10 Best SMS APIs: Nexmo, Telesign, Twilio, and More

Short Messaging Service, commonly shortened to SMS, is a popular method for sending text messages between mobile phones. Compared to other forms of communication such as email or phone calls, sending an SMS has several advantages, including cost-effectiveness, discreetness, less time consumption, and high open rates.

With an SMS API (Application Programming Interface) platform, you can send text messages and leverage the benefits of this popular communication solution. For example, some APIs will allow you to send bulk short messages (usually about 160 characters per message) and market your products cost-effectively to potential customers around the world.

We looked at several SMS APIs based on the following four main criteria:

API features: We evaluated the various features that make the APIs appealing for sending text messages.
Geographical coverage: We evaluated the geographical availability of each of the APIs.
Pricing: We reviewed the cost of using the APIs for sending short messages.
Ease of use: We assessed the ease of integrating each of the APIs into applications.

Eventually, we came up with the following list of top 10 best SMS APIs:

Top 10 Best SMS APIs

TL;DR: Here’s a table summarizing our findings.

API	API Features	Geographical Coverage	Pricing	Easy to Use?
Nexmo API	Send and receive bulk SMS, private SMS, notifications, phone number verification	Global	Free inbound SMS and $0.0069 per outbound SMS (U.S.)	Yes
The TeleSign Score API	Provides a score of 0 to 1,000 for identifying fraudulent phone numbers	Global	Free and varying paid plans from $25 to $500 per month	Yes
The TeleSign SMS API	Delivery notifications, reminders, one-time passwords, two-way private SMS, two-factor authentication	Global	Free and varying paid plans from $10 to $250 per month	Yes
The Twilio SMS API	Sending short codes, smart content handling, text message delivery intelligence	Global	Varying paid plans from $10 to $250 per month	Yes
Twilio Lookup API	Get information about phone numbers, point out local-friendly phone number formats, recognize caller names.	Global	Pay-per-use pricing of $0.005 or $0.01 per request	Yes
Twilio Verify Phone Number API	Request a verification code to be sent to a user via SMS or voice	Global	Varying paid plans from $10 to $200 per month	Yes
SMSly – SMS to INDIA API	Get OTP SMS delivery services, secured SMS routes, priority SMS gateway routes, live delivery reports	India only	Free and varying paid plans from $25.99 to $189.99 per month	Yes
MessageBird SMS Gateway API	Send and receive text messages, verify message delivery status, lookup for invalid phone numbers	Global	Free	Yes
Octopush SMS API	Delivery reports, 2-way SMS, 2-factor authentication, push SMS, scheduled SMS	Global	Free	Yes
FreeSMS8 API	Send unlimited text messages, group SMS, classified messages, scheduled messages	India Only	Free	Yes

1. Nexmo API

Nexmo offers state-of-the-art communication solutions that allow developers to embed voice and messaging capabilities into their business systems, websites, and mobile applications.

API features: The Nexmo RESTful SMS API allows you to send and receive bulk SMS, offer private SMS communication, broadcast text messages with low latency and optimized delivery rates, send event-based notifications, and verify phone numbers. The API also supports other popular messaging platforms like Viber, WhatsApp Business, and Facebook Messenger.

Geographical coverage: With the Nexmo SMS API, you can programmatically send and receive text messages anywhere in the world.

Pricing: Nexmo employs a pay-as-you-go pricing model, which varies from country to country. For example, with a U.S. virtual phone number, you can receive messages for free. However sending messages cost $0.0069 per message.

Ease of use: Nexmo has resourceful libraries, tutorials, and tools to help you in integrating communication features into your application without many hassles.

2. TeleSign Score API

The TeleSign Score API provides reputation scoring to phone numbers, allowing you to recognize those used for fraudulent activities.

API features: The TeleSign Score API relies on phone number intelligence, traffic patterns, machine learning, as well as an international data consortium to assist in detecting fraudulent phone numbers. After submitting a phone number to the API, it is evaluated and a score is returned that indicates its level of fraud risk. The score ranges from 0 to 1,000 and assists to determine whether to block, flag, or validate the phone number.

Geographical coverage: It’s available worldwide.

Pricing: Using the API is free for up to 30 requests per month. For more intense usage, you’ll need to go for any of its paid plans, which ranges from $25 per month to $500 per month.

Ease of use: There is expansive documentation to assist you in implementing the API into your application with ease.

3. TeleSign SMS Verify API

The TeleSign SMS Verify API allows you to verify the authenticity of users and increase the security of your web and mobile applications.

API features: The TeleSign SMS API allows developers to integrate message delivery notifications, reminders, one-time and time-based passcodes for users verification, as well as two-way private communication capabilities. You can use the API to add two-factor authentication and enhance the security of your application. Furthermore, the API allows you to send one-time passcodes to Facebook Messenger users, automatically split long SMS messages, and cleanse phone numbers for increased delivery.

Geographical coverage: TeleSign provides its services to more than 200 countries and territories in more than 85 languages.

Pricing: You can create an account and begin testing the TeleSign SMS Verify API for free, but you’ll be limited to 1000 credits per month. If you want more credits, you can go for any of its paid plans, which ranges from $10 per month to $250 per month.

Ease of use: TeleSign provides easy-to-follow documentation, extensive developer tools, and 24/7 support to ensure you flawlessly implement its messaging API into your application.

