Heyline vs Ruby: she answers, or a person does.

Ruby staffs your calls with people. Heyline answers them with a disclosed AI receptionist you build from your own website. Both pick up around the clock, and both put appointments in your calendar while the caller is still on the line. What differs is who spends the minute, and what the minute costs.

Prices checked September 2, 2026. Every Ruby figure here comes from Ruby's plans and pricing page and its billing help article, read that day. Vendors reprice, so open the links before you decide. Heyline's own numbers are its published plans.

A Ruby minute buys a person on the phone. A Heyline minute buys an AI receptionist who says she is one, in every greeting, on every call. Those are not the same thing, and no table can make them the same thing. What a table can do is show what each minute costs.

This page does not rate Ruby's answer quality, because nothing first-party states it. It compares what both companies publish: a minute's price, what happens at the limit, and what you can hear first.

A great deal, and a comparison that pretends otherwise deserves to be ignored. Ruby's pricing page lists 24/7 live answering with Spanish and bilingual handling available, and the identical feature set on all four plans: scheduling, lead intake, payment collection, HIPAA-compliant services, number hosting, voicemail and transcription. The only thing that changes between plans is the number of minutes. That is rarer than it sounds.

Their page also states there are no additional or hidden fees for activation, onboarding, setup or customization. Real-time booking sits on every plan from the cheapest one up, inside your own Calendly or Google Calendar — not gated to a higher tier the way it is at some competitors.

Ruby will take your existing number too: their help center documents hosting your published number at no additional cost, in two to four weeks. Heyline does not port at all — you get a dedicated number and forward the rings you miss to it. And a person handles the call no notes cover: the confused caller, the angry one, the one who wants to pay now.

Start with the plan Ruby aimed at you. Their 100-minute plan is badged "Great for one-person businesses" at $395 a month, which works out at $3.95 for each included minute. Heyline Starter is $99 a month for 200 minutes, at $0.50 a minute. That is the whole argument, and it is arithmetic, not a claim.

So buy on the calls you actually get, not on the cheaper number. If people phone you to pay, to argue, or to ask something your website has never said, you want a person, and $3.95 is a fair price for one. If they call to ask your hours, whether you cover their neighborhood, and whether someone can come Thursday, an AI receptionist takes that call and puts it in your calendar.

There is a cheaper way to settle it than reading either company's page. Paste your website, talk to her in your browser, and ask the three questions your customers actually ask. The full plan comparison is one click away, and the category view covers answering services in general rather than one company.