What is the difference between Bland and Project Blue?

Bland supports 46 of the 77 features compared here, and Project Blue supports 42. Bland adds read receipts, animated text effects, stickers, CLI and signed webhooks. Project Blue adds group chats, group management, group name and photo, message effects and contact cards.

Does Project Blue support read receipts?

Project Blue does not list read receipts on its site or in its docs.

Does Project Blue support animated text effects?

Project Blue does not list animated text effects on its site or in its docs.

Does Project Blue support stickers?

Project Blue does not list stickers on its site or in its docs.

Bland vs Project Blue

Q: How much do Bland and Project Blue cost?

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. Project Blue: Flat per-line pricing: $166 a month per line billed annually or $199 a month per line on a 12-month plan, with a free trial on a shared line.

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

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

Project Blue

iMessage, SMS and FaceTime Audio lines inside your CRM

Starting price: $166/month per line, billed annually
Free plan: Free trial on a shared line, verified numbers only

Visit Project Blue Read more

Bland supports 46 of the 77 features compared here, and Project Blue supports 42.

Where Bland is ahead

and 6 more in the table below.

Where Project Blue is ahead

and 2 more in the table below.

Feature comparison

Feature	Bland	Project Blue
iMessage messaging
iMessage	PartialEnterprise plans only; Bland provisions an iMessage-capable number on request	Supported
Group chats	Not listed	SupportedSend to groups of 2 to 32 by API. Not on trial accounts, and group sends do not sync to the CRM.
Group management	Not listed	PartialGroups are created by sending to a set of numbers. No add or remove member endpoints documented.
Group name and photo	Not listed	PartialgroupName can be set when a group is created. No group photo documented.
Mentions	Not listed	Not listed
Tapbacks	SupportedSend and receive, per the iMessage guide; no API field, the agent decides	PartialSend or remove the six classic tapbacks on inbound iMessages. Receiving reactions is not documented.
Threaded replies	Not listed	Not listed
Typing indicators	SupportedListed in the iMessage guide	PartialSend only, iMessage only, into an existing conversation. Inbound typing events not documented.
Read receipts	Supported	Not listed
Edit and unsend	Not listedAPI deletes stored messages from a conversation; unsend on the device is not mentioned	Not listed
Message effects	Not listed	Supported4 bubble and 9 screen effects through the effect field. iMessage only.
Animated text effects	SupportedGuide lists text effects; which effects and how they are set is not documented	Not listed
Stickers	SupportedLive Stickers, per the iMessage guide	Not listed
Formatted text	Not listed	Not listed
Attachments	SupportedPhotos, videos, PDFs and spreadsheets both ways; agents can generate files to send	SupportedImages, videos and vCards by URL.
Live Photos	Not listed	Not listed
Rich link previews	Not listed	Not listed
Voice messages	SupportedSend and receive voice memos; inbound memos are transcribed	SupportedAudio files sent as voice memos, plus AI text-to-speech voice memos.
Contact cards	Not listed	SupportedVCF files through mediaAttachmentUrl.
Polls	Not listed	Not listed
Chat backgrounds	Not listed	Not listed
Location sharing	Not listed	Not listed
iMessage apps	Not listed	Not listed
Live app cards	Not listed	Not listed
Sender name and photo	SupportedBranded contact with your company name and profile image	SupportedSet, read and share a line's Share Name and Photo card by API.
FaceTime calls	Not listed	PartialFaceTime Audio only, outbound and inbound, on FaceTime-enabled accounts. Not on trials.
Delivery status	SupportedGuide lists delivery status; messages carry sent, delivered, read or failed	PartialMessages carry a status field such as delivered. Webhooks cover only inbound and outbound messages.
iMessage availability check	Not listed	Supported
Focus and Notify Anyway	Not listed	Not listed
Numbers and delivery
Managed lines	SupportedBland provisions iMessage-capable numbers for Enterprise accounts	SupportedNo iPhone, Mac or SIM needed. Lines are set up remotely, usually within one business day.
Dedicated numbers	SupportedAgent Phone Plan includes one dedicated US number; Enterprise numbers by request	SupportedA dedicated line per rep, never shared. New lines are requested by API and provisioned by the team.
Shared numbers	PartialFree credits call from a shared Bland number; texting needs your own number	PartialTrial accounts only: a shared line that can reach verified numbers.
Bring your own number	PartialYour own Twilio numbers or SIP trunks for voice and SMS; not documented for iMessage	SupportedExisting numbers can be ported to Project Blue's carrier partner.
Line pooling	PartialCustom Dialing picks numbers from a pool for outbound calls only	SupportedSends without lineId are load balanced across your lines.
SMS fallback	SupportedUses the richest channel the recipient supports and falls back to SMS	SupportedFalls back to SMS from the same line when iMessage is unavailable.
RCS fallback	Not listedDocs say Bland picks the richest channel; an iMessage to RCS order is not stated	Not listedHomepage describes fallback from iMessage to WhatsApp to SMS. RCS fallback is not described.
