Honest comparison · Priced September 17, 2026

The best AI receptionist for home service businesses, compared honestly.

Seven options, priced today straight from each vendor's own site, in a table you can actually use. Including the cases where one of them beats us.

Hear ours: (954) 417-1740 See ServiceHawk plans

$99/mo Answer or $149/mo Book. No setup fee.

Cheapest entry price found

$29/month

Dialzara, 60 minutes, per its site today

7 options compared Priced today Sources listed

How we compared these.

Every competitor number below was pulled directly from that company's own pricing page today, September 17, 2026. Nothing is estimated and nothing is carried over from an old screenshot. Prices, minutes, and fees change without notice, so treat this as a snapshot and confirm current terms on the vendor's site before you sign anything. Where a vendor doesn't publish a number, we say so instead of guessing.

We're ServiceHawk, so read this the way you'd read any vendor's comparison page: the numbers are real and sourced, but we're not pretending to be neutral about which one we'd pick for our own phone.

The comparison table.

Provider	Type	Entry price	Included	Overage
ServiceHawk (Answer)	AI	$99/mo	400 min, 24/7 answering, live transfer, email summary	$0.25/min
ServiceHawk (Book)	AI	$149/mo	1,000 min, plus booking & text follow-up	$0.25/min
Dialzara	AI	$29/mo	60 min (Business Lite)	$0.48/min
My AI Front Desk	AI	$99/mo	200 voice min + chatbot + SMS bundled	~$0.25/min (25 credits)
Rosie	AI	$49/mo	250 min (Professional); $149/mo Scale tier gets 1,000 min + booking	Pricing not published
Goodcall	AI	$79/mo per agent	Unlimited minutes, 100 unique customers	$0.50/customer after cap
Ruby	Human	$250/mo	50 minutes (Starter)	Pricing not published
Smith.ai	Human	$300/mo	30 calls (Starter, live agents)	$11.50/call

Sources, all fetched September 17, 2026: ServiceHawk AI (servicehawkai.com/plan.html), Dialzara (dialzara.com/pricing), My AI Front Desk (myaifrontdesk.com/pricing), Rosie (heyrosie.com/pricing), Goodcall (goodcall.com/pricing), Ruby (ruby.com/pricing), Smith.ai (smith.ai/pricing). Figures are each vendor's own published numbers as of that date and are subject to change.

Who each option is actually best for.

ServiceHawkBest if you want one flat price that includes phone answering built for the trades: live transfer of real jobs, an email summary after every call, and on the Book plan, native booking into Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud, Jobber, and (through Google Calendar) Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, and Square.

DialzaraGenuinely the cheapest way in if you're a true side operation taking a handful of short calls a month. At $29/mo for 60 minutes, it beats ServiceHawk's $99 Answer plan on price at very low volume, though the overage rate is nearly double ours once you go over.

My AI Front DeskSame $99 entry price as our Answer plan, but the money buys something different: 200 phone minutes bundled with a website chatbot and SMS. If a chatbot matters as much to you as phone minutes, it's worth a side-by-side demo.

RosieIts $149/mo Scale tier lands on the exact same price as our Book plan with the same 1,000 minutes and appointment booking. This is the closest apples-to-apples competitor on this list and worth comparing call quality and calendar support directly against ours.

GoodcallBills by unique customer, not minutes, with unlimited talk time. Best fit if most of your calls come from a smaller pool of repeat customers rather than a high volume of new callers, since a long call doesn't cost you anything extra.

RubyBest if you specifically want a live human answering the phone and can budget $250/mo and up for a small block of minutes. No AI option, including ours, replaces a trained person for a genuinely emotional call.

Smith.aiBest if you want a human-staffed service with a menu of add-ons (booking, call recording, Spanish line) and your budget starts around $300/mo. It's the most expensive entry point here, but it's a live person on every call.

Where ServiceHawk fits.

Answer, $99/mo. 24/7 answering on a dedicated number, call summaries by email, live transfer to your phone, 400 minutes included.

Book, $149/mo. Everything in Answer, plus appointment booking into your calendar and a text follow-up to the caller, 1,000 minutes included.

Add-ons. A second phone number is $19/mo. Text follow-up can be added to Answer for $29/mo. Overage on either plan is $0.25 a minute.

No setup fee, month to month, cancel anytime. Pick a plan at /plan.html, pay, and you get an email with your new number and nine quick questions. Forward your line and she's live the same day.

Home service business in South Florida? Grab a free listing on South Broward Pros while you're comparing receptionists, so the calls Bella answers keep growing.

What to check before you buy any AI receptionist.

✓

What happens after you use your included minutes.Overage rates on this page range from $0.25 to $0.48 a minute, or up to $11.50 a call on a human plan. Multiply your busiest month by that rate before you commit.

✓

Whether booking is included or bolted on.Some vendors sell message-taking at the entry tier and charge more, or require a higher plan, for real appointment booking. Confirm which tier you're actually being quoted.

✓

Which calendar or job software it actually connects to.A receptionist that can't book straight into the software you already run just creates a second inbox to check.

✓

Setup fees and contract length.Most vendors on this page advertise no setup fee and either month-to-month billing or a short free trial as of today. Ruby confirms no setup fee but doesn't publish anything about contract length or trials, and Goodcall's pricing page is similarly silent on contract terms, so get both in writing before you pay.

✓

Whether the demo matches the plan you'll pay for.Features shown in a sales demo sometimes live on a higher tier than the one you're quoted. Ask specifically what's included at your price before you sign up.

Questions people ask while comparing.

What is the best AI receptionist for a home service business?

It depends on your call volume and what you need on top of the phone. For a flat-priced plan built around booking real jobs, with calendar sync for the trades, ServiceHawk's $99 Answer or $149 Book plan fits most home service businesses. For very light call volume, Dialzara's $29 entry tier is genuinely cheaper. For a bundled chatbot and texting at the same price point, My AI Front Desk is worth comparing.

Is a human answering service ever a better choice than an AI receptionist?

Yes, if your calls skew emotionally heavy or you need a live human for compliance reasons. Ruby and Smith.ai both offer trained human agents, at a higher metered price than any AI option on this page.

Why do AI receptionist prices vary so much between vendors?

Because the billing unit is different. Some vendors meter minutes, some meter calls, and Goodcall meters unique customers with unlimited talk time. A business with a handful of long calls a month and a business with dozens of short repeat-caller calls will get very different bills on the same plan, which is why the sticker price alone doesn't tell you the real cost.

What should I check before signing up for any AI receptionist?

Confirm what happens after you use your included minutes or calls, whether appointment booking is included or a paid add-on, which calendar and job software it connects to, whether there's a setup fee or contract, and whether the plan you're quoted actually matches the demo you heard.

How much does ServiceHawk cost compared to these options?

ServiceHawk runs two flat plans: Answer at $99 a month with 400 minutes included, and Book at $149 a month with 1,000 minutes, booking, and text follow-up included. Extra minutes are $0.25 each, there's no setup fee, and it's month to month.