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Photon vs senderZ

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

Photon

Open-source agent framework with managed iMessage
Starting price
$25/month (Pro)
Free plan
Free: shared iMessage lines, up to 10 users (2.0 beta: 25 shared iMessage assignments and $100 credit)
Visit PhotonRead more

senderZ

iMessage for customer-started chats, SMS for the rest
Starting price
$39/month billed annually ($49 billed monthly)
Free plan
14-day trial, no card
Visit senderZRead more

Photon supports 75 of the 77 features compared here, and senderZ supports 36.

Where Photon is ahead

and 32 more in the table below.

Where senderZ is ahead

Feature comparison

FeaturePhotonsenderZ
iMessage messaging
iMessage
SupportedManaged cloud lines, or your own Mac with the local provider
SupportedOnly to contacts who texted your line first; everyone else gets SMS or RCS.
Group chats
SupportedOn the Business plan (dedicated lines)
Not listed
Group management
SupportedCreate groups and add, remove or leave members; Business plan (dedicated lines)
Not listed
Group name and photo
SupportedRename groups and set group photos; Business plan (dedicated lines)
Not listed
Mentions
SupportedSend @mentions in multipart messages and read mention ranges on inbound
Not listed
Tapbacks
SupportedSix native tapbacks plus emoji reactions, send and receive
Not listed
Threaded replies
Supported
Not listed
Typing indicators
Supported
Not listed
Read receipts
SupportedMark chats read and receive read events; group receipts are best-effort
Not listed
Edit and unsend
SupportedEdit within 15 minutes and unsend within 2 minutes (Apple limits)
Not listed
Message effects
SupportedAll bubble and screen effects, including invisible ink
Not listed
Animated text effects
SupportedPer-range effects such as bloom, shake, explode and jitter
Not listed
Stickers
SupportedPlace image stickers on any bubble with position, scale and rotation; sticker events inbound
Not listed
Formatted text
SupportedMarkdown rendered as native bold, italic, underline and strikethrough
Not listed
Attachments
SupportedFiles up to 100 MiB by default, including Live Photos
Not supportedText-only messages today; photo and MMS attachments are on the roadmap.
Live Photos
SupportedHEIC still plus MOV companion uploaded as one Live Photo
Not supported
Rich link previews
Supportedrichlink() asks Messages to render its own preview
Not listed
Voice messages
Supported
Not supportedText-only messages today; photo and MMS attachments are on the roadmap.
Contact cards
SupportedvCard or structured contacts, plus the bot's own native contact card
Not supported
Polls
SupportedCreate, vote, add options and receive poll events; all managed plans
Not listed
Chat backgrounds
Supported
Not listed
Location sharing
SupportedFind My requests and live location; Business plan
Not listed
iMessage apps
SupportedCustom and live app cards; iMessage mini apps on the Business plan
Not listed
Live app cards
SupportedEdit an app card in place and render live UI without a new bubble
Not listed
Sender name and photo
SupportedShares the agent's name and photo automatically; Business plan
Not listed
FaceTime calls
Not listed
Not listed
Delivery status
SupportedSent, delivered, read and send-error fields per message
Supportedqueued, sent, delivered and failed webhooks, with failure reasons.
iMessage availability check
SupportedCheck if a number or email can get iMessage, SMS or RCS before sending
SupportedCapabilities API for one number or batches of up to 100.
Focus and Notify Anyway
SupportedCheck if a recipient has Focus on, then trigger Notify Anyway
Not listed
Numbers and delivery
Managed lines
SupportedSpectrum Cloud runs the Mac fleet; no Mac needed
SupportedMessages route through dedicated Apple hardware that senderZ operates.
Dedicated numbers
Supported$250 per line per month on Business
Supported1 dedicated number on Growth and 3 on Scale.
Shared numbers
SupportedFree and Pro route each user through a managed shared pool
SupportedStarter uses a shared number from a pooled set of phones.
Bring your own number
SupportedYour own Apple ID when self-hosting on a Mac, and your own number for WhatsApp Business
PartialOnly with Self-Hosted, on your own Apple devices, SIMs and Apple IDs.
Line pooling
SupportedBusiness: auto-scale adds lines and a routing endpoint balances users
SupportedThe router balances sends across pooled phones and moves to another phone at a daily cap.
SMS fallback
SupportedOn every plan per pricing; carrier rules apply to fallback traffic
Supported
RCS fallback
Supported
SupportedCascade is iMessage, then RCS where the phone and recipient support it, then SMS.
Outbound-first messaging
SupportedBusiness plan, up to 50 new contacts per line per day
PartialNew contacts get SMS, counted against the plan's first-contact limit; iMessage needs them to text first.
Calls on the iMessage number
SupportedPlace and receive SIP calls from the line people already text
Not listedVoice uses separate voice numbers; calling from the messaging line is not documented.
Other channels
SMS
BetaStandalone SMS and MMS numbers with 10DLC in the 2.0 beta; SMS fallback on iMessage lines today
Supported
RCS
PartialSent on the iMessage line when the recipient cannot get iMessage
Supportedchannel rcs or the auto cascade, on sending phones with iOS 18 or later.
WhatsApp
SupportedWhatsApp Business, one-to-one, on the Business plan
Not supportedNot offered
Telegram
Supported
Not supported
Slack
Supported@spectrum-ts/slack provider on npm and GitHub
Not supported
Email
