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My application needs to verify phone numbers that are provided by the user. What is the absolute cheapest way to send an SMS to a phone? Which company/API should I go to? I'm not looking for a hack solution to send out 10 SMS a month kind of thing, I need to roll this out for a company that will be sending mass amount of verifications. But they want to do it at the lowest cost. (Each user will only need to verify once)

Sorry forgot mention the SMS needs to be international

erotsppa
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  • first question is from and to what country\countries? –  Jan 04 '11 at 04:30
  • For users from USA and few other countries you can send email to @.tld and user will get email as sms. – Shahid Jan 21 '11 at 17:46
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    http://www.ehow.com/how_4481587_send-picture-cell-phone-pc.html – scragz Jan 22 '11 at 00:35
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    I heard about a service called cognalys [link](https://www.cognalys.com/). They provides an android SDK which is easy to plug and play . They verify the mobile number via missed call . Like whatsapp done before . Its very Cheap and they provide a Free Account . The Way of verifying mobile number via Self SMS is applicable for well published apps. – Aslam Khan Sep 18 '14 at 11:12
  • Since users can register from any part of the world, Your best shot is https://cheapglobalsms.com – tormuto Oct 17 '15 at 05:59
  • @tormuto Pricing is explayed while confusing. Still don't know if you support my network, nor the price of it. Payment methods are quite strange not accepting Visa cards that can rollback payments if fraud, and the relation with Nigeria adds a new layer of untrustness for you. I'll not even test that service, wich did suggest to make http calls using keys on the url (from docs/page). Don't seems so serious, im so sorry. – m3nda Jul 28 '16 at 01:37
  • @erm3nda You should have checked the coverage list to find out if your country is supported (displayed on https://cheapglobalsms.com/coverage_list ) for every networks on each country. The payment method includes Western union, Perfectmoney and Bitcoin for international customers (if you've been around on internet for a while, you would have known about all these 'strange' payment methods). * The API calls & widget supports both http and https request, a developer can decide whichever is suitable for his application * About Nigeria, CheapGlobalSMS.com has customers from around the world. – tormuto Aug 03 '16 at 11:49
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    "Western union, Perfectmoney and Bitcoin" are perfect methods to avoid refunds. Okay. – m3nda Aug 03 '16 at 16:12
  • I'm using www.plivo.com. Its cheap. – Rahul Mar 21 '17 at 17:47

10 Answers10

22

I'd suggest using TextAnywhere:

Text Anywhere

They provide API's (C, Java, .Net, PHP etc) for several languages and provide a multitude of rates and packages depending on the volume of texts sent.

They're also very flexible with regards to payment - they do pre-pay, PAYG and fixed monthly limits.

Pricing

We used them for a large-sized application to send alert notification messages and they were very reliable. They also give 15% discount for registered charities and academic institutions.

Michael
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    Charging 7.5 cents per sms is pretty expensive I would say....... – Pacerier Aug 16 '13 at 10:56
  • @Pacerier Possibly, but remember that if you're using this service, you're not just paying for the SMS itself - it's also covering the cost of their servers / services which you'll interact with to send the texts. Granted, for low usage the cost per text is more that you'd typically pay your carrier - but paying around 4 pence for the service they provide seems pretty cheap IMHO. – Michael Aug 19 '13 at 15:18
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    @Mikaveli, it's expensive because there are tons offering cheaper. It's all relative. – Pacerier Aug 19 '13 at 15:19
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    Maybe so - but bear in mind this answer is over 30 months old... – Michael Aug 19 '13 at 16:15
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    @Pacerier is the electricity required to send the SMS included too? If so that's a real bargain lol! – Anthony Hunt Oct 11 '14 at 16:43
  • I've tried http://nexmo.com services with the free trial .There are good Python bindings for Nexmo API in github, so the work is already done. In Spain the price is 0.06€/sms and for 0.09€/verification confirmed. I would clarify that verify services can be made using just sms, but they offer it as extra (w/ extra cost). I know they're cheaper in USA and others, and of course, does support International. I even noticed that if the verify is not confirmed by your app, system will call user to request the code, wich is of course part of it's price at all. I'll try many others but Nexmo is not bad – m3nda Jul 28 '16 at 01:17
20

