Every “best AI receptionist” list on page one of Google is written by an AI receptionist company, and every one of them ranks itself first. We don’t sell a receptionist. We connect them to the rest of a business, so what we care about is how each one behaves after the demo: what it really costs at your volume, whether it hands off to a human well, and whether the booking lands in the software you already use.
Quick comparison
| Receptionist | Starting price | Billed by | Free trial | Human transfer | Signs a HIPAA BAA | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upfirst | $24.95/mo (30 calls) | Call | 14 days, no card | All plans | Custom plan only | Solo and low-volume businesses |
| Dialzara | $29/mo (60 min) | Minute | 7 days | Top plan only | Not stated | Very small volume on a budget |
| Marlie | $49/mo (250 min) | Minute | 14 days | From $99 plan | Not stated | Trades, dental, legal, real estate |
| Rosie | $49/mo (250 min) | Minute | 7 days | From $149 plan | Not stated | Home services and local businesses |
| RingCentral AIR | $49/mo (100 min) | Minute | Yes (length not stated) | Yes, with summary | “HIPAA compliance” listed; confirm BAA | RingCentral customers, CRM-heavy teams |
| Goodcall | $79/mo (100 callers) | Unique caller | Free demo agent | Yes, with backup | HIPAA badge; BAA not stated | Businesses with many repeat callers |
| My AI Front Desk | $99/mo ($79 annual) | Minute | 7 days | Yes | Yes, says it signs BAAs | Property managers, therapy practices |
| Smith.ai | Free (25 calls), Pro $150/mo | Call | Free plan | Live North American agents | Not for the AI product | Law firms and professional services |
| Sameday | From $449/mo (500 min) | Minute | Demo only | Not stated | Not stated | HVAC, plumbing, roofing on ServiceTitan, Jobber, HCP |
| Avoca | Demo only | Custom | Not stated | Human-in-the-loop | Not stated | Larger ServiceTitan home-service shops |
| Retell (build your own) | $0.07–$0.31/min | Minute | $10 credit | You build it | Yes, self-serve | Teams with a developer or partner |
| Vapi (build your own) | ~$0.08–$0.13/min | Minute | $5 credit | You build it | $2,000/mo add-on | Developers who want full control |
How we picked
- We started from the vendors that show up most in Google, YouTube and Reddit for “best AI receptionist” and “best AI answering service,” then dropped any without a real small-business plan.
- Every price comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, checked November 1, 2026. Prices in this category change often, so check before you buy.
- We only list a HIPAA BAA as “yes” when the vendor says on its own site that it signs one.
- We didn’t run paid trials of every product. Notes on weaknesses come from review sites (Trustpilot, G2, Capterra) and public complaints, and we flag small review samples.
- We looked hardest at integrations, because that’s where most AI receptionists quietly fall short.
What 150 calls a month actually costs
Starting prices are misleading because vendors bill in different units. Here’s a typical small business, 150 calls a month at about 3 minutes each (450 minutes), priced from each vendor’s published rates:
| Receptionist | Plan that fits | Estimated monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Goodcall | Starter (100 unique callers, 79¢ each after) | $79–$100, depending on repeat callers |
| Marlie | Standard (500 min) | $99 |
| Upfirst | Premium (90 calls) + 60 calls at $1.00 | $120 |
| Rosie | Scale (1,000 min, includes live transfer) | $149 |
| My AI Front Desk | Business (200 min) + 250 min at $0.25 | $162 ($142 billed annually) |
| Dialzara | Plus (500 min) | $199 |
| RingCentral AIR | 100 min + 350 min at $0.50 | $224 before buying minute bundles |
| Smith.ai | Pro (75 calls) + 75 calls at $2.50 | about $338 |
| Sameday | Launch (500 min) | $449 |
| Ruby (human, for comparison) | 500-minute plan | $1,725 |
| Retell or Vapi | Usage only | $35–$140, plus the cost of building it |
The spread is wide: the same call volume costs $79 with one vendor and $338 with another. Before you sign, check how many of your calls are repeat callers, how long they really last, and whether spam calls count against your plan (Upfirst and Smith.ai say they don’t bill for spam).
Best for low call volume
Upfirst
Upfirst bills per call rather than per minute, and doesn’t charge for spam, silent calls or calls under 15 seconds. Warm transfer to a person is included on every plan, which is unusual at this price. It connects to Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly, Acuity, Square and Clio Manage, and can call other software through custom actions.
- Best for: solo operators and small offices taking fewer than 100 calls a month.
- Pricing: Starter $24.95/mo for 30 calls ($1.50 per extra call), Premium $59.95 for 90, Pro $159.95 for 300. 14-day trial, no card.
- Watch out for: the HIPAA BAA is only on the Custom plan. Review counts are small (around 15–19 on G2).
Dialzara
Dialzara has the lowest per-minute entry point and English and Spanish from the first paid tier. No contract and no setup fee.
- Best for: testing an AI receptionist with very little volume.
