In short
- Both send SMS from your Android phone, with a REST API, webhooks and several phones per account.
- textbee is open source (MIT), can be self-hosted and has a 300 SMS free plan.
- DroidSender has a shared web inbox for the whole team and campaigns straight from Excel or CSV.
- textbee gives more SMS per dollar; DroidSender includes the inbox and campaign tools.
Both turn an Android phone into an SMS gateway, so messages go out from your own number. The difference is who each one is built for.
The short answer
| If you want | Better fit |
|---|---|
| Open source you can self-host | textbee |
| The biggest free plan | textbee (300 SMS/month) |
| To read and reply to customers from your computer | DroidSender |
| Campaigns from an Excel or CSV file, columns as variables | DroidSender |
Pricing
| textbee | DroidSender | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 300 SMS/month, 50/day, 1 phone | 100 SMS/month, 1 phone |
| Entry | $14.99/month ($99.99/year): 5,000 SMS, 5 phones | $11.99/month ($7.99 yearly): 2,000 SMS, 1 phone |
| Mid | $29.99/month ($199.99/year): 25,000 SMS, 15 phones | $36/month ($24 yearly): 10,000 SMS, 3 phones |
| Top | Custom | $119/month ($79 yearly): 50,000 SMS, 10 phones |
| Per-SMS fee | None | None |
textbee gives more SMS and phones per dollar. DroidSender includes the inbox and campaign tools below.
Feature by feature
| textbee | DroidSender | |
|---|---|---|
| Send and receive SMS | Yes | Yes |
| Shared web inbox, several teammates on the same conversations | No | Yes |
| Campaigns from CSV | Yes | Yes, Excel or CSV |
| Variables in the message | Pro plan | Every plan |
| Scheduled sending | Pro plan, up to 72 h ahead | Every plan |
| REST API and webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Reply webhook includes the message it answers | No | Yes |
| Several phones per account | Up to 15 | Up to 10 |
| Automatic retry on temporary failures | No | Yes |
| Import the SMS already on the phone | No | Yes, up to 2 years |
| Open source, self-hosting | Yes (MIT) | No |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes | No |
Choose textbee if
- You want to self-host or read the code.
- You build an AI agent and want an MCP server.
- You only send a few hundred SMS a month.
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.
- Several people answer customers from the same inbox.
- You send campaigns from a spreadsheet.
- You want failed sends retried and replies linked to what you sent.
Switching from textbee
- 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 DroidSender open source?
- No. DroidSender is a hosted service. textbee is MIT-licensed and can be self-hosted.
- Which has the bigger free plan?
- textbee, with 300 SMS a month (50 a day). DroidSender's Free plan has 100 SMS a month.
- Do they work on iPhone?
- No. Both need an Android phone.
- Who wrote this?
- The DroidSender team, from textbee's public website, pricing and docs on 13 October 2026. If something changed, write to hello@droidsender.com.