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Sparetext vs SMS Gateway for Android
SMS 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.
SMS Gateway for Android is the one to pick if texts must never leave your network. Both have end-to-end encryption and MMS; Sparetext adds iPhone (MMS too, through a Mac), AI agents over a hosted MCP server, and phones that keep sending through Android's limit and radio errors.
Ask your AI about this page:ChatGPT (opens in a new tab)Claude (opens in a new tab)Perplexity (opens in a new tab)
Choose Sparetext if
- You have an iPhone, or a Mac next to one.
- An AI agent should text through a hosted MCP server with OAuth.
- Long texts must not hit Android's limit (counted per part) and texts mustn't stick in Processed.
- Setup by scanning a QR code, with steps for 17 phone makers' battery settings.
Choose SMS Gateway for Android if
- You want a local server on the phone, no cloud at all.
- You want SIM rotation.
- You want data SMS.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Sparetext | SMS Gateway for Android |
|---|---|---|
| Texts come from your own number | Yes: Your phone's SIM | Yes: Your Android's SIM |
| iPhone | Yes: Through a Mac relay, a Shortcut, or tap to send | No: Android only |
| 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 | No: None found |
| An agent can wait for the person's reply | Yes: wait_for_reply returns the reply, or a code in it | 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 | No: No MCP |
| Cost per text | Yes: None from us; your carrier plan | Yes: None from them; your carrier plan |
| Free plan | Yes: 1 phone, 300 texts a month | Yes: Free cloud server; ask above 10,000 a day |
| Paid plan | Yes: $12.74 a month or $84.99 a year: 5 phones, 10,000 texts; from $5 in many countries | Yes: Free; self-host for more |
| Registration before US texts (A2P 10DLC) | Partly: No registration step; carriers can still filter business texts from a personal SIM | Partly: The same |
| Delivery reports | Yes: Per part; a failure names the carrier's TP-Status | Partly: First part's report marks the text |
| Android's limit of 30 parts a minute | Yes: Counted per part; texts wait instead of failing | Partly: Caps count requests, not parts |
| Retries when the radio refuses | Yes: Held and sent when service is back, up to 30 min | No: Fails |
| Webhooks | Yes: HMAC with a timestamp, 8 tries over 28 hours | Yes: HMAC with a timestamp, about 15 tries |
| A different text per recipient | Yes: messages[] in one call; CSV with {{column}} in the dashboard | Partly: CSV through a separate CLI |
| Choose the SIM per text | Yes: sim: 1 or 2; never falls back to the other number | Yes: simNumber, with rotation |
| Scheduling and expiry | Yes: scheduledAt, and ttl per text | Yes: scheduleAt, and ttl per text |
| Sending hours | Yes: Per phone, by weekday, in its time zone | Yes: Daily working hours |
| Open source, self-hosted | No: Hosted only | Yes: Server on the phone, or your own |
| End-to-end encryption | Yes: Opt-in: AES-256-GCM on your devices, words and pictures both ways; each text bound to its number | Yes: RSA in the Keystore wrapping AES-GCM |
| MMS | Yes: Android, and the Mac relay, so iPhone owners too | Yes: Yes, and data SMS |
| Thousands of texts a day, short codes, sender IDs | No: Carriers filter bulk texts from a personal SIM | No: Same limit: a phone |
Swipe the table sideways for every column. →
Questions people ask
- Can SMS Gateway for Android send from an iPhone?
- No, it's Android only. Sparetext sends from an iPhone's number through a Mac relay, a Shortcut, or tap to send.
- Which is more private?
- SMS Gateway for Android can run with no cloud at all. Sparetext is hosted, but with private mode on we hold only ciphertext of the words and pictures: AES-256-GCM under a key from your passphrase, bound to each recipient. Numbers and times stay readable so texts can be routed.
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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: SMS Gateway for Android on GitHub, SMS Gateway docs, SMS Gateway pricing.
Try it on the phone you have.
Free for 1 phone and 300 texts a month. An Android pairs in two minutes.