AI receptionists for plumbers, compared on the water-damage clock
Plumbing has a feature no other trade on this site has: the damage continues while the caller is on the phone. Every minute of a water call is money leaving the building, which changes what the first thirty seconds should contain. It is not qualification. It is where the stop tap is.
We lead here because the assistant can open with that instruction and route the call by job type, both on the $49 plan. Shut-off guidance first, then the questions. Any product on this page can be scripted that way, and ours does not charge a tier upgrade to transfer the call afterwards.
The second plumbing-specific problem is the diagnostic conversation. A caller describing a noise, a smell or a slow drain gives you information that decides which tech and which van, and that conversation runs long. Goodcall's uncapped minutes suit it; a per-minute meter charges you for exactly the detail you wanted.
On the commercial side, the calculation changes again. A restaurant with a blocked line is losing a service, and those callers want a time rather than a booking. Separating commercial from residential in the routing rules is worth more than any price difference on this page.
How this was put together
Compared in September 2026 on the things specific to water damage and diagnosis, by the team behind one of the entries.
What we compared
- Whether the assistant can give an instruction, such as shut-off guidance, before it asks its questions.
- How each bills a long diagnostic conversation.
- Whether commercial and residential calls can follow different routes.
- Published price, allowance and overage rate.
The shortlist at a glance
Billing unit first, because it decides more of the final bill than the headline price does.
| Charges by | Entry plan | After the allowance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreetKeeper | per answered call | $49/mo for 200 answered calls | $0.45 a call on Starter, published |
| Goodcall | per unique caller | Starter $79/mo ($66 annual) for 100 unique customers | $0.50 per additional unique customer, published |
| Smith.ai | per call | Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call | Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises |
| Dialzara | per minute | Business Lite $29/mo for 60 minutes | Published on every tier, from $0.48 a minute down to $0.35 |
| Rosie | per minute | Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes | Not published |
| AnswerConnect | per minute | Does not publish pricing | Does not publish pricing |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
Leads with shut-off guidance, then transfers, both on the $49 plan.
Worth it for: A shop that wants a flooding caller told where the stop tap is before anything else, then routed to whoever is on call, without paying a tier upgrade for the transfer.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Goodcall
Uncapped minutes and unique-caller billing fit a trade with long calls and repeat contact.
Worth it for: A shop where one job generates several calls from the same customer, and where diagnostic conversations run long.
Not for: A shop with more than one phone number, since each number is a separately priced agent, and one where nearly every caller is new.
Charges per unique caller. Entry plan Starter $79/mo ($66 annual) for 100 unique customers. After the allowance: $0.50 per additional unique customer, published.
Smith.ai
The only one here with its own humans for the 2am call the assistant cannot take.
Worth it for: A larger operation where enough overnight calls need a person that having one changes outcomes.
Not for: A one-van shop, at $150 a month for Pro, where the quiet months are genuinely quiet.
Charges per call. Entry plan Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call. After the allowance: Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises.
Dialzara
Cheap, with published overage on every tier.
Worth it for: A small shop testing the idea on a quiet line.
Not for: A busy emergency line. Sixty minutes on the entry plan does not survive one bad night.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Business Lite $29/mo for 60 minutes. After the allowance: Published on every tier, from $0.48 a minute down to $0.35.
Rosie
The cheapest answer, with the transfer gate that matters most in this trade.
Worth it for: A shop that wants out-of-hours calls captured and will call back in the morning.
Not for: Waking an on-call tech, since live transfer starts at $149. The unpublished overage rate is a second problem when a freeze produces four hundred calls.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes. After the allowance: Not published.
AnswerConnect
Human answering overnight, priced on a call.
Worth it for: A larger operation wanting round-the-clock human cover from an established operator.
Not for: Published comparison, and short calls, given per-minute billing reported to round up to the whole minute.
AnswerConnect does not publish its rates, so the cost is whatever the sales call produces.
The configuration that beats the vendor choice
Before comparing any of these, write the first line the assistant says to a water call. If there is water coming in, the useful sentence is about the stop tap and not about your availability. Every product here can do that and it is a scripting decision nobody makes, which means it is available to you whichever vendor you pick.
Second, decide what a caller hears when your on-call tech does not pick up at 2am. They have already waited through a transfer attempt, so voicemail at that point is a longer path to the same disappointment. A stated callback commitment is better.
And if your techs are booked three days out, route water calls as emergencies and book the rest. A flooded kitchen reaches the on-call tech by transfer or text, while a slow drain takes Thursday's slot.
Our own pricing, in full
Including the rate after the allowance, which is the number most of this list leaves off.
| Plan | Monthly | Calls included | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarterFor a single location taking calls one line at a time. | $49 | 200 | $0.45 per call |
| ProfessionalBooking, routing and transfers included, not an add-on. | $149 | 750 | $0.35 per call |
| ScaleFor busy phones and longer opening hours. | $349 | 2,000 | $0.25 per call |
The short version
- Booking is included on every tier. Rosie keeps booking and live transfer behind its $149 plan.
- The overage rate is on the pricing page. Rosie, Ruby, Slang and AnswerConnect do not publish theirs.
- Calls are counted, not minutes, so a long useful conversation costs the same as a short one.
Questions people ask about this list
Can it wake the on-call tech?
Every vendor here that offers live transfer can, though Rosie gates it to the $149 tier. The rules are yours: which job types are urgent, who is on call, and what the caller hears if the transfer fails.
What does a freeze week cost?
On our Starter plan, $49 covers 200 answered calls and each additional one is $0.45. Six hundred calls in a week is $49 plus $180, and robocalls and very short calls don't count toward that. Run the same sum with any vendor's published overage rate before you compare headline prices.
Does it help with the diagnostic questions?
It asks the questions you set, in order, and puts the answers in the transcript and summary. Your tech reads the noise, the smell and the location before the van leaves. The diagnosis stays with the plumber.
Why is GreetKeeper first on a list it wrote?
Because the first sentence to a flooding caller is the whole game, and our plan scripts it and transfers on the same $49 tier. A freeze week is priced in advance at $0.45 a call past the allowance.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.