What exactly does Smith.ai do?

Smith.ai answers your business calls with software, around the clock. It screens callers, answers questions, books appointments, and can transfer calls. When a call needs a person, more than 500 employed receptionists are available as a paid per-call add-on, and it also sells a separate all-human answering product.

How much does Smith.ai cost per month?

Its automated plans run from free (25 calls a month, card on file) to $150 a month on Pro and $500 on Enterprise, roughly $2 to $3 a call on the free and Pro plans. The separate human receptionist service starts at $300 a month for 30 calls.

How much does Upfirst cost?

Upfirst charges $24.95 a month for 30 calls, $59.95 for 90, $159.95 for 300, or $299 for 600. Extra calls cost $0.70 to $1.50 each depending on the plan, and annual billing takes 20% off. Every feature is included on every plan.

Which is cheaper, Smith.ai or Upfirst?

Upfirst, at every volume. Ninety calls cost $59.95 at Upfirst and about $180 on Smith.ai's Pro plan at $2.00 a call. What Smith.ai's premium buys is human backup and a ten-year track record, which Upfirst does not offer at any price.

Does Upfirst have human receptionists?

No. Upfirst is fully automated, and when a call needs a person it transfers to you or your team with a warm handoff. Smith.ai is the one with employed receptionists available behind its software.

Is Smith.ai a legitimate company?

Yes. Smith.ai reports more than 25 million calls answered over ten-plus years, for over 5,000 businesses. It also tells callers up front that they are speaking with an automated receptionist.

Comparison · Updated July 15, 2026

Smith.ai vs Upfirst: what the price gap actually buys

Smith.ai is the established name in phone answering, and Upfirst is the low-cost newcomer undercutting it. This Smith.ai vs Upfirst comparison uses each company's own live pricing pages, checked on July 15, 2026. One honest note before we start: we build EveryDial, an answering service for home-services trades, and it appears here as a third option. Where a rival is the better pick for you, we say so.

Smith.ai

Ten years and 25 million calls in. AI answers first, with employed receptionists behind the software for messy calls.

Pricing: Free (25 calls/mo), Pro $150/mo; human plans from $300/moBest for: Offices that want AI with human backup, like law firms

Upfirst

A young AI-only service with every feature on every plan, from $24.95 a month. No humans behind it, and no contract.

Pricing: $24.95/mo (30 calls) to $299/mo (600 calls), per callBest for: Small businesses that want the lowest entry price

EveryDial

Built only for home services. It books the job and sends you the details after every call, on every plan.

Pricing: $49/mo (100 min) or $149/mo (400 min), same rate past the capBest for: Solo and small home-services crews

Feature	Smith.ai	Upfirst	EveryDial
What answers the call	AI, with paid human backup	AI only	AI only
Billing model	Per call	Calls included, per-call overage	Minutes included, same rate after
Starting price	Free (25 calls/mo), then $150/mo	$24.95/mo, 30 calls	$49/mo, 100 minutes
Cost past the plan	$2.00 to $3.00 per call	$0.70 to $1.50 per call, by plan	$0.49 per minute (Starter)
Free trial	Free plan, card on file	14 days, no card	7 days, no card
Books appointments	Yes	YesGoogle, Outlook, Calendly, more	YesOn every plan
Transfers calls to your team	Yes	YesWarm handoff	Emergencies ring your cell
Languages beyond English	YesEnglish and Spanish	Yes35+ languages	NoEnglish only today
Spam and robocall screening	YesOn every plan	YesBlocked, never billed	YesFlags spam calls
Setup	About 15 minutes, with test calls first	Under 15 minutes, no contract	Self-serve, no sales call

What 60 calls a month actually costs

Take a one-person trade business: 60 calls a month at about three and a half minutes each, 210 minutes total, and you want appointments booked, not just messages taken. Prices below come from each company's pricing page, checked July 15, 2026.

Upfirst (Premium)$59.95 flat, 60 calls fit the 90-call plan$59.95/mo
EveryDial (Starter)$49 + 110 extra minutes at $0.49$102.90/mo
Smith.ai AI Receptionist (Pro)$150 flat, 60 calls fit the 75-call tier$150/mo
Smith.ai on the free plan$0 + 35 calls past the 25 free at $3.00$105/mo

Yes, Upfirst is the cheapest option here, including cheaper than us. The rows above it are what the extra money buys: trade-job booking on our $49 plan, human backup and a long track record at Smith.ai. Prices change, so check each pricing page before you decide.

What you are actually choosing between

These two answer the phone the same way, with software, but they are built on different bets. Smith.ai has answered more than 25 million calls over ten-plus years, and behind its software sit over 500 employed receptionists in North America who can take over a messy call as a paid per-call add-on. Upfirst is young, has no humans behind it at all, and charges a fraction of the price. So the real question in Smith.ai vs Upfirst is simple: is human backup and a long track record worth paying two to six times more per call?

