Pre-launch — you can read everything, but ordering isn't open yet.Where we are →
An honest list of SMS-Activate alternatives, not an affiliate roundup: nobody paid to be here, the first entry is ours and says so, and every competitor is credited with what it genuinely does well. Where we haven't verified something, we tell you to check it yourself instead of characterising it.
The alternatives, compared honestly
1.readynumOur product
Best for: people who want the price, the availability and the honest state of a route printed on the page before they commit money.
readynum is our product, listed first because this is our site — so here is the same standard we apply to everyone else. What we do differently: every displayed rate carries a source label (measured from our own orders with a sample size and window, a named supplier's figure marked as theirs, or the plain sentence that we have no data). Every price renders in the page with no signup. The minimum deposit never exceeds the price of one order. If no code arrives, the wallet is refunded automatically within five minutes. And stock is binary — a number is either buyable right now or not shown as available; we never print stock counts.
What it does well
Every price public before signup — rendered in the page, not fetched behind a login.
Every displayed rate labelled by its source; no unlabelled figures anywhere.
Auto-refund to your wallet if no code arrives — no ticket, no form.
Minimum deposit never exceeds one order, and your balance never expires.
What we don't have yet
No long track record. We are new; the incumbents on this page have operated for years and we haven't.
Smaller catalogue: 23+ countries and 39+ services today — less breadth than the big established catalogues.
Most routes currently read “We don't have data for this route yet” — that sentence is our honest launch state, and figures appear only as real orders accumulate.
Best for: former SMS-Activate users who want the service SMS-Activate itself pointed at when it closed.
HeroSMS is on this list for one verifiable reason: SMS-Activate's own farewell page says the team handed its technologies to HeroSMS and recommends trying it (read 3 August 2026 on sms-activate.org). That endorsement is theirs, not ours. We have not audited HeroSMS first-hand — their site refused our automated check the same day — and the praise in the farewell note (“already receiving excellent feedback”) is SMS-Activate's phrase, which we have not verified.
What it does well
Named by SMS-Activate's own farewell notice as the recipient of its technology — the closest thing to a designated successor this category has.
What to check yourself
Everything, first-hand: prices, minimum top-up, refund handling and terms — we have verified none of it. Read their pages yourself before funding a balance.
Whether SMS-Activate's “excellent feedback” line matches your own reading of public reviews — it is a farewell-page compliment, not a measurement.
3.5sim
Best for: users who want a large established catalogue with published per-operator figures.
5sim publishes a public per-operator rate table on its site — a figure you can consult before buying, which most of the category does not offer. That is a genuine transparency point and we credit it plainly.
What it does well
Publishes a public per-operator rate table — visible before you buy.
Established service with a broad catalogue of countries and services.
What to check yourself
We have not audited 5sim first-hand beyond the above, so verify current prices, terms and refund handling on their own pages before funding a balance.
4.smsbulk.net
Best for: users who want an established provider that publishes its refund policy and per-country rates.
smsbulk.net publishes an auto-refund policy and per-country rates on its site. Those are exactly the two disclosures we consider table stakes in this category, so credit where it is due.
What it does well
Publishes an auto-refund policy on its site.
Publishes per-country rates you can read before buying.
What to check yourself
We have not tested their delivery or refund flow first-hand — read their published terms and verify both on their pages before relying on them.
5.Free receive-SMS sites (including ours)
Best for: genuinely throwaway signups where a public inbox is acceptable and failure costs you nothing.
Public receive-SMS pages cost nothing and need no account — a real advantage for low-stakes throwaway use. The honest trade-off, ours included: Free numbers are public — anyone can read the messages. Great for throwaway signups. Popular services often block shared public numbers, and there is no delivery promise and no refund, because nothing was paid.
What it does well
Free, with no account and no deposit.
Fine for disposable signups on services that tolerate shared numbers.
What to check yourself
The inbox is public — anyone can read messages sent to the number, so never use one for anything you care about.
Popular services frequently block shared numbers, so expect misses.
Normally this section makes the fairness case for staying put. Here there is nothing to stay with: on 3 August 2026 every request to sms-activate.org returned the same farewell page — service closed “since December 22”, withdrawals ended February 5, and a warning, in their own words, that any site still using the SMS-Activate name is run by scammers. If you're weighing what its closure should change about how you pick the next provider, see readynum vs SMS-Activate.
How to choose
You want the price and the honest state of a route on the page before paying, and a refund when no code arrives: that is the gap readynum is built to fill.
You want the path SMS-Activate itself pointed at: HeroSMS is their named recommendation, not ours — audit its prices, terms and refund handling yourself before funding anything.
You want published figures from an established catalogue: 5sim's public per-operator rate table and smsbulk.net's published refund policy and per-country rates are both real disclosures — verify them on their live sites.
You just need a throwaway and don't mind a public inbox: a free receive-SMS page will do — never for anything sensitive.
Questions, answered plainly
Is SMS-Activate really closed, or just down?
Closed, by their own account — not an outage. On 3 August 2026 every path we requested on sms-activate.org returned the same static farewell page: “SMS-Activate service is closed”, “We have completely ceased our operation since December 22” (no year stated), withdrawals ended February 5, technologies handed to HeroSMS. The sms-activate.io domain did not resolve at all that day.
Is HeroSMS the official new SMS-Activate?
No — and their own farewell page is explicit about that: “Our name goes away with us. If you find a service called SMS-Activate, then be sure they are scammers.” HeroSMS is a separate service that SMS-Activate says received its technology and recommends. We have not audited HeroSMS first-hand, so verify its prices, terms and refund handling on its own pages before funding a balance.
Can I still withdraw my SMS-Activate balance?
Their notice says no: withdrawals were available until February 5, users were notified by email and in their bot, and “there is no one who can deal with your requests”. The email contact window their notice offers (“by April 30th”) had also passed by the day we read it. Nothing we publish changes their policy — the honest takeaway is to never hold more at any provider than you are willing to lose with it.
Is there a free alternative to SMS-Activate?
Yes — public receive-SMS pages, including our own, are free and need no account. The honest trade-off: Free numbers are public — anyone can read the messages. Great for throwaway signups. Popular services often block shared numbers, and there is no delivery promise and no refund. For anything you care about, use a private number.
No signup needed to see any price. No hidden fees. When ordering opens: if a code doesn't arrive, you don't pay.
The SMS-Activate statements on this page were read from their public pages and public unauthenticated endpoints on 3 August 2026; other providers were not audited first-hand and are described only by what they publish themselves. Catalogues, prices and terms change — re-check everything on the provider's live site before you buy.
Every country and service we carry
Every route below is one click away. Open a country to see its services, or jump straight to a service hub.