Sparetext compared with other SMS gateways and APIs
There are two kinds of tools for sending texts from code. Phone gateways send from a phone you own, on its SIM and plan. SMS APIs rent you a number and charge for each text. Here is how Sparetext stands against both, including where it loses.
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Pick by what you need
- Texts from your own number, on Android or iPhone, sent by your code or an AI agent
- Sparetext
- A gateway you host yourself, or no cloud at all
- SMS Gateway for Android, textbee or httpSMS
- Pictures (MMS) or end-to-end encryption, on Android or with a Mac for iPhone
- Sparetext
- Marketing, thousands a day, short codes or sender IDs
- Twilio, or another A2P provider
Feature by feature
| Feature | Sparetext | textbee | httpSMS | SMS Gateway for Android | Twilio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texts come from your own number | Yes: Your phone's SIM | Yes: Your Android's SIM | Yes: Your Android's SIM | Yes: Your Android's SIM | No: A number you rent from Twilio |
| iPhone | Yes: Through a Mac relay, a Shortcut, or tap to send | No: Android only | No: Android only | No: Android only | Partly: No phone involved |
| MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and other agents | Yes: Hosted, with OAuth sign-in: send, send a text per person, wait for a reply, read threads, check phones | Yes: Hosted: send_sms, get_messages, list_devices | No: None found | No: None found | Partly: Open-source alpha server you run with your own keys |
| An agent can wait for the person's reply | Yes: wait_for_reply returns the reply, or a code in it | Partly: Poll get_messages | Partly: Your own code, by webhook | Partly: Your own code, by webhook | Partly: Your own code, by webhook |
| Connect an assistant without pasting a key | Yes: Add the URL as a connector in Claude or ChatGPT and sign in | Partly: Not stated in their docs | No: No MCP | No: No MCP | Partly: Account SID and key in a local config |
| Cost per text | Yes: None from us; your carrier plan | Yes: None from them; your carrier plan | Yes: None from them; your carrier plan | Yes: None from them; your carrier plan | No: $0.0083 a US segment, plus $0.0035 to $0.005 in carrier fees |
| Free plan | Yes: 1 phone, 300 texts a month | Yes: 1 phone, 300 a month, 50 a day | Yes: 200 texts a month | Yes: Free cloud server; ask above 10,000 a day | Partly: Trial: 100 texts, to numbers you verify |
| Paid plan | Yes: $12.74 a month or $84.99 a year: 5 phones, 10,000 texts; from $5 in many countries | Yes: $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year: 5 phones, 5,000 texts | Yes: $10 a month or $100 a year: 5,000 texts | Yes: Free; self-host for more | Partly: Per text, plus $1.15 a month per number and 10DLC fees |
| Registration before US texts (A2P 10DLC) | Partly: No registration step; carriers can still filter business texts from a personal SIM | Partly: The same | Partly: The same | Partly: The same | No: Brand ($4.50+) and campaign ($15 vetting, $1.50 to $10 a month) |
| Delivery reports | Yes: Per part; a failure names the carrier's TP-Status | Partly: Any report counts as delivered | Partly: Only the last part counts | Partly: First part's report marks the text | Yes: Carrier status callbacks |
| Android's limit of 30 parts a minute | Yes: Counted per part; texts wait instead of failing | No: Fixed 5 s gap; the limit isn't read | Partly: 10 texts a minute, counts texts not parts | Partly: Caps count requests, not parts | Partly: Not a phone; Twilio queues by throughput |
| Retries when the radio refuses | Yes: Held and sent when service is back, up to 30 min | No: Fails | No: Fails | No: Fails | Yes: Handled by the carrier network |
| Webhooks | Yes: HMAC with a timestamp, 8 tries over 28 hours | Yes: HMAC, 10 tries over 30 days | Partly: JWT not covering the body, 2 tries | Yes: HMAC with a timestamp, about 15 tries | Yes: Signed status and inbound webhooks |
| A different text per recipient | Yes: messages[] in one call; CSV with {{column}} in the dashboard | Yes: Bulk API and a CSV wizard with templates | Yes: CSV or Excel upload, under 1,000 rows | Partly: CSV through a separate CLI | Partly: One API call per text |
