SMS API — compare pricing, reliability & setup
Generated 2026-11-02 13:17 UTC · JSON
For app notifications & otp (us), the current pick is Telnyx (score 71.29). $40/mo at 100k messages.
Ranking — App notifications & OTP (US)
| Vendor | Score | 10k/mo | 100k/mo | 1M/mo | Free | Agent-friction | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Telnyx | 71.29 | $40 | $400 | $4000 | yes | 85 | 2026-11-02 |
| Bird (MessageBird) | 66.75 | $35 | $350 | $3500 | yes | 55 | 2026-11-02 |
| Twilio | 53.93 | $83 | $830 | $8300 | yes | 85 | 2026-11-02 |
| Plivo | 52.78 | $77 | $770 | $7700 | yes | 65 | 2026-11-02 |
| Vonage | 51.75 | $86 | $860 | $8600 | yes | 75 | 2026-11-02 |
Agent-friction — can a service be set up without a human?
Each check and its weight is published; the column total is the 0–100 agent-friction score.
| Check | Telnyx | Bird (MessageBird) | Twilio | Plivo | Vonage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test credentials without a credit card (20) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sandbox or test mode (15) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Setup with no human-only steps (15) | × | × | × | × | × |
| Official CLI (10) | ✓ | × | ✓ | × | ✓ |
| Official MCP server (10) | ✓ | × | ✓ | × | × |
| Markdown docs, current with the SDK (10) | ✓ | × | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Typed SDK for main languages (10) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Error messages that name the fix (10) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Score | 85 | 55 | 85 | 65 | 75 |
How this category is scored
Per use case, weights published in the data: fit 25% · cost 20% · integration 20% · agent_friction 15% · health 10% · lock_in 10%. Affiliate status is never an input.