Linq — linqapp.com — started as a digital business card product and now sells communications APIs: iMessage, RCS, SMS and voice through one interface. The iMessage product is the one people search for, often as "Linq Blue", and it is aimed squarely at the top of the market.
How to read this page
Linq is not in our provider comparison, because we have not run a paid line with them and a review page implies we have. Everything below is drawn from their own public pages, checked in August 2026, and labelled as their claim where it is their claim. Verify anything that matters before you sign.
What it does
The feature list is at the deep end of what this category offers. Alongside the basics — send and receive, webhooks, RCS and SMS fallback with automatic routing — Linq publicly lists group chat creation and management, tapback reactions, read receipts, typing indicators, rich media, delivery of interactive iMessage apps, FaceTime calling and scheduling, and Find My location sharing.
Group chat and FaceTime are the two that stand out. Group threads are materially harder to support than one-to-one messaging and are missing or partial at several competitors, so their presence is a reasonable proxy for how deep the integration runs.
The compliance story
This is Linq's core positioning, and it is the reason the brand keeps appearing in procurement conversations. They state they are SOC 2 Type II compliant, that message content is encrypted and inaccessible to them, and they advertise a contractual 99.95% uptime SLA — which they describe as the only one in the category.
SOC 2 Type II
Compliance posture stated on their site
Source: linqapp.com
99.95%
Uptime SLA they advertise as contractual
Source: linqapp.com
<120ms
Median latency claim
Source: linqapp.com
Vendor claims, not our measurements. The right move with any of them is to ask for the artefact: a SOC 2 Type II report under NDA, and the SLA text with its remedy clause. A report that exists will be produced within a day. What to actually ask for is here.
What it costs
Linq does not publish prices. Their pricing page offers a free sandbox and an enterprise tier reached through a sales conversation, with the positioning that you are buying out of per-message billing rather than paying less per message.
Competitors' comparison pages cite figures in the region of $250 per line per month plus a four-figure setup fee. That is a competitor's number about a rival, on a page written to win the deal, and should be treated as a rough order of magnitude rather than a quote. What is safe to conclude is the shape: this is the enterprise end, not the $20-a-month end. The full pricing comparison is here.
The sandbox is the useful part
Linq offers a free sandbox with a temporary test number where you can send and receive, configure webhooks and connect an application before any conversation about price. Do that first. Twenty minutes against a real API tells you more than a demo call.
Who it fits
| Situation | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Enterprise procurement with a security questionnaire | Strong fit — the SOC 2 posture is the product |
| Regulated industry, legal needs a named DPA and SLA | Strong fit |
| AI agent product needing group chats and rich features | Good fit, and explicitly targeted |
| A three-van home services company | Wrong end of the market — start here instead |
| You want to see a price before a sales call | Poor fit — Photon and LoopMessage publish theirs |
The honest caveat
A SOC 2 Type II report describes the controls a company operates against its own stated objectives. It is genuine evidence of organisational maturity and it is what your security reviewer will ask for. It does not change the underlying fact that Apple publishes no iMessage API, and that every provider in this category — Linq included — reaches iMessage by means Apple has not sanctioned. That structural risk is the same for everyone, and no certification removes it.
What compliance buys you is a vendor that will answer the question honestly, has a documented incident process, and can be held to something in writing. That is worth paying for. Just do not read it as Apple's blessing.
If you are evaluating Linq
- Open the sandbox and send a real message before booking a call.
- Ask for the SOC 2 Type II report under NDA, and check the period it covers.
- Ask for the SLA text, including what the remedy actually is when it is missed.
- Get the setup fee and the per-additional-line price in writing.
- Ask what happens to your numbers if you leave. Number portability is the switching cost nobody checks.
- Price it against the alternatives at your real message volume.