Tag: passwordless auth

The search for a Twilio Verify alternative for India ends here. If you’re building an app for Indian users and still paying $0.0575 per SMS OTP, you’re likely losing users to delivery failures you can’t control. This guide breaks down why SMS OTP is the wrong default for Indian markets, and why Hey Pingr is the best Twilio Verify alternative for India in 2026.

The SMS OTP Problem Nobody Talks About

Before comparing tools, it’s worth understanding why SMS OTP is fundamentally broken for India specifically.

Carrier-Level Throttling

Indian telecom carriers — Airtel, Jio, Vi — actively throttle commercial SMS traffic, especially during peak hours (8–10 AM and 6–9 PM). This is when your users are most likely to attempt login. OTP messages that should arrive in 5 seconds are delayed by 30–120 seconds, or don’t arrive at all.

The result: users try to log in, wait, get frustrated, and abandon the flow. Your auth metrics tank and you never know exactly why.

DND Registrations

India has one of the highest DND (Do Not Disturb) registration rates in the world. While TRAI exempts transactional OTPs from DND blocking, implementation is inconsistent across carriers. Some users — particularly older demographics — report OTPs being silently blocked with no error returned to your server.

SMS Traffic Pumping

This is the problem that scales dangerously fast. Bots programmatically trigger OTP sends by cycling through phone numbers. You pay per SMS send regardless of whether a real user initiated it. At scale, a single pumping attack can generate thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges before you catch it.

Twilio Verify’s anti-pumping protection is why it costs $0.05/auth on top of the SMS fee — but that still leaves you paying for the problem, just in a more controlled way.

The Cost Stacks Up Fast

Here’s the real math most developers miss:

• Twilio SMS alone: $0.0075/text
• Twilio Verify (with anti-pumping): $0.05/auth + $0.0075/text = $0.0575 per verification
• 1,000 logins/day = $1,725/month just in auth costs

For an early-stage startup, that’s often more than the infrastructure bill.

What Is Twilio Verify?

Twilio Verify is Twilio’s managed OTP verification product. It handles the delivery, retry logic, code generation, and verification check for you — removing the complexity of building raw SMS OTP yourself.

What it does well: – Handles SMS, voice, email, TOTP, and WhatsApp in one API – Built-in anti-pumping protection – Global carrier relationships for better delivery rates – Well-documented, battle-tested

Where it falls short for India: – $0.05/auth fee adds up exponentially at scale – Still dependent on SMS carrier reliability for the primary channel – WhatsApp channel on Twilio requires Meta Business API approval (2–6 week waitlist) – No flat pricing — costs scale linearly with every auth attempt, including bot-triggered ones

What Is Hey Pingr?

Hey Pingr is a WhatsApp-first authentication and notification platform built specifically for markets where WhatsApp penetration exceeds SMS reliability — India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brazil, and Southeast Asia.

Instead of pushing an OTP to the user’s phone number via a carrier, Hey Pingr flips the flow:

1. Your app shows: “Text ‘login’ to our WhatsApp number to sign in”
2. The user opens WhatsApp — already on their phone — and sends that message
3. Your webhook fires, receives the message, and sends back a magic link
4. The user taps the link and is authenticated

This one design decision eliminates every core problem with SMS OTP:

• No carrier dependency — WhatsApp delivery is ~99.9% reliable in India
• No pumping risk — the user must initiate the message from their own WhatsApp account
• No Meta Business API approval — Hey Pingr works without you needing to go through Meta’s partner approval process
• No per-auth fee — flat monthly pricing regardless of auth volume

Head-to-Head Comparison

Code Comparison

Twilio Verify — Send and Verify OTP

// Send OTP
const verification = await client.verify.v2
  .services(TWILIO_SERVICE_SID)
  .verifications.create({
    to: '+919876543210',
    channel: 'sms'
  });

// Verify OTP (user submits the code)
const verificationCheck = await client.verify.v2
  .services(TWILIO_SERVICE_SID)
  .verificationChecks.create({
    to: '+919876543210',
    code: userEnteredCode
  });

if (verificationCheck.status === 'approved') {
  // Log the user in
}

This requires: – The user to enter their phone number in your app – Waiting for an SMS that may or may not arrive – Handling retries, timeouts, and edge cases yourself

Cost: $0.0575 per attempt. At 1,000 daily active users logging in once each, that’s $1,725/month.

