Host your physical or virtual SIM card in the cloud to send, receive, and automate SMS traffic seamlessly through your own software or API.
To understand SIM hosting, think of it as moving a physical phone's capabilities into the cloud. Instead of inserting a SIM card into a standard smartphone, the physical SIM is housed in a secure, enterprise-grade GSM gateway (SIM server) located within our professional data center. This server maintains a continuous, 24/7 connection to both local cellular networks and the high-speed internet.
For businesses looking to scale their mobile outreach, hosted SIM card solutions unlock powerful automation capabilities that standard mobile phones simply cannot handle.
If you are currently communicating with your team via a physical mobile phone, or want to outsource your in-house SIM server to a professional data center, we are the perfect partner. Our SIM hosting service removes the limitations and maintenance of physical hardware. We transform your standard SIM cards into a scalable, cloud-based communication hub, offering the ultimate cost-effective solution for high-volume SMS automation and full number ownership.
Your SIM card is operational 24/24h, 7/7 days.
There are no additional costs per received SMS message.
A major challenge for many IT and software companies is managing Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Accounts are often linked to the mobile numbers of specific employees. This creates chaos when multiple colleagues need access to the same system, or when an employee leaves the company.
With the SIM hosting service from SMSTools, you solve this problem once and for all. Instead of individual phones, your company uses one central, hosted SIM number for all business 2FA verifications. When a system sends a verification code by SMS, the following happens:
Our SIM hosting service is specifically optimized for data and SMS traffic. While the physical SIM card can theoretically receive voice calls, the hosting infrastructure does not support live phone conversations via a headset or software. If a customer calls your hosted SIM card, you can configure the provider (subject to their terms) to automatically forward the call to a fixed office or voice number, while the SMS functionality via Smstools continues to work seamlessly.
The processing speed (throughput) with SIM hosting depends on two factors: the internet connection of our data center (which is extremely fast) and the network capacity of your mobile provider. On average, a single SIM card processes approximately 15 to 30 SMS messages per minute. Does your business need higher capacity for simultaneously sending or receiving thousands of messages? You can easily scale up by having multiple SIM cards hosted in parallel by us, or switch to a virtual SMS number.
Because you supply the SIM card yourself and the subscription runs directly with your own provider, you are responsible for keeping the card active and billed. If the credit runs out or the SIM card is blocked by the provider, the connection to our SMS gateway will automatically disconnect. We therefore always recommend using a business subscription rather than a prepaid card, so that your business information and customer communications never unexpectedly come to a halt.
A virtual number cannot receive 2FA codes. SIM hosting works identically to a regular phone and does support receiving 2FA codes. A virtual number has no limits on the number of messages sent and is therefore better suited for larger volumes.