Solutions
The front desk you couldn't afford, by the minute.
A front desk of your own is priced by the person, and so is a human answering service. Heyline is priced by the minute — she answers, books into your Google Calendar, and takes a message on the rest.
No card · No setup · Keep your number · No website? Start here
Is an AI receptionist a real alternative to an answering service?
Yes, for a small shop that mostly needs the phone answered and appointments made. Heyline answers every ring, books straight into your Google Calendar, and takes a message when she can't help — billed by the minute instead of by the person. A human service still handles the calls a script can't.
Most owner-run shops choose between three things: hire someone for the desk, rent people by the minute from an answering service, or put an AI receptionist on the line. The first two are priced by the head or by the human minute. The third is priced by talk time, and there is no rota to fill.
The table below sets published prices beside each other. Prices checked September 2, 2026, on each company's own pricing page; every competitor figure in it carries a link to that page and the date it was read. Heyline's rows come from our own plans.
What does each option cost per minute?
Each per-minute figure is the monthly price divided by the included minutes.
| Who answers | Published entry price | Per included minute | What that price includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heyline Starter (AI) | $99/mo | $0.50 | 200 minutes, one business, a dedicated number, Google Calendar booking, transcripts, 30-day history. |
| Heyline Growth | $199/mo | $0.40 | 500 pooled minutes, up to three businesses, 30-day recordings, history up to 365 days. |
| Heyline Scale | $499/mo | $0.33 | 1,500 pooled minutes, up to five businesses, concierge setup. |
| Ruby (people answering) | $250/mo for 50 receptionist minutesTheir smallest published plan of four.source, checked | $3.45–$5.00Across the four published plans; the rate falls as the plan gets bigger.source, checked | Ruby's people answer in English or Spanish, around the clock. Ruby states that only the included minutes differ between plans. |
| Abby Connect (people or AI) | $165/mo for 50 Abby MinutesTheir signup page prints $164 for the same plan.source, checked | $2.76–$3.30 per Abby MinuteOne Abby Minute is a minute of human answering, or two minutes of their AI.source, checked | One pool covers both; an AI minute draws half a pool minute. |
| Voice-agent platforms (Vapi, Bland, Synthflow) | $0 platform fee, no card requiredBland's Start plan. Vapi's entry plan also carries no platform fee; Synthflow publishes no self-serve plan.source, checked | $0.14 a minute of talk timeBland's Start rate, before the cost of a phone number.source, checked | Developer infrastructure: you build it, wire the calendar, buy a number. Synthflow publishes no per-minute rate. |
Prices in USD. Every competitor cell links that vendor's own pricing page and the day it was read.
Decide with your ears — not a sales deck.
Paste your website and talk to your own receptionist, free, in your browser.
What does a human answering service do better?
Quite a lot, and pretending otherwise is the fastest way to lose your trust. A person improvises. When a caller is upset, confused, or telling a story that fits none of the questions you wrote down, a person follows it and Heyline can't. A person can also put a live caller through to you and answer in Spanish — Heyline does not.
Heyline's boundary is narrower than this category usually admits. She answers from what your website and your own notes taught her. Asked something outside that, she says she doesn't want to guess, takes a name and a number, and opens a call-back on your to-do list. That is a good ending, not the best one.
So the comparison worth making is price against capacity — not one against the other on quality. Nobody on this page, Heyline included, publishes evidence that would settle a quality argument. The category comparison walks through where each one fits.
What do the alternatives do well?
One fair paragraph each, from their own published material, read on September 2, 2026.
Ruby
The incumbent human desk, and it earns the position. Real people answer in English or Spanish around the clock, and Ruby publishes the same feature set on every plan with no activation or setup fee. They host a number you move to them at no extra cost, and they book appointments in your own calendar on every plan.
Abby Connect
A long-running human answering service that folded AI into the same subscription rather than selling it separately. One pool of minutes covers both, an AI minute costs half a human one, and their AI can hand a live caller to a US-based receptionist mid-call — an escape hatch no pure-AI product, Heyline included, offers.
Read moreVoice-agent platforms
Vapi, Bland and Synthflow are sold openly as developer infrastructure, and their own pricing pages say so. Bland folds speech, language and telephony into one published rate, which is easy to budget against. What none of them does is build you a receptionist from your website.
Read more
How do you try one without canceling the other?
Nothing has to be switched off to find out whether she's any good. You hear her in your browser first, before there is an account, a card or a number.
Paste your website
She reads your services, hours and service area off your own site and is ready in about sixty seconds. We tested that on 26 real business websites in July 2026: 25 seconds, on average.
Talk to her in the browser
No account, no card, no phone number. She'll ask for your microphone, then put the awkward questions to her your callers ask and change what she knows until she sounds like your shop.
Point one line at her
Going live gets you a dedicated number. Publish that, or leave your own number where it is and send her only the rings that go unanswered or land on a busy line.
Then drop whichever one loses
Going live puts a card on file and opens a 14-day trial that includes 60 minutes, roughly 25 calls. After that it's month to month, and canceling is a button on your billing page.
What the cheaper line does not buy you
She never hands a live caller to you or anyone else. There is no transfer, warm or otherwise — when the call needs a person, she takes a name and a number.
She never rings anyone back, and she never texts. No reminders, no confirmations, no chasing. The follow-up stays yours, sitting on your to-do list with the whole message attached.
She never answers in Spanish or French. English only, in the US and Canada, on US and Canadian numbers.
She never takes a card number, a deposit or a payment. If a caller starts reading one out, she stops them.
She never puts a price in a caller's ear that isn't in her notes, and never gives medical, legal or safety advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is an AI receptionist cheaper than an answering service?
On published prices, yes, and the gap is wide. Heyline's plans work out at between 33 and 50 cents per included minute. The human services on this page publish dollars per minute, not cents, because a person is on the line for every one of them. Compare capacity as well as the monthly figure — a cheap plan you keep overrunning is not cheap.
What does a human answering service do that Heyline doesn't?
Three things, plainly. A person handles the call that goes off-script — the upset caller, the rambler, the story that fits no question you wrote down. A person can put a caller through to you mid-call, and Heyline never does that. A person can answer in Spanish; Heyline never will. She is English-only, and when a call needs you she takes a message.
Is there a contract?
No. Heyline is month to month and you cancel from your billing page. Adding a card and going live opens a 14-day trial; stop it before day fifteen and nothing is charged. Annual billing is offered for two months free, never required. In fairness, Abby Connect publishes month-to-month terms too, and Ruby's pricing page states no contract length either way.
Do I have to cancel my answering service to try Heyline?
No, and you shouldn't. Building her and talking to her in your browser costs nothing and needs no account, card or phone number, so whatever answers your line today is untouched. Only going live provisions a number, and even then you choose whether to publish it or forward the calls you miss. Run both for two weeks if you want to.
Is she cheaper than hiring someone for the desk?
We don't publish a salary comparison, because we have no data on what a desk costs where you are. What we can say: Heyline is billed by the minute of talk time, not by the hour or the head, and there is nothing to roster, train or cover on a sick day. A person does things she can't — walk-ins, paperwork, putting a caller through.
Hear the difference before you switch.
Paste your website and take your own receptionist for a call. No card, and nothing to cancel first.
No card · No setup · Keep your number · No website? Start here
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