- Pricing: Lite $29/mo for 60 minutes ($0.48/min after), Pro $99 for 220, Plus $199 for 500, Elite $349 for 1,000.
- Watch out for: 60 minutes is roughly 20 calls. Live transfer is only listed on the $349 Elite plan, so check that before you rely on it.
Best value per minute
Marlie
Marlie gives you 250 minutes for $49, and the $99 Standard plan adds call transfer and calendar sync with 500 minutes. It targets trades, dental, legal, real estate and property management.
- Best for: small businesses taking 100–200 calls a month that want transfer and booking.
- Pricing: Basic $49 (no transfer), Standard $99, Pro $199, Premium $399. Overage $0.25–$0.35/min. 14-day trial.
- Watch out for: no HIPAA BAA mentioned. Marlie’s own blog ranks Marlie first among AI answering services, so treat its comparison content accordingly.
Rosie
Rosie answers in English and Spanish on every call and is built around home services and local businesses.
- Best for: trades, salons, property managers and real estate offices.
- Pricing: Professional $49 for 250 minutes (sends booking links by text), Scale $149 for 1,000 minutes (books on your calendar and does live transfer), Growth $299 for 2,000. 7-day trial.
- Watch out for: calendar booking and live transfer start at the $149 plan. Integrations are mostly through Zapier. We found no independent reviews; the “5.0” rating on its site is from its own testimonials.
Best for repeat callers
Goodcall
Goodcall charges per unique caller, not per minute. If the same customers call you again and again (a shop, a clinic, a service business with regulars), that can make it the cheapest option here.
- Best for: businesses where most calls come from existing customers.
- Pricing: Starter $79/mo for 100 unique callers (79¢ after), Growth $129 for 500, Scale $299 for 2,000. Local number included. You can try a demo agent free and pay once you connect a number.
- Watch out for: Goodcall’s own pages name Google Calendar, HighLevel and Zapier. Claims about Jobber, Housecall Pro and ServiceTitan connections come from third-party sites, so ask for a demo against your software. Trustpilot has only a handful of reviews, all negative, mostly about billing after cancellation.
Best AI with live humans behind it
Smith.ai
Smith.ai’s AI answers first and can hand the call to its team of 500+ North America-based receptionists. Escalations the AI starts are free. It connects to Clio, HubSpot, Salesforce, Calendly, Zapier and Make, and answers in English and Spanish on every plan.
- Best for: law firms and professional services where a botched call costs a client.
- Pricing: Free plan with 25 calls, then Pro at $150/mo for 75 calls ($2.50 per extra), Enterprise $500/mo for 300+. No long-term contract; 30 days’ notice to cancel.
- Watch out for: per-call pricing gets expensive past about 100 calls. We found no BAA for the AI product, so don’t route patient calls through it without one in writing. Older articles quote “$95 for 50 calls,” which is out of date.
Ruby and Abby (the human benchmark)
Ruby is still a human receptionist service. Its AI features help its staff but don’t answer your calls. Pricing starts at $250 for 50 minutes, about $3.45–$5.00 a minute. Abby Connect mixes humans and AI: one “Abby minute” equals two AI minutes or one human minute, from $164/mo for 50. Abby’s HIPAA option is human-only. Both are the right call if every caller must reach a person.
Best if you’re on RingCentral
RingCentral AI Receptionist (AIR)
RingCentral’s AIR answers, routes and transfers calls with a summary. It handles English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Portuguese and can switch language mid-call. It connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho and Google and Outlook calendars, and it can sit in front of other phone systems through call forwarding. You don’t have to move your phones to RingCentral.
- Best for: existing RingCentral customers and teams that live in a CRM.
- Pricing: $49/mo standalone with 100 minutes, or $39/mo added to RingEX. Overage is $0.50/min, rounded up to the next 30 seconds.
- Watch out for: 100 minutes is about 33 calls, and $0.50/min overage adds up fast. Reviewers mention surprise overage bills. The pricing page lists “HIPAA compliance,” but get the BAA in writing before using it with patients.
Best for regulated businesses (HIPAA)
My AI Front Desk (Frontdesk)
My AI Front Desk is one of the few packaged receptionists that says on its homepage that it signs BAAs. It has named integrations for property and practice software that others skip: Yardi, AppFolio, Buildium, RealPage, Entrata, SimplePractice, TherapyNotes and Jane, plus Shopify and Zapier.
- Best for: therapy and medical practices, property managers, and agencies reselling AI.
- Pricing: $99/mo, or $79/mo billed annually, with 200 minutes plus chat and SMS. $0.25/min after that. 7-day trial.
- Watch out for: Trustpilot sits around 3.3 from 16 reviews, with complaints about billing after cancellation and thin human support. Ask exactly what the integration writes into your system before signing.
A BAA is the start of HIPAA compliance, not the end of it. Our guide to HIPAA-compliant AI covers what else to check.
Best for home-service companies
Sameday
Sameday has the deepest field-service integrations we found: ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, Service Fusion and FieldRoutes. On Housecall Pro it books jobs in real time, matches or creates the customer record, checks open slots and texts a confirmation.
