The best AI receptionist for small business
Seven AI-only receptionists, judged on what happens during the call — booking, languages, hand-off, the summary you get afterwards — and on what a month of real calls costs. Each price is quoted from the provider’s own pricing page, and handlo is our product.
An AI receptionist picks up your business line in your name, talks with the caller the way a front-desk person would, and leaves you a written record of what they wanted. The seven products in this guide do that with software alone — no call-centre staff behind the AI — so live answering services are left out on purpose. On the call itself, the differences between them are smaller than their marketing suggests. On the invoice they are larger than you would expect: one bills per call, one per unique customer, several per minute, and two keep features such as calendar booking or included talk time on a higher tier. So this guide does two things. It puts each provider’s cheapest published plan in one sourced table, and it walks through the six checks that decide whether an AI receptionist actually works for a small business — then credits each provider with the situation where it is the better buy.
handlo is $49/mo for 300 minutes, with Google Calendar booking and a written call brief on WhatsApp, SMS or email included on that entry plan — and overage stays off until you switch it on.
Each competitor’s own pricing page was read on July 26, 2026; where one publishes no price, we say so rather than estimate. Figures may have changed since — check their site.
Seven AI receptionists by published price
Ordered by each provider’s cheapest published monthly plan, lowest first; where two plans cost the same, the one with more included minutes comes first.
| Provider | Cheapest plan | Included on that plan | Who answers | Where it wins | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.aiSource | $0/mo | 25 AI-answered calls a month, then $3.00 per call | AI; human-answered plans sold separately | Costs nothing at 25 calls a month or fewer. | Billed per call, so many short calls add up quickly. |
| My AI Front DeskSource | $20/mo | No voice minutes; voice billed at $0.25/min | AI | Lowest base subscription in this guide. | Talk time is extra, so 300 minutes costs about $95. |
| DialzaraSource | $29/mo | 60 minutes a month, then $0.48/min | AI | Cheapest plan here that includes any minutes. | 300 minutes on the entry plan comes to about $144. |
| handloSource | $49/mo | 300 minutes a month; overage $0.29/min, off unless you opt in | AI | Calendar booking and the call brief are on the entry plan. | No human receptionists; live transfer on US, Canadian and UK numbers only. |
| RosieSource | $49/mo | 250 minutes a month (Professional) | AI | Scale tier: 1,000 minutes for $149/mo. | Calendar booking listed on Scale, not the entry plan; overage rate not published. |
| GoodcallSource | $79/mo per agent | Unlimited minutes; 100 unique customers a month, then $0.50 each | AI | No minute allowance to run out of. | Each extra phone number is another subscription; no free trial published. |
| Abby ConnectSource | $99/mo | Up to 50 minutes a month (AI Starter) | AI; human receptionist plans sold separately | Same provider sells a dedicated human team if you outgrow AI. | Highest AI entry price here; overage rate not published. |
Disclosure: handlo publishes this guide, so read the handlo row as the vendor describing itself. The order is set by published price rather than our judgement — re-check it from the source links — and three competitors come out cheaper than us on that rule.
Pricing as of July 26, 2026. Providers reprice, so open the source link before you buy.
handlo
Our pickMost minutes at or under $49/mo, with booking on the entry planBuilt for an owner who is with a customer when the phone rings. It answers in your business’s name, answers callers’ questions from your website or the documents you upload, books into Google Calendar while the caller is still on the line, and sends a structured brief to WhatsApp, SMS or email when the call ends. It speaks 32 languages, replies in the one the caller uses, and tells callers it is an AI assistant. The limits are real: there is no staffed fallback behind it, and live call transfer to your own number works on US, Canadian and UK numbers.
Pricing: $49/mo month-to-month for 300 minutes (or $470 billed yearly); Growth $109/mo for 800 minutes; overage $0.29/min, off until you enable it, with a cap you set; 14-day free trial
Smith.ai
Free AI plan for a quiet lineSmith.ai counts calls, not minutes, and its AI receptionist has a free plan that covers 25 calls a month. That makes it a zero-cost way to put an AI on your line while you find out how many calls you have actually been missing. Past 25, each call is $3.00, and the paid Pro plan is $150/mo. The other reason to choose it: the same company sells human-answered plans, so moving up to people later does not mean changing provider.
Pricing: AI plan $0/mo for 25 calls, then $3.00 per call; Pro $150/mo; human-answered plans from $300/mo for 30 calls (smith.ai, verified July 26, 2026)
Compare handlo vs Smith.ai in detailMy AI Front Desk
Lowest monthly base feeIts $20/mo Basic plan is the cheapest subscription in this guide, but treat it as a platform fee: it includes no voice minutes, and talk time is billed at $0.25/min on top. For a line that rings a few times a week that is a good deal. Around 115 voice minutes a month the per-minute charges catch up with a flat plan, and 300 minutes on Basic comes to about $95. Its Business-in-a-Box plan bundles 200 voice minutes, and there is a 7-day trial.
Pricing: Basic $20/mo with no included voice minutes, voice at $0.25/min; Business-in-a-Box $99/mo for 200 minutes (myaifrontdesk.com, verified July 26, 2026)
Compare handlo vs My AI Front Desk in detailDialzara
Cheapest plan that includes minutesSelf-serve and quick to set up, with 60 receptionist minutes in the $29/mo plan. That allowance is the number to model: it is roughly two minutes a day, and every minute past it is $0.48/min, so 300 minutes in a month on the entry plan comes to about $144. Below about 100 minutes a month Dialzara is usually a smaller bill than handlo; above that, the per-minute rate decides it. A 7-day trial lets you hear it on your own calls first.
