Upfirst alternatives and pricing
The short answer
Upfirst bills per call, not per minute: $24.95 a month for 30 calls, $59.95 for 90, $159.95 for 300 and $299 for 600, with extra calls at $1.50 down to $0.70. Calls under 15 seconds and spam aren’t billed. Dialzara and Rosie bill by the minute, RingReady is flat, Smith.ai adds live agents, and CoveDesk is set up for you.
Upfirst is the per-call option among software voice assistants: a five-minute call and a one-minute call cost the same, and quick hang-ups cost nothing. That suits short, simple calls and adds up in a busy month on a small plan. Here’s the math, the side-by-side with CoveDesk, and where else to look.
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.
Upfirst alternatives, by what you need
- Smith.ai: Also bills per call, with live agents you can mix in, if you’d like people on some calls. From $0/month: 25 calls answered by software, as published.
- Abby Connect: Live receptionists and software on one allowance, with named connections to Jobber, Housecall Pro and ServiceTitan. From $164/month: 50 Abby 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.
- RingReady: Flat and unlimited, with no per-call counting, and setup guides for Jobber and ServiceTitan. From $49/month: unlimited calls and minutes, as published.
- Rosie: Bills by the minute and has help guides for many job and customer tools, if deeper records matter more to you. From $49/month: 250 minutes, as published.
- Dialzara: Bills by the minute, which comes out lower if your calls are short and frequent. From $29/month: 60 minutes, as published.
- Goodcall: Counts each caller once a month, so repeat calls from one customer don’t cost more. From $79/month: 100 unique customers, as published.
Upfirst pricing
| Plan | Price | Includes | Extra use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $24.95/month | 30 calls | $1.50 a call |
| Premium | $59.95/month | 90 calls | $1.00 a call |
| Pro | $159.95/month | 300 calls | $0.75 a call |
| Scale | $299/month | 600 calls, white-glove onboarding, integration setup done for you | $0.70 a call |
These are the monthly-billed prices. Billed yearly they’re $20, $48, $128 and $240 a month, with a yearly bucket of calls in place of monthly extras, and annual prepayments aren’t refundable if you cancel. Included calls work out to 83, 67, 53 and 50 cents each, so an extra call costs more than an included one on every plan. Each extra agent is $9.95 a month. Past 600 calls, volume pricing isn’t listed.
Upfirst vs CoveDesk
| What to compare | Upfirst | CoveDesk |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | A software voice assistant, 24/7, on every call, missed calls only, or after hours only: your choice. Source: Upfirst, 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 | $24.95 a month for 30 calls, $59.95 for 90, $159.95 for 300, $299 for 600. Source: Upfirst, 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, whatever the length. Spam, calls under 15 seconds and calls where the caller never speaks aren’t billed, and the log labels which is which. Source: Upfirst, 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, per its HVAC page. Its pricing page doesn’t mention one either way. Source: Upfirst, setup fee (opens in a new tab) | None. |
| Contract | No contract. Cancel, upgrade or downgrade any time. Annual prepayments aren’t refundable. Source: Upfirst, contract (opens in a new tab) | Front Desk is month to month. See pricing for other plans. |
| Free trial | 14 days with full plan access and no card. Includes 25 texts. Source: Upfirst, 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 | None stated. After you cancel, a team member may offer a partial refund of the last payment in return for a short feedback chat. Source: Upfirst, 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 | You, in its dashboard, with a free 30-minute onboarding call during the trial. Team-built onboarding is on Scale and Custom only. Source: Upfirst, who sets it up (opens in a new tab) | Our team sets it up, writes your script and runs it. |
| Urgent calls | Warm transfer on all plans, and a message if you don’t pick up. Its HVAC page describes sending calls to an on-call technician. No timed rotation described. Source: Upfirst, urgent calls (opens in a new tab) | Urgent calls are put straight through to you. No on-call rotation yet. |
| Booking | Checks the calendar and books during the call: Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly, Acuity, Square and Clio. Source: Upfirst, 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 | Nine listed, and no job software among them. Its HVAC page says ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro and Jobber sync through Zapier. Source: Upfirst, job software and crms (opens in a new tab) | None yet. Details arrive by text and in your CoveDesk account. |
| Spanish | Yes, switching when the caller does. Its pages differ on the total: 35+ other languages on its home page, over 90 in its help center. Source: Upfirst, spanish (opens in a new tab) | Not yet. |
| Text back after a missed call | Yes. A customizable text goes to the caller when a call is missed. Source: Upfirst, 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: Upfirst, 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: Upfirst, google profile care (opens in a new tab) | Done for you, $149/mo, or included in Front Office. |
| Website | No website chat or building described. It can import details from your site to train the assistant. Source: Upfirst, website (opens in a new tab) | Built and looked after for you, or included in Front Office. See pricing. |
Stay with Upfirst if
- Most of your calls are long. Call length doesn’t change Upfirst’s price. CoveDesk counts seconds, so long calls use more of your allowance.
- You want warm transfer and booking at the smallest size. It tells you who’s calling and why before you accept, can reach the office or an on-call technician, and books into your calendar. CoveDesk puts urgent calls through to the owner and has no calendar booking yet.