- Best for: HVAC, plumbing, roofing, pest control and cleaning companies.
- Pricing: Launch from $449/mo for 500 minutes, Scale from $789 for 1,000. Demo only, no trial.
- Watch out for: it costs more than general-purpose tools, and it’s only worth it if you use the integration.
Avoca
Avoca is a ServiceTitan certified app that covers inbound calls and booking, outbound follow-up and call scoring. Pricing is demo-only. It fits larger multi-truck shops more than one-van operators.
The built-in option: Jobber and Housecall Pro
Both now sell their own AI receptionists. Jobber’s books visits straight into the Jobber schedule, texts back hang-ups and transfers on keywords like “no heat” or “burst pipe.” Housecall Pro’s CSR AI is sold separately from its plans. Neither publishes a clear price. The integration is as deep as it gets, but you’re tied to that platform.
Build your own: Retell vs Vapi
If you have a developer or a partner, voice platforms cost a fraction of packaged receptionists per minute. Retell runs about $0.07–$0.31 a minute all-in and has a visual builder. Its pay-as-you-go accounts can sign a BAA from the dashboard. Vapi charges $0.05/min plus the cost of the voice, speech and model providers you pick, about $0.08–$0.13/min in total. It’s more developer-oriented, and its HIPAA add-on is $2,000/mo. Bland starts at $0.14/min and signs BAAs on Enterprise.
The trade-off: you own the script, the testing, the monitoring and every integration. That’s where most of the work is.
The part most lists skip: what happens after the call
An AI receptionist that answers well but leaves the result in its own dashboard has only done half the job. Someone still has to copy the caller into the CRM, create the job, check the schedule and send the quote. This is where most setups break down. The usual fix, a Zapier step for each action, works until a field changes and bookings silently stop syncing.
Three things are worth getting right:
- Booking into the real schedule. The receptionist should check live availability in your job or practice software, not a separate Google Calendar someone has to reconcile.
- Creating the record. New callers should become a lead or customer in your CRM with the call summary attached, and repeat callers should be matched to their existing record.
- Next steps without a person. Missed-call text-backs, quote follow-ups and intake forms should fire automatically from what was said on the call.
This is the work we do: we connect AI receptionists, or build a custom voice agent, into the systems a business already runs. See AI customer service automation and AI agent development. If you’re not sure whether you need a packaged tool or a custom build, the AI audit maps your calls and software and tells you which makes sense.
Before you sign up: a checklist
- Count your calls. Pull last month’s call log: total calls, average length, share of repeat callers, share of spam.
- Test the hand-off. Call the trial number with your hardest real question and see what happens when the AI can’t answer.
- Check the booking. Book a test appointment and confirm it lands in the system your team actually uses.
- Get the BAA if you handle health information. In writing, before go-live. A website badge isn’t one.
- Read the cancellation terms. The most common complaint across these vendors is billing after cancellation.
- Disclose the AI. Tell callers they’re speaking with an AI assistant, and check your state’s call-recording consent rules.
Sources
- Upfirst pricing: https://upfirst.ai/pricing
- Dialzara pricing: https://www.dialzara.com/pricing
- Marlie pricing: https://www.marlie.ai/pricing
- Rosie pricing: https://heyrosie.com/pricing
- RingCentral AI Receptionist pricing: https://www.ringcentral.com/pricing/ai-receptionist.html and product page: https://www.ringcentral.com/ai-receptionist.html
- Goodcall pricing: https://www.goodcall.com/pricing; Trustpilot: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/goodcall.com
- My AI Front Desk pricing: https://www.myaifrontdesk.com/pricing; homepage (BAA statement): https://www.myaifrontdesk.com/; Trustpilot: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/myaifrontdesk.com
- Smith.ai AI receptionist pricing: https://smith.ai/pricing/ai-receptionist and features: https://smith.ai/ai-receptionist
- Ruby pricing: https://www.ruby.com/pricing/
- Abby Connect pricing: https://www.abby.com/pricing/
- Sameday pricing: https://sameday.ai/pricing; Housecall Pro integration: https://sameday.ai/integration/housecall-pro
- Avoca: https://www.avoca.ai/
- Jobber AI Receptionist: https://www.getjobber.com/features/ai-receptionist/
- Housecall Pro AI team: https://www.housecallpro.com/features/ai-team/
- Retell pricing: https://www.retellai.com/pricing; Retell self-serve BAA: https://www.retellai.com/blog/hipaa-compliant-voice-ai-without-enterprise-contract
- Vapi pricing: https://vapi.ai/pricing
- Bland pricing: https://www.bland.ai/pricing
- Upfirst reviews (G2): https://www.g2.com/products/upfirst/reviews
- Smith.ai reviews (Trustpilot): https://www.trustpilot.com/review/smith.ai
- FCC declaratory ruling on AI-generated voices under the TCPA (February 2024): https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-17A1.pdf