Virtual receptionist services, human and AI, compared
We rank first on cost of coverage. Our Starter is $49 for 200 answered calls with booking included, against $250 for 50 minutes at the cheapest human service here. What you give up is a human voice, and for some businesses that voice is the entire product. Decide which you are buying before you read further.
If virtual receptionist means a person to you, Ruby is the benchmark and the price reflects it: from $250 a month for 50 minutes, with two decades of operating history behind it. Some callers can tell.
Abby Connect prices human and AI in one currency, and an Abby Minute buys two minutes of AI, so shifting the mix never means changing plan. Entry is $165 for 50 Abby Minutes.
Smith.ai runs AI first with real people behind it, at $150 a month for Pro covering 75 to 300 calls. We employ nobody, so our fallback is your own team.
How this was put together
Compared in September 2026 on who answers, what it costs and what you give up either way, by the team behind one of the entries.
What we compared
- Whether a human or software answers, and what the vendor does when the first choice cannot help.
- Published entry price and what the allowance buys in real conversations.
- The overage rate where the vendor publishes one.
- Whether booking is included at the entry tier.
What we could not test
- Whether callers notice or mind the difference, which varies by industry and by caller and which we have no fair way to measure.
- The consistency of any human team across shifts, which is the real question about a human service.
- Voice quality across the AI options, 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 |
| Ruby | per minute | $250/mo for 50 minutes | Not published on their pricing page |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| AnswerConnect | per minute | Does not publish pricing | Does not publish pricing |
| Rosie | per minute | Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes | Not published |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
No humans at all, at a fraction of the price, with booking included.
Worth it for: A business that needs the phone covered and appointments booked rather than a human voice, and wants the overage rate in advance.
Not for: Anyone for whom a person answering is the point. We employ no receptionists, so the fallback is your team. No customers, reviews or operating history, no certifications, no uptime figure, and English only at launch.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Ruby
The established human option, and the reason the category has the name it does.
Worth it for: A firm or practice where a person answering the first call is part of how the business presents itself, and volume is low enough to afford it.
Not for: Volume on a budget. 50 minutes at $250 is a handful of real conversations, and the overage rate is not on the pricing page.
Charges per minute. Entry plan $250/mo for 50 minutes. After the allowance: Not published on their pricing page.
Abby Connect
Human and AI in one plan, priced in a single currency.
Worth it for: A business that wants people on the main line and software on overflow, without two contracts or a migration to change the balance.
Not for: Small 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.
Smith.ai
AI first with a human team behind it, and real depth in legal.
Worth it for: Firms that want intake captured into Clio or MyCase with a person available for the call that needs one.
Not for: Businesses with no need for practice-management integration, who are paying for depth they will not use.
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.
AnswerConnect
Long-established human answering, with pricing behind a form.
Worth it for: Round-the-clock human cover from an operator with a long record, where you are content to price it on a call.
Not for: Published comparison, and short calls, given per-minute billing that rounds up.
AnswerConnect does not publish its rates, so the cost is whatever the sales call produces.
Rosie
AI-only at the lowest credible price, with the usual gate.
Worth it for: Basic coverage and accurate messages on a small budget.
Not for: Booking or live transfer 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.
When neither is the answer
If your front desk is failing because it is understaffed during business hours, the fix may be a rota rather than a vendor. A virtual receptionist covers hours nobody is there and calls that arrive while your person is busy. It does not replace someone who knows your regulars.
If you need someone to handle a negotiation, read a situation or make a judgment with money attached, none of the AI options is that and the human ones are expensive for a reason.
And if your calls are predictable and low in number, a good voicemail message with a genuine callback commitment does most of this for nothing. That is an unpopular thing for a vendor to write and it is true for a real slice of small businesses.
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
Is a virtual receptionist a person or software?
Both, depending on the vendor, which is exactly why the term causes confusion. Ruby and AnswerConnect are people. Rosie, Dialzara and we are software. Smith.ai and Abby Connect are deliberately both.
Can callers tell the difference?
Some can, and that is why we do not describe our assistant as indistinguishable from a person. It is also the condition Maine's disclosure law makes actionable, which is worth reading about before buying on that promise.
Which is cheaper over a year?
AI, usually by a wide margin. Ruby's entry plan alone is $3,000 a year for 50 minutes a month. Our Starter is $588 a year for 200 answered calls a month. That gap buys a lot of the human service's advantages elsewhere.
Why is GreetKeeper first on a list it wrote?
Because coverage per dollar is what most buyers of this category are actually after, and $49 for 200 answered calls with booking is the cheapest published way to get it. On the question of whether a person answers, every human service here beats us outright. We have no customers and no reviews either.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.