{ "data": { "a": { "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" } }, "answer": "WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on maintenance \u0026 community.", "b": { "slug": "whatsapp-cloud-api", "name": "WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "vendor": "Meta Platforms, Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://developers.facebook.com", "kind": "http-api", "category": "messaging", "summary": "Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform Cloud API sends and receives WhatsApp messages for a business phone number through the Graph API, with inbound messages and status updates arriving by webhook. Access uses a Meta developer app and OAuth access tokens.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/whatsapp-cloud-api", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/whatsapp-cloud-api.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/whatsapp-cloud-api.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "repo": "https://github.com/facebook/openapi", "license": "Proprietary service under the Meta Terms for WhatsApp Business Platform. The OpenAPI document in facebook/openapi is MIT", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://graph.facebook.com", "packages": [], "auth": "oauth", "authNotes": "Every call needs a Bearer access token from a Meta developer app with the WhatsApp use case. Access is self-serve for a business using its own account, with no App Review. A person creates the app, a business portfolio and a system user in Meta's dashboards, then generates a system user token with `whatsapp_business_messaging` and `whatsapp_business_management`. Apps that act for other businesses need Advanced access through App Review and onboard customers with Embedded Signup. Business verification raises the messaging limit above 250 recipients a day.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Charged per delivered message, by category (marketing, utility, authentication, service) and recipient country, with no platform or per-number fee found. Meta publishes rate cards as CSV and PDF in 16 currencies. We couldn't read the files, and the one rate we saw in prose is 0.68 US cents for a utility or authentication message to Brazil. Service messages are charged from 1 October 2026 per Meta's timeline. A test account and test number send without a payment method, so an agent can start without a contract (checked 2026-10-08).", "priceSummary": "Pay per use", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the WhatsApp documentation, the llms.txt indexes, the pricing pages or the OpenAPI document (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/overview", "llmsTxt": "https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/facebook/openapi/main/business-messaging-api_v23.0.yaml", "capabilities": [ "messaging.whatsapp", "messaging.inbound" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "usage-based", "oauth", "openapi", "llms-txt", "webhooks", "whatsapp", "mcp", "sandbox", "status-page", "bug-bounty", "soc2" ], "lastRelease": "2026-08-11", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 67.1, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 279, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1098, "categoryRank": 5, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 67, "maintenance": 34, "payments": 40, "reliability": 80, "schema": 82, "security": 67, "transparency": 82 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-08" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "The first-party WhatsApp API has a public OpenAPI document, Markdown docs with llms.txt, numeric rate limits and a test number that sends without a payment method. Setup needs a person in three Meta dashboards, no idempotency key was found for sends, and Meta's terms restrict general-purpose AI assistants on the platform.", "bestFor": "The direct route to WhatsApp for a business messaging its own customers, with no reseller fee.", "strengths": [ "A test WhatsApp Business account and test number are created with the app and send template messages with no payment method on file", "OpenAPI 3.1 document under MIT in facebook/openapi (78 paths, 113 operations), plus llms.txt indexes and a Markdown copy of each docs page", "Limits are published with numbers, including 80 messages a second per number, 5,000 requests an hour per active account and one message every 6 seconds per recipient", "Message data is kept for at most 30 days, with local storage and no-storage options per phone number, and SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 reports for Cloud API", "Webhook payloads are signed with HMAC-SHA256 in `X-Hub-Signature-256`, and mutual TLS is available" ], "weaknesses": [ "A person has to create a Meta account, a developer app, a business portfolio and a system user in a browser before any token exists", "No idempotency key for message sends was found in the reviewed documentation or the OpenAPI document, so a retried send can reach the user twice", "Meta's pricing page says the 15 January 2026 terms permit general-purpose AI assistants only where Meta is legally required to allow them", "Outside the 24-hour customer service window only pre-approved templates can be sent, and a new business portfolio is limited to 250 recipients in 24 hours", "Meta archived its Node.js SDK, and the published OpenAPI document is pinned to v23.0 while the Graph API is at v26.0" ], "agentNotes": [ "Check when the user last wrote. Free-form messages are accepted only within 24 hours of the user's last message. After that, send an approved template.", "Record the message id from each send and match it to `messages` webhook statuses. Many failures arrive only by webhook, and no idempotency key was found.", "On error 130429 or 131056 wait and retry. Meta's guidance for the per-recipient limit is 4^X seconds, with X rising by one per failure.", "Verify `X-Hub-Signature-256` with the app secret on every webhook, and deduplicate, because failed deliveries are retried for up to 7 days.", "Request `health_status` on the phone number before a campaign to see whether the app, business, account, number and template can send." ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 4, "avgRating": 3, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 67.1 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 67, "maintenance": 34, "payments": 40, "reliability": 80, "schema": 82, "security": 67, "transparency": 70 }, "provenanceScore": 94 }, "connect": { "http": "curl 'https://graph.facebook.com/v23.0/\u003cBUSINESS_PHONE_NUMBER_ID\u003e/messages' \\\n -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \\\n -H 'Authorization: Bearer \u003cSYSTEM_USER_ACCESS_TOKEN\u003e' \\\n -d '{\"messaging_product\":\"whatsapp\",\"recipient_type\":\"individual\",\"to\":\"\u003cWHATSAPP_USER_PHONE_NUMBER\u003e\",\"type\":\"text\",\"text\":{\"body\":\"Hello!