If you run a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing or handyman business, you already know the problem. The phone rings while you're under a sink, up a ladder or driving to the next job. You can't pick up, and the caller tries the next contractor on the list.
An AI receptionist fixes that. It answers every call, finds out what the customer needs, collects their details and, on most plans, books the appointment. It works nights, weekends and the hours you spend on a job site.
But the tools aren't all priced or built the same way. Some charge by the minute, some by the call, and one charges by unique customer. Some include calendar booking on the cheapest plan, while others keep it for higher tiers.
This guide compares five AI receptionists that come up most often for contractors and home service businesses: Dialzara, Smith.ai, Rosie, Goodcall and Contractors2Hire. If you're searching for the best AI receptionist for contractors, or for Dialzara alternatives, it should help you choose.
Disclosure: This blog is published by Contractors2Hire, which is one of the five options below. We've tried to be fair: every price comes from each company's own pricing page, checked on October 23, 2026, and we say where a competitor is the better fit. Prices change, so confirm on each vendor's site before you buy.
Quick Answer: Which AI Receptionist Is Best for Contractors?
- Best for handymen and owner-operators on a budget: Contractors2Hire. It starts at $29 a month with calendar booking included, the lowest listed per-minute overage here ($0.25), a 14-day free trial, and free marketplace leads on every paid plan.
- Best for lots of minutes at a low price: Rosie. Its $49 plan includes 250 minutes, though calendar booking and call transfers start at $149.
- Best if you want a human backup: Smith.ai. Calls can be handed to a live receptionist in North America, at a higher price per call.
- Best for busy shops with many short calls: Goodcall. It bills by unique customer instead of minutes, so long calls and repeat callers don't cost extra.
- Best for growing teams that want Spanish today: Dialzara. Its plans list English and Spanish and go up to 1,000 minutes, but call transfers only appear on its $349 plan.
AI Receptionist Price Comparison (2026)
Here is how the plans compare side by side. Each vendor measures usage differently, so read the "What's metered" column first.
| Service | Entry plan | Mid plans | What's metered | Overage | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contractors2Hire | $29/mo, 60 min | $59/mo (150 min), $149/mo (400 min) | Voice minutes and SMS | $0.25/min, $0.03/SMS | 14 days |
| Dialzara | $29/mo, 60 min | $99/mo (220 min), $199/mo (500 min), $349/mo (1,000 min) | Minutes | $0.48–$0.35/min | 7 days |
| Smith.ai (AI) | Free, 25 calls | $150/mo (75 calls), $500/mo (300 calls) | Calls | $3.00 on Free, $2.50–$2.10 on paid plans | Free plan |
| Rosie | $49/mo, 250 min | $149/mo (1,000 min), $299/mo (2,000 min) | Minutes | Not listed on the pricing page | 7 days |
| Goodcall | $79/mo, 100 customers | $129/mo (500), $299/mo (2,000) | Unique customers per month | 79¢ / 26¢ / 15¢ per extra customer | Free demo agent |
What does a month actually cost?
Plan prices only tell half the story. To compare fairly, we priced two typical contractor months. We assumed an average call of 3 minutes, every caller a different person, and the cheapest plan (including overage) that covers the volume.
| Monthly volume | Contractors2Hire | Dialzara | Smith.ai (AI) | Rosie | Goodcall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 calls (~150 min) | $51.50 (Starter + overage) or $59 (Pro) | $72.20 (Lite + overage) | $75 (Free + 25 extra calls) | $49, or $149 with calendar booking | $79 |
| 150 calls (~450 min) | $126.50 (Starter + overage) or $134 (Pro) | $199 (Plus) | about $338 (Pro + 75 extra calls) | $149 | $118.50 (Starter + overage) |
A few things stand out:
- For a solo handyman or small crew, Contractors2Hire and Rosie are the cheapest. Rosie's $49 plan is hard to beat on minutes, but if you want the AI to book jobs directly on your calendar, Rosie's cheapest option is $149.
- Per-call pricing gets expensive fast. Smith.ai is reasonable at low volume, but at 150 calls a month it costs more than double the others. You're paying for the option of a human backup.