4. Twilio SMS API

Twilio is a widely used platform that lets developers integrate communication capabilities into their web and mobile applications. With the Twilio SMS API, you can incoporate powerful messaging capabilities to your applications.

API features: The Twilio SMS API comes with several features, including using short codes to send and receive SMS, phone numbers in several countries, smart content handling such as MMS rich-media support, message records deleting, and text message delivery intelligence such as message queuing.

Geographical coverage: The Twilio SMS API allows you to send and receive messages to carrier networks around the world.

Pricing: For $10 per month, you’ll get 100,000 credits for using the API. If you want higher credit limits, you can subscribe to any of the other paid plans, which ranges from $25 per month to $250 per month.

Ease of use: There are helper libraries, comprehensive documentation in the most popular programming languages, and versatile debugging tools to allow you to easily embed the API into your application.

5. Twilio Lookup API

The Twilio Lookup API lets you get additional information about phone numbers so that you can increase the efficiency of your communication.

API features: With the Twilio Lookup API, you can programmatically find information about phone numbers and lower the possibility of undelivered text messages, point out local-friendly phone number formats, and recognize caller names. Currently, the API supports the following three main types of data: caller name, carrier information, and region-specific phone number formatting and validation.

Geographical coverage: The API enables you to lookup phone numbers from carriers worldwide.

Pricing: The API is charged on a pay-per-use basis. A request that includes a carrier costs $0.005 per request while a request that includes a caller name costs $0.01 per request.

Ease of use: Twilio offers a wide range of helpful resources to ensure developers make the most of its Lookup API. You’ll get comprehensive documentation and detailed SDKs to assist you in getting started quickly.

6. Twilio Verify Phone Number API

The Twilio Verify Phone Number API allows you to validate phone number ownership, lower fraudulent accounts, and enhance the security of your applications.

API features: With the Twilio Verify Phone Number API, you can request a verification code to be sent to a user’s device and confirm that a received code is authentic. The API supports codes to be sent to users via SMS or voice.

Geographical coverage: The API allows you to send verification codes to carrier networks around the world.

Pricing: For $10 per month, you can perform up to 200 verifications per month. If you want to perform a higher number of verifications, you can subscribe to any of the other paid plans, which ranges from $20 per month to $200 per month.

Ease of use: The Twilio Verify API is easy to use. Apart from offering detailed documentation, there are tutorials and SDKs to assist you in getting started fast.

7. SMSly – SMS to INDIA API

The SMSly – SMS to INDIA API is a simple API that allows you to send text messages cheaply and easily to users.

API features: SMSly – SMS to INDIA API offers one-time-passwords (OTP) SMS delivery services, which can be used for user authentication. Furthermore, the API provides secured SMS routes, priority SMS gateway routes, and live delivery reports.

Geographical coverage: It’s available only in India.

Pricing: With the API, you’ll get 30 free SMS/OTP each month. To send a higher number of messages, you can opt for any of its paid plans, which ranges from $25.99 per month to $189.99 per month.

Ease of use: SMSLy offers easy-to-follow documentation and other helpful developer resources to assist you in easily supercharging your application with robust messaging capabilities.

8. MessageBird SMS Gateway API

MessageBird is an Amsterdam-based telecom company that offers reliable APIs to simplify SMS, voice, and chat communications.

API features: The MessageBird SMS Gateway API lets developers embed the sending and receiving of text messages to their applications. Every message is accompanied by a unique ID, which enables users to verify the delivery status of a message. Furthermore, you can also use the API to lookup for invalid phone numbers and avoid sending messages to them.

Geographical coverage: MessageBird has more than 900 global carrier networks, which allows you to send and receive text messages in any country or language in the world.

Pricing: The API is offered for free. However, sending and receiving Premium SMS messages is charged.

Ease of use: The messaging API is easy to use. Apart from offering detailed documentation, there are tutorials and SDKs to assist you in getting started fast.

9. Octopush SMS API

Octopush is a French-based online service for sending text messages with your business systems or applications.

API features: The Octopush SMS API allows you to leverage Octopush’s infrastructure and send text messages. With the API, you can manage delivery reports, include 2-way SMS, embed 2-factor authentication, send push SMS, send scheduled SMS, and check your credit balance. Furthermore, the Octopush API supports integrations with more than 300 applications, such as Gmail, Magento, Dropbox, and Zendesk.

Geographical coverage: You can use the API to send large volumes of text messages to more than 200 countries globally.

Pricing: The API is offered for free.

Ease of use: Octopush provides simple documentation in most of the popular programming languages. As such, registered users can easily integrate the SMS API using HTTP, HTTPs, or SMTP protocols.

10. FreeSMS8 API

The FreeSMS8 API lets you send unlimited SMS to any Indian mobile phone number.

API features: With the FreeSMS8 API, you can send an unlimited number of text messages easily and fast. It allows you to send group SMS, classified messages, and scheduled messages.

Geographical coverage: It’s available only in India.

Pricing: The API is provided for free.

Ease of use: There is simple documentation and other beneficial developer-friendly resources to help you in troubleshooting any integration issues.

That’s Rakuten RapidAPI’s list of Top 10 Best SMS APIs. We hope you’ll find an API that you can implement into your application and send text messages around the world!

About Rakuten RapidAPI

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