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 the team that sends and answers SMS every day.
At a glance
| SMS Gateway for Android | DroidSender | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free plan (100 SMS/month), 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 |
| Shared web inbox, several teammates on the same conversations | No | Yes |
| 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
DroidSender works for both sides of the business. Developers connect it to their software through the REST API and webhooks. The team that handles customer texts every day gets a simple dashboard: send personalised bulk SMS from an Excel file, and manage every reply in a shared inbox, with several teammates working the same conversations, from all your phones and your own number.
- You send campaigns from a spreadsheet, without code.
- Several people answer customers from the same inbox.
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 with a free plan of 100 SMS a month.
- 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.