Tuco AI vs Photon

Photon Business

Dedicated line • 50 new contacts a day • No setup fee published

Tuco AI Starter

+ $335 setup • Outbound included • Monthly or annual

Onboarding call included. One call covers technical setup — CRM connection and your first workflow. Apple IDs managed for you.

Real Apple hardware. A dedicated iPhone with a carrier eSIM per line, hosted on a Mac. Not emulators. Not shared VMs.

One number. Globally. No A2P registration. No country-specific sender IDs. One iMessage identity, everywhere.

15-65% reply rates. From leads that ghosted email and LinkedIn. 25% of those replies were positive.

$101 less a month per line

$149 against $250 for a dedicated line with the same 50-new-contacts-a-day ceiling. The first year is $877 lower even after setup, and $1,235 lower on annual billing.

Built for a sales team, not an agent SDK

Campaigns, sequences, a shared inbox and AI reply modes ship as product. Photon gives you the line and the API, and you build the agent and the workflow.

Your CRM, wired in

Native HubSpot, Salesforce, GoHighLevel, Pipedrive and Close apps with replies written back to the record. Photon lists no native CRM apps on its pricing page.

Calls on the same number

500 outgoing minutes a month with recording on every line.

The same published ceiling

Both publish about 50 new contacts per line per day. Tuco AI also publishes the ~150 total-message limit and paces sends to both.

Hosted for you

Each Tuco AI line is a dedicated iPhone with a carrier eSIM, hosted on a Mac and monitored, so nobody on your team maintains a device.

Same day

Go live

Most teams migrate and start sending the same day

Zero downtime

Seamless switch

Import contacts and sequences without interrupting your workflow

Included

Migration support

Dedicated specialist included at no extra cost

We'll help you connect your existing tools:

What is Photon?

Photon is an open-source platform for putting AI agents on iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack and Discord. As of November 6, 2026 its Free and $25-a-month Pro plans use managed shared numbers, its Business plan is $250 per line per month for a dedicated iMessage line with RCS and SMS fallback and up to 50 new contacts a day, and Enterprise is custom. The open-source core can also run on your own Mac with your own iCloud account.

Is Tuco AI cheaper than Photon?

Yes. Tuco AI is $149 a month per dedicated line plus a $335 one-time setup, $2,123 for the first year or $1,765 on annual billing. Photon Business is $250 per line per month, $3,000 for the first year. Both publish the same ceiling of about 50 new contacts per line per day. Prices as of November 6, 2026.

Which is better for a sales team on HubSpot, Salesforce or GoHighLevel?

Tuco AI. It ships native HubSpot, Salesforce, GoHighLevel, Pipedrive and Close apps with workflow-triggered sends, replies written back to the record, and CRM opt-out fields checked before every send, plus a campaign builder and AI reply modes. Photon is an agent platform: you get the line and the API, and you build the agent, the workflow and the CRM integration yourself.

Can I switch from Photon to Tuco AI?

Yes. Tuco AI ports an existing number in, which takes 3–7 business days, or provisions a new line in a minimum of 48 hours while the carrier activates its eSIM. Connect your CRM over OAuth, point your webhooks at Tuco AI, and import your opted-in contacts. Tuco AI is for opted-in and inbound contacts only.