9 Best AI Phone Answering Services for Contractors (2026)

Last reviewed: August 28, 2026

The quick answer

The best AI phone answering service depends on what creates the bill and what happens after the phone rings. For an owner-operated plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, cleaning, landscaping, auto repair, or general contracting business, start with these five questions:

1. Is usage measured by answered calls, minutes, or unique customers?
2. What happens after the included usage runs out?
3. Can you control the job, location, timing, and urgency questions?
4. How quickly do you receive the caller’s details?
5. What can you test before sending real customers to the service?

Clara appears first because its public US offer combines unlimited answered calls, configurable intake for trades and local service businesses, and native mobile apps for owners away from a desk. Clara publishes this comparison and has a commercial interest in your decision. Treat the order as a documented shortlist, not an independent award.

Service	Public offer checked August 28, 2026	Billing model	May fit when
Clara	From $39.99/month, seven-day trial on eligible monthly plans	Monthly plan with unlimited answered calls	You run a trade or local service business and want mobile access plus control over the questions Clara asks
Rosie	From $49/month with 250 minutes, seven-day trial	Included call minutes	You are a solo owner or small business that wants native mobile apps, English-Spanish calls, and appointment links
Smith.ai	$0/month for 25 calls; paid plans from $150/month	Calls per month with per-call overage	You want to test live calls on a free monthly allowance
Goodcall	From $79/month per agent	Unique customers per agent, with customer overage	Unique callers are easier for you to forecast than minutes
My AI Front Desk	Voice plan from $99/month, or $79/month billed annually, with 200 voice minutes	Voice minutes bundled with a broader tool set	You want phone, web chat, SMS, CRM, and automation in one plan
Dialzara	From $29/month with 60 minutes, seven-day trial	Receptionist minutes with per-minute overage	Your monthly minutes are predictable and you want a low entry price
Fonio	Phone Solo shown at $99/month with 1,000 minutes in the US-located review	Included minutes with additional-minute packages	A larger phone setup needs SIP, concurrent calls, outbound campaigns, or many languages
Sameday AI	From $449/month with 500 minutes	Included minutes, users, locations, and scheduling	A growing home-service company wants a broader phone system, shared inbox, scheduling, campaigns, coaching, and integrations
Zanus	ANSWER at $4,900/year plus $990 one-time onboarding, with 3,600 voice minutes per year	Annual front-office plan with voice and chat allowances	An organization wants phone, website chat and voice, booking, quoting, and email workflows in one broader system

Prices use the currency displayed during the US-located review and are not equivalent service bundles. A $29 minute plan, a $99 minute plan, a $79 unique-customer plan, and an unlimited-call plan solve the bill in different ways. A vendor may display another currency for a different location.

Methodology

We used Parallel and Perplexity to discover current official pages, then retrieved each pricing and product page with Firecrawl from a US location. Only facts visible on a provider’s own site entered the table. The newest entries were rechecked against their live official pages on August 28, 2026.

We included services that met all three conditions:

• A public AI phone-answering product page
• Public pricing that a US buyer could check without a sales call
• A billing model different enough to help a contractor make a real choice

We excluded providers when the phone product, included usage, or billing unit could not be separated from adjacent offers. No competitor paid for inclusion.

Evaluation criteria

The order reflects contractor fit, billing clarity, usefulness of the public trial or allowance, and whether the first-call workflow can be evaluated from public information. It does not measure call quality or business results.

• Contractor fit: does the public product describe trades, home services, or configurable intake?
• Billing clarity: can a buyer identify the unit, included usage, and overage?
• Testability: is there a trial, free allowance, or clear route to try the phone workflow?
• Workflow range: does the public page describe summaries, routing, scheduling, or adjacent communication tools?
• Limits: what important part of the service remains untested or unclear?

How we ranked

Clara ranks first for this contractor-specific question because its public product page names contractors, trades, and local service businesses, its entry plan advertises unlimited answered calls, and its native apps support owners moving between jobs. Rosie ranks second for solo owners and small businesses that prefer minute-based plans with native mobile apps. Smith.ai follows because its free 25-call allowance makes the live workflow unusually easy to test. Fonio, Sameday AI, and Zanus sit later in this small-business list because their public offers are broader and more expensive, but they may be stronger fits for larger phone-system or front-office needs.

This is editorial judgment from Clara, not a universal score. We did not turn calls, minutes, unique customers, and bundled tools into a false price-per-month league table.

Clara - configurable intake for trades

Clara’s US pricing page lists a plan from $39.99 per month, a seven-day trial on eligible monthly plans, and unlimited answered calls. Its contractor product page says you can configure what Clara knows and asks, then receive a written summary after the call.

Clara publishes native iOS and Android apps for seeing callers and job details while the team is moving. Clara supports caller conversations in English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, and French. The Clara app interface is available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Chinese.

