They are two separate products that both turn your Android phones into an SMS gateway. SwarmSMS Cloud is a hosted dashboard at swarmsms.com, on the same plans (one purchase covers both): no WordPress needed, with SMS marketing (contacts, campaigns, drip sequences, auto-replies), the OTP API, REST API keys and webhooks. The SwarmSMS Plugin for WordPress runs inside your own site (from $49/year) and adds SMS marketing features such as campaigns, drip sequences, form and WooCommerce automations, OTP login and Twilio fallback. Each has its own plans; a licence for one does not unlock the other. About Cloud · About the plugin.

A WordPress plugin plus an Android app. The plugin queues and tracks your messages; the app sends them through the SIM cards in your own phones and forwards replies back to your site. You can send manually, from forms and WooCommerce, from campaigns, from the REST API, or with an AI assistant.

No. SwarmSMS has no message fees or credits. You pay only what your mobile plan charges for texts — many plans include unlimited texts.

Any Android phone running Android 8.0 or newer, with a SIM and internet access. Old spare phones work well. iPhones are not supported.

Yes. The SwarmSMS app can be paired to up to 25 WordPress sites at once — tap Add another website and scan the second site’s QR code. Each site treats the phone as its own device with its own key and limits, and the app spaces messages out across all of them. Replies go back to the site that last texted that number. Sharing a phone like this is part of the Agency plan, and each website involved needs an Agency licence (one Agency licence covers 25 sites).

Yes — it needs power, a mobile signal and internet (Wi-Fi or mobile data) to send messages. Allow background activity for the app and set the battery to unrestricted. SwarmSMS alerts you by email or SMS if a phone goes offline or its battery gets low.

Yes (Pro and Agency). In Settings → Delivery choose Devices only, Devices and Twilio (Twilio sends only when every phone is offline) or Twilio only. You paste your own Twilio Account SID, Auth Token and number, and pay Twilio for the messages it sends; phone sending stays free.

Basic: up to 2. Pro and Agency: unlimited. With several phones, messages are shared and move to another phone automatically if one goes offline or reaches its daily limit (Pro).

With free Firebase push (Agency plan) a queued message is picked up in about a second. Without push, phones check in every ~15 seconds by default.

Only for instant delivery, and it’s free. You create a Firebase project, paste two files into the plugin and phones pick up the setup automatically. Without Firebase everything still works, just with a few seconds of extra latency.

Carriers watch for spam from consumer SIMs. Reduce the risk by only texting people who agreed to receive messages, using the message gap and rate limits, setting per-phone daily limits, spreading volume across phones, and following your carrier’s fair-use policy. We can’t guarantee carrier behaviour.

Yes, when you have permission and follow the rules where you and your recipients are (for example the Australian Spam Act, US TCPA, GDPR/PECR). SwarmSMS records consent, handles STOP/START/HELP, adds opt-out lines, enforces sending hours and never texts opted-out numbers — but you are responsible for getting consent and complying with the law. See our acceptable use policy.

SwarmSMS adds no cost per message. Your cost is your phone plan. Unlimited plans typically include fair-use limits, so very high volumes may need several phones or a different approach.

Yes (Pro). Passwordless SMS login, SMS two-factor for chosen roles, and a developer API for your own codes. Codes are random, hashed, single-use and rate-limited.

Yes (Pro automations): Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms, Elementor Pro Forms, Ninja Forms, Fluent Forms and WooCommerce order status changes.

An optional endpoint that lets AI assistants such as Claude Code and OpenAI Codex read your stats and (with a full-access key) send messages and create campaigns. It’s off by default and read-only keys are available. One-time login codes are never exposed to AI tools. Available on the Agency plan.

In your own WordPress database. Contacts, messages and logs never leave your site and we never see them. The only data sent to us is your license key and site address when you activate and check your license.

Basic is for one site and up to two phones with campaigns, auto-replies, alerts and the API. Pro adds five sites, unlimited phones, failover, Twilio fallback, drip sequences, automations and OTP/2FA. Agency covers 25 sites and adds instant Firebase push, the AI (MCP) connection, WooCommerce coupons, the white-label app and one phone paired to up to 25 websites at once. Compare plans.

Yes. Every new install (and every new SwarmSMS Cloud account) gets a 1-day trial with every feature unlocked, no card needed. After the trial, without a licence, SwarmSMS keeps your data and still lets you send 10 messages a day from 1 phone with up to 100 contacts — campaigns, automations, the API and other paid features need a plan. STOP handling always works.

After your first year everything keeps working — SwarmSMS and the Android app carry on sending and receiving with every feature in your plan. You simply stop receiving updates and support unless you renew. Your data is never touched. (A refunded purchase is different: it ends the licence and the plugin returns to the after-trial limits.)

Yes. In SwarmSMS → License click Deactivate on this site, then activate your key on the new site. Each key has a limited number of site activations (1 for Basic, 5 for Pro).

Yes — 7 days, no questions asked, on new purchases. See the refund policy.

WordPress 5.6+, PHP 7.4+, outbound HTTPS requests (for license checks and optional Firebase), and HTTPS on your site is strongly recommended. For the best reliability add a real cron job that calls wp-cron.php every minute.