A missed call at 7:40pm is not a missed call — it's a missed $600 job that went to whoever picked up. We tested three answering services against one scenario: 150 after-hours calls a month for a home-services business. The winner depends on what your calls are worth, not on the feature checklist.
How we tested: the 150-call scenario
"Worth it" means one thing here: cost per answered call against the revenue those calls carry. Our test business is a fictional-but-typical HVAC and plumbing company: 150 after-hours and overflow calls a month, average job value $450, and roughly 30% of calls are spam, wrong numbers, or price shoppers who were never going to book. We modeled each service's published pricing against 50, 150, and 400 calls a month so you can find your own row in the table.
We didn't count setup fees or one-time onboarding, and we treated every vendor's entry plan fairly — no cherry-picked enterprise tiers. Prices below are from published plans as of mid-2026 and move around, so treat them as directionally correct, not gospel.
Smith.ai: per-call AI with human backup
Smith.ai answers 24/7 with an AI receptionist, screens spam for free (junk calls don't burn your quota), qualifies callers against your script, books into your calendar, and escalates to a live human receptionist when the AI is out of its depth. The headline pricing: a free tier covering 25 calls a month, and AI plans starting around $150/month for roughly 75 calls — about $1.60 to $2.00 per call.
The per-call model (not per-minute) is the thing to notice. A 12-minute intake for a water-heater replacement costs the same as a two-minute "are you open Saturday?" That flatters long, high-value calls and punishes nothing, which is exactly the call profile of contractors and professional services.
Honest limitation: the AI handles routine intake well and emotional callers badly. A homeowner with a flooded basement at midnight is stressed, sometimes confused, occasionally angry — and that's where the hybrid human-escalation plan earns its premium. If your callers are often upset, budget for the human tier from day one.
Try Smith.ai's AI receptionist →
Ruby: live humans, at human prices
Ruby is the old guard of the category: real, US-based receptionists answering in your business name, taking messages, transferring calls, and booking appointments. Pricing is per-minute — entry tiers work out to roughly $5 per minute of talk time, which means a typical 4-minute intake costs around $20, and a chatty 8-minute caller costs $40.
When does that make sense? When a human voice is the product. Estate attorneys, high-end remodelers, medical practices — businesses where the caller's first impression determines whether a $2,500 case or a $30,000 project stays on the line. No AI in 2026 handles a nervous caller, a negotiation, or a complicated multi-party message as well as a trained person.
Honest limitation: the math. At our 150-call scenario with 4-minute average calls, you're looking at roughly $3,000 a month before volume discounts — 10 to 20 times the AI options. Ruby also charges for every minute including the spam calls the AI services filter for free. This is a premium service with a premium invoice; it only clears the bar when each call is worth a lot.
Quo Sona: the bundled budget option
Quo Sona (built on the Quo business phone platform) is the value play: Quo phone plans start around $15/user/month, and the Sona AI call packs start around $25/month for roughly 40 AI-answered calls, with 10 AI calls included free on each plan. One bill, one number, one app — call summaries and transcripts sit next to your regular calls.
At roughly $0.60 per AI-answered call on the entry pack, it's the cheapest credible way to stop missing after-hours calls. For a business already switching phone providers, it's nearly a no-brainer add-on.
Honest limitation: those 10 included calls evaporate fast — one busy week of after-hours volume and you're buying packs. And it's welded to Quo's phone system. If you're happy with your current provider and don't want to port numbers, a standalone service like Smith.ai fits better than ripping out your phones.
Side-by-side cost at 50, 150, and 400 calls/month
Illustrative estimates using published entry pricing, 4-minute average calls, spam filtered free where the vendor offers it:
| Calls/month | Smith.ai (AI) | Ruby (human) | Quo Sona |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | ~$150 | ~$1,000 | ~$40–65 |
| 150 | ~$300 | ~$3,000 | ~$90–115 |
| 400 | ~$800 | ~$8,000 | ~$240–265 |
The shape of the table is the story: Quo Sona wins on price at every volume, Smith.ai sits in the middle with the most capable AI, and Ruby costs an order of magnitude more because you're paying for people. None of that tells you which is "worth it" — only your average job value does.
Verdict by business type
- Contractors and home services ($300–$800 jobs): Smith.ai. The per-call pricing flatters long intake calls, spam screening protects your quota, and human escalation covers the midnight emergencies. Quo Sona works if you're already on Quo's phones.
- Law firms and professional practices ($2,500+ matters): Ruby if the budget allows — a human voice on a $10,000 case is cheap insurance. Otherwise Smith.ai's hybrid plan: AI first, human escalation for the calls that matter.
- E-commerce and low-ticket services: Quo Sona. When the average order is $80, you need the $0.60 call, and most after-hours questions are routine enough for the AI to handle cleanly.
The rule of thumb: if one saved call covers a month of the service, buy the better service. If it takes twenty saved calls to break even, buy the cheaper one.
FAQ
Do I have to disclose that calls are answered by AI?
Possibly. Several states require AI identity disclosure on calls, and the rules are still evolving. Both Smith.ai and Quo Sona include disclosure options in their scripts — turn them on, and check your state's requirements before going live, especially in regulated industries.
How long does setup take?
Plan on 1–2 hours: writing the greeting script, defining the qualification questions, connecting your calendar, and setting escalation rules. The vendors that do this for you during onboarding get set up faster and perform better in week one.
What happens when the AI can't handle a call?
On Smith.ai's hybrid plans it escalates to a human receptionist. On pure-AI setups it takes a detailed message and texts/emails you immediately. Configure the failure path before you go live — the worst outcome is an AI that improvises instead of admitting it needs help.
Can these services really tell spam from real callers?
Better than you'd expect. Robocall patterns, known spam numbers, and short "hello? hello?" calls get filtered before they touch your quota. In our scenario's 30% junk rate, free spam screening is worth $45–$90 a month alone on per-call plans.
Run your own numbers
Our AI receptionist ROI breakdown walks through the payback math for contractors, law firms, and dental practices — including the hidden costs most ROI posts ignore.