- Goodcall gets cheaper as you grow. It's the cheapest option at 150 calls, and if your calls are long or customers call back several times, the unique-customer model works in your favor.
- Overage rates matter. Going 100 minutes over costs $25 on Contractors2Hire, $35–$48 on Dialzara, and Contractors2Hire also sells 100-minute top-ups for $19 that never expire.
These are estimates. Your real bill depends on how long your calls run and which features you need.
1. Contractors2Hire AI Receptionist: Best for Handymen and Small Contractors
Price: Starter $29/mo · Pro $59/mo · Crew $149/mo · See pricing
Contractors2Hire is a home services marketplace that also offers an AI receptionist built specifically for contractors. It's designed for the moment a handyman, plumber or electrician can't get to the phone. We wrote about how and why we built it here.
You forward your business line to the AI. When a customer calls, the receptionist answers, asks what job they need, where it is and how urgent it is, and books the appointment on your calendar. You get a call summary and the recording, so you can see who called and what they want without listening to a voicemail.
What you get:
- AI receptionist that answers your forwarded calls, 24/7
- Warm transfer to your phone when a caller asks for a person, with a message taken if you don't pick up
- Call summaries, recordings and calendar booking on every paid plan
- Custom greeting, FAQs and instructions, plus lead scoring on every call (Pro and Crew)
- 365-day recording retention (Crew)
- Up to 5, 12 or 50 free marketplace leads a month, depending on plan
- Priority placement in Contractors2Hire search (Pro and Crew)
- 14-day free trial with 30 voice minutes and 50 SMS; card required but not charged until the trial ends
- Month-to-month plans with no setup fees or contracts
Why it stands out: It's the only option here that combines a phone receptionist with a marketplace that sends you work. The other four answer the calls you already get. Contractors2Hire also helps you get more of them.
Extra benefits: list your company and get free leads
Contractors2Hire is more than an AI receptionist. It's also a home services marketplace where homeowners search for local pros, so every plan comes with two extra benefits the other tools on this list don't offer.
1. List your company on the platform. You can create a business profile with your services, photos and reviews, and homeowners can find you in search and message you in the app. The listing is free, even without a paid plan.
2. Free marketplace leads with every plan. Each paid plan includes free leads from homeowners in your service area every month:
| Plan | Price | AI receptionist | Free marketplace leads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free listing | $0 | No | Profile, photos and reviews in search, plus homeowner messages |
| Starter | $29/mo | 60 voice minutes, 150 SMS | Up to 5 a month |
| Pro | $59/mo | 150 voice minutes, 400 SMS | Up to 12 a month, plus priority placement in search |
| Crew | $149/mo | 400 voice minutes, 1,000 SMS | Up to 50 a month, plus priority placement in search |
Lead counts are a monthly maximum, not a guarantee: the number you get depends on homeowner demand for your trades in your service area. Lead counts are from the Contractors2Hire pricing page.
Here's why that matters when you compare prices. With Dialzara, Smith.ai, Rosie or Goodcall, you pay for answering the calls you already get. With Contractors2Hire, the same monthly fee also gets your business in front of new customers. A single extra job a month can more than cover a $29 or $59 plan.
Limitations: Missed-call text-back, a Spanish-speaking receptionist and integrations like Jobber and Zapier are listed as coming soon, not available yet. If you need Spanish on day one, Rosie or Dialzara is a better fit for now.
Best for: Handymen, owner-operators and small crews who want an affordable AI receptionist and more local jobs from one place.
Contractors2Hire AI for handymen
Handyman businesses get a wide mix of calls: TV mounting, furniture assembly, drywall patches, door repairs and small jobs that don't justify stopping work to answer the phone. The Contractors2Hire AI receptionist for handymen is set up for exactly that. It asks what the job is, where it is and when the customer wants it done, and turns the call into a booked visit or a qualified lead you can call back.
At $29 a month, the Starter plan covers roughly 20–30 calls. That's often enough for a one-person handyman business, and it costs less than losing a single job to voicemail. Create your free profile and try the receptionist free for 14 days.
