Smith.ai alternatives: 10 Options + pricing

Smith.ai might sound good on paper. It promises to replace in-house receptionists and save businesses thousands with AI agents. But if you look closer, you’ll find that more convenient options are available. 

With Smith.ai, some features are only included on annual plans or come as add-ons to monthly plans. You’ll also need to factor in Smith.ai’s pricey overage fees — that aren’t easy to scale as your team grows. And considering full training usually takes four to six weeks, it might not be the best option if you want to start handling calls right away.

Searching for a more cost-effective AI answering service? This guide breaks down 10 Smith AI alternatives. You can compare their pricing, features, and limitations to find a better fit for your business.

Comparing the best Smith.ai alternatives

Short on time? Here’s a quick comparison of the top 10 Smith.ai alternatives:

Here’s the complete comparison table:

Tool name	Best for	Starting price	Top features
Quo	Growing businesses	$15 per user per month	Unlimited calling and texting in the US and Canada, AI voice agent Sona, multilingual Sona support, warm transfers, Sona texting during live calls, call recordings, AI summaries and transcripts, customizable call routing, shared phone numbers, drag-and-drop call flow builder, and over 8,000 integrations via Zapier and Make
Ruby Receptionist	Traditional receptionists	$250 per month	Live virtual receptionist services, live web chat with humans, bilingual support, outbound call support, HIPAA compliance, and integration with Clio
Olark	Accessible chatbots	$29 per user per month	ADA-compliant live chat, WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility certification, integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk, visitor co-browsing add-on, and a live chat translation add-on
Bland AI	Enterprise brands	$299 per month	Voice calls, SMS, web chat support, visual conversation flow builder, multi-language support, HIPAA compliance, API integrations, and self-hosted infrastructure
Tidio	Web-based customer support	$24.17 per month	Lyro AI chatbot, real-time handoffs to your reps, multi-language support, third-party integrations, real-time AI agent conversation monitoring, and website and support content training
Freshdesk	Omnichannel customer support	$19 per user per month	Freddy AI agent, omnichannel support for email, chat, in-app messaging, and WhatsApp, reply suggestions, customer portal and knowledge base, sentiment analysis with an upgrade, and dashboards and pre-built reports
Zendesk	Ticket management	$19 per user per month	Omnichannel ticket management, 1,200+ marketplace integrations, custom knowledge bases, social and messaging support, AI agents that learn from every interaction, and CSAT survey linking
LiveChat	Handling payments	$19 per person per month	Stripe payment integration via chat, visitor tracking, text intelligence that helps you set up the platform, 60 days of chat history, 24/7/365 customer support, and an AI agent via ChatBot integration
Intercom	Social media apps	$29 per user per month	Fin AI agent, integrations with WhatsApp, Instagram, and SMS, shared team inboxes, help desk, real-time reporting dashboards, VoIP phone system with an upgrade, and HIPAA compliance with an upgrade
Rosie	Backup virtual receptionists	$41 per month	Inbound and outbound call automation, message taking, bilingual English and Spanish support, call summaries and transcripts, Google Business Profile training, appointment booking via calendar integrations, and Zapier integration

1. Quo: Best Smith.ai alternative for growing businesses

Pros

• AI voice agent, Sona, on every plan
• Multilingual AI receptionist supports English, Spanish, and French 
• Text links or transfer callers during live Sona calls
• Texting automations that save time, such as snippets, auto-replies, and scheduled texts
• Unlimited calling and texting to the US and Canada

Cons

• Can’t verify accounts through two-factor authentication*

*Nearly all virtual phone numbers share this problem. For safety reasons, companies like Facebook, Uber, and Google rarely let you authenticate accounts through a virtual phone number.

Quo is a business phone system designed to build better relationships with your customers. It helps you engage customers, collaborate with your team, and split responsibility for incoming calls. We’re also rated #1 in customer satisfaction on G2 and trusted by 90,000+ companies.

You can use Quo from anywhere to call and text customers. All you need is a WiFi connection and a device you already own, like your laptop or smartphone. Quo also lets you make and receive unlimited calls and texts in the US and Canada.

Quo’s AI voice agent, Sona, is available on every plan. Unlike Smith.ai, which is a standalone system, Sona is built right into Quo. That means you never need to forward calls or switch tools to keep tabs on customer conversations.

