What’s a reliable, low-cost replacement for email-to-SMS alerts?
Asked by
MellowCedar42
Before retiring, I sent alerts by email to an address like [email protected], which delivered them as text messages to my phone. The major mobile carriers seem to be discontinuing or making these email-to-SMS gateways unreliable. I only send a small number of alerts, so I'm looking for a dependable and preferably free or inexpensive replacement.
Answers
If you want to build it yourself, AWS SNS or a service such as PagerDuty can trigger notifications from email or an API. They offer free or low-cost tiers, although the setup is more involved than a dedicated push-notification app.
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You can also use a notification service such as ntfy or a similar push-alert platform. These are usually easier and cheaper than SMS, especially when you only need occasional alerts. A USB cellular modem running SMS software is possible too, but it adds hardware and maintenance.
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Carrier email-to-text gateways are increasingly being retired or delayed, so I wouldn’t use them for anything time-sensitive. Some carriers may still support them temporarily, but delivery can take hours or fail altogether.
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Pushover is probably the simplest option. It uses push notifications rather than SMS, is very reliable, and only requires a small one-time purchase per device. Anything capable of making a web request can send notifications, and it works well for server, home automation, and other alerts.
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A programmable SMS provider such as Twilio is another option. You generally rent a phone number for a small monthly fee and pay a few cents per message. It’s a good fit if the alerts must arrive as actual SMS messages, but it won’t be completely free.
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SunnyVale88: I’ve used it for home server and automation alerts for years and haven’t had problems with the service itself. Any failures I’ve seen were caused by my internet connection or the device sending the alert.