The prices on the pages ranking for this search are wrong

Every page ranking for this comparison misquotes Smith.ai. One ranking comparison lists it at $95 a month, Upfirst's own blog says $95 as well, and a third page says $240. Smith.ai's live automated plans are free, $150, and $500 a month. One of those pages also claims Smith.ai has no Spanish answering; its live pricing page lists English and Spanish on every plan. That is why every number here links to a live pricing page, with the date we checked stamped on the cost table.

Pricing: two per-call models, one big gap

Both companies bill by the call, and that matters: a two-minute wrong-number chat and a ten-minute booked job cost you the same. Smith.ai's automated plans run free for 25 calls a month, then $150 on Pro, about $2.00 a call. Its separate human product starts at $300 a month for 30 calls. Upfirst charges $24.95 a month for 30 calls, $59.95 for 90, $159.95 for 300, or $299 for 600, which works out to roughly $0.67 a call on the 90-call plan. Extra calls cost $0.70 to $1.50 each depending on the plan, annual billing takes 20% off, and there is no contract.

Run the math at the same volume and the gap is stark. Ninety calls cost $59.95 at Upfirst and about $180 on Smith.ai Pro. The difference is not waste; it is what a decade of call handling and a bench of human receptionists cost. Whether that is worth it depends on how bad a badly handled call is for your business.

Where Smith.ai wins

Human backup: when a call gets messy, a real receptionist can step in. Upfirst has no equivalent at any price.
Track record: 25 million calls over ten-plus years, against a newcomer still proving itself.
Deeper integrations: Salesforce, HubSpot, and Clio built in, plus 5,000+ apps through Zapier and Make.
Test safely: up to 50 free simulated calls a month before real callers hear it.

Watch for: the free plan needs a card on file, and per-call pricing adds up fast past your tier. One law-firm owner on Reddit put it plainly: "Smith.ai became too expensive for what it is."

Where Upfirst wins

Price, by a wide margin: $24.95 gets you started, and every feature comes on every plan.
The best trial terms here: 14 days, full features, real calls, no card.
35+ languages, switched automatically on the call.
Spam calls are blocked and never count against your plan, and there is no contract to sign.

Watch for: no human ever picks up, the 30 calls on the entry plan disappear fast, and extra calls on that plan cost $1.50 each. Its comparison content also quotes rivals' prices loosely, so verify anything you read on a vendor blog against the live pricing page.

The third option, built for one-truck trades

EveryDial does one job: it answers for home-services businesses, books the work on the $49 plan, and sends you the details of every call. Billing is by the minute, so a quick call costs cents instead of a full per-call fee, and extra minutes cost the same rate as included ones. Try it free for 7 days.

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How to choose

Pick Smith.ai if a mishandled call is expensive for you and you want human backup one escalation away.
Pick Upfirst if price is the deciding factor and you are comfortable with a young, fully automated service.
Pick ours if you run a small trade business and want booking plus per-minute billing. The answering service for plumbers and HVAC answering service pages show how it handles a real job call.

Whichever way you go, price it against your real call volume first. Our free missed call calculator shows what a month of unanswered calls already costs you, which makes any of these monthly fees easier to judge.

FAQ

Common questions

What exactly does Smith.ai do?: Smith.ai answers your business calls with software, around the clock. It screens callers, answers questions, books appointments, and can transfer calls. When a call needs a person, more than 500 employed receptionists are available as a paid per-call add-on, and it also sells a separate all-human answering product.
How much does Smith.ai cost per month?: Its automated plans run from free (25 calls a month, card on file) to $150 a month on Pro and $500 on Enterprise, roughly $2 to $3 a call on the free and Pro plans. The separate human receptionist service starts at $300 a month for 30 calls.
How much does Upfirst cost?: Upfirst charges $24.95 a month for 30 calls, $59.95 for 90, $159.95 for 300, or $299 for 600. Extra calls cost $0.70 to $1.50 each depending on the plan, and annual billing takes 20% off. Every feature is included on every plan.
Which is cheaper, Smith.ai or Upfirst?: Upfirst, at every volume. Ninety calls cost $59.95 at Upfirst and about $180 on Smith.ai's Pro plan at $2.00 a call. What Smith.ai's premium buys is human backup and a ten-year track record, which Upfirst does not offer at any price.
Does Upfirst have human receptionists?: No. Upfirst is fully automated, and when a call needs a person it transfers to you or your team with a warm handoff. Smith.ai is the one with employed receptionists available behind its software.
Is Smith.ai a legitimate company?: Yes. Smith.ai reports more than 25 million calls answered over ten-plus years, for over 5,000 businesses. It also tells callers up front that they are speaking with an automated receptionist.

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