What is the difference between Chert and Tuco AI?

Chert supports 47 of the 77 features compared here, and Tuco AI supports 41. Chert adds group chats, group management, group name and photo, edit and unsend and message effects. Tuco AI adds iMessage availability check, bring your own number, Telegram, Slack and email.

How much do Chert and Tuco AI cost?

Chert: A free 24-hour trial includes 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line; Shared is $25 a month and a dedicated line is $250 a month, but paid checkout is paused. Tuco AI: Starter is $149 a month for 1 line and Growth $299 a month for 2 lines, each with a one-time $335 setup fee per line and no per-message fees.

Does Tuco AI support group chats?

Tuco AI does not support group chats.

Does Tuco AI support group management?

Tuco AI does not support group management.

Does Tuco AI support group name and photo?

Tuco AI does not support group name and photo.

Chert vs Tuco AI: Features, Pricing and Differences

Feature comparison

Feature	Chert	Tuco AI
iMessage messaging
iMessage	Supported	Supported
Group chats	Supported2 to 31 recipients; first group message must be text only.	Not supportedTuco's llms.txt says it has no group chats.
Group management	SupportedCreate, add or remove participants, and leave a group.	Not supportedNo group chat support
Group name and photo	SupportedSet a group's display name and icon.	Not supported
Mentions	Not listed	Not supported
Tapbacks	SupportedSix standard tapbacks; inbound tapbacks show in message history.	SupportedSend six classic tapbacks by API; inbound reactions, including custom emoji, arrive as message.reaction.
Threaded replies	Not listedHomepage mentions reply context; no reply-to field in the API docs.	Not listed
Typing indicators	SupportedBest effort; group typing is not supported on every line.	PartialStart and stop typing by API, best effort. Inbound typing events not documented.
Read receipts	SupportedMark chats read; messages carry read_at when known.	Supportedmessage.opened webhook with readAt when the recipient has read receipts on.
Edit and unsend	PartialEdit within 15 minutes; no unsend endpoint documented.	Not listed
Message effects	SupportedApple send effects, validated against an allowed list.	Not listed
Animated text effects	Not listed	Not listed
Stickers	Not listed	Not listed
Formatted text	Not listed	Not listed
Attachments	SupportedUpload then send; several images can go out as one grouped message.	SupportedUp to 2 files per message, 25 MB each. Not allowed on the first message to a contact.
Live Photos	Supportedlive_photo pairs an uploaded HEIC with its MOV.	Not listed
Rich link previews	Supportedrich_link parts render as preview bubbles; falls back to a plain URL.	Not listed
Voice messages	SupportedNative voice notes on enabled lines; inbound memos arrive as attachments, no transcript.	SupportedvoiceNote sends one audio file as a native voice note bubble.
Contact cards	SupportedBuilds a vCard bubble in DMs and groups.	Not listed
Polls	SupportedEnabled lines only; read votes by polling, no vote webhooks yet.	Not listed
Chat backgrounds	Not listed	Not listed
Location sharing	PartialOne-time location pin on enabled lines; not Live Location or Find My.	Not listed
iMessage apps	Not listed	Not listed
Live app cards	Not listed	Not listed
Sender name and photo	SupportedNative name-and-photo sharing on enabled lines (share_native).	PartialLine name and photo are set by Tuco staff, at most 3 changes per line per month.
