Smith.ai vs. Suite 1000: Live Answering Service Comparison

Take time to compare your options when choosing a live answering service for your business. You want to make sure you choose the company that best fits your business's needs and budget. Here are the differences in features and pricing between Smith.ai and Suite 1000 virtual receptionists.

Setup Fees & Trials

Smith.ai

• No setup or cancellation fees
• No contract
• Free consultation
• 14-day money-back guarantee
  

Suite 1000

• No contract
• Free consultation
• No free trial period or money-back guarantee
  

Discussion: On their website, Suite 1000 isn’t very clear on how their on-boarding process occurs and whether there is a setup fee, which can make it more difficult when you're attempting to assess the right answering service for you. At Smith.ai, we want you to feel confident in our services, which is why we let you try our services risk-free for two weeks, and there’s no setup fee.

Monthly Plans

Here’s some information about monthly plans offered by Smith.ai and Suite 1000.

Smith.ai

• $285 for 30 live receptionist calls and 1 live transfer number
• $765 for 90 live receptionist calls and 2 live transfer numbers
• $1,950 for 300 live receptionist calls and 10 live transfer numbers
• Custom plans available
• 10% annual discount when paid upfront
  

Suite 1000

Suite 1000 does not offer pricing information on their site. The following information was gathered from discussions with a Suite 1000 sales representative.

• $200 for 50 minutes
• $400 for 100 minutes
• $600 for 150 minutes
• Custom plans available

Discussion: It’s hard to compare prices when a company does not disclose them publicly. At Smith.ai, we are upfront and honest about our pricing, so you know there won’t be any gimmicks or scams and that you're getting the same fair price as everyone else. 

Price disclosure notwithstanding, you can see that Suite 1000 is just far more expensive than Smith.ai, at $4 per minute. Smith.ai bills each call at $6.50 to $9.50. Consider for a moment that an average business call is about six minutes, according to GetVoip. That would mean you're paying $24 per call with Suite 1000. At just three minutes per call, you're still paying $12 per call, $3.50 more per call than the highest per-call rate at Smith.ai. Considering that both companies offer a similar set of services, there's no reason to pay more for Suite 1000.

Overage Costs

Smith.ai

• $10.50/call on the $285/month plan
• $9.50/call on the $765/month plan
• $7.50/call on the $1,950/month plan
  

Suite 1000

Again, Suite 1000 does not disclose pricing information on their website. Via email, it was disclosed that the per-minute rate is $4.

Features

Smith.ai and Suite 1000 offer the following features:

• Appointment scheduling
• Lead capture and qualification
• Outbound calling
• Custom call handling procedures
• North American-based receptionists
• 24/7 live call answering
  

Smith.ai has the following additional features:

• Live call transfers
• Integration with all major calendaring and scheduling software programs
• Integration with all major CRMs, like Clio, Clio Grow, HubSpot, Lexicata, Capsule CRM, and more
• One free CRM integration
• Integration with helpdesk ticketing software programs
• Ability to map client history to the incoming number so clients receive personalized attention
• Messages texted to you
• Recommended business referral
• After-hours and overflow answering
• Facebook, webchat, and SMS answering
• Custom greetings
• Lead intake form completion
• Payment collection
• Daily call summary reports
• No charge for spam calls or wrong numbers
• Bilingual answering
• Call recording and transcription
• SMS & email follow-up
  

Suite 1000 offers the following additional features:

• Medical intake
• Email lead response management
  

Discussion: Both Smith.ai and Suite 1000 have receptionists who are based in the United States, which is great when it comes to providing your callers with clear communication in American English. However, Smith.ai offers many more services than Suite 1000 to help you grow your business. We provide bilingual answering services to assist any Spanish-speaking callers you may have. We integrate with your existing systems like your CRM and calendar so we can create new records and update existing client files, in addition to scheduling appointments, on your behalf. (Note: some Smith.ai services are optional add-ons and incur an additional fee; see our pricing page for current rates.)

Summary

Suite 1000 offers many of the same features as Smith.ai and including 24/7 call answering. However, none of that compares to the quality of service we provide at Smith.ai, all at a lower cost. One of our goals is to provide our clients and their callers with the experience of an in-house receptionist. Our technology presents our receptionists with all relevant information when a caller rings you, so they're armed with all the answers they need to handle your calls, without relying on scripts, which results in a much more natural experience for your callers. Suite 1000 takes a call-center approach, leading to a more impersonal experience for your leads and clients. Simply put, Smith.ai delivers more value per call, is less expensive than Suite 1000, and is still a fraction of the price of an in-house receptionist.

Smith.ai Client Testimonial

Don't just take our word for it. Read what a happy Smith.ai customer had to say about the quality of our services:

“Smith has been instrumental to the growth of our small bootstrapped company. Not only is it a FRACTION of the cost of a full-time receptionist, it is actually BETTER because we get extended business hours which cover PT & ET, not to mention the service is just insanely good.”

- Roman Massey, Raxxos

Grow with Smith.ai

At Smith.ai, we’re dedicated to providing you with quality receptionist services that can help grow your business. To learn more about our services and features, sign up for a free consultation with our team or get started risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee!