The right provider can have a big impact on voice quality, and your ability to scale. Let's see how Telnyx and Twilio compare.
Businesses today are increasingly leveraging programmable voice APIs to embed sophisticated communications capabilities into their applications, enabling them to better meet the needs of today’s end users. In fact, around 85% of the world’s top performing organizations believe that APIs are crucial to the growth of their company.
And why not? Unlike rigid solutions of the past, voice —enabling forward thinking businesses to progressively build upon them to meet customer needs, while at the same time lowering operational costs.
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But, choosing the right programmable voice provider can have a big impact on your user experience, as well as your ability to scale efficiently. Let’s take a look at the key differences when using Telnyx and Twilio for programmable voice, to demonstrate the monumental impact these differences can have on your overall experience.
Let’s face it—your calling experience is largely determined by your underlying voice provider. And, most providers traverse your traffic over the public internet, where it’s susceptible to packet loss, lag and jitter. Telnyx and Twilio have taken vastly different approaches to building their communications networks. Let’s break that down:
| Telnyx | Twilio | |
|---|---|---|
| Network Type | Private network Our global IP network was designed from the ground up for real-time voice and data communications, so your calls are crystal-clear, secure, with super low latency. | Public internet The internet was not built for real-time communications, and it shows - with high latency, packet loss, and poor security consistently causing call quality issues. |
| Network Ownership | Fully owned We control our infrastructure, so we control routing, quality, and traffic for high-quality calls and low post-dial delay. | Network reseller Using other providers’ servers and middlemen for routing and telephony leads to persistent routing and quality issues. |
| Cloud | Multi-cloud Our network points of presence leverage AWS, Google Cloud and Azure for added redundancy. | Single-cloud Relying solely on one cloud provider for all network services increases the risk of network failure. |
In order to deliver a truly great programmable voice experience, your provider needs to cover the basics well. Traditional telco features like number inventory, porting and carrier licenses make a huge difference when it comes to scaling your communications.
The right provider will have the resources and processes to support easy scaling, to free up your teams and get things done faster.
| Telnyx | Twilio | |
|---|---|---|
| Number Inventory | Deep number inventory Licensed carrier status in 30+ countries worldwide and close partnerships with Tier-1 carriers in over 140 countries for numbering. | Indirect number inventory Middlemen and resellers add markups and restrictions to Twilio's numbering inventory, meaning you pay more for a worse selection. |
| Number Porting | FastPort® Streamlined, automated, self-service porting process with real-time data validation and on-demand activation. | Manual porting Document-heavy, opaque porting process that can take up to four weeks. |
| Carrier Status | Licensed carrier Status in 30+ countries, ensuring full regulatory compliance and access to local telephony assets. | Not a licensed carrier No guarantee of regulatory compliance and restrictions on number access and telephony operations. |
Now that we’ve explored the differences between Telnyx and Twilio when it comes to network infrastructure and telephony features, what about their programmable voice APIs? These features impact developer experience, and also that of the end user.
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<tr>
<th></th>
<th>Telnyx</th>
<th>Twilio</th>
</tr></thead>
<tr>
<td>Latency</td>
<td>__less than 1s response time__ Using an edge-stack approach, we route your data via the closest server to your application—delivering market-leading low latency.</td>
<td>__3s+ response time__ Twilio has a greater reliance on the public internet. The result is noticeably higher latency levels and a less consistent experience.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Real Time Commands</td>
<td>__Real time communications__ The Telnyx Call Control API can receive real-time commands throughout the call for interactive command and control.</td>
<td>Scripted communications TwiML requires pre-scripted workflows at the start of the call, meaning real-time decision making and control just aren’t possible.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>XML Scripting</td>
<td>__TeXML__ is Telnyx's XML-based markup language that is at full feature parity with Twilio's TwiML. That means you can use your existing TwiML code and it will work seamlessly with TeXML, cutting development time to migrate significantly.</td>
<td>TwiML is Twilio's XML-based markup language used to instruct how to handle voice calls and SMS and MMS messages. </td>
</tr></tbody> </table>
Because Telnyx maintains complete control of our network, we’re able to cut out the middlemen our competitors depend on—avoiding costly markups and passing those savings onto customers. This factors into our pricing across the board. Take a look:
| Telnyx | Twilio | |
|---|---|---|
| Local Outbound Calls | $0.0070 / min | $0.0140 / min |
| Local Inbound Calls | $0.0055 / min | $0.0085 / min |
| Toll-Free Outbound Calls | $0.0020 / min | $0.0140 / min |
| Toll-Free Inbound Calls | $0.0170 / min | $0.0220 / min |
| Browser, App or SIP Interface Outbound Calls | $0.0020 / min | $0.0040 / min |
| Browser, App or SIP Interface Inbound Calls | $0.0020 / min | $0.0040 / min |
Call quality can make or break your customer experience. So, it’s impossible to overestimate the importance of good support when it comes to your voice provider. Here’s how Telnyx compares with Twilio when it comes to technical support:
| Telnyx | Twilio | |
|---|---|---|
| Support Availability | 24/7 support for every customer Our 24/7 support is available by phone, chat and email for every single one of our customers, so your questions never have to wait until Monday. | Pay-to-play customer support Email-only support, and only during business hours as standard. Further support is behind a paywall, with a $1500 / month minimum extra charge for 24/7 phone support. |
| Direct network troubleshooting | Direct troubleshooting We own our own network, so we can diagnose, trace and solve rare routing and call failure issues in a matter of minutes, without needing to wait on a carrier’s response. | Indirect troubleshooting No network ownership, so diagnosing call failures and persistent routing issues means working with a variety of carriers, slowing down time to resolution. |
Telnyx is proud to rank highest vs. all other cloud communication platforms, according to G2 user reviews. Here’s a quick comparison showing how users rated Telnyx vs. Twilio in key categories.
To compare further across all products and categories, visit our Twilio vs. Telnyx comparison page.
Telnyx’s unique approach to building a private IP network brings with it many advantages; including increased security and low latency levels. And, our Programmable Voice API offers developers far more granular control over their experience. This, combined with superior support and significantly lower prices—makes for an easy decision.
To get started with the Telnyx Programmable Voice API, sign up for a free account, or get in touch with our team of experts with any questions you may have.