The best AI receptionist for contractors in 2026

How we judged these tools

There is no single best AI receptionist. A 40-truck HVAC company on ServiceTitan and a one-truck roofer buying Angi leads need different things. So instead of a ranked list, each tool is placed where it fits best. We looked at five things:

1. The job it does: answering inbound calls, calling web leads, or both.
2. Fit for the trades: built for home services, or general small business.
3. Integrations: field-service software and lead sources it connects to.
4. Pricing you can see: published prices, contract length and trial.
5. Effort to start: how much setup and commitment it takes.

We didn't test every tool on live calls, and we don't quote anyone's customer results. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites. Verify what matters to you before you buy.

Best for larger shops on ServiceTitan: Avoca

What it is: Avoca calls itself "the AI front office for service businesses." It answers calls, texts and chats and books jobs around the clock, runs outbound call and SMS campaigns to past customers, and scores calls so managers can see missed opportunities.

• Best for: established home-service companies with a call center or CSR team, especially on ServiceTitan.
• Pricing: not published. You book a demo.
• Strengths: listed as a certified ServiceTitan app with deep CRM integration; Housecall Pro and FieldRoutes badges; Google LSA integration; call scoring for coaching; SOC 2 certified.
• Limitations: no public pricing, so you can't compare it on paper. Its focus on call scoring and team coaching is more than a one-person shop needs.

Best for multi-location and sales-heavy teams: Hatch

What it is: Hatch calls itself "the AI communications platform for the trades." Its AI agents answer calls, texts and email, qualify leads and book them, and it adds lead nurture, estimate follow-up, customer reactivation and marketing blasts.

• Best for: remodelers, roofers and multi-location operators who want AI across every channel, including following up open estimates and old leads.
• Pricing: not published. A platform fee plus usage, on annual plans paid monthly per location.
• Strengths: connects to Yelp, Angi, Google LSA and Thumbtack, plus ServiceTitan, AccuLynx, LeadPerfection and improveit 360. Strong on following up aged leads and estimates.
• Limitations: annual plans, no published trial, and contract terms set deal by deal. That's a real commitment for a small shop.

Best for answering every inbound call, with a phone system: Sameday AI

What it is: Sameday AI calls itself "the AI front office for home services." The AI answers calls around the clock, books jobs into open calendar slots, and runs outbound campaigns such as reactivating past customers and following up open estimates. It also includes phone-system features like call queues and ring groups.

• Best for: home-service businesses that get a lot of inbound calls and want after-hours and overflow answering tied into their field-service software.
• Pricing: Launch from $449 a month (500 minutes), Scale from $789 a month (1,000 minutes), Enterprise custom.
• Strengths: built for trades. Lists ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, FieldRoutes, AccuLynx, JobNimbus and Service Fusion, plus Thumbtack, Google Local Services, Angi and Facebook as lead sources. You can port your number.
• Limitations: the highest published entry price here. Overage rates, setup fees, contract terms and trial details are not on the pricing page.

Best budget pick for inbound calls: Rosie

What it is: Rosie is an AI phone answering service for small businesses. It's trained on your business information, answers calls 24/7, handles several calls at once, and can transfer calls to someone on your team.

• Best for: small shops that miss calls while on jobs and want a low-cost answering service first.
• Pricing: $49 a month (250 minutes), $149 (1,000 minutes), $299 (2,000 minutes). 7-day free trial.
• Strengths: the lowest entry price among the dedicated AI receptionists here. English and Spanish on every call. Zapier connects it to other apps.
• Limitations: built for small businesses in general, not just trades. Booking directly on your calendar comes on the Scale plan; the entry plan texts a booking link instead. No outbound calling is mentioned, and the overage rate isn't shown.

Best if you already run on Jobber: Jobber Receptionist

What it is: Jobber's AI Receptionist answers calls and texts 24/7, books visits using your existing online booking settings, turns requests into work requests in Jobber, and transfers the call or texts you when it hears keywords you set, like "burst pipe" or "no heat."

