{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "bird", "name": "Bird API + MCP", "vendor": "Bird (formerly MessageBird)", "vendorUrl": "https://bird.com", "kind": "http-api", "category": "messaging", "summary": "Bird's rebuilt developer API sends SMS and WhatsApp (plus email and voice) from one account, with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, generated SDKs, a CLI and a hosted OAuth MCP server at mcp.bird.com.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bird", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bird.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bird.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bird.json", "repo": "https://github.com/messagebird/bird-ai", "license": "MIT", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http", "stdio" ], "remoteUrl": "https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1", "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@messagebird/sdk" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "messagebird-sdk" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Bearer API key scoped to a workspace, with editable permissions. The hosted MCP uses OAuth with per-workspace consent, and the CLI signs in through the browser. Accounts live in one region (us1 or eu1).", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Prepaid balance, pay as you go. US SMS $0.0035 a segment on long code or toll-free and $0.007 on short code, plus carrier fees. UK SMS $0.05. US 10DLC brand registration $4.50, campaign vetting $15, campaign fee $10 a month for most use cases ($1.50 low volume, $3 charity), billed quarterly. US WhatsApp $0.0084 per utility, authentication or service message and $0.03 per marketing message, Meta fees included. Free tiers cover email sending, the Inbox software and Realtime capacity, with no free SMS or WhatsApp. SDKs, CLI and MCP cost nothing extra (https://bird.com/pricing/sms.md).", "priceSummary": "Pay per use", "where": "both", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402 support in docs, pricing or MCP README (checked 2026-09-30).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 6, "npmWeekly": 67222, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://bird.com/docs", "llmsTxt": "https://bird.com/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://bird.com/openapi.json", "registryName": "com.bird/mcp", "capabilities": [ "messaging.sms", "messaging.whatsapp", "messaging.verify", "messaging.inbound" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "mcp", "llms-txt", "openapi", "typescript", "python", "webhooks", "whatsapp", "sms" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-02", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 76.5, "grade": "BB", "agentReady": true, "rank": 31, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1098, "categoryRank": 2, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 95, "maintenance": 83, "payments": 35, "reliability": 63, "schema": 92, "security": 85, "transparency": 80 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-04" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "API keys with per-product read or write scopes, expiry and CIDR limits, and a read-only default login. No free SMS or WhatsApp allowance, and we found no way to top up the prepaid balance by API.", "bestFor": "Agents that send SMS, WhatsApp and email from one account and need scoped credentials and safe retries.", "strengths": [ "API keys with per-product read or write scopes, expiry and CIDR limits, and a read-only default login", "Idempotency-Key with a 3-hour window on SMS and WhatsApp sends and other mutations, Retry-After on 429 and typed error codes", "OpenAPI 3.1 spec, llms.txt and Markdown pages", "An agent can sign up and create an organisation from the CLI with an emailed code", "US SMS $0.0035 a segment on long code and toll-free" ], "weaknesses": [ "No free SMS or WhatsApp allowance, and we found no way to top up the prepaid balance by API", "About 75 minutes of elevated US API errors and increased latency on 17 September 2026, writes most affected", "Rate-limit quotas aren't published, only returned in headers", "0.x releases several times a week, two of the last ten marked breaking", "No SLA found" ], "agentNotes": [ "Read RateLimit-Policy on each response to learn your quota, it isn't in the docs", "Send an Idempotency-Key on writes, SMS and WhatsApp sends included, and change it if the body changes or you'll get 409 E01005", "Treat `accepted` as received by Bird, then read the message back to confirm delivery", "Connect to mcp.bird.com/dynamic if your client struggles with large tool lists", "Log in with `--scope` or `--yolo` before sending, the default CLI login is read-only" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 8, "avgRating": 3.6, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "BB", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 76.5 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 95, "maintenance": 83, "payments": 35, "reliability": 63, "schema": 92, "security": 85, "transparency": 60 }, "provenanceScore": 99 }, "connect": { "http": "curl -X POST \"https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/sms/messages\" \\\n -H \"Authorization: Bearer $BIRD_API_KEY\" -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"to\":\"+14155550100\",\"from\":\"+15557654321\",\"text\":\"Hello from Bird\"}'", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http bird https://mcp.bird.com" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/messaging.sms", "tool": "https://letme.dev/bird" }, "area": "communication", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "SMS outbound, US long code or toll-free", "unit": "message", "usd": 0.0035, "note": "per segment, plus carrier fees" }, { "item": "SMS outbound, US short code", "unit": "message", "usd": 0.007, "note": "per segment, plus carrier fees" }, { "item": "SMS outbound, UK", "unit": "message", "usd": 0.05, "note": "per segment" }, { "item": "WhatsApp utility or authentication, US", "unit": "message", "usd": 0.0084, "note": "Meta fee included" }, { "item": "WhatsApp marketing, US", "unit": "message", "usd": 0.03, "note": "Meta fee included" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Bird B.V.", "domain": "bird.com", "domainRegistered": "1992-02-14", "domainNote": "bird.com's registration predates the MessageBird rebrand to Bird by decades.