5-minute quickstartHow to start sending messages with Clickatell
Clickatell is a privately held communications platform based in Redwood City, USA. This guide takes you from zero to a delivered SMSin about five minutes — no sales call required.
- A Clickatell account — sign up here.
- Your API credentials from the dashboard.
- A phone number capable of receiving SMSs for testing.
Step 1 — Create your account
- Sign up. Head to www.clickatell.com and create an account. Onboarding is self-service, so you can start immediately.
- Grab your keys. Open the dashboard and copy your credentials. Clickatell uses API key passed in the Authorization header (Authorization: YOUR_API_KEY); no OAuth/Bearer prefix..
- (Optional) Use the sandbox. Clickatell offers a test environment, so you can validate your integration before sending live traffic.
Step 2 — Send your first SMS
The fastest path is a single API call. Drop in your credentials and a destination number, then run this from your terminal:
curl -X POST https://platform.clickatell.com/v1/message \
-H "Authorization: YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"messages":[{"channel":"sms","to":"27123456789","content":"Hello World"}]}'The request hits https://platform.clickatell.com/v1/message. A 2xx response means Clickatellhas accepted your message for delivery — you should see it arrive within seconds.
Step 3 — Go native with an SDK
Once the raw call works, switch to an official SDK for retries, typing and error handling.Clickatell ships SDKs for Python, PHP, Java, Node.js, C#, and Python is a great place to start.Full reference lives in the Clickatell documentation.
What's next
- Add more channels. Clickatell also supports WhatsApp, RCS — reuse the same account and credentials.
- Mind compliance. Clickatell is GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2 aligned, with EU and no US data residency options.
- Compare before you commit. See how Clickatell stacks up on the provider table or in a head-to-head comparison.
Values in this guide come from Clickatell's public documentation. Always check the official docs for the latest details.