I was building FareEagle — a travel booking platform — and needed to send SMS: booking confirmations, OTPs, payment alerts. Simple stuff that every app needs.
But in India, you can't just send business SMS. You need DLT registration, which requires a registered business entity, GST number, and a formal application process. I was still in the building phase — no registered company yet. Traditional SMS providers like MSG91, Twilio, and Textlocal all required DLT compliance. I couldn't even test my app's SMS features.
Meanwhile, my phone plan included unlimited SMS. I was already paying ₹199/month for a Jio recharge with unlimited texts. Why couldn't I just use those?
So I wrote a quick script to send SMS through my Android phone. It worked. Then I needed delivery tracking. Then an API. Then multi-device support. Then I realized — this wasn't just a script anymore. This was a product that every developer and small business stuck in the same situation could use.
SMSFoundry is a full SMS gateway platform that uses your own Android phone and SIM card. No DLT required. No per-message fees. No business registration needed to start testing.
It has everything you'd expect from a commercial SMS provider — REST API, delivery tracking, templates with variables, webhook reports, multi-device support, contact management — except the messages go through your own SIM card. The one you're already paying for.
Developers building apps who need SMS but can't deal with DLT yet. Small businesses that don't want to pay ₹0.25 per message. Startups testing their product before they've registered a company. Teams that just need internal notifications. Anyone who thinks "I already have unlimited SMS on my phone — why am I paying again?"
Your messaging infrastructure should be yours. You shouldn't need a registered business just to test SMS in your app. Your costs shouldn't scale linearly with every message. And you definitely shouldn't pay for texts you already have.
SMSFoundry exists because we hit this wall ourselves — and we built a way through it.