Sona automatically answers calls 24/7 — or just when your team is unavailable — and:

• Greets callers
• Collects messages
• Answers FAQs
• Logs full conversations with summaries, transcripts, and call recordings

“With Sona, I never worry about missing a call again. It’s like having a smart, reliable assistant who always picks up. It’s professional, friendly, and on it 24/7.” — Christopher Sands, CEO at Hannon DePalma

Unlike Smith.ai, where training can take four to six weeks for most small teams, you can start using Sona in 15 minutes or less. Just upload a document or provide a URL to give Sona the knowledge it needs about your business. Then, set up instructions that explain to Sona what to do in different situations. For example, Sona can help with lead qualification, transferring complex calls to the right rep, or sending texts with booking links during live calls.

Plus, you can filter call views to only see calls handled by Sona. When you click on a contact, you’ll see the full conversation history in one place. With Smith.ai, it takes more time to catch up on conversations. All customer calls live in a separate app, so they won’t show up alongside the rest of your contact’s conversation history. 

On any Quo plan, you can customize Sona’s greetings and responses for customers who call during or after hours. Smith.ai, on the other hand, requires an upgrade to access this feature.

See Sona in action for yourself:

Sign up to try Quo and Sona for free for seven days

Key features of Quo

• On-demand and automatic call recordings
• AI-driven transcripts, summaries, and call tagging
• 8,000+ third-party integrations via Zapier and Make
• Shared phone numbers
• Call routing 
• Call transfers
• Customizable phone menus
• Texting automations with snippets, auto-replies, and scheduled texts

Quo pricing

All three tiers of Quo’s pricing are designed to scale alongside your business:

• Starter: $15 per user per month for 10 free calls handled by Sona, unlimited calling and messaging to numbers in the US and Canada, on-demand call recording, third-party integrations with Zapier and Make, and more
• Business: $23 per user per month for automatic call recording, CRM integrations, phone menus, AI call transcripts and summaries, advanced call forwarding, custom ring orders, and more
• Scale: $35 per user per month for inbound phone support, AI call tags, dedicated onboarding support, and priority live chat and email support

The best AI voice agent, Sona, is available as an add-on to any Quo plan. Quo’s Sona AI agent plans offer a tiered system, so you pay only for what you need. Then, easily switch to a different tier as your business grows. Choose from these Voice AI pricing tiers:

	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Sona tiers	Free	$25 per month	$49 per month	$99 per month	$199 per month
Included credits	1,000 credits/10 calls	4,000 credits/40 calls	10,000 credits/100 calls	25,000 credits/250 calls	60,000 credits/600 calls
Overage rate per credit	$0.01	$0.01	$0.01	$0.01	$0.00
Overage rate per call	$1.00	$0.75	$0.65	$0.55	$0.45

*Calls under 15 seconds don’t count toward usage

2. Ruby Receptionist: Best option for traditional receptionists

Pros

• Human call answering services offer a personalized touch
• Live chat plans with human reps are also available

Cons

• Pricing doesn’t scale well for growing small businesses
• No AI agent for call handling
• Fewer features compared to modern AI answering services

Ruby offers live virtual receptionist services staffed by people based in the US. You can have reps transfer calls, take messages, and qualify leads during business hours or 24/7. There are also plans available for live web chat services. These connect your web visitors with human professionals so they can ask questions without having to pick up the phone.

Just keep in mind Ruby doesn’t offer AI agents at all. You’ll only have access to human reps — which means the pricing isn’t always scalable. If you expect to handle approximately 500 minutes of calls, for example, you’ll pay $1,725 per month. That’s a steep cost for handling basic tasks like transferring calls — especially when AI agents can do the same work at a fraction of the cost.

Key features of Ruby

• Live web chat with humans
• Integrates with Clio
• HIPAA compliant
• Bilingual support
• Outbound call support

Ruby pricing

Ruby’s pricing model gives you the same basic features on each plan, like appointment scheduling and lead qualification. Unlike other AI phone answering apps, you pay a flat rate for the number of minutes you want. This includes:

• 50 minutes per month: $250 per month
• 100 minutes per month: $395 per month
• 200 minutes per month: $720 per month
• 500 minutes per month: $1,725 per month

3. Olark: Best for accessible chatbots

Pros

• Chatbot is ADA compliant on every plan
• Offers integrations with Shopify and Slack

Cons

• Doesn’t support voice calls
• Olark’s standard plan doesn’t include AI chatbots
• Its add-ons, also known as Power-ups, can get expensive

Olark is an ADA-compliant live chat and chatbot platform. It was designed to exceed WCAG 2.1 AA standards so you can offer accessible support to any website visitors with disabilities. The Standard plan also integrates with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk. That way, you can automatically log customer conversations inside your CRM.

