How we compare AI phone answering
We list 6 AI phone answering services sold into Australia. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page. Where a vendor publishes a floor ("from" a monthly figure) rather than a price, we treat it as a floor and do not build a plan out of it.
The calculator takes your calls per month and your average call time, works out the minutes, and costs each vendor's published plans at that usage. It picks the cheapest plan whose allowance covers you and adds the vendor's own overage rate where one is published. Every price here is a true monthly figure with no annual commitment behind it. Commission does not change the order.
Minutes, calls or neither: what AI phone answering meters
The vendors here do not agree on what they are selling. Some sell minutes of talk time. One sells a number of answered calls. One sells a flat fee however much the phone rings. The figures are denominated in different things, so reading the monthly prices side by side tells you little.
The Included per month row on each vendor is the one to read first:
- Dialzara: 60 minutes (Business Lite), 220 (Pro), 500 (Plus), 1,000 (Elite)
- Frontly: 200 minutes (Answer 10), 400 (Answer 20), 800 (Answer 40)
- Hey Jodie: Unlimited minutes
- Simple Phones: Up to 100 calls a month (Basic), 500 (Advanced), 2,500 (Premium)
- Valory: 100 minutes (Intro), 250 (Core), 700 (Premium)
Where a vendor runs a second meter for SMS, the estimate here covers the voice meter only.
Why your average call length decides what AI phone answering costs
Hold your call volume steady and change only the average length of a call. The minute-metered vendors move sharply. The call-metered and flat-fee vendors do not move at all. That is why the calculator asks for calls and call time separately: if you guess the second one, you have guessed the answer.
Estimate it rather than guessing. Most business phone systems keep a call log with a duration for each inbound call. Take a normal week, add the minutes, divide by the calls. Count only the calls the AI would take, not the supplier ringing your mobile. If your calls split into short enquiries and long quote requests, model the long ones. Check what the vendor counts as a minute too, since ringing, hold time and voicemail are not obviously talk time.
Running past the allowance: what AI phone answering does at the limit
Exceeding the allowance is not one behaviour with different prices on it. Read each vendor's Overage rate row:
- Dialzara: Charged in US dollars: USD $0.48 a minute (Business Lite) to USD $0.35 (Elite)
- Frontly: $0.50 a minute
- Hey Jodie: None, minutes are unlimited
- Simple Phones: None. Service stops at the call cap
- Valory: $0.90 a minute (Intro), $0.70 (Core), $0.50 (Premium)
Where the rate is charged per minute, a business that runs over every month is usually better off on the next plan up, and that crossover is what the calculator finds for you. Where there is nothing to exceed, the flat fee is the whole bill, which is worth money to a business with unpredictable volume. Where the answer is a cutoff, the failure is not a larger invoice but calls that stop being answered in your busiest week. Size the plan against a busy month, not an average one.
What AI phone answering does when the caller needs a person
Every service here answers a call. What separates them is what happens when the caller wants something the AI cannot finish. None of them puts a vendor-employed person behind the AI: a transfer reaches your own team, so a transfer that rings a mobile nobody picks up is a voicemail with extra steps.
| Provider | Transfers to a human | Books appointments |
|---|---|---|
| Dialzara | Yes, blind transfers on every plan; warm transfers on Pro and above | Calendar sync on Pro and above |
| Frontly | Yes, warm transfer on every plan | Yes, on every plan |
| Hey Jodie | Yes, on Professional and above. Not on Basic. | Yes, on Professional and above. Not on Basic. |
| Simple Phones | Yes, to your team or other numbers | Yes, on every plan |
| Valory | Not published; urgent calls are escalated | Yes, booking workflows on every plan |
Read the qualifiers. A row that says yes on a higher plan means the entry price you were comparing does not include it. A row describing escalation rather than a live handover is a different promise from a warm transfer. Then read the What the AI does row for whether the higher tiers buy you volume or capability: if the tier buys features, the entry price is not the price of the product you had in mind.
Local numbers, hours and the Australian side of AI phone answering
A local number is the first practical test, because a caller who sees an unfamiliar prefix on the callback often does not answer. Currency is the second, because a subscription billed in US dollars moves with the exchange rate even when the vendor never changes its price, and many Australian cards add a foreign transaction fee on top.
| Provider | Local number | Local pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Dialzara | No AU local number. Toll-free costs USD $20 to USD $50/mo extra | No, US dollars (converted here) |
| Frontly | Yes, one AU number included | Yes, AUD plus GST |
| Hey Jodie | No, you forward your existing number | Yes, AUD |
| Simple Phones | Yes, included (UK and Australia covered) | No, US dollars (converted here) |
| Valory | Yes, AU local numbers included: 1 on Intro and Core, 2 on Premium | Yes, AUD |
The GST basis differs too: a rate card quoted before GST is not directly comparable to one quoted after it. Hours matter less than you would expect, because round-the-clock cover is close to standard here, so choose on the meter instead. If your callers are not all English speakers, read the Languages row, which is gated by plan on some rows.
Setup fees, trials and contracts for AI phone answering
The monthly figure is not always the cost of entry. Every service here is sold month to month, so the things that vary are the setup fee and the trial.
| Provider | Setup fee | Free trial |
|---|---|---|
| Dialzara | None | Yes, 7 days |
| Frontly | $299 (monthly plan) | Yes, first charge after 7 days |
| Hey Jodie | None | Yes, 7 days, no card needed |
| Simple Phones | Not stated either way | Yes, 14 days |
| Valory | From $990, one time | No, money-back guarantee instead |
A setup fee is real money to recover before the subscription is even the question, and a fee not stated either way is worth asking about in writing. Use a trial to read the transcripts and the call durations, not just to hear the voice: it is how you find out your real average call length.
Before you buy anything, work out what a missed call is worth: the calls you miss in a month, times the chance one becomes a job, times what a job is worth. If an unanswered phone means the caller rings the next name on the list, that sum justifies most plans here. If you miss a couple of calls a week and they mostly ring back, voicemail and a disciplined callback habit is still a defensible answer.