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://bird.com/legal/terms", "privacy": "https://bird.com/legal/privacy", "statusPage": "https://bird.com/status", "changelog": "https://bird.com/changelog", "securityTxt": "valid", "checked": "2026-09-30", "score": 99 }, "requirements": { "card": "paid-only", "freeTier": true, "minutes": 10, "credential": "api-key", "hosting": [ "US", "EU", "APAC" ], "euResidency": "yes", "trainsOnData": "unknown", "zeroRetention": "unknown", "dpa": true, "selfHost": "no" }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bird.json", "live": { "slug": "bird", "probe": { "target": "https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-16T12:47:05.315306055Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 426, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 99.98, "p50ms24h": 445, "p95ms24h": 462, "samples24h": 253, "samples30d": 4063, "days": [ { "date": "2026-09-30", "probes": 35, "ok": 35 }, { "date": "2026-10-01", "probes": 276, "ok": 276 }, { "date": "2026-10-02", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 271, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-06", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-07", "probes": 272, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 268, "ok": 268 }, { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-10", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-11", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-12", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-13", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-14", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-15", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-16", "probes": 136, "ok": 136 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://bird.com/status", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-10-16T10:49:05.131814153Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "mcp-registry", "name": "com.bird/mcp", "version": "0.118.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T04:52:45.478717111Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@messagebird/sdk", "version": "0.97.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T00:39:33.489316301Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "messagebird-sdk", "version": "0.96.0", "released": "2026-10-15", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T00:39:33.866118708Z" } ], "githubStars": 8, "npmWeekly": 68176, "pypiWeekly": 1308, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://bird.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2027-06-17T00:00:00.000Z", "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T15:48:25.583610856Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://bird.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T14:16:06.226701024Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "bird.com", "registered": "1992-02-14", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/bird.com", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:18:31.335620908Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://bird.com/changelog", "kind": "changelog", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T21:51:04.337757268Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-15T21:21:00.884982686Z", "fingerprint": "eb5fb15cf00f" }, { "url": "https://bird.com/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-01T13:11:27.781241412Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "fdeb1fb0c086" }, { "url": "https://bird.com/pricing/sms.md", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T21:51:10.344043834Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-15T21:51:10.344043834Z", "fingerprint": "a04153955a64" }, { "url": "https://bird.com/legal/privacy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T21:51:06.346473186Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-15T21:21:03.067196118Z", "fingerprint": "fb670e399adb" }, { "url": "https://bird.com/legal/terms", "kind": "terms", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T21:51:08.342697521Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-15T21:21:05.34217438Z", "fingerprint": "849e49d413a7" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-16T12:47:05.315306055Z" } }, "answer": "Bird API + MCP scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on reliability.", "b": { "slug": "photon", "name": "Photon", "vendor": "Photon", "vendorUrl": "https://photon.codes", "kind": "sdk", "category": "messaging", "summary": "Photon connects AI agents to iMessage, WhatsApp Business, Telegram and SIP voice through its spectrum-ts TypeScript SDK and managed iMessage lines. Photon 2.0, a public beta since 15 October 2026, adds an HTTP API that also covers email and SMS.