Virtual receptionist vs virtual assistant
Receptionist services charge $250 to $2,100 a month for set minutes or calls; a dedicated remote receptionist costs $400 to $900. Prices, and when each fits.
By Anyro, founder of StaffPickPublished 4 min read
Contents
A virtual receptionist answers your phone when you can't. You can buy that as a service, priced by the minute or the call, or hire one remote person who answers your phone and does other work in between. This guide compares the published prices, shows where each makes sense, and covers the setup either way.
Two models
An answering service gives you a shared team of receptionists who answer in your company's name, follow your script, take messages, book appointments and transfer urgent calls. You pay for usage. It's the easy way to get long hours of cover and handle spikes.
A dedicated remote receptionist is one person, usually hired as a customer support rep or virtual assistant, who works only for you during set hours. They learn your customers and your business, and between calls they handle email, bookings and admin.
What answering services charge
Published plans, as listed on each company's pricing page in October 2026:
| Plan | A month | Included |
|---|---|---|
| Ruby Plan 1 | $250 | 50 receptionist minutes |
| Ruby Plan 2 | $395 | 100 minutes |
| Ruby Plan 3 | $720 | 200 minutes |
| Ruby Plan 4 | $1,725 | 500 minutes |
| Smith.ai Starter | $300 | 30 calls, then $11.50 a call |
| Smith.ai Basic | $810 | 90 calls, then $10.50 a call |
| Smith.ai Pro | $2,100 | 300 calls, then $8.50 a call |
Ruby says "The only difference between our plans? The number of receptionist minutes." Smith.ai bills per call, not per minute; its page also has AI-first and hybrid options. Check what each plan includes before you compare.
What a dedicated person costs
| Route | Published price |
|---|---|
| US in-house receptionist | Median $18.27 an hour ($38,010 a year), BLS, May 2025 data |
| Freelance customer service rep on Upwork | $10–19 an hour typical, from past contracts worldwide |
| Full-time customer service rep in the Philippines, hired direct | $400–600 beginner, $460–750 intermediate, $700–900 expert, a month (OnlineJobs.ph, April 2026) |
The Upwork figure is a freelance hourly rate. The Philippine figures are full-time monthly salaries that remote workers report.
Which one fits
Pick an answering service when:
- you get a handful of calls a day, at unpredictable times;
- you need cover outside one person's working hours, or overflow when your own line is busy;
- callers mostly need a message taken or an appointment booked.
Pick a dedicated person when:
- calls are steady through your working day;
- calls lead to work: quotes, bookings, CRM updates, follow-up emails;
- you want the same voice every time, someone who knows your regular customers.
A quick way to compare: work out what you'd pay a service for your real monthly call minutes or call count, and set it against a full-time salary from the table above. Remember the person also does other work between calls; the service doesn't.
Covering your hours
A dedicated receptionist only covers their shift, so pick someone whose normal day overlaps your callers'. A 9 to 5 US Eastern day, in the receptionist's local time:
| Receptionist's city | US Eastern on standard time | On daylight time |
|---|---|---|
| Bogotá | 9 am to 5 pm | 8 am to 4 pm |
| Mexico City | 8 am to 4 pm | 7 am to 3 pm |
| Manila | 10 pm to 6 am | 9 pm to 5 am |
None of these cities changes its clocks. Bogotá and Mexico City work your day at normal local hours; a Manila receptionist on a US day works overnight locally, so ask how they've handled night shifts before. For UK and Australian hours, see our customer support guide.
Setting it up
- Call routing: forward your number, or use a cloud phone system that rings the receptionist's app during their hours and voicemail or a service outside them.
- A call script: greeting, the five most common questions and answers, when to transfer, and how to take a message.
- Booking: give them access to your booking tool rather than your personal calendar.
- Hand-offs: one place where messages land, with a clear rule for urgent calls.
- Recording: call-recording consent rules differ by state and country. Check the rules where your callers are before you switch recording on.
What to measure
Whichever model you choose, check it with numbers for the first month:
- Missed calls: how many calls went unanswered, by hour of the day.
- Answer speed: how many rings before a person picks up.
- Message quality: whether messages have the caller's name, number, reason and urgency, every time.
- Bookings: how many calls became appointments or quotes.
- Callback time: how long it takes you to return the calls that needed you.
If missed calls fall and bookings rise, the receptionist is paying for itself. If not, look at the hours they cover first.
How to test a receptionist
- A role-play call. Play an annoyed customer and a confused first-time caller. Listen for warmth, accuracy and when they hand off.
- A message test. After the call, ask for the message they'd send you. Is it complete and clear?
- English. For calls, ask for C1 English on the CEFR scale; see our CEFR guide.
Everyone listed on StaffPick for customer support has passed an English test, a typing test and a customer support quiz.
Our customer support page shows tested reps and their rates. For everything else a VA can take on, see what a virtual assistant does.
Questions people ask
What is a virtual receptionist and what do they do?
Someone who answers your business calls remotely: they greet callers in your company's name, answer common questions, take messages, book appointments and transfer urgent calls to you. It can be a shared answering service with a team of receptionists, or one dedicated remote receptionist who works only for you.
How much does a virtual receptionist cost?
Answering services price by usage. In October 2026, Ruby listed $250 a month for 50 receptionist minutes up to $1,725 for 500, and Smith.ai listed $300 a month for 30 calls up to $2,100 for 300. A dedicated remote receptionist hired full-time from the Philippines reports $400 to $900 a month on OnlineJobs.ph (customer service, April 2026).
Is a virtual receptionist worth it?
If missed calls cost you customers, usually yes. Count how many calls you miss in a typical week and what one new customer is worth. A service suits low or unpredictable call volume and out-of-hours cover; a dedicated person suits steady volume and work between calls.
Virtual receptionist or virtual assistant?
A receptionist service answers the phone and passes things on. A virtual assistant can answer the phone and also does the follow-up: booking, updating your CRM, sending quotes and chasing replies. If calls come with paperwork, a VA who covers your phone hours often does more for similar money.
Sources
Each figure in this guide comes from one of these pages, checked on 27 Oct 2026. Prices and rules change, so open the source before you rely on a number.
- 1Ruby: pricingruby.com
- 2Smith.ai: pricingsmith.ai
- 3US Bureau of Labor Statistics: receptionists (pay, May 2025)bls.gov
- 4Upwork: customer service representative cost (typical hourly rates)upwork.com
- 5OnlineJobs.ph: virtual assistant salaries in the Philippines (salary guide, last updated April 2026)blog.onlinejobs.ph
- 6IANA time zone databasegithub.com