Outbound-first messaging	SupportedSend SMS creates or resumes a conversation on any channel	SupportedLines are sold as outbound-ready. Guidelines rule out mass outbound iMessage.
Calls on the iMessage number	Not listed	SupportedDialer and FaceTime Audio calls from the same number as the messaging line.
Other channels
SMS	SupportedEnterprise plans and the Agent Phone Plan; US numbers need A2P registration	Supported
RCS	PartialEnterprise only, enabled by your account executive	PartialRCS for rich media was rolled out in 2026. The API lists RCS as inbound only.
WhatsApp	PartialEnterprise only; a channel value on the Messaging API, no setup guide in the docs	PartialHomepage lists WhatsApp as a fallback step. No WhatsApp option in the API, and llms.txt says it is not a WhatsApp API.
Telegram	Not supportedNot offered	Not supportedNot offered
Slack	Not supportedNot a messaging channel; Slack is listed only as a tool integration	PartialSlack notifications for inbound replies. Not a messaging channel.
Email	Not supportedNot offered as a messaging channel	Not supportedDeveloper page says it is not a general email API.
Phone calls	SupportedCore product: inbound and outbound AI phone calls, plus SIP	SupportedCloud dialer with inbound, outbound, routing, recording and voicemail, plus a browser calling SDK.
Apple Messages for Business	Not listedProduct page says Bland handles Apple Business Messaging registration; docs describe numbers	Not supportedNot offered
Unified channel API	PartialSMS, RCS, WhatsApp and iMessage share the /v1/sms endpoints; calls use a separate API	PartialOne send endpoint covers iMessage and SMS. Calls and FaceTime use separate endpoints.
Developer tools
REST API	Supported	SupportedREST API with Bearer keys and an OpenAPI spec.
TypeScript SDK	PartialDocs list a Web Agent SDK for browser voice and a TTS library; no messaging SDK	Partial@tryprojectblue/dialer is a browser SDK for phone calls only. No messaging SDK.
Python SDK	Not listed	Not listed
Other SDKs	Not listed	Not listed
CLI	Supportedbland-cli on npm	Not listed
Webhooks	SupportedMessage and status webhooks per number or per request, with a channel field	SupportedInbound and outbound message events and inbound FaceTime call events.
Signed webhooks	SupportedHMAC-SHA256 in X-Webhook-Signature; asymmetric JWT signing on Enterprise	Not listedWebhook docs do not mention signatures.
MCP server	SupportedHosted MCP server; personal agents connected to it can place calls and send texts	SupportedRemote MCP server with OAuth 2.1, plus an optional Claude Code plugin.
Open source	Not supportedClosed platform	PartialThe dialer SDK is MIT licensed on npm. The platform is closed.
Self-hosting	PartialEnterprise: your own VPC, on-premises or air-gapped deployments	Not listedHosted service on Project Blue lines. Self-hosting is not mentioned.
Local testing	SupportedPathway Chat API and Testbed run agent conversations without a phone	Not listedTrial accounts send real messages to verified numbers; docs say they are not a simulator.
Custom channel providers	PartialBring your own Twilio account or SIP carrier for telephony	Not listed
Event replay	PartialAutomatic webhook retries; resend endpoint for call webhooks; SMS delivery log readable	Not supportedDocs say webhooks have no retries and failed deliveries are not replayed.
OpenTelemetry	Not listed	Not listed
No-code integrations	SupportedZapier, Make and Pipedream on the integrations page	SupportedGoHighLevel conversation provider with workflow actions and triggers. llms.txt also lists Zapier.
CRM integrations	SupportedHubSpot and Salesforce	SupportedHubSpot and Close CRM. Salesforce is not listed.
Built for AI agents
Agent framework	SupportedPathways, personas and versioned agents drive voice and every messaging channel	Not listed
Agent framework integrations	PartialMCP guides for OpenClaw, Poke, Meta Muse and coding agents; no LangChain or Vercel AI SDK	Not listed
Streaming replies	Not listed	Not listed
Agent group chats	Not listed	Not listed
Human handoff	SupportedHand a thread to a human and resume the agent, by API or a pathway node	PartialReps reply in the CRM inbox and can join group threads. No agent handoff controls documented.
Audit logs	PartialEnterprise feature, not yet available for all accounts	Not listed
Message history API	SupportedList and read conversations with messages and delivery status	SupportedList and get messages, inbound and outbound, with filters.
Plans and compliance
Free plan	PartialFree Start plan with credits is for voice; messaging needs Agent Phone Plan or Enterprise	PartialFree trial on a shared line to verified numbers. Some endpoints are off on trial.
Public pricing	PartialVoice plans and SMS rates are public; iMessage, RCS and WhatsApp prices are not	Supported$166/month per line billed annually, or $199/month per line on a 12-month plan.
No per-message fees	PartialSMS costs $0.02 per message; the Agent Phone Plan is flat with a 100 texts a day cap	SupportedFlat per-line pricing with unlimited texting under fair use.
Uptime SLA	SupportedPricing page lists a 99.9% uptime SLA on every plan	Not listedSite cites a 99.9% uptime record and a public status page. No contractual SLA found.
Isolated infrastructure	PartialEnterprise customers run on their own isolated infrastructure	PartialEach rep gets a dedicated line that is never shared. Other infrastructure is not described.
SOC 2 Type II	SupportedSOC 2 Type II, independently audited	Not listed
GDPR	SupportedGDPR compliant, with a DPA in enterprise contracts	PartialPrivacy policy lists GDPR and UK GDPR rights. No DPA found.