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/photon.json", "repo": "https://github.com/photon-hq/spectrum-ts", "license": "Proprietary hosted service under Something Great Inc.'s terms of service. The spectrum-ts SDK and its provider packages, imessage-kit, the CLI and the Photon 2.0 API clients are MIT", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://spectrum.photon.codes", "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "spectrum-ts" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@photon-ai/cli" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@photon-ai/api" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "photonhq-api" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "The Stable Spectrum API takes the project ID and project secret as HTTP Basic credentials. The secret grants full management access to the project, doesn't expire on its own and is rotated with `photon projects regenerate-secret`. The SDK uses the same pair to mint per-line iMessage tokens, renewed at 80 per cent of their lifetime. The Dashboard API takes OAuth 2.1 tokens with PKCE and consented scopes, and the CLI logs in by a device flow approved in a browser, with a 7-day token. Photon 2.0 (Beta) uses separate bearer credentials with permissions, `pho_sk_` project keys and `pho_ask_` account service keys.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "Plan prices with no per-message fee for iMessage. Free is $0 for up to 10 users on shared numbers, Pro $25 a month for up to 100 users, Business $250 per dedicated line a month, and Enterprise on request (https://photon.codes/pricing, checked 2026-10-16). Whether the Free plan needs a card wasn't established. The Photon 2.0 beta has its own plans and usage rates for SMS, MMS, voice and email, and its announcement claims $100 of free credit.", "priceSummary": "$25 / mo", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in llms.txt, llms-full.txt, the docs pages read, the pricing page, the terms or either OpenAPI document (checked 2026-10-16). Billing runs through Stripe checkout and the Stripe customer portal.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": 107087, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-16" }, "docsUrl": "https://photon.codes/docs", "llmsTxt": "https://photon.codes/docs/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://spectrum.photon.codes/openapi/json", "capabilities": [ "messaging.sms", "messaging.rcs", "messaging.whatsapp", "messaging.inbound", "voice.sip" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "imessage", "whatsapp", "telegram", "sms", "rcs", "sip", "voice", "sdk", "typescript", "cli", "webhooks", "llms-txt", "openapi", "oauth", "opentelemetry", "open-source-sdk", "self-hosted-option", "status-page" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-15", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 53.5, "grade": "D", "agentReady": false, "rank": 757, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1098, "categoryRank": 12, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 63, "maintenance": 78, "payments": 20, "reliability": 68, "schema": 75, "security": 29, "transparency": 58 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-16" }, "negative": -2, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-10-16. The iMessage platform page states '99.95% Uptime' and infrastructure 'built for speed, stability, and 99.999% uptime' (https://photon.codes/platform/imessage). Photon's own status page shows 99.89 per cent for each iMessage component from July to October 2026, including a 2-hour 7-minute full outage on 2 September 2026 (https://status.photon.codes, https://status.photon.codes/incidents/ry86mwnd). A misleading claim, -2." ], "verdict": "Photon runs iMessage agents on managed lines backed by its own macOS clusters, with a typed TypeScript SDK, signed webhooks and docs written for agents. Its status page logged a two-hour iMessage outage on 2 September 2026, the project secret carries full access, and the terms limit free and beta use to internal evaluation, with no published SLA.", "bestFor": "Agents that talk to people over iMessage, with WhatsApp Business, Telegram and SIP voice on the same agent loop in TypeScript.", "strengths": [ "One `spectrum-ts` message stream covers iMessage, WhatsApp Business, Telegram and a local terminal, with typed narrowing for platform-specific calls", "No per-message fee for iMessage on any plan. Pro is $25 a month for up to 100 users", "Webhooks are signed with HMAC-SHA256 and a timestamp for a 5-minute replay window, and retried up to six times with jitter", "llms.txt, a Markdown twin of every docs page and a documentation MCP server, with a written rule for choosing Stable or Beta", "spectrum-ts is MIT, with 14 tagged releases from 20 July to 15 October 2026 and CI on Node and Bun" ], "weaknesses": [ "The status page logged a 2-hour full iMessage outage on 2 September 2026, from a power failure at Photon's data centre", "The project secret grants full management access, never expires on its own and has no read-only variant", "The terms limit free, trial and beta use to internal evaluation, 30 days by default, with liability capped at US$50", "No SLA document. Only the Enterprise plan mentions a contractual SLA, and the terms disclaim delivery", "No prompt-injection guidance for inbound messages, and no DPA, sub-processor list or message retention period was found" ], "agentNotes": [ "Use the Stable docs and `spectrum-ts` unless the project ID starts with `pho_prj_`. Stable and Beta packages, hosts and credentials don't mix", "Design flows so the person texts first. Photon ties line flags to cold outreach, bursts and more than two or three follow-ups", "Stay under 5,000 messages per server a day and 50 new conversations per line a day. Further sends are rejected until the window resets", "Give each outbound message a stable `clientGuid` so a retried job doesn't send it twice", "Dedupe webhooks on `X-Spectrum-Webhook-Id` plus the event's own id, answer within 30 seconds, and reconcile, because events are dropped