Answering services for a small business, priced honestly
For a small business the deciding question is usually whether booking is included, because taking a message and booking an appointment are different products at similar prices. Rosie's $49 plan takes messages. Booking starts at $149. Our $49 plan books, and that gap is why we lead this page.
If you are testing whether any of this helps, Smith.ai's free tier costs $0 for 25 calls, and Dialzara's $29 plan is the cheapest paid entry.
If you have real volume but a small budget, compare overage rates rather than headlines, and treat an unpublished rate as a risk. Dialzara publishes on every tier. Goodcall publishes $0.50 per additional unique customer. We publish $0.45, $0.35 and $0.25.
And if you take under about thirty calls a month, the honest answer is that a clear voicemail greeting and a fast callback habit will cover most of it. That is a strange thing for us to write and it is true.
How this was put together
Compared in September 2026 on what a small budget actually buys, by the team behind one of the entries.
What we compared
- The entry price and what the allowance covers in real conversations rather than in minutes.
- Whether appointment booking is included at that price.
- The overage rate, since a small business feels a surprise bill more than a large one.
- Setup cost, where a vendor charges one.
What we could not test
- Whether a small business gets the same service as a large account at any of these vendors.
- How each handles the first month, which is when most cancellations happen and which no vendor publishes.
- Call quality, since we have run no controlled comparison.
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 |
| 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 |
| Goodcall | per unique caller | Starter $79/mo ($66 annual) for 100 unique customers | $0.50 per additional unique customer, published |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
Booking at the entry price and an overage rate you can multiply.
Worth it for: A small business where the value of a call is the appointment it becomes, and where an unexpected bill would genuinely hurt.
Not for: Anyone who needs to see it working somewhere else first. There are no customers and no reviews to look at, which on a small budget is a fair reason to pick an established vendor. No certifications, no uptime figure, English only.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Rosie
The cheapest credible plan for taking messages properly.
Worth it for: A small business that wants calls answered and details captured accurately, and will do its own callbacks and booking.
Not for: Anyone buying this to fill a calendar, since booking and live transfer both start at $149. The unpublished overage rate is a real risk on a small budget.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes. After the allowance: Not published.
Dialzara
The lowest paid entry, with the rates on the page.
Worth it for: Very low volume, or a business whose callers speak Spanish, at $29 a month.
Not for: Growth. Sixty minutes goes quickly, and the plan above it is $99 for 220 minutes.
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
Free for 25 calls, then priced for a larger business.
Worth it for: Testing the category on your real calls without spending anything.
Not for: Staying on the free tier, where calls past 25 are $3.00 each. The next step is $150 a month.
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.
Goodcall
Cheaper than it looks if your customers ring more than once.
Worth it for: Trades where one job produces several calls from the same person, at $79 for 100 unique customers with uncapped minutes.
Not for: Businesses where nearly every caller is new, and anyone running more than one number, since each number is a priced agent.
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.
When a small business should not buy this
Under roughly thirty calls a month, the arithmetic stops working. A clear voicemail greeting that promises a callback within the hour, kept reliably, holds most of the value for nothing. We would rather say that than sell a $49 plan to someone who does not need one.
If your calls are mostly existing customers rather than new inquiries, the cost of a missed call is much lower than the marketing in this category implies. A regular customer calls back. A stranger does not.
And check your call log for spam before you buy anything. Paying a per-call meter to answer robocalls is a quiet and common waste.
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
What is the cheapest that actually books appointments?
Ours at $49 for 200 answered calls, as far as we can see from published pricing in September 2026. Rosie's booking tier is $149 and Smith.ai's Pro is $150. If another vendor books at a lower published price, we would want to know.
Are there setup fees?
We charge none. AnswerConnect is reported to charge around $49.99, though since they gate pricing that figure is third-party and should be confirmed with them.
What counts as a billable call?
Ask every vendor this in writing, including us. Whether a hang-up during the greeting, a wrong number or a straight transfer counts as billable differs between vendors and it adds up.
Why should a small business trust a new vendor?
On service quality, it should not, and we would not ask it to. What a small business can check is the published price, the published overage rate and the integration matrix. Those are verifiable without trusting anyone.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.