Africa's Talking vs Twilio
Compare Africa's Talking and Twilio based on observed SMS API performance, features, and pricing
Live performance comparison
Real-world performance data from messages sent through Knock
| Provider | Message volume | Growth | Status page updates (30d) | Status page updates (90d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <1M | 5th of 7 ↓ | 0 | 0 |
| 25M–100M | 1st of 7 ↓ | 25 | 25 |
From July 25th to October 23rd, Knock routed <1M messages through Africa's Talking and 25M–100M through Twilio. Africa's Talking reported 0 status page updates over the last 90 days, while Twilio reported 25.
Response time
Response time measures how long each provider takes to accept an SMS API request from Knock, including connection overhead and any automatic retries. Lower values mean faster message hand-off.
| Provider | Median (p50) | p90 | p95 | p99 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 321ms | 363ms | 465ms | 847ms |
| 118ms | 142ms | 152ms | 179ms |
The chart above shows each provider's daily median response time (p50) from July 25th to October 23rd. The top-line number is an average of these daily values: Africa's Talking averaged 321ms compared to 118ms for Twilio. Africa's Talking's highest daily p50 was 343ms; Twilio's was 127ms. Twilio is 203ms faster at the median, which can add up at high volumes.
The 90th percentile (p90) captures the slowest 10% of requests, revealing how each provider handles moderate stress. Averaged across all days, Africa's Talking has a p90 of 363ms compared to 142ms for Twilio. The highest daily p90 was 1581ms for Africa's Talking and 151ms for Twilio. Twilio handles these slower requests 221ms faster, suggesting more consistent performance across the board.
The 99th percentile (p99) represents the long tail — the slowest 1% of requests. Averaged across all days, Africa's Talking reached 847ms at p99 while Twilio reached 179ms. The highest daily p99 was 3229ms for Africa's Talking and 271ms for Twilio, indicating the worst-case response time during spikes or provider-side congestion. Twilio shows a tighter tail, which may matter for time-sensitive SMS notifications like one-time passwords or real-time alerts where even rare delays can impact user experience.
Error rate
Error rate tracks the ratio of 5xx responses and timeouts to total SMS API requests. Knock automatically retries failed requests, so transient provider errors rarely affect end-user delivery.
| Provider | Avg. daily error rate | Highest daily rate | Peak error date | Zero-error days | Days above 0.01% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00% | 0.00% | Jul 25 | 91 | 0 |
| 0.00% | 0.31% | Sep 1 | 90 | 1 |
Averaged across the date range, Africa's Talking shows a 0.00% daily error rate compared to 0.00% for Twilio. The highest single-day error rate was 0.00% for Africa's Talking and 0.31% for Twilio. Both providers show similar reliability levels, with error rates well within acceptable thresholds. Knock automatically retries failed requests to both providers, minimizing the impact of transient errors on end-user delivery.
About these metrics: Data represents messages sent through Knock during the specified period. Response time measures time from Knock to provider acceptance. Error rate includes only provider 5xx responses and timeouts.
Recent Africa's Talking incidents
Recent status page incidents for Africa's Talking
No incidents reported in the last 90 days
Recent Twilio incidents
Recent status page incidents for Twilio
Ongoing since Nov 24, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 23, 20:00 PST - Nov 24, 00:00 PST Oct 20, 19:20 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 23 November 2026 at 20:00 PST until 24 November 2026 at 00:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to and from United States and Canada handsets when sending via long codes, short codes and toll free numbers.
Ongoing since Nov 19, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 18, 21:00 PST - Nov 19, 03:00 PST Sep 30, 16:04 PDT Scheduled - Our SMS carrier partner in the United States is conducting a planned maintenance from 18 November 2026 at 21:00 PST until 19 November 2026 at 03:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to and from United States handsets via subset of United States long codes.
Ongoing since Nov 19, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 18, 20:00 PST - Nov 19, 00:00 PST Oct 20, 19:19 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 18 November 2026 at 20:00 PST until 19 November 2026 at 00:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to and from United States and Canada handsets when sending via long codes, short codes and toll free numbers.
Ongoing since Nov 17, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 16, 21:00 PST - Nov 17, 03:00 PST Sep 30, 13:34 PDT Scheduled - Our SMS carrier partner in the United States is conducting a planned maintenance from 16 November 2026 at 21:00 PST until 17 November 2026 at 03:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays delivering SMS to and from United States handsets via subset of United States long codes.