after six attempts", "Keep the project secret out of the agent's context. It grants full management access and doesn't expire" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 4, "avgRating": 2.8, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "D", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 53.5 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 63, "maintenance": 78, "payments": 20, "reliability": 68, "schema": 75, "security": 29, "transparency": 38 }, "provenanceScore": 78 }, "connect": { "install": "npm install spectrum-ts", "http": "curl -u \"$PROJECT_ID:$PROJECT_SECRET\" \\\n \"https://spectrum.photon.codes/projects/$PROJECT_ID/webhooks/\"" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/messaging.sms", "tool": "https://letme.dev/photon" }, "area": "communication", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Pro plan", "unit": "month", "usd": 25, "note": "Up to 100 users on shared numbers, no per-message fee for iMessage" }, { "item": "Business plan, dedicated iMessage line", "unit": "month", "usd": 250, "note": "Per line. Cold outreach up to 50 new contacts a day per line" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Something Great Inc.", "domain": "photon.codes", "domainRegistered": "2025-10-10", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://photon.codes/terms-of-services", "privacy": "https://photon.codes/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.photon.codes", "changelog": "https://photon.codes/weekly-update/all", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-16", "notes": [ "The terms (undated) and the privacy policy (last updated 25 September 2026) name Something Great Inc. as Photon, with a notice address at 1111B S Governors Ave, Dover, Delaware.", "The terms still carry bracketed template text, including '[California]' and '[San Francisco, California]' for governing law and venue, and an acceptable use policy in brackets that links to the iMessage deliverability guide.", "RDAP for photon.codes gives a registration date of 10 October 2025. The API is at spectrum.photon.codes, iMessage lines at hosts under imsg.photon.codes, and the Beta API at api.photon.codes.", "photon.codes/.well-known/security.txt returned 404 on 16 October 2026. The photon-hq/api repository's SECURITY.md asks for reports through GitHub private vulnerability reporting.", "The changelog link is the weekly update index, whose last entry is dated 20 June 2026. The Beta API clients keep a CHANGELOG.md in photon-hq/api.", "robots.txt on photon.codes allows all user agents. status.photon.codes and the API hosts serve no robots.txt. The terms have no clause on automated access to the website.", "WebFetch was refused for photon.codes on 16 October 2026, so every page was read with curl. github.com web pages were refused by our session's proxy, so the repositories were read through git." ], "score": 78 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon.json", "live": { "slug": "photon", "probe": { "target": "https://spectrum.photon.codes", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-16T12:47:22.724063915Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 200, "lastMs": 213, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 219, "p95ms24h": 637, "samples24h": 29, "samples30d": 29, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-16", "probes": 29, "ok": 29 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.photon.codes", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-16T12:43:54.394910488Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-16T12:47:22.724063915Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "HTTP API", "b": "SDK + MCP", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Bird (formerly MessageBird)", "b": "Photon", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1", "b": "https://spectrum.photon.codes", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Pay per use", "b": "Freemium", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "$0.0035 per message", "b": "not published", "name": "Price for sms" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "MIT", "b": "Proprietary hosted service under Something Great Inc.'s terms of service. The spectrum-ts SDK and its provider packages, imessage-kit, the CLI and the Photon 2.0 API clients are MIT", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "com.bird/mcp", "b": "not listed", "name": "MCP registry" }, { "a": "2026-10-02", "b": "2026-10-15", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "2024-11-21", "b": "", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2026-08-31", "b": "", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "6 stars, 67k npm/wk", "b": "107k npm/wk", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3.6/5 (8)", "b": "2.8/5 (4)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Bird API + MCP scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on reliability.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Bird API + MCP or Photon?