Note that Olark only supports AI chatbots, not AI agents. That means you can’t automate any incoming voice calls. Plus, the Olark standard plan only supports live chat. For AI chatbots, you need to upgrade to the Pro plan.

Keep in mind, Olark also offers paid add-ons ranging from $29 to $99 per month. This includes features like live chat translation. 

Key features of Olark

• Professional services, including legal and procurement support, with an upgrade
• Customer support via email and chat
• Built-in WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility certification
• Visitor co-browsing, with an add-on
• Live chat translation, with an add-on

Olark pricing

You can pick between two Olark pricing plans:

• Olark Standard: $29 per user per month for advanced reporting, basic integrations, agent groups, built-in WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility certification, and email and chat support
• Olark Pro: Custom pricing for a dedicated account manager, live training, video chat and SMS support, and custom chat routing

4. Bland AI: Best option for enterprise brands

Pros

• Support for customers in almost any language
• HIPAA compliant

Cons

• No built-in phone system
• Per-minute billing gets costly with high call volumes
• Developer-focused platform

Bland lets you automate human-sounding inbound and outbound phone calls. It can offer support to customers in almost any language. Plus, Bland is HIPAA compliant if your business manages sensitive healthcare information.

Like many other Smith.ai alternatives, Bland doesn’t offer a built-in phone system. Also, it only offers a per-minute pricing structure. You’re currently charged $0.014 per outbound minute on the base plan.

If your business expects high call volumes, Bland AI can get expensive fast. And keep in mind, you may pay even more as a small or growing business. Bland’s lower per-minute rates and higher limits are only available to teams on higher-tier plans.

Key features of Bland AI

• Support for voice calls and web chat
• Handle thousands of calls a day
• Custom API integrations
• Call transcripts
• Multi-language support

Bland AI pricing

Bland’s voice AI pricing offers three monthly plans:

• Start: $0.14 per minute for live calls and $0.05 per minute during call transfers
• Build: $299 per month, plus $0.12 per minute for live calls and $0.04 per minute during call transfers
• Scale: $499 per month, plus $0.11 per minute for live calls and $0.03 per minute during call transfers

5. Tidio: Best for web-based customer support

Pros

• Real-time monitoring of live visitors 
• Operating hours on the base plan

Cons

• No built-in phone system is available
• Lyro does not support voice chat
• Can get expensive as your visitor volume scales

Tidio is a digital customer service platform that helps businesses offer better customer experiences with AI. You can use its AI chatbot, also known as Lyro AI, across live chat, email marketing, and more.

With Lyro, you can set flexible handoff and escalation rules so your AI agents transfer high-value customers to human reps. You can also monitor AI agent conversations in real time. That way, you can jump in anytime you want, like whenever you want to offer a personalized touch.

But Lyro doesn’t support voice chat, and Tidio isn’t a business phone system, so you’ll need at least one other platform to automate phone calls. All Customer Service plans come with 50 Lyro conversations. Once you use all 50, Lyro stops responding, and visitors go directly to reps.

Expect your AI agents to have more than 50 conversations? You’ll need to pay for a separate Lyro AI plan on top of your Tidio plan. The Lyro Core plan starts at $32.50 per month for 50 to 1,000 conversations. But more than 1,000 conversations require the Lyro Plus plan — 20 times more expensive than the Core plan.

Key features of Tidio

• Multi-language support
• Third-party integrations
• Human handoffs
• Automatic reply with a preset message when you’re away, requires an upgrade
• Basic analytics 

Tidio pricing

Here’s a quick breakdown of Tidio’s pricing:

• Starter: $24.17 per month for the AI copilot that helps draft your messages, 100 billable conversations, and 50 Lyro AI conversations
• Growth: Starting at $49.17 per month for 250 billable conversations, advanced analytics, automatic chat assignment to agents, and live typing to see what customers are writing before they hit send
• Plus: Starting at $749 per month for OpenAPI integration, custom quota of billable conversations, a dedicated success manager, and live chat support
• Premium: Contact for pricing for custom billable conversations and using Lyro AI as a managed service

You can also stack Lyro on top of your plan for $32.50 or $749+ per month, depending on the number of conversations you need.

