This page ranks only what can honestly be ranked, and the ordering below is on one disclosed basis: the published monthly floor, among the providers that publish a rate as well as a plan. The providers here differ by a factor of ten in what their plans include and price on three incompatible units, so a single ranking would have to assume a call volume, a call length and a set of hours. Change any one of those assumptions and the order changes. The ranking below is therefore a starting order on price, not a verdict, and the sections after it show how to produce your own, which will be right.
Best business answering service: the ranking, and the criterion
- AnswerFirst: The lowest published monthly floor in this record at thirty dollars, with rates published from a dollar sixty and no minimum usage or commitment to minute plans. First on the stated basis: cheapest floor among providers that publish both halves.
- Specialty Answering Service: Forty four dollars a month plus the lowest published per-minute rate here at a dollar fifty four, both printed on the same page. The cheapest option for anyone whose volume is real rather than occasional.
- PATLive: Forty nine dollars a month with no included minutes and two dollars ninety nine a minute published. A higher rate, bought deliberately: nothing is spent on a bundle, which suits genuinely low volume.
- Posh: Sixty five dollars a month with zero minutes included and two dollars thirty a minute, the median advertised floor in this record and the clearest separation of access from usage.
- Smith.ai: Prices by included calls rather than minutes with an eleven dollars fifty per-call overage published. Last on price and first for anyone whose calls run past about five minutes, since a per-call rate does not rise with length.
Why the ranking above is only a starting order
How many calls a month, how long the average one runs, which hours you need covered, whether anything has to be booked or committed to on the call, and what a mishandled call costs you. Those five, in that order, eliminate most of the field before price is considered at all. A business taking fifteen short calls a month with nothing to book and a low cost of error has a different correct answer from a practice taking two hundred booking calls across seven days.
Then the arithmetic, in one unit
Take your call count and average length and price them against each plan: the monthly floor, plus whatever falls outside the inclusion at that provider's published rate. Published rates here run from a dollar fifty four to two dollars ninety nine a minute, and seven and eleven dollars fifty a call. Doing this properly usually reorders the providers relative to their advertised prices, and it frequently promotes the ones with the least impressive headline figures.
Four providers cannot be ranked this way
Ruby, Abby Connect and AnsweringService.com publish a plan and no rate for exceeding it, and a fourth publishes a From price per product. For those the arithmetic above cannot be completed from public information. That is not a mark against them as services; it is a statement that they must be asked directly before they can enter a comparison, and it is why the quote form on this site exists.
What a ranking would hide
Any list naming a best provider is either assuming your circumstances or being paid. The specific damage is that it hides the variable that decides the answer: at two minutes a call, per-minute providers win comfortably; at seven, per-call providers do, and nothing about the providers changed between those two sentences. A record that shows what each publishes, with the date it was read, lets you apply your own number and get a ranking that is true for you.
Questions people ask about best business answering service
Which is the best business answering service?
There is no single answer, which is why this record names none. The providers price on three incompatible units and their inclusions differ by a factor of ten, so any ranking has to assume a call volume, a length and a set of hours.
How do I work out which one fits?
Answer five questions: monthly call count, average length, hours needed, whether anything must be booked on the call, and what a mishandled call costs. Then price your own volume against each plan and rate.
Why can four providers not be compared?
Because they publish a plan and no rate for exceeding it, so the arithmetic cannot be completed from public pages. They have to be asked directly, which is what the quote form here is for.
Does a longer call change which provider wins?
Completely. At two minutes a call the per-minute providers win comfortably; at seven the per-call providers do. Nothing about the providers changes, only your number.