Comparison
Juney vs Smith.ai: price, features and who each one suits
Smith.ai is an AI receptionist with optional live human receptionists. It's set up in a web dashboard and billed per call, starting with a free 25-call plan. Juney is an AI answering service (an AI receptionist) that you set up and run in a phone app, billed per minute: $49 a month for 150 minutes.
The short answer: pick Smith.ai if some callers must reach a real person, speak Spanish, or you take fewer than about 25 calls a month. Pick Juney if you'd rather run it from your phone and you take 50 calls a month or more, where it costs less.
Juney and Smith.ai at a glance
| Compared on | Juney | Smith.ai |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI answering service in a phone app | AI with optional human receptionists |
| Entry price | $49 a month for 150 minutes | Free for 25 calls |
| Billing | By the minute: a monthly allowance, then top-ups | Per call |
| Past the allowance | Top-ups: $20 per 100 minutes, no expiry | $3 a call |
| Free trial | 7 days with 50 minutes | Free 25-call plan instead (card required) |
| Contract and fees | No contract, no setup fee | Month to month, no setup fees; 30 days' notice to cancel an AI plan |
| Set up and run on | A phone app for iPhone and Android; no web dashboard | Web (Quality Studio); no native app found |
| Booking | Books, moves and cancels in Google Calendar, on every plan | Scheduling on every AI plan |
| Putting callers through | Puts urgent callers through to a number you choose, on every plan | Call routing on every AI plan |
| Live people | No live receptionists; Ring me first rings you in the Juney app | Hybrid AI-and-human plans from about $2.50 a call; human plans from $300 for 30 calls |
| Rings you before the AI answers | Yes. Ring me first rings you in the Juney app for about 15 seconds | No ring setting; conditional forwarding or your phone system |
| Your number | Keep your number and your provider; calls are forwarded | A dedicated Smith.ai number on every AI plan; free porting on human plans |
| Languages | English, with American, British or Australian voices | English and Spanish |
| Countries | United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada | Not stated on its AI pricing page |
| Texts | Calls only: it sends booking links and follow-ups by text | Not on the AI plans' feature list |
| CRM | None | Clio, Salesforce and HubSpot |
From each service's own pages, checked October 22, 2026. “Not stated” means we didn't find it, not that the answer is no. Sources on Smith.ai's site: AI receptionist plans, AI plan details, Hybrid plans, Human plans.
What would you pay each month?
| Service | 30 calls (60 min) | 75 calls (150 min) | 150 calls (300 min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juney | $49 | $49 | $89 |
| Smith.ai | $15 | $150 | $270 |
US dollars a month, as of October 22, 2026. Calls average 2 minutes and each bill uses the cheapest plan for that month, before tax and carrier charges. A note under a price means that plan doesn't both book and put callers through.
Which should you pick?
Pick Smith.ai if…
- Some callers need a real person. Smith.ai's Hybrid and human plans add live receptionists; Juney has none.
- Callers speak Spanish. Smith.ai's AI answers in English and Spanish; Juney speaks English only.
- You take fewer than about 25 calls a month. Smith.ai's free plan covers 25 calls, and Juney starts at $49.
- You live in Clio, Salesforce or HubSpot. Smith.ai connects to them; Juney has no CRM integrations.
Pick Juney if…
- You'll set it up and run it from your phone. Juney has no web dashboard, and setup includes a test call you make yourself before any customer reaches her.
- You take 50 calls a month or more. At 75 two-minute calls Juney is $49 and Smith.ai $150; at 150 calls, $89 against $270.
- You want to take the calls you can. Ring me first rings you in the Juney app for about 15 seconds before she answers.
- You work in the trades. Juney is built for tradespeople on the move, and works with business numbers in the US, UK, Australia and Canada.
How do Juney and Smith.ai differ?
Four differences decide it for most owners: how each one bills, whether a person can step in, where you set it up, and what it connects to. The rest, from 24/7 answering to booking and call summaries, both do.
