--- title: "Smith.ai vs Dolfyn (2026): $300 for 30 Calls vs $179/mo for Contractors" description: "Smith.ai charges $300/mo for 30 calls, with a cheaper AI tier alongside. dolfyn starts at $179/mo, custom-built for contractors. See which fits." canonical: https://dolfyn.ai/compare/dolfyn-vs-smithai source: dolfyn.ai --- # Smith.ai vs Dolfyn (2026): $300 for 30 Calls vs $179/mo for Contractors > Smith.ai charges $300/mo for 30 calls, with a cheaper AI tier alongside. dolfyn starts at $179/mo, custom-built for contractors. See which fits. 2-week free trialNo credit card, no contracts [Book a call](#demo) Comparison # dolfyn vs Smith.ai: Which AI Receptionist is Better for Contractors? Updated **September 2026** 9 min read HVAC · Plumbing · Home Services Quick Verdict **Smith.ai is the better choice if you need a human available for complex or sensitive calls.** For most contractors focused on lead capture, emergency routing, and booking, particularly those running ServiceTitan or Jobber, **dolfyn delivers more for less money** with contractor-specific training and daily oversight built in. Smith.ai has been around since 2015 and built a real reputation as one of the better AI plus human hybrid answering services. dolfyn is newer and built specifically for trades. They're solving the same core problem, missed calls costing contractors jobs, but from completely different directions. Key Takeaways Smith.ai runs two products: a live human receptionist tier billed per call, starting at $300/month for 30 calls with $11.50 overages, and a cheaper AI Receptionist that starts free and moves to a $150 Pro tier for 75 calls, with extra calls billed on top. dolfyn is AI with daily human oversight, custom built per client, starting at $179/month with volume-based pricing set upfront. For most contractors handling 100 or more calls per month, dolfyn beats the human tier on cost and beats the self-serve AI tier on how well the agent actually knows your business. Smith.ai's human tier still makes sense for low-volume, high-value calls where a person on most interactions matters more than the bill. This comparison covers what each actually does, where each wins, and which one makes more sense depending on how your business operates. In this comparison - [What each product is](#overview) - [Setup and onboarding](#setup) - [Call handling and contractor fit](#calls) - [Pricing](#pricing) - [Integrations](#integrations) - [Feature comparison table](#table) - [Who should use which](#who) ## What these two products actually are Smith.ai is a hybrid service. AI handles the routine calls, live North American receptionists step in for anything complex. That model has genuine appeal for businesses where calls often require judgment, nuance, or a human voice to close. Smith.ai serves a wide range of industries including law firms, medical practices, home services, and e-commerce. It's a broad product that's been refined over a decade. dolfyn is purpose-built for trades and home service businesses. The whole product is designed around how a contractor's phone actually works, emergency calls, dispatch routing, ServiceTitan and Jobber integrations, after-hours coverage. Setup is done for you by dolfyn's team based on a discovery conversation about your specific business. Nothing is self-configured. The fundamental difference Smith.ai is a proven general service with human backup. dolfyn is a contractor-specific product with no humans on calls but deeper trade knowledge and daily oversight built in. ## Setup and onboarding Smith.ai's setup involves filling out an intake form covering your business, call handling preferences, and how you want different scenarios handled. Their team configures the system and you can provide feedback to refine it. It's assisted but still requires you to specify a lot of the logic upfront. Timeline is typically 2 to 5 business days. dolfyn's setup is a conversation. You talk through your services, your call flow, how emergencies get handled, what software you use, and how your crew operates day to day. dolfyn builds the whole thing. You don't go live until it's working the way your business actually needs it to. That process can take a day or stretch longer depending on how complex your setup is and how available you are to give feedback. Neither is instant. Smith.ai is faster to get started if you know what you want. dolfyn takes more upfront time but the output is more tailored to how a trades business specifically operates. ## Call handling and contractor fit Smith.ai handles contractor calls well for the standard scenarios. Appointment requests, general inquiries, message taking, basic lead qualification. When calls get complicated, urgent, or emotionally charged, a live receptionist can step in. For a high-end remodeling company dealing with large-budget clients who want a premium experience, that human touch has real value. For a 3-truck HVAC company getting flooded with no-heat calls in January, Smith.ai's per-call pricing model gets expensive fast, and its AI tier is not trained specifically on contractor call flows the way dolfyn's is. A dolfyn agent knows the difference between a no-heat emergency and a tune-up request, and it knows your service territory, your pricing ranges, and your escalation rules, where Smith.ai's AI works from whatever you managed to put in the intake form. dolfyn also spreads the work across a team of specialist agents, each trained for one job, with an intake agent routing each caller to the right one, so the hard calls land with an agent built for exactly that instead of one generalist bot trying to cover everything. Smith.ai pricing reality check Smith.ai's human Starter plan is $300/month for 30 live receptionist calls, then $11.50 each. An HVAC company during peak season can burn through that in 2 days. The per-call model works great for low-volume high-value calls, and it gets painful at contractor call volumes. Their AI tier is cheaper, but it answers from your intake form rather than a build around your trade. dolfyn also runs proprietary verification logic on every address captured during a call, cross-referencing location data in real time to catch errors before a tech drives somewhere wrong. Call handling logic is continuously refined from real contractor call data. Spam filtering is built in. And the team is available 24/7 to fix issues as they happen, not via a support ticket. Daily human review is standard with dolfyn. Real people check calls every day, catch problems before clients notice, and keep the agent tuned. Smith.ai's human involvement is on the calls