Best Virtual Receptionist Service: A Practical Guide to Choosing One

Before comparing brands, it helps to know which category you are shopping in. Most services fall into one of three groups, and each fits a different kind of business.

Human virtual receptionist services use trained people who answer your calls from a remote office. Ruby offers live virtual receptionists with plans starting at $245 per month as of October 2026, though the real cost depends on your included allowance, overage rates, hours and contract terms. Smith.ai uses per-call pricing for its human receptionist service, so you pay based on call volume. AnswerConnect provides 24/7 live business answering by people. These services give you a human voice, but coverage details and fees vary by service and plan.

AI receptionist services use software instead of people. AllDayDesk is an AI receptionist that answers business calls around the clock using information the owner saves about the business. It can take messages, answer questions from that saved information, and book new appointments. Smith.ai also sells a separate AI receptionist product with on-demand escalation to its live agent network, which is a different service from its human receptionist plans.

A third option is not hiring any service at all: an in-house receptionist. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in-house receptionists do more than answer phones, including greeting visitors and handling office tasks. A phone service covers calls only, so compare the scope of what you actually need rather than treating a service as a full employee replacement.

• Human services: real people answer; pricing varies by plan and call volume
• AI services: software answers, with around-the-clock availability
• In-house receptionist: broadest scope of duties, but a salary and office cost
• Hybrid options exist, such as Smith.ai's AI receptionist with escalation to live agents

Use this checklist when evaluating any provider, including AllDayDesk. Ask each company these questions directly, because published pages rarely tell the whole story.

• Who or what answers: a person, an AI, or a mix? Ask how the AI handles questions it cannot answer.
• Hours and availability: is coverage around the clock, and is that availability a guarantee that every call connects, or just when the service is offered?
• Pricing model: per call, per minute, or flat monthly? Ask what happens when you exceed your included amount.
• Message handling: when the service does not know an answer, a price or an appointment time, does it take a message for you? AllDayDesk does.
• Appointment booking: can it book new appointments? AllDayDesk books into its built-in dashboard calendar once you configure services and availability, with an optional Google Calendar connection in Settings after you connect and authorize your account. Changes to existing appointments are requests for you, not confirmed changes.
• Call transfers: can the receptionist transfer urgent calls to you? AllDayDesk transfers require you to configure a destination and rules first, and neither pickup nor an immediate response is guaranteed.
• Visibility: can you see calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings yourself? AllDayDesk shows all of these in its dashboard.

Here is a summary of what each provider publicly documents, based on their own pages rather than independent testing. Verify current details on each company's site before deciding, because plans and prices change.

Ruby is a human virtual receptionist service with plans advertised starting at $245 per month as of October 2026. Smith.ai's human receptionist service uses per-call pricing that depends on the needs you select, and it also sells a separate AI receptionist with on-demand escalation to live agents. AnswerConnect offers 24/7 live answering by people. AllDayDesk is an AI receptionist that answers around the clock using your saved business information, takes messages when it does not know an answer, books new appointments, and gives you a dashboard with calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings.

The honest way to choose: if a human voice on every call matters most to you, look at the human services and get quotes that include your expected call volume. If you want around-the-clock coverage at a predictable monthly price and you are comfortable with an AI handling routine questions and booking, an AI receptionist like AllDayDesk is worth hearing for yourself. Note that Google Voice numbers cannot be forwarded to an automated system, so check how your current phone service forwards calls before signing up with anyone.

• Ruby: human receptionists, plans from $245/month (checked October 2026)
• Smith.ai: human receptionists with per-call pricing; separate AI receptionist product with live-agent escalation
• AnswerConnect: 24/7 live answering by people
• AllDayDesk: AI receptionist, around-the-clock availability, dashboard with transcripts and bookings, optional Google Calendar connection

Whichever service you choose, you will need to forward your business number to it. The steps depend on your phone carrier. For example, Verizon mobile uses *72 plus the destination number for all-call forwarding and *73 to turn it off, while T-Mobile uses **21*1 followed by the destination and #. Business landline and hosted systems like Spectrum Business Voice or Comcast Business Voice Mobility manage forwarding through their own portals or codes, so identify your exact product first. If you use Google Voice, forwarding to an automated system is not supported by Google.

With AllDayDesk, setup starts by choosing your business or entering its website, checking the details it pulled together, hearing a personalized sample of how it would answer, and then choosing your phone setup option. The sample is a preview only and creates no real booking. Once you are live, you can check the dashboard to review real calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings, which is a better test than any single trial call.

• Identify your exact phone product before using any forwarding instructions
• Forwarding codes differ between wireless, landline and hosted business systems
• Google Voice cannot forward calls to an automated system
• Test a service by reviewing real dashboard data, not just one call