Homing Pigeon vs. SelfPing
The short answer
Both do the same job: text alerts from your code or your coding agent to your own phone, with no "to" field and no carrier paperwork for you. Both have an MCP server and hooks for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor.
The differences are price per text, the free allowance, and who creates the key.
- Free: 50 texts a month on Homing Pigeon, 10 on SelfPing.
- $19 a month: 1,000 texts on Homing Pigeon, 400 on SelfPing.
- Setup: your agent sets up Homing Pigeon in the session. SelfPing needs you to sign in on its website and make the key.
- In between: SelfPing's $5 plan, 100 texts a month, is cheaper if you send 50 to 100.
Side by side
| Homing Pigeon | SelfPing | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it texts | Your own verified US mobile number | Your own phone |
| Free | 50 texts a month | 10 texts a month |
| Paid | $19 a month for 1,000 | $5 a month for 100, $19 a month for 400 |
| Getting a key | Your agent submits your number, you read back a six-digit code, and the agent saves the key | You sign in at selfping.com with your phone and a code, then create a key on the dashboard |
| Coding agents | MCP server, plus hooks for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor | MCP server, plus hooks for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor |
| Replies | STOP, START and HELP only | One-way |
SelfPing details are from selfping.com and its docs for agents, checked November 4, 2026.
Pick SelfPing if
- You send 50 to 100 texts a month and want the $5 plan.
- You prefer to create and manage keys on a website dashboard.
- You already use it.
Pick Homing Pigeon if
- You send under 50 texts a month and want them free.
- You send hundreds a month: 1,000 for $19.
- You want your coding agent to do the whole setup without you opening a website.
- Your code is Python and you want
pip install homingpigeondev.
Questions
Can I switch?
Yes. Tell your coding agent: "Replace SelfPing with Homing Pigeon in this project." It verifies your phone and swaps the call. Neither service has a recipient field, so nothing else changes.
What else is out there?
Textbelt, PagerDuty, Pushover and more are compared in ways to get text alerts from your code.
Get started
Homing Pigeon (homingpigeon.dev) sends text-message alerts from your code or your coding agent to one phone: yours. No carrier registration, no app, no browser signup. Free to start.
Add it to Claude Code, then ask for what you want:
claude mcp add homingpigeondev -- npx -y homingpigeondev mcpCodex, Cursor, Python, the command line and the API are in the README. See what people use it for.