Compare · vendor pages checked 2026-09-16
Four ways to answer the phone. One of them is us.
You are probably weighing three things that are not us: the receptionist bundled into your field-service software (Jobber, Housecall Pro), a human answering service (Ruby, Smith.ai, PATLive), or a self-serve AI receptionist you set up yourself (Goodcall, Dialzara, Sameday). Below is the same ten questions put to all four, with the places where they beat us left in.
$1,500/mo. No setup fee. 90-day initial term, then month-to-month. No card to book.
We're placing the call ourselves, as a homeowner, and posting it here unedited. Until then, place it yourself. It will ask about your business first, then answer as your receptionist.
(386) 270-3616Ten questions, put to all four.
Every competitor figure below comes from that vendor's own public pricing or feature page on the date shown. Where a page did not say, the cell says so. Where they win, the row says so.
On a phone, the table scrolls sideways →
| What you asked | Ravari Managed AI Front Office | Bundled FSM receptionistJobber, Housecall Pro | Human answering serviceRuby, Smith.ai, PATLive | Self-serve AI receptionistGoodcall, Dialzara, Sameday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answers 24/7 | Yes. English and Spanish. | Yes. Jobber and Housecall Pro both say 24/7 on their feature pages (checked 2026-09-16). | Yes, with a person on the line. Ruby and Smith.ai both staff it 24/7 (checked 2026-09-16). | Yes. That is the product. |
| Who writes the escalation rules | You do, with us, at install: what counts as an emergency, who is on call, transfer versus text. You can read them. | You, in the app's settings. Jobber texts you or transfers when it hears keywords you set (checked 2026-09-16). | You. The receptionists follow the instruction sheet you hand them. | You, in a dashboard, on your own time. |
| Books into the calendar your techs already use | Relayed by webhook or Zapier into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, AccuLynx, JobNimbus or HubSpot. We confirm your exact setup on the audit, before you pay. | Yes, natively. It is their calendar. They win here |
Varies. Some book into a calendar link you give them; most take a message for you to book. | Through whatever integrations the plan includes. Sameday puts custom integrations behind an Enterprise quote (checked 2026-09-16). |
| Weekly call QA | Every call scored, every week, the misses named. | Recordings and a call log. No scored weekly review on the feature pages we checked (2026-09-16). | A summary per call. No scored weekly review on the pages we checked. | Transcripts and a dashboard. You do the reading. |
| Monthly proof report | Answered, booked, escalated, in your numbers, every month. | In-app reporting. | A minutes-used statement. | Dashboard analytics. Sameday gates advanced analytics behind Enterprise (checked 2026-09-16). |
| Spanish | Included. | Not stated on either feature page (checked 2026-09-16). | Ruby: available. Smith.ai: $1.00 per call extra (checked 2026-09-16). | Dialzara: included. Sameday: Enterprise only. Goodcall: not stated (checked 2026-09-16). |
| When it can't handle the call | Warm transfer to the on-call tech, or a text to your phone with the transcript, by the rules you wrote. It never quotes a job. | Transfers to a number you choose when it hears a keyword or a request for a human (both pages, checked 2026-09-16). | A person is already on the line. They take the message or transfer it. They win here |
Transfer or message, however you configured it. |
| Price basis | $1,500/mo flat. 1,000 minutes included, $0.75 a minute after. No setup fee. | Jobber: $29/mo add-on, included on Plus, on top of your Jobber plan. Housecall Pro: an add-on with no price published (both checked 2026-09-16). Cheapest by far |
Per minute or per call. Ruby $395/mo for 100 minutes. PATLive $349 for 200 minutes to $759 for 500. Smith.ai $300/mo for 30 calls (all checked 2026-09-16). | Goodcall $79 to $249/mo, unlimited minutes, capped by unique callers. Dialzara $29 to $349/mo by minutes. Sameday $449 for 500 minutes, $789 for 1,000 (all checked 2026-09-16). |
| Minimum term | 90 days, then month-to-month with 30 days' notice. No termination fee. You leave with a full export. | Your software plan's term. The quoted plan prices are for annual billing on both sites (checked 2026-09-16). | Smith.ai: month-to-month. Ruby: no term published (checked 2026-09-16). | Monthly. Dialzara starts with a 7-day trial (checked 2026-09-16). |
| Who you talk to when it breaks | Max, who built it and sat on your audit call. | The software's support desk. | Your account manager. | A support ticket. The configuration is yours to fix. |
Competitor cells quote each vendor's own public pricing or feature page as read on 2026-09-16 and nothing else. They change their pages; if a row has gone stale, tell us and we will fix it.
When you should not pick us.
At that volume a $29 add-on or a $79 self-serve plan is the right buy. Our fee would be most of what those calls are worth. Come back when the phone outgrows the office.
Then Ruby, Smith.ai or PATLive. You pay by the minute or the call, and you get a person. If you keep humans and want to know how they are doing, the CSR Scorecard is the closest thing we sell.
Jobber's and Housecall Pro's receptionists write straight into their own calendar. Ours relays by webhook, and we confirm the relay on the audit, not before. If native on day one is a hard requirement, pick theirs.
All four of these will answer the phone. On a quiet Tuesday at 10 am the caller cannot tell them apart. The differences show up at 8:47 pm: who wrote the rule that says this call is an emergency, who reads the calls every week, who hands you the number at month end, and who owns the recordings when you leave.
So the question is not "can it pick up." They all can. It is rules, QA, proof, and whose account the data sits in. Ours sits in a sub-account you own; we hold an operator login and hand over admin when you go.
If we don't recover at least 10 missed calls in your first 30 days, month one is refunded.
One time, month one, a refund and not a credit. Measured from the call log: a recovered call is an inbound call on the new line, after hours or during a busy signal, that ends in a booked window. Caller must dial the Ravari line, forwarded from your number. Service area and service type must match what we trained the agent on. Below about 200 inbound calls in the 30 days, we set a proportional target in writing before install instead.
Four doors, in order of how much they ask of you.
04
Book 15 minutes
We bring the audit to the call. No card, no pitch. We may tell you not to buy.
Book the 15-min auditStop losing the 8:47pm call.
15 minutes. Zero pitch. We'll tell you whether the AI moves your number, and if it doesn't, we'll tell you that too.
Or call the line first: (386) 270-3616