What Is the Best Phone Answering Service?

Upfirst is the low-cost AI pick in this comparison. Smith.ai is the live-human pick when you want trained people answering calls 24/7. Published prices start at $24.95 per month for AI answering and $300 per month for 30 live-receptionist calls.

This is a documented comparison based on vendor pages, not a hands-on test. I did not sign up for each service, place calls, or configure each account. Use this as a shortlist, then run your own call test before moving your business phone.

This list is for local service owners who miss calls while driving, helping customers, or sleeping. I judged each phone answering service for business on five things:

• Can it answer after hours, weekends, and holidays?
• Can it tell a new job from a routine question?
• Can it book, text, or send urgent calls to a person?
• Is pricing public enough to compare?
• Would a busy owner understand the setup in one sitting?

TL;DR: Upfirst is the low-cost AI pick based on published pricing. Smith.ai is the live-human pick when callers need a person. If calls also come from text and website chat, Sera may fit better.

Service model	Best for	Starting price	Channels listed	After-hours coverage	Main limitation
Upfirst AI answering	Lowest published AI starting price	$24.95/month	Phone, in-call texts	24/7	—
Smith.ai live receptionists	Live human answering	$300/month for 30 calls	Phone	24/7	Add-ons can raise cost
AnswerHero human, AI, or both	Bilingual coverage	Not published	Phone	24/7, 365 days	You must ask for a quote
Sera by Twig	Calls plus text and chat	$49/month	Phone, SMS, web chat, email, WhatsApp	24/7	Not a live receptionist or HIPAA compliant
Smith.ai AI with human backup	AI with people available	Not published on after-hours page	Calls, texts, live chats	24/7	AI price is not shown on that page

Is Upfirst Best for Cheap AI Call Answering?

Upfirst is the best fit in this comparison when price is the main issue and your calls are mostly simple. Its pricing page starts at $24.95 per month, and it lists 24/7 answering, summaries, recordings, transcripts, transfers, booking, in-call texts, spam blocking, Zapier, more than 35 languages, and memory.

Best for: a plumber, roofer, landscaper, or solo office that needs callers answered instead of sent to voicemail.

Watch out for: urgent or emotional calls. For a caller with a flooded kitchen, I would test the transfer before trusting any AI answering service.

Pricing: Upfirst's pricing page lists these monthly prices and extra-call rates.

Published monthly price	Extra calls	Notes
$24.95	$1.50 each	Lowest listed monthly price
$59.95	$1 each	Second listed monthly price
$159.95	$0.75 each	Adds white-glove onboarding and custom integrations on the page
$299	$0.70 each	Adds white-glove onboarding and custom integrations on the page
Custom	Not published	Volume pricing

Upfirst’s pricing page lists call summaries, recordings and transcripts, transfers, appointment booking, in-call texts, spam blocking, Zapier, support for more than 35 languages, and memory. Confirm which plan includes each feature before buying.

For a home-service owner who only needs callers to describe the problem and request a callback, the $24.95 starting price may be enough. I would not use that setup for emergency calls until I had tested the transfer with my own phone.

Is Smith.ai Best for 24/7 Human Receptionists?

Smith.ai is the best fit here when you want real people answering your business phone 24/7. Its live receptionist pricing starts at $300 per month for 30 calls. The pricing page says all plans include live-staffed 24/7 answering, lead screening, no setup fees, no hidden fees, and no charge for spam.

Best for: businesses where the caller may need a calm person right away.

Watch out for: cost at higher call volume. Human answering can make sense, but you should price your real call count and add-ons.

Pricing: Smith.ai's pricing page lists:

Plan	Included calls	Monthly price	Overage
Starter	30	$300	$11.50/call
Basic	90	$810	$10.50/call
Pro	300	$2,100	$8.50/call
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Custom

Smith.ai's pricing page lists add-ons such as appointment booking, SMS or Slack notifications, Microsoft Teams notifications, text and email follow-up, call recording and transcription, a dedicated Spanish line, accepting payments, and complex call rules.

Smith.ai makes sense when every caller could be worth enough to justify a trained receptionist. If your calls are mostly “Are you open?” or “Can I book Tuesday?”, an AI phone call answering service may be enough.

Is AnswerHero Best for Bilingual After-Hours Calls?

AnswerHero is worth checking when bilingual answering matters and you want humans, AI, or a mix of both. Its 24-hour answering page says it answers around the clock, 365 days a year. Its page also says its bilingual staff can answer calls in English or Spanish all day, every day.

Best for: local businesses that regularly serve English and Spanish callers.

Watch out for: price comparison. AnswerHero does not publish a dollar price on the pages I checked, so you must ask for a quote before comparing cost.

Pricing: AnswerHero's 24/7 answering page describes live bilingual agents, an AI receptionist, or both. It also says calls can be answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

AnswerHero's small business page says its live virtual receptionists can schedule appointments, take messages, screen calls, and help capture more leads. It also says the small-business service has no contracts, no setup fees, no termination fees, customization options, and Spanish-speaking agents.