6. Freshdesk: Best for omnichannel customer support

Pros

• Supports email, chat, in-app messaging, WhatsApp, and more
• 500 free AI sessions of Freddy AI on every plan

Cons

• Sentiment analysis, requires an upgrade and an add-on
• Live translation, requires an upgrade and an add-on
• Round-robin ticket assignment, requires an upgrade

Freshdesk is an AI-powered customer service platform. It lets you manage conversations across multiple channels — like email, chat, in-app messaging, and WhatsApp — from one dashboard.

You can also use Freshdesk’s AI agents, known as Freddy AI, to help automate ticket resolution. First, set up self-service portals so customers can create support tickets. Then, let Freddy AI:

• Automate responses
• Suggest relevant FAQs
• Notify customers whenever changes have been made to their tickets

Freshdesk AI agent is included on every base plan, but you only get the first 500 sessions for free. For context, a session refers to each unique interaction between a user and your AI agent. Once you’ve used up all 500 sessions, you’ll pay $49 per 100 sessions.

Want access to tools like sentiment analysis and live translation? You’ll need to upgrade your plan and pay for the Freddy Copilot add-on. This costs an extra $29 per user per month. Compared to other Smith.ai alternatives, this isn’t easy to scale as your business grows.

Key features of Freshdesk

• Sentiment analysis, with an upgrade
• Reply suggestions
• Email AI agent
• Customer portal 
• Dashboards and pre-built reports

Freshdesk pricing

Customer service teams can choose from one of three Freshdesk pricing plans:

• Growth: $19 per user per month for ticketing, shared inboxes, knowledge base, time- and event-based automations, and custom ticket routing
• Pro: $55 per user per month for a multilingual helpdesk, round-robin ticket assignment, summarization assistant that provides contextual conversation summaries in seconds, and customer sentiment analysis
• Enterprise: $89 per user per month for AI-powered conversational insights and skill-based ticket assignment

7. Zendesk: Best for ticket management

Pros

• Omnichannel ticket management for email, chat, phone, social, and WhatsApp
• 1,800+ marketplace integrations

Cons

• No support for phone calls on the base plan
• AI agents are add-ons on the base plan
• Steep learning curve

Zendesk is a customer service platform that offers a help center and ticketing system. These can help your reps manage tickets faster and reduce the overall number of tickets they receive.

Zendesk also lets you use AI agents that can:

• Pull accurate answers from your help center and deliver them in your brand’s unique voice and tone
• Learn from every interaction so performance improves over time
• Deflect calls by answering FAQs so your team can stay responsive for more complex questions

But Zendesk doesn’t offer AI agents on the base plan. Instead, you’ll need to pay for the Help Center add-on. There’s no public pricing available for this. You’ll have to contact sales for a custom quote. This isn’t ideal for growing small businesses looking to easily find the right Smith.ai alternative.

Key features of Zendesk

• AI agent
• Connects with third-party integrations
• Ticketing system
• Call routing, requires an upgrade
• Help center, requires an upgrade or an add-on

Zendesk pricing

There are four Zendesk pricing plans to choose from:

• Support team: $19 per user per month for ticketing, email, and support on Facebook and X ticket routing, conversation history, third-party integrations, and templated responses to common questions
• Suite team: $55 per user per month for social messaging to engage with your customers on channels like Instagram, phone support, call routing, customizable AI agents, and access to the self-service help center
• Suite Professional: $115 per user per month for HIPAA compliance, real-time analytics, IVR, CSAT surveys, and customizable ticket forms
• Suite Enterprise: $169 per user per month for audit logs to keep track of what’s been changed and ticketing queues

8. LiveChat: Best for handling payments

Pros

• Appointment booking
• Multiple website support

Cons

• No VoIP service, which means no voice interactions or calls
• Extra fees are required to handle payments via Stripe
• Limited to a single user on the base plan

LiveChat offers AI live chat software for ecommerce businesses wanting to serve customers online. You can build AI agents that handle tasks like booking appointments or routing chats to reps. It also lets your chatbots take customer payments via its Stripe integration. Just keep in mind this costs extra, to the tune of $2.50 per agent per month.

There are several other costs worth considering. To use LiveChat’s AI agent, you have to integrate with ChatBot, which is an additional $52 per month. 

The biggest drawback? LiveChat doesn’t offer a VoIP service, so you’ll need to pay for a separate phone system. This may not be enough if your business relies heavily on phone conversations.

