# ClickSend SMS API + MCP vs Plivo API

> Plivo API has a score of 60.3 (C) against ClickSend SMS API + MCP's 47.8 (D). Both do messaging sms. The largest gap is security & auth, 22 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Plivo API has a score of 60.3 (C) against ClickSend SMS API + MCP's 47.8 (D). Both do messaging sms. The largest gap is security & auth, 22 points.

- ClickSend SMS API + MCP: grade D, 47.8/100, rank #379 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/clicksend.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/clicksend.json
- Plivo API: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #250 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/plivo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/plivo.json

## Which one, for what

Pick ClickSend SMS API + MCP for agent ergonomics (+13).

Pick Plivo API for reliability (+13), schema & documentation (+7), security & auth (+22), payments & pricing (+10), maintenance & community (+16), transparency & trust (+15).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ClickSend SMS API + MCP | Plivo API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 78 | Plivo API +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 52 | 59 | Plivo API +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 57 | ClickSend SMS API + MCP +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 23 | 45 | Plivo API +22 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Plivo API +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 78 | Plivo API +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 70 | Plivo API +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **47.8 · D** | **60.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ClickSend SMS API + MCP | Plivo API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | ClickSend (Sinch) | Plivo |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://rest.clicksend.com/v3` | `https://api.plivo.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 6 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.clicksend/clicksend-mcp-server` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-25 | 2026-09-25 |
| Popularity | 3 stars, 3.7k npm/wk, 7.7k PyPI/wk | 102 stars, 51k npm/wk, 69k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**ClickSend SMS API + MCP.** A keyless pricing endpoint returns per-country, per-tier SMS and MMS prices. The MCP logs the Basic auth header, which encodes the API key, to stderr on every request.

**Plivo API.** US long code SMS $0.0077 a message and numbers $0.50 a month, with carrier surcharges listed per carrier. No OpenAPI spec.

## Before you call either

### ClickSend SMS API + MCP

1. Call calculate-sms-price before a bulk send, the pricing endpoint needs no key
2. Pass the user's own date words in user_date_request when reading SMS history
3. Use a subaccount key for the agent, not the main account key
4. Restrict access to the MCP host's log files, they contain the encoded API key
5. Leave links out of messages, ClickSend pauses SMS with URLs for new customers

### Plivo API

1. Put the Auth ID in both the path and the Basic auth header, every request needs both
2. Stay under 300 API requests per 5 seconds, a 429 carries no Retry-After
3. Give each agent its own subaccount to isolate credentials and spend
4. Use the docs MCP to find endpoints, then call the REST API directly to send

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