Moving from Plivo to SMS Mobile App
Plivo publishes per-network rates into Pakistan and gives your software an API. SMS Mobile App has no API; a person prepares each job and your SIM sends it.
What stays behind
API sends, OTP flows and Plivo's queueing stay behind, and the daily cap on a SIM is far below what a hosted route carries. Move a few hundred reviewed messages a day, not a high-volume system.
Steps
- Put your list in a CSV file. Use whatever already holds the numbers, then follow Prepare a CSV recipient file.
- Check the numbers against what we accept. Only ordinary Pakistani mobile numbers in the
030–036ranges go through. Everything else is refused with the reason, and there is no override. - Install the app on the phone that will send. It is a signed APK, not a Google Play app: Install the Android app, and compare the SHA-256 before you open the file.
- Sign in and register that phone. Sign in with Google, register the phone, then grant its Android permissions.
- Create a small job first. Create a job from the CSV with a few numbers of your own, read the review screen, then release it.
- Watch what happens, then send the rest. Monitor the job. A SIM starts at 150 messages a day and at most 30 an hour, so plan a long list across days (limits).
What SMS Mobile App will not do
- Pakistani mobile numbers only. Foreign numbers, landlines and short codes are refused.
- Each SIM has daily and hourly caps. A SIM starts at 150 messages a day and can rise to 400 as delivery reports come back. Its hourly cap is a fifth of that, and a job waits at least 30 seconds between sends. The Free plan stops at 100 messages a month.
- No HTTP API. Other software cannot send through it, so OTP codes and automated sends from your own system are not available.
- Your SIM and carrier decide the rest. Whether a message arrives depends on them, and their SMS rate is yours to pay on top of any plan.
The facts, with their dates
Last checked 7 November 2026. Check Plivo's own page
What Plivo charges
| Plan or rate | Price | Country | Their note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long code outbound (Zong) | $0.2574 a message | Pakistan | Starts at; lowest network rate on the page | Their page, 7 November 2026 |
| Long code outbound (all networks) | $0.3564 a message | Pakistan | Pakistan All rate; Mobilink and Warid $0.4734 | Their page, 7 November 2026 |
Side by side
| What you might need | Plivo | SMS Mobile App |
|---|---|---|
| Sends from your own SIM | No (their page) | Yes |
| An Android phone is the sender | Not stated on the pages we checked | Yes |
| Web dashboard | Not stated on the pages we checked | Yes |
| HTTP API for your own software | Yes (their page) | No |
| Receives replies | Not stated on the pages we checked | No |
| Several phones on one account | Not stated on the pages we checked | Yes |
| Dual-SIM rotation | Not stated on the pages we checked | Yes |
| Send-rate control | Not stated on the pages we checked | Yes |
| Scheduled sending | Not stated on the pages we checked | Partly |
| Delivery reports | Not stated on the pages we checked | Yes |
| Spreadsheet recipient import | Not stated on the pages we checked | Yes |
| Message templates | Not stated on the pages we checked | Yes |
| Open source | Not stated on the pages we checked | No |
| Free tier | Partly. Trial credits on sign-up; every message is priced (their page) | Yes |
| No per-message platform fee | No (their page) | Yes |
The comparison page sets out who each one suits better.