FaceTime calls	SupportedInbound audio and video, outbound audio only, bridged to your LiveKit agent.	PartialFaceTime Audio calls as a $100/month per-line add-on. Tuco's llms.txt says it has no FaceTime.
Delivery status	SupportedPer-message status with delivered_at, and the channel used (iMessage or SMS).	Supportedqueued, sent, delivered, failed and fallback statuses, with sent, failed and fallback webhooks.
iMessage availability check	Not listed	SupportedSingle, round-robin and bulk checks, about 70 per line per day.
Focus and Notify Anyway	Not listed	Not listed
Numbers and delivery
Managed lines	SupportedChert-managed sender lines assigned to your tenant.	SupportedEach line is a real iPhone with an eSIM that Tuco hosts. About 48 hours to activate.
Dedicated numbers	Supported$250/mo per line, arranged on a call; no self-serve checkout yet.	SupportedOne Apple identity per line. Lines can be ordered by API.
Shared numbers	SupportedFree 24-hour trial and $25/mo Shared plan on a shared line.	Not listed
Bring your own number	Not listed	PartialDocs say existing numbers cannot be ported in, but a Linq migration page offers to port Linq numbers.
Line pooling	SupportedPicks and pins a sender line per recipient from your assigned lines.	SupportedSends without fromLineId round-robin across active lines.
SMS fallback	PartialLines enabled for SMS retry only; plain-text 1:1 messages, not groups or media.	PartialThrough your Twilio, GoHighLevel or webhook provider, or P2P SMS from the line once support enables it.
RCS fallback	Not listedHomepage says SMS or RCS fallback; API docs only describe SMS retry.	Not supportedRCS not offered
Outbound-first messaging	SupportedFirst send to a new recipient creates a lead and pins a line.	SupportedOutbound to opted-in contacts. Cold lists are refused, and first messages cannot carry links or files.
Calls on the iMessage number	PartialHomepage offers one number for iMessage and FaceTime; docs say identities are not unified yet.	SupportedCalls go out from the same number the line texts from. 500 minutes per line per month included.
Other channels
SMS	PartialOnly as an automatic retry after a failed iMessage, on enabled lines.	PartialSMS through your own Twilio, GHL or webhook provider, or P2P SMS from the line in its eSIM country.
RCS	Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on the homepage.	Not supportedNot offered
WhatsApp	Not supportedNot offered	Not supported
Telegram	Not supported	PartialTelegram bot for team notifications and replies. Leads are not messaged on Telegram.
Slack	Not listed	PartialLead conversations appear as Slack threads the team can reply from. Not a channel to contacts.
Email	Not supportedNot offered	SupportedmessageType email sends email, and an email bridge sends iMessages from your inbox.
Phone calls	Not supportedNot offered; calls are FaceTime only.	SupportedOutbound calls with recording, inbound forwarding and a click-to-call API (beta, +1 numbers only).
Apple Messages for Business	Not supportedNot offered	Not supportedNot offered
Unified channel API	PartialiMessage and SMS retry share one API; FaceTime uses a separate API.	SupportedOne send endpoint with messageType imessage, sms or email.
Developer tools
REST API	Supported	Supported
TypeScript SDK	Beta@trychert/sdk 0.2.0 on npm (MIT); the homepage still says SDK packages are not published.	Not listedThe iMessage API page shows npm install @tuco-ai/sdk, but no such package is on npm.
Python SDK	BetaSource preview on GitHub; not released on PyPI.	Not listed
Other SDKs	BetaRust, C#/.NET, C++ and Go clients are source previews on GitHub.	Not listed
