I've done a deep dive into the AI infrastructure landscape to find the best alternatives to ZoComputer that offer SMS-prompted containers and solid affiliate programs.
Here are the top 10 competitors tailored to your focus on low-level hardware/software customization and SMS interaction:
1. Replit
Pricing: Starter (Free); Core ($20/mo annual); Teams ($35-40/user/mo). Credit-based system for compute and AI.
SMS Features: Integrates with Twilio and Authkey for SMS/WhatsApp/Email in apps; supports email-to-SMS via SMTP/IMAP.
Affiliate/Referral: $10 in credits to both referrer and new paying customer (requires Core plan to redeem).
2. Paperspace (by DigitalOcean)
Pricing: GPU instances from $268 to $1,348/mo; hourly billing available. Gradient plans for Notebooks/Workflows.
SMS Features: Uses SMS for secure account verification; AI environments can be configured to interact with SMS via external APIs.
Affiliate/Referral: $10 credit to new users and $15 to referrers after billing thresholds; 20% commission on initial sales.
3. Runpod
Pricing: Pay-as-you-go GPU rental; per-second billing; no data transfer fees. Savings plans for upfront commitments.
SMS Features: No native SMS; hosts AI containers that can integrate SMS via Twilio/API for custom interactions.
Affiliate/Referral: Randomized compute credits ($5-$500) to both parties after a $10 spend; 6-month credit commissions for affiliates.
4. Modal AI
Pricing: Starter (Free, $30 monthly credit); Team ($250/mo, $100 credit); per-second compute billing.
SMS Features: Supports multimodal AI agents integrating SMS via Twilio for bidirectional messaging and voice-to-text switching.
Affiliate/Referral: Affiliate program available; up to $25,000 in free compute credits for early-stage startups.
5. Hyperbolic
Pricing: Usage-based GPU rentals and serverless inference; $5 equates to ~5 hours of H100 GPU time.
SMS Features: No native SMS; provides cloud API for developers to build SMS-powered AI applications.
Affiliate/Referral: Referred friend gets $6 ($1 for phone verify, $5 for deposit); Referrer gets $5 in compute credits.
6. Vapi AI
Pricing: $0.05/min base; typically $0.13-$0.33/min with integrations. SMS at $0.005/message.
SMS Features: Native outbound/inbound SMS, multimodal conversation switching, and session management via Twilio.
Affiliate/Referral: 15% recurring commission for referrals; $10 in free credits for all new users.
7. Replicate
Pricing: Usage-based compute; LLaMA 3 70B at $0.65/1M input tokens; per-image/video pricing for generative models.
SMS Features: No native SMS; API allows integration with Twilio for AI image generation or chatbots via text.
Affiliate/Referral: No direct referral program; focuses on enterprise volume discounts.
8. SMS-iT
Pricing: Tiered from $299/mo (Starter) to $1,999/mo (Enterprise); usage-based RAAS-iT available.
SMS Features: Native global SMS/MMS, two-way messaging, and AI-driven workflow automation with 98% open rates.
Affiliate/Referral: Tiered recurring commissions up to 30%; perpetual earnings and high-performer bonuses.
9. Textedly
Pricing: Basic $29/mo (600 msgs) to Legend $5,520/mo; 14-day free trial available.
SMS Features: Native AI message generation, automated campaigns, and payment collection via text.
Affiliate/Referral: 20% commission for 12 months plus 5,000 free texts to both referrer and referee.
10. n8n
Pricing: Free self-hosted; Cloud from $20/mo (2,500 executions).
SMS Features: Dedicated SMS nodes and integrations with Twilio/ClickSend for automated AI-to-SMS workflows.
Affiliate/Referral: 30% recurring commission for the first year on cloud referrals.
These platforms should give you the infrastructure and affiliate leverage you need for your BGP network and SMS-prompting focus. Let me know if you need deets on setting up any of these! 👨🌾🚀