Photon vs Sendblue
The axis is whether a shared number is acceptable. Photon is free to start and $250 for a dedicated line; Sendblue is $100 and dedicated from the first paid tier.
Side by side
| Photon | Sendblue | |
|---|---|---|
| Advertised from | Free | $100/mo |
| The tier most people need | $250/mo | $100/mo |
| Setup fee | None | None |
| Number | Shared or dedicated | Dedicated |
| Can message first | Included | Enterprise tier only |
| Per-message fees | None | None |
| SMS or RCS fallback | Included | Included |
| Compliance claimed | None published | SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA (Enterprise) |
Rows where the two agree are dimmed. Every figure comes from the product’s own public pages, checked 2026-09-06.
What actually differs
Photon has the most generous free tier here: unlimited daily messages, RCS and SMS fallback, up to ten users, on a shared managed pool. Pro at $25 raises that to a hundred users on the same pool. A dedicated line is Business at $250 per line per month, a tenfold jump from Pro.
Sendblue starts where Photon's expensive tier does and undercuts it: $100 for a dedicated line. The trade is outbound, which Sendblue lists only on Enterprise while Photon includes it throughout. Photon also gates the group messaging API, which is unavailable on Free and only complete on Business and above, so an agent meant to join group threads cannot be built on the cheap tiers at all.
Photon is for
Anyone testing an idea, or running something where the sender number does not need to stay the same.
Sendblue is for
Anyone who needs a stable number and wants the lowest published price for one.
There is no winner here on purpose. These are different products for different situations, and the paragraph above names the question that tells you which you are in. See all nine providers compared or answer five questions to narrow it yourself.