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Bird API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1 and Photon at https://spectrum.photon.codes.", "question": "Can an agent call Bird API + MCP and Photon without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Schema \u0026 documentation, 92 against 75", "Agent ergonomics, 95 against 63", "Security \u0026 auth, 85 against 29", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 35 against 20", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 83 against 78", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 80 against 58" ], "also": [ "Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better", "Runs on your own machine", "Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.6 against 2.8 out of 5" ], "goodFor": "Agents that send SMS, WhatsApp and email from one account and need scoped credentials and safe retries.", "slug": "bird", "watchFor": "No free SMS or WhatsApp allowance, and we found no way to top up the prepaid balance by API" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 68 against 63" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "Agents that talk to people over iMessage, with WhatsApp Business, Telegram and SIP voice on the same agent loop in TypeScript.", "slug": "photon", "watchFor": "The status page logged a 2-hour full iMessage outage on 2 September 2026, from a power failure at Photon's data centre" } ], "job": { "capability": "messaging.sms", "name": "SMS" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-end-user-messaging-vs-bird.json", "title": "AWS End User Messaging vs Bird API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-end-user-messaging-vs-bird" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-end-user-messaging-vs-photon.json", "title": "AWS End User Messaging vs Photon", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-end-user-messaging-vs-photon" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bandwidth-vs-bird.json", "title": "Bandwidth Messaging API + MCP vs Bird API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bandwidth-vs-bird" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bandwidth-vs-photon.json", "title": "Bandwidth Messaging API + MCP vs Photon", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bandwidth-vs-photon" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-clicksend.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs ClickSend SMS API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-clicksend" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-infobip.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs Infobip API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-infobip" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-plivo.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs Plivo API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-plivo" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-sendblue.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs Sendblue", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-sendblue" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-sinch.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs Sinch Messaging APIs + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-sinch" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-telnyx.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs Telnyx API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-telnyx" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-twilio.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs Twilio API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-twilio" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-vonage.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs Vonage Messages API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-vonage" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clicksend-vs-photon.json", "title": "ClickSend SMS API + MCP vs Photon", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clicksend-vs-photon" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/infobip-vs-photon.json", "title": "Infobip API + MCP vs Photon", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/infobip-vs-photon" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-plivo.json", "title": "Photon vs Plivo API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-plivo" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-sendblue.json", "title": "Photon vs Sendblue", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-sendblue" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-sinch.json", "title": "Photon vs Sinch Messaging APIs + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-sinch" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-telnyx.json", "title": "Photon vs Telnyx API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-telnyx" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-twilio.json", "title": "Photon vs Twilio API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-twilio" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-vonage.json", "title": "Photon vs Vonage Messages API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-vonage" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-telegram-bot.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs Telegram Bot API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-telegram-bot" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-telegram-bot.json", "title": "Photon vs Telegram Bot API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-telegram-bot" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/360dialog-vs-bird.json", "title": "360dialog WhatsApp API + MCP vs Bird API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/360dialog-vs-bird" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/360dialog-vs-photon.json", "title": "360dialog WhatsApp API + MCP vs Photon", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/360dialog-vs-photon" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Photon vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" } ], "scores": [ { "bird": 63, "by": 5, "edge": "photon", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "photon": 68, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "bird": 92, "by": 17, "edge": "bird", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "photon": 75, "weight": 13 }, { "bird": 95, "by": 32, "edge": "bird", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "photon": 