What is the difference between AgentPhone and Bland?

AgentPhone supports 44 of the 77 features compared here, and Bland supports 46. AgentPhone adds group chats, group management, group name and photo, threaded replies and message effects. Bland adds read receipts, animated text effects, stickers, voice messages and shared numbers.

How much do AgentPhone and Bland cost?

AgentPhone: Pay as you go with $5 of starting credit: $3 per number a month, $0.13 to $0.22 a voice minute and $0.02 per SMS segment, with iMessage lines at $150 or $250 a month and no per-message charge. Bland: Voice plans are Start (free, $0.14 a minute), Build ($299 a month) and Scale ($499 a month); SMS is $0.02 per message; the Agent Phone Plan is $29.99 a month for one number; iMessage, RCS and WhatsApp need a custom Enterprise contract.

Does Bland support group chats?

Bland does not list group chats on its site or in its docs.

Does Bland support group management?

Bland does not list group management on its site or in its docs.

Does Bland support group name and photo?

Bland does not list group name and photo on its site or in its docs.

AgentPhone vs Bland

Compare AgentPhone and Bland side by side: iMessage features, channels, developer tools, pricing and compliance, checked on each provider's own site.

AgentPhone

Phone numbers with voice, SMS and iMessage for AI agents

Starting price: $3/month per number plus usage; iMessage from $150/month per line
Free plan: $5 starting credit, no card required

Visit AgentPhone Read more

Bland

Voice AI platform with SMS, RCS and branded iMessage agents

Starting price: Custom (iMessage is Enterprise only); SMS from $29.99/month on the Agent Phone Plan
Free plan: Start plan: free, with credits and an inbound number, for voice

Visit Bland Read more

AgentPhone supports 44 of the 77 features compared here, and Bland supports 46.

Where AgentPhone is ahead

and 4 more in the table below.

Where Bland is ahead

and 6 more in the table below.

