A2P 10DLC
Sole Proprietor vs standard brand: which A2P 10DLC registration do you need?
6 min read
The first question in any A2P 10DLC registration is which kind of brand you are. Get it wrong and you either wait weeks for a rejection or end up with a registration that cannot send the volume you need. The choice comes down to one thing: do you have an EIN?
What a standard brand is
A standard brand is a registered business with an EIN. Registration checks the legal name, EIN and address against public records, and the brand receives a trust score that sets how many messages a day its campaigns can send. A standard brand can register multiple campaigns, so the same business can run appointment reminders and marketing as separate campaigns if it wants to.
This is the right choice for any LLC, corporation, partnership or non-profit, and for a sole trader who has obtained an EIN. Most agencies registering client sub-accounts are registering standard brands.
What a Sole Proprietor brand is
Sole Proprietor registration exists for individuals who run a business without an EIN. Instead of business tax details it uses the person's own name, address and a mobile phone number, which is verified with a one time code sent by text. There is no trust score vetting; the throughput is fixed and low.
- One campaign only, and it must be the Sole Proprietor use case
- A daily cap of roughly 1,000 message segments across the major carriers, with per-second limits on top
- One mobile number for verification, and it cannot already be tied to another Sole Proprietor brand
- The messages have to be for that individual's own business, not for someone else
How to choose
If you have an EIN, register as a standard brand. There is no advantage to Sole Proprietor for a business that qualifies for the standard route, and the limits will bite the moment you send a campaign to more than a few hundred contacts.
If you do not have an EIN and you are a genuine one person operation sending modest volume, Sole Proprietor is the correct and faster option. It is also the only option, since a standard brand cannot be registered without an EIN.
If you do not have an EIN but you expect real volume, get an EIN first. It is free from the IRS and takes minutes online for a US resident. Then register as a standard brand. That single step turns a 1,000 segment cap into a trust-scored brand that can grow with the business.
Two situations people get wrong
Registering two Sole Proprietor brands for the same person to get two numbers. Each one needs its own verification mobile, and the second registration is frequently rejected because the person is already on file. If you need more than one campaign or more throughput, that is what the standard brand is for.
Registering a client's sub-account as a Sole Proprietor under the agency owner's name because the client has no EIN handy. The brand has to be the business that the messages are sent for. Ask the client for their EIN, or if they genuinely have none, register them as a Sole Proprietor in their own name with their own mobile.
What stays the same for both
The website requirements, the opt-in rules, the sample message rules and the restricted content rules apply to Sole Proprietor campaigns exactly as they do to standard ones. A Sole Proprietor still needs a privacy policy that says mobile data is not shared, still needs visible consent language, and still needs STOP in the samples.
Questions people ask
Can I upgrade from Sole Proprietor to a standard brand later?
Yes. Once you have an EIN you register a new standard brand and campaign, move the number across when it is approved, and retire the Sole Proprietor registration.
Is the Sole Proprietor route faster?
Brand verification is faster because it is a text message code rather than a records check. Campaign review still goes through the same queue as everything else.