Who picks up the phone
In short
With an answering service or a virtual receptionist a person picks up, either an operator who answers for many businesses or a receptionist trained on yours. With an AI receptionist, software picks up and follows the rules you set.
In practice the names overlap. Specialty Answering Service describes live operators who take messages and transfer calls, and Posh's virtual receptionists also book appointments and follow up with clients. The difference that holds is how much of your business the person on the line knows, and how you pay for their time.
An AI receptionist needs nobody on the line. It answers from a script and rules written down before launch, and leaves a summary of each call it takes. Where the booking tool you already use accepts bookings from software, it books visits too, and a caller who asks for a person is put through in your hours.
| Answering service | Virtual receptionist | AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who picks up | An operator who answers for many businesses | A receptionist trained on your business | Software set to your rules |
| What it does with a call | Takes a message, or puts the call through | Puts the call through or books a visit | Answers by your rules, and books or puts the caller through to a person |
| What it bills | A base fee and each minute an operator spends on your calls | A plan of receptionist minutes, which can include tasks done for you | A plan of minutes or calls, or a build with a setup price, care and usage at cost |
| Where the call ends up | A message passed on to you | A message, or a booking in your calendar | A summary of each call it takes, in your CRM or inbox |
Swipe sideways to see every column
How each one bills
In short
People bill the minutes they spend on your calls, and AI products bill a plan of minutes or calls. What counts as a minute differs from one pricing page to the next, so read that line on each page before you compare their prices.
On its smallest plan, Specialty Answering Service charges a monthly fee and then a rate for each minute its operators spend on your calls, counted by the second. Posh sells plans of receptionist minutes with a rate for each minute past the plan, and counts the time a receptionist spends on a task for you as minutes. How each one's smallest plan is priced is further down, with a link to its pricing page and the day it was read.
Quo, a business phone system billed per user, includes its AI agent, Sona, on every plan with credits for ten calls, then sells more credits in tiers, at a set number of credits a call. Ours is priced as a build: a setup price, then care each month, both in the written plan, with the minutes and AI usage billed at cost to accounts in your name. Projects start at $2,500.
A worked example (hypothetical)
In short
A small law office that misses evening calls from people with a new matter could use any of the three, and the choice turns on what the firm's intake rules let someone other than an attorney ask.
Picture a three-attorney estate planning office in Pasadena whose evening calls are mostly people with a new matter who want to know if the firm can help. An answering service would take a name and a number for the morning. A virtual receptionist trained on the firm's intake questions could book a consultation on the spot.
An AI receptionist could do the same within the firm's intake rules, asking only what those rules allow and booking a consultation into the calendar the firm uses where that calendar accepts bookings from software. It never gives legal advice. Whichever the firm picks, its attorneys decide what may be asked and what is kept, since those rules are theirs to set.
What this means for a small business
In short
List what your callers need on the call before you compare prices. When most of them want to leave a message, a service does it; when most ask the same few things, such as a time to book or whether you are open late, an AI receptionist can answer those and pass the others to a person in your hours.
The options also mix: software for the calls that repeat, and a person for the ones that need judgment. Ours is set up that way, with one number it puts callers through to in your hours and one rule for after you close.
Whichever you choose, ask how the provider counts a minute or a call, and where the record of each call ends up. Those two answers decide most of what you pay and what you keep.