May fit: owner-operators and small crews that want the first conversation organized around the job, location, timing, and callback details they choose, then want to review it from a phone rather than a desktop dashboard.

Watch for: Clara does not replace estimating, dispatch, emergency judgment, or a human conversation that requires discretion. Run test calls for ordinary requests, after-hours jobs, poor connections, and unusual caller behavior.

See Clara’s current pricing or how Clara answers calls for trades.

Rosie - mobile access for solo owners and small businesses

Rosie’s Professional plan starts at $49 per month with 250 minutes. Its official pricing page lists a seven-day trial, native iOS and Android apps, English-Spanish call handling, custom message taking, appointment links, spam detection, summaries, transcripts, recordings, and Zapier support.

May fit: a solo owner or small service business that wants a minute-based plan and native apps, with direct calendar booking available on higher tiers.

Watch for: included minutes and message-taking scenarios vary by plan. Model a busy month, confirm overage terms, and test how Rosie’s intake fits your trade before forwarding every call.

Check Rosie’s current pricing or compare Clara and Rosie.

Smith.ai - a free live-call allowance

Smith.ai’s AI Receptionist page lists a free plan with 25 calls per month and a $3 per-call overage. Its paid Pro plan starts at $150 per month with 75 calls and a $2 per-call rate. The page describes recording, transcription, summaries, lead qualification, routing, scheduling, and English-Spanish call handling.

May fit: a business that wants to send a small number of real calls through an AI receptionist before choosing a paid tier.

Watch for: call volume creates the bill. Confirm how Smith.ai counts a call, handles spam, and applies unused-call or overage terms to your chosen plan.

Check Smith.ai’s current AI Receptionist pricing.

Goodcall - unique-customer billing

Goodcall’s public pricing starts at $79 per month per agent. It measures plan usage by monthly unique customers rather than separate call minutes or AI tokens, then lists a $0.50 charge per customer after the included allowance.

May fit: a business with repeat callers where unique-customer volume is more predictable than total minutes.

Watch for: one caller can make several calls while another makes one. Model your own unique-customer pattern and confirm the allowance for the exact plan before choosing.

Check Goodcall’s current pricing.

My AI Front Desk - voice plus adjacent tools

My AI Front Desk’s pricing page separates a $20 per month Basic plan with no voice minutes from its voice-capable Business-in-a-Box plan. The phone plan starts at $99 per month, or $79 per month when billed annually, and includes 200 voice minutes alongside web chat, SMS, CRM, and automation features.

May fit: a business that wants phone answering and adjacent customer-communication tools in one plan.

Watch for: the lowest displayed price is not the phone-answering price. Confirm the billing period, voice-minute allowance, and any additional usage charges.

Check My AI Front Desk’s current pricing.

Dialzara - minute-based entry plan

Dialzara’s Business Lite plan starts at $29 per month with 60 receptionist minutes and a $0.48 per-minute overage. Higher plans include more minutes at lower overage rates. The public page lists a seven-day trial, no setup fee, and no long-term contract.

May fit: a business with predictable call length that prefers a low starting price and minute-based planning.

Watch for: the product page uses “unlimited calls,” while the pricing page limits included minutes. Those statements can coexist, but the minutes still determine your plan cost.

Check Dialzara’s current pricing.

Fonio - a broader voice platform for larger setups

Fonio’s English pricing page showed the Phone Assistant Solo plan at $99 per month in the US-located review, with 1,000 included minutes, one user, one phone number, and no parallel calls. Higher tiers add concurrent calls, multiple phone numbers, SIP connectivity, outbound campaigns, custom voice, and service terms. The page lists more than 120 voices and more than 60 languages.

May fit: a larger company replacing or extending a phone system that needs SIP, concurrent lines, outbound campaigns, or broad language support.

Watch for: Fonio localizes currency. A follow-up retrieval from Europe displayed euros, so confirm country availability, number availability, currency, taxes, carrier charges, additional-minute packages, and the exact contract for your market. We did not find a native mobile app on Fonio’s official public pages during this review, which is not proof that no mobile access exists.

Check Fonio’s current pricing or compare Clara and Fonio.

Sameday AI - a home-service front office for growing companies

Sameday AI’s Launch plan starts at $449 per month with 500 minutes, unlimited users, three locations, customizable AI, and pro scheduling. Its public features cover AI CSRs, a phone system, shared inbox, scheduling, campaigns, coaching, analytics, and integrations with home-service field-management tools.

May fit: a growing or multi-location home-service company that wants a deeper phone-system and front-office layer and is comfortable with a demo-led buying process.

Watch for: the entry price and operating scope are much larger than a simple receptionist plan. Sameday AI’s privacy policy references a mobile application, but we did not find a public US App Store or Google Play listing during this review. That is not proof that Sameday AI has no mobile access.