2. Dialzara: A Solid General-Purpose AI Receptionist
Price: Business Lite $29/mo · Pro $99/mo · Plus $199/mo · Elite $349/mo · See pricing
Dialzara is a general small-business AI receptionist. Its plans are priced by talk-time minutes, from 60 minutes on the $29 plan up to 1,000 minutes on the $349 plan.
What you get:
- 24/7 answering, appointment booking, lead qualification and call routing, starting on the Lite plan
- CRM and calendar integration, voicemail transcription and a custom AI voice
- English and Spanish listed on the Lite plan
- A two-way AI SMS agent, free with any inbound voice plan
- 7-day free trial and no setup fees
Limitations: Overage starts at $0.48 a minute on the entry plan, nearly double Contractors2Hire's $0.25. Blind and warm transfers to your team are only listed on the $349 Elite plan and above, so if you want the AI to put urgent calls through to you, budget for that tier. The pricing page doesn't mention contractors or home services specifically.
Best for: Small businesses in any industry that want Spanish support and a predictable minute bundle.
Looking for Dialzara alternatives?
Contractors often look for Dialzara alternatives for three reasons: overage costs, call transfers locked to the top plan, and the lack of contractor-specific features. Here's where to look:
- Lower overage and contractor focus: Contractors2Hire ($0.25/min overage, plus a free company listing and up to 5–50 free leads a month)
- More minutes for the money: Rosie (250 minutes for $49)
- Live human backup: Smith.ai
- Unlimited minutes: Goodcall (billed by unique customer)
3. Smith.ai: Best for AI With a Human Backup
Price: AI Receptionist Free (25 calls) · Pro $150/mo · Enterprise $500/mo · See pricing
Smith.ai is one of the best-known names in virtual receptionists. It started with human receptionists and now offers an AI-first plan as well. Its biggest strength is the ability to transfer a call to a live receptionist based in North America, any time of day.
What you get:
- Free plan with 25 calls a month, then $3.00 per call
- 24/7 AI answering, recording, transcription and summaries
- Lead qualification, call routing and AI scheduling (Calendly and others)
- Integrations such as Zapier and Clio, and HubSpot and Salesforce on its human plans
- Spam filtering: known spam calls don't count, and you can remove up to 10% of calls from your bill
- Industry pages for home services and general contractors
Limitations: Billing is per call, which adds up quickly for busy contractors. The Pro plan's 75 calls work out to $2.00 each, and extra calls cost $2.50. Human receptionist plans start at $300 a month for 30 calls. You also need to give 30 days' notice to cancel the AI plan.
Best for: Contractors with lower call volume who want a real person available for complicated or high-value calls.
4. Rosie: Best for Lots of Minutes at a Low Price
Price: Professional $49/mo · Scale $149/mo · Growth $299/mo · See pricing
Rosie is a simple AI answering service used by more than 2,000 small businesses, according to its site. It has dedicated pages for home services, plumbing, HVAC, electricians and construction, and its plans are generous with minutes.
What you get:
- 250, 1,000 or 2,000 minutes a month depending on plan
- English and Spanish on every call, on every plan
- Trained automatically from your Google Business Profile and website
- Call summaries, transcripts and recordings, with email and text notifications
- Native iOS and Android apps and a Zapier integration
- 7-day free trial, and two months free when you pay annually
Limitations: On the $49 Professional plan, Rosie takes messages and texts callers an appointment link, but it doesn't book directly on your calendar. Calendar booking, live transfers and warm transfers start on the $149 Scale plan. The pricing page also doesn't list what happens when you go over your minutes, so ask before you sign up.
Best for: Contractors who mainly want calls answered and messages taken, or who need Spanish support today.
5. Goodcall: Best for Busy Shops With Many Short Calls
Price: Starter $79/mo · Growth $129/mo · Scale $299/mo · See pricing
Goodcall takes a different approach to pricing. Instead of minutes or calls, it charges by unique customer: each phone number counts once a month, however many times that person calls and however long the calls run. Spam and wrong numbers don't count.
