Smith.ai alternatives and pricing
The short answer
Smith.ai charges per call, not per minute: software plans run from free for 25 calls to $150 a month for 75, and live-agent plans start at $300 for 30 calls. Its terms bill another month if you cancel within 30 days of the cycle’s end. Alternatives include Ruby and AnswerConnect by the minute, Upfirst and Goodcall for software, and CoveDesk, a voice assistant run for you.
Smith.ai charges by the call, where most live services here charge by the minute, and it sells software, live agents, or a mix on three separate pricing pages. Whether that’s a good deal depends on how long your calls run and which add-ons you need. Here’s the arithmetic, the side-by-side with CoveDesk, and what else to look at.
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.
Smith.ai alternatives, by what you need
- Ruby: Live receptionists by the minute, with Spanish at no extra cost, if your calls are short enough that per-minute comes out ahead. From $250/month: 50 receptionist minutes, as published.
- Upfirst: A close software match: also per call, with spam and calls under 15 seconds not billed, and a warm transfer on every plan. From $24.95/month: 30 calls, 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.
- Goodcall: Counts each customer once a month however often they ring, which can suit a business with lots of repeat callers. From $79/month: 100 unique customers, as published.
- AnswerConnect: Live answering by the minute, with an on-call calendar in its app and the first 30 interactions under 30 seconds free each cycle. From $350/month: 200 minutes, as published.
- Posh: Live receptionists with a pay-as-you-go plan and a free 7 days or 250 minutes to try them, no credit card. From $65.00/month: no minutes included, as published.
- Rosie: Software sold in blocks of minutes, with English and Spanish on every call and a 7-day free trial. From $49/month: 250 minutes, as published.
Smith.ai pricing
| Plan | Price | Includes | Extra use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software receptionist, Free | $0/month | 25 calls answered by software, self-serve | $3.00 a call, from a prepaid balance |
| Software receptionist, Pro | $150/month | 75 calls answered by software, onboarding and an account manager | $2.50 a call |
| Hybrid | From about $2.50 a call | software answers, live agents take the call types you choose, and a handoff counts as one call | Not listed |
| Virtual Receptionists Starter | $300/month | 30 calls answered by live agents, 1 free transfer destination | $11.50 a call |
| Virtual Receptionists Basic | $810/month | 90 calls answered by live agents, 2 free transfer destinations | $10.50 a call |
Each product has its own pricing page. On the free plan, calls past the first 25 draw on a balance you prepay, and its terms say a call goes to voicemail or a recording if that balance runs too low. Live plans work out to $10 a call on Starter, $9 on Basic and $7 on Virtual Receptionists Pro ($2,100 for 300 calls, then $8.50), with 10% off for a 12-month subscription. Software Pro also has 150- and 300-call tiers at $1.80 and $1.67 a call, and software Enterprise is $500 for 300 calls. The cost table below uses the cheapest published plan, which here is software. On live plans the same months come to $415 at 40 calls, $915 at 100 and $1,965 at 200, before add-ons. Its hybrid page gives two sets of numbers: a table with about $1.80 a software call and $4.80 a live call, and an FAQ with starting rates of $2.50, $3.10 and $3.70 by setup. Its worked examples at 300 calls come to $771, $951 and $1,131. Its homepage also shows an extra $3 for handing a call to a person.
