AI receptionists for salons, where booking is the whole job
For a salon the comparison collapses to one question: does it book, at the price you can pay? Everything else is secondary, because a caller who wanted an appointment and got a message has not been served. Rosie's $49 plan takes messages and its booking tier is $149. Ours books at $49, which is why we lead here.
The complication specific to this trade is service duration. A cut is not a color is not a full-day treatment, and a booking system that offers a generic slot will produce a schedule nobody can work. Whatever you buy, the setup work is teaching it your service list and durations, and that is the same effort with every vendor.
Salon calls are often short, so check what the cheap plans actually do. Rosie's 250 minutes at $49 take messages; its booking starts at $149. Our 200 answered calls at $49 book every one of those rebookings.
If clients book with a named stylist, give each stylist a calendar the assistant can see. GreetKeeper books into that calendar and reads the name, number and time back before it confirms.
How this was put together
Compared in September 2026 on booking behavior specifically, by the team behind one of the entries.
What we compared
- Whether appointment booking is included at the entry price.
- How each handles services of different durations.
- Whether a booking can be tied to a particular staff member.
- Price and overage against a call mix that skews short.
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 |
| Rosie | per minute | Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes | Not published |
| Goodcall | per unique caller | Starter $79/mo ($66 annual) for 100 unique customers | $0.50 per additional unique customer, published |
| Dialzara | per minute | Business Lite $29/mo for 60 minutes | Published on every tier, from $0.48 a minute down to $0.35 |
| 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 |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
Booking on the entry plan, which for this trade is the feature that decides it.
Worth it for: A salon that wants a color, a cut and a full-day treatment each booked to their own duration at $49, with a published rate for a busy Saturday.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Rosie
Per-minute pricing with 250 minutes, if you pay for the booking tier.
Worth it for: A salon whose calls are brief and frequent, where 250 minutes covers a lot of two-minute conversations.
Not for: The $49 plan, which does not book. For a salon that gate removes the reason to buy, so budget for $149.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes. After the allowance: Not published.
Goodcall
Regular clients who ring often are one unit rather than many.
Worth it for: A salon with a loyal client base that calls frequently, since uncapped minutes and unique-caller billing reward exactly that.
Not for: A salon running more than one number, or one whose callers are mostly 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.
Dialzara
The cheapest way to stop the phone ringing out mid-appointment.
Worth it for: A small salon or single-chair operation with a quiet phone.
Not for: A busy salon. Sixty minutes is one Saturday morning.
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.
Smith.ai
More service than most salons need, at a price to match.
Worth it for: A larger group where a human fallback justifies $150 a month.
Not for: An independent salon, where the same money buys a lot of chair time and the human depth is aimed at other industries.
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.
When online booking is the better purchase
A substantial share of salon clients would rather book on a screen than talk to anyone, and if your online booking is weak, fixing that may capture more appointments than answering the phone better. The two are not competing purchases, but one of them is often much further behind.
If your calls are mostly existing clients rebooking, consider whether a reminder-and-rebook message at the end of the appointment does more work than a phone assistant does. That is a chairside habit rather than software.
And if clients book by stylist rather than by service, set that up first. It is the most common salon booking pattern, so run it in your demo with a real stylist's calendar connected.
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 book with a specific stylist?
Yes, when each stylist's diary is a calendar it can see. It books into the calendar you connect, Google Calendar or Outlook, and reads the name, number and time back to the client before confirming.
Does it know a color takes longer than a cut?
If you tell it during setup. Service durations are configuration rather than intelligence, and skipping that step produces a schedule that does not work.
Why is GreetKeeper first on a list it wrote?
Because booking is the entire job in a salon, and $49 is the cheapest published plan that does it with service durations respected. The assistant also answers calls that arrive together, so Saturday morning never rings out.
Can it handle a cancellation?
It takes the cancellation, captures the client's name and the appointment, and sends it to you in the summary. Set a rule for late cancellations, such as a transfer to the front desk, and it follows it every time.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.