Feature comparison

Feature	AgentPhone	Bland
iMessage messaging
iMessage	SupportediMessage lines are a separate number type (type=imessage).	PartialEnterprise plans only; Bland provisions an iMessage-capable number on request
Group chats	SupportediMessage groups arrive as one conversation with roster and sender; reply to the group id.	Not listed
Group management	PartialStart a new group by listing recipients and rename it; adding or removing members is not documented.	Not listed
Group name and photo	PartialGroup name can be set by API; the group icon is only readable.	Not listed
Mentions	Not listed	Not listed
Tapbacks	SupportedSix classic tapbacks, custom emoji on newer lines; inbound reactions via agent.reaction.	SupportedSend and receive, per the iMessage guide; no API field, the agent decides
Threaded replies	Supportedreply_to_message_id; also on WhatsApp.	Not listed
Typing indicators	SupportedSend only, best-effort, auto-expires after a few seconds.	SupportedListed in the iMessage guide
Read receipts	Not listedThe pricing page mentions read receipts; no API or webhook for them is documented.	Supported
Edit and unsend	Not listed	Not listedAPI deletes stored messages from a conversation; unsend on the device is not mentioned
Message effects	Supported12 screen and bubble effects via send_style.	Not listed
Animated text effects	Not listed	SupportedGuide lists text effects; which effects and how they are set is not documented
Stickers	Not listed	SupportedLive Stickers, per the iMessage guide
Formatted text	Not listed	Not listed
Attachments	SupportedImages, video and files by URL; several images arrive as a carousel on iMessage.	SupportedPhotos, videos, PDFs and spreadsheets both ways; agents can generate files to send
Live Photos	Not listed	Not listed
Rich link previews	Not listed	Not listed
Voice messages	Not listed	SupportedSend and receive voice memos; inbound memos are transcribed
Contact cards	SupportedvCard files can be sent as media (listed as a supported MMS type).	Not listed
Polls	Not listed	Not listed
Chat backgrounds	SupportedSet or remove a background image per iMessage conversation.	Not listed
Location sharing	Not listedThe API has location endpoints returning coordinates per number, but their use is not described.	Not listed
iMessage apps	Not listed	Not listed
Live app cards	Not listed	Not listed
Sender name and photo	PartialContact card sets a display name and avatar on the iMessage number; $250/month line only.	SupportedBranded contact with your company name and profile image
FaceTime calls	Not listed	Not listed
Delivery status	PartialMessages carry a status and failure reason; no delivery or read webhooks are documented.	SupportedGuide lists delivery status; messages carry sent, delivered, read or failed
iMessage availability check	SupportedLive check of iMessage, SMS and RCS reachability for a number before sending.	Not listed
Focus and Notify Anyway	Not listed	Not listed
Numbers and delivery
Managed lines	SupportediMessage lines are ordered through the API and run by AgentPhone.	SupportedBland provisions iMessage-capable numbers for Enterprise accounts
Dedicated numbers	SupportedUS and Canada numbers at $3/month; dedicated iMessage lines at $250/month.	SupportedAgent Phone Plan includes one dedicated US number; Enterprise numbers by request
Shared numbers	Not listed	PartialFree credits call from a shared Bland number; texting needs your own number
Bring your own number	Not listed	PartialYour own Twilio numbers or SIP trunks for voice and SMS; not documented for iMessage
Line pooling	Not listed	PartialCustom Dialing picks numbers from a pool for outbound calls only
SMS fallback	SupportedFalls back to SMS/MMS when iMessage is not available.	SupportedUses the richest channel the recipient supports and falls back to SMS
RCS fallback	SupportediMessage-capable numbers deliver over RCS or SMS to non-Apple recipients.	Not listedDocs say Bland picks the richest channel; an iMessage to RCS order is not stated
Outbound-first messaging	PartialOutbound iMessage lines: 50 new contacts a day per line; inbound-only lines do not start chats; SMS needs 10DLC.	SupportedSend SMS creates or resumes a conversation on any channel
Calls on the iMessage number	Not listed	Not listed
Other channels
SMS	SupportedSMS and MMS; inbound works at once, outbound needs 10DLC.	SupportedEnterprise plans and the Agent Phone Plan; US numbers need A2P registration
RCS	BetaRCS Business Messaging is beta and concierge-onboarded: branded sender, quick-reply chips.	PartialEnterprise only, enabled by your account executive
WhatsApp	BetaBeta, enabled per account. Connect your own WhatsApp Business Account; Meta bills you.	PartialEnterprise only; a channel value on the Messaging API, no setup guide in the docs
Telegram	Not supportedNot offered	Not supportedNot offered
Slack	Not supported	Not supportedNot a messaging channel; Slack is listed only as a tool integration
