Answering Service Care alternatives and pricing

The short answer

Answering Service Care’s live plans run from $40 a month pay as you go at $1.75 a minute to $639 for 500 minutes, in whole minutes including post-call work, plus a one-time $50 setup fee. Software plans start at $25. PATLive, MAP Communications and Moneypenny are other live options, Smith.ai bills per call, and CoveDesk is a voice assistant our team runs.

The plan price isn’t the whole bill at Answering Service Care: there’s a one-time setup fee and a yearly maintenance fee as well. Here are its live and software plans, how its clock runs, how it compares with CoveDesk, and six other services to check before you sign up.

Updated November 3, 2026. CoveDesk is one of the services on this page; other companies’ prices and features are from their own websites, linked below.

Answering Service Care alternatives, by what you need

PATLive: Doesn’t bill after-call notes, lists no setup fee, and describes no notice period or penalty for cancelling. From $49/month: no minutes included, as published.
AnswerConnect: The first 30 short interactions each billing cycle are free, Growth has no setup fee, and its app has an on-call calendar. The smallest plan is 200 minutes. From $350/month: 200 minutes, as published.
CoveDesk (that’s us): if you want calls picked up, missed callers texted, and your Google profile and website looked after, all set up and run for you. Not live receptionists. Front Desk is $249/mo with 250 minutes. Free 14-day pilot.
MAP Communications: Almost the same prices at most sizes, with a 7-day trial and lower extra-minute rates. It also rounds up and bills post-call work, and a setup fee isn’t stated. From $49/month: no minutes included, as published.
Moneypenny: People or software too, with 30 days’ notice to cancel and software priced by the call rather than the minute. From $165/month: 50 minutes with a person answering, as published.
Smith.ai: Priced by the call, so post-call time and rounding don’t change what you pay, and you can pick live agents, software or both. From $0/month: 25 calls answered by software, as published.
Ruby: Says it charges no activation or setup fees and refunds first-time users within 21 days. It also bills after-call work, and costs more per minute. From $250/month: 50 receptionist minutes, as published.

Answering Service Care pricing

Answering Service Care plans, as published on its pricing page (opens in a new tab) on November 3, 2026
Plan	Price	Includes	Extra use
Starter	$40/month	no minutes included, pay as you go	$1.75 per minute
Small Business	$179/month	100 minutes	$1.70 per extra minute
Pro	$329/month	250 minutes	$1.60 per extra minute
Enterprise	$639/month	500 minutes	$1.35 per extra minute
Software plans	From $25/month	Software voice agent, pay as you go or up to 500 minutes at $325/month	$0.65 to $0.80 per software minute; $1.35 to $1.75 for calls passed to a person

Live plans work out to $1.79 a minute on Small Business, about $1.32 on Pro and about $1.28 on Enterprise. Under 80 minutes a month, Starter is the cheaper choice. On top of any plan there’s a one-time setup fee ($50 live, $100 software) and an annual maintenance fee, billed in advance for the year and not prorated or refundable; its terms give no amount. Its pricing page says paying annually saves up to 10%. The cost table counts live plans only.