- Your callers need Spanish or another language. Dozens of languages, switching when the caller does. CoveDesk has no Spanish yet.
- You want a long, card-free trial. 14 days with full plan access and no card. Our free 14-day pilot is set up with you by our team, not self-serve.
Is per-call cheaper than per-minute for your calls?
Take 100 calls a month. On Upfirst that’s $69.95 whatever their length: Premium plus 10 extra calls. Per-minute services depend on how long the calls run:
- 1 minute a call (100 minutes). Dialzara comes to $48.20 and Rosie to $49, both below Upfirst.
- 2.5 minutes a call (250 minutes). Rosie stays at $49, Upfirst is $69.95 and Dialzara is $112.50.
- 5 minutes a call (500 minutes). Rosie is $149 and Dialzara $199, and Upfirst is well below both.
So at this volume Upfirst overtakes Dialzara at about 1.5 minutes a call, and Rosie once 250 minutes run out, at 2.5 minutes a call. RingReady’s flat $49 ties or beats them all from just over 1 minute a call up, with no calendar booking. These use list prices and whole minutes.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosie | $49Professional | $49Professional | $149Scale |
| RingReady | $49Professional, unlimited | $49Professional, unlimited | $49Professional, unlimited |
| Upfirst | $39.95Starter + 10 extra calls at $1.50 | $69.95Premium + 10 extra calls at $1 | $159.95Pro |
| Dialzara | $48.20Business Lite + 40 extra minutes at $0.48 | $112.50Business Pro + 30 extra minutes at $0.45 | $199Business Plus |
| 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 |
Why owners look past Upfirst
- Small plans climb fast. On Starter, 40 calls comes to $39.95, and past 53 calls in a month Premium at $59.95 is the lower price. Past 190 calls, Pro is lower than Premium with extras.
- Team-built setup is at the top. You get a free 30-minute call during the trial, but team-built onboarding and integration setup are on Scale at $299 and Custom only.
- Job software goes through Zapier. Its integrations page lists nine tools and no job software. Its HVAC page says ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro and Jobber sync through Zapier, which is one more thing to set up.
- Weekday support. Human support runs Monday to Friday, 9 to 6 Eastern, with a software assistant on weekends.
Where CoveDesk is different
- Our team does the setup at any size. You don’t need to be on a top plan to have it built, and no setup fee applies.
- Past the phone. Both of us text missed callers. CoveDesk can also look after your Google profile and your website, at extra cost or in the Front Office plan, which Upfirst’s site doesn’t describe.
- A different meter. We add seconds over the month and round once, so a 40-second call uses 40 seconds. Upfirst charges it as a full call, though it bills nothing under 15 seconds.
- What you give up. Warm transfer, booking on the call and other languages. On CoveDesk a short notice plays before the conversation starts.
Switching from Upfirst
- Cancel under Settings, then Billing, then Manage subscription. Your plan ends at the end of the current billing period. Source: Upfirst’s terms (opens in a new tab)
- Monthly plans have no contract. Annual prepayments aren’t refundable, though someone may offer you a partial refund of your last payment in return for a short feedback chat. Source: Upfirst’s terms (opens in a new tab)
- You keep your existing number by forwarding it, so it stays with your phone company. Its help pages don’t say what happens to the Upfirst number if you gave that out directly. Source: Upfirst’s terms (opens in a new tab)
- You get 90 days after cancelling to export your calls and messages, and after that they’re permanently deleted. Its terms also say your content isn’t used to train models. Source: Upfirst’s terms (opens in a new tab)
- Its terms, last updated September 29, 2026, let it change them at any time without prior notice, and they don’t cover billing, refunds or numbers. Those answers are in its help center. Source: Upfirst’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 Upfirst 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 Upfirst cost a month?
Which calls does Upfirst not charge for?
Does Upfirst work with Jobber or ServiceTitan?
How much does Ruby’s answering service cost per minute?
Can I keep my number if I leave Upfirst?
How do I cancel Upfirst?
Is CoveDesk a live receptionist service?
Sources
What this page says about Upfirst comes from these pages of its website, read on November 3, 2026:
- https://upfirst.ai/pricing (opens in a new tab) (plans and prices, who answers, how use is counted, who sets it up)
- https://upfirst.ai/industries/hvac (opens in a new tab) (setup fee, urgent calls, job software and crms)
- https://help.upfirst.ai/en/articles/11996964-upfirst-pricing-faqs (opens in a new tab) (contract, free trial, switching)
- https://help.upfirst.ai/en/articles/12911277-how-do-i-cancel-my-plan (opens in a new tab) (money-back guarantee, switching)
- https://upfirst.ai/integrations (opens in a new tab) (booking)
- https://upfirst.ai/ (opens in a new tab) (spanish, review requests, google profile care, website)
- https://upfirst.ai/solutions/missed-call-text-back (opens in a new tab) (text back after a missed call)
- https://upfirst.ai/terms (opens in a new tab) (switching)
- CoveDesk: our pricing page
Prices and features change; check Upfirst’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
Answering service pricing
How answering services bill, published prices, and the extra fees to ask about.
Missed call text back
What it is, how it works, the texting rules, and when it’s enough on its own.
Best answering service for small business
Ten services side by side: who answers, what they charge and who each suits.
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.