SMS and voice API privacy ratings
APIs for sending and receiving SMS and making phone calls from apps, including one-time codes and notifications.
12 SMS and voice APIs are rated against 11 public criteria, and 8 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 12 with a known jurisdiction, 10 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 12 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.
Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown
| Name | Grade | Score | Data | Jurisdiction | Open source | No trackers or telemetry | No ads or data sales | Independent audit | Transparency report | Tells users about requests | Message content deleted or redacted | EU data location | TLS configuration | Security headers | Modern web standards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon Web Services API for sending SMS, MMS and voice messages, formerly Amazon Pinpoint SMS. Amazon SNS also sends SMS through it. |
Grade D | 45 | 86% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
Cloud communications platform with APIs for SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, voice calls, phone number verification and video. |
Grade D | 40 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | No |
Communications platform with APIs for SMS, MMS, voice calls, SIP trunking and phone number verification. |
Grade F | 33 | 71% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | Yes | No | Yes |
Cloud communications platform with APIs for SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, voice calls and phone number verification. |
Grade F | 31 | 71% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | Yes | Partial | No |
Communications platform and phone carrier with APIs for SMS, MMS, voice calls, emergency calling and phone numbers. |
Grade F | 29 | 71% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | Yes | No | No |
Communications platform with APIs for SMS, MMS, RCS, WhatsApp, voice calls and phone number verification, with regional endpoints. |
Grade F | 24 | 67% | Sweden Fourteen Eyes | No | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Partial | Yes | Yes | Partial | No |
Communications APIs from Vonage, formerly Nexmo, for SMS, voice calls, video, WhatsApp and phone number verification. |
Grade F | 17 | 62% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Partial | Unknown | Yes | No | No |
Communications platform with APIs for SMS, WhatsApp, RCS, email, voice calls and phone number verification, plus customer engagement tools. |
Grade F | 14 | 62% | United Kingdom Five Eyes | No | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Partial | Unknown | Partial | Partial | No |
Communications platform, formerly MessageBird, with APIs for SMS, WhatsApp, email and voice, and marketing and customer support tools. |
Not graded | – | 33% | Netherlands Nine Eyes | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Partial | Partial |
SMS API with a paid hosted service and an open-source self-hosted version that sends through carrier email-to-SMS gateways. |
Not graded | – | 48% | United States Five Eyes | Partial | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Partial | No | Partial |
Business messaging service with APIs and a web app for SMS, MMS, voice messages, email and letters. |
Not graded | – | 48% | Australia Five Eyes | No | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Partial | No | No |
Communications platform from the team behind FreeSWITCH, with APIs for SMS, voice calls and video. |
Not graded | – | 48% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Partial | No | No |
Questions
What is the most private option among SMS and voice APIs?
No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.
How are SMS and voice APIs rated?
Each entry answers 11 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, modern web standards, message content deleted or redacted and EU data location. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.
Does jurisdiction matter?
Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.