Unitpost vs Sinch for SMS

Sinch is a communications API provider with SMS, MMS, RCS, WhatsApp, voice, video and verification, which also owns the Mailgun and Mailjet email services. Unitpost sends SMS to 177 countries from the same API, contacts and bill as its email, on paid plans from $10 a month. Across 12 compared capabilities, Unitpost leads on 5 and Sinch leads on 6.

Comparing more than two? Best Sinch alternatives in 2026, ranked with published weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Sinch if

You need very wide country coverage or short codes
You want flash-call or data verification
You need RCS or WhatsApp alongside SMS

Choose Unitpost if

You want email and SMS in one product, on one contact list and one bill, instead of separate products
You want SMS campaigns included, not a separate app with its own plans
You want consent records, quiet hours and STOP handling enforced for you
You want idempotent sends and a hosted MCP server

What Sinch does well

Stated plainly, because a comparison that pretends otherwise is not worth reading.

A large network: 600+ direct carrier connections and 190+ countries
Low published US prices and number fees, plus short codes
Recipient groups and scheduled sends in the SMS API
Verification by SMS, flash call, phone call and data
Mature email through Mailgun and Mailjet

Pricing and free tier

Unitpost: $0.014 per US text, and a published price for each of 177 countries; SMS is on paid plans from $10 a month, which includes $10 of monthly sending allowance for texts or email. Number and carrier registration fees are passed through at cost.
Sinch: No free tier. Trial credit with no card, texting a few verified numbers; Pay as you go: US 10DLC and toll-free texts at $0.0078 each, sent or received, with carrier fees on top, and numbers from $1 a month plus setup. Contacts and campaigns live in Sinch Engage, a separate app on monthly plans.

Sinch pricing and free-tier details last verified 2026-11. Providers change these often — check their pricing page before making a decision.

Feature comparison

Feature and pricing comparison between Unitpost and Sinch
Capability	Unitpost	Sinch
Price of a US text	$0.014 per segment, carrier fees included	$0.0078 per message, sent or received, plus carrier fees
Monthly minimum	A paid plan from $10 a month, which includes $10 of sending allowance for texts or email	None for the SMS API; Sinch Engage has monthly plans
Countries	177 countries	190+ countries
Email	Transactional, marketing and inbound email on the same contacts, API key and bill	Mailgun and Mailjet, run as separate products
Marketing text compliance	Enforced on every send: consent on record per contact, recipient-local quiet hours for marketing, STOP and HELP handled, double opt-in by text, a content check before a sender's first send	Carriers block STOP on toll-free numbers; on 10DLC you register your own replies; consent records and quiet hours are left to you
Contacts, segments and campaigns	SMS templates, topics, segments and scheduled campaigns in the product, shared with email	Recipient groups and scheduled sends in the API; contacts and campaigns in Sinch Engage, priced separately
Two-way texting	Replies to numbers in the United States and Canada arrive as an sms.received webhook, 1¢ per received text	Inbound texts by callback or polling
One-time codes	Send codes through the SMS or email API and check them yourself. No managed verification API	Verification by SMS, flash call, phone call and data, priced per attempt
Idempotent sends	Idempotency-Key on sends, 24-hour dedupe window, on SMS as on email	No idempotency key; a client reference is echoed in delivery reports
SMS pumping protection	On by default: texts reach only the countries we offer, with fraud filtering and per-workspace limits on new destinations	Built-in filtering of smishing and artificially inflated traffic
MCP server for AI agents	Hosted, with every SMS and email operation as a tool and OAuth sign-in	A developer-preview server you run yourself
Track record	New. SMS has been in production since October 2026	Years of production messaging at carrier scale

How do I switch from Sinch?

There is no one-key import from Sinch, and Unitpost doesn't port numbers in. You get new numbers or Sender IDs, and in the US you register your brand and campaign with Unitpost (10DLC or toll-free verification), which the carriers review before you can send.

Import your contacts with their phone numbers and record the consent you already hold, opt-outs included, so nobody who texted STOP to your Sinch number hears from the new one.

Then change the send call to POST /sms and point delivery callbacks at Unitpost webhooks (sms.sent, sms.delivered, sms.failed; replies arrive as sms.received). Keep Sinch sending until the new sender is approved and live.

Read the SMS docs

Frequently asked questions

Sinch owns Mailgun. Why not use both?

You can, but they are separate products with separate accounts, APIs and bills, and SMS campaigns are a third product (Sinch Engage). Unitpost sends transactional email, marketing email and SMS from one API key to one contact list, with campaigns included on every paid plan.

Is Sinch cheaper than Unitpost for SMS?

Per US text, yes: $0.0078 per message plus carrier fees, against $0.014 per segment on Unitpost with carrier fees included. Sinch also charges for received texts at the same rate; Unitpost charges 1¢ per received text.

Switching from Sinch?

Start with email on the free tier

Then add SMS on any paid plan from $10 a month, on the same API key and contacts.

Start for free Explore the docs