Sinch

Sinch is a Swedish cloud communications platform founded in 2008 in Stockholm that has grown into one of the world's largest Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) providers. The company enables businesses to reach customers through SMS, MMS, RCS, voice calls, video, email, and popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber, and Facebook Messenger. With over 600 direct operator connections worldwide and the capacity to process billions of messages annually, Sinch serves as a critical infrastructure layer for enterprise customer engagement across every major industry.

Listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, Sinch has expanded aggressively through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions, including the purchase of Pathwire (email infrastructure), MessageMedia (business messaging in Australia), and MessengerPeople (conversational messaging in Germany). These acquisitions have transformed Sinch from a primarily SMS-focused provider into a truly omnichannel communications platform that rivals the breadth of US-based Twilio while maintaining its European headquarters and GDPR-compliant operations. Today, Sinch processes customer engagement for some of the world's largest enterprises across healthcare, retail, financial services, travel, and media.

SMS and Messaging APIs

At its core, Sinch's messaging APIs enable businesses to send and receive SMS, MMS, and RCS messages at scale. The SMS API supports global delivery through direct operator connections in more than 50 countries, ensuring high deliverability and low latency. Sinch's SMS platform achieves a 98 percent open rate, making it one of the most effective channels for time-sensitive communications like authentication codes, appointment reminders, and transactional notifications. The API is REST-based with comprehensive documentation, SDKs in multiple programming languages, and webhook support for real-time delivery status updates.

RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging is an area where Sinch has invested heavily, positioning itself as a leader in the next generation of business messaging. RCS enables rich media, interactive buttons, carousels, and branded sender profiles within the native messaging app on Android devices. For businesses looking to move beyond the limitations of plain-text SMS, Sinch's RCS capabilities provide a compelling upgrade path that delivers app-like experiences without requiring users to install anything. The platform also supports two-way conversational messaging across WhatsApp Business, Viber, and other OTT channels.

Voice and Video APIs

Sinch provides programmable voice APIs that enable businesses to make and receive phone calls, implement interactive voice response (IVR) systems, and add voice verification to their applications. The voice platform supports features like call recording, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, number masking, and conference calling. These capabilities are used by ride-sharing apps for driver-passenger privacy, healthcare platforms for telemedicine calls, and contact centers for automated customer service flows.

The video API allows developers to embed real-time video communication into their applications, supporting use cases like telehealth consultations, remote customer support, and virtual events. Video calls can be initiated directly from a web browser or mobile app without requiring users to install additional software. The combination of voice and video APIs with messaging creates a comprehensive communication toolkit that allows businesses to meet customers on whatever channel they prefer.

Verification and Authentication

Sinch's verification API provides businesses with a reliable way to verify user identity through SMS codes, voice calls, flashcalls (where a phone number itself serves as the verification code), and data verification (which silently verifies a phone number using the mobile network). The flashcall method is particularly innovative, as it delivers a verification code through the caller ID of a short call that is automatically detected by the app, requiring no user interaction. This approach reduces friction, lowers costs compared to traditional SMS OTPs, and provides a better user experience.

For businesses that need to comply with PSD2 Strong Customer Authentication requirements or other regulatory mandates, Sinch's verification solutions provide the multi-factor authentication capabilities needed. The platform processes billions of verifications annually for major financial institutions, technology companies, and online marketplaces, demonstrating the reliability and scalability of the service.

Sinch Engage Platform

Beyond APIs for developers, Sinch offers Sinch Engage, a no-code messaging platform that enables marketing and customer service teams to manage conversational messaging campaigns across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and other channels from a single dashboard. Sinch Engage includes features like chatbot builders, campaign management, customer segmentation, and analytics. This product targets businesses that want to leverage conversational messaging without writing code, bridging the gap between developer-focused API products and business-user-friendly SaaS tools.

Global Reach with European Roots

While Sinch operates globally with offices in over 30 countries, the company maintains its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, and is listed on the European stock exchange. This European foundation means that Sinch is subject to GDPR and other European data protection regulations, providing enterprises with confidence that their communication data is handled in accordance with the strictest privacy standards. For European businesses evaluating CPaaS providers, Sinch's Swedish headquarters and European regulatory compliance represent a significant advantage over US-based alternatives that are subject to the CLOUD Act.

Sinch's network of over 600 direct operator connections provides superior message delivery compared to providers that rely on aggregators. Direct connections mean better deliverability, lower latency, and more reliable message routing. In markets where Sinch has particularly strong operator relationships, such as the Nordics, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific, customers benefit from enterprise-grade delivery performance that matches or exceeds anything offered by Twilio or Vonage.

Integrations and Ecosystem

Sinch integrates with major enterprise platforms including Salesforce, Adobe Campaign, SAP, HubSpot, Shopify, and Zendesk. These integrations allow businesses to add communication capabilities to their existing workflows without building custom connections. The Salesforce integration, for example, enables sales and support teams to send SMS messages and WhatsApp notifications directly from within Salesforce records. For developers, Sinch provides SDKs in Java, Python, Node.js, PHP, and other languages, along with comprehensive API documentation and sandbox environments for testing.

Pricing and Cost Structure

Sinch follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model for its API products, meaning businesses only pay for the messages, calls, and verifications they actually use. SMS pricing varies by country and volume, with competitive rates that decrease as usage increases. For the Sinch Engage platform, pricing starts at approximately 49 dollars per month with a subscription model. Enterprise customers can negotiate custom pricing based on their expected volumes and specific requirements. While Sinch does not publicly list all per-message rates on its website, the company provides transparent pricing through its self-serve portal and sales team.

Reliability and Performance

Sinch operates a globally distributed infrastructure designed for high availability and low latency. The platform processes billions of interactions annually and has built redundancy into every layer of its architecture. For enterprise customers, Sinch offers service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee uptime and delivery performance. The company's track record with major financial institutions and healthcare providers demonstrates the reliability required for mission-critical communications. Compliance certifications including ISO 27001 and SOC 2 further validate the platform's security posture.

Limitations and Considerations

While Sinch offers an impressive breadth of communication channels, some users note that the pricing structure can be less transparent than competitors, particularly for smaller businesses that want clear per-message rates upfront. The platform's documentation, while comprehensive, has received feedback about being spread across multiple portals due to Sinch's growth through acquisitions, which can make it harder for new developers to find what they need. Additionally, some acquired products like Mailgun (email) maintain separate branding and documentation, which can create a fragmented experience for customers using multiple Sinch services.

For very small businesses or developers working on side projects, Sinch's enterprise-focused approach may feel heavyweight compared to simpler SMS APIs. However, for medium to large businesses that need a comprehensive, European-based communication platform with global reach, Sinch's combination of channel breadth, operator connectivity, and GDPR compliance makes it one of the strongest alternatives to Twilio in the market.

Who Should Use Sinch?

Sinch is best suited for medium to large enterprises that need to communicate with customers at scale across multiple channels. Businesses in healthcare, financial services, retail, and travel that require reliable message delivery, regulatory compliance, and global reach will find Sinch's platform particularly compelling. European businesses that need GDPR-compliant communications infrastructure should strongly consider Sinch as an alternative to US-based CPaaS providers. Developers building applications that require SMS, voice, video, or messaging app integration will benefit from Sinch's comprehensive APIs and SDK support.