In short
- SMS Gateway for Android is free and open source (Apache 2.0), with local, cloud and self-hosted modes.
- It adds MMS and multi-SIM support.
- DroidSender adds Excel or CSV campaigns in the dashboard and a web inbox.
- DroidSender has a free plan; paid plans start at $11.99 a month.
Both turn an Android phone into an SMS gateway. SMS Gateway for Android is a free developer tool; DroidSender adds a dashboard for sending and answering SMS every day.
At a glance
| SMS Gateway for Android | DroidSender | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | 1,000 SMS free in the first 30 days, then 100 SMS/month free; paid from $11.99/month |
| Open source | Yes (Apache 2.0) | No |
| Run it yourself, or offline on your network | Yes | No |
| REST API and webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Several phones per account | Yes | Yes, up to 10 |
| MMS | Yes | No |
| Campaigns from Excel or CSV | Command line (CLI) only | In the dashboard, columns as variables |
| Android version | 5.0 or newer | 7.0 or newer |
Choose SMS Gateway for Android if
- You want it free and open source, or need to host it yourself.
- You need MMS or a local network setup.
- Your own code does the sending and you don't need a dashboard.
Choose DroidSender if
You keep a REST API and webhooks for your own code, and whoever handles customer texts gets personalised bulk SMS from an Excel file and every reply in one inbox for all your phones, from your own number, without hosting anything.
- You send campaigns from a spreadsheet, without code.
- You answer customers from your computer, in one inbox for all your phones.
Switching
- Install the DroidSender app and link it with the code from the dashboard.
- Change your API call to
POST /api/v1/sms/send(quickstart). - Point your webhook at DroidSender (webhooks).
Questions people ask
- Is SMS Gateway for Android really free?
- Yes. It is open source under the Apache 2.0 licence, and its public cloud server is free to use.
- Is DroidSender open source?
- No. DroidSender is a hosted service. Try it free: 1,000 SMS in your first 30 days, then 100 a month. No card needed.
- Who wrote this?
- The DroidSender team, from the public SMS Gateway for Android website and docs on 13 October 2026. If something changed, write to hello@droidsender.com.