seven.io Review (2026): German SMS API from Kiel, €0.075 per SMS

What is seven.io?

Who is behind seven.io

seven.io is a business messaging gateway from seven communications GmbH & Co. KG in Kiel, Germany. Christian Leo, still the CEO, founded the company in 2003 – it started as sms77, a person-to-person SMS service, and was later renamed seven. The managing partner is seven administration GmbH, and the company is registered at the Kiel local court (HRA 11707 KI).

seven is a licensed telecommunications company under the German Telecommunications Act (registration DREG 22/137) and is supervised by the Federal Network Agency. It says it is connected directly to network operators and has sent several hundred million SMS, mostly for thousands of customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland – from hairdressers sending appointment reminders to start-ups and mid-sized companies.

Where seven.io hosts your data

Both the website and the API gateway (gateway.seven.io) run on Hetzner Online in Germany (AS24940), not on a US cloud. seven says its infrastructure runs in ISO 27001-certified data centres and that it uses EU routing. Log files are kept only for the legally required period and then anonymised, and you can sign a data processing agreement online.

Checked 25 Oct 2026. Hosting can change – report a change.

seven.io pricing

seven.io is prepaid: you top up a balance and pay per message, with no monthly fee, and the API, webapp and Email to SMS are included in every account. An SMS costs €0.075 net per 160 characters, plus 19% German VAT; longer messages are billed as several SMS, and prices for countries outside the EU differ. Senders of 10,000 SMS a month or more can ask for key-account rates.

Extras are priced per use: number lookups from €0.005 (MNP) and €0.01 (HLR), voice calls with text-to-speech from €0.015 per started minute, WhatsApp Business messages at €0.005 each plus Meta’s own fees, and inbound numbers from €19.90 a month plus €9.90 setup. You can pay by card, instant payment, bank transfer, PayPal, SEPA direct debit or cryptocurrencies.

Compared with Twilio, which charges $0.112 per SMS segment to Germany, seven.io is roughly a third cheaper for German traffic.

Features and security

seven.io offers an SMS API, a webapp, Email to SMS, two-way SMS with free replies, delivery reports, flash SMS, Unicode messages, voice and text-to-speech calls, WhatsApp Business, number lookups and SIM hosting, where you send seven your own SIM card and use your physical number in its system. Its information security management system is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 (certificate valid until August 2029), covering the development and operation of its platform for SMS, voice, RCS and over-the-top messaging. What it does not offer is programmable call control like Twilio Voice, or video and email APIs.

What users say about seven.io

On Trustpilot seven.io has 4.2/5 from 29 reviews (checked 25 October 2026). Recent reviewers call the service professional and the support helpful. Older negative reviews are about messages that could not be sent to some countries or use cases, and email-only support.

Pros and cons

Verdict on seven.io

Verdict: seven.io is the most straightforward way to keep your SMS in Germany: a German, licensed company with servers at Hetzner, ISO 27001 certification and a price per SMS well below Twilio’s. It covers SMS, WhatsApp and simple voice calls well; if you need full programmable telephony, look at a bigger platform. Best for: German SMEs that mainly send SMS and want everything in Germany. Not for: teams building complex call flows or global apps.

seven.io is ranked #4 in Best European alternatives to Twilio and in Best European SMS APIs.

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