63, "weight": 13 }, { "bird": 85, "by": 56, "edge": "bird", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "photon": 29, "weight": 14 }, { "bird": 35, "by": 15, "edge": "bird", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "photon": 20, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "bird": 83, "by": 5, "edge": "bird", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "photon": 78, "weight": 7 }, { "bird": 80, "by": 22, "edge": "bird", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "photon": 58, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Bird API + MCP scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on reliability. Both do sms.", "tutorials": [], "verdicts": { "bird": "API keys with per-product read or write scopes, expiry and CIDR limits, and a read-only default login. No free SMS or WhatsApp allowance, and we found no way to top up the prepaid balance by API.", "photon": "Photon runs iMessage agents on managed lines backed by its own macOS clusters, with a typed TypeScript SDK, signed webhooks and docs written for agents. Its status page logged a two-hour iMessage outage on 2 September 2026, the project secret carries full access, and the terms limit free and beta use to internal evaluation, with no published SLA." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-photon", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-photon.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-photon.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-photon.min.md" }, "markdown": "Bird API + MCP scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on reliability. Both do sms.\n\n- Bird API + MCP: grade BB, 76.5/100, rank #31 of 1098. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bird.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bird.json\n- Photon: grade D, 53.5/100, rank #757 of 1098. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/photon.json\n- Best SMS, WhatsApp and messaging APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/messaging/index.md\n- All 105 messaging comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/messaging/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Bird API + MCP (BB)\n\nGood for: Agents that send SMS, WhatsApp and email from one account and need scoped credentials and safe retries.\n\nAhead on:\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 92 against 75\n- Agent ergonomics, 95 against 63\n- Security \u0026 auth, 85 against 29\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 35 against 20\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 83 against 78\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 80 against 58\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better\n- Runs on your own machine\n- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.6 against 2.8 out of 5\n\nWatch for: No free SMS or WhatsApp allowance, and we found no way to top up the prepaid balance by API\n\n### Photon (D)\n\nGood for: Agents that talk to people over iMessage, with WhatsApp Business, Telegram and SIP voice on the same agent loop in TypeScript.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 68 against 63\n\nWatch for: The status page logged a 2-hour full iMessage outage on 2 September 2026, from a power failure at Photon's data centre\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Bird API + MCP | Photon | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 63 | 68 | Photon +5 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 75 | Bird API + MCP +17 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 63 | Bird API + MCP +32 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 85 | 29 | Bird API + MCP +56 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 20 | Bird API + MCP +15 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 78 | Bird API + MCP +5 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 58 | Bird API + MCP +22 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |\n| **Total** | | **76.5 · BB** | **53.5 · D** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Bird API + MCP | Photon |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |\n| Vendor | Bird (formerly MessageBird) | Photon |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1` | `https://spectrum.photon.codes` |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |\n| Price for sms | $0.0035 per message | not published |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | MIT | Proprietary hosted service under Something Great Inc.'s terms of service. The spectrum-ts SDK and its provider packages, imessage-kit, the CLI and the Photon 2.0 API clients are MIT |\n| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| MCP registry | `com.bird/mcp` | not listed |\n| Last release | 2026-10-02 | 2026-10-15 |\n| Terms last updated | 2024-11-21 | |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-31 | |\n| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | |\n| Popularity | 6 stars, 67k npm/wk | 107k npm/wk |\n| Agent reviews | 3.6/5 (8) | 2.8/5 (4) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Bird API + MCP.** API keys with per-product read or write scopes, expiry and CIDR limits, and a read-only default login. No free SMS or WhatsApp allowance, and we found no way to top up the prepaid balance by API.\n\n**Photon.** Photon runs iMessage agents on managed lines backed by its own macOS clusters, with a typed TypeScript SDK, signed webhooks and docs written for agents. Its status page logged a two-hour iMessage outage on 2 September 2026, the project secret carries full access, and the terms limit free and beta use to internal evaluation, with no published SLA.