# ClickSend SMS API + MCP vs Photon (slim)

> Photon scores 53.5 (D) to ClickSend SMS's 47.7 (D) for sms. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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Photon scores 53.5 (D) on agent readiness against ClickSend SMS API + MCP's 47.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. ClickSend SMS API + MCP leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do sms.

- ClickSend SMS API + MCP: D 47.7, rank #906 of 1098 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/clicksend.min.md
- Photon: D 53.5, rank #757 of 1098 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photon.min.md
- ClickSend SMS API + MCP, good for Small businesses and simple agents that send SMS in a few countries and want prices up front. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 70 against 63; Payments & pricing, 30 against 20. Also Runs on your own machine.
- Photon, good for Agents that talk to people over iMessage, with WhatsApp Business, Telegram and SIP voice on the same agent loop in TypeScript. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 75 against 52; Security & auth, 29 against 23; Maintenance & community, 78 against 62; Transparency & trust, 58 against 53.

| Category | ClickSend SMS API + MCP | Photon |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 65 | 68 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 52 | 75 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 70 | 63 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 23 | 29 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 62 | 78 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 53 | 58 |

| Fact (where they differ) | ClickSend SMS API + MCP | Photon |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | ClickSend (Sinch) | Photon |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://rest.clicksend.com/v3` | `https://spectrum.photon.codes` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for sms | $0.0289 per message | not published |
| 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 |
| Tools exposed | 6 | none |
| MCP registry | `com.clicksend/clicksend-mcp-server` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-25 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2023-09-01 |  |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read |  |
| Popularity | 3 stars, 3.7k npm/wk, 7.7k PyPI/wk | 107k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 2.8/5 (4) |