Methodology

What we include

Services that answer phone calls for small businesses — AI receptionists, AI add-ons inside field-service or phone software, and live answering services for comparison — with a live official website that describes the product. We currently list 21 services.

How facts are checked

• Every price, plan, trial, feature and integration comes from the vendor's own website (pricing page first), read on 2026-10-17.
• Each product page lists the exact source URLs and the date checked.
• If a vendor doesn't publish a price, we say "Pricing not published" or "Contact sales". We never estimate.
• If a vendor's own page is inconsistent, we say so (for example, Phonely's plan cards and comparison table list different minute counts).
• We record what is not stated, too ("Not stated on pricing page").

What we don't do

• No star ratings, scores or invented reviews.
• No testimonials — vendor testimonials aren't independent.
• We have not yet run our own live call tests. When we do, we'll publish the method and the raw results.
• No paid rankings. Tables are alphabetical; profession pages explain the facts behind each shortlist.

Excluded for now

Enterprise-only voice AI platforms (for example, Synthflow, whose pricing page says enterprise contracts start at $30,000 a year) and do-it-yourself developer platforms, because they aren't practical for most small service businesses.

Corrections

Prices change. If you find an error, the vendor's page is the final word; we re-check listings regularly and update the date shown.