Key features of LiveChat

• Visitor tracking
• Agent rating
• 60 days of chat history
• 24/7/365 customer support
• Canned response suggestions, requires an upgrade

LiveChat pricing

You have four LiveChat pricing plans to choose from:

• Starter: $19 per person per month for one user, text intelligence that helps you set up and use LiveChat, traffic tracking for up to 100 users, and basic widget customization to change colors and themes
• Team: $49 per person per month for unlimited users, basic reporting, full widget customization, and traffic tracking for up to 400 users
• Business: $79 per person per month for advanced reporting, traffic tracking for 1,000 users, and access to advanced reporting
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for white label chat widgets, dedicated account managers, HIPAA compliance, and access to in-house professional services like team training

Keep in mind LiveChat’s AI agent requires a ChatBot integration, which costs an extra $52 per month.

9. Intercom: The best for social media apps

Pros

• Integrates with multiple social media apps
• Built into your existing help desk

Cons

• Outcome-based pricing can get expensive
• Might be overkill for teams that don’t have high query volumes
• Costs extra to use its VoIP phone service

Intercom is a customer service platform that includes an AI-powered help desk. It also offers an AI agent called Fin, which you can train on your business procedures, knowledge, and policies. Fin AI also lets you automatically serve customers across email, voice, WhatsApp, Instagram, and SMS.

But Intercom’s base plan is almost double the cost of other Smith.ai alternatives on the list, starting at $29 per user per month. And while it does offer a VoIP phone service, expect to pay $0.0120 per incoming call and $0.0220 for outbound calls. Don’t forget that Fin AI starts at $0.99 per resolution.

Intercom is technically cheaper than Smith.ai, but depending on your needs, it may not be the right solution to scale your business.

Key features of Intercom

• Shared team inboxes
• Helpdesk
• Office hours
• VoIP phone system, with an upgrade
• HIPAA compliance, with an upgrade

Intercom pricing

You can pick from one of three Intercom base plans:

• Essential: $29 per user per month for the ticketing system, a shared inbox, access to Messenger, pre-built reports, and conversation ratings
• Advanced: $85 per user per month for the workflow automation builder, round robin assignment, multilingual help center, and up to 20 Lite seats built into the price
• Expert: $132 per user per month for SSO and SLA agreements, multibrand help center, and HIPAA support

You can add its AI agent, Fin, to any plan for $0.99 per outcome.

💡Check out our guide to learn more about how much AI answering services cost.

10. Rosie: Best for backup virtual receptionists

Pros

• Automate inbound and outbound phone calls
• Easy to train via your website

Cons

• No built-in phone system
• If you use all of your minutes, you’ll be moved to the next tier, which can get expensive fast
• Upgrades are required for basic features, like texting during calls

Rosie is an AI receptionist platform that lets you automatically handle inbound and outbound phone calls. Its AI agents work 24/7 to help you:

• Take messages
• Answer common questions
• Produce call summaries, transcripts, and recordings

You can also train Rosie AI quickly using your business profile, website, or existing business information. 

But keep in mind, Rosie doesn’t offer a built-in phone system. Instead, you’ll have to forward calls to the system. This makes following up and handling conversations more time-consuming.

Plus, some of Rosie’s best features require an upgrade to the Scale plan, which costs $125 per month. This includes the ability to send texts during calls. Want to set up website messaging? That’s an extra add-on starting at $50 per month.

Key features of Rosie

• Train your AI agent using your Google Business Profile and website
• Book appointments via calendar integrations like Calendly, requires an upgrade
• Message taking
• Zapier integration
• Bilingual support in English and Spanish

Rosie pricing

Here is how much Rosie AI’s pricing is:

• Professional: $41 per month for 250 minutes, bilingual support, message-taking with custom questions, and spam detection
• Scale: $125 per month for 1,000 minutes, call transfers, sending texts during calls, and appointment booking via scheduling apps like Google Calendar or Calendly
• Growth: $250 per month for 2,000 minutes and custom training files
• Custom: $999+ per month for custom agents, custom integrations, high volume minutes, and a dedicated account rep

Why businesses move to Smith.ai alternatives

Smith.ai is an answering service that combines AI with live receptionists. AI handles calls and answers basic questions. But when callers need more support, it forwards them to live agents. This allows you to offer support either on demand or 24/7.

You can also connect Smith.ai to Microsoft Teams. This lets you forward calls to Smith.ai and accept or reject transfer requests in Teams. 

But once you dig into its limitations, you may realize Smith.ai isn’t the right fit for growing businesses.

Basic call flow on the base plan

Want to stick with Smith.ai’s base plan? You’re limited to basic call flows only, with out-of-the-box scripts and call routing flows. This can prevent you from customizing your greetings or setting up unique workflows for different scenarios.

