Credit first
What the human options do well
A real receptionist does far more than answer the phone. The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the occupation as answering calls, receiving visitors and providing information, and that in-person, whole-front-office value is something no service or software replaces. If your business has walk-ins, paperwork and a front desk, a person is the right answer.
Live answering services earn their place too: month-to-month flexibility and 24/7 human coverage at a fraction of a hire. Ruby, one of the best known, includes 24/7 answering and bilingual support on every plan.
The numbers
- 01
The full-time hire
BLS puts the median receptionist wage at $37,230 a year, or $17.90 an hour, in its May 2024 data. Wages are not the whole bill: BLS also reports that for private industry workers, wages are 69.9% of total employer cost, with benefits the other 30.1%. Divide the median wage by that share and a receptionist's total employment cost lands near $53,260 a year. That is an estimate built on the all-industry average benefit share, and it leaves out recruiting, training, equipment and management time, so if anything it runs low.
- 02
The answering service
Ruby currently charges $250 a month for 50 receptionist minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, and $1,725 for 500. Across the industry, one phone-service vendor's analysis puts typical live answering at $0.75 to $1.50 per minute, with monthly plans from roughly $100 to $1,000 and up. You are buying minutes, so a busy month costs more than a quiet one.
- 03
The AI layer
Ours works differently: flat monthly pricing instead of minutes. The Receptionist answers questions on your website around the clock and sends you every lead, $99 a month. The Call Catcher texts back every missed call from your number within a minute, $99 a month. The Phone Receptionist, a voice that answers the phone itself, after hours or all day, is $249 a month. You are not billed until it goes live, every plan starts with a 7-day trial, and you can cancel anytime. See the Receptionist working.
The honest difference
A salary, a meter, or a flat fee
The hire is the most capable option and the most expensive, because you are paying for a whole person and getting a whole person. The answering service is humans by the minute: flexible, but the meter runs with your call volume.
The AI layer is the cheapest and the narrowest. It answers at 2am without overtime, it responds in seconds, and it costs the same in a busy month as a quiet one. It will not greet a walk-in or run your front desk, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Questions
Getting the phone answered, answered
Is an AI receptionist as good as a person?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. A person handles the whole front office. The AI layer does one narrow job well: it responds instantly, at any hour, for a flat monthly price. Plenty of businesses run both, the person by day and the software after close.
What does each option actually cost?
Using the sources on this page: a full-time hire runs near $53,260 a year in total employment cost by BLS figures. Ruby's live answering plans run $250 to $1,725 a month depending on minutes. Our AI plans run $99 to $249 a month, flat.
Which one should a small local business pick?
If you have walk-ins and steady daytime volume, hire the person. If you need overflow and after-hours coverage with a human voice, an answering service fits. If what you are losing is mostly missed calls and after-hours questions, the AI layer covers exactly that at the lowest cost of the three.
Not sure which one fits?
Tell us how the phone gets answered today and we will give you a straight recommendation, even if the honest answer is to hire a person.
Sources
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, receptionists (median pay, May 2024 data)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, March 2026 (wage share of total employer cost)
- Ruby, published pricing
- Nextiva, answering service cost analysis (industry vendor analysis)