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Nexmo vs Plivo: What are the differences?
Introduction:
Nexmo and Plivo are two leading cloud communication platforms that offer services such as SMS, voice calls, and phone number verification. While both platforms provide similar functionalities, they have some key differences that set them apart.
Pricing Models: One major difference between Nexmo and Plivo is their pricing models. Nexmo offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, allowing users to pay for the services they actually use. On the other hand, Plivo offers both pay-as-you-go and fixed-rate plans, giving users the flexibility to choose the pricing structure that best suits their needs.
Global Coverage: Another significant difference is the global coverage provided by each platform. Nexmo has an extensive global network, enabling users to easily reach customers in various countries. Plivo, although it also offers global coverage, has a slightly smaller network compared to Nexmo. This difference in global reach can be a deciding factor for businesses that have a multinational customer base.
Developer-Friendly APIs: Both Nexmo and Plivo provide APIs for developers to integrate their services into applications. However, Nexmo's API is known for its developer-friendly nature, offering comprehensive documentation, easy-to-use SDKs, and pre-built libraries for various programming languages. Plivo, while also providing APIs, may require developers to invest more time and effort in understanding and implementing their API functionalities.
Additional Features: Nexmo and Plivo offer various additional features beyond basic SMS and voice call capabilities. Nexmo, for example, provides features like two-factor authentication, number insight, and programmable chat. Plivo also offers similar features, including SMS dashboards and real-time analytics. The specific feature sets provided by each platform may differ, so it is essential to consider the specific requirements of your application.
Customer Support: Differences in customer support can also be a factor to consider when choosing between Nexmo and Plivo. Nexmo offers 24/7 customer support, ensuring that users can get assistance whenever needed. Plivo also provides customer support but may have limited availability, mainly operating during business hours. Depending on your organization's requirements and the level of support needed, this difference in customer support availability may impact your decision.
Integration Partnerships: Both Nexmo and Plivo have integration partnerships with other popular platforms and services. However, Nexmo has a broader range of integration partnerships, allowing users to leverage the platform's capabilities within existing workflows and systems more easily. Plivo's integration partnerships are still substantial, but the availability and depth of integrations may be lesser compared to Nexmo.
In summary, Nexmo and Plivo differ in pricing models, global coverage, developer-friendliness of APIs, additional features, customer support availability, and integration partnerships. Choosing between the two depends on factors such as cost considerations, target customer geography, developer resources, specific feature requirements, support availability, and existing system integrations.
Hello! We need to integrate an SMS gateway into our app for user phone verification. As we are just starting, we are searching for the most affordable/best price/performance option for SMS gateway to verify client phone numbers with the code, maybe you can suggest something between those two or maybe something else. We are planning to do business in Europe
Twilio is the leader. Strong API, excellent documentation and reliable service. I suggest Nexmo since their API has smaller learning curve, offering better prices and also reliable solution. Also Nexmo offers more call per sec. 3 vs 2 and 2, out of the box. Good luck
Twilio documentation is very good and as a platform it just works. It's robust and reliable. We road-tested plivo and it wasn't anywhere near in terms of docs or support. In fact their support was terrible at replying to us. 48 hours to answer basic questions.
That's said, were also using sendgrid by twilio and that's not been pleasant . Their email builder appears to be react based but written by a team who don't understand react very well. That's a nightmare as yet
Twilio might be not cheapest, but they have awesome documentation (a lot of examples), easy to use API and libraries. I think it's a very good product to start. If the bill will become too heavy, you can shop around for economical options.
stackshare doesn't seem to have this in the stack list yet, but in my experience Twillio is attractive. It's good for basics, their acquisition of SendGrid gives them a bit more market share.. They are stronger at marketing to those that benefit them. That said from my understanding SendGrid leases the networks, channels, and lines. While their interface is friendly, their pricing suited for lower volume, you want to look at what they are using via an API, a contract, etc. Is it a more friend UI to a combination of others. What redunancies do to they have, try their support. It's not that Twillio is bad, it's about the volume, the use case, the liabiitlies you might have to your end-users if Twillio isn't the right choice. Another option is Bandwidth. You ask for affordable, Twillio is an option, but front end costs v/s the costs of support you'll need to consider. Bandwidth has more reliability but requires more engineering and more skillset. Another option that is worth considering, not the most affordable, but https://www.zipwhip.com/ have perhaps options that might be higher and the cost is relative. Wight costs, of support costs of integration, cost of scale, costs of a volume..
Pros of Nexmo
- For outbound and inbound SMS18
- Cheap13
- Simple REST API10
- Most reliable global communication vendor w/simple APIs4
- Broad coverage4
- Super fast and easy to use2
- Excellent support team2
- Implement inbound SMS2
- Cheap short-code SMS1
Pros of Plivo
- SMS gateway8
- Pricing6
- Voice API service3
- 24/7 Support2
- Trial account with positive balance2