ZeroSettle vs Photon: $49 Dedicated Number vs $25 Shared Pool

How we compared ZeroSettle and Photon

We compared ZeroSettle and Photon on price, the kind of number you get, rules for messaging people first, channels and fallback, features, developer experience and AI, using each company's own public pages as of October 25, 2026. ZeroSettle is an iMessage API: a dedicated phone number on real iMessage, running on Apple hardware we operate in a server facility, that your code texts customers from and hears back on through a bearer token and signed webhooks. Photon describes itself as "an open-source framework that connects your agents to SMS/RCS, iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Telegram, and other interfaces people use every day."

For background, see what an iMessage API is, iMessage API options compared and all ZeroSettle comparisons.

ZeroSettle vs Photon at a glance

Photon covers more channels, falls back to SMS and can be self-hosted; ZeroSettle costs less for a dedicated number and hosts an AI agent.

Photon cells come from its pricing page and homepage; ZeroSettle cells from its API docs. All checked October 25, 2026.

How do ZeroSettle and Photon prices compare?

For one dedicated number, ZeroSettle Pro is $49 a month and Photon Business is $250 a month per line: $588 a year against $3,000 at list price. Photon is cheaper, or free, if a shared pool fits your product.

Other providers: Courio also lists $49 (Starter: 500 outbound/month, then $0.02/message). Options that cost less than $49 are shared numbers or run on hardware you supply: Texting Blue $19 per number on your own iPhone, LoopMessage $20 for a shared sender, Photon Pro $25 shared, myCRMSIM about $29 per line plus your own Mac, iPhone and SIM, Blooio Starter $39 shared, and BlueBubbles free on your own Mac. Sources are listed under Sources below, checked October 25, 2026.

ZeroSettle's $49 is a flat monthly price, with no per-message fees on API texts; the hosted AI agent uses one credit per text, and video sends cost credits. ZeroSettle Pro has a 30-day money-back guarantee instead of a free plan. Numbers can sell out, in which case there is a waitlist.

What is the difference between a shared pool and a dedicated number?

On Photon's shared plans, your customers do not all text one number. Photon "maintains a large pool of numbers and assigns each of your users a fresh one they have never received a message from before." On a dedicated number, every customer texts the same number, and only your business uses it.

• A shared pool fits a consumer AI app where each person chats one to one with your agent and does not care which number it comes from. Photon's homepage features products of this kind, such as an AI companion and a matchmaking agent on iMessage.
• A dedicated number fits a business that puts one number on its website, receipts or email signature, wants customers to save it as a contact, or has staff and software answering the same thread. Photon calls this "Dedicated Number (Business)": "All your users text the same number and get connected to your agent. Nothing is shared with other tenants."

ZeroSettle sells only dedicated numbers. Both can show a branded name and photo: Photon's pricing page lists sharing "your agent name and profile pic" automatically on Business, and ZeroSettle shares your name and photo with the first message of each conversation on every plan.

How many people can each message first?

Photon lists more first messages per line on its dedicated plan; ZeroSettle's entry plan allows fewer but costs less.

• ZeroSettle Pro: 5 new contacts a day per number. A sixth first message is refused with 429 new_contact_limit and nothing goes out. People who text you first never count, and each number handles up to 10,000 messages a day with known contacts.
• ZeroSettle Growth: 50 new contacts a day per number, at most 3 per 15 minutes.
• On every ZeroSettle plan: at most 2 unanswered messages to one person (403 awaiting_reply), and text only, no photos, videos or voice messages, until they reply (403 attachment_before_reply).
• Photon Business and Enterprise: "Cold outreach supported - up to 50 new contacts per day". Photon's pricing page does not list cold outreach on Free or Pro.

Consent rules apply either way: only message people who agreed to hear from you. See ZeroSettle's limits and compliance docs and iMessage and TCPA consent.

How do features and developer experience compare?