\"}}'", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http whatsapp_business_tools https://mcp.facebook.com/whatsapp_business_tools" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/messaging.whatsapp", "tool": "https://letme.dev/whatsapp-cloud-api" }, "sameCompany": [ "meta-marketing-api" ], "area": "communication", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Utility or authentication template, Brazil", "unit": "message", "usd": 0.0068, "note": "the one rate quoted in prose on Meta's non-template pricing page. Rates vary by country and category, and the rate card files weren't read" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Meta Platforms, Inc.", "domain": "facebook.com", "domainRegistered": "1997-03-29", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://www.facebook.com/legal/Meta-Terms-for-WhatsApp-Business-Platform", "privacy": "https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/business-data-processing-terms", "statusPage": "https://metastatus.com/whatsapp-business-api", "changelog": "https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/changelog", "securityTxt": "valid", "checked": "2026-10-08", "notes": [ "The API answers at graph.facebook.com and the MCP server at mcp.facebook.com, both facebook.com subdomains.", "www.whatsapp.com/legal/business-solution-terms and /legal/meta-terms-whatsapp-business both redirect to www.facebook.com/legal/Meta-Terms-for-WhatsApp-Business-Platform. That page and the Cloud API hosting terms at www.facebook.com/legal/WhatsApp-Business-Platform-Cloud-API render only with JavaScript, so their text wasn't read.", "The privacy field points at the WhatsApp Business Data Processing Terms (last updated 22 August 2025), which we read. Meta's docs name the Cloud API hosting terms as the other data document for Cloud API customers.", "The legal entity is taken from the copyright line of the MIT licence in facebook/openapi. The data processing terms name WhatsApp LLC and WhatsApp Ireland Limited as contracting entities.", "www.facebook.com/.well-known/security.txt and www.whatsapp.com/.well-known/security.txt name a contact, the bug bounty policy at bugbounty.meta.com and a disclosure policy, and expire on 7 November 2026.", "RDAP for facebook.com gives a registration date of 1997-03-29.", "The WhatsApp changelog's newest entry is 12 May 2026, and the one before it 8 December 2025." ], "score": 94 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "live": { "slug": "whatsapp-cloud-api", "probe": { "target": "https://graph.facebook.com", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-16T12:47:35.395192322Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 400, "lastMs": 112, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 111, "p95ms24h": 121, "samples24h": 253, "samples30d": 1947, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 70, "ok": 70 }, { "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://metastatus.com/whatsapp-business-api", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-10-16T10:50:29.343670945Z" }, "githubStars": 193, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://facebook.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2026-11-14T07:48:33-08:00", "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T15:48:33.55388089Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T14:18:01.155072595Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "facebook.com", "registered": "1997-03-29", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/facebook.com", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:27:10.122219113Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/changelog", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T21:53:43.597475396Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "c1607719e42e" }, { "url": "https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/business-data-processing-terms", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T22:15:38.548001031Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "3a883fb460c8" }, { "url": "https://www.facebook.com/legal/Meta-Terms-for-WhatsApp-Business-Platform", "kind": "terms", "status": 0, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T22:09:17.366147084Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "blockedByRobots": true } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-16T12:47:35.395192322Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "SDK + MCP", "b": "HTTP API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Photon", "b": "Meta Platforms, Inc.", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://spectrum.photon.codes", "b": "https://graph.facebook.com", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "API key", "b": "OAuth", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Freemium", "b": "Pay per use", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "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", "b": "Proprietary service under the Meta Terms for WhatsApp Business Platform. The OpenAPI document in facebook/openapi is MIT", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-10-15", "b": "2026-08-11", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "", "b": "couldn't be read", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "2025-08-22", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "couldn't be read", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "", "b": "couldn't be read", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "", "b": "couldn't be read", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "", "b": "couldn't be read", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "", "b": "couldn't be read", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "107k npm/wk", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "2.8/5 (4)", "b": "3/5 (4)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on maintenance \u0026 community.