Smith.ai alternatives: five receptionist services and what they charge

Smith.ai alternatives at a glance

Five Smith.ai alternatives are Ruby and AnswerConnect, which use live receptionists, and My AI Front Desk, Rosie and Upfirst, which answer with an AI. For comparison, Smith.ai's human Starter plan is $300 a month for 30 calls, and its AI receptionist has a Free tier of 25 calls a month, as read on October 23, 2026.

Each service counts usage in its own unit: Ruby and Rosie bill minutes, Smith.ai and Upfirst bill calls, and My AI Front Desk bills voice minutes, the minutes its receptionist spends on phone calls and website voice chats.

Ruby and AnswerConnect: other live receptionist services

Ruby sells live receptionists by the minute: $250 a month for 50 minutes, $395 for 100 and $720 for 200. It counts hold time, rounds each call up to the next 60 seconds and prints no rate for minutes over the plan. Smith.ai vs Ruby sets the two live services side by side.

AnswerConnect also answers with live receptionists on monthly plans built around minutes. Its pricing page is a registration form, so its price is by quote. If Ruby is the service you are leaving, Ruby receptionist alternatives covers that move.

My AI Front Desk and Rosie: an AI on a monthly plan

My AI Front Desk has one self-serve plan, Business-in-a-Box, at $99 a month billed monthly or $79 a month billed annually. It includes 200 voice minutes, 400 texts and 100 chatbot conversations. An extra voice minute costs 25 credits at one cent a credit ($0.25), drawn from a monthly pool of 1,000 credits that covers about 40 more minutes.

A Hot Transfer sends an urgent caller to your team with a spoken summary and backup numbers; a Cold Transfer has neither. The vendor sizes the plan for 1 to 10 interactions a day. The pricing page offers a 7-day free trial, not a permanent free plan. The terms say usage fees still apply during it and that, if you continue, the subscription starts automatically and the payment method you provided is charged. Read the sign-up screen for card details.

Rosie Professional is $49 a month for 250 minutes, billed in 60-second steps with each call rounded up. Calendar booking and warm or live transfers start on Scale, $149 a month for 1,000 minutes. Rosie lists a 7-day free trial on every plan.

Upfirst: an AI billed by the call, as Smith.ai bills

Upfirst Starter is $24.95 a month for 30 calls, then $1.50 for each additional call. Its Annual toggle shows $20 a month, with no yearly total on the page. It does not bill calls under 15 seconds or calls where the caller never speaks, and it lists a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.

Smith.ai treats spam by plan. Its human plans do not charge for spam when the forwarded line passes Caller ID, while its AI receptionist counts every answered call toward the quota by default, with an allowance to remove up to 10% of calls for selected spam.

When Smith.ai is still the better fit

Pick Smith.ai when a person must answer. A human Starter call at 2 am costs the same as one at 2 pm, and each call over 30 is $11.50. Hybrid presets start at $2.50 a call, and After Hours Only, from $3.70 a call, puts the AI on after-hours calls and live agents on daytime calls.

Smith.ai's page says all plans include a 30-day money-back guarantee and leaves overage calls out of it. My AI Front Desk's terms say refunds are generally not provided. My AI Front Desk vs Smith.ai compares the two line by line.

• Ruby or AnswerConnect to keep live receptionists, Ruby billed by the minute.
• My AI Front Desk for an AI on a monthly plan that adds texts and chat, at 1 to 10 interactions a day.
• Rosie for 250 minutes at $49 a month.
• Upfirst to keep paying by the call.