Photon has more channels and features on its higher plans; ZeroSettle has a small iMessage-only surface, plus a hosted AI agent.

What Photon offers that ZeroSettle does not

• RCS and SMS fallback for people who are not on iMessage, on every plan.
• Telegram on every plan, and WhatsApp and phone calls on Business and Enterprise, through one SDK.
• Location sharing and your own iMessage mini apps (both on Business and Enterprise).
• An open-source core you can self-host, and a free shared plan to start.
• A contractual SLA on Enterprise.

What ZeroSettle adds

• A hosted AI agent (Beta) that answers every inbound text on a number from your business context, with no server. Pro includes 500 credits a month, one per AI text. See how the hosted agent works.
• No SDK required: a bearer token, POST /api/imessage/send, reactions, typing, one HMAC-SHA256 signed webhook and a live event stream (SSE). Inbound messages reach the API within about 1–2 seconds. See how ZeroSettle webhooks work.
• A remote MCP server at https://portal.zerosettle.io/mcp that lets Claude, Cursor or another AI coding agent sign you up, mint your API key and register your webhook. See connecting Claude or Cursor.

At parity: both support photos and voice messages, tapbacks, typing indicators, message effects, polls and iOS 26 chat backgrounds. ZeroSettle receives videos with the file; video sending is enabled on request.

When ZeroSettle is not a fit: when Photon is the better choice

• Each user should get their own number, as in a consumer AI app: Photon's shared pool does this from $0.
• Android and other non-Apple recipients: Photon falls back to RCS and SMS; ZeroSettle has no SMS fallback.
• More than iMessage: Telegram, WhatsApp or phone calls from the same code.
• Self-hosting: you want to run the software on your own Mac and Apple account. See self-hosted iMessage vs a managed API.
• Many first messages from one dedicated line: Photon Business lists up to 50 new contacts a day per line; ZeroSettle Pro allows 5 (Growth allows 50 per number).
• Mini apps or a contractual SLA.

When is ZeroSettle the better choice?

• One business number for $49 a month, against $250 per line for Photon's dedicated plan.
• Texts answered without a server: the hosted AI agent (Beta) answers from your business context.
• Plain HTTPS: any language that can send JSON and check an HMAC signature.
• A self-serve start with a refund: sign up, set the name and photo, test and subscribe from the console or your AI coding agent, subject to availability, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Comparing more providers? See what a dedicated iMessage number costs at each provider, iMessage API pricing compared, ZeroSettle vs Linq and the ZeroSettle iMessage API page. Or get a ZeroSettle number.

How do you move from Photon to ZeroSettle?

ZeroSettle's Switch from Photon guide is a prompt you paste into Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT or Grok after getting your number and API token in the console. Your coding agent then:

1. Lists every Photon touchpoint: the Spectrum and Photon packages, client setup, environment variables, and every send, reaction, typing, group and listener call.
2. Maps each call to ZeroSettle's REST API: chat GUIDs become phone numbers or chat_id, sends go to POST /api/imessage/send, reactions and typing to their own endpoints.
3. Replaces the live connection with a signed webhook, and catch-up after a disconnect with GET /api/imessage/messages?after_id=….
4. Sends a test message to your own phone before removing Photon.

Two things differ: edit and unsend have no ZeroSettle equivalent, and your contacts will see a new number, so the guide drafts a heads-up to send from the old one.

How we checked

We read Photon's pricing page and homepage on October 25, 2026, saving the pricing page's HTML and fetching it again later the same day (unchanged). We tested nothing that needs a Photon account.

• Photon: its pricing page (plans, the platform comparison table and "Understanding iMessage Number Types") and its homepage.
• ZeroSettle: its API docs, including "Errors, limits, and compliance" and "Switch from Photon", checked October 25, 2026.
• Other providers' prices in the table note: from each provider's own pricing page, checked October 25, 2026, as listed under Sources.

We refresh this comparison quarterly and log changes in the changelog.