Pricing: $29/mo for 60 minutes, then $0.48/min; $99/mo for 220 minutes; 7-day trial (dialzara.com, verified July 26, 2026)
Compare handlo vs Dialzara in detailRosie
Big jump in minutes on its second tierThe same $49/mo entry price as handlo, with 250 minutes and a 7-day trial — the product we would tell you to trial side by side with ours. Two details decide it. Calendar appointment booking is listed on the $149/mo Scale tier rather than the entry plan, so if booking is why you are buying, price Scale. And Rosie publishes no per-minute overage rate, so a month that runs past 250 minutes cannot be costed in advance. At around 1,000 minutes a month, though, Scale costs less than handlo’s nearest option.
Pricing: Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes; Scale $149/mo for 1,000 minutes; overage rate not published; 7-day trial (heyrosie.com, verified July 26, 2026)
Compare handlo vs Rosie in detailGoodcall
Long conversations with a small customer baseThe only AI receptionist here whose plans include unlimited minutes, so a customer who wants to talk for twenty minutes costs nothing extra. The meter sits on people instead: the Starter plan covers 100 unique customers a month, and each one after that is $0.50 — 250 distinct people in a month comes to $154. Each agent is its own subscription, so a second phone number means a second plan, and no free trial is published.
Pricing: From $79/mo per agent, unlimited minutes, 100 unique customers a month then $0.50 each (goodcall.com, verified July 26, 2026)
Compare handlo vs Goodcall in detailAbby Connect
A route from AI to a dedicated human teamAbby Connect is known for small teams of human receptionists and now sells an AI receptionist alongside them. Its AI plans start at $99/mo for up to 50 minutes — the highest entry price in this guide — and rise to $690/mo for up to 500, with a 14-day trial; no overage rate is published. The case for it is the ladder: if you expect to want trained people answering later, its human plans start at $329/mo for up to 100 minutes, from the same provider.
Pricing: AI plans $99/mo for up to 50 minutes to $690/mo for up to 500; human plans from $329/mo; 14-day trial on the AI plans (abby.com, verified July 26, 2026)
Compare handlo vs Abby Connect in detail
Six checks before you choose an AI receptionist
Feature lists for AI receptionists read almost identically, so they are a poor way to choose. These are the six places we have found the products actually differ for a small business — each one something you can test on a trial call or read off a pricing page in a few minutes.
1. How it handles a question it cannot answer
Ring it during a trial and ask what your customers really ask — prices, opening hours, whether you cover their area. Listen for three things: whether it answers from your own website and documents rather than generic filler, whether the caller can interrupt it naturally, and what it does when it does not know. Taking a message is fine; inventing an answer is not. Every product in this guide has a trial or a free plan except Goodcall, which publishes no trial.
2. Booking while the caller is still on the line
An AI receptionist earns its keep when the caller hangs up with an appointment rather than a promise of a callback. Ask which calendar it writes to, whether it reads the time back to the caller, and — the step most people skip — which plan the feature is on. Rosie lists calendar booking on its $149/mo Scale tier rather than its entry plan; handlo includes Google Calendar booking on its $49/mo plan.
3. The languages your callers speak
If some of your customers would rather not speak English, this is the check that matters most and the one marketing pages blur. handlo speaks 32 languages and replies in the caller’s language. Other providers describe language support in different ways, sometimes plan by plan, so find the list for the plan you would buy and then place a test call in that language — a language being supported and the AI being fluent in it are not the same thing.
4. What reaches you after the call
The call is half the job; the other half is the message you get afterwards. Look for a structured summary — who called, what they want, how urgent it is, and the number to call back — delivered somewhere you will read it within minutes, not a raw transcript in a dashboard you open on Fridays. handlo sends its brief to WhatsApp, SMS or email; most of the others here deliver summaries through their own app and by email.
5. The billing unit, and what a busy month costs
These seven bill on three different units: minutes (handlo, Dialzara, Rosie, My AI Front Desk, Abby Connect), calls (Smith.ai) and unique customers (Goodcall). The cheapest sticker price is often not the cheapest month. At 300 minutes, handlo is $49/mo, My AI Front Desk’s Basic plan comes to about $95 and Dialzara’s entry plan to about $144. Rosie and Abby Connect publish no overage rate, so on those two a month that runs over its allowance cannot be priced from the pricing page.
6. Getting a person when it matters
Every product here is AI-first, so ask what happens when a caller insists on a human. Can it transfer a live call to your phone, and what happens if you do not pick up? handlo transfers on US, Canadian and UK numbers to a number you set and takes a message if nobody answers. If you would rather the person on the other end worked for the provider, Smith.ai and Abby Connect both sell human-answered plans as well.
How we ranked these
What the table measures and what it does not. It answers one question — what is each provider’s cheapest published monthly plan? — and is ordered by that number, lowest first, with ties going to the plan with more included minutes. On that rule three competitors rank above handlo on price, and you can re-check the order from the source links. Every competitor figure was read off the provider’s own pricing page on July 26, 2026; where a provider does not publish a number, the table says so instead of estimating one. The cost-at-volume figures in the write-ups are arithmetic on those published rates and nothing more. The six checks above are where we think AI receptionists differ in practice, but we deliberately did not score providers against them — scores on criteria we picked would only restate our own opinion with numbers attached. The guide covers AI-first products only; services staffed by live receptionists are compared in our separate answering-service roundup. handlo is listed first because this is our page, not because it won an independent test, and each competitor is credited with the situation in which it is the better buy.
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Don’t let the next call reach voicemail.
If you don’t capture a missed call in the first 48 hours, just cancel — we’d be surprised.