Hey Pingr — WhatsApp Magic Link

const { verifyWebhook } = require('hey-pingr');

// Your webhook endpoint — fires when user texts your WhatsApp number
app.post('/webhook', express.raw({ type: 'application/json' }), async (req, res) => {

  // Verify the request is from Hey Pingr
  const isValid = verifyWebhook(req.body, req.headers['x-pingr-signature'], process.env.PINGR_SECRET);
  if (!isValid) return res.status(401).end();

  const payload = JSON.parse(req.body);
  const { from, body } = payload;

  if (body.trim().toLowerCase() === 'login') {
    // Generate a magic link for this phone number
    const token = generateMagicLinkToken(from);
    const magicLink = `https://yourapp.com/auth?token=${token}`;

    // Reply with the magic link — Hey Pingr sends it via WhatsApp
    return res.json({
      reply: `Here's your magic link: ${magicLink}\n\nValid for 10 minutes. Don't share this link.`
    });
  }

  res.status(200).end();
});

This requires: – No phone number input from the user – No OTP code entry – No carrier dependency – No pumping vector

Cost: $29/month flat for up to 10,000 auto-replies. At 1,000 daily active users, that’s $0.001 per auth — not $0.0575.

When to Use Twilio Verify

Twilio Verify is still the right choice if:

• Your users are in markets where WhatsApp penetration is low (US, Germany, Japan)
• You need voice fallback for users without smartphones
• You’re building for enterprise clients who require specific compliance (Twilio has SOC 2, ISO 27001)
• You need multi-channel OTP (SMS + email + TOTP) from a single vendor

The Best Twilio Verify Alternative for India: When to Choose Hey Pingr

Hey Pingr is the better choice if:

• Your target market is India, Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil, or SEA — where WhatsApp is the dominant messaging app
• You’re an indie developer or early-stage startup where auth costs at $1,725/month are unsustainable
• You want higher conversion — WhatsApp open rates are 98% vs SMS at ~45% in India
• You’re building mobile-first and want a seamless UX (user is already in WhatsApp)
• You want to eliminate SMS pumping risk entirely
• You need magic links, not just OTP codes

Real Cost Comparison at Scale

Twilio Verify calculation: $0.0575 per auth × monthly logins. Hey Pingr is flat per plan regardless of auth volume.

Getting Started with Hey Pingr

Setup takes under 10 minutes:

1. Sign up at heypingr.com — free plan, no credit card
2. Scan the QR code to link your WhatsApp number
3. Set your trigger keyword (e.g. “login”) and your webhook URL
4. Deploy the webhook handler (use the code snippet above)
5. Test by texting your keyword to the number

That’s it. No Meta Business API application. No carrier integration. No waiting.

npm install hey-pingr
# or
pip install hey-pingr

Full documentation: heypingr.com/docs

Conclusion

If you’re building for Indian users and SMS OTP is your auth method, you’re solving a solved problem the expensive way. WhatsApp is already on 530 million Indian phones. Your users don’t need to wait for an SMS — they just need to tap send.

Hey Pingr is the best Twilio Verify alternative for India in 2026 — not because Twilio is a bad product, but because the underlying channel (SMS) is the wrong tool for WhatsApp-dominant markets.

Try Hey Pingr free → No credit card. Under 10 minutes to your first working auth flow.

Have questions about migrating from Twilio Verify to Hey Pingr? Email us or check the docs.