Where does the data come from?

Every data point carries its own provenance: the source URL, the date we captured it, and how it was verified. We monitor vendors' public pricing and feature pages on a schedule (respecting robots.txt and rate limits, archiving a snapshot of each page we cite), attach a second independent source where one confirms a figure, and accept free vendor submissions through an authenticated portal.

Does paying affect ranking or inclusion?

No. Vendors can pay for a verified-data subscription (deeper listing fields, monthly visibility reporting, a verification badge). Payment never affects ranking, ordering, inclusion, or the values we publish. Default table ordering is computed by a published, versioned algorithm from the data itself.

How are corrections handled?

Anyone — vendor, reader, or competitor — can flag an error. We investigate and correct verified errors within five business days, free of charge, and every correction is recorded in our public corrections log.

How fresh is the data and what does the normalized cost mean?

Pricing rows show their last-verified date; rows not re-verified within 30 days are flagged STALE rather than silently retained. The normalized 'cost at 200 calls/mo' converts every billing model — flat, per-minute, per-call, subscription-plus-usage — to one effective monthly cost at a fixed workload. Where pricing a workload would require an overage rate the vendor never published, we omit the figure rather than invent it.

AI Receptionists · updated Jun 10, 2026

How this index works

Who we are. This is the AI Receptionists section of The Front Desk Review. We publish structured, verified market data about AI receptionist and AI answering services. We are not a vendor, an agency, or an affiliate of any company listed here.

Where the data comes from. Every data point on this site carries its own provenance: the source URL, the date we captured it, and how it was verified. We collect data three ways:

Public sources. We monitor vendors' published pricing and feature pages on a weekly schedule. We respect robots.txt and rate limits, and we archive a snapshot of every page we cite. Where an independent second source confirms a figure on the same date, we attach it as corroboration.
Direct measurement. Benchmark data, where we publish it, comes from scripted test calls placed to vendors' public demo lines. Recordings and transcripts are retained, and the methodology for each run is published with it.
Vendor submissions. Any vendor — paying or not — can claim its listing and submit corrections through an authenticated portal, free of charge. Vendor-confirmed rows are marked "Verified by vendor" with a date.

What money does and does not buy. Vendors can pay for a verified-data subscription. Payment never affects ranking, ordering, inclusion, or the values we publish. Default table ordering is computed by a published, versioned algorithm from the data itself (entry price ascending, with quote-only vendors last). See how we make money.

Corrections. Anyone can flag an error. We investigate and correct verified errors within 5 business days, free of charge, and every correction is recorded in our public corrections log.

Freshness. Pricing rows show their "last verified" date. Rows we have not been able to re-verify within 30 days are flagged STALE rather than silently retained.

The cost normalizer

Flat, per-minute and per-call plans cannot be compared until the workload is fixed. Our headline figure is the effective monthly cost at 200 calls per month at 3 minutes per call. For each vendor we take the cheapest plan that can be priced at that workload:

Flat plans contribute their base fee, plus any published overage beyond an included minute or call quota.
Per-minute / subscription-plus-usage plans contribute their base fee plus the published per-minute rate times the workload's talk-minutes.
Per-call plans contribute their base fee plus the published per-call overage beyond the included call quota.
Unlimited plans contribute their base fee, independent of volume.

When pricing a workload would require an overage rate the vendor never published, we return no figure for that plan rather than fabricate one. A vendor whose every plan needs an unpublished rate — or that is quote-only — appears with a dash, an honest gap.

Named measurements

Beyond pricing, we publish our own named measurements of how each service performs on a real call. Each is defined once, measured by scripted live test calls, and gated: a vendor's value is published only when it is backed by at least 10 test calls — below that it stays "insufficient data," never an estimate.

Booking-Success Score — Share of decisive scripted test calls in which the AI receptionist completed a booking/appointment action. Published per vendor only at n ≥ 10 test calls.
Voice-Agent Latency Index — Median (p50) time from call connect to the agent's first spoken response across scripted test calls. Published per vendor only at n ≥ 10 test calls.

Measurement set version Jun 11, 2026. Values download as JSON.

Frequently asked

Who publishes this index and what is it?: The Front Desk Review publishes structured, verified market data about AI receptionist and AI answering services. We are not a vendor, an agency, or an affiliate of any company listed here.
Where does the data come from?: Every data point carries its own provenance: the source URL, the date we captured it, and how it was verified. We monitor vendors' public pricing and feature pages on a schedule (respecting robots.txt and rate limits, archiving a snapshot of each page we cite), attach a second independent source where one confirms a figure, and accept free vendor submissions through an authenticated portal.
Does paying affect ranking or inclusion?: No. Vendors can pay for a verified-data subscription (deeper listing fields, monthly visibility reporting, a verification badge). Payment never affects ranking, ordering, inclusion, or the values we publish. Default table ordering is computed by a published, versioned algorithm from the data itself.
How are corrections handled?: Anyone — vendor, reader, or competitor — can flag an error. We investigate and correct verified errors within five business days, free of charge, and every correction is recorded in our public corrections log.
How fresh is the data and what does the normalized cost mean?: Pricing rows show their last-verified date; rows not re-verified within 30 days are flagged STALE rather than silently retained. The normalized 'cost at 200 calls/mo' converts every billing model — flat, per-minute, per-call, subscription-plus-usage — to one effective monthly cost at a fixed workload. Where pricing a workload would require an overage rate the vendor never published, we omit the figure rather than invent it.