLevel. Linq publishes an integration; almost nobody else in this category does, and building it yourself is a fortnight you did not plan for.
- You have volume worth negotiating over. An unpublished price cuts both ways — it also means the number is not fixed.
Choose Blooio if
- You want to see the price. $39/month flat, outbound included, no per-message metering. In this category that transparency is still unusual enough to be a feature.
- You want to start today. No call, no card for the trial, no procurement.
- You are generating a client rather than hand-rolling one. The OpenAPI specification and published SDKs save the first day of work.
- Predictability matters more than ceiling. A flat line rate means the bill does not move when a campaign goes well.
Where the difference actually bites
It is not features. Both send, both receive, both give you a dedicated number. The difference is who you have to become to buy it.
Linq Blue is bought the way software is bought inside a company with a procurement process: a call, a sandbox, a quote, a security questionnaire, a contract. If you have that process, this is normal and the SOC 2 report at the end of it is worth having.
Blooio is bought the way developers buy things: a card, an API key, a message. If you are one business with one line and a launch date this month, the sales cycle is not a feature you are paying for, it is a delay you are absorbing.
Neither one fixes the thing underneath
Both operate outside Apple's terms of service, because there is no inside — Apple publishes no iMessage API. A SOC 2 report says the vendor manages its own security competently. It does not make the channel sanctioned, and no audit can. If that is a hard blocker, the answer is Apple Messages for Business and a grey bubble.
If neither is quite right
- [Miss Blue](/providers/missblue-reviews) — if people rather than code will work the messages, its shared inbox plus the cheapest published dedicated line is the better shape.
- [Photon](/providers/photon-reviews) — SOC 2 like Linq, but with a free tier you can evaluate on.
- [Texting Blue](/providers/texting-blue-reviews) — the current published floor at $19/month, if price is the only axis.
- [The full pricing table](/pricing) — every vendor, every published number, and the fees that are not published.
Common questions
- Is Linq Blue the same thing as Linq?
- Yes. Linq is the company; Linq Blue is its blue-bubble messaging product. Both terms get searched independently, which is why they look like two vendors. The unrelated one-letter neighbour is Blinq, a digital business card company with no messaging product at all.
- Which is cheaper, Linq Blue or Blooio?
- Blooio, on the evidence available. It publishes a $39/month flat rate with no per-message fee. Linq publishes no pricing for Linq Blue at all — billing is per line through a sales conversation, and setup fees have been reported but not published.
- Does Blooio have SOC 2?
- It makes no comparable public claim. Linq advertises SOC 2 Type II, as does Photon. If a security review is in your path, that is the single biggest difference between these two.