An answering service provides both live and virtual receptionist phone service. It enables businesses to have a professional who would answer calls from their leads and prospects around the clock or specific times and days.
Top Six Cheapest Answering Services in the USA
Here, we have listed top cheapest and best answering services in the USA who typically offer services to startups and entrepreneurs.
- RingCentral ($19.99 per month) – Suitable for businesses who want an auto attendant but not alive receptionist
- Map Communications ($39 per month) – Geared towards companies who want custom scripting and customer support
- VoiceNation ($79 per month) – Perfect for small business owners who want a message-only answering service
- Davinci ($99 per month) – Ideal for businesses who need answering service for outbound sales, marketing, or lead calls, etc.
- Ruby Receptionists ($149 per month per user) – Suitable for entrepreneurs who want to add a business line to their cellphone or landline
- Abby Connect ($279 per month) – Suitable for those who need dedicated receptionists
01. RingCentral ($19.99 per month)
RingCentral operation on a VoIP system with the automated virtual receptionist who will greet your customers as well as route calls to the departments on mobile as well as a landline. The company offers bundled toll-free minutes and voicemail along with text features. It enables companies to scale the changing needs of call centers. It is the best option for businesses who want VoIP phone system with auto attendant services but don’t need a live receptionist.
RingCentral prices start at $19.99 per month. Its unlimited plans start at $34.99 per month. For ten users the price range from $29.99 to $39.99 per month. In the industry average, RingCentral provides its essential services at the lowest price.
Tier I – Essentials ($19.99 per user per month)
- Unlimited phone calls
- 100 toll-free minutes
- Visual voicemail and voicemail-to-email
Tier II – Standard ($34.99 per user per month)
- 1000 toll-free minutes
- Multi-Level auto attendant
Tier III – Premium ($44.99 per user per month)
- 2500 toll-free minutes
- Auto call recording
- Voicemail transcription to text
Tier IV – Ultimate ($59.99 per user per month)
- 10000 toll-free minutes
RingCentral Essentials
This auto-receptionist package includes unlimited phone calls, 100 toll-free minutes and visual voicemail. Its call-routing system greets callers with a custom company greeting sends them to the right destination. However, it doesn’t have a sizeable toll-free minute or multi-level auto attendant. At $19.99 per month, this basic package is cheaper than most of the alternatives such as VoiceNation, Ruby, Abby Connect or Davinci. This package is ideal for small teams who have more local calling needs.
RingCentral Standard
This package brings 1,000 toll-free minutes with multilevel auto attendant features. It adds additional features to the auto-receptionist with call routing for multiple locations and external phone numbers. However, it misses the auto call recording found in higher packages. This package is still cheaper than VoiceNation, Ruby, Map Communications or Davinci and best meets businesses with more than ten employees who need a virtual answering service and auto attendant services.
RingCentral Premium
The package brings 2500 toll-free minutes with additional auto call recording and voicemail transcription-to-text feature. The package price is same as Map Communications and Voice Nation and less expensive than Ruby, Abby Connect or Davinci.
RingCentral Ultimate
RingCentral’s Ultimate package includes all the features, making it ideal for medium-sized companies.
The customer support is one of the best providing an online knowledge base, support specialist ticketing system, phone, and chat.
02. Map Communications ($39 per month)
The company offers 24/7 live receptionist service who would answer phone calls; route calls as well as take messages from callers. Map Communications specializes in custom scripting, making it an ideal solution for businesses who need round the clock receptionist service even on holidays and weekends.
- Standard plan – $39 per month, each minute at $1.15
- Business plan – $149 per month, 125 minutes, additional minutes at $1.09
- Executive plan – $249 per month, 225 minutes, extra minutes at $1.07
Its answering service plans include live 24/7 receptionist service, text and email message delivery with worldwide 800+ local number. Other companies such as Ruby, Abby Connect and Davinci offer the same feature; however, Map Communications excels for its call overflow service and custom scripting.
The company specializes in custom scripts which enables businesses to both basic order processing and complex technical troubleshooting. It can also include making appointments and canceling appointments. They can also process payments even for the solo business owner.
All live receptionist service is available 24/7 even on holidays. The feature is included with all pricing at no additional charge. The company also offers call overflow in all its pricing plans, where the service provider will take a call after a certain number of rings in the local office. The office lines are automatically forwarded as per the customized plan. Services such as Abby Connect offers the same service, but at a higher cost.
However, the company doesn’t provide dedicated teams of receptionists to accounts and personalized services. It also lacks the full-featured phone service offered by RingCentral.
03. VoiceNation ($79 per month)
The company offers 24/7 answering service with several pay-as-you-go messaging options and specific low-cost message-forwarding services. Their package includes live receptionists who take phone messages and deliver via email, voicemail or SMS. It makes their service suitable for businesses that want message-only virtual answering service.
VoiceNation answering service plans include:
- $79 pay-as-you-go plan for $1.50 per minute
- 95 minutes – $129
- 150 minutes – $199
- 275 minutes – $329
- 500 minutes – $549
- 1,000 minutes – $949
- Message-only plan with 40 minutes – $49
The answering service features round the clock live order processing, call patching, toll-free number, reporting, message delivery via email, voicemail via SMS, schedule management and more. They also offer live receptionists with customer support through an online ticketing system, phone, and chat.