Per call against per minute
Smith.ai counts calls. Its free plan covers 25, and each call after that costs $3 once you switch overages on (they start switched off). Its Pro plan comes in bundles: $150 for 75 calls, $270 for 150 and $500 for 300. A 30-second call costs the same as a 10-minute one. Smith.ai screens spam and can take up to 10% of a month's calls off the bill as spam.
Juney counts minutes: 150 a month, then top-ups of 100 minutes for $20, bought in the app. Calls you answer yourself and calls from numbers you've blocked don't use any. Short calls favor Juney; long ones favor Smith.ai.
A person on the line, or Ring me first
Smith.ai's AI can hand a caller to a live receptionist. When the AI starts that handoff it costs nothing extra; live help you ask for is a per-call add-on with no published price. Its Hybrid plans mix AI and people from about $2.50 a call, and its human plans start at $300 a month for 30 calls (October 2026).
Juney has no staffed backup. Its answer to "callers want a person" is you: choose Ring me first and the Juney app rings you for about 15 seconds before she answers. You can also have her put urgent callers through to another number you choose.
A web dashboard against a phone app
Smith.ai is set up and tested on the web, in its Quality Studio, which runs simulated calls; we found no Smith.ai app in the App Store or Google Play (October 2026). Juney is set up in the app: she reads your website, you check what she learned, you call her yourself to hear her, then you follow on-screen steps to forward your calls. Everything after that, from call summaries to settings, is in the app too.
Languages, calendars and integrations
Smith.ai answers in English and Spanish, books through Calendly and other scheduling tools, and connects to Clio, Salesforce and HubSpot. Juney speaks English with an American, British or Australian voice, books into Google Calendar only, and has no CRM integrations. If your business runs on a CRM, that alone may decide it.
How do the bills add up?
At 30 calls Smith.ai is cheaper: $15 on its free plan (25 free calls plus five at $3) against Juney's $49. At 75 calls they cross: Smith.ai's free plan with overages and its smallest Pro bundle both come to $150, while Juney stays at $49. At 150 calls Smith.ai's 150-call bundle is $270; Juney is $89: the 150 included minutes plus two $20 top-ups.
Every plan here books and puts callers through, so the comparison holds once you need both. AI Answering Service Pricing Compared runs the same three volumes across 11 services.
How do you switch from Smith.ai to Juney?
- Try Juney before you give notice. Smith.ai's AI plans need 30 days' notice, so use Juney's 7-day free trial, with 50 minutes, to be sure first. Smith.ai keeps answering until you move your forwarding.
- Set Juney up in the app. Link your website, check her answers, and call her yourself to hear how she handles a booking and an urgent job.
- Move your forwarding. If your business number forwards to Smith.ai, follow the app's steps for your carrier to forward it to Juney instead. Your number stays the same.
- Read the first week of call notes. Every call comes back as a summary and transcript, so anything she got wrong is quick to correct.
- Give Smith.ai notice. Its AI and Hybrid plans need 30 days' notice to cancel, so send it once you're sure.
Frequently asked questions
Is Smith.ai an AI or a human answering service?
Both. Smith.ai sells an AI receptionist, Hybrid plans where AI and live receptionists share the calls, and human receptionist plans. Juney is AI only, with Ring me first, which rings you in the Juney app.
Is Smith.ai cheaper than Juney?
At low volumes, yes. With two-minute calls in October 2026, Smith.ai costs $15 at 30 calls against Juney's $49, then $150 at 75 calls against $49, and $270 at 150 calls against $89.
Does Juney have live receptionists like Smith.ai?
No. Juney has no staffed backup. Ring me first rings you in the Juney app for about 15 seconds before she answers, so you can take the calls you're free for, and she can put urgent callers through to a number you choose.
Can Juney answer calls in Spanish?
No. Juney speaks English only, with an American, British or Australian voice. Smith.ai's AI answers in English and Spanish.
How much notice does Smith.ai need to cancel?
Its pricing page asks for 30 days' notice on AI and Hybrid plans, and bills human plans to the end of the current billing cycle (October 2026). Juney has no contract or setup fee.
