Answering service vs voicemail vs text-back: an honest comparison

The three options, side by side

Whichever you pick, the lead is only saved if someone follows up. The response time quiz is a quick check on how fast that happens in your business today.

What a live answering service costs

We opened three providers' public price pages on October 9, 2026. These are their own published figures for live, human answering, entry plan first:

• Abby: $165 a month for 50 minutes, $329 for 100, $599 for 200. The page lists no setup fee and 24/7 coverage.
• Ruby: $250 a month for 50 receptionist minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200. The page lists 24/7 live answering and says there are no hidden fees for setup.
• Smith.ai: $300 a month for 30 calls, $810 for 90. Extra calls on the entry plan are $11.50 each. The page says no setup fees, and that spam and wrong numbers do not count.

The arithmetic, using only those figures: Abby's entry plan works out to $3.30 a minute, Ruby's to $5.00 a minute, and Smith.ai's to $10 a call. Whether that is expensive depends entirely on what a call is worth to you. If one answered call in ten becomes a $900 job, $10 a call is cheap. If most calls are existing customers asking when you will arrive, it is not. Our guide on what a missed call really costs walks through that sum.

Two things to check on any price page before you sign: how a "minute" or a "call" is counted, and what going over the plan costs. Neither the Ruby nor the Abby page we read gives a dollar figure for overage.

What voicemail costs, and what it loses

Voicemail is normally included with a phone line, so the cost is not on a bill. It is in the callers who hang up without leaving a message. We do not have a figure for how many do that which we could stand behind, and we would be wary of anyone who quotes one without a source.

You can measure it yourself. Compare the missed calls in your log with the voicemails you actually received for the same week. The gap is the callers who gave up. The 20-minute missed-call audit has the steps.

Voicemail works well when callers already know you and when you return calls at set times every day. A greeting that says exactly when you call back helps. It works badly for a new customer with an urgent problem and three other numbers to try.

What missed-call text-back costs

Text-back is software, so it is priced flat. Ours is $199 a month on the Starter plan with 500 texts included, plus a one-time $299 setup charged when the system goes live; the full list is on the pricing page. Other companies sell the same idea at other prices.

What it does is narrow: when a call goes unanswered, the caller gets a text saying who you are and asking what they need. It does not answer the phone and cannot handle an emergency. It also needs a one-time carrier registration before any text can go out, explained in what A2P 10DLC is.

And the honest part: NewFrontDesk's text-back runs in test mode today. It cannot send a real text yet, and we take no payment until it works for your business. The status board shows where each piece stands.

Which one fits

• A live answering service fits when callers need a person now: no-heat calls, lockouts, legal or medical offices, or bookings that take a real conversation. It also fits when your call volume is low enough that the per-minute price stays small.
• Voicemail alone fits when most callers are existing customers and you reliably call back the same day.
• Text-back fits an owner who is on a job most of the day, gets a steady number of new-customer calls, and can reply to a text between tasks but cannot answer the phone.

They also stack. A text during working hours and a service overnight is a common shape. If you want to route calls to a second number or a service when you don't answer, the codes are in how to forward business calls.

How to decide with your own numbers

1. Count last week's missed calls and how many were new customers. Use the audit.
2. Multiply by your average job value and how often a new caller books. The calculator does it and shows the steps.
3. Set that monthly figure next to each option's monthly cost above.
4. Ask what your callers need in the first minute: a person, or just to know they were heard.

If the answer is "a person", buy a service. We would rather you did than have you expect a text to do that job.

Sources

• Abby: pricing (plans, minutes, no setup fee, 24/7)
• Ruby: plans and pricing (receptionist minutes per plan)
• Smith.ai: receptionist pricing (calls per plan, price per extra call)

Prices are the providers' own published figures as read on October 9, 2026, in US dollars. They change; the provider's page is the final word. We are not affiliated with any of these companies and have not used their services. The per-minute and per-call figures are our arithmetic on their published plan prices.