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Photon or WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Photon has a hosted endpoint at https://spectrum.photon.codes and WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) at https://graph.facebook.com.", "question": "Can an agent call Photon and WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Maintenance \u0026 community, 78 against 34" ], "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" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 80 against 68", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 82 against 75", "Security \u0026 auth, 67 against 29", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 20", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 82 against 58" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "The direct route to WhatsApp for a business messaging its own customers, with no reseller fee.", "slug": "whatsapp-cloud-api", "watchFor": "A person has to create a Meta account, a developer app, a business portfolio and a system user in a browser before any token exists" } ], "job": { "capability": "messaging.whatsapp", "name": "WhatsApp messaging" }, "others": [ { "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-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-photon.json", "title": "Bird API + MCP vs Photon", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-photon" }, { "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/bandwidth-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Bandwidth Messaging API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bandwidth-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clicksend-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "ClickSend SMS API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clicksend-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "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/sendblue-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Sendblue vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sendblue-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/telegram-bot-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Telegram Bot API vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/telegram-bot-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "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/360dialog-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "360dialog WhatsApp API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/360dialog-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-end-user-messaging-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "AWS End User Messaging vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-end-user-messaging-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "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/infobip-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Infobip API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/infobip-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plivo-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Plivo API vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plivo-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sinch-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Sinch Messaging APIs + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sinch-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/telnyx-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Telnyx API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/telnyx-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/twilio-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Twilio API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/twilio-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vonage-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "title": "Vonage Messages API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vonage-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" } ], "scores": [ { "by": 12, "edge": "whatsapp-cloud-api", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "photon": 68, "weight": 16, "whatsapp-cloud-api": 80 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 7, "edge": "whatsapp-cloud-api", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "photon": 75, "weight": 13, "whatsapp-cloud-api": 82 }, { "by": 4, "edge": "whatsapp-cloud-api", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "photon": 63, "weight": 13, "whatsapp-cloud-api": 67 }, { "by": 38, "edge": "whatsapp-cloud-api", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "photon": 29, "weight": 14, "whatsapp-cloud-api": 67 }, { "by": 20, "edge": "whatsapp-cloud-api", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "photon": 20, "weight": 10, "whatsapp-cloud-api": 40 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 44, "edge": "photon", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "photon": 78, "weight": 7, "whatsapp-cloud-api": 34 }, { "by": 24, "edge": "whatsapp-cloud-api", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "photon": 58, "weight": 7, "whatsapp-cloud-api": 82 } ], "summary": "WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on maintenance \u0026 community. Both do whatsapp messaging.", "tutorials": [], "verdicts": { "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.", "whatsapp-cloud-api": "The first-party WhatsApp API has a public OpenAPI document, Markdown docs with llms.txt, numeric rate limits and a test number that sends without a payment method. Setup needs a person in three Meta dashboards, no idempotency key was found for sends, and Meta's terms restrict general-purpose AI assistants on the platform." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.min.md" }, "markdown": "WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on maintenance \u0026 community. Both do whatsapp messaging.\n\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- WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API): grade B, 67.1/100, rank #279 of 1098. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/whatsapp-cloud-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/whatsapp-cloud-api.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### 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- Maintenance \u0026 community, 78 against 34\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### WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) (B)\n\nGood for: The direct route to WhatsApp for a business messaging its own customers, with no reseller fee.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 80 against 68\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 82 against 75\n- Security \u0026 auth, 67 against 29\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 20\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 82 against 58\n\nWatch for: A person has to create a Meta account, a developer app, a business portfolio and a system user in a browser before any token exists\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Photon | WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 80 | WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) +12 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 82 | WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) +7 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 67 | WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) +4 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 29 | 67 | WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) +38 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) +20 