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Compare / Sendant vs Signal

Honest comparison · updated for 2026

Sendant vs Signal

Signal is the most widely audited mainstream private messenger — and it requires a phone number and an installed app. Sendant requires neither. That single difference decides which one fits you.

Short answer: choose Signal if you want years of independent audits and a mature native-app ecosystem. Choose Sendant if you can't or won't hand over a phone number, or you need private messaging on a device where you can't install anything — a work laptop, a library computer, an iPhone without another app.

Last updated October 26, 2026 — added a Signal-alternatives-without-a-phone-number table (Sendant, Session, SimpleX) with the rows where Sendant loses. Earlier: maturity wording softened to what is verifiable; SPQR post-quantum ratchet (2025) added. Living page — corrections welcome.

Side by side

Teal edge marks the stronger side of each row. No messenger wins every row, including ours.

DimensionSendantSignal
Sign-up requirementsNone — no phone number, no email, no account. Identity is a cryptographic key generated on your device.Phone number required to register. Usernames (added 2024) can hide your number from other people, but registration still demands one.
Browser / no-install useYes — persistent client at app.sendant.io. Open a link, start messaging.No. Signal Desktop is an installed app that must be linked to a phone already running Signal; Signal's team has explicitly declined to build a browser client.
Native appsAndroid app on Google Play and an iPhone app on the App Store (new in August 2026). Sendant also runs in any browser with nothing to install.Mature native apps for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Independent auditsNot yet audited. An independent audit is planned; limitations are documented rather than hidden.Extensively and repeatedly audited; the Signal Protocol has received formal academic analysis for nearly a decade.
EncryptionX3DH + Double Ratchet — the same cryptographic primitives Signal uses — compiled to WASM so the browser runs the same crypto path as the native app.Signal Protocol, upgraded with PQXDH post-quantum key agreement (2023) and the SPQR post-quantum ratchet (2025). The reference implementation everyone else is measured against.
Metadata & identifiersNo identifier to subpoena or leak: the service never learns a phone number or email. Servers see only ciphertext content.Sealed Sender reduces sender metadata, but the phone-number anchor ties your account to a real-world, government-registered identifier.
Bad-network behaviorBuilt for throttled, restricted, or intermittent networks: messages wait in an encrypted store-and-forward mailbox and deliver when your contact reconnects. Peer-to-peer and relay delivery paths are on the roadmap.Centralized service; generally requires a working connection to Signal's servers.
Group & ecosystem maturityYoung product. Smaller feature surface and a much smaller user network.Huge user base, polished group chats, calls, stories, years of production hardening.
Price & fundingFree — no ads, no token, no data monetization. The free limits do not change; an optional paid relay upgrade is in the next row.Free. Nonprofit foundation funded by donations.
Paid tierSendant Pro Relay, $3/month or $29/year: encrypted files up to 25 MiB (sent from Android), 100 uploads a day, media kept 30 days and an offline mailbox that waits 60 days, on up to 5 devices (web and Android; not iPhone). Bought with a one-time passcode, so Stripe never learns your Sendant identity and Sendant never sees your card or email. Full self-serve refund for 7 days.Signal Backups, $1.99/month: encrypted backup of your own message history with 100 GB of media, restorable to a new phone. Tied to the phone-number-registered account that pays for it. Nothing changes about relay limits.

Fact-check us: every row above is meant to survive scrutiny. If a row is wrong or goes stale, tell us and we'll correct it — this is a living page.

Choose Sendant if…

A phone number is the dealbreaker

You want to message someone — including a stranger — without either of you revealing a phone number, email, or any account identifier.

You can't install apps

Work laptop, library or school computer, or an iPhone where another app isn't happening. Sendant runs in the browser you already have.

Your network is hostile

Throttled, restricted, or intermittent connectivity — messages wait as encrypted ciphertext in a store-and-forward mailbox and deliver when your contact reconnects. Peer-to-peer and relay delivery paths are on the roadmap.

Choose Signal if…

You want audited maturity

Signal has the strongest public security track record in messaging, formal protocol analysis, and a post-quantum upgrade already deployed. Sendant hasn't been independently audited yet.

Your contacts are already there

Signal's network effect is real. If everyone you talk to has Signal installed, the phone-number cost is already paid.