Answering Service Care vs CoveDesk

Answering Service Care and CoveDesk side by side, as of November 3, 2026
What to compare	Answering Service Care	CoveDesk
Who answers	Live receptionists 24/7 on all plans, or software plans where escalated calls go to a person at the live rate. Source: Answering Service Care, who answers (opens in a new tab)	A trained voice assistant, set up and run by our team, in your business’s name, day or night. Not live receptionists. Callers hear a short notice at the start of the call.
Published price	Live: $40 a month pay as you go up to $639 for 500 minutes. Software: from $25 a month. Source: Answering Service Care, published price (opens in a new tab)	Front Desk: $249/mo with 250 minutes. Text-Back alone: $99/mo.
How use is counted	From when the call enters its system through completion, including post-call work. Whole minutes, with partial minutes rounded up. Software and live minutes are billed separately. Source: Answering Service Care, how use is counted (opens in a new tab)	By the minute. Seconds are added up over the month and rounded once, not per call. Extra minutes $0.35 each. Alerts at 80% and 100% of your minutes.
Setup fee	One-time $50 on live plans, $100 on software plans. An annual maintenance fee also applies; its terms give no amount. Source: Answering Service Care, setup fee (opens in a new tab)	None.
Contract	No long-term contracts. Cancelling takes written notice one full billing period ahead. Source: Answering Service Care, contract (opens in a new tab)	Front Desk is month to month. See pricing for other plans.
Who sets it up	You keep your number and forward calls to a dedicated one. The setup fee covers customizing your account, building your first scripts and configuring routing. Source: Answering Service Care, who sets it up (opens in a new tab)	Our team sets it up, writes your script and runs it.
Urgent calls	Call transfers are included on all plans, with email and text relays. Source: Answering Service Care, urgent calls (opens in a new tab)	Urgent calls are put straight through to you. No on-call rotation yet.
Spanish	Claims 80+ languages, with translation at $1 a minute on top of live minutes. Spanish appears in a customer testimonial; the page doesn’t say whether that fee applies to it. Source: Answering Service Care, spanish (opens in a new tab)	Not yet.

See CoveDesk’s plans and prices

Stay with Answering Service Care if

You take very few calls. A 20-minute month on Starter is $75, about level with $76.40 at MAP Communications and below the $99 plan at PATLive, before any setup fee.
You use 500 minutes a month. It lists $639, against $649 at MAP Communications and $759 at PATLive, and people answer every call. CoveDesk doesn’t have live receptionists.
You want software with people behind it. Software plans can pass a call to a live receptionist. A CoveDesk caller who insists on a person gets a callback or, if it’s urgent, you.
Calls need to reach your staff. Transfers are included on every plan. CoveDesk sends urgent calls to the owner and has no on-call rotation yet.

What does the first month cost at Answering Service Care?

The plan price plus the one-time $50 setup fee for live plans, before any extra minutes, tax and the annual maintenance fee, whose amount its terms don’t give:

Starter. $40 plus $50: $90, then $1.75 for every minute.
Small Business. $179 plus $50: $229.
Pro. $329 plus $50: $379.
Enterprise. $639 plus $50: $689.

What the same month costs

Worked out from each company’s published list prices: the cheapest plan or plan plus extras that covers the month, lowest first at 250 minutes. For companies that bill by the call we count one call as 2.5 minutes, which is the ratio PATLive’s own pages use. These are our sums, not quotes, and they leave out tax and one-time fees.

Monthly cost at three call volumes, from prices published on November 3, 2026
Service	100 minutes (about 40 calls)	250 minutes (about 100 calls)	500 minutes (about 200 calls)
CoveDesk	$249Front Desk	$249Front Desk	$336.50Front Desk + 250 extra minutes at $0.35
Answering Service Care	$179Small Business	$329Pro	$639Enterprise
MAP Communications	$179Business	$339Enterprise	$649Premium
AnswerConnect	$350Entry	$395Growth	$760Standard + 100 extra minutes at $1.85
PATLive	$189100 minutes	$448.50200 minutes + 50 extra minutes at $1.99	$759500 minutes
Moneypenny	$265People Answering, 100 minutes	$541.50People Answering, 200 minutes + 50 extra minutes at $2.39	$985People Answering, 500 minutes

Try your own numbers in the cost calculator

Why owners look past Answering Service Care

A yearly fee sits outside the plan price. An annual maintenance fee is billed in advance for the year and isn’t prorated if you leave early. Its terms give no amount, so ask before signing up.
The clock runs long. It starts when the call enters its system and runs through post-call work, and any partial minute rounds up. A wrong number on Starter costs at least $1.75.
Leaving takes planning. You need to give written notice one full billing period ahead, so stopping isn’t immediate.
Other languages add to the rate. Translation is $1 a minute on top of live minutes, which makes $2.75 a minute on Starter.
Software calls can run on two rates. Software minutes are $0.65 to $0.80, and a call passed to a person is billed at $1.35 to $1.75, so a busy month is harder to predict.

