Sendbird
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a funded product team embedding chat, voice, or AI support agents at serious scale.
Comparison
Sendbird vs Twilio
Sendbird and Twilio both land on Depends.
Twilio
Depends
Confidence: High
Buy if you have developers building SMS, voice, email, or verification at scale.
| Compare | Sendbird | Twilio |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Apps embedding in-app chat at scale | Engineering teams shipping comms features |
| Who it's not for | MVPs and hobby projects . heavy SDK, sales-led pricing | Non-technical buyers wanting a ready-to-use app |
| Privacy | Public security program (security docs, ISO mentions, vulnerability submission form); a few third-party package flags exist.⁹ | Concerning record: Authy breach exposed 33M phone numbers; CISA flagged an exploited Authy vulnerability; multiple CVEs exist. |
| Support quality | No usable evidence in sources | Human support gated behind paid plans |
| Public sentiment | Users average 4.5/5 on G2 and generally praise the chat APIs, while some developers criticize pricing and prefer rivals' documentation.¹ | Developers praise the API breadth and reliability but frequently complain about surprise billing, scaling costs, and support quality.14 |
| Biggest gotcha | Malicious-package flags exist for Sendbird-related npm packages . verify official SDKs only.⁹ | Per-message pricing stacks: numbers, usage, and failed-message fees all bill separately |
Pick Sendbird when
- Apps embedding in-app chat at scale
- Enterprises adding AI support agents
- Teams wanting chat + voice via one SDK
- Funded startups with dedicated engineers
When Sendbird is not a fit
- MVPs and hobby projects . heavy SDK, sales-led pricing
- No-code or small teams without developers
- Anyone needing just a simple live-chat widget
- Cost-sensitive teams at high MAU . rivals undercut
Pick Twilio when
- Engineering teams shipping comms features
- High-volume SMS/voice apps
- Products needing verification or AI engagement
- Enterprise contact-center builders
When Twilio is not a fit
- Non-technical buyers wanting a ready-to-use app
- Small teams sending a few hundred texts
- Budget-sensitive startups scaling SMS costs
- Anyone unwilling to write and maintain code
Sources
review
- Sendbird Pricing (2026): A Complete Breakdowncometchat.comreview
- Chat API pricing planssendbird.comofficial
- Sendbird's Starter plan for 25K MAUgetstream.ioreview
review
- Sendbird raises $100M at a $1B+ valuationtechcrunch.comnews
review
- Reddit's new chat is based on Matrixreddit.comnews
- Malicious Package in com.sendbird.callssecurity.snyk.iosecurity
- Malicious Code In Sendbird-moderation-dashboardsca.analysiscenter.veracode.comsecurity
- The Untold SendBird Misconfigurationsmedium.comsecurity
- Sendbird customer storiessendbird.comofficial
- Twilio Reviews . G2g2.comreview
- Twilio Messaging Review . Business.combusiness.comreview
- Twilio Reviews and Pricing . HappyRobothappyrobot.aireview