Send and receive SMS messages using your own Android phone - no Twilio, no per-message fees. Free, open-source, and self-hostable.

The open-source SMS gateway for developers, automations, and AI agents. Manage SMS messages through a web dashboard, a REST API, or the MCP server for AI agents. textbee is ideal for businesses, developers, and hobbyists looking for a reliable and cost-effective solution to automate SMS messaging.

Website: https://textbee.dev

• Send & receive SMS messages via API & dashboard
• Use your own Android phone as an SMS gateway
• REST API for easy integration with apps & services
• Send bulk SMS with CSV file
• Multi-device support for higher SMS throughput
• Secure API authentication with API keys
• Webhook support for incoming messages
• Self-hosting support for full control over your data

1. Go to textbee.dev and register or login with your account
2. Install the app on your Android phone from textbee.dev/download
3. Open the app and grant the permissions for SMS
4. Go to textbee.dev/dashboard and click register device / generate API key
5. Scan the QR code with the app or enter the API key manually
6. You're ready to send SMS from the dashboard or from your application via the REST API

Messages go out through your default device, or otherwise the enabled device with the most recent heartbeat. Pass an optional deviceId in the request body to send from a specific device instead. The older /gateway/devices/{deviceId}/send-sms route still works but is deprecated.

const API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY';
 
await axios.post('https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms', {
  recipients: [ '+12025550123' ],
  message: 'Hello World!',
}, {
  headers: { 'x-api-key': API_KEY },
});

API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY'

requests.post( 'https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms', json={ 'recipients': ['+12025550123'], 'message': 'Hello World!', }, headers={'x-api-key': API_KEY}, )

 
</details>
<details>
<summary><b>curl</b></summary>
```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms" \
  -H 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "recipients": [ "+12025550123" ],
    "message": "Hello World!"
  }'

Enable SMS receiving in the mobile app, then access incoming messages via the REST API, the dashboard, or webhook notifications delivered to your preferred URL. Message history is account-level: one call covers every device, no device id needed.

const API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY';
 
await axios.get('https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/messages?direction=received', {
  headers: { 'x-api-key': API_KEY },
});

The official textbee MCP server lets Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client send and read SMS through your account. Your API key stays on your machine, and plan limits apply server-side like any other send.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "textbee": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@textbee/mcp"],
      "env": { "TEXTBEE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Three tools: send_sms (send to one or many recipients), get_messages (read replies and verification codes, check delivery status), and list_devices. Self-hosted instances work with TEXTBEE_BASE_URL. Details at textbee.dev/mcp and the agent docs.

• OTP / 2FA delivery for your app
• Order and appointment notifications
• Alerts from servers, cron jobs, and home automation
• Form-to-SMS and lead follow-ups
• Bulk announcements to a contact list (CSV upload)

Technology stack: React, Next.js, Node.js, NestJS, MongoDB, Android, Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Java (legacy)

1. Install MongoDB on Your Server: Follow the official MongoDB installation guide for your operating system.
2. Using MongoDB Atlas: Alternatively, you can create a free database on MongoDB Atlas. Sign up at MongoDB Atlas and follow the instructions to set up your database.

1. Create a Firebase project.
2. Enable Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) in your Firebase project.
3. Obtain the Firebase credentials for backend use and the Android app.

1. Clone the repository and navigate to the Android project directory.
2. Update the google-services.json file with your Firebase project configuration.
3. Update every occurrence of textbee.dev with your own domain in the project.
4. Build the app using Android Studio or the command line:

   ./gradlew assembleRelease

1. Navigate to the web directory.
2. Copy the .env.example file to .env:

   cp .env.example .env

3. Update the .env file with your own credentials.
4. Install dependencies:

   pnpm install

5. Build the web application:

   pnpm build

1. Navigate to the api directory.
2. Copy the .env.example file to .env:

   cp .env.example .env

3. Update the .env file with your own credentials.
4. Install dependencies:

   pnpm install

5. Build the API:

   pnpm build

A self-hosted instance reports nothing to anyone by default. With no analytics environment variables set, the web app loads no analytics or ad-platform scripts and the API sends no analytics events to any external service. Every provider below is opt-in, and one that is listed without its id is skipped.

(This is separate from the services the API talks to when you configure them yourself: Firebase for push, Cloudflare Turnstile, Polar for billing, and your own SMTP server.)

Web (web/.env, and the marketing site if you run it):

API (api/.env):

NEXT_PUBLIC_ values are baked in at build time, so changing them means a rebuild, not just a restart. ANALYTICS_PROVIDERS on the API is read at runtime, so unsetting it and restarting stops all outbound events immediately.

Signup attribution (which channel an account came from) is separate from the providers above. It is stored only in your own database, makes no external request, and is always on.

1. Install pnpm, pm2, and Caddy on your VPS.
2. Use pm2 to manage your Node.js processes:

   pm2 start dist/main.js --name textbee-api

3. Configure Caddy to serve your web application and API. Example Caddyfile:

   textbee.dev {
       reverse_proxy /api/* localhost:3000
       reverse_proxy /* localhost:3001
   }
   

4. Ensure your domain points to your VPS and Caddy is configured properly.

• Docker installed

1. After setting up Firebase, update your .env in web && api folder.

   cd web && cp .env.example .env \
   && cd ../api && cp .env.example .env

2. Navigate to root folder and execute docker-compose.yml file.
   This will spin up web container, api container alongside with MongoDB and MongoExpress. textbee database will be automatically created.

   docker compose up -d

   To stop the containers simply type

   docker compose down

Contributions are welcome!

1. Fork the project.
2. Create a feature or bugfix branch from main branch.
3. Make sure your commit messages and PR comment summaries are descriptive.
4. Create a pull request to the main branch.

Please feel free to create an issue in the repository for any bug reports or feature requests. Make sure to provide a detailed description of the issue or feature you are requesting and properly label whether it is a bug or a feature request.

Please note that if you discover any vulnerability or security issue, we kindly request that you refrain from creating a public issue. Instead, send an email detailing the vulnerability to contact@textbee.dev.

Feel free to reach out to us at contact@textbee.dev or Join our Discord server