# Live answering services compared

A live answering service puts a trained person on your line when you cannot answer. It costs more per call than an AI receptionist, but some calls and some callers still need a person. This page compares the answering services we track on published price, trials, booking, transfers and languages.

> **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.


## Compared

Ordered by how many of these checks each vendor meets with a published fact: Transfers calls to a person, Books appointments, Publishes a price, Free trial or free plan, Spanish listed. Ties go to vendors that publish a price, then alphabetical. Method: https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/methodology

| Vendor | Starting price | Free trial | Books appointments | Transfers to a person | Languages | Integrations |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Smith.ai](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/smith-ai) | Free plan | Free plan | Yes | Yes | English, Spanish | Salesforce, HubSpot, Clio Grow, Clio Manage, Calendly, Zapier, Make |
| [Ruby](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/ruby) | $250/month | Not published | Yes | Yes | English, Spanish | Google Calendar, Calendly, Clio, MyCase, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, JobNimbus, FieldPulse, Microsoft Teams |
| [AnswerConnect](https://vocenya.com/ai-tools/answerconnect) | Not published | Not published | Yes | Yes | English, Spanish | Zapier, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Setmore, Outlook, Clio, Workiz, Pipedrive, Slack |

## How answering services price

Most live services sell a bundle of minutes or calls per month and charge for every minute or call over the bundle. What counts toward a minute or a call varies, so compare the billing basis, not only the headline price, and ask how a busy month would be billed.

## Where AI fits in

An AI receptionist answers every call at once for a flat monthly price, and several answering services now offer AI alongside their people. Vocenya works the other way round: the AI answers first, and GH Live, a staffed team at GH Business Solutions, takes the calls that need a person, at a rate quoted per business. GH Live has no public price, so Vocenya is not in the table below; see [Vocenya’s profile](/ai-tools/vocenya) or [live agents](/live-agents). Compare [AI receptionists](/ai-tools/ai-receptionists) or read [AI receptionist vs answering service](/blog/ai-receptionist-vs-answering-service).

## Frequently asked questions

### Is an answering service better than an AI receptionist?

It depends on your calls. A person handles emotional or complicated calls better; an AI answers every call instantly and costs less per call. Many businesses combine them, with the AI first and a person for the calls that need one.

### Why does Vocenya list answering services?

Because for some businesses a live service is the better fit, and we would rather say so than leave it out.


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