Textbelt
Outgoing SMS API
Textbelt is a whole lot more purple now. I'm not sure this is a good idea.... only time will tell, or maybe feedback from the IH community.
Compared to the old design, this redesign greatly reduces the amount of JS and CSS dependencies, bringing the Pagespeed score to 90+. It also altered the signup flow by removing modals in favor of separate pages.
Hoping to get some feedback on the design!
Lowered prices for text messages to U.S. and Canada. This change puts pricing on par with Twilio.
Our pricing should be pretty appealing. Textbelt offers flat rates (no variation by provider/country) and small bundles (with purchases as small as $3).
I added an About page that explains some differentiators, because feedback that I got from IH is usually asking how Textbelt is different. https://textbelt.com/about
This is an experiment. Profit has been solid even though we charge higher prices. I'd need a lot of volume to make up for lower prices. I'm interested in seeing if the pricing attracts a different type of customer and how significantly it improves my conversion rate.
Just released a feature that lets users send 1 free SMS every day via the Textbelt API. This should be useful to many developers, especially hobbyists and people with monitoring tools that generate occasional pings.
The Textbelt API for outgoing SMS is a simple way to send SMS from your applications or the command line. The goal is to keep it as straightforward as possible: there are no logins, minimum account balances, restricted trial periods, credit cards on file, and so on. There is flat pricing for messages that doesn't depend on carrier.
Here's how you can send a text straight from your terminal:
curl -X POST https://textbelt.com/text \
--data-urlencode phone='5555555555' \
--data-urlencode message='Hello world' \
-d key=textbelt
(examples for Node, Python, Ruby, etc are on the website)
Textbelt also maintains a popular self-hosted open-source project that allows developers to send unlimited SMS for free via email-to-SMS gateways.
As always, your feedback is welcome.
Shipped a simple API that allows users to generate two-factor authentication/mobile verification codes.
Unlike similar services, there's no account required, the API is dead simple, and the documentation is succinct.
The Textbelt API hosted for free was mostly overrun by spammers and scammers in its 5+ years of life.
The Textbelt.com website begins its transition to a full-service paid. The paid offering uses a different sending mechanism that offers better delivery guarantees and prevents spam.
Users still have the option of self-hosting their free, open-source Textbelt instance.
First commit of the Textbelt open source project. A free outgoing SMS API that uses email-to-SMS gateways to send SMS for free. Posted to Hacker News shortly thereafter.
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