Claw Messenger vs Photon: which iMessage API
Both are cheap to start and cheap in opposite ways. Claw gives a dedicated number and meters the messages; Photon gives unlimited messages and shares the number.
Claw Messenger is for
Anything where the number needs to stay the same, at almost any volume below fifteen thousand messages.
Photon is for
Anything where message volume is the constraint and the sender number is not.
Side by side
| Claw Messenger | Photon | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Advertised from | $5/mo | Free |
| The tier most people need | $5/mo | $250/mo |
| Setup fee | None | None |
| Per-message fees | Yes, metered | None |
| Delivery | ||
| Number | Dedicated | Shared or dedicated |
| Can message first | Included | Included |
| SMS or RCS fallback | Included | Included |
| Policy | ||
| Compliance claimed | None published | SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2 and HIPAA claimed on its trust centre, 25 policies listed, 0 subprocessors and 0 documents published there |
| When it breaks | Publishes a status page | Publishes a status page |
Rows where the two agree are dimmed. Checked 2026-09-11.
What actually differs
They differ on price, delivery, and policy.
Claw's $5 entry tier includes a dedicated number and 250 messages. Photon's free tier includes unlimited daily messages and up to ten users, on a shared managed pool where the sender number can vary between messages, and its dedicated line is $250.
That makes the choice unusually clean. If people will save the number and text back, Claw gives you that for $5 and Photon charges $250. If the agent sends a high volume of one-way messages and nobody needs to reply to a consistent sender, Photon's free tier is genuinely free and Claw would be metering you. Photon also gates its group messaging API to the dedicated tier, so an agent meant to work in group threads cannot be built on the free plan at all.
The same products, against others
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