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 34 | Photon +44 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 82 | WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) +24 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **53.5 · D** | **67.1 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Photon | WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Photon | Meta Platforms, Inc. |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://spectrum.photon.codes` | `https://graph.facebook.com` |\n| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |\n| Auth | API key | OAuth |\n| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | 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 | Proprietary service under the Meta Terms for WhatsApp Business Platform. The OpenAPI document in facebook/openapi is MIT |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-08-11 |\n| Terms last updated | | couldn't be read |\n| Privacy policy last updated | | 2025-08-22 |\n| Customer content may train models | | couldn't be read |\n| Terms restrict automated access | | couldn't be read |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | | couldn't be read |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | | couldn't be read |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | | couldn't be read |\n| Popularity | 107k npm/wk | none |\n| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |\n\n## Verdicts\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**WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API).** The first-party WhatsApp API has a public OpenAPI document, Markdown docs with llms.txt, numeric rate limits and a test number that sends without a payment method. Setup needs a person in three Meta dashboards, no idempotency key was found for sends, and Meta's terms restrict general-purpose AI assistants on the platform.\n\n## Before you call either\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### WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)\n\n1. Check when the user last wrote. Free-form messages are accepted only within 24 hours of the user's last message. After that, send an approved template.\n2. Record the message id from each send and match it to `messages` webhook statuses. Many failures arrive only by webhook, and no idempotency key was found.\n3. On error 130429 or 131056 wait and retry. Meta's guidance for the per-recipient limit is 4^X seconds, with X rising by one per failure.\n4. Verify `X-Hub-Signature-256` with the app secret on every webhook, and deduplicate, because failed deliveries are retried for up to 7 days.\n5. Request `health_status` on the phone number before a campaign to see whether the app, business, account, number and template can send.\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Photon or WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)?\n\nWhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Photon's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Photon leads on maintenance \u0026 community.\n\n### Can an agent call Photon and WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) without installing anything?\n\nYes. Photon has a hosted endpoint at https://spectrum.photon.codes and WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) at https://graph.facebook.com.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"photon\", \"b\": \"whatsapp-cloud-api\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare photon whatsapp-cloud-api`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/photon.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/whatsapp-cloud-api.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Photon or WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)\n\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 Photon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bandwidth-vs-photon.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs Photon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-photon.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- [Bandwidth Messaging API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bandwidth-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [ClickSend SMS API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clicksend-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Photon vs Telegram Bot API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-telegram-bot.md)\n- [Sendblue vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sendblue-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Telegram Bot API vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/telegram-bot-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [360dialog WhatsApp API + MCP vs Photon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/360dialog-vs-photon.md)\n- [360dialog WhatsApp API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/360dialog-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [AWS End User Messaging vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-end-user-messaging-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Bird API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bird-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Infobip API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/infobip-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Plivo API vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plivo-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Sinch Messaging APIs + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sinch-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Telnyx API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/telnyx-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Twilio API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/twilio-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.md)\n- [Vonage Messages API + MCP vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vonage-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": "Photon vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "url": "" } ], "description": "WhatsApp Business Platform scores 67.1 (B) to Photon's 53.5 (D) for whatsapp messaging. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Photon D 53.5", "WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) B 67.1", "scores" ], "h1": "Photon vs WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API)", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api.png", "path": "/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Photon vs WhatsApp Business Platform for AI agents (2026)", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-16", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photon-vs-whatsapp-cloud-api" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2800, "slim": 730 }, "version": 1 }