# AI tools for small businesses, compared honestly

Every AI receptionist, texting agent, web chat tool and answering service we track, with the facts a small business owner asks about first: what it costs, whether there is a trial, whether it books appointments, transfers calls, signs a HIPAA agreement and speaks Spanish. Each fact links to the vendor page we read it on, with the date we checked.

> **We make Vocenya. Here’s how we rank, and where others may fit you better.** Every vendor here, ours included, is shown with the same fields, sourced from its own website and ordered by the same published rule. Nobody pays to be listed. Where another tool may fit you better, we say so.

## Categories

- [AI receptionists](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ai-receptionists): AI that answers your business phone calls, takes details, and books or transfers. (18 vendors)
- [AI SMS agents](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ai-sms-agents): AI that texts with your customers: replies to leads, answers questions and books by text. (9 vendors)
- [AI web chat](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ai-web-chat): An AI chat window on your website that answers visitors and captures leads. (13 vendors)
- [Answering services](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/answering-services): Live human receptionists who answer your calls, sometimes with AI in front. (3 vendors)

## Guides

- [AI receptionists for New Jersey businesses](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ai-receptionists/new-jersey)
- [AI receptionists for dental offices](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ai-receptionists/for/dentists)
- [AI receptionists for home service businesses](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ai-receptionists/for/home-services)
- [AI receptionists for law firms](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ai-receptionists/for/law-firms)
- [AI SMS agents for med spas](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ai-sms-agents/for/med-spas)
- [AI receptionists for property management](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ai-receptionists/for/property-management)
- [AnswerConnect alternatives](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/answerconnect/alternatives)
- [Goodcall alternatives](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/goodcall/alternatives)
- [My AI Front Desk alternatives](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/my-ai-front-desk/alternatives)
- [Ruby alternatives: live and AI receptionists](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ruby/alternatives)
- [Smith.ai alternatives](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/smith-ai/alternatives)

## Every vendor

- [Allo](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/allo): A business phone system with an AI receptionist add-on that answers inbound calls 24/7, answers questions from what the business taught it, books appointments on its calendar and passes calls that need a person to the right team member. Starting price: $32/month per seat + $32/month AI Receptionist.
- [AnswerConnect](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/answerconnect): AnswerConnect is a 24/7 live answering service whose human receptionists answer a business’s phone calls and website chats, schedule appointments and route calls. Starting price: Not published.
- [Bland AI](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/bland-ai): A voice AI platform for phone agents that automate inbound and outbound calls, aimed at regulated industries such as healthcare, insurance and financial services. Agents also work over SMS, iMessage and web chat. Starting price: $0.14/minute.
- [Chatbase](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/chatbase): Chatbase lets a business build AI agents without code that answer customers on its website, messaging apps, email and phone, and escalate to a human when needed. Starting price: Free plan.
- [Crisp](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/crisp): Crisp is a customer support inbox with a website chat widget and an AI agent, Hugo, that answers customers on web chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and email and passes conversations to the team with context. Starting price: $45/month.
- [Dialzara](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/dialzara): An AI receptionist that answers calls, books appointments and captures leads, with outbound calling, two-way SMS and website chat agents on the same platform. Starting price: $29/month.
- [Goodcall](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/goodcall): A voice AI agent that answers phone calls and automates customer service and sales requests, books appointments against a synced calendar or CRM, and shares call details by SMS, email, Google Sheets or CRM. Starting price: $66/month.
- [Hatch](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/hatch): AI customer service reps for home service and remodeling businesses that answer calls, texts and emails, qualify leads and book jobs 24/7, with transfers to staff when needed. Starting price: Not published.
- [Intercom](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/intercom-fin): Fin is an AI customer service agent that answers customers across chat, email, voice and messaging channels, and hands conversations to the business’s human team with the context kept. It runs inside Intercom or alongside other helpdesks. Starting price: $29/seat/month.
- [My AI Front Desk](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/my-ai-front-desk): AI agents that answer calls, text and chat with customers, keep one memory across channels and book appointments around the clock. Starting price: $79/month.
- [Numa](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/numa): An AI platform for car dealerships that answers service calls, books appointments, and brings the dealership’s calls and texts into one inbox connected to its DMS. It is aimed at franchise dealerships and multi-rooftop groups. Starting price: Not published.
- [Podium](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/podium): A customer communication platform for local businesses whose AI Employee responds to leads across phone calls, text, email and social, books appointments and sends follow-ups, alongside website chat, reviews and payments. Starting price: Not published.
- [Retell AI](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/retell-ai): A platform for building, deploying and managing AI voice agents that handle phone calls, with chat agents for web, in-app and SMS. It offers a dashboard plus APIs and SDKs for developers. Starting price: $0.07/minute.
- [Rosie](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/rosie): An AI call answering service for small businesses that answers FAQs, books appointments and transfers callers to a live person when needed. Website chat is included on every plan. Starting price: $49/month.
- [Ruby](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ruby): Ruby provides live human virtual receptionists who answer a business’s calls 24/7, plus a managed website chat service. AI is used behind the scenes for transcripts and call flows, while callers speak with a trained person. Starting price: $250/month.
- [Sameday AI](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/sameday): An AI front office for home service businesses that answers calls 24/7, books jobs into the field service software, sends texts and hands calls to staff when needed. Starting price: $449/month.
- [Smith.ai](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/smith-ai): An AI receptionist that answers calls around the clock, handles routine intake and books consultations, alongside a North American team of human virtual receptionists and a hybrid AI-plus-human option. It also offers live-staffed website chat powered by AI. Starting price: Free plan.
- [Synthflow](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/synthflow): A voice AI platform for building agents that handle inbound and outbound calls, answer questions, book appointments and hand calls to people, with its own telephony. Chat agents can also run in a website widget, on WhatsApp and over SMS. Starting price: From $30,000/year.
- [Tidio](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/tidio-lyro): Lyro is Tidio’s AI agent for customer service chat. It answers customer questions from the business’s own support content and alerts the team when a customer needs a person. Starting price: Free plan.
- [Upfirst](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/upfirst): An AI receptionist for small businesses that answers every call 24/7, books into the business’s calendar, transfers calls with context and texts callers links mid-call. Starting price: $24.95/month.
- [Vapi](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/vapi): A developer platform for building voice AI agents that make and receive phone calls and connect to existing systems and APIs, with a choice of speech, language model and voice providers. Starting price: $0.05/minute.
- [Vocenya (our product)](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/vocenya): An AI receptionist that answers calls 24/7 in the business’s name, answers questions from its website and notes, books appointments and texts or emails the owner a summary. Calls that need a person can be handed to GH Live, a staffed human answering team, for a per-business rate. Starting price: $49/month.

## Frequently asked questions

### Who makes this directory?

Vocenya, which sells an AI receptionist. We list our own product with the same fields as everyone else and label it "Our product". The methodology page explains how vendors are chosen, ordered and checked.

### Where do the facts come from?

Only from each vendor’s own public website: its pricing, product, documentation and security pages. We do not use review scores, and we do not publish ratings. When a vendor does not publish something, the table says "Not published".

### How often is it updated?

Every vendor is re-checked at least every 90 days, and sooner when a vendor or reader sends a correction. Each vendor page shows the date it was last checked.

### Can a vendor ask to be added or corrected?

Yes. Use the correction form on the methodology page. Send the page on your own website that shows the change, and we update the listing once we have read it there.


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Source: https://vocenya.com/ai-tools
Published by Vocenya, which makes an AI receptionist. How this directory is built: https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/methodology