CLI	BetaFaceTime CLI on npm's beta tag; the SDK adds a chert-sdk CLI for sends.	Not listed
Webhooks	SupportedMultiple subscriptions with event filters; message.received for inbound.	SupportedSent, failed, fallback, opened, reply, reaction, AI draft, handover, call recording and DNC events.
Signed webhooks	SupportedHMAC-SHA256 per-subscription secret over timestamp and raw body.	SupportedHMAC-SHA256 in the X-Tuco-Signature header.
MCP server	Not listed	Supportedtuco-mcp on npm, run locally with an API key, with about 90 tools.
Open source	PartialSDKs are MIT and a FaceTime link connector is Apache-2.0; the service is closed.	Partialtuco-mcp is MIT licensed on npm. The platform is closed.
Self-hosting	Not listedOnly the open-source FaceTime link connector runs on your own machine.	Not listedHosted on Tuco hardware. Self-hosting is not mentioned.
Local testing	Not listedSSE stream and dev inbox avoid a public webhook, but a real phone is still needed.	PartialSimulate runs a goal bot against a transcript without sending. Message sends have no sandbox.
Custom channel providers	Not listed	PartialSMS fallback can route through your Twilio, GoHighLevel or a custom webhook.
Event replay	SupportedDurable event log with replay by event ID, polling and SSE.	Supported30-day webhook delivery log with replay from the dashboard or API, plus one automatic retry.
OpenTelemetry	Not listed	Not listed
No-code integrations	Not listed	SupportedGoHighLevel, n8n, Zapier and Make.com.
CRM integrations	SupportedSalesforce managed package and HubSpot app.	SupportedHubSpot, Salesforce, Close and Pipedrive. One CRM per workspace.
Built for AI agents
Agent framework	PartialChert-managed FaceTime assistants and a LiveKit voice-agent starter; messaging is send and receive.	SupportedHosted goal bots and Knowledge Base replies with tools, in copilot or autopilot mode.
Agent framework integrations	PartialFaceTime calls connect to LiveKit agents; no messaging framework integrations.	Not listed
Streaming replies	Not listed	Not listed
Agent group chats	Not listed	Not supportedNo group chat support
Human handoff	SupportedSlack reply triage with approve-to-send drafts, plus a console reply pane.	SupportedCopilot drafts need approval, and conversation.handover fires when the AI stops for a person.
Audit logs	Not listed	SupportedActivity log of workspace changes, including MCP tool calls.
Message history API	PartialLast 200 messages per chat; no pagination yet.	SupportedMessage history, conversations and replies endpoints.
Plans and compliance
Free plan	Partial24-hour trial with 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line.	Not supportedDocs say there are no free trials, paid pilots or refunds.
Public pricing	Supported	SupportedStarter $149/month, Growth $299/month, plus $335 setup per line.
No per-message fees	SupportedFlat monthly prices; paid plans have usage limits that are not spelled out.	SupportedNo per-message fees. AI credits and extra call minutes are billed separately.
Uptime SLA	Not listed	Not listedGrowth lists a 4-hour support SLA. No uptime SLA found.
Isolated infrastructure	SupportedDedicated $250/mo line for your project; lower plans use shared lines	SupportedEach line runs on its own iPhone and Apple ID on dedicated Mac hardware, with no VMs.
SOC 2 Type II	Not listed	Not supportedSecurity page says Tuco does not hold SOC 2.
GDPR	SupportedPrivacy policy sets out GDPR legal bases and rights.	SupportedGDPR page with data rights and Standard Contractual Clauses. DPA availability listed.