Email	Not supported	Not supportedNot offered as a messaging channel
Phone calls	SupportedInbound and outbound calls in webhook mode or hosted AI mode; also browser web calls.	SupportedCore product: inbound and outbound AI phone calls, plus SIP
Apple Messages for Business	Not supportedNot offered	Not listedProduct page says Bland handles Apple Business Messaging registration; docs describe numbers
Unified channel API	SupportedOne send endpoint for SMS, MMS, iMessage, RCS and WhatsApp; one agent.message webhook incl. voice.	PartialSMS, RCS, WhatsApp and iMessage share the /v1/sms endpoints; calls use a separate API
Developer tools
REST API	Supported	Supported
TypeScript SDK	Supportednpm install agentphone	PartialDocs list a Web Agent SDK for browser voice and a TTS library; no messaging SDK
Python SDK	Supportedpip install agentphone	Not listed
Other SDKs	Not listedDocs list only TypeScript and Python; an agentphone-go repo holds only a placeholder README.	Not listed
CLI	Not listedNo own CLI found; numbers can be provisioned through the Stripe Projects CLI.	Supportedbland-cli on npm
Webhooks	SupportedProject default webhook with per-agent overrides.	SupportedMessage and status webhooks per number or per request, with a channel field
Signed webhooks	SupportedHMAC-SHA256 over timestamp and body, with a timestamp header for replay protection.	SupportedHMAC-SHA256 in X-Webhook-Signature; asymmetric JWT signing on Enterprise
MCP server	SupportedHosted MCP server (mcp.agentphone.ai) and npm package agentphone-mcp.	SupportedHosted MCP server; personal agents connected to it can place calls and send texts
Open source	Not supportedClosed platform. The MCP server and framework integrations are MIT-licensed on GitHub.	Not supportedClosed platform
Self-hosting	Not supportedHosted cloud service only	PartialEnterprise: your own VPC, on-premises or air-gapped deployments
Local testing	PartialBrowser web calls test a voice agent without a phone number; no message simulator found.	SupportedPathway Chat API and Testbed run agent conversations without a phone
Custom channel providers	Not listed	PartialBring your own Twilio account or SIP carrier for telephony
Event replay	PartialFailed webhooks retry 5 times over about 20 hours; deliveries can be listed but not replayed.	PartialAutomatic webhook retries; resend endpoint for call webhooks; SMS delivery log readable
OpenTelemetry	Not listed	Not listed
No-code integrations	PartialAgentPhone block in Sim's no-code workflow builder; no Zapier, Make, n8n or GoHighLevel found.	SupportedZapier, Make and Pipedream on the integrations page
CRM integrations	Not listed	SupportedHubSpot and Salesforce
Built for AI agents
Agent framework	SupportedHosted voice mode runs calls from a system prompt; conversation state rides along in webhooks.	SupportedPathways, personas and versioned agents drive voice and every messaging channel
Agent framework integrations	SupportedVercel Chat SDK adapter, LangChain, CrewAI and OpenAI Agents SDK tools, Google ADK guide.	PartialMCP guides for OpenClaw, Poke, Meta Muse and coding agents; no LangChain or Vercel AI SDK
Streaming replies	PartialVoice only: NDJSON streamed webhook replies start speech on the first chunk.	Not listed
Agent group chats	PartialAgents can create and take part in iMessage groups; agent-to-agent groups are not described.	Not listed
Human handoff	PartialVoice only: cold transfer of a call to a transferNumber, by the AI or your webhook.	SupportedHand a thread to a human and resume the agent, by API or a pathway node
Audit logs	Not listed	PartialEnterprise feature, not yet available for all accounts
Message history API	SupportedConversations with paginated messages and custom metadata; call transcripts.	SupportedList and read conversations with messages and delivery status
Plans and compliance
Free plan	Partial$5 starting credit, no card. Outbound calls need a top-up first.	PartialFree Start plan with credits is for voice; messaging needs Agent Phone Plan or Enterprise
Public pricing	Supported	PartialVoice plans and SMS rates are public; iMessage, RCS and WhatsApp prices are not
No per-message fees	PartialiMessage lines and WhatsApp have no per-message charge; SMS is $0.02 a segment, MMS $0.03.	PartialSMS costs $0.02 per message; the Agent Phone Plan is flat with a 100 texts a day cap
Uptime SLA	Not supportedTerms promise no uptime; SLAs only if set in an order or separate agreement.	SupportedPricing page lists a 99.9% uptime SLA on every plan
Isolated infrastructure	Not listedSub-accounts isolate agents, numbers and data per client; no dedicated infrastructure offer found.	PartialEnterprise customers run on their own isolated infrastructure
SOC 2 Type II	PartialSOC 2 Type I report as of July 30, 2026; Type II examination in progress.	SupportedSOC 2 Type II, independently audited
GDPR	SupportedPrivacy policy sets out GDPR legal bases for processing.	SupportedGDPR compliant, with a DPA in enterprise contracts

