I get this question once a week now. "Mate I'm losing two or three calls a day, what should I actually use?"
Half the answer depends on your business. The other half depends on whether you want to be honest with yourself about the trade-offs.
This is the comparison I wish someone had written for me before I built Sanby. Real prices (researched April 2026), real limitations, and a recommendation for each kind of tradie business. Including when Sanby isn't the right answer.
The five real options
In 2026 there are basically five things you can do when you can't reach the phone:
- Voicemail
- A call-divert to your partner / mate / receptionist
- A traditional human answering service (Reception HQ, AnswerForce)
- An AI receptionist (Sanby, Sophiie AI, Smith.ai, Goodcall)
- Hire an actual employee
Anyone who sells you "voicemail with transcription" as a serious solution is the same person who sells you a $4 carbon offset on your flight. We're skipping that.
Actual prices in April 2026
I called or signed up for every service on this list to confirm. The numbers below are AUD, GST inclusive, for a sole-trader / small-team plan. If the company won't publish a price on their website, that's noted.
| Service | Price/month | What you get | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail (default) | Free | A 30-second recording. ~12% of callers leave one. | The 88% who don't will book your competitor instead. |
| Reception HQ (AU) | From $119 | 25 calls. 24/7. Australian agents. | Per-call overage $4.40. Doesn't book into your calendar — takes a message. |
| AnswerForce (AU/US blend) | From $279 | 50 calls. 24/7. Mostly US agents at night. | Heavy upsell to "virtual receptionist" tier from $549. |
| Sophiie AI | $200 / $400 / $600 | Unlimited calls on top tier. AI voice. | Setup fee $1,500 — not on the homepage, ask sales. |
| Smith.ai (US) | From USD $292 (~$450 AUD) | 90 calls. AI + human escalation. | US accents only. Strong for US-style intake (lawyers, agencies); awkward for "the dunny's flooded". |
| Goodcall | USD $59 (~$92) | 30 calls. AI only, no booking. | Cheapest AI option. No real Australian voice; can't book into Google Calendar. |
| Sanby | $149 / $299 / $599 | 50 / 200 / 700 calls. AU AI voices. Books into Google + iCloud. | Free trial, no setup fee. Aussie accents only. We made this one. |
| Hire a part-time admin | ~$3,500 (20 hrs/wk @ $35 + super) | Mon-Fri 9-5. Doesn't work weekends. | Doesn't scale with call volume. Doesn't speak the trade. |
What's actually different
Reception HQ is the reasonable conservative choice. Real Australian humans, 24/7, $4.40 per overage call. The thing they can't do is book the job. They take a message and you ring back. So the conversion rate is lower than anything that confirms a slot during the call. But if you want a person to pick up and you don't trust AI yet, this is the honest answer for $119/month.
AnswerForce is fine if your customers are corporate. The Aussie agents during business hours are good. After hours it switches to US agents and the script gets generic. For a tradie this matters because "the bathroom's flooding, can someone come tonight" gets logged as "customer requests urgent service" — which is technically correct and practically useless.
Sophiie AI is interesting and expensive. It's a real AI receptionist. The setup fee of $1,500 isn't on the website, which annoyed me. The voice quality is fine. The pricing scales with features rather than call volume, so a busy plumber can come out cheaper than on Sanby's per-call tier. Worth a demo if you're doing 1,000+ calls a month and willing to absorb the upfront.
Smith.ai is the gold standard for US firms. It's not built for Australia. The AI is excellent, the human escalation is excellent, and the price reflects that. If you have an office and a US-style customer base (lawyers, accountants, agencies), it's the best on this list. For a sparkie in Geelong, it's the wrong shape.
Goodcall is the cheap-and-cheerful option. $92/month is less than a phone bill. The AI can answer basic questions and take a message. It can't book into your calendar, can't handle "no power, kids are home", and the voice will not pass for Australian. Useful as a holding pattern while you decide what to do properly.
Sanby is what we built. I'm biased. The reason I think it's the right answer for most tradies is the booking-during-the-call mechanic plus the Aussie voice rotation, but you'd expect me to say that. The honest case: if your customers are mostly residential, mostly within Australia, and you'd benefit from "booked appointment in the customer's phone before they hang up", we're the right shape. If you have any of the alternatives (corporate customers, US callers, complex intake), one of the others probably wins.
The decision
I genuinely think the choice for most Australian tradies is between three options:
If you're doing fewer than 30 calls a month and most are referrals: stick with voicemail and check it twice a day. The maths doesn't justify any of these services until you're missing 5+ jobs a month.
If you're doing 30 to 200 calls a month and you want a human voice: Reception HQ at $119/month. Lower conversion than AI but you don't have to explain to your nan why the receptionist sounds funny.
If you're doing 30 to 500 calls a month and you care about converting them: an AI receptionist that actually books. Sophiie if you can absorb the setup fee, Sanby if you can't. Both will book the job during the call.
If you're doing 1,000+ calls a month: hire a full-time admin and use one of the above as overflow. The economics favour an employee at that volume.
What we don't recommend, ever
- A US-only service for an Australian customer base. The accent friction is real. Older customers in particular will hang up.
- Anything with a hidden setup fee. Sophiie's $1,500 is the example here. Ask for total first-year cost in writing before signing.
- A service that won't show you a recording of an actual call. If they can't demo it, they're hiding something. Reception HQ, AnswerForce, Sanby and Smith.ai all let you hear real calls before signing.
The honest pitch
We built Sanby because we wanted what Smith.ai is to American small businesses, but for Australian tradies. Aussie voices, books the job during the call, sub-second response, $149/month with a 14-day free trial.
If after reading this you still want to try Reception HQ instead, that's a perfectly defensible call. The point is that there isn't one right answer. There's a right answer for your shape of business. Pick deliberately.
Sanby's free trial is here. Or read the missed-call cost piece if you want the maths on whether to do anything at all.