Feature

Chert

Tuco AI

iMessage messaging

iMessage

Group chats

2 to 31 recipients; first group message must be text only.

Not supportedTuco's llms.txt says it has no group chats.

Group management

Create, add or remove participants, and leave a group.

Not supportedNo group chat support

Group name and photo

Set a group's display name and icon.

Not supported

Mentions

Not listed

Not supported

Tapbacks

Six standard tapbacks; inbound tapbacks show in message history.

Send six classic tapbacks by API; inbound reactions, including custom emoji, arrive as message.reaction.

Threaded replies

Not listedHomepage mentions reply context; no reply-to field in the API docs.

Not listed

Typing indicators

Best effort; group typing is not supported on every line.

PartialStart and stop typing by API, best effort. Inbound typing events not documented.

Read receipts

Mark chats read; messages carry read_at when known.

message.opened webhook with readAt when the recipient has read receipts on.

Edit and unsend

PartialEdit within 15 minutes; no unsend endpoint documented.

Not listed

Message effects

Apple send effects, validated against an allowed list.

Not listed

Animated text effects

Not listed

Stickers

Not listed

Formatted text

Not listed

Attachments

Upload then send; several images can go out as one grouped message.

Up to 2 files per message, 25 MB each. Not allowed on the first message to a contact.

Live Photos

live_photo pairs an uploaded HEIC with its MOV.

Not listed

Rich link previews

rich_link parts render as preview bubbles; falls back to a plain URL.

Not listed

Voice messages

Native voice notes on enabled lines; inbound memos arrive as attachments, no transcript.

voiceNote sends one audio file as a native voice note bubble.

Contact cards

Builds a vCard bubble in DMs and groups.

Not listed

Polls

Enabled lines only; read votes by polling, no vote webhooks yet.

Not listed

Chat backgrounds

Not listed

Location sharing

PartialOne-time location pin on enabled lines; not Live Location or Find My.

Not listed

iMessage apps

Not listed

Live app cards

Not listed

Sender name and photo

Native name-and-photo sharing on enabled lines (share_native).

PartialLine name and photo are set by Tuco staff, at most 3 changes per line per month.

FaceTime calls

Inbound audio and video, outbound audio only, bridged to your LiveKit agent.

PartialFaceTime Audio calls as a $100/month per-line add-on. Tuco's llms.txt says it has no FaceTime.

Delivery status

Per-message status with delivered_at, and the channel used (iMessage or SMS).

queued, sent, delivered, failed and fallback statuses, with sent, failed and fallback webhooks.

iMessage availability check

Not listed

Single, round-robin and bulk checks, about 70 per line per day.

Focus and Notify Anyway

Not listed

Numbers and delivery

Managed lines

Chert-managed sender lines assigned to your tenant.

Each line is a real iPhone with an eSIM that Tuco hosts. About 48 hours to activate.

Dedicated numbers

$250/mo per line, arranged on a call; no self-serve checkout yet.

One Apple identity per line. Lines can be ordered by API.

Shared numbers

Free 24-hour trial and $25/mo Shared plan on a shared line.

Not listed

Bring your own number

Not listed

PartialDocs say existing numbers cannot be ported in, but a Linq migration page offers to port Linq numbers.

Line pooling

Picks and pins a sender line per recipient from your assigned lines.

Sends without fromLineId round-robin across active lines.

SMS fallback

PartialLines enabled for SMS retry only; plain-text 1:1 messages, not groups or media.

PartialThrough your Twilio, GoHighLevel or webhook provider, or P2P SMS from the line once support enables it.

RCS fallback

Not listedHomepage says SMS or RCS fallback; API docs only describe SMS retry.

Not supportedRCS not offered

Outbound-first messaging

First send to a new recipient creates a lead and pins a line.

Outbound to opted-in contacts. Cold lists are refused, and first messages cannot carry links or files.

Calls on the iMessage number

PartialHomepage offers one number for iMessage and FaceTime; docs say identities are not unified yet.

Calls go out from the same number the line texts from. 500 minutes per line per month included.

Other channels

SMS

PartialOnly as an automatic retry after a failed iMessage, on enabled lines.

PartialSMS through your own Twilio, GHL or webhook provider, or P2P SMS from the line in its eSIM country.

RCS

Not listedMentioned only as a fallback on the homepage.

Not supportedNot offered

Not supported

PartialTelegram bot for team notifications and replies. Leads are not messaged on Telegram.

Slack

Not listed

PartialLead conversations appear as Slack threads the team can reply from. Not a channel to contacts.

Not supportedNot offered

messageType email sends email, and an email bridge sends iMessages from your inbox.

Phone calls

Not supportedNot offered; calls are FaceTime only.

Outbound calls with recording, inbound forwarding and a click-to-call API (beta, +1 numbers only).

Apple Messages for Business

Not supportedNot offered

Unified channel API

PartialiMessage and SMS retry share one API; FaceTime uses a separate API.

One send endpoint with messageType imessage, sms or email.

Developer tools

REST API

TypeScript SDK

Beta@trychert/sdk 0.2.0 on npm (MIT); the homepage still says SDK packages are not published.