Feature

Bland

Project Blue

iMessage messaging

iMessage

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

Group chats

Not listed

Send to groups of 2 to 32 by API. Not on trial accounts, and group sends do not sync to the CRM.

Group management

Not listed

PartialGroups are created by sending to a set of numbers. No add or remove member endpoints documented.

Group name and photo

Not listed

PartialgroupName can be set when a group is created. No group photo documented.

Mentions

Not listed

Tapbacks

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

PartialSend or remove the six classic tapbacks on inbound iMessages. Receiving reactions is not documented.

Threaded replies

Not listed

Typing indicators

Listed in the iMessage guide

PartialSend only, iMessage only, into an existing conversation. Inbound typing events not documented.

Read receipts

Not listed

Edit and unsend

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

Not listed

Message effects

Not listed

4 bubble and 9 screen effects through the effect field. iMessage only.

Animated text effects

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

Not listed

Stickers

Live Stickers, per the iMessage guide

Not listed

Formatted text

Not listed

Attachments

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

Images, videos and vCards by URL.

Live Photos

Not listed

Rich link previews

Not listed

Voice messages

Send and receive voice memos; inbound memos are transcribed

Audio files sent as voice memos, plus AI text-to-speech voice memos.

Contact cards

Not listed

VCF files through mediaAttachmentUrl.

Not listed

Not listed

Not listed

Not listed

Not listed

Sender name and photo

Branded contact with your company name and profile image

Set, read and share a line's Share Name and Photo card by API.

FaceTime calls

Not listed

PartialFaceTime Audio only, outbound and inbound, on FaceTime-enabled accounts. Not on trials.

Delivery status

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

PartialMessages carry a status field such as delivered. Webhooks cover only inbound and outbound messages.

iMessage availability check

Not listed

Focus and Notify Anyway

Not listed

Numbers and delivery

Managed lines

Bland provisions iMessage-capable numbers for Enterprise accounts

No iPhone, Mac or SIM needed. Lines are set up remotely, usually within one business day.

Dedicated numbers

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

A dedicated line per rep, never shared. New lines are requested by API and provisioned by the team.

Shared numbers

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

PartialTrial accounts only: a shared line that can reach verified numbers.