• Best for: shops already using Jobber for scheduling and invoicing.
• Pricing: a $29 a month add-on on top of a Jobber plan. Core starts at $49 a month with no commitment.
• Strengths: lives inside the software you already use, so bookings and requests land where your team works. Summaries, transcripts and recordings for every call. Texts back callers who hang up.
• Limitations: only makes sense if you're on Jobber. Its feature page doesn't mention calling web leads, and the pricing page doesn't list call or minute limits.

Best for flexible, multi-channel answering: My AI Front Desk

What it is: My AI Front Desk is an AI front office for small and medium businesses. AI agents handle calls, texts, web chat, email and WhatsApp, book appointments on your live calendar, and keep one customer record across channels.

• Best for: owners who want calls, texts and chat covered by one low-cost tool and are comfortable setting it up themselves.
• Pricing: $99 a month or $79 a month billed annually, with 200 voice minutes. Extra minutes are $0.25. No contract, 7-day free trial.
• Strengths: many channels for the price. Zapier and API connections to CRMs.
• Limitations: not built for the trades. Its industry pages lean toward property management, real estate and professional services. Busy months can add overage costs.

Best for owner-operators who buy web leads and want each one called within 60 seconds: HelloSetter

HelloSetter is an AI lead caller, not a receptionist for every inbound call. It calls new web leads within 60 seconds (in our testing, calls start about a second after the lead arrives), qualifies the lead, handles objections, and books the estimate on the HelloSetter Calendar, which you can subscribe to by iCal and which reads your calendar link.

• Best for: owner-operators and small crews who pay for leads from forms, Angi, Thumbtack, Google LSA or Facebook and lose them because nobody calls fast enough.
• Pricing: founding $197 / $347 / $697 a month for 75 / 150 / 400 leads; regular $297 / $497 / $997. $2 per extra lead, no setup fee, month-to-month, free 14-day pilot after a setup call.
• Strengths: voicemail detection and up to 16 retries over several days, inside calling hours. Answers callbacks on a local number. Only calls leads with consent. Email summary after every call. Takes leads from forms, Google Sheets, or webhook and Zapier (Angi, Thumbtack, LSA, Facebook).
• Limitations: no SMS. No native ServiceTitan, Jobber or Housecall Pro integration. It doesn't answer all your inbound calls, so if missed incoming calls are your main problem, a receptionist above fits better.

Side-by-side summary

Questions to ask on any demo

Feature pages all sound alike. These questions separate the tools fast, and a good vendor will answer them plainly:

• What happens when the AI gets a question it can't answer? Does it transfer, take a message, or guess?
• Where does a booked job land: in my field-service software, a calendar I can see on my phone, or only in your dashboard?
• How do you count usage (minutes, calls, leads), and what exactly happens when I go over?
• How long is the contract, how much notice do I give to cancel, and is there a setup fee?
• Does it call my web leads, or only answer calls that come in? If it calls, how does it record consent and handle opt-outs?
• What do I get after each call: a recording, a transcript, a summary by email or text?
• Who sets it up, and how long until it takes real calls?

Write the answers down for each vendor. After two or three demos, the right fit for your shop is usually obvious, and it's often not the one with the longest feature list.

How to pick

1. Look at last month: did you lose more work from missed incoming calls, or from web leads nobody called back fast enough? The first points to a receptionist, the second to a lead caller. Plenty of shops need both.
2. Check your software. If you run on ServiceTitan or Jobber, start with tools that connect to it.
3. Check consent. Any tool that calls leads must call only people who agreed to it. Our guide on whether it's legal to use AI to call leads covers the rules.
4. Run the numbers. Our AI answering service cost guide works through 50 and 150 leads a month.
5. Call the demo lines yourself. Hearing the AI handle a tough question tells you more than any feature list.

If speed on web leads is your problem, read our speed to lead guide and our playbook for following up Angi, Thumbtack and LSA leads. For head-to-head detail on specific tools, see our comparison pages.