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Ask HN: Preferred SMS API Provider?

6 points by llmblockchain ↗ HN
I'm looking to replace Twilio, because I've never had a good experience with them. I'm looking for an API that is simple to get working and doesn't require a bunch of hoops to jump through (manual reviews, paying for verification and paying for every re-submission is not okay).

14 comments

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tripue
Hey! We might be able to help, built prelude.so for exactly that reason and many other (fraud prevention, multi-routing...). We had to built an internal solution for this back at Zenly which pushed us to create this tool!

What is your main use case?

llmblockchain
Thanks-- the main use case is sending account specific notifications to a user (if they prefer sms notifications). For example, an sms notification if an account balance is running low.
tripue
We can handle any kind of transactional message and take care of registration on your behalf. Happy to chat further if this interesting for you.
llmblockchain
I'll give it a try today-- some quick feedback, it worries me loading your landing page causes my CPU fan to kick up and CPU usage ramps up to 5%. I have no idea what you're doing on there but it worries me.
tripue
We made it using framer, will take a look how to optimize that, thanks for the feedback!
iamthefury
Honest question: is prelude.so suitable for marketing, including handling STOP replies and such?
tripue
We don’t manage anything else than transactional messages at the moment.

Do you have a marketing use case ? If so I would be eager to understand your main pain points.

howon92
What problems did you have with Twilio?
llmblockchain
Several years ago Twilio wasn't so bad. It always had pretty antiquated API practices and felt clunky but it worked.

Nowadays, it's expensive and contains a ton of hoops to jump through for business and a2p verification. They charge you for many things (monthly for a number, for verification, every submission for a2p and re-submission if they reject it for whatever reason). I tried to contact support and they wanted me to upgrade to a support plan to even ask a question.

If I don't find a simpler solution I'll remove transactional SMS messages entirely from my application. I'd rather remove it than deal with Twilio.

ops3936
I have been using Inteliquent, now part of Sinch. You can’t avoid campaign and vetting fees for any A2P traffic now.
fasteo
>>> manual reviews, paying for verification and paying for every re-submission is not okay

If you are referring to senderID registration (or 10DLC in the US), then things are getting really complicated thanks to the increase in smishing and the government regulations trying to stop it. In many countries, there is a significant amount of paperwork - and sometime fees - to do to allow your traffic to flow. Along with this, SMS margins have been really tight in the last 4-5 years (think 2%-3%), so these companies need to charge you for this paperwork and many times the rejections are not coming from them, but from the telco regulatory authority in a given country.

source: running a SMS service for the last 20 years.

llmblockchain
I get it. Spam sucks, and I get it for marketing purposes. However, when all you want to do is send low volume transactional messages (payment failure, etc) it really sucks.

I don't mind paying a premium. I'd happily pay 3x Twilio's messaging fee if I had no BS to go through.

fasteo
You are out of luck. No serious SMS aggregator will bypass regulations.

In my experience, Sinch has the best registration workflow (everything online, document templates and knowledgeable support team). Vonage is next.

smswhiz
Telgorithm is a good SMS API provider alternative, can't bypass registration/compliance but the process is hands on so you get help every step of the way and direct access to the technical team so you can avoid rejections/mistakes an not have to go through/pay for re-submission. Telgorithm typically sees Campaign approvals in 72hrs for customers. I'd check it out!