My note: this is a strong candidate if language coverage is the deciding factor. Before buying, I would ask for the monthly price at your expected call count, plus any fees for booking, urgent calls, or Spanish coverage.

Where Does Sera Fit, and Where Does It Not?

Sera is best when phone calls are only part of the problem. Twig makes Sera, so I am not neutral here. Sera answers calls, texts, and website chats 24/7. She asks what the customer needs and can book time with your team.

Best for: businesses that want Sera to remember the same customer across calls, texts, website chat, email, and WhatsApp.

Watch out for: Sera is not a live receptionist. Sera is also not HIPAA compliant, and Twig does not sign business associate agreements. Do not use Sera for HIPAA-covered work.

Pricing: Sera pricing starts at $49 per month for Starter. Every plan starts with a 15-day free trial, voice included, with no credit card.

Appointment booking, missed-call text-back, live transfers to a person, and multi-language conversations are included on Growth at $499 per month and above. Those are not on Starter.

Most businesses are live in under 30 minutes. You forward the phone line or add the website chat.

When Sera cannot answer, she sends the customer and the full transcript to a person you choose. You set the rules. Every conversation is logged with a full transcript.

Sera does not bind insurance coverage, quote premiums, give coverage advice, or file claims with carriers. In an insurance agency, licensed questions should go to a licensed person. Sera also has no direct integration with agency management systems like EZLynx, HawkSoft, Applied Epic, AMS360, or QQCatalyst.

If you want the plain definition before comparing tools, read what an AI front desk is. You can also see Sera, the AI Front Desk by Twig.

My take: Sera is strongest when missed calls are mixed with missed texts and website questions. Sera is weaker if you only want a human voice, medical compliance, or a receptionist to make judgment calls all day.

Is Smith.ai AI Receptionist Best for AI With Human Backup?

Smith.ai's AI Receptionist with human backup is worth checking when you want AI to answer routine after-hours calls and humans available for harder calls. Its after-hours page says it can answer calls, texts, and live chats outside normal 9-to-5 business hours. Smith.ai does not show an AI Receptionist price on that page.

Best for: businesses that want AI first, with professional agents available when the call needs a person.

Watch out for: price clarity. Smith.ai publishes live receptionist prices, but the after-hours page does not show the AI Receptionist plan price.

Pricing: Smith.ai's after-hours answering page describes AI Receptionist with human backup, 24/7 coverage, appointment scheduling, and live agents for complex calls. It does not show a dollar price for the AI Receptionist plan on that page.

This option may fit an owner who wants AI to answer at 9 PM, but still wants a person available for a complicated customer. It may be more than you need if most calls are short and routine.

How Should You Choose a Phone Answering Service?

Choose a phone answering service by writing down your last 20 missed calls, not by reading feature lists. Mark each call as new job, existing customer, billing, urgent, spam, or unknown. Then pick the service that handles your most common call safely.

Here is a simple worked example.

A plumbing company misses 20 calls in a week:

Missed call type	Count	Best answer	Why it matters
New job request	8	Book or collect details	Revenue risk
Existing job status	4	Take message	Office can call back
Emergency leak	3	Send to on-call person	Needs fast action
Pricing question	2	Answer from approved script	Simple repeat question
Spam	3	Block or ignore	Do not pay for junk

For that business, I would not start with a message-only service. I would pick an AI or mixed service that can spot emergencies, book normal jobs, and send a clear summary.

Use this test script when you try any provider:

“Thanks for calling [Business Name]. Are you calling about a new appointment, an existing job, billing, or something urgent?”

Then ask the service to handle these five calls:

1. A new customer wants the first available appointment.
2. A customer says the technician is late.
3. A caller asks for pricing.
4. A caller says water is coming through the ceiling.
5. A spam caller says nothing for five seconds.

My recommendation:

• Pick Upfirst for the lowest published AI price.
• Pick Smith.ai when callers need a person.
• Consider AnswerHero for bilingual coverage.
• Consider Sera when you need phone, text, and website chat covered together.

If you work in a regulated field, be stricter. For example, we wrote separately about AI answering for clinics and medspas because compliance changes the buying decision.

How Did I Pick These Phone Answering Services?

I picked services with public pages that explain answering coverage, after-hours support, pricing, or both. This is not a hands-on ranking. I did not call, configure, or test each service.

I included five service models rather than five separate companies. Smith.ai appears twice because its live receptionist pricing and AI-with-human-backup page answer different buyer questions.

I did not include every published review or every local answering service. Many providers do not publish enough pricing or feature detail to compare fairly.

The scoring was simple:

Factor	What I looked for
After-hours coverage	Nights, weekends, holidays, and 24/7 claims
Caller handling	Message, booking, transfer, or human help
Price clarity	Published monthly price or clear “not published” note
Small business fit	Setup a busy owner could manage
Limits	Where the service is weaker or unclear

Last verified: October 2026.

What Should You Do Next?

Do not buy a phone answering service from a demo alone. Pull five real missed calls from last week and ask each vendor to show how those calls would be handled.

If your missed calls also come with missed texts and website chats, start with Sera pricing. If you only need a live person on the phone, price a live receptionist plan against your real monthly call count.