Claw Messenger vs Linq: which iMessage API
One publishes a price of five dollars and the other publishes no price at all, which makes this the widest transparency gap in the comparison.
Claw Messenger is for
Anything early, small, or being tested.
Linq is for
Anything that needs tapbacks, group threads and a contractual SLA more than it needs a published price.
Side by side
| Claw Messenger | Linq | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Advertised from | $5/mo | Not published |
| The tier most people need | $5/mo | Not published |
| Setup fee | None | Not published |
| Per-message fees | Yes, metered | None |
| Delivery | ||
| Number | Dedicated | Not published |
| Can message first | Included | Not published |
| SMS or RCS fallback | Included | Included |
| Policy | ||
| Compliance claimed | None published | SOC 2 Type I and Type II, reports for 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026, 99.95% uptime SLA, 70 controls monitored on a public trust centre, 5 subprocessors named, Annual penetration testing, Published vulnerability disclosure process |
| When it breaks | Publishes a status page | Status page, 99.95% SLA |
Rows where the two agree are dimmed. Checked 2026-09-11.
What actually differs
They differ on price, delivery, and policy.
Claw is $5 a month for 250 messages, rising to $50 for 15,000, on a dedicated number, with iMessage, RCS and SMS through one interface, tapbacks, typing indicators, read receipts, group messages and HMAC-signed webhooks. It states no Mac is required and that it runs on Linux, Docker, Windows or any cloud.
Linq publishes a longer capability list still, adding FaceTime scheduling and live location through Find My, plus a SOC 2 Type II claim and a stated 99.95% uptime SLA described as the only contractual one in the industry. It publishes no price. For most people evaluating this pair, the decision is made before features: one of them can be tried this afternoon for the cost of a coffee, and the other cannot be tried at all without a sales conversation.
The same products, against others
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