Where CoveDesk is different

No setup fee. CoveDesk doesn’t charge one, and Front Desk runs month to month.
Partial minutes stay partial. We total the seconds over the month and round once, instead of rounding each call.
The rest of your front door. Missed-call texts are in Front Desk, and we’ll look after your Google profile or website at extra cost or in the Front Office plan.
What you give up. Anyone to hand a call to besides you. A trained voice assistant answers after a short notice, takes details for a callback, and doesn’t handle Spanish or connect to job software yet.

Switching from Answering Service Care

Written notice, one billing period ahead. There’s no long-term contract, but stopping isn’t immediate. Source: Answering Service Care’s terms (opens in a new tab)
The yearly fee isn’t prorated or refundable. The annual maintenance fee is billed in advance for the year, so leaving partway through doesn’t bring part of it back. Its terms give no amount. Source: Answering Service Care’s terms (opens in a new tab)
Your number. You keep it and forward calls to a dedicated number, so check where it forwards when you move. Source: Answering Service Care’s terms (opens in a new tab)

Before you cancel anything, forward your calls to the new service and make three test calls of your own: a new customer, an urgent problem and a wrong number.

How we checked this

We make CoveDesk, so we’re not neutral, and this page isn’t a review. Everything about Answering Service Care comes from its own website, read on November 3, 2026, with the pages linked below. We haven’t bought its service, and we don’t quote ratings or anyone’s opinion as fact. Where we couldn’t find a fact, we say so instead of guessing, and “not mentioned” means not on the pages we read, which isn’t a search of its whole site.

Common questions

How much does an answering service charge?

Answering Service Care charges $40 a month plus $1.75 a minute on Starter, $179 for 100 minutes, $329 for 250 and $639 for 500, and software plans start at $25. For 100 minutes, that’s $179 here, $189 at PATLive, $265 at Moneypenny and $395 at Ruby, so it pays to compare at your own volume.

Are answering services still a thing?

Yes. Answering Service Care publishes live plans staffed by people around the clock, and every company on this page had current prices on its site in November 2026. What has changed is that several, including this one, now sell software alongside people.

How much does Answering Service Care cost per month?

Pro is $329 for 250 minutes and Enterprise is $639 for 500. Below those sit Small Business at $179 for 100 and Starter at $40 with no minutes. Its pricing page says paying annually saves up to 10%. Add a one-time setup fee of $50 for live or $100 for software, plus the annual maintenance fee.

What is Answering Service Care’s annual maintenance fee?

Its terms describe one on all active accounts, billed in advance for the year, not prorated and not refundable. They give no figure, so ask for it in writing. It’s separate from the one-time setup fee.

Can I keep my number if I leave Answering Service Care?

Its pricing page says you keep your number and forward calls to a dedicated one, so leaving should come down to changing where your number forwards. Ask how it handles the dedicated number once you’re gone.

How do I cancel Answering Service Care?

Give written notice one full billing period ahead. There’s no long-term contract, but the annual maintenance fee is billed in advance for the year and isn’t prorated, so time it around that date.

Is CoveDesk a live receptionist service?

No. CoveDesk is a phone answering service: a trained voice assistant, set up and run by our team, that picks up in your business’s name at any hour. Callers hear a short notice at the start of the call.

Sources

What this page says about Answering Service Care comes from these pages of its website, read on November 3, 2026:

https://answeringservicecare.com/pricing/ (opens in a new tab) (plans and prices, who answers, how use is counted, setup fee, contract, who sets it up, urgent calls, spanish, switching)
https://answeringservicecare.com/terms-and-conditions/ (opens in a new tab) (switching)
CoveDesk: our pricing page

Prices and features change; check Answering Service Care’s website before you buy. Company names are the trademarks of their owners and are used only to identify their services; none of them is affiliated with or endorses CoveDesk. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.

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