Feature

AgentPhone

Bland

iMessage messaging

iMessage

iMessage lines are a separate number type (type=imessage).

PartialEnterprise plans only; Bland provisions an iMessage-capable number on request

Group chats

iMessage groups arrive as one conversation with roster and sender; reply to the group id.

Not listed

Group management

PartialStart a new group by listing recipients and rename it; adding or removing members is not documented.

Not listed

Group name and photo

PartialGroup name can be set by API; the group icon is only readable.

Not listed

Mentions

Not listed

Tapbacks

Six classic tapbacks, custom emoji on newer lines; inbound reactions via agent.reaction.

Send and receive, per the iMessage guide; no API field, the agent decides

Threaded replies

reply_to_message_id; also on WhatsApp.

Not listed

Typing indicators

Send only, best-effort, auto-expires after a few seconds.

Listed in the iMessage guide

Read receipts

Not listedThe pricing page mentions read receipts; no API or webhook for them is documented.

Edit and unsend

Not listed

Not listedAPI deletes stored messages from a conversation; unsend on the device is not mentioned

Message effects

12 screen and bubble effects via send_style.

Not listed

Animated text effects

Not listed

Guide lists text effects; which effects and how they are set is not documented

Stickers

Not listed

Live Stickers, per the iMessage guide

Formatted text

Not listed

Attachments

Images, video and files by URL; several images arrive as a carousel on iMessage.

Photos, videos, PDFs and spreadsheets both ways; agents can generate files to send

Live Photos

Not listed

Rich link previews

Not listed

Voice messages

Not listed

Send and receive voice memos; inbound memos are transcribed

Contact cards

vCard files can be sent as media (listed as a supported MMS type).

Not listed

Polls

Not listed

Chat backgrounds

Set or remove a background image per iMessage conversation.

Not listed

Location sharing

Not listedThe API has location endpoints returning coordinates per number, but their use is not described.

Not listed

iMessage apps

Not listed

Live app cards

Not listed

Sender name and photo

PartialContact card sets a display name and avatar on the iMessage number; $250/month line only.

Branded contact with your company name and profile image

FaceTime calls

Not listed

Delivery status

PartialMessages carry a status and failure reason; no delivery or read webhooks are documented.

Guide lists delivery status; messages carry sent, delivered, read or failed

iMessage availability check

Live check of iMessage, SMS and RCS reachability for a number before sending.

Not listed

Focus and Notify Anyway

Not listed

Numbers and delivery

Managed lines

iMessage lines are ordered through the API and run by AgentPhone.

Bland provisions iMessage-capable numbers for Enterprise accounts

Dedicated numbers

US and Canada numbers at $3/month; dedicated iMessage lines at $250/month.

Agent Phone Plan includes one dedicated US number; Enterprise numbers by request

Shared numbers

Not listed

PartialFree credits call from a shared Bland number; texting needs your own number

Bring your own number

Not listed

PartialYour own Twilio numbers or SIP trunks for voice and SMS; not documented for iMessage

Line pooling

Not listed

PartialCustom Dialing picks numbers from a pool for outbound calls only

SMS fallback

Falls back to SMS/MMS when iMessage is not available.

Uses the richest channel the recipient supports and falls back to SMS

RCS fallback

iMessage-capable numbers deliver over RCS or SMS to non-Apple recipients.

Not listedDocs say Bland picks the richest channel; an iMessage to RCS order is not stated

Outbound-first messaging

PartialOutbound iMessage lines: 50 new contacts a day per line; inbound-only lines do not start chats; SMS needs 10DLC.

Send SMS creates or resumes a conversation on any channel

Calls on the iMessage number

Not listed

Other channels

SMS

SMS and MMS; inbound works at once, outbound needs 10DLC.

Enterprise plans and the Agent Phone Plan; US numbers need A2P registration

RCS

BetaRCS Business Messaging is beta and concierge-onboarded: branded sender, quick-reply chips.

PartialEnterprise only, enabled by your account executive

BetaBeta, enabled per account. Connect your own WhatsApp Business Account; Meta bills you.

PartialEnterprise only; a channel value on the Messaging API, no setup guide in the docs

Not supportedNot offered

Slack

Not supported

Not supportedNot a messaging channel; Slack is listed only as a tool integration

Not supported

Not supportedNot offered as a messaging channel

Phone calls

Inbound and outbound calls in webhook mode or hosted AI mode; also browser web calls.

Core product: inbound and outbound AI phone calls, plus SIP

Apple Messages for Business

Not supportedNot offered

Not listedProduct page says Bland handles Apple Business Messaging registration; docs describe numbers

Unified channel API

One send endpoint for SMS, MMS, iMessage, RCS and WhatsApp; one agent.message webhook incl. voice.

PartialSMS, RCS, WhatsApp and iMessage share the /v1/sms endpoints; calls use a separate API

Developer tools

REST API

TypeScript SDK

npm install agentphone

PartialDocs list a Web Agent SDK for browser voice and a TTS library; no messaging SDK

Python SDK

pip install agentphone

Not listed

Other SDKs

Not listedDocs list only TypeScript and Python; an agentphone-go repo holds only a placeholder README.

Not listed

CLI

Not listedNo own CLI found; numbers can be provisioned through the Stripe Projects CLI.

bland-cli on npm

Webhooks

Project default webhook with per-agent overrides.