Not listedThe iMessage API page shows npm install @tuco-ai/sdk, but no such package is on npm.

Python SDK

BetaSource preview on GitHub; not released on PyPI.

Not listed

Other SDKs

BetaRust, C#/.NET, C++ and Go clients are source previews on GitHub.

Not listed

CLI

BetaFaceTime CLI on npm's beta tag; the SDK adds a chert-sdk CLI for sends.

Not listed

Webhooks

Multiple subscriptions with event filters; message.received for inbound.

Sent, failed, fallback, opened, reply, reaction, AI draft, handover, call recording and DNC events.

Signed webhooks

HMAC-SHA256 per-subscription secret over timestamp and raw body.

HMAC-SHA256 in the X-Tuco-Signature header.

MCP server

Not listed

tuco-mcp on npm, run locally with an API key, with about 90 tools.

Open source

PartialSDKs are MIT and a FaceTime link connector is Apache-2.0; the service is closed.

Partialtuco-mcp is MIT licensed on npm. The platform is closed.

Self-hosting

Not listedOnly the open-source FaceTime link connector runs on your own machine.

Not listedHosted on Tuco hardware. Self-hosting is not mentioned.

Local testing

Not listedSSE stream and dev inbox avoid a public webhook, but a real phone is still needed.

PartialSimulate runs a goal bot against a transcript without sending. Message sends have no sandbox.

Custom channel providers

Not listed

PartialSMS fallback can route through your Twilio, GoHighLevel or a custom webhook.

Event replay

Durable event log with replay by event ID, polling and SSE.

30-day webhook delivery log with replay from the dashboard or API, plus one automatic retry.

OpenTelemetry

Not listed

No-code integrations

Not listed

GoHighLevel, n8n, Zapier and Make.com.

CRM integrations

Salesforce managed package and HubSpot app.

HubSpot, Salesforce, Close and Pipedrive. One CRM per workspace.

Built for AI agents

Agent framework

PartialChert-managed FaceTime assistants and a LiveKit voice-agent starter; messaging is send and receive.

Hosted goal bots and Knowledge Base replies with tools, in copilot or autopilot mode.

Agent framework integrations

PartialFaceTime calls connect to LiveKit agents; no messaging framework integrations.

Not listed

Streaming replies

Not listed

Agent group chats

Not listed

Not supportedNo group chat support

Human handoff

Slack reply triage with approve-to-send drafts, plus a console reply pane.

Copilot drafts need approval, and conversation.handover fires when the AI stops for a person.

Audit logs

Not listed

Activity log of workspace changes, including MCP tool calls.

Message history API

PartialLast 200 messages per chat; no pagination yet.

Message history, conversations and replies endpoints.

Plans and compliance

Free plan

Partial24-hour trial with 10 messages and 10 FaceTime minutes on a shared line.

Not supportedDocs say there are no free trials, paid pilots or refunds.

Public pricing

Starter $149/month, Growth $299/month, plus $335 setup per line.

No per-message fees

Flat monthly prices; paid plans have usage limits that are not spelled out.

No per-message fees. AI credits and extra call minutes are billed separately.

Uptime SLA

Not listed

Not listedGrowth lists a 4-hour support SLA. No uptime SLA found.

Isolated infrastructure

Dedicated $250/mo line for your project; lower plans use shared lines

Each line runs on its own iPhone and Apple ID on dedicated Mac hardware, with no VMs.

SOC 2 Type II

Not listed

Not supportedSecurity page says Tuco does not hold SOC 2.

GDPR

GDPR page with data rights and Standard Contractual Clauses. DPA availability listed.

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

Chert vs Tuco AI

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

Chert

Tuco AI

Where Chert is ahead

Where Tuco AI is ahead

Feature comparison

Pricing

Chert

Tuco AI

Which should you choose?

Frequently asked questions

More Chert comparisons

More Tuco AI comparisons