BetaYour own domain with DKIM, SPF and inbound MX in the 2.0 beta
Not supportedsenderZ says it has no email channel.
Phone calls
SupportedSIP calls on iMessage lines; the 2.0 beta adds calls on SMS numbers
SupportedAI voice agent for inbound and outbound calls, an add-on from $29/month.
Apple Messages for Business
BetaListed as available in the 2.0 beta
Not supportedNot offered
Unified channel API
SupportedOne Spectrum SDK across channels, and one REST model in the 2.0 beta
SupportedOne send endpoint for iMessage, RCS and SMS; voice uses the same API key.
Developer tools
REST API
SupportedREST API for projects and lines; sending over REST in the 2.0 beta
Supported
TypeScript SDK
Supportedspectrum-ts, plus low-level iMessage and WhatsApp SDKs
Supported@senderz/sdk, MIT.
Python SDK
Betaphotonhq-api on PyPI, for the 2.0 beta API
Not supportedDocs list Python, PHP and Ruby SDKs as planned for Q3 2026; none found published.
Other SDKs
SupportedGo client for Advanced iMessage; Rust and Go clients for the 2.0 API
Not supportedPHP and Ruby SDKs are listed as planned; only TypeScript exists.
CLI
Supported@photon-ai/cli manages projects, lines, users and billing
Supported@senderz/cli 0.1.0 on npm (April 2026); not mentioned in the docs.
Webhooks
Supported
Supported
Signed webhooks
SupportedHMAC-SHA256, plus Standard Webhooks signatures
SupportedHMAC-SHA256 in the X-Senderz-Signature header.
MCP server
SupportedHosted MCP server, plus an MCP server for the docs
Supported@senderz/mcp, 12 tools per the docs, for Claude Code and other MCP clients.
Open source
SupportedMIT: spectrum-ts, imessage-kit and most SDKs
PartialSDK and MCP server are MIT on npm; the linked GitHub repos return 404 and the platform is closed.
Self-hosting
SupportedRun the open-source core on your own Mac and number, no Spectrum Cloud
PartialGuided deployment on your Cloudflare account and Apple hardware, from about $2,000/month.
Local testing
SupportedTerminal chat UI provider, no phone or number needed
SupportedSandbox keys and magic test numbers give synthetic delivery without a phone.
Custom channel providers
SupporteddefinePlatform plugs any interface into the same Spectrum API
Not listed
Event replay
SupportedCatch up on events after a disconnect from a durable sequence
SupportedReplay failed events from the webhook logs in the portal.
OpenTelemetry
SupportedOpt-in messaging traces in spectrum-ts, and traces in the 2.0 beta dashboard
Not listed
No-code integrations
Supportedn8n community nodes and a Dify plugin
SupportedZapier, Make and HighLevel listed as live; n8n planned for Q4 2026.
CRM integrations
Not listed
SupportedHubSpot and HighLevel listed as live; Salesforce and Close planned for Q1 2027.
Built for AI agents
Agent framework
SupportedSpectrum is a multi-channel agent framework with streaming replies
PartialMCP tools, approval gates and per-agent send caps; no conversation framework of its own.
Agent framework integrations
SupportedVercel Chat SDK, Mastra, LangChain, Convex and others
Not listed
Streaming replies
SupportedAI output streams into one iMessage bubble, edited in place
Not listed
Agent group chats
BetaAgents find other agents and add them to a group chat (2.0 beta)
Not listed
Human handoff
BetaA person can reply in a conversation from the 2.0 beta Inbox
SupportedApproval gates let an agent draft a message for a human to review and send.
Audit logs
BetaAPI logs and traces in the 2.0 beta dashboard
SupportedAgent-sent messages are tagged with the agent ID and approval chain.
Message history API
SupportedList and get messages per chat
SupportedList messages by status, channel and date; the MCP server reads history.
Plans and compliance
Free plan
SupportedUp to 10 users on shared lines
Partial14-day free trial with no card; no free plan after it.
Public pricing
Supported
Supported
No per-message fees
SupportedNo per-message fees for iMessage, WhatsApp or Telegram; SMS, voice and email are metered in the 2.0 beta
SupportedPlans charge for first contacts reached, not per message; voice overage is $0.24 a minute.
Uptime SLA
SupportedContractual SLA on the Enterprise plan
Not supportedTerms: best-effort reliability with no formal SLA unless agreed in writing.
Isolated infrastructure
SupportedEach line runs in an isolated, dedicated environment
PartialGrowth and Scale get exclusive phones and Starter shares a pool; Self-Hosted runs on your own account.
SOC 2 Type II
SupportedStated on photon.codes
Not supportedsenderZ says it is not SOC 2 attested; Type I is planned for Q4 2026.
GDPR
SupportedPrivacy policy covers GDPR rights and SCC transfers
SupportedPrivacy page says it is aligned with GDPR, with a DPA on request; EU-only residency is planned for 2027.

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

Pricing

Photon

Free plan, Pro at $25/month, Business at $250 per dedicated line per month, and custom Enterprise; the 2.0 beta adds metered SMS, voice and email.

Pricing model: plan tiers plus flat fee per dedicated line

Source

senderZ

After a 14-day free trial, Starter is $49, Growth $249 and Scale $749 a month billed monthly ($39, $199 and $599 a month billed annually), priced by first contacts reached; voice is a $29 to $199 add-on and Self-Hosted starts around $2,000 a month.

Pricing model: flat plans priced by new contacts per month

Source

Which should you choose?

Choose Photon if you need group chats, group management, group name and photo and mentions.

Choose senderZ if you need CRM integrations.

Frequently asked questions

More Photon comparisons

Photon alternatives

More senderZ comparisons

senderZ alternatives