Check Sameday AI’s current pricing or compare Clara and Sameday AI.

Zanus - an annual front-office bundle

Zanus’s official Front Office pages list the ANSWER tier at $4,900 per year plus a $990 one-time onboarding fee. The tier includes 3,600 voice minutes per year, 6,000 chat conversations, 200 knowledge pages, and one English language. The product combines phone answering with website chat and voice. Higher annual tiers add demos, booking, email, and quoting.

May fit: an organization prepared for an annual implementation that wants phone, website voice and chat, booking, quoting, and email workflows in one broader front-office system.

Watch for: the annual bundle is not directly comparable with a monthly receptionist plan. Confirm the current onboarding fee, voice and chat allowances, language allowance, integrations, availability, taxes, and contract terms. We did not assess Zanus’s mobile application availability, call quality, uptime, support, or contractor outcomes.

Check Zanus’s current Front Office offer.

Trade and company-size fit

For a solo contractor or small field crew, billing predictability, job-intake control, and mobile access usually matter more than a long feature list. A larger office may put more weight on integrations, concurrent calls, routing destinations, reporting, or human escalation. A high-volume shop should model a real month of calls before comparing plans.

Use this simple test:

• Solo owner-operator: prioritize a fast setup, clear summaries, native mobile access, and a bill that will not punish a busy week
• Small crew: add routing, after-hours rules, a consistent intake checklist, and a shared way to review caller details on the go
• Growing office: add integrations, permissions, reporting, escalation requirements, and multiple locations or concurrent calls
• Phone-system replacement: evaluate SIP, number management, outbound campaigns, service terms, and implementation support before choosing a broader platform
• Emergency-heavy trade: test urgent and non-urgent scenarios, but keep safety and dispatch decisions with qualified people

Testing status

Clara capabilities were checked against Clara’s public pricing and product pages. Competitor prices, allowances, features, and availability are vendor-reported. We did not independently test competitor call quality, latency, uptime, integrations, accent handling, support quality, or contractor outcomes.

We also did not use customer-review scores to rank the list. Review platforms measure different populations and can change independently of the current product.

Sources

• Clara pricing and Clara AI phone answering service - accessed August 22, 2026
• Smith.ai AI Receptionist pricing and Smith.ai AI Receptionist product page - accessed August 22, 2026
• Goodcall pricing and Goodcall product page - accessed August 22, 2026
• My AI Front Desk pricing and My AI Front Desk product page - accessed August 22, 2026
• Dialzara pricing and Dialzara product page - accessed August 22, 2026
• Rosie pricing and Rosie product page - accessed August 27, 2026
• Fonio pricing and Fonio product page - accessed August 27, 2026
• Sameday AI pricing, features, integrations, and privacy policy - accessed August 27, 2026
• Zanus Front Office, pricing, and launch announcement - accessed August 28, 2026

Limitations

Vendor pages can change without notice. Public documentation does not prove reliability, call quality, support quality, or business results. Currency, taxes, phone availability, integrations, and plan eligibility may vary. The provider may count usage differently from the way your phone system reports it.

Before switching your business number, confirm the current offer and run representative test calls. Include ordinary leads, existing customers, after-hours requests, spam, background noise, interruptions, and a caller who gives incomplete details.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI phone answering service for a contractor?

There is no universal winner. Clara may fit owner-operated trades that want unlimited answered calls and configurable job intake. Smith.ai may fit a business that wants to start with a free call allowance. Compare the billing unit, included usage, workflow, and limitations before choosing.

Which AI answering services offer a free trial or free plan?

At the August 28, 2026 review, Clara advertised a seven-day trial on eligible monthly plans, while Rosie and Dialzara advertised seven-day trials. Smith.ai advertised a free plan with 25 calls each month. Trial terms and eligibility can change, so confirm them on the provider’s site.

Which options publish native mobile apps?

Clara and Rosie publish native iOS and Android apps. Sameday AI’s privacy policy references a mobile application, but we did not find a public US App Store or Google Play listing during this review. That is not proof that Sameday AI has no mobile access. For every provider, confirm whether the app supports the owner workflow you need, such as seeing callers, reviewing call details, and responding while away from a desk.

Can I compare AI answering services by monthly price alone?

No. These services bill by calls, minutes, unique customers, or monthly plans. Compare included usage, overages, currency, and the phone features you will actually use.

Did Clara test every service in this guide?

No. Clara capabilities were checked against Clara’s public product pages. Competitor prices and features are vendor-reported. We did not independently test competitor call quality, reliability, integrations, or contractor outcomes.

Updates and corrections

We review this page every 30 days and when a listed provider reports a material change. Email [email protected] with the page URL and a primary source. We recheck the comparison table, source ledger, structured list, and review date before changing the order or recommendation.