You need polished native apps

Native iOS, desktop apps, mature calls and groups. Sendant's iPhone app is new — it does not have their years of refinement.

The phone number, end to end

Signal's phone-number requirement is not a data grab — it is the load-bearing part of how the service resists spam and finds your contacts. But it also means registration is anchored to an identifier that governments issue, carriers control, and data brokers buy. A username, added in 2024, is a label that hides the number from other users; it does not replace it. Signal itself still holds the number, and the account remains linked to it.

That distinction matters more for some people than others. If your threat model includes SIM-swap attacks, subpoenas that can reach a carrier, or simply a social circle where handing over a number is the thing you are trying to avoid, the anchor is the problem. Sendant's design removes it: identity is a key generated on your device, and you connect by sharing a link or QR code. The honest cost is convenience — there is no address-book magic, so you add each contact deliberately. Why Signal needs a number, in full.

Signal alternatives without a phone number

Most people searching for a Signal alternative are not looking for a head-to-head: they are looking for a messenger that does not start with a phone number. Three are worth considering, and they trade different things. The table is the short version; each comparison page carries the detail, including the rows where Sendant loses.

AlternativeIdentifier requiredWorks without installingIndependent audit
Sendant None — a key generated on your device, no public ID string Yes — a persistent client at app.sendant.io Not yet. An audit is planned and the gap is disclosed
Session No phone number or email; a random Session ID you share with contacts No — native apps for iOS, Android and desktop only Yes — Quarkslab audited the apps in 2021
SimpleX None at the protocol level; there are no user identifiers at all No — there is no way to use it without installing software Yes — Trail of Bits, 2022 (implementation) and 2024 (protocol)

How to choose. If network-level anonymity is the priority, Session and SimpleX go further than Sendant: Session onion-routes through community service nodes, and SimpleX removes user identifiers at the protocol level. If you need an audited codebase today, both have one and Sendant does not. If the constraint is that you cannot install anything — a locked-down laptop, a library terminal, an iPhone you do not want to add an app to — Sendant is the one of the three that runs in a tab, and the honest cost is that the browser tier is a weaker store than a signed app. Sendant vs Session · Sendant vs SimpleX.

Browser access: what Signal decided

Signal has no web client, and has publicly declined to build one. The reasoning is consistent with Signal's threat model: a browser app re-downloads its code from a server on every visit, so users must trust that server not to ship malicious JavaScript. Signal's team has chosen not to take on that trust burden — a defensible call for a messenger whose brand is long-term auditability.

Sendant takes the other side of that trade. The browser client at app.sendant.io runs the same X3DH + Double Ratchet core as the native apps, compiled to WebAssembly, under a strict Content-Security-Policy. It does not eliminate the operator-trust question — nothing served over the web does — which is why the browser tier is the low-friction option and the installed, signed app is the high-assurance one. What it does eliminate is the install requirement: a locked-down work laptop, a library PC, or a borrowed phone can message without an app store, an admin password, or an account. The full explanation, and our honest browser trust-model page.

Common questions

Does Signal work without a phone number?

No. Signal's usernames (2024) hide your number from other users, but you still cannot register without a phone number. Sendant has no phone-number, email, or account requirement at all. More context: why does Signal need my phone number?

Does Signal have a web or browser version?

No — and Signal's team has explicitly said it won't build one, because serving crypto code to a browser raises trust questions they've chosen not to take on. Full explainer: does Signal have a web version?

Is Sendant as secure as Signal?

Sendant uses the same cryptographic primitives (X3DH + Double Ratchet), but Signal has years of independent audits and public scrutiny that Sendant doesn't have yet — plus post-quantum key agreement. We say this plainly: if audited maturity is your top requirement, use Signal. Sendant's independent audit is planned, and known limitations are documented.

Is Sendant a fork of Signal?

No. Sendant is an independent implementation built on the same primitives, designed from the start for identifier-free registration and a persistent browser client — the two things Signal's architecture rules out.

Go deeper: how to verify a messenger you cannot read the source of and how to send messages without phone-number verification, plus the guides below.

Try the difference in 30 seconds

No phone number, no email, no install. Open the web app and see it for yourself — or read the full no-phone-number comparison.

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Signal is a trademark of Signal Messenger, LLC / Signal Technology Foundation. Sendant is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by them. Comparisons describe publicly documented behaviour at the time of writing and are offered for identification and comparison only.