Customer Messaging
Bird
Bird (formerly MessageBird) is a communications platform for sending email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice and Apple Messages for Business through an API or dashboard, with usage-based pricing. It makes no CRM claims on its homepage.
What is Bird?
Bird is the new name of MessageBird. The homepage now presents it as a developer-first messaging platform. It sends email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice and Apple Messages for Business through an API, SDKs (TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP, Swift, Kotlin), a CLI or a hosted MCP server. It also sells verification, number lookup, eSIM provisioning and agent mailboxes. Contacts hold custom properties, and you can group them into audiences for broadcast campaigns.
Who is it for?
Companies that send high volumes of customer messages across several channels, mainly in banking, fintech, ecommerce, SaaS and travel. It suits teams with developers who can wire an API into their product. Sales teams that want a pipeline, deals and a contact timeline should pick a CRM instead, because Bird does not market itself as one.
Pricing
- Email: free tier plus paid plans, from $15/month
- SMS: $0.0035 per US segment
- WhatsApp: $0.005 per US message
- Phone numbers: $0.50/month for a US local number
- Dedicated IPs: $24.95/month per IP
- Voice: per-minute rates
All products draw from one prepaid account balance. Carrier fees, provider charges and taxes are added on top, and enterprise customers negotiate custom rates. Prices checked on 6 October 2026.
Strengths
- Five channels on one balance: email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice and Apple Messages for Business bill from the same account.
- Developer tooling: SDKs in six languages, a CLI, webhooks and a hosted MCP server.
- Published rates: SMS and WhatsApp prices per message are on the pricing page.
- Owned deliverability setup: dedicated IPs rent for $24.95 a month each.
What to consider
- No pipeline, deal or sales-forecast features appear on the homepage, so it does not replace a CRM.
- Usage-based billing varies with volume, so a budget needs a message forecast.
- Carrier fees and taxes are charged on top of the listed rates.
- Push and RCS are in limited private beta.
- The site does not list specific third-party CRM integrations on the pages we read.
Bottom line
Shortlist Bird if your product or marketing team needs to send high volumes of SMS, WhatsApp and email through one API. Before buying, model your monthly message volume by country, because rates in this list are US prices.
WeekCRM score: 82 out of 100
Bird is number 16 of 65 help desks and support tools we have scored. Every point comes from a fact with a source, checked on Oct 7, 2026.
| Check | Points | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Price for 10 agents | 20/20 | $0 a month on Inbox (free shared-inbox software), billed annually |
| Integrations | 12/20 | 12 of 20 common apps connect natively or through a marketplace |
| Ease of use | 16/20 | 8.8 out of 10 from customer reviews Capterra 4.4/5, 157 reviews |
| Release pace | 15/15 | 31 dated releases in 180 days |
| Openness | 11/15 | public API docs, public changelog |
| Price transparency | 3/5 | Some plans are “contact sales” |
| Free entry | 5/5 | Free plan |
Bird integrations we verified
| App | How it connects | What syncs | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Messenger | Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| HubSpot | Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Jira | Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Make | Marketplace app | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Okta | Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Pipedrive | Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Salesforce | Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Shopify | Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Slack | Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Stripe | Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Vercel | Built in | BIRD_API_KEY saved as an encrypted environment variable in selected Vercel projects; BIRD_API_BASE_URL (workspace regional API endpoint) saved as an encrypted environment variable in selected Vercel projects | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Built in | — | Oct 7, 2026 | |
| Zapier | Marketplace app | — | Oct 7, 2026 |
