DAR ES SALAAM · EAT · SELF-HOSTED

Your SIMs. Your server. Your SMS.

A private SMS gateway you run on your own VPS — Android phones as nodes, no cloud fees, no message ever leaving Tanzania.

99.9%Uptime
<2sAvg. Delivery
0Cloud SMS Fees
Why open sms

Infrastructure you actually control.

Built for high-throughput, localized notifications in East Africa.

Open & secure

Self-hosted on your own VPS. Your data never leaves your server — SSH key-only access, fail2ban, UFW, and encrypted rclone backups.

  • SSH key authentication only
  • fail2ban brute-force protection
  • Automated encrypted backups
Most popular

Flexible & scalable

Connect multiple Android devices as SMS nodes. Route by device or number, load-balance across your fleet, and scale as volume grows.

  • Multiple Android device nodes
  • Smart message routing
  • REST API with JWT auth

Reliable & private

Local SIM cards mean no cloud dependency and no per-message fees. Track delivery in real time and handle inbound SMS automatically.

  • Local SIM — no cloud fees
  • Real-time delivery tracking
  • Inbound SMS webhooks
Built for Tanzania

Real institutions, real traffic.

School notifications

Parent updates, duty rosters, exam results — in Swahili or English.

Healthcare alerts

Appointment reminders, patient notices, staff scheduling, emergencies.

Business operations

Order confirmations, delivery alerts, OTP codes at scale.

Government & NGOs

Community alerts and program updates reaching citizens nationwide.

Your infrastructure, your rules

No cloud middleman. No vendor lock-in.

Your gateway runs on hardware you control — your own VPS, your own data center. Every Android device is a node you manage directly. Nothing routes through a third party.

Setup

Three steps, in order.

01

Deploy your gateway

Clone the repo, set your .env secrets, and run docker compose up. Your private gateway is live at open.co.tz:8000 in minutes.

02

Connect Android devices

Install the android-sms-gateway app on your phones and point them to your server. Each device becomes a managed SMS node.

03

Send & receive

Call the PHP API to send, receive inbound SMS via webhooks, and track delivery in real time — all on your own infrastructure.

Pricing

Pay once for your own infrastructure.

No per-message cloud fees, ever.

Starter

Small schools & clinics

TZS 0/ forever

Open source, self-hosted

  • 1 Android device node
  • Community support
  • Core API access
Deploy free

Enterprise

Government & large NGOs

Custom/ dedicated

SLA-backed, white-glove onboarding

  • Unlimited device nodes
  • Dedicated support & SLA
  • On-site deployment help
Contact us
Stack
PHP 8.3 Docker Nginx MariaDB 11 Redis 7 android-sms-gateway JWT Auth fail2ban Ubuntu 24.04 rclone

Ready to take control of your SMS?

Deploy in minutes on your own VPS. Full control, full privacy, no per-message cloud fees.

Checking gateway status…
Terminal

$ git clone github.com/opensms/platform

$ cp .env.example .env

$ docker compose up --build -d

✓ opensms-gateway started on :8000

✓ opensms-web started on :80