MessageBird vs Twilio
Compare MessageBird and Twilio based on observed SMS API performance, features, and pricing
Live performance comparison
Real-world performance data from messages sent through Knock
| Provider | Message volume | Growth | Status page updates (30d) | Status page updates (90d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <1M | 5th of 7 → | 4 | 12 |
| 100M–500M | 1st of 7 → | 25 | 25 |
From February 15th to May 14th, Knock routed <1M messages through MessageBird and 100M–500M through Twilio. MessageBird reported 12 status page updates over the last 90 days, while Twilio reported 25.
Response time
Response time measures how long each provider takes to accept an SMS API request from Knock, including connection overhead and any automatic retries. Lower values mean faster message hand-off.
| Provider | Median (p50) | p90 | p95 | p99 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 328ms | 429ms | 454ms | 552ms |
| 67ms | 114ms | 123ms | 149ms |
The chart above shows each provider's daily median response time (p50) from February 15th to May 14th. The top-line number is an average of these daily values: MessageBird averaged 328ms compared to 67ms for Twilio. MessageBird's highest daily p50 was 519ms; Twilio's was 79ms. Twilio is 261ms faster at the median, which can add up at high volumes.
The 90th percentile (p90) captures the slowest 10% of requests, revealing how each provider handles moderate stress. Averaged across all days, MessageBird has a p90 of 429ms compared to 114ms for Twilio. The highest daily p90 was 862ms for MessageBird and 126ms for Twilio. Twilio handles these slower requests 315ms faster, suggesting more consistent performance across the board.
The 99th percentile (p99) represents the long tail — the slowest 1% of requests. Averaged across all days, MessageBird reached 552ms at p99 while Twilio reached 149ms. The highest daily p99 was 7528ms for MessageBird and 240ms for Twilio, indicating the worst-case response time during spikes or provider-side congestion. Twilio shows a tighter tail, which may matter for time-sensitive SMS notifications like one-time passwords or real-time alerts where even rare delays can impact user experience.
Error rate
Error rate tracks the ratio of 5xx responses and timeouts to total SMS API requests. Knock automatically retries failed requests, so transient provider errors rarely affect end-user delivery.
| Provider | Avg. daily error rate | Highest daily rate | Peak error date | Zero-error days | Days above 0.01% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00% | 0.00% | Feb 15 | 80 | 0 |
| 0.00% | 0.00% | Feb 13 | 91 | 0 |
Averaged across the date range, MessageBird shows a 0.00% daily error rate compared to 0.00% for Twilio. The highest single-day error rate was 0.00% for MessageBird This peak coincided with a major incident reported on MessageBird's status page (Data Platform Degraded Performance - US-WEST region). and 0.00% for Twilio. Both providers show similar reliability levels, with error rates well within acceptable thresholds. Knock automatically retries failed requests to both providers, minimizing the impact of transient errors on end-user delivery.
About these metrics: Data represents messages sent through Knock during the specified period. Response time measures time from Knock to provider acceptance. Error rate includes only provider 5xx responses and timeouts.
Recent MessageBird incidents
Recent status page incidents for MessageBird
Started May 13, 2026 — Resolved May 13, 2026
May 13, 15:33 CEST Resolved - This incident has been resolved.May 13, 14:25 CEST Monitoring - A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.May 13, 14:16 CEST Identified - The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.May 13, 13:33 CEST Investigating - We are currently experiencing an issue where journeys are not displaying in the user interface. Journey runs are not affected and continue to execute normally. At this time, the issue is limited to the listing/viewin
Started May 12, 2026 — Resolved May 12, 2026
May 12, 16:16 CEST Resolved - This incident has been resolved.May 12, 15:58 CEST Monitoring - A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.May 12, 15:41 CEST Investigating - We are currently experiencing delays in processing journeys. The team is actively working to increase processing speed and reduce delays.
Started May 8, 2026 — Resolved May 8, 2026
May 8, 12:55 CEST Identified - KPN Netherlands has reported issues with A2P delivery to a small subset of their customer base, which may cause messages to be delivered with a delay or not at all. We are working closely with their engineering teams to have this resolved.
Started May 1, 2026 — Resolved May 1, 2026
May 1, 23:37 CEST Resolved - This incident has been resolved.May 1, 23:14 CEST Identified - The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.May 1, 22:06 CEST Investigating - We are seeing elevated errors with conversations involving bots in the EU region and we are currently investigating this issue.
Started Apr 7, 2026 — Resolved Apr 7, 2026
Apr 7, 10:32 CEST Resolved - All backlog fully processed.Apr 7, 09:28 CEST Monitoring - We've identified the cause of the issue affecting wait steps in automations. A rapid spike in automation activity outpaced our infrastructure's autoscaling response, leading to a temporary processing backlog. Our systems have since scaled to meet demand and the backlog is expected to clear completely in 30mins.Apr 7, 07:49 CEST Investigating - We are currently investigating this issue.
Recent Twilio incidents
Recent status page incidents for Twilio
Ongoing since Jun 25, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Jun 24, 20:00 PDT - Jun 25, 00:00 PDTMay 1, 00:52 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 24 June 2026 at 20:00 PDT until 25 June 2026 at 00:00 PDT. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to and from United States and Canada handsets when sending via subset of long codes, short codes and toll free numbers.
Ongoing since Jun 18, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Jun 17, 20:00 PDT - Jun 18, 00:00 PDTMay 1, 00:52 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 17 June 2026 at 20:00 PDT until 18 June 2026 at 00:00 PDT. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to and from United States and Canada handsets when sending via subset of long codes, short codes and toll free numbers.
