Best Virtual Receptionist: A Practical Guide to Choosing One

A virtual receptionist answers your business phone without sitting in your office. Calls are forwarded from your existing number to the service, and the receptionist greets callers, answers basic questions, takes messages, and can book appointments. Your public phone number stays the same; you just point it somewhere else when you want calls covered.

It helps to know how this differs from an in-house receptionist. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in-house receptionists greet visitors and handle office tasks beyond the phone, so a phone service is not a full replacement for an employee. It is a way to cover calls when you are busy, closed, or simply cannot pick up. If you want a plain-English definition first, our guide to what a virtual receptionist is covers the basics in more depth.

• Answers calls on your existing business number
• Greets callers using your business information
• Takes messages and can book appointments
• Covers hours you cannot, such as evenings or busy stretches

The biggest fork in the road is who or what answers the phone. Human services like Ruby, AnswerConnect, and Smith.ai's live receptionist team use trained people. Ruby advertises plans starting at $245 per month as of October 2026, and Smith.ai prices its human receptionist service per call, so real costs depend on your call volume and the quote you get. Human services can handle judgment calls and nuanced conversations, but coverage hours, included allowances, and contract terms vary, so verify them on a current quote rather than a starting price.

AI receptionists answer with software. AllDayDesk, the product on this site, answers around the clock using business information you save, and Smith.ai sells a separate AI receptionist with on-demand escalation to its live agent network. AI pricing is per minute or per call rather than per human hour, so compare a quote against your call volume rather than assuming it is cheaper. The tradeoff is that software handles routine questions and bookings well but takes a message when it does not know an answer, price, or opening. If you want a deeper side-by-side, our AI receptionist vs human receptionist comparison breaks down the tradeoffs.

• Human services: trained people answer; pricing and plan minimums vary by provider
• AI services: software answers around the clock; usually per-minute or per-call pricing
• Some providers sell both, so read which product a price refers to
• Starting prices are not full costs; check included minutes or calls and overage rates

Use this checklist when evaluating any provider, human or AI. It reflects documented features rather than hands-on testing, so confirm each item during your own trial or demo.

• Coverage: does the service answer when your calls actually arrive, including after hours if you need it?
• Booking: can it book real appointments, and into which calendar? AllDayDesk books into its built-in dashboard calendar by default, with an optional Google Calendar connection you authorize in Settings.
• Messages: when the answer, price, or opening is unknown, does it take a message instead of guessing?
• Transfers: can urgent calls transfer to you, and what rules decide when? Note that no service can guarantee a transfer is picked up.
• Visibility: can you see calls, transcripts, summaries, and bookings afterward? AllDayDesk shows all of these in its dashboard.
• Setup: does it use your existing number through call forwarding, and does your carrier support the forwarding you need?
• Changes to existing appointments: confirm the service treats these as requests for you to approve, not confirmed changes made on your behalf.

Virtual receptionist pricing falls into a few patterns. Human services commonly charge a monthly plan with an included allowance of minutes or calls, plus overage fees; Ruby's advertised starting point of $245 per month is one example, and Smith.ai's human service prices per call. AI receptionists usually charge per minute of talk time, which makes costs track your actual call volume.

AllDayDesk uses per-minute pricing with plans that include a monthly minute allowance and a lower rate for extra minutes; current prices are shown on the pricing page rather than in this guide. Whatever provider you look at, ask three questions: what is included, what does an overage minute or call cost, and is there a contract or minimum term. Our answering service cost guide explains these models with worked examples.

• Human services often use a monthly plan with an included allowance plus overage fees, as Ruby's advertised plans do
• AI receptionists such as AllDayDesk price per minute of talk time with a monthly allowance
• Per-call pricing can be cheaper for many short calls and pricier for long ones
• Always check contract length and minimum commitments before signing

Every virtual receptionist depends on forwarding your existing number, so your phone service is part of the decision. Many carriers and phone products support forwarding — Verizon, T-Mobile, Spectrum Business Voice, Comcast Business, and AT&T products are documented examples — but the exact steps differ by product, and some setups do not work. One important example: Google explicitly states that forwarding calls from a Google Voice number to an automated system is unsupported, so a Google Voice number is not a compatible path to an AI receptionist.

Forwarding comes in two flavors. Unconditional forwarding sends all calls to the service. Conditional forwarding sends only busy, unanswered, or unreachable calls, which lets you answer your own phone first and let the service catch the rest. Verizon mobile, for example, uses *72 for all calls and *71 for unanswered calls, while T-Mobile uses **21 codes for unconditional and **61, **62, and **67 for no-reply, unreachable, and busy. Business landline and hosted systems like Spectrum Business Voice, Comcast Business, and AT&T products each have their own portal steps or codes, and the exact product name on your bill matters. Our carrier forwarding guides list verified steps for these documented providers.

• Confirm your carrier and exact product before using any star code
• Conditional forwarding lets you answer first and overflow to the service
• Google Voice numbers cannot be forwarded to an automated receptionist
• Test forwarding with a real outside call after activation

If your calls are mostly routine, appointment-driven, and arrive at all hours, an AI receptionist usually fits, because it handles bookings and messages consistently and its per-minute costs track your call volume. If your calls involve nuanced conversations, sensitive topics, or judgment-heavy screening, a human service may justify its price for your call mix. Some owners combine both: a human service during business hours and an AI service overnight, or the reverse.

Whichever way you lean, run the same test: forward a handful of real calls, review the transcripts or summaries, and check whether the messages and bookings would have been useful to you. That evidence beats any feature list.

• Routine, appointment-driven calls at any hour: AI usually fits
• Nuanced screening and judgment calls: human services fit better
• Mixed needs: consider combining coverage types
• Judge any provider on real forwarded calls, not marketing claims