Legal answering services: when a firm should still pay for people
Legal answering services split into two columns, and this page is about the spending decision between them: whether a firm should pay for a person to answer, or whether software does the same job for a twentieth of the money.
We sit at the top of the software column, and the arithmetic is why. Ruby's entry plan is $250 a month for 50 minutes, which is $3,000 a year for roughly ten to twelve intake conversations a month. Ours is $49 for 200 answered calls, with consultations booked and the overage printed. That is the comparison this page exists to make.
For a lot of firms it genuinely is, and the reason is not service quality in the abstract. It is that a distressed caller in the first thirty seconds of an intake call is a moment where a person outperforms software by a margin that does not show up in any feature comparison.
Where it is not worth paying: routine inquiries, scheduling, out-of-hours capture, and any matter type where the caller is calm and comparing firms. That work is well served by software, and paying human rates for it is how firms end up with a bill they resent.
How this was put together
Compared in September 2026 on whether a human answering the phone earns its cost, by the team behind one of the entries.
What we compared
- The annual cost of each option at a realistic intake volume, not the headline monthly price.
- Who actually answers: the vendor's staff, your staff, or software.
- Whether the vendor can cover only part of the day, so you pay human rates only where they matter.
- Published price, allowance and overage rate.
What we could not test
- Whether callers form a better impression of a firm from a human voice, which plainly varies by matter type and which we have no fair way to measure.
- The consistency of any human team across shifts and weekends, which is the real question about a staffed service.
- Whether a hybrid split actually saves money in practice, since that depends on a call mix nobody publishes.
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 |
| 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 |
| Ruby | per minute | $250/mo for 50 minutes | Not published on their pricing page |
| AnswerConnect | per minute | Does not publish pricing | Does not publish pricing |
| Abby Connect | per minute (half-rate AI) | Starter $165/mo for 50 Abby Minutes | Not published; one Abby Minute buys two minutes of AI handling |
| Rosie | per minute | Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes | Not published |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
The software column's floor price, with consultations booked and nothing legal-specific about it.
Worth it for: A firm doing the sum in the verdict above: out-of-hours inquiries captured and consultations booked for $588 a year rather than $3,000, with the AI disclosure available for the Utah rule.
Not for: Firms needing Clio or MyCase writes, which we do not have. Firms needing references, which do not exist. We claim no confidentiality certification of any kind, publish no uptime figure, and handle English only.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Smith.ai
Built for this vertical, with the integrations and the fallback to match.
Worth it for: Any firm running Clio or MyCase that wants intake written into it, with a person available for the call that needs one.
Not for: A solo practitioner testing the idea, where $150 a month is a real commitment before any evidence exists.
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.
Ruby
A person answers, which for some firms is the whole product.
Worth it for: Firms with low volume and high matter value, where the first impression is part of the pitch.
Not for: High intake volume. 50 minutes at $250 covers very few intake calls, and the overage rate is not published.
Charges per minute. Entry plan $250/mo for 50 minutes. After the allowance: Not published on their pricing page.
AnswerConnect
Established human cover around the clock, with pricing behind a form.
Worth it for: Firms wanting 24/7 human answering from a long-running operator.
Not for: Comparing published numbers, and short calls, given billing that rounds up to the minute.
AnswerConnect does not publish its rates, so the cost is whatever the sales call produces.
Abby Connect
One plan covering humans and AI, useful for a firm changing its mix.
Worth it for: A firm moving intake gradually from people to software without renegotiating anything.
Not for: Tight budgets at $165 entry, with no published overage rate.
Charges per minute (half-rate AI). Entry plan Starter $165/mo for 50 Abby Minutes. After the allowance: Not published; one Abby Minute buys two minutes of AI handling.
Rosie
The cheapest coverage, with booking and transfer gated.
Worth it for: A firm that wants out-of-hours inquiries captured and will call back itself.
Not for: Booking consultations or transferring a distressed caller at the entry price, both of which start at $149.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes. After the allowance: Not published.
The split most firms should actually buy
The answer for a large number of firms is neither column outright. People on the main line during business hours, when the distressed caller is most likely to ring and when a partner might want to take the call personally. Software after five and at weekends, when the alternative is voicemail rather than a person.
That split is what Abby Connect prices for explicitly, with one currency covering both, and it is what Smith.ai approximates with a human team behind the AI. Either is cheaper than staffing humans around the clock and better than sending every evening caller to a machine.
And if your intake volume is genuinely low, neither column may earn its keep. A partner's mobile, answered reliably, has closed more matters than any vendor on this page. Not every firm has a phone problem that costs $3,000 a year to solve.
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 run a conflict check?
No. It can collect the names a check needs and put them in front of you. Any vendor implying software performs the check is overselling.
Which integrates with Clio?
Smith.ai, natively, along with MyCase. We do not, and we would rather write that plainly here than describe our integrations loosely.
Does the Utah AI rule apply to lawyers?
Law is a state-licensed occupation, and Utah's AI Policy Act requires licensed occupations to disclose prominently and verbally at the start. Ask each vendor whether their assistant can do that.
Why is GreetKeeper first on a list it wrote?
Because this page is a spending comparison, and $588 a year against $3,000 is the cheapest way to cover out-of-hours intake with booking attached. On practice-management integration and on having a human answer, Smith.ai and Ruby beat us plainly. We have no customers, no reviews and no history.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.