Ongoing since Jun 11, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Jun 10, 20:00 PDT - Jun 11, 00:00 PDTMay 1, 00:52 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 10 June 2026 at 20:00 PDT until 11 June 2026 at 00:00 PDT. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to and from United States and Canada handsets when sending via subset of long codes, short codes and toll free numbers.
Ongoing since Jun 10, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Jun 9, 20:30 - 21:30 PDTMay 5, 11:42 PDT Scheduled - Our SMS carrier partner in Peru is conducting a planned maintenance from 09 June 2026 at 20:30 PDT until 09 June 2026 at 21:30 PDT. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to and from Peru handsets via subset of Peru short codes.
Ongoing since Jun 5, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Jun 5, 12:00 - 17:00 PDTApr 30, 14:59 PDT Scheduled - The Volna mobile, Win Mobile and Personnal Communicational networks in Russia are conducting a planned maintenance from 05 June 2026 at 12:00 PDT until 05 June 2026 at 17:00 PDT. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to Volna mobile, Win Mobile and Personnal Communicational Russia handsets.
Pricing comparison
| Provider | Plan | Per message | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| MessageBird | Local number | $0.0003 | $31 |
| Twilio | Pay-as-you-go | $0.0083 | $830 |
MessageBird
Bird (formerly MessageBird) publishes per-country rate cards rather than a single headline price. US outbound SMS via local numbers costs $0.00031 per message, with short codes at $0.0009 and toll-free at $0.00147. Carrier surcharges apply on top. International rates vary widely by destination.
Twilio
Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.0083 per message. Inbound messages are $0.0075 each. Phone numbers start at $1.15/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges of ~$0.003–$0.005 per message apply on top of the base rate.
US carrier surcharges
All US A2P SMS sent via 10DLC incurs mandatory carrier fees on top of the provider base rate. Most providers pass these through at cost.
| Carrier | Outbound SMS | Inbound SMS |
|---|---|---|
| T-Mobile | $0.0045 | $0.0025 |
| AT&T | $0.003 | $0.003 |
| Verizon | $0.004 | $0.00 |
| US Cellular | $0.005 | $0.00 |
Pros and cons
MessageBird
Twilio
Pros
- Strong global coverage with direct carrier connections in 190+ countries
- Unified API across SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, and other channels
- Visual flow builder enables non-technical users to create messaging workflows
- Now part of Bird, offering an expanded platform for customer engagement
Pros
- Largest ecosystem of SDKs, tutorials, and community resources for SMS
- Trusted by Airbnb, Uber, and Netflix for mission-critical messaging
- Comprehensive compliance tooling with opt-out management and content filtering
- Supports SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, and voice in a single platform
Cons
- Pricing is published as per-country rate cards rather than simple headline rates, making comparison harder
- Rebranding to Bird has caused some confusion in documentation and branding
- Smaller developer community compared to Twilio
Cons
- Per-message pricing can add up at high volumes without committed-use discounts
- Phone number provisioning and compliance setup can be complex for new users
- Support response times vary by plan tier
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between MessageBird and Twilio?
MessageBird (now Bird) is an omnichannel communications platform with global SMS coverage and a unified messaging API. Twilio is the most widely adopted cloud communications platform, offering SMS, MMS, voice, and WhatsApp through a unified API. MessageBird is best suited for global omnichannel messaging, while Twilio is geared toward full-featured sms at scale.
Which is cheaper, MessageBird or Twilio?
Bird (formerly MessageBird) publishes per-country rate cards rather than a single headline price. US outbound SMS via local numbers costs $0.00031 per message, with short codes at $0.0009 and toll-free at $0.00147. Carrier surcharges apply on top. International rates vary widely by destination. Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.0083 per message. Inbound messages are $0.0075 each. Phone numbers start at $1.15/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges of ~$0.003–$0.005 per message apply on top of the base rate. The best value depends on your sending volume and destination countries.
Which is faster, MessageBird or Twilio?
Based on real-world data from Knock, MessageBird has a median SMS API response time (p50) of 328ms compared to 67ms for Twilio.
Which is more reliable, MessageBird or Twilio?
From February 15th to May 14th, MessageBird showed an error rate of 0.00% while Twilio showed 0.00%. Both rates are within acceptable thresholds for production SMS delivery, and Knock automatically retries failed requests to minimize the impact of transient errors.
Which is more popular, MessageBird or Twilio?
On the Knock platform, MessageBird handled <1M messages from February 15th to May 14th compared to 100M–500M for Twilio. MessageBird volume has remained stable, while Twilio volume has remained stable.
Can I use both MessageBird and Twilio together?
Yes. Knock enables you to integrate multiple SMS providers into a single notification workflow. You can use MessageBird and Twilio side by side, route traffic between them, or migrate from one to the other without changing your application code.
What are the main pros and cons of MessageBird vs Twilio?
MessageBird strengths include strong global coverage with direct carrier connections in 190+ countries and unified api across sms, whatsapp, telegram, and other channels. Twilio strengths include largest ecosystem of sdks, tutorials, and community resources for sms and trusted by airbnb, uber, and netflix for mission-critical messaging. On the other hand, MessageBird drawbacks include pricing is published as per-country rate cards rather than simple headline rates, making comparison harder, while Twilio drawbacks include per-message pricing can add up at high volumes without committed-use discounts.
Use either provider with Knock
Knock enables you to integrate MessageBird, Twilio, or any combination of SMS providers into a single notification workflow. Manage templates, orchestrate cross-channel delivery, and switch providers without changing your code.