1. Vocapable with your own Twilio account
The same receptionist on your own verified Twilio account: a lower subscription, and Twilio bills your number and carrier minutes directly.
See Vocapable pricing →Best of · answering service alternatives
Alternatives to an
answering service, priced.
A live answering service bills a person’s minutes. This page prices the same month of eighty short calls on nine AI receptionists, beside the published plans of two human services, so the saving is a figure rather than a promise.
Published by Vocapable · Vendor prices checked October 13, 2026 to October 18, 2026 · Latest check
Ranked by one month of calls: short daily calls
80 calls, 240 minutes, 80 unique callers. Eighty three-minute calls is two hundred and forty minutes of answering, a month that sits squarely inside the human services’ published allowances and so can be priced on both sides. Lowest modeled monthly total first; a service whose published prices cannot cover the month is listed last with the reason.
| Rank | Provider | Modeled month | Billing unit | Where it fits for a business paying for, or quoting, a live answering service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vocapable with your own Twilio account | $39Starter; plus your Twilio bill | AI minutes a month | The same receptionist on your own verified Twilio account: a lower subscription, and Twilio bills your number and carrier minutes directly. |
| 2 | Rosie | $49Professional within allowance; overage alternative not verified | Minutes a month | The same entry price and allowance as Vocapable’s managed Starter; message taking on the entry plan and extra-minute pricing not verified. |
| 3 | Vocapable, US local number included | $49Starter; one standard US local number; no transfer or non-AI time | AI minutes a month | A published allowance of AI minutes, a US local number included, answers only from information you approve, and a configured transfer to a person with a fallback when nobody answers. It does not exercise judgment; it captures the request and gets it to someone who can. |
| 4 | Upfirst | $59.95Premium | Calls a month | The lowest paid entry price here, billed by calls, with warm transfers and several front-desk actions advertised on the entry plan. |
| 5 | Goodcall | $79Starter | Unique callers a month | Bills unique callers rather than minutes, which favours repeat callers and long conversations over many new callers. |
| 6 | My AI Front Desk | $99Monthly; shared credit pool used only for voice; includes reload blocks | Minutes a month | A bundle of voice, chat, messaging and CRM with a shared credit pool; worth it when the other channels replace tools you pay for. |
| 7 | Dialzara | $108 voice subtotalBusiness Pro; confirm number charges and extra-minute funding | Minutes a month | A low entry allowance billed by connected talk time; the number charge and extra-minute funding need confirming before a total is reliable. |
| 8 | RingCentral | $119Standalone with published overage; minute bundles may be cheaper | Minutes a month | An answering service replacement that lives inside a phone system your staff already use, if that system is RingEX. |
| 9 | Smith.ai | $162.50Pro 75 | Calls a month | Sells human escalation alongside the AI plan, which makes it the natural halfway house for a business leaving a live service. |
| n/a | Phonely | Confirm quotePaid cards and detailed allowance table conflict | Minutes a month | A supplied number and a free 100-minute allowance every month; its paid tables disagree with each other, so a busier month needs the allowance confirmed. |
What people answering costs on the same month
| Service | People answering | Its AI tier, by calls | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby | $1,725500 receptionist minutes; receptionist minutes assumed equal to call minutes | Not sold | |
| Moneypenny (VoiceNation) | $517.60200 minutes, people answering; receptionist minutes assumed equal to call minutes | $170.7050 calls, AI answering; human escalation needs a human plan as well |
The honest comparison is not "AI is cheaper than people". It is this month, on these plans, with these units: a human service rounds each call up to the next 30 or 60 seconds of a receptionist’s time; an AI receptionist meters seconds or counts calls. The two tables below show both.
The ranking is published by Vocapable from each vendor’s own pricing page on the date shown. Fit notes are editorial. A human service can exercise judgment an AI receptionist cannot; the question is whether your calls need it and what you pay for it when they do not.
Each provider, in a sentence or two
2. Rosie
The same entry price and allowance as Vocapable’s managed Starter; message taking on the entry plan and extra-minute pricing not verified.
Read the Vocapable vs Rosie comparison →3. Vocapable, US local number included
A published allowance of AI minutes, a US local number included, answers only from information you approve, and a configured transfer to a person with a fallback when nobody answers. It does not exercise judgment; it captures the request and gets it to someone who can.
See Vocapable pricing →4. Upfirst
The lowest paid entry price here, billed by calls, with warm transfers and several front-desk actions advertised on the entry plan.
Read the Vocapable vs Upfirst comparison →5. Goodcall
Bills unique callers rather than minutes, which favours repeat callers and long conversations over many new callers.
Read the Vocapable vs Goodcall comparison →6. My AI Front Desk
A bundle of voice, chat, messaging and CRM with a shared credit pool; worth it when the other channels replace tools you pay for.
Read the Vocapable vs My AI Front Desk comparison →7. Dialzara
A low entry allowance billed by connected talk time; the number charge and extra-minute funding need confirming before a total is reliable.
Read the Vocapable vs Dialzara comparison →8. RingCentral
An answering service replacement that lives inside a phone system your staff already use, if that system is RingEX.
Read the Vocapable vs RingCentral comparison →9. Smith.ai
Sells human escalation alongside the AI plan, which makes it the natural halfway house for a business leaving a live service.
Read the Vocapable vs Smith.ai comparison →Phonely
A supplied number and a free 100-minute allowance every month; its paid tables disagree with each other, so a busier month needs the allowance confirmed.
Read the Vocapable vs Phonely comparison →How we ranked
Every provider is priced on the same month using the lowest published plan that covers it, plus that plan’s overage where the vendor publishes one. Calls are equal length and sequential, with no transfer or waiting time, one number, and no taxes or optional services. The method, the scenarios and the sources are the ones in the cheapest-receptionist guide, and each vendor comparison page carries the vendor’s own source with its checked date.
This is a first-party list published by Vocapable. We have not run an independent call-quality, reliability or support benchmark, and a lower modeled cost is not a claim that a service answers better. Send a correction with the source if a price has moved.
Questions about this list
What does a live answering service cost?
The two services priced here publish plans by receptionist minutes: Ruby from $250 a month for 50 minutes with an unpublished overage rate, and Moneypenny from $165 for 50 minutes with published extra-minute rates. Both include a number. Their minute counting rules are in the sources.
Is an AI receptionist a like-for-like replacement?
Not entirely. A person can decide; an AI receptionist answers from approved information and hands the rest to your team. For calls that are mostly questions, messages and transfers, that is the whole job. For calls that need judgment on the line, keep a person reachable.
How were the human figures modeled?
The lowest published plan that covers the month’s minutes, treating a receptionist minute as a minute of call time. Real bills round each call up and count hold and wrap-up time, so the human figures are floors, not totals.
Hear Vocapable answer before you decide.
Set up from your website, review every answer, and keep your existing number.