Smith.ai vs CoveDesk
| What to compare | Smith.ai | CoveDesk |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | Your choice: software, live agents, or hybrid, where software answers and agents take the call types you pick. 24/7 on all three. Source: Smith.ai, 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 | Homepage rates per call: software from $1.60, hybrid from $2.50, live agents from $7. Source: Smith.ai, published price (opens in a new tab) | Front Desk: $249/mo with 250 minutes. Text-Back alone: $99/mo. |
| How use is counted | Per call, so length doesn’t change the price. Its terms count wanted inbound calls and outbound calls you ask for; telemarketers, misdials, promotional callers and people who won’t leave a message don’t count. Source: Smith.ai, 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 | None on live-agent plans. Its software and hybrid pricing pages don’t say. Source: Smith.ai, setup fee (opens in a new tab) | None. |
| Contract | Month to month. Its terms say cancel at least 30 days before your cycle ends or you’re billed for the next month. Its live pricing page says billing runs through the current cycle. Source: Smith.ai, contract (opens in a new tab) | Front Desk is month to month. See pricing for other plans. |
| Free trial | No timed trial stated. A standing free software plan covers 25 calls a month. Source: Smith.ai, free trial (opens in a new tab) | Free 14-day pilot. We set it up, it’s live within 48 hours, and you can start with just your after-hours calls. |
| Money-back guarantee | First-time live-agent subscribers: 30 days from first payment, up to $1,000, less any overage. Its pricing FAQ also mentions the first two weeks. Not for the free plan. Source: Smith.ai, money-back guarantee (opens in a new tab) | 30-day money-back guarantee. If it isn’t working for you, tell us within 30 days of your first plan payment and we’ll end the plan and refund your first month’s plan fee. |
| Who sets it up | Its own deployment and launch teams, plus an account manager, on its home-services page. The free software plan is self-serve. Source: Smith.ai, who sets it up (opens in a new tab) | Our team sets it up, writes your script and runs it. |
| Urgent calls | Urgent calls go to on-call technicians under your escalation rules. Live plans include 1, 2 or 10 free transfer destinations; extras are $15 a month. Source: Smith.ai, urgent calls (opens in a new tab) | Urgent calls are put straight through to you. No on-call rotation yet. |
| Booking | A $1.50-a-call add-on on live plans. Software plans include scheduling through Calendly and others. Source: Smith.ai, booking (opens in a new tab) | Takes the details and sends them to you to call back. No calendar booking yet. |
| Job software and CRMs | Names ServiceTitan, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zapier, Slack and Calendly, and says 7,000-plus tools. Its help center covers Jobber request forms and Housecall Pro booking links. Source: Smith.ai, job software and crms (opens in a new tab) | None yet. Details arrive by text and in your CoveDesk account. |
| Spanish | Live plans: a dedicated Spanish line is $1.00 a call. Its homepage says English and Spanish. The software pricing page lists no languages. Source: Smith.ai, spanish (opens in a new tab) | Not yet. |
| Text back after a missed call | Not on its pricing or home-services pages. A help article title mentions a text notice for missed call transfers, so ask. Source: Smith.ai, text back after a missed call (opens in a new tab) | Yes, included in Front Desk or on its own with Text-Back. |
| Review requests | Not mentioned on the pages we read. Source: Smith.ai, review requests (opens in a new tab) | Done for you with Google Business Profile Management, $149/mo. |
| Google profile care | Not mentioned on the pages we read. Source: Smith.ai, google profile care (opens in a new tab) | Done for you, $149/mo, or included in Front Office. |
| Website | No website building found. Its home-services FAQ mentions website chat. Source: Smith.ai, website (opens in a new tab) | Built and looked after for you, or included in Front Office. See pricing. |
Stay with Smith.ai if
- Your calls run long. Length doesn’t change the price, so a 15-minute intake call costs what a short one does. CoveDesk counts every second.
- You want people, some or all of the time. Live North America-based agents can take every call or only the types you choose. CoveDesk has no live receptionists.
- You want to start at $0. The free software plan covers 25 calls a month with no end date stated, and extras draw on a balance you prepay. CoveDesk has no free plan. It offers a free 14-day pilot, then a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- You want booking and named connections. Software plans schedule through Calendly and others, and it names ServiceTitan and Salesforce. CoveDesk has no calendar booking or job software connection yet.
How long does a call have to be before Smith.ai’s per-call price wins?
Divide Smith.ai’s $10 a live call on Starter by each company’s price per minute on its smallest minute plan, and you get the call length where the two cost the same:
- Ruby. $250 for 50 minutes is $5.00 a minute, so they meet at 2:00.
- Moneypenny. $165 for 50 minutes is $3.30 a minute, so they meet at about 3:02.
- Posh. $130 for 50 minutes is $2.60 a minute, so they meet at about 3:51.
- PATLive. $99 for 50 minutes is $1.98 a minute, so they meet at about 5:03.
If your calls usually run longer than that, Smith.ai comes out ahead; shorter, the per-minute service does. Smith.ai’s add-ons push those times out, and rounding and after-call billing at the others pull them in, so check a month of your own calls.
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.
| Service | 100 minutes (about 40 calls) | 250 minutes (about 100 calls) | 500 minutes (about 200 calls) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfirst | $39.95Starter + 10 extra calls at $1.50 | $69.95Premium + 10 extra calls at $1 | $159.95Pro |
| Smith.ai | $45Software receptionist, Free + 15 extra calls at $3 | $212.50Software receptionist, Pro + 25 extra calls at $2.50 | $462.50Software receptionist, Pro + 125 extra calls at $2.50 |
| CoveDesk | $249Front Desk | $249Front Desk | $336.50Front Desk + 250 extra minutes at $0.35 |
| AnswerConnect | $350Entry | $395Growth | $760Standard + 100 extra minutes at $1.85 |
| Posh | $215Elegant | $525Luxurious + 50 extra minutes at $2.10 | $975Lavish |
| Ruby | $395100 minutesOr $250: 50 minutes + 50 extra minutes at a rate it doesn’t list | $1,725500 minutesOr $720: 200 minutes + 50 extra minutes at a rate it doesn’t list | $1,725500 minutesOr $720: 200 minutes + 300 extra minutes at a rate it doesn’t list |
Why owners look past Smith.ai
- Quick calls cost as much as long ones. At Starter’s $10 a call, a two-minute question costs the same as a 20-minute one. If most of your calls are short, per-minute or per-second billing can come out lower.
