Ruby proved something important: businesses will pay $250 to $1,725 a month just to make sure a professional voice answers the phone. The question worth asking before you sign: are you buying answered minutes, or booked customers?
Facts checked 2026-07-02 · Pricing from official pages · No affiliate links — we compete in this market.
The right call when a live human voice is non-negotiable.
The better fit when you want the front-desk job done — at machine scale.
Ruby (formerly Ruby Receptionists) is the best-known live virtual-receptionist service in the US — real humans answering with your greeting, taking messages, and transferring calls, with live chat as an add-on. It publishes its pricing openly and charges no setup fees. What follows is its published plan grid.
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Ruby 50 | $250/mo | 50 receptionist minutes — about $5.00 per minute of live human answering. |
| Ruby 100 | $395/mo | 100 receptionist minutes. |
| Ruby 200 | $720/mo | 200 receptionist minutes — their most popular plan. |
| Ruby 500 | $1,725/mo | 500 receptionist minutes. |
| Live chat add-on | $143–$520/mo | 10–50 chats/mo; ~20% off when bundled with a receptionist plan. |
The alternatives split into three lanes: hybrids that mix AI with human backup, self-serve AI you configure yourself, and managed AI operated for you. The deciding question is who does the work — their staff by the minute, you at a dashboard, or an operator accountable for results.
| Option | Model | Entry price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARXREV AI Front Desk | Done-for-you AI, managed for outcomes | $3,500/mo flat (3 agents) | Businesses that want every call answered and converted — qualification, follow-up, and booking handled by an operator, not a meter. |
| Smith.ai | Hybrid (AI + $3/call human handoff) | $500/mo headline (grid form-gated) | Per-call billing with humans on standby; strong in legal intake. |
| Abby Connect | Human + separate AI line | AI $99/mo · human $329/mo | Firms that want a small dedicated human team; AI line priced near human rates. |
| Goodcall | Self-serve AI | $79/mo | Owners willing to configure their own agent; bills per unique customer served. |
| Rosie | Self-serve AI | $49/mo (250 min) | Message-taking on a budget; booking and live transfers locked to higher tiers. |
A human receptionist answers one call at a time. When two customers call during a storm surge, one of them waits — and callers who wait call the next result. An AI front desk answers every call at once, at 3 p.m. or 3 a.m.
Ruby's meter runs on talk time. The AI Front Desk is judged on booked meetings: it qualifies the caller, texts back missed calls in seconds, follows up persistently, and puts real slots on your calendar.
Keeping humans in the loop matters — for the moments that need judgment. Escalation rules route urgent or sensitive calls to your team with full context, and your people spend their warmth on customers, not on repeating your hours.
As of July 2026, Ruby's published receptionist plans are $250/month for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, and $1,725 for 500 minutes — roughly $3.45 to $5 per minute of live human answering. Live chat is a separate add-on ($143–$520/month, discounted when bundled). Overage rates aren't published.
Human. Ruby's core service is live receptionists answering with your greeting, with what it describes as optional AI enhancements at no extra cost. If you want an AI-first service at a lower per-unit cost, that's a different category — see the alternatives table above.
If you mainly need messages taken cheaply, self-serve AI like Rosie ($49) or Goodcall ($79) does the basics — you set it up and run it yourself. If you want the outcome Ruby's buyers are actually paying for — a professional front desk that never misses a call — but with qualification, instant follow-up, and booked meetings included, a done-for-you AI front desk like ARXREV's is the direct upgrade path.
Increasingly, yes — what callers punish isn't AI, it's friction: hold music, voicemail, and slow callbacks. A well-built AI front desk answers before the third ring, speaks naturally, discloses it's an AI where required, and hands off to your team the moment a conversation needs a human.
Yes. ARXREV's AI Front Desk answers on your existing number — switching is a forwarding change, not a number change.
Ruby sells human minutes — warm, professional, and priced accordingly, with the meter running per minute. ARXREV builds and operates an AI front desk accountable for outcomes: every call, text, and email answered at once, 24/7, qualified, followed up, and booked into your calendar, with compliance built in. Your team keeps the in-person human moments; the system makes sure no customer ever waits.
That's our AI Front Desk on the right, replaying a real shift — answering, qualifying, booking. 20 minutes on your situation and we'll show it running live, not a slide deck.
And unlike most of this market, our pricing is public: 3 custom agents for $3,500/mo or unlimited for $5,000/mo, flat — see pricing.
Book a call →A shift like tonight's, replayed — every step logged and reviewable.