Message and status webhooks per number or per request, with a channel field

Signed webhooks

HMAC-SHA256 over timestamp and body, with a timestamp header for replay protection.

HMAC-SHA256 in X-Webhook-Signature; asymmetric JWT signing on Enterprise

MCP server

Hosted MCP server (mcp.agentphone.ai) and npm package agentphone-mcp.

Hosted MCP server; personal agents connected to it can place calls and send texts

Open source

Not supportedClosed platform. The MCP server and framework integrations are MIT-licensed on GitHub.

Not supportedClosed platform

Self-hosting

Not supportedHosted cloud service only

PartialEnterprise: your own VPC, on-premises or air-gapped deployments

Local testing

PartialBrowser web calls test a voice agent without a phone number; no message simulator found.

Pathway Chat API and Testbed run agent conversations without a phone

Custom channel providers

Not listed

PartialBring your own Twilio account or SIP carrier for telephony

Event replay

PartialFailed webhooks retry 5 times over about 20 hours; deliveries can be listed but not replayed.

PartialAutomatic webhook retries; resend endpoint for call webhooks; SMS delivery log readable

OpenTelemetry

Not listed

No-code integrations

PartialAgentPhone block in Sim's no-code workflow builder; no Zapier, Make, n8n or GoHighLevel found.

Zapier, Make and Pipedream on the integrations page

CRM integrations

Not listed

HubSpot and Salesforce

Built for AI agents

Agent framework

Hosted voice mode runs calls from a system prompt; conversation state rides along in webhooks.

Pathways, personas and versioned agents drive voice and every messaging channel

Agent framework integrations

Vercel Chat SDK adapter, LangChain, CrewAI and OpenAI Agents SDK tools, Google ADK guide.

PartialMCP guides for OpenClaw, Poke, Meta Muse and coding agents; no LangChain or Vercel AI SDK

Streaming replies

PartialVoice only: NDJSON streamed webhook replies start speech on the first chunk.

Not listed

Agent group chats

PartialAgents can create and take part in iMessage groups; agent-to-agent groups are not described.

Not listed

Human handoff

PartialVoice only: cold transfer of a call to a transferNumber, by the AI or your webhook.

Hand a thread to a human and resume the agent, by API or a pathway node

Audit logs

Not listed

PartialEnterprise feature, not yet available for all accounts

Message history API

Conversations with paginated messages and custom metadata; call transcripts.

List and read conversations with messages and delivery status

Plans and compliance

Free plan

Partial$5 starting credit, no card. Outbound calls need a top-up first.

PartialFree Start plan with credits is for voice; messaging needs Agent Phone Plan or Enterprise

Public pricing

PartialVoice plans and SMS rates are public; iMessage, RCS and WhatsApp prices are not

No per-message fees

PartialiMessage lines and WhatsApp have no per-message charge; SMS is $0.02 a segment, MMS $0.03.

PartialSMS costs $0.02 per message; the Agent Phone Plan is flat with a 100 texts a day cap

Uptime SLA

Not supportedTerms promise no uptime; SLAs only if set in an order or separate agreement.

Pricing page lists a 99.9% uptime SLA on every plan

Isolated infrastructure

Not listedSub-accounts isolate agents, numbers and data per client; no dedicated infrastructure offer found.

PartialEnterprise customers run on their own isolated infrastructure

SOC 2 Type II

PartialSOC 2 Type I report as of July 30, 2026; Type II examination in progress.

SOC 2 Type II, independently audited

GDPR

GDPR compliant, with a DPA in enterprise contracts

Checked on each provider's own site and docs on 2026-10-25. “Not listed” means the provider does not mention it.

Pricing

AgentPhone

Pay as you go with $5 of starting credit: $3 per number a month, $0.13 to $0.22 a voice minute and $0.02 per SMS segment, with iMessage lines at $150 or $250 a month and no per-message charge.

Pricing model: usage-based, flat per line for iMessage

Source

Bland

Voice plans are Start (free, $0.14 a minute), Build ($299 a month) and Scale ($499 a month); SMS is $0.02 per message; the Agent Phone Plan is $29.99 a month for one number; iMessage, RCS and WhatsApp need a custom Enterprise contract.

Pricing model: per-minute voice, per-message SMS, custom Enterprise contracts

Source