If callers mostly want to book, reschedule or ask the same questions, an AI receptionist answers the calls you forward on a monthly plan and books while they’re still on the line. If every caller should reach a person, a human answering service fits better — usually billed by the minute. Voicemail books nothing; a receptionist covers only their shift.
Lunch rush · Thu 12:10 PM
Sample cards · fictional calls, real workflow
There are five, and they differ most in who answers and what happens next — a message, or a booked appointment.
Published prices, quoted as each company shows them and linked to the page we opened. Your real cost depends on how many calls you get and how long they last.
Amounts are as published; “$” amounts from US-based companies are shown exactly as their pages show them. Infold prices are in Canadian dollars, plus applicable taxes.
Find the line that sounds most like your business. Most owners end up with two: someone for the room, something for the phone.
Few calls come in when you can’t answer, and new customers rarely call after hours.
Keep it — and check messages at least daily. Change when you notice callers who never call back.
Callers need a person: sensitive conversations, payments, or long explanations.
A live receptionist on every call. Compare per-minute and per-call billing at your real call lengths. Infold vs Ruby
Most calls are bookings, reschedules and the same few questions.
It answers the calls you forward to it, at any hour, and books the time while the caller is still on the line.
You want it working this week without configuring anything.
Live in 2 business days once we have access and your approvals — we build it, you test it, we keep tuning it.
Your calls are simple and you’re happy to set it up yourself.
A low-cost self-serve plan may be all you need. Check what it can book into before you buy.
You want AI for routine calls with people behind it for the rest.
Some services pair an AI with their own human team. Compare who answers the hard calls and what each transfer costs. Infold vs Smith.ai
You need someone in the room — walk-ins, payments, paperwork.
Then cover lunch, busy lines and after hours with an AI receptionist or an answering service.
Your clients expect their information to stay in Canada.
Ask every provider which country stores and processes each part of a call. Infold hosts call data in Canada by default.
Between self-serve AI and a human service: an AI receptionist that answers the calls you forward to it, with the setup, booking rules and tuning done for you. It tells callers it’s an AI assistant and hands off to your team whenever a person is needed.
Self-serve AI: you do it
Managed (Infold): we do it
C$699/mo billed yearly (C$8,388) or C$999/mo month-to-month · setup included
Self-serve AI usually costs less: on the published prices we checked, plans start around C$99–C$129 a month, while Canadian live answering services bill by the minute — Posh charges CAD 420 a month for 200 minutes. A managed AI receptionist costs more than self-serve AI because it’s built, connected and tuned for you: C$699/month billed yearly (C$8,388), or C$999/month with no contract. Setup is included. Both Infold plans include 100 handled calls a month; extra calls are C$4.99 each. Prices in CAD, plus applicable taxes. Compare at your own call volume and call length.
They should. Infold says up front that it’s your AI assistant in every greeting, then answers from the information you approve and books the time. Callers who want a person are transferred to your team or get a callback.
It can recognise what your rules call urgent — no heat, a flood, a cracked tooth — and get it to your on-call person right away by call or text, with the details. It only gives the safety steps you approve, and never clinical or legal advice.
No. With Infold you keep your number and forward the calls you choose — after hours, when you’re busy, or always. It’s one setting with your phone provider. Many answering services work the same way; some also offer to host or port your number, so ask before you sign.
It can be, if few calls come in when you can’t answer and new customers rarely call after hours. Voicemail books nothing, though: the caller waits for your callback, and urgent calls wait until someone checks.
It depends on the provider, and many don’t publish it. Ask which country stores and processes each part of a call — the phone line, speech recognition, the AI model and storage. Infold hosts call data in Canada by default, and Canada-only processing is available.
We open each company’s public pages on the date shown and only state what they say, with a link. Prices are quoted as published, in the currency shown — we don’t convert them, and where we add up a monthly total we show the sum. Where a company doesn’t publish something, we write “Not published”. We re-check every comparison at least every 90 days.
Spot an error? Email hi@infold.ai and we’ll fix it.
Company and product names are trademarks of their owners. Infold isn’t affiliated with the companies compared.
Book a 20-minute demo. We’ll run your hardest calls through Infold and show you the booking, the text and the summary you’d get.