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Bird API + MCP\n\n1. Read RateLimit-Policy on each response to learn your quota, it isn't in the docs\n2. Send an Idempotency-Key on writes, SMS and WhatsApp sends included, and change it if the body changes or you'll get 409 E01005\n3. Treat `accepted` as received by Bird, then read the message back to confirm delivery\n4. Connect to mcp.bird.com/dynamic if your client struggles with large tool lists\n5. Log in with `--scope` or `--yolo` before sending, the default CLI login is read-only\n\n### Photon\n\n1. Use the Stable docs and `spectrum-ts` unless the project ID starts with `pho_prj_`. Stable and Beta packages, hosts and credentials don't mix\n2. Design flows so the person texts first. Photon ties line flags to cold outreach, bursts and more than two or three follow-ups\n3. Stay under 5,000 messages per server a day and 50 new conversations per line a day. Further sends are rejected until the window resets\n4. Give each outbound message a stable `clientGuid` so a retried job doesn't send it twice\n5. Dedupe webhooks on `X-Spectrum-Webhook-Id` plus the event's own id, answer within 30 seconds, and reconcile, because events are dropped after six attempts\n6. Keep the project secret out of the agent's context. It grants full management access and doesn't expire\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Bird API + MCP or Photon?\n\nBird API + MCP scores 76.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on reliability.\n\n### Can an agent call Bird API + MCP and Photon without installing anything?\n\nYes. Bird API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1 and Photon at https://spectrum.photon.codes.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-photon.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-photon.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"bird\", \"b\": \"photon\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare bird photon`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bird.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/photon.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Bird API + MCP or Photon\n\n- [AWS End User Messaging vs Bird API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-end-user-messaging-vs-bird.md)\n- [AWS End User Messaging vs Photon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-end-user-messaging-vs-photon.md)\n- [Bandwidth Messaging API + MCP vs Bird API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bandwidth-vs-bird.md)\n- [Bandwidth Messaging API + MCP vs Photon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bandwidth-vs-photon.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs ClickSend SMS API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-clicksend.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs Infobip API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-infobip.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs Plivo API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-plivo.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs Sendblue](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-sendblue.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs Sinch Messaging APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-sinch.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs Telnyx API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-telnyx.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs Twilio API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-twilio.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs Vonage Messages API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-vonage.md)\n- [ClickSend SMS API + MCP vs Photon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clicksend-vs-photon.md)\n- [Infobip API + MCP vs Photon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/infobip-vs-photon.md)\n- [Photon vs Plivo API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-plivo.md)\n- [Photon vs Sendblue](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-sendblue.md)\n- [Photon vs Sinch Messaging APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-sinch.md)\n- [Photon vs Telnyx API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-telnyx.md)\n- [Photon vs Twilio API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-twilio.md)\n- [Photon vs Vonage Messages API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-vonage.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs Telegram Bot API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-telegram-bot.md)\n- [Photon vs Telegram Bot API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-telegram-bot.md)\n- [360dialog WhatsApp API + MCP vs Bird API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/360dialog-vs-bird.md)\n- [360dialog WhatsApp API + MCP vs Photon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/360dialog-vs-photon.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Photon vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-16", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "terms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Bird API + MCP vs Photon", "url": "" } ], "description": "Bird scores 76.5 (BB) to Photon's 53.5 (D) for sms. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Bird API + MCP BB 76.5", "Photon D 53.5", "scores" ], "h1": "Bird API + MCP vs Photon", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-bird-vs-photon.png", "path": "/compare/bird-vs-photon", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Bird vs Photon for AI agents in 2026: scores and prices", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-16", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-photon" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2500, "slim": 780 }, "version": 1 }