Sent and Bird (formerly MessageBird) both give developers APIs to send SMS and WhatsApp messages directly from software. The difference lies in their architecture: Sent is built around dynamic channel selection that picks between SMS, WhatsApp, and RCS per recipient, while Bird is a broader communications platform with email, Apple Messages, voice calling, and visual marketing tools.
| SENT | BIRD | |
|---|---|---|
| Channels | SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, RCS | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Messages |
| RCS | Included | Private beta |
| Channel choice | Automatic per recipient | One endpoint per channel |
| Pricing | $0.015/contact/mo + delivery | Per segment + carrier fees |
| US SMS | Pass-through rates | $0.0035/segment + carrier fees |
| Marketing tools | None | Audiences, broadcasts, automations |
| Multi-tenant | Sender Profiles | Workspaces with roles |
| SDK languages | 7 | 4 |
Sent
Sent is a messaging API dedicated to SMS, WhatsApp, and RCS. When you make a send request without declaring a channel, Sent evaluates recipient geography, content type, delivery cost, and device capabilities to pick the best path. If that primary route fails, Sent steps down to the next viable option, ending at standard SMS. You build each message template once with variables, and Sent formats it for each channel. Sender Profiles allow multi-tenant platforms to keep each customer's contacts, templates, sender IDs, and credentials fully isolated. Our Sent review details the pricing model, developer onboarding, and Sender Profiles.
Bird
Bird handles multichannel communication spanning email, SMS, WhatsApp, and Apple Messages for Business, alongside programmable voice, identity verification, number lookups, and a shared team inbox. RCS is available through a private beta program. Outside the API, Bird provides contact audiences, broadcasts, and visual automations triggered by application events. Its client libraries continue to be published under the legacy MessageBird package name.
Where Sent is better
Sent makes dynamic channel routing its default behavior. You dispatch a single request, and Sent delivers via WhatsApp for one user and SMS for another depending on device capabilities, removing custom routing branches from your codebase. Bird's documentation directs you to individual endpoints for each channel, leaving channel decisions entirely to your application code.
RCS is included in Sent's standard routing alongside SMS and WhatsApp. In contrast, Bird confines RCS to a private beta requiring a bespoke quote and manual sales onboarding. While Sent's RCS does not yet support interactive carousels or rich cards, its standard routing handles basic RCS messaging today.
Sent uses dynamic templates that map a single source template to SMS, WhatsApp, and RCS. You can dispatch a message over SMS immediately while Meta evaluates the WhatsApp submission. Bird requires creating and maintaining distinct templates inside each channel's interface.
For multi-tenant architectures, Sent provides Sender Profiles. These give each of your customer organizations a private partition with isolated contacts, templates, phone numbers, and credentials, alongside flexible billing options that charge the profile or bill your master account.
Developer library support is broader on Sent, with official SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, C#, PHP, and Ruby. Bird offers SDKs for four languages: TypeScript, Python, Go, and PHP.
Where Bird is better
Bird delivers email and Apple Messages for Business, two channels Sent does not support. If your application sends order confirmations over email and delivery notifications via text, Bird lets you manage both channels from a single account. Voice is also a core product at Bird, complete with a visual call-flow builder, whereas Sent only enables phone calling upon special request to customer support.
Bird caters directly to non-technical teams. With audience builders, campaign broadcasts, a shared inbox, and visual automations, marketing and support teams can design and launch messaging sequences directly in the web dashboard. With Sent, all business logic and orchestration live inside your backend code. Note that Bird marks automations as Early access, so availability may vary by account tier.
Bird's per-message pricing is transparent and highly competitive for low-frequency messaging. US outbound SMS starts at $0.0035 per segment plus carrier fees, local virtual numbers cost $0.50 monthly, and phone lookups cost $0.005 each. Identity verification is bundled in, billing you only for the underlying message segments. When you send occasional announcements to a large subscriber list, paying per segment costs substantially less than Sent's monthly per-contact fee.
For larger organizations, Bird provides workspaces, role-based permissions, and audit logs, plus an official CLI alongside its MCP server.
Pricing compared
Sent charges a recurring platform fee of $0.015 per messaged contact each month, alongside direct carrier pass-through fees. Messaging 10,000 distinct individuals in a month costs $150 in platform fees before carrier delivery fees are tallied. When your product sends multiple messages to each contact throughout the month, the fixed contact fee becomes more economical per dispatch.
Bird operates on a prepaid balance model. You deposit funds upfront, and usage fees for messages, lookups, and recurring subscription fees draw down against that balance. SMS is billed per outbound segment, WhatsApp carries a Bird processing fee alongside Meta conversation rates, and email provides a free tier before stepping up to paid plans starting at $15 per month. Carrier fees, telecom surcharges, and taxes apply separately.
The two cost structures do not map directly against each other. Modeling a representative month of your delivery logs against both calculators, using identical volumes, channels, and destination mixes, gives you a total you can trust.
Which one should you pick?
Select Sent if you are adding automated SMS, WhatsApp, and RCS alerts to a SaaS or AI product and want an API that picks each user's channel and falls back to SMS. It also supports multi-tenant platforms where each customer needs dedicated sender numbers, separate contact lists, and independent billing.
Select Bird if your product requires email delivery or Apple Messages for Business alongside SMS, if voice calls are essential to your workflow, or if your marketing and support staff want visual audience builders and automation flows they can configure independently.
Both providers support modern developer workflows and host MCP servers for AI coding assistants. Delivery coverage in key target countries, carrier approval speed, and total projected monthly invoices will typically decide between them. You can also read our Sent review or check our Sent vs Twilio comparison.