How we compare AI answering services

Every comparison on this site follows the same rules. This page explains what we check, where the facts come from, how we rank, and how the site makes money.

What we check for every service

1. Price at real volumes. We price every service at 50, 150, 300 and 600 calls a month, and in the calculator at any volume from 10 to 1,000. We use each vendor's cheapest published plan for that volume and add published overage. If a vendor doesn't publish an overage rate, we only count plans that cover the volume. Minute-based plans assume a fixed average call length (2 minutes by default, the figure Ooma itself uses).
2. What the entry plan really includes. Booking during the call or a texted link, live transfer, texting, languages, spam handling, recordings and transcripts.
3. Billing and cancellation terms. Trials, cards required, contracts, refunds on annual plans, what counts as a billable call or minute.
4. Customer reviews. Ratings and recurring themes on Trustpilot, G2 and Capterra, and other sources where noted, read on the date shown. We paraphrase reviews and link to the page where we found them. We flag suspicious patterns, such as many 5-star reviews on one day, and we only summarise reviews where we found enough for the specific product.
5. Compliance and data. Whether a vendor signs a business associate agreement (BAA) for HIPAA, where recordings go and how long they're kept.
6. Readiness for AI callers. Google, Meta and others now phone businesses with AI assistants. We check the features that matter for those calls: booking during the call, texting the real customer, and transcripts.

Where the facts come from

Prices, limits and features come from each vendor's own pricing page, help center and terms. Market data comes from sources such as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the American Dental Association, Clio's Legal Trends Report, Google's own help pages, and industry reports from companies such as ServiceTitan, Jobber and Invoca. We name the source of every statistic next to it, and say when that source sells a product in the category. Every page shows the date the prices were checked and lists its sources.

When a vendor contradicts itself (for example, two pages quoting different prices), we say so and tell you to confirm.

How we rank

We rank for a typical small business: roughly 50 to 300 calls a month, wants callers booked and urgent calls passed on, and doesn't want surprise bills. In rough order of weight, we look at price at those volumes, what the entry plan includes, billing and cancellation terms, what customers report, and compliance where the industry needs it. Industry pages rank for that industry's needs; for trades, the software you dispatch from comes first. See the guides for dentists, law firms, HVAC companies, plumbers and restaurants.

Our rankings are based on published pricing, documentation and customer reviews. Where we describe what a product does, we say whether it's the vendor's claim or what customers report.

How the site makes money

Some links to vendors are affiliate links: if you buy after clicking, the vendor may pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Vendors can also buy clearly labelled sponsored placements. Neither changes our rankings, reviews or prices, and vendors never see a page before it's published. Details: affiliate disclosure and advertising.

Corrections

Prices and plans change. If you spot something out of date, or you're a vendor with a documented change, email contact@bestaiansweringservices.com with a link to the source. We fix verified errors and update the date on the page.