Two SMS providers, compared on price, features and ratings, so you can pick fast.
Updated October 2026
THE VERDICT
Plivo wins on price and reviews. Vonage wins on compliance.
Plivo starts at $0.0077 versus Vonage's $0.00809. Plivo rates higher with developers (4.5 vs 4.2 on G2). Pick based on volume and team, and the scorecard below breaks down where each one leads.
Winner cells are tinted, green where Plivo leads, violet where Vonage does.
FAQ
Plivo starts at $0.0077 versus Vonage's $0.00809. Compare your expected monthly volume against the per-message rates above.
Plivo prices SMS on a pay-as-you-go basis rather than a flat subscription. US outbound SMS on a long code is about $0.0077 per message before carrier surcharges, which vary by carrier and typically add roughly $0.0035 to $0.0050 per message. A2P 10DLC fees apply on top, and US long-code phone numbers cost about $0.50 per month.
Vonage publishes official server SDKs for Node.js, Python, PHP, Java, Ruby, .NET, and Kotlin. These SDKs cover SMS and the omnichannel Messages API (SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Viber), plus voice, verification, and other APIs. All Vonage APIs are also accessible directly over REST.
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 Plivo, Vonage, 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. Vonage is an Ericsson company.