Other value-added services include custom scripting which enables businesses to gather precise information from callers. It also covers answering FAQs for lead generation and follow-up calls. However, Map Communications provide the same feature with no additional cost.
The live receptionist service is available round the clock even on holidays. The same feature is offered by other companies such as Davinci but at a higher cost. RingCentral doesn’t offer the functionality at all!
The Call Overflow feature addresses many business needs such as live receptionists during off hours such as lunch when office lines are forwarded to the services. This feature is offered as a tailored solution by the company. However, these features included as standard in all Map Communications packages.
Their message-only package comes with 40 minutes free and overage minutes at $1.49 per minute. This package also includes a local or toll-free number along with reporting, voicemail and other services.
However, the company misses auto attendant feature and business phone system which are better offered by RingCentral.
04. Davinci ($99 per month)
This answering service offers live call answering, call forwarding, call screening as well as call routing. Their features include outbound calling for help along with sales and lead generation and offers unlimited long-distance calling. Davinci is an excellent solution for business owners who want assistance with outbound sales and marketing calls.
- Business Plan – $99 per month, 50 live answering minutes
- Business Plan II – $239 per month, 100 minutes
- Premium Plan – $249 per month, 50 minutes
- Premium Plan II – $319 per month, 100 minutes
All packages from Davinci is higher than its competitors, however, offers more features and unlimited long-distance and outbound calling.
Business Plan
The business plan includes a free local or toll-free number, call forwarding, screening, voicemail, online faxing. However, the package doesn’t provide appointment scheduling outbound calling, multilingual receptionists, order processing, administrative tasks, FAQs and others.
Although the cost is higher than other services, it does provide additional features for the money such as call routing, auto-receptionist, and unlimited long distance calling.
Premium Plan
The premium plan adds appointment scheduling, order processing, administrative tasks, FAQs, etc. Its extensive plan becomes a virtual administrative assistant for small businesses. These features are more suitable for companies who want assistance with outbound sales, marketing, and lead generation calls. The service, however, doesn’t offer call overflow, which is provided by Map Communications and Abby.
05. Ruby Receptionists ($149 per month per user)
The company combines a local business phone number with a live receptionist call answering service. The service will answer phones, greet callers, take messages and route calls. This service is popular for entrepreneurs who need to add a local business line with answering service to mobile phone and landline.
- Its Solo package starts at $149 for one user that provides 30 receptionist minutes along with one voicemail box.
- The Impress package is $299 for 10 users with 100 receptionist minutes and 10 voicemail boxes.
- Engage package costs $599 for 20 users with 200 receptionist minutes and 20 voicemail boxes.
- The Captivate package costs $1269 for unlimited users with 500 receptionist minutes and provides unlimited voicemail boxes.
Ruby Solo
Along with the features mentioned above it provides services such as company-specific greeting, multilingual receptionists, and a local phone number. The service also answers basic FAQs of the business. However, it doesn’t offer appointment scheduling, call routing, custom forms or a toll-free phone number.
Ruby Impress
Ruby Impress gives you 10 users, ten voicemail boxes and 100 receptionist minutes. The business also gets access to appointment scheduling along with a toll-free number and call routing. However, the company offers call routing in all of its packages at a lower price. Its pricing is on par with Davinci. This package is an ideal solution for small teams of 10 who need only the basic features and multiple voicemail boxes. However, the company does not have a ticketing support system or an online knowledge base.
Ruby Engage
This package includes 20 users, 20 voicemail boxes and 200 receptionist minutes. Moreover, it provides call routing, custom forms, multilingual receptionists as well as a local phone number. However, the package doesn’t have auto attendant feature. The package is on par with VoiceNation and RingCentral’s higher packages. It is an ideal option for larger teams who need more voicemail boxes. The company, however, misses voicemail transcription and the text form business number.
06. Abby Connect ($279 per month)
The company uses a dedicated team of live receptionists who provide personalized live greetings and service to callers. Receptionists are available full-time, part-time or during overflow calls. Abby Connect is a popular option for businesses who want to offer personalized customer service to inbound callers.
- Basic plan – $279 per month, includes 100 minutes
- Mid-range plan – $499 per month, includes 200 minutes
- Top-level plan – $1,089 per month, includes 500 minutes
The company offers live call answering, a dedicated account manager along with a receptionist team and multilingual receptionists. Abby Connect is the market leader for its personalized inbound call service.
The company assigns a team of 5 receptionists for each account to call live answers from Monday to Friday. Other services also have live call answering services but don’t assign personal receptionists to accounts. The company offers call overflow service to all its customers in all packages.
However, the company doesn’t offer message-only package; moreover, it has no appointment scheduling services.
Conclusion
Answering services offer a number of communication solutions that are more suitable to small to medium size business and makes sure that companies don’t miss any opportunity. Some of the services offer free tail to help enterprises to find the best solution. Although it is difficult to narrow down the cheapest service, as costly service providers to provide more services than their cheaper counterparts. Some companies even offer mobile apps for convenience. In the end, it all depends on the business needs of the companies.