What you get:
- Unlimited minutes on every plan
- 100, 500 or 2,000 unique customers a month, with low overage (79¢, 26¢ or 15¢ per extra customer)
- A local number included, or forward your existing line
- Configurable "workers" for tasks like booking, plus connections to external tools (1, 5 or 15 depending on plan)
- A free demo agent you can build and test before you pay
Limitations: The $79 entry price is the highest of the five, and the pricing page doesn't mention SMS, supported languages or contractor-specific features. Setting up workers and tool connections takes more effort than a simpler receptionist.
Best for: Established shops that get a high volume of calls, especially repeat callers and longer conversations.
Feature Comparison at a Glance
| Feature | Contractors2Hire | Dialzara | Smith.ai | Rosie | Goodcall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24/7 AI answering | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Calendar booking on entry plan | Yes ($29) | Yes ($29) | Yes (Free) | No (from $149) | Via workers |
| Call transfer to you or your team | Yes (set in call flow) | From $349 | Yes, including to a live human | From $149 | Yes |
| Spanish | Coming soon | Yes | Spanish line on human plans | Yes, every plan | Not listed |
| Built for contractors | Yes | General | Home services page | Home services pages | General |
| Free business listing on a marketplace | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Free leads included | Up to 5 / 12 / 50 a month | No | No | No | No |
| Free trial | 14 days | 7 days | Free plan | 7 days | Free demo |
| Lowest overage | $0.25/min | $0.35/min | $2.10/call | Not listed | 15¢/customer |
How to Choose the Right AI Receptionist for Your Contracting Business
Before you pick a tool, answer these questions:
- How many calls do you get a month, and how long are they? Multiply your calls by 3 minutes to estimate your minutes, then check which plan covers it without heavy overage.
- Do you need the AI to book jobs, or just take messages? If booking matters, check which tier includes it. It's included at $29 on Contractors2Hire and Dialzara, but starts at $149 on Rosie.
- Do you need urgent calls transferred to you? Emergency plumbing and HVAC calls often do. Check transfer availability before you buy.
- Do your customers speak Spanish? If so, Rosie and Dialzara support it today.
- Do you also need more customers? Only Contractors2Hire pairs the receptionist with a marketplace that sends you local leads.
Whatever you choose, use the free trial properly. Forward your real business line, call it yourself from a different phone, and ask the questions your customers actually ask. You'll know within a day whether it sounds right for your business.
If missed calls are costing you work, read how missed calls are stealing $100K from plumbing businesses. The numbers apply to most trades.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best AI receptionist for contractors?
It depends on your size and needs. For handymen and small contractors on a budget, Contractors2Hire offers calendar booking from $29 a month plus free marketplace leads. Rosie offers the most minutes for the price, Smith.ai is best if you want a human backup, and Goodcall suits high-volume shops.
How much does an AI receptionist cost for a small contractor?
Most contractors pay between $29 and $150 a month. A business taking about 50 calls a month (around 150 minutes) would pay roughly $50 to $80 on most of the services compared here.
Can an AI receptionist book appointments?
Yes. Contractors2Hire, Dialzara and Smith.ai include booking on their entry plans, Rosie includes it from $149 a month, and Goodcall handles it through configurable workers. The AI checks your calendar and offers the caller an open time.
What are the best Dialzara alternatives?
Contractors2Hire (contractor-focused, $0.25/min overage, free leads), Rosie (more minutes per dollar), Smith.ai (human backup) and Goodcall (unlimited minutes, billed per unique customer).
Will customers know they're talking to an AI?
Modern AI receptionists sound natural and handle normal back-and-forth conversation. Many businesses have the AI introduce itself as a virtual receptionist, which customers generally accept as long as their question gets answered and the job gets booked.
Stop Losing Jobs to Voicemail
Every unanswered call is a customer deciding whether to wait for you or call someone else. An AI receptionist picks up right away, every time, for less than the cost of one lost job.
If you're a handyman, plumber, electrician, HVAC tech, roofer or other home service pro, try the Contractors2Hire AI receptionist free for 14 days. Plans start at $29 a month with no contracts. Every plan also lists your company on the Contractors2Hire marketplace and includes up to 5, 12 or 50 free leads a month.
👉 Join Contractors2Hire and create your contractor profile today.
Photos: Emmanuel Ikwuegbu, bhagya laxmi, Zohair Mirza and Sergio Martins on Unsplash (Unsplash License).