themselves rather than in the oversight layer. ## Pricing Smith.ai prices per call. On the human tier, the Starter plan covers 30 live receptionist calls for $300/month, the Basic plan covers 90 for $810, and the Pro plan covers 300 for $2,100, with per-call overages from $8.50 to $11.50 once you exceed your plan. Their AI Receptionist is a separate, cheaper product: a free tier, a $150/month Pro tier and a $500/month Enterprise tier, plus roughly $1.67 to $3.00 per call. These are entry prices: add-ons such as appointment booking ($1.50 per call on the human tier) are billed on top, so real bills run higher. Smith.ai has repriced these more than once, so confirm current tiers on their pricing page. For a trades business with high inbound volume, especially during peak seasons, the human tier escalates quickly. dolfyn starts at $179/month and scales with call volume. No per-call charges, no overage fees during busy periods. For a contractor getting 40 or 50 calls a week, the math strongly favors dolfyn. Cost comparison at contractor call volumes A plumbing company taking 150 calls/month: Smith.ai's mid-tier plans run several hundred dollars a month. dolfyn's pricing is set to the actual volume upfront, no overages, no per-call surprises. ## Integrations Smith.ai integrates with a wide range of tools including CRMs, scheduling software, and practice management systems. Their integration library is broad because they serve so many industries. Most connections work through their platform or Zapier. dolfyn connects with ServiceTitan, Jobber, HouseCall Pro, HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Calendar, and Cal.com through an integration layer. If your software isn't on the standard list, the team builds the connection. No request goes unanswered. ## Feature comparison FeaturedolfynSmith.ai Starting price$179/month$300/mo human, $150/mo AI Pricing modelVolume-based, scales with usagePer live call, overages apply Human on callsNo, AI onlyYes, live North American receptionists Setup styleDone for you, discovery-basedAssisted setup, intake form Contractor-specific trainingCustom-built per clientGeneric across industries Emergency call triageBuilt in, trades-specificHuman receptionist handles it Daily oversightDaily human review of callsQuality monitoring available ServiceTitan integrationCustom APIVia integration layer Jobber integrationCustom APIVia integration layer Custom integrationsBuilt per clientStandard library Missed call text-backYesNo Address verificationProprietary real-time checkNo Spam filteringYesNo 24/7 real-time supportYes, team available as issues happenStandard support channels Free trial2 weeks, no credit cardAvailable ContractsNoneMonthly plans Best for complex callsHandles most scenariosHuman available for sensitive calls Not sure which side of the table your business lands on? [Book a call](#demo) and we will look at your calls with you. The 2-week trial is free, with no credit card. ## Who should use which Smith.ai is the right call if human presence on calls genuinely matters for your business. A high-end custom builder dealing with $200k renovation clients. A contractor who handles a lot of warranty disputes or difficult customer situations. Any business where the caller needs to feel heard by a real person before committing. Smith.ai's decade of experience and live receptionist model is built for that. dolfyn is the better fit for most contractors focused on volume. HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing companies that need 24/7 coverage, emergency triage, and direct integration with their field service software. The pricing holds up at contractor call volumes where Smith.ai's per-call model gets expensive. The contractor-specific training means the AI actually knows what it's talking about. dolfyn Best for most contractors Pricing modelVolume-based Contractor trainingCustom per client OversightDaily human review ServiceTitan/JobberCustom API Starting price$179/mo Smith.ai Best for complex calls Pricing modelPer live call Contractor trainingGeneral OversightQuality monitoring Human on callsYes (human tier) Starting price$300/mo human, $150/mo AI If you want human backup on calls and cost is secondary, Smith.ai is the safer choice. If you want a system that knows your business, handles contractor call volume without per-call fees, and connects to ServiceTitan or Jobber through a custom API integration, dolfyn is the stronger fit. **Ask about hold time.** A live answering service shares a fixed pool of operators across all of its clients, so when several of them get busy at once your caller can wait on hold before anyone picks up, and some hang up and call a competitor. On some plans the time spent ringing and on hold also counts toward your minutes. An AI receptionist picks up every call immediately, however many come in at once. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is dolfyn better than Smith.ai for contractors? For most contractors focused on volume, dolfyn is more cost-effective. Smith.ai's human tier uses live receptionists billed per call, which gets expensive fast at contractor volumes, and its cheaper AI tier answers from your intake form rather than a system built around your trade. dolfyn's AI with daily human oversight covers the same call types at a rate priced to your call volume and set before you go live. ### How does Smith.ai pricing compare to dolfyn? Smith.ai's human tier starts at $300/month for 30 calls with $11.50 per-call overages, and its AI tier starts free with a $150 Pro tier for 75 calls plus $2.50 per extra call. Both are entry prices, and busy months cost more once calls pass the bundle. dolfyn starts at $179/month with volume-based pricing set upfront. For a contractor taking 100 or more calls per month, dolfyn is significantly cheaper than the human tier, and far more tailored than the self-serve AI tier. ### Does Smith.ai or dolfyn have better contractor integrations? dolfyn builds custom API integrations per client including field service software and proprietary CRMs. Smith.ai uses a standard integration library. ### Find out what we'd build for your business Most vendors show you a demo of their own product. Book a 15-minute discovery call, and the same day we send you a number to call yours. [Book a call now](https://cal.com/dolfyn/15min) --- *Source: [https://dolfyn.ai/compare/dolfyn-vs-smithai](https://dolfyn.ai/compare/dolfyn-vs-smithai)* *dolfyn — AI voice receptionist for contractors and service businesses* *Starts at $179/month. 2-week free trial. No contracts. [dolfyn.ai](https://dolfyn.ai)*