Ongoing since Nov 12, 2026
THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Nov 11, 20:00 PST - Nov 12, 00:00 PST Oct 20, 19:19 PDT Scheduled - Twilio is conducting a planned maintenance from 11 November 2026 at 20:00 PST until 12 November 2026 at 00:00 PST. During the maintenance window, there could be intermittent delays or failures delivering SMS and MMS to and from United States and Canada handsets when sending via subset of long codes, short codes and toll free numbers.
Pricing comparison
| Provider | Plan | Per message | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa's Talking | Pay-as-you-go | $0.03 | $2,960 |
| Twilio | Pay-as-you-go | $0.0083 | $830 |
Africa's Talking
Free sandbox for testing. Production SMS pricing varies by country. US outbound messages cost approximately $0.0296 per message. African destinations range from $0.001 to $0.05 per message depending on the country.
Twilio
Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.0083 per message. Inbound messages are $0.0075 each. Phone numbers start at $1.15/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges of ~$0.003–$0.005 per message apply on top of the base rate.
US carrier surcharges
All US A2P SMS sent via 10DLC incurs mandatory carrier fees on top of the provider base rate. Most providers pass these through at cost.
| Carrier | Outbound SMS | Inbound SMS | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| T-Mobile | $0.0045 | $0.0025 | |
| AT&T | $0.003 | $0.003 | |
| Verizon | $0.004 | $0.00 | Increased May 1, 2026 |
| US Cellular | $0.005 | $0.00 | Increased Jan 19, 2026 |
Pros and cons
Africa's Talking
Twilio
Pros
- Best-in-class coverage across African countries with local carrier relationships
- Competitive per-message pricing for African destinations
- Free sandbox environment for development and testing
- Supports USSD, voice, and airtime in addition to SMS
Pros
- Largest ecosystem of SDKs, tutorials, and community resources for SMS
- Trusted by Airbnb, Uber, and Netflix for mission-critical messaging
- Comprehensive compliance tooling with opt-out management and content filtering
- Supports SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, and voice in a single platform
Cons
- Limited coverage outside of Africa
- Smaller developer ecosystem and fewer SDKs than global providers
- US messaging rates are higher than domestic-focused providers
Cons
- Per-message pricing can add up at high volumes without committed-use discounts
- Phone number provisioning and compliance setup can be complex for new users
- Support response times vary by plan tier
Frequently asked questions
Africa's Talking is a Pan-African communications platform with deep carrier integrations across the continent. Twilio is the most widely adopted cloud communications platform, offering SMS, MMS, voice, and WhatsApp through a unified API. Africa's Talking is best suited for africa-focused messaging, while Twilio is geared toward full-featured sms at scale.
Free sandbox for testing. Production SMS pricing varies by country. US outbound messages cost approximately $0.0296 per message. African destinations range from $0.001 to $0.05 per message depending on the country. Outbound SMS to US numbers costs $0.0083 per message. Inbound messages are $0.0075 each. Phone numbers start at $1.15/month for local numbers. Carrier surcharges of ~$0.003–$0.005 per message apply on top of the base rate. The best value depends on your sending volume and destination countries.
Based on real-world data from Knock, Africa's Talking has a median SMS API response time (p50) of 321ms compared to 118ms for Twilio.
From July 25th to October 23rd, Africa's Talking showed an error rate of 0.00% while Twilio showed 0.00%. Both rates are within acceptable thresholds for production SMS delivery, and Knock automatically retries failed requests to minimize the impact of transient errors.
On the Knock platform, Africa's Talking handled <1M messages from July 25th to October 23rd compared to 25M–100M for Twilio. Africa's Talking is currently seeing declining volume, while Twilio is seeing declining volume.
Yes. Knock enables you to integrate multiple SMS providers into a single notification workflow. You can use Africa's Talking and Twilio side by side, route traffic between them, or migrate from one to the other without changing your application code.
Africa's Talking strengths include best-in-class coverage across african countries with local carrier relationships and competitive per-message pricing for african destinations. Twilio strengths include largest ecosystem of sdks, tutorials, and community resources for sms and trusted by airbnb, uber, and netflix for mission-critical messaging. On the other hand, Africa's Talking drawbacks include limited coverage outside of africa, while Twilio drawbacks include per-message pricing can add up at high volumes without committed-use discounts.
Use either provider with Knock
Knock enables you to integrate Africa's Talking, Twilio, or any combination of SMS providers into a single notification workflow. Manage templates, orchestrate cross-channel delivery, and switch providers without changing your code.