Sona, on the other hand, lets you customize greetings and responses at different stages in your call flow on any plan. That way, you can customize how you respond to customers during and after hours. 

Pricing is hard to scale for growing businesses

Smith.ai’s base plan for its AI agent starts at $95 per month for just two calls per day. You’ll pay quite a bit more as your call volume grows. Plus, on its highest tier, you’ll be capped at 55 calls per day, which costs $2,000 per month.

Keep in mind this doesn’t factor in other fees. Overage fees, for example, add up quickly at $1.90 per call on their base plan. This is nearly twice the cost of Sona, which charges $1 per call on Sona’s base plan.

Doesn’t offer a built-in phone system

Smith.ai doesn’t offer a full business phone system. That means you’ll have to buy a number to forward calls to, then manage a separate phone platform.

It also means you’ll have to jump between Smith.ai and your business phone system to get more context on conversations. This makes follow-ups even more time-consuming and can increase response times for customers.

Users say customer support is slow and doesn’t resolve issues

Past Smith.ai users say that customer support can be slow and unresponsive. Some say problems go on for months without a fix, leaving their AI call handling with unresolved issues.

See for yourself:

“This platform is a good idea in theory, but the customer support is terrible. They assigned me a phone number that was already on a spam call list, resulting in 100+ spam calls per month. Despite me complaining for two months straight and threatening to cancel, they told me there was nothing they could do — and still planned to charge me for the call overages I racked up because of their mistake.” — Trustpilot

Smith.ai pricing

Smith.ai’s pricing depends on the number of calls it handles per day and whether you want to pay monthly or annually.

Here’s a breakdown of its AI-first plans: 

Plan	Included volume	Price	Overages
Do it yourself, month-to-month Tier 1	2 calls per day	$95 per month	$2.40 per call, unused calls expire monthly
Do it yourself, month-to-month Tier 2	5 calls per day	$270 per month	$2.40 per call, unused calls expire monthly
Do it yourself, month-to-month Tier 3	15 calls per day	$800 per month	$2.40 per call, unused calls expire monthly
Done for you, annual Tier 1	10 calls per day	$500 per month	No overages, flexible rollover
Done for you, annual Tier 2	25 calls per day	$1,000 per month	No overages, flexible rollover
Done for you, annual Tier 3	55 calls per day	$2,000 per month	No overages, flexible rollover
Enterprise	High volume	Custom	—

How we picked the top Smith.ai alternatives

We used an eight-step process to select the best Smith.ai alternatives for growing businesses.

First, we collected user reviews on G2 and excluded providers that didn’t meet basic user quality standards. Then we reached out to each platform’s support team to get more information. We also paid attention to how quickly and transparently they responded.

Then, we used the following criteria to rank each alternative:

1. Scalability. How easily can small business owners add more users or routing options? It should be easy to accommodate higher call volumes as you scale, without dramatic  price increases.
2. Compliance and security features. We looked for Smith.ai alternatives supporting SOC 2, HIPAA compliance, and more. We also prioritized platforms with security features like data encryption and access controls.
3. Pricing model. We compared how each provider charged for its services, whether per user or per customer interaction. Plus, we kept an eye out for tools requiring paid upgrades for basic features, like call recording and phone support.
4. Real-time analytics and reporting. How easy is it to check your conversation history? You should have access to a dashboard that explains your call volume and busy parts of the week.
5. Integration support. We looked for Smith.ai tools designed to work alongside other customer communication channels, like text and email. The best options support third-party integrations so you can connect with the platforms you already use.
6. Customer support quality. Beyond the speed of customer support, we also evaluated the quality of their documentation. You should be able to troubleshoot on your own and make simple changes to your system without looping in support.

Quo: The best Smith.ai alternative

Smith.ai can help you set up an AI receptionist — but if you take more than two calls per day, it’s going to cost you. The pricing may feel high compared to other alternatives. Plus, it’s not a dedicated business phone solution, so you’ll be forced to manage and pay for two platforms at once.

That’s why so many past Smith.ai users switched to Quo. You get a business phone system and access to our AI agent, Sona, on every plan. That way, you don’t miss phone calls that leave money on the table. You also don’t have to deal with the usual voicemail vs answering service tradeoffs anymore.

See for yourself how Quo can help build better customer relationships. Sign up today for a free seven-day trial. Then, take 10 free calls per month with Sona.

FAQs