Two SMS providers, compared on price, features and ratings, so you can pick fast.
Updated October 2026
THE VERDICT
Azure SMS wins on support. MessageBird wins on price and developer experience.
Azure SMS starts at $0.0075 versus MessageBird's $0.00331. Pick based on volume and team, and the scorecard below breaks down where each one leads.
Winner cells are tinted, green where Azure SMS leads, violet where MessageBird does.
FAQ
Azure SMS starts at $0.0075 versus MessageBird's $0.00331. Compare your expected monthly volume against the per-message rates above.
US 10DLC and toll-free SMS both cost $0.0075 per message segment to send or receive, before extras. On top of that, a per-carrier surcharge applies (for example $0.0020/segment for AT&T outbound or $0.0030/segment for Verizon and T-Mobile), plus a $1/mo 10DLC number lease (or $2/mo for toll-free), and one-time and monthly 10DLC brand and campaign registration fees. There's no separate ACS platform fee: it's pure usage-based billing through your Azure subscription.
Bird (MessageBird) provides official open source SDKs for PHP, Python, Node.js, Java, Ruby, and Go, available on its GitHub organization. The underlying API is REST based, so it can also be called from any language over HTTP. This covers most common backend stacks for SMS and omnichannel messaging.
Yes. Many teams route different message types through different providers or fail over between them. Courier lets you send through both behind a single API and switch providers without changing your code.
Why not both?
Use both behind one API.
Route Azure SMS, MessageBird, or both, and switch providers without changing your code. Courier sits in front of every channel.
Pricing, plans and feature availability as of October 2026 and may change. Ratings are aggregated from public review platforms. MessageBird is now Bird.