Smith.ai and ModPhone both answer your business phone when nobody in the office can. The difference is in who answers and how you pay. Smith.ai sells live receptionists and an AI receptionist, and bills by the call. ModPhone is an AI receptionist only, billed by the month with a set number of minutes, and it is built to finish the request on the call: book the appointment, text the caller the link, answer from your own documents.
If you want a real person on the line, Smith.ai offers that and ModPhone does not. If you want every call answered and handled without paying for each one, the rest of this comparison is for you.
Side by side
| Smith.ai | ModPhone | |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | Live receptionists, or an AI receptionist that can pass a call to a live receptionist | An AI agent. Calls that need a person go to your own staff |
| How you pay | Per call, with a set number of calls in each plan | Per month, with a set number of minutes in each plan |
| Lowest paid plan (as of September 2026) | AI: $150 a month. Live: $300 a month for 30 calls | $49 a month for 200 minutes and 200 texts |
| Free option | AI plan free for 25 calls a month | 30-day trial with a US number, 100 minutes and 100 texts, no card |
| Hours | 24/7 | 24/7 |
| Languages | Spanish line is a per-call add-on on live plans; the AI plans list "bilingual answering" | 30+ languages, and it switches mid-call |
| Guarantee | 30-day money-back guarantee on live plans | 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans |
What Smith.ai charges, as of September 2026
Smith.ai publishes two sets of plans.
The AI receptionist plans are Free ($0 for 25 calls a month, then $3 a call), Pro ($150 a month, which works out to $2 a call for 75 calls, with discounts at 150 and 300 calls) and Enterprise ($500 a month at $1.67 a call, where Smith.ai builds and runs the setup for you). Smith.ai says the AI can hand a complicated call to a live North America-based receptionist at any hour, and that calls from known spam numbers are filtered out and don't count toward your calls.
The live receptionist plans are Starter ($300 a month for 30 calls, $11.50 for each extra call), Basic ($810 for 90 calls, $10.50 extra) and Pro ($2,100 for 300 calls, $8.50 extra). They are staffed 24/7 with no overseas agents, and Smith.ai doesn't charge for spam calls. Some tasks are priced per call on top of the plan: booking an appointment is $1.50, and the dedicated Spanish line is $1.00.
ModPhone's plans are Starter at $49 (200 minutes, 200 texts), Growth at $99 (500 minutes, 500 texts, plus a chat widget for your website) and Business at $299 (1,500 minutes, 1,000 texts, plus an email agent). Business is the plan most customers pick. Minutes past your plan cost $0.15, $0.12 or $0.10 each depending on the plan. Booking, transfers, transcripts and recordings are on every plan, with no per-task fees.
A worked example
Take a small accounting firm. Outside tax season it gets about 100 calls a month. In March and April that climbs to around 250. Most calls are short: "did you get my W-2", "what time is my appointment", "can I drop off a 1099 at the front desk". Assume three minutes a call, and check your own phone records before you trust that number.
- Smith.ai live receptionists, Basic plan: 90 calls are included for $810, so 100 calls comes to $915 before any per-call extras. At 250 calls you would likely move to Pro at $2,100.
- Smith.ai AI receptionist, Pro plan: $150 covers 75 calls. For 100 or 250 calls, run the numbers through Smith.ai's calculator, since the per-call rate drops at 150 and 300 calls.
- ModPhone: 100 calls at three minutes is 300 minutes, which fits in Growth at $99. At 250 calls you are at 750 minutes: Growth plus 250 extra minutes at $0.12 is $129 for that month.
The pattern holds in general. Per-call pricing favors businesses whose calls are long and few. Per-minute pricing favors businesses with lots of short calls. If your office gets a steady stream of quick questions, per-call charges add up fast. For more on how firms like this use an AI receptionist, see tax and accounting.
Where Smith.ai is the better choice
You want a person on every call. A family law intake, a caller in distress, a client who hangs up the moment they hear an automated voice: a trained human handles those better than any AI receptionist, ModPhone included.
You want AI with a human safety net on the same account. Smith.ai's AI receptionist can pass a call to a live receptionist instead of to your staff. ModPhone can only transfer to people you designate.
Your volume is tiny. Under 25 calls a month, Smith.ai's AI plan costs nothing.
Where ModPhone is the better choice
Your phone is busy. ModPhone answers every call, however many come in at once, for the same monthly price, and nobody is deciding whether a call was worth $10.
Callers ask detailed questions. ModPhone reads your website and your documents (PDFs, Word files, Google Drive or OneDrive folders) and turns them into facts you can review and edit one at a time. When a parent calls a school district at 7:40pm asking which bus serves their street, the answer comes from the district's own documents, not from a script someone skimmed.
You want the task done, not a message taken. ModPhone books into Google Calendar or Outlook and texts the caller a confirmation. Mid-call it can text the caller a link or an address. After every call your team can get an email with the summary and a link to the full transcript.
Your callers speak more than English and Spanish. ModPhone handles 30+ languages and switches when the caller does.
You want to see it before you commit. You can try the demo in 30 seconds and be live on a real number in about 10 minutes, then forward your existing business line so customers keep dialing the number they know.
One limit to know: when ModPhone transfers a call, the agent hands off and leaves the line. It does not stay on to introduce the caller the way a live receptionist can. Your staff sees who called and why in the call summary and alert email.
Common questions
Is Smith.ai cheaper than ModPhone?
For very low call volume, yes: Smith.ai's AI plan is free for up to 25 calls a month as of September 2026. Above that it depends on how many calls you get and how long they run. Smith.ai's live receptionist plans start at $300 a month for 30 calls, while ModPhone's plans run from $49 to $299 a month for 200 to 1,500 minutes.
Does Smith.ai use real people?
Yes. Smith.ai's live receptionist plans are staffed 24/7, and Smith.ai says it uses no overseas agents. Its AI receptionist answers first and can pass complicated calls to a live North America-based receptionist.
Can ModPhone hand a call to a person?
Yes, but the person is someone on your team. You set a main transfer number, add departments such as billing or service, and ModPhone transfers when a caller asks for a person or a department. It can ring a list of people in order and ask whoever answers to press 1 to accept, so a transfer never ends up in someone's personal voicemail. If nobody picks up, it can offer the caller a callback and email your team.
Can I keep my business phone number?
Yes. Forward your existing line to your ModPhone number. Conditional forwarding sends only the calls you miss, so the front desk still picks up when it can, and your carrier can forward every call if you prefer.
Try it with your own questions
Paste your website into the ModPhone demo this week and ask it the five questions your front desk hears most.