How to migrate from seven.io to Twilio

seven.io is a German CPaaS platform (formerly sms77) offering SMS, RCS, WhatsApp and voice APIs on EU-hosted infrastructure. Twilio is a US-based customer-engagement platform with communications APIs spanning SMS, MMS, voice, email and more. On the messaging.dev Score seven.io rates 42/100 and Twilio 88/100; the sections below explain what that gap means in practice for a migration, not whether you should make one.

What changes when you move

Channels you gain. seven.io covers SMS, RCS, WhatsApp and voice. Twilio covers all four plus MMS and email, so you gain two channels and lose none. Both providers lack Viber, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Apple Messages for Business, so those are non-factors either way.

Compliance you gain. Both are GDPR-compliant and ISO 27001 certified. Twilio adds SOC 2 and HIPAA, which seven.io does not list, so you pick up two certifications.

Data residency. seven.io runs EU-only (“Pure EU Routing”) on German infrastructure with no US servers and no region choice. Twilio offers US and EU servers plus Australia and lets you choose your data residency. You gain flexibility, but EU-only routing is now a configuration you must set rather than a built-in guarantee.

Pricing. seven.io uses prepaid pay-as-you-go: top up a balance, no monthly fee, €0.075 per SMS (EU base). Twilio is also pay-as-you-go but adds volume and committed-use discounts, quoting $0.0079 per US SMS segment plus carrier fees. Expect to re-model cost around per-segment pricing and separate carrier fees. Both give free developer credit (seven.io €0.50, Twilio $15), both offer a sandbox, and both have high-quality docs and self-onboarding.

SDKs and protocols. seven.io ships 10 SDKs and supports REST, SMPP and SMTP. Twilio ships 7 SDKs (Node.js, Python, PHP, Java, C#, Ruby, Go) over REST and SMTP. You keep PHP, Python, Ruby, Go and JavaScript/Node.js, gain Java and C#, but lose official SDKs for Rust, Kotlin, Elixir and Swift, and lose SMPP binding support entirely.

How the request format differs

seven.io quickstart:

curl -X POST https://gateway.seven.io/api/sms \
    -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
    -H "Accept: application/json" \
    -d "to=49176123456789" \
    -d "from=AcmeInc" \
    -d "text=hello world"

Twilio quickstart:

curl -X POST 'https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/Messages.json' \
  --data-urlencode 'To=+15551234567' \
  --data-urlencode 'From=+15005550006' \
  --data-urlencode 'Body=Hello from Twilio' \
  -u ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:your_auth_token

Three things change:

• Endpoint. seven.io posts to one fixed URL, https://gateway.seven.io/api/sms. Twilio embeds your Account SID in the path: https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Messages.json.
• Authentication. seven.io sends the API key in an X-Api-Key header. Twilio uses HTTP Basic auth, with the Account SID as username and Auth Token as password (the -u SID:token flag).
• Payload fields. Both are form-encoded POSTs, but the names differ: recipient to → To, sender from → From, and body text → Body. Capitalize the field names and the mapping is otherwise one-to-one.

Migration checklist

1. Create a Twilio account and copy your Account SID and Auth Token from the dashboard.
2. Map the request fields: to→To, from→From, text→Body.
3. Swap authentication from the X-Api-Key header to HTTP Basic auth.
4. Re-point your sending code to the new endpoint, inserting your Account SID in the path.
5. Re-test against Twilio’s sandbox before sending live traffic.
6. Update delivery-status webhooks and callbacks to Twilio’s format.
7. Run both providers in parallel, compare delivery, then cut over.

For a fuller walkthrough see how to start with Twilio, and the full data lives in the seven.io vs Twilio comparison.

Watch out for

• No SMPP. Twilio supports REST and SMTP only; if you used seven.io’s SMPP binding you must re-architect over REST.
• Fewer SDK languages. No official Twilio SDKs for Rust, Kotlin, Elixir or Swift.
• Residency is opt-in. Twilio is US-headquartered with US servers; EU-only routing must be configured, not assumed.
• Different cost model. Per-segment pricing plus carrier fees in USD, versus seven.io’s flat €0.075 EU base — re-model before you commit volume.