| Choose the SIM per text | Yes: sim: 1 or 2; never falls back to the other number | Yes: simSubscriptionId | Yes: Each SIM is its own from number | Yes: simNumber, with rotation | Partly: Pick the from number |
| Scheduling and expiry | Yes: scheduledAt, and ttl per text | Partly: scheduledAt; no expiry per text | Yes: send_at; expiry per phone | Yes: scheduleAt, and ttl per text | Yes: Scheduled messages and validity period |
| Sending hours | Yes: Per phone, by weekday, in its time zone | No: Not found | Yes: Weekly send windows per phone | Yes: Daily working hours | No: Not built in |
| Open source, self-hosted | No: Hosted only | Yes: Docker, with your own Firebase | Yes: Docker, with your own Firebase | Yes: Server on the phone, or your own | No: Hosted only |
| End-to-end encryption | Yes: Opt-in: AES-256-GCM on your devices, words and pictures both ways; each text bound to its number | No: Texts travel in the push message | Partly: Passphrase AES without integrity check | Yes: RSA in the Keystore wrapping AES-GCM | No: TLS |
| MMS | Yes: Android, and the Mac relay, so iPhone owners too | No: SMS only | Yes: Yes | Yes: Yes, and data SMS | Yes: US and Canada |
| Thousands of texts a day, short codes, sender IDs | No: Carriers filter bulk texts from a personal SIM | No: Same limit: a phone | No: Same limit: a phone | No: Same limit: a phone | Yes: Built for it |
Swipe the table sideways for every column. →
One at a time
- Sparetext vs textbeetextbee is an open-source Android SMS gateway with a hosted dashboard and a REST API.
- Sparetext vs httpSMShttpSMS is an open-source Android app and API that sends SMS from your phone, with end-to-end encryption by passphrase.
- Sparetext vs SMS Gateway for AndroidSMS Gateway for Android (capcom6, sms-gate.app) is an open-source app with a server on the phone itself, or a cloud or private server.
- Sparetext vs TwilioTwilio is a cloud messaging API: you rent numbers and pay per message segment, with carrier fees and US A2P 10DLC registration.
Questions people ask
- What's the difference between a phone SMS gateway and an SMS API like Twilio?
- A phone gateway (Sparetext, textbee, httpSMS, SMS Gateway for Android) sends from a phone you own, on its SIM and carrier plan, so there's no per-text fee and the texts come from your number. An A2P API like Twilio, Plivo or Telnyx rents you a number and charges per message segment, with registration (A2P 10DLC in the US), and is built for volume.
- Which SMS gateway works with an iPhone?
- Sparetext. Apple lets no app send texts silently, so it uses the paths Apple allows: a Mac relay that sends through Messages with Text Message Forwarding (fully automatic, reads replies), a Shortcut that sends while the app is open, or tap to send. textbee, httpSMS and SMS Gateway for Android are Android only.
- Which one can an AI agent use?
- Sparetext and textbee both host an MCP server. Sparetext's signs in with OAuth, so Claude and ChatGPT connectors need no pasted key, and has wait_for_reply, so an agent can text someone and act on the answer. textbee's sends, reads messages and lists devices. Twilio has an open-source alpha server you run with your own keys. httpSMS and SMS Gateway for Android have REST APIs an agent can call through code.
- When is a phone gateway the wrong choice?
- For marketing, thousands of texts a day, short codes, sender IDs, or numbers in many countries. Under the US carriers' rules, business texts sent by software are application-to-person even from a phone, so carriers can filter them; Android also sends 30 message parts a minute by default. Use a registered A2P provider for that.
Checked on October 29, 2026 against each product's own docs, pricing pages and source code. Something out of date? Write to hello@sparetext.dev and we'll fix it. Sources: textbee on GitHub, textbee docs, textbee pricing, httpSMS on GitHub, httpSMS docs, httpSMS pricing, SMS Gateway for Android on GitHub, SMS Gateway docs, SMS Gateway pricing, Twilio SMS pricing (US), Twilio A2P 10DLC fees, Twilio MCP server, CTIA Messaging Principles.
Try it on the phone you have.
Free for 1 phone and 300 texts a month. An Android pairs in two minutes.