Ruby Receptionist: Pricing, Review, and Alternatives
Ruby has answered phones for small businesses for two decades. Real people, trained to sound like your front desk, 24/7.
That quality is priced by the minute, and a busy month adds up fast.
The quick answer: Ruby is a live virtual receptionist service. Plans are $250 a month for 50 receptionist minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200 and $1,725 for 500, about $3.45 to $5 per minute, with live website chat sold separately. If you want every call answered and booked without paying by the minute for people, Carly is an AI receptionist that answers when your team can’t, books on your real calendars, texts from your number and hands callers to your team when they ask. Copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live.
Prices from Ruby’s pricing page, checked October 19, 2026.
Ruby at a glance
| Ruby | |
|---|---|
| What it is | Live virtual receptionists and managed website chat, run by people |
| Coverage | 24/7, with Spanish and bilingual answering available |
| What receptionists do | Answer, transfer, take messages, schedule, qualify leads and intake, collect payments, assist with outbound calls |
| Extras | AI transcripts and sentiment analysis at no extra cost; robocall filtering; HIPAA-compliant services available |
| Integrations | 5,000+, per Ruby |
| Price | $250 to $1,725 a month for 50 to 500 minutes; larger plans quoted |
| Best for | Law firms and professional services that want a person on every call |
Ruby pricing
Virtual receptionist plans
| Plan | Price | Per minute |
|---|---|---|
| 50 minutes | $250/mo | $5.00 |
| 100 minutes | $395/mo | $3.95 |
| 200 minutes | $720/mo | $3.60 |
| 500 minutes | $1,725/mo | $3.45 |
Ruby says there are no extra fees for activation, onboarding, setup, customization or after-hours coverage. Every plan has the same features; only the minutes change.
Website chat
| Chats a month | On its own | Added to a receptionist plan |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | $143 | $115 |
| 30 | $335 | $268 |
| 50 | $520 | $416 |
What that means per call
At 3 minutes a call, the 100-minute plan covers about 33 calls a month for $395, roughly $12 a call. A business taking 5 calls a day at that length needs around 450 minutes, so the 500-minute plan at $1,725.
What Ruby does well
- People on every call. For a grieving client, an angry customer or a complicated intake, a trained human is hard to beat.
- Broad call handling. Scheduling, intake, payments and outbound call help, all on one plan.
- Bilingual and HIPAA options for clinics and Spanish-speaking callers.
- Simple pricing. No setup or after-hours surcharges.
Where Ruby gets expensive
- You pay by the minute. Long calls and busy seasons push you up a plan.
- Instant web-lead callbacks need automation. Receptionists capture callers; calling every new web form lead within a minute takes an automated caller.
Ruby alternatives
| Alternative | Who answers | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Carly | AI, handing off to your team | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/mo |
| Abby Connect | People, AI or both | $164/mo for 50 Abby Minutes |
| Smith.ai | AI, with live receptionists available | AI free for 25 calls; live from $300 for 30 calls |
| Upfirst | AI | $24.95/mo for 30 calls |
| Dialzara | AI | $29/mo for 60 minutes |
1. Carly
Carly answers every call at once, books it and logs it, and follows your rules exactly, the same way on the first call of the day and the hundredth.
- Answers 24/7, or only when your team doesn’t pick up. Spanish callers get Spanish (bilingual answering).
- Books during the call on your team’s real Google and Outlook calendars, round robin.
- Hands off to people through ring groups or a phone menu, so your staff still takes the calls that need a human.
- Calls web leads back within about a minute, then texts and emails if they miss it (AI outbound calling).
- Texts from your number: two-way texts, reminders, group texts and a missed call text back.
- One team inbox and CRM for every call, voicemail, text and email, written back to HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics 365 or Carly’s own CRM.
- Runs from ChatGPT or Claude with the Carly connector: build the agents, place calls and steer a live one from a chat (see how).
Carly connects to thousands of apps, and every call can trigger free Zapier-style workflows.
Carly business setup prompt
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.
Help me connect Carly Teams to this chat: read https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp.txt and follow it. If you can't open links, tell me how to add https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp to you as a custom MCP connector, then I'll sign in.
- Best for: businesses that want every call answered and booked without a per-minute bill for people.
- Setup: copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live.
- Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started.
2. Abby Connect
Abby Connect sells human answering, AI answering or both on one plan, with AI minutes counting half.
- Pricing: $164 a month for 50 Abby Minutes up to $1,380 for 500.
- Limitations: still minute-based. See Abby Connect.
3. Smith.ai
Smith.ai sells an AI receptionist and live receptionists separately.
- Pricing: AI free for 25 calls, Pro $150 for 75; live receptionists from $300 for 30 calls.
- Limitations: per-call pricing climbs on busy lines. See Smith.ai alternatives.
4. Upfirst
A low-cost AI receptionist billed per call, with booking on every plan.
- Pricing: $24.95 a month for 30 calls up to $299 for 600.
- Limitations: built around answering. See Upfirst AI.
5. Dialzara
An AI receptionist billed by talk time.
- Pricing: $29 a month for 60 minutes; booking and warm transfers from $99.
- Limitations: outbound is a separate plan from $750. See Dialzara.
Compare all the options in virtual receptionist.
FAQ
How much does Ruby Receptionist cost?
$250 a month for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200 and $1,725 for 500. Website chat is extra, from $115 a month for 10 chats when added to a receptionist plan.
Is Ruby worth it?
If you need a person on every call and take a modest number of calls, yes. If you take many calls or mostly need answering, booking and lead capture, an AI receptionist like Carly costs far less per call and never puts anyone on hold.
Does Ruby use AI?
Ruby’s receptionists are people. It adds AI transcripts, sentiment analysis and AI-supported call flows at no extra cost.
What is the best Ruby Receptionist alternative?
Carly for AI answering that books on your calendars and calls leads back. Abby Connect if you want human and AI from one vendor.
Can an AI receptionist replace Ruby?
For booking, FAQs, after-hours calls and lead intake, yes. For sensitive calls, have the AI hand off to your team, which Carly does through ring groups. Setup takes minutes: copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude and grab a number.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