Bring your own number

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

Existing numbers can be ported to Project Blue's carrier partner.

Line pooling

PartialCustom Dialing picks numbers from a pool for outbound calls only

Sends without lineId are load balanced across your lines.

SMS fallback

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

Falls back to SMS from the same line when iMessage is unavailable.

RCS fallback

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

Not listedHomepage describes fallback from iMessage to WhatsApp to SMS. RCS fallback is not described.

Outbound-first messaging

Send SMS creates or resumes a conversation on any channel

Lines are sold as outbound-ready. Guidelines rule out mass outbound iMessage.

Calls on the iMessage number

Not listed

Dialer and FaceTime Audio calls from the same number as the messaging line.

Other channels

SMS

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

RCS

PartialEnterprise only, enabled by your account executive

PartialRCS for rich media was rolled out in 2026. The API lists RCS as inbound only.

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

PartialHomepage lists WhatsApp as a fallback step. No WhatsApp option in the API, and llms.txt says it is not a WhatsApp API.

Not supportedNot offered

Slack

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

PartialSlack notifications for inbound replies. Not a messaging channel.

Not supportedNot offered as a messaging channel

Not supportedDeveloper page says it is not a general email API.

Phone calls

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

Cloud dialer with inbound, outbound, routing, recording and voicemail, plus a browser calling SDK.

Apple Messages for Business

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

Not supportedNot offered

Unified channel API

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

PartialOne send endpoint covers iMessage and SMS. Calls and FaceTime use separate endpoints.

Developer tools

REST API

REST API with Bearer keys and an OpenAPI spec.

TypeScript SDK

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

Partial@tryprojectblue/dialer is a browser SDK for phone calls only. No messaging SDK.

Python SDK

Not listed

Other SDKs

Not listed

CLI

bland-cli on npm

Not listed

Webhooks

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

Inbound and outbound message events and inbound FaceTime call events.

Signed webhooks

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

Not listedWebhook docs do not mention signatures.

MCP server

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

Remote MCP server with OAuth 2.1, plus an optional Claude Code plugin.

Open source

Not supportedClosed platform

PartialThe dialer SDK is MIT licensed on npm. The platform is closed.

Self-hosting

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

Not listedHosted service on Project Blue lines. Self-hosting is not mentioned.

Local testing

Pathway Chat API and Testbed run agent conversations without a phone

Not listedTrial accounts send real messages to verified numbers; docs say they are not a simulator.

Custom channel providers

PartialBring your own Twilio account or SIP carrier for telephony

Not listed

Event replay

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

Not supportedDocs say webhooks have no retries and failed deliveries are not replayed.

OpenTelemetry

Not listed

No-code integrations

Zapier, Make and Pipedream on the integrations page

GoHighLevel conversation provider with workflow actions and triggers. llms.txt also lists Zapier.

CRM integrations

HubSpot and Salesforce

HubSpot and Close CRM. Salesforce is not listed.

Built for AI agents

Agent framework

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

Not listed

Agent framework integrations

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

Not listed

Streaming replies

Not listed

Agent group chats

Not listed

Human handoff

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

PartialReps reply in the CRM inbox and can join group threads. No agent handoff controls documented.

Audit logs

PartialEnterprise feature, not yet available for all accounts

Not listed

Message history API

List and read conversations with messages and delivery status

List and get messages, inbound and outbound, with filters.

Plans and compliance

Free plan

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

PartialFree trial on a shared line to verified numbers. Some endpoints are off on trial.

Public pricing

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

$166/month per line billed annually, or $199/month per line on a 12-month plan.

No per-message fees

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

Flat per-line pricing with unlimited texting under fair use.

Uptime SLA

Pricing page lists a 99.9% uptime SLA on every plan

Not listedSite cites a 99.9% uptime record and a public status page. No contractual SLA found.

Isolated infrastructure

PartialEnterprise customers run on their own isolated infrastructure

PartialEach rep gets a dedicated line that is never shared. Other infrastructure is not described.

SOC 2 Type II

SOC 2 Type II, independently audited

Not listed

GDPR

GDPR compliant, with a DPA in enterprise contracts

PartialPrivacy policy lists GDPR and UK GDPR rights. No DPA found.

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

Pricing

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