Ruby vs Smith.ai: per-minute or per-call answering for contractors

Ruby or Smith.ai: what is the real difference?

How they count. Ruby sells blocks of receptionist minutes. Smith.ai sells blocks of calls. Both offer live people answering around the clock, both can transfer calls to you, and both sell to trades as well as law firms and medical offices. Which one costs less for you comes down to two numbers from your phone log: how many calls you get and how long the receptionist spends on each.

This page compares pricing and terms only, from each company's own pages as listed in October 2026. We don't rate how well either one handles calls. The only fair way to judge that is to test both on your own line.

How does Ruby bill?

Ruby's pricing page listed four receptionist plans in October 2026: 50 minutes for $250 a month, 100 for $395, 200 for $720 and 500 for $1,725. Ruby says the only difference between plans is the number of minutes, so every plan gets the same features: 24/7 answering including weekends and holidays, bilingual Spanish service, scheduling, outbound call help (on weekdays, per its FAQ), AI transcripts, local or toll-free number hosting, and no fees for activation, onboarding, setup or customization. Live chat is sold separately.

The details of minute counting matter, and Ruby's billing help article (dated September 2026) spells them out:

• Minutes are billed in 60-second increments, rounded up. A ten-second call counts as a full minute.
• The clock starts when a receptionist picks up and includes time the caller spends on hold, plus time the receptionist spends finishing notes after the caller hangs up.
• It stops when the call is transferred to you or your voicemail. Your own talk time after a transfer is not billed.
• Minutes over the plan are charged at the plan's overage rate on the following invoice. The overage rates were not listed on the pages we read, so ask for them.
• Unused minutes do not roll over. Ruby emails you at 85% and 100% of your minutes, and says that if your bill shows another plan fits better, it can upgrade you effective from the start of that billing period.
• New customers can change plans freely during their first three billing cycles. After that, upgrades apply right away, but a downgrade requires three straight billing periods on the same plan.
• Paying by credit card adds a 3% processing fee; debit card, ACH and check are also accepted.

On terms, Ruby's FAQ answers the long-term contract question with a no. Outside the money-back period, cancelling takes effect at the end of the current monthly billing period. First-time customers get a money-back guarantee if they cancel within 21 days of buying or before using 500 receptionist minutes, whichever comes first.

Ruby's homepage states that a trained receptionist, not a bot, answers your calls, and lists home-service trades such as roofing, plumbing, HVAC and landscaping among its industries. It also lists number porting and robocall filtering.

How does Smith.ai bill?

Smith.ai's pricing page splits answering into AI-first and human-first. In October 2026 the human-first tiers were listed as 30 calls for $300 a month, 90 for $810 and 300 for $2,100, with each extra call at $11.50, $10.50 or $8.50 depending on the plan, plus a custom enterprise tier. Smith.ai bills per call, not per minute, and its FAQ says spam and unsolicited sales calls are not counted as long as the lines you forward pass caller ID. Answering at 2 a.m. costs the same as 2 p.m.

Every human plan includes screening and a five-question intake, its own local or toll-free number (or free porting of your current one), and one CRM integration. Many features a contractor would use are per-call add-ons, including appointment booking at $1.50, a dedicated Spanish line at $1.00, recording and transcription at $0.25, text or Slack alerts at $0.50, taking payments at $1.00 and extended intake at $1.50. A second CRM costs $0.50 a call.

On terms, Smith.ai says it is month to month: if you cancel, you are billed through the end of the current cycle. A plan change starts billing the following month. It offers a 10% discount on a 12-month commitment, plus a money-back guarantee refunding plan and add-on charges up to $1,000 within the first 30 days, though overage is not covered.

The AI receptionist is a separate line: a free tier covering 25 calls monthly ($3.00 a call after that), Pro from $150 a month at $2.00 a call, and Enterprise from $500 a month at $1.67 a call, all month to month on self-serve plans. Its AI pricing FAQ asks for 30 days' notice to cancel, and spam works differently there: every answered call counts by default, with an allowance to remove up to 10% of calls as spam each cycle. A live agent can be added per call on any AI plan, and Smith.ai says there is no fee when the AI itself escalates.

How do the bills compare on the same month?

A made-up month, using only the listed prices: a small HVAC company forwards 60 calls. Each call takes the receptionist about two and a half minutes, including a short hold, and 40 of the calls end in a booked visit.

• Ruby. Each 2.5-minute call rounds up to 3 billed minutes, so 60 calls use 180 minutes. That fits the 200-minute plan at $720, with scheduling included.
• Smith.ai human-first. The 30-call plan plus 30 extra calls is $300 plus $345, or $645. Add booking on 40 calls at $1.50 and the month comes to $705. The 90-call plan would be $810 plus the same $60 for booking.

Change the inputs and the answer flips. If calls are short, say one minute each, Ruby's 100-minute plan at $395 could cover 60 calls while Smith.ai's per-call price stays the same. If calls run long, say six minutes while a customer describes a leak, Ruby's 60 calls need 360 minutes and Smith.ai's per-call price doesn't move. Short calls favor minutes. Long calls favor per-call billing. Add-ons narrow or widen the gap depending on how many you use.

Run your own version with last month's call log, then run it again for your busiest month. Heat waves, freezes and storms change both the count and the length of calls.

Who does each one suit?

Ruby tends to suit:

• businesses whose calls are short and routine, such as booking confirmations and quick questions, where minute billing stays low;
• owners who want Spanish, scheduling and every other feature without pricing out add-ons;
• offices with steady, predictable minutes that can pick one plan and leave it.

Smith.ai tends to suit:

• businesses with longer calls, since the price per call doesn't grow with the conversation;
• owners who want to test AI answering on real calls before paying, given the free 25-call AI tier;
• companies that want AI answering and human answering from one vendor, and to move between them;
• offices whose CRM is already on Smith.ai's integration list.

For a deeper look at each, see our Ruby alternative and Smith.ai alternative pages.

What to confirm in writing before you sign

1. Overage. Ruby's per-minute overage rate for your plan, and whether either company caps a runaway month.
2. Your number. Both list porting. Ask how you move the number back out if you leave.
3. Your records. Where call notes land, and whether you can export the full history.
4. Emergencies. How a no-heat or flooding call reaches your on-call tech at night, and who decides what counts as urgent.
5. A test week. Call your own line at odd hours with a hard question and listen to what your customers would hear.

Our list of questions to ask an answering provider covers more.

The owned alternative

Both services rent you a front desk. That is a fair trade for many businesses, and the call records still live in the provider's dashboard unless you connect them to something you control. The other route is an AI receptionist set up on a business phone system and number you own, writing every call into your own CRM with the caller, job type, urgency and source. It needs written call rules and a clear path to a person, and it takes setup work up front. We answer our own service companies' calls this way.

Frequently asked questions