The Twilio alternative that bills once a month, not once per text
Twilio is the standard for programmable messaging at scale, and it bills that way: per segment, per number, per carrier surcharge, plus registration before your first US text. If you send hundreds to a few thousand messages a month to your own customers, SharkSMS does it from an Android phone you already own, on the plan you already pay for, for one flat price.
Prices are as listed on each provider's public site on the date shown below. Ours comes from our live pricing table.
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Twilio is a carrier-grade API platform used by large products. It is excellent at what it does. The comparison below is about what a small business or a solo developer actually pays and sets up.
| What | Twilio | SharkSMS |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per message segment, plus a monthly fee per phone number, plus per-carrier surcharges. | Flat monthly subscription. Texts go out on the SIM plan of a phone you already own. |
| 5,000 texts in a month | About $41.50 in segment fees at $0.0083, plus the number, plus carrier surcharges of $0.0025 to $0.0045 per message. | The Professional plan price, and nothing per message. A busy month costs the same as a quiet one. |
| What sends the message | Twilio's carrier connections, from a number you rent. | Your own Android phone, paired with a QR code. Your SIM, your plan. |
| Number your customers see | A long code, toll-free or short code you rent from Twilio. | The number on your SIM. Usually the one your customers already have saved. |
| Yes, through the WhatsApp Business API, with template approval and per-conversation pricing. | Yes, by linking your WhatsApp account with a QR code. Text, photos, documents, groups. No template approval. | |
| Setup before the first message | Buy a number, then complete A2P 10DLC brand and campaign registration before US traffic is allowed. | Install the gateway app on a phone, scan a code, create an API key. About five minutes. |
| Replies and opt-outs | Inbound webhooks and Messaging Services; opt-out handling on supported numbers. | Inbound webhooks, an inbox in the dashboard, auto-replies, AI replies and flows. STOP handled automatically. |
| Best fit | High-volume, multi-country products that need carrier-grade throughput and SLAs. | Small businesses and developers sending reminders, alerts and offers to their own customers at a flat cost. |
Competitor figures as listed on Twilio's public pages on 19 August 2026 and may have changed since. Check their current pricing
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You send hundreds of thousands of messages a month, need guaranteed throughput across many countries, or need contractual delivery SLAs. A consumer phone is not built for that and we would not pretend otherwise.
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You send hundreds to a few thousand messages a month to your own customers, you want a predictable bill, and you would rather scan a QR code than register a brand before sending your first text.
Three plans, one flat price each
Live from our pricing table, so this is the price you will pay. Every plan includes SMS, WhatsApp, scheduling, replies and the API; they differ by contacts, phones and monthly volume.
- Free trial USD 0/ month 1 paired device · 10 SMS per month
- Professional USD 9/ month 3 paired devices · 2,000 SMS per month
- Enterprise USD 19/ month 50 paired devices · 5,000 SMS per month
Straight answers
Is SharkSMS as reliable as Twilio?
Different things. Twilio delivers over carrier connections with contractual SLAs. SharkSMS delivers over the phone you pair, so it is as reliable as that phone's plan and signal, and it reports every message's status back to you. For a shop sending reminders that is plenty; for a bank sending a million OTPs it is not.
What does switching involve?
Export your contacts as CSV or Excel and import them into SharkSMS. Pair an Android phone by scanning a QR code, or link a WhatsApp account. Point your code at /api/send/sms with a form POST. Most teams are sending the same afternoon.
Do I keep my number?
You use the SIM's own number, so if the phone you pair is the one your customers already know, yes. There is no number to rent and nothing to port.
Try it on the free plan first
Pair one phone, send a real message to yourself, and compare against your current bill. It takes about five minutes.
Start free