Twilio is the best, fastest, cheapest and has a TON of amazing features you may choose to use in the future

http://www.twilio.com/

sethvargo
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    he didn't specify that... originally – sethvargo Jan 04 '11 at 13:14
  • and they have some international services - he does't seem to need a lot - http://www.twilio.com/faq/international – sethvargo Jan 04 '11 at 13:15
  • One problem I see here is that the information going to twilio servers; they say they don't keep the information but how can you be sure. – H A Feb 01 '16 at 20:14
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    twilio IS NOT cheap. It costs $0.06 usd per sms for SMS to uganda (outside USA). Thats much more expensive t.han local sms – Dr Deo May 24 '18 at 10:52
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    Such a lie. Twilio is one of, if not the most expensive out there!! – Pila Aug 12 '18 at 10:13
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    twilio is really expensive – Petros Kyriakou Nov 09 '18 at 20:02
  • Twilio doesn't support Local Sms on some other countries (i.e. France). You need to purchase a different Number with different country codes to send to these numbers which doesn't make sense since it would cost more. Local numbers is NA(Not Available). You can refer to this link for reference: https://www.twilio.com/sms/pricing/fr – MJ Montes Apr 22 '19 at 04:03
10

You're looking for a bulk SMS provider that can send internationally. A web search for "bulk sms" will show tons, including some I have experience with: clickatel, mblox, clx. The simplest way to interact with such services is via HTTP by POSTing your submissions to their gateway.

Fanis Hatzidakis
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9

The absolute cheapest way (I can think of) is set up a system yourself.

By a contract to some cell phone provider and hook this up to your linux computer.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12057

Here is a thread discussing the set up process on linux. It's not a walk in the park but it is cheap.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100130041340/http://www.dealextreme.com/forums/Default.dx/sku.12057~threadid.88670

Lime
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3

You might take a look at using a Google Voice API, because it'd be free. I'm not sure which language you're using but here's a API for python that should let you do it. http://code.google.com/p/pygooglevoice/

jamiegs
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    Apparently Google Voice can't sent international text messages. But if you were to use it for US text messages and Text Anywhere for International you could save some money. – jamiegs Jan 22 '11 at 00:15
  • I'll never store my data in google for free. Free is only if you do a low usage on it. If you reach free limit the final price may not fit your needs. If also lacks international messaging is really "not good enough". – m3nda Jul 28 '16 at 01:40
  • It looks like Google Voice is no a longer valid option. – Chris Happy Feb 23 '21 at 03:34
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Try www.bulksms.com - they have been around for over 10 years now, and specialise in pure SMS messaging - nothing else. A simple HTTP API, good delivery, operational in UK, Europe, USA, Africa and more.

nspire
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It's fairly easy to send SMS via email as well. The downside is that you need to ask the end user what country and carrier they have.

Andrew
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If you need verify an mobile number, not send sms and not confirm propietary, then you should search for "HLR Look up gateways", it´s cheaper than send SMS.

fravelgue
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    HLR is like to see if a number is real, but you is not probing the ownage. Verify are usually made with missing call or pincode inside an sms. Yes, HLR is cheaper, but is not enough. – m3nda Jul 28 '16 at 01:06
0

You could prefer to use Zeep Mobile API. It is free for development and bulk message. Only due to sponsorships, it inserts ads into your messages.

Still it is a good one and worth a try.

http://www.zeepmobile.com/

Best of Luck!

jagbandhuster
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-1

UPDATE:

Well a new service called Number Guru launch and they offer a developers API, not sure if it's free

OLD:

I would suggest OpenMarket as a SMS aggregator. They offer Number Lookups as part of their service if you needed two-way communication with a Short Code.

If you just need to send a one-way SMS/Text message (Like alerts) but the user would have to opt-out via email and then be removed from your service. You could use something like Neustar number verification LEAP to do a number lookup (Which displays the carrier information) and use the SMS Email Gateway to send the SMS messages.

Phill Pafford
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    Took a look into Number Guru and as far as I can see it's a "know who called you" service, not a SMS sending service. Also I visited OpenMarket and I'm unable to find anywhere on their web where and how can I purchase their services, nor a pricing table. Useless. – Pere Aug 21 '16 at 14:32