8 Best Smith.ai Alternatives in 2026
Smith.ai is the receptionist service most small businesses compare everything else against. It sells an AI Receptionist billed per call, and live receptionists billed per call with a long menu of per-call add-ons. Both work well. Both get expensive as your phone gets busier.
The quick answer: Carly is the best Smith.ai alternative for a business that wants every call answered, qualified and booked by the same rules, with texts and email in the same inbox. It answers when your team can’t, books callers on your team’s real calendars, texts from the same line and logs everything to your CRM. Copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live. If you want a human on every call, Ruby and Posh are the closest live alternatives.
US list prices from each vendor’s own pricing page, checked October 13 to 18, 2026.
What Smith.ai costs
| Smith.ai plan | Price | Calls included | Extra calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Receptionist Free | $0 | 25 a month | $3.00 each |
| AI Receptionist Pro | $150 / $270 / $500 a month | 75 / 150 / 300 | $2.50 down to $2.17 |
| Live receptionists | $300 / $810 / $2,100 a month | 30 / 90 / 300 | $11.50 down to $8.50 |
Add-ons on the live plans are billed per call: booking appointments $1.50, text or Slack notifications $0.50, text and email follow-up $0.50, a dedicated Spanish line $1.00, extended intake $1.50. Full breakdown in our Smith.ai review.
Smith.ai alternatives compared
| Alternative | Who answers | Books on your calendar | Charges by | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | AI on your number, after your team | Yes, round robin across your team | Plan | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/mo |
| Ruby | Humans | Per your script | Minute | $250/mo for 50 min |
| Posh | Humans, with AI options | Per your script | Minute | $65/mo plus $2.30/min |
| Rosie | AI | On Scale and up | Plan with minutes | $49/mo |
| Goodcall | AI | Through integrations | Unique customer | $79/mo |
| Dialzara | AI | Through Zapier or Make | Talk time | $29/mo for 60 min |
| My AI Front Desk | AI | Google or Outlook calendar | Plan with minutes | $99/mo for 200 min |
| Answering Legal | Humans, law firms only | Per your script | Plans by form | Quote |
1. Carly
Carly is reliable and endlessly customizable: questions, booking rules and handoffs written once in plain English, applied the same way on every call.
- Answers 24/7, or only when your team doesn’t pick up.
- Qualifies and books on your team’s real Google and Outlook calendars, round robin, while the caller is on the line.
- Speaks Spanish when the caller does, with no separate Spanish line.
- Hands off to the right teammate through ring groups or a phone menu.
- Calls new web leads within about a minute, then texts and emails if they miss it.
- Texts from your business number: two-way texts, reminders, group texts and a text back on every missed call.
- One team inbox and CRM. Transcripts, summaries, voicemails and texts, 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 (how it works).
Carly connects to thousands of apps, and anything after the call can run as a free Zapier-style workflow.
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 calls booked, not just answered.
- 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. Ruby
The best-known live virtual receptionist service, billed by the minute, with the same features on every plan.
- Best for: businesses that want a person on every call.
- Pricing: $250 for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, $1,725 for 500.
- Limitations: at 300 calls a month it costs about as much as Smith.ai’s live plans. See Ruby Receptionist.
3. Posh
Live virtual receptionists with AI options on month-to-month plans, billed by receptionist minute.
- Best for: low-volume businesses that want a human answer without a big package.
- Pricing: Chic plan $65 a month plus $2.30 a minute; other plans include minutes. Free trial of 7 days or 250 minutes.
- Limitations: long calls get expensive by the minute.
4. Rosie
An AI answering service that answers 24/7 in English or Spanish, takes messages and texts booking links.
- Best for: solo owners who mainly need the phone answered.
- Pricing: $49, $149 or $299 a month for 250, 1,000 or 2,000 minutes.
- Limitations: calendar booking and transfers start on the $149 plan. See Rosie AI alternatives.
5. Goodcall
Bills per unique caller instead of per call, so repeat callers don’t cost more.
- Best for: businesses with lots of repeat customers.
- Pricing: $79, $129 or $299 a month for 100, 500 or 2,000 unique customers.
- Limitations: booking runs through integrations. See Goodcall.
6. Dialzara
The cheapest way into an AI receptionist, billed by talk time with Zapier and Make integrations.
- Best for: very low call volume on a tight budget.
- Pricing: $29 a month for 60 minutes ($0.48 a minute after); $99 for 220 minutes; $199 for 500; $349 for 1,000.
- Limitations: booking depends on integrations you set up. See Dialzara.
7. My AI Front Desk
My AI Front Desk (now Frontdesk AI) bundles calls, texts, web chat and a simple CRM in one plan.
- Best for: small businesses that book on Google or Outlook calendars.
- Pricing: $99 a month, or $79 billed annually, for 200 voice minutes.
- Limitations: usage past the allowance is billed in credits. See My AI Front Desk.
8. Answering Legal
Answers only for law firms, 24/7/365, with US-based bilingual receptionists.
- Best for: law firms comparing Smith.ai’s legal intake.
- Pricing: plans after a form; no setup fees or long-term contracts.
- Limitations: no published prices. See legal answering service.
How to pick a Smith.ai alternative
- AI or humans? If a person must answer every call, compare Ruby and Posh. If you want calls answered and booked by rules you control, go with Carly.
- Price on last month’s call log. Per call (Smith.ai), per minute (Ruby, Posh, Dialzara), per caller (Goodcall) or by plan (Rosie, My AI Front Desk).
- Count the add-ons. Booking, notifications and Spanish are extras on Smith.ai’s live plans. Carly books, texts and speaks Spanish on every call.
- Test a handoff from your own phone before you switch.
For the wider field, see best AI receptionist for small business and AI answering service.
FAQ
What is the best alternative to Smith.ai?
Carly, for businesses that want calls answered, qualified and booked on real calendars, with texts and email in the same inbox. For live receptionists, Ruby and Posh.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Smith.ai?
For AI, Dialzara starts at $29 a month and Rosie at $49. For live answering, Posh starts at $65 a month plus $2.30 a minute. Carly: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
Smith.ai vs Ruby: which is better?
Smith.ai bills per call and sells both AI and live receptionists; Ruby is live-only and bills per minute. Short calls favor Ruby’s minutes; long intake calls favor Smith.ai’s per-call pricing.
Does Smith.ai have a free plan?
Its AI Receptionist is free for 25 calls a month, then $3.00 a call. Live receptionists start at $300 a month.
Can I switch from Smith.ai without changing my number?
Yes. Forward your existing line to the new service, the same way live answering services work. With Carly, you grab that number right in the chat: copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude and you’re live in minutes.
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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."