- Add-ons stack on live plans. Booking is $1.50 a call, a Spanish line $1.00, recording $0.25 and text notifications $0.50. A Starter call that’s booked, recorded and answered in Spanish comes to $12.75.
- Going over costs more than the plan rate. Each live plan’s extra calls run $1.50 above its included rate: $11.50 against $10 on Starter, $8.50 against $7 on Pro.
- Leaving takes a month’s planning. Its terms want 30 days’ notice before the cycle ends, which on a monthly plan means one more month unless you cancel right at the start of a cycle. Its live pricing page only says billing runs through the current cycle, so get the end date confirmed.
- Spam can count on software plans. It’s counted by default, and you can have up to 10% of calls removed each cycle, though known spammers are filtered first.
Where CoveDesk is different
- Short calls stay cheap. CoveDesk adds seconds over the month and rounds once, so a wrong number or a quick question uses only those seconds. That works against you on long calls.
- Run for you from day one. Smith.ai’s free plan is self-serve, and full-service setup is listed on software Enterprise. CoveDesk’s team sets it up and runs it, with no setup fee.
- More than calls. Missed-call texts come with Front Desk. Google profile care and websites are separate or in Front Office, and Smith.ai’s pricing pages don’t list those.
- What you give up. You can’t hand a call to a live agent, because CoveDesk has none. Callers hear a short notice at the start, and there’s no Spanish or calendar booking yet.
Switching from Smith.ai
- The 30-day rule. Its terms say cancel by email or phone at least 30 days before your subscription cycle ends, or you’re billed for the following month. Its live pricing page says billing runs through the current cycle, so ask which applies. There’s no refund for leaving early. Source: Smith.ai’s terms (opens in a new tab)
- Your number. A number you forward to it stays yours. The number it assigned you may be cancelled immediately. At its discretion, it may let you keep that number as a line for $10 a month, or forward its calls to you for 10 days. Source: Smith.ai’s terms (opens in a new tab)
- Final overage. Any extra calls on your last bill are due within 10 days of the end date. Source: Smith.ai’s terms (opens in a new tab)
- Free plan balance. Unused free calls and promotional credits end the day you leave. Prepaid credits are forfeited too, unless the law says otherwise. Source: Smith.ai’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 Smith.ai 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 Smith.ai cost?
Does Smith.ai charge by the minute?
Is Smith.ai cheaper than Ruby?
Does Smith.ai charge for spam or wrong numbers?
How do I cancel Smith.ai?
Can I keep my number if I leave Smith.ai?
Is CoveDesk a live receptionist service?
Sources
What this page says about Smith.ai comes from these pages of its website, read on November 3, 2026:
- https://smith.ai/pricing/receptionists (opens in a new tab) (plans and prices, setup fee, booking, spanish)
- https://smith.ai/pricing/hybrid-ai-human-receptionists (opens in a new tab) (who answers)
- https://smith.ai/ (opens in a new tab) (published price, google profile care)
- https://smith.ai/receptionists/terms (opens in a new tab) (how use is counted, contract, money-back guarantee, switching)
- https://smith.ai/pricing/ai-receptionist (opens in a new tab) (free trial)
- https://smith.ai/industries/home-services-answering-service (opens in a new tab) (who sets it up, urgent calls, job software and crms, review requests, website)
- https://docs.smith.ai/article/ikzvnbatop-how-to-set-up-outbound-calling (opens in a new tab) (text back after a missed call)
- CoveDesk: our pricing page
Prices and features change; check Smith.ai’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.
Related comparisons
Best answering service for small business
Ten services side by side: who answers, what they charge and who each suits.
Answering service pricing
How answering services bill, published prices, and the extra fees to ask about.
Answering service vs voicemail vs receptionist
Voicemail, texts, an answering service or a receptionist: what each costs and gets you.
Want every call answered?
Tell us how your calls come in today and we’ll suggest the simplest setup, even if it isn’t CoveDesk.