Answering service, or hire a receptionist?
One is a person who runs your front office, at about $3,168 a month in wages alone. The other answers your phone, from $97. It’s worth being precise about which job you’re actually hiring for — here’s the honest math.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics median for receptionists and information clerks — half of the million-plus people in the role earn more.
$38,010 a year at the median, before payroll taxes and benefits — and before recruiting, training and turnover.
One shift, five days. Lunch, PTO and sick days come out of that — and for the trades, the urgent calls cluster in the other 128 hours.
| What matters | Full-time receptionist | Human answering service | cheaply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $3,168+ in wages alone, before taxes & benefits | $250–2,100/mo on published plans | $97–397/mo, published |
| Hours of the week covered | 40 of 168 — minus lunch, PTO and sick days | 24/7 exists; after-hours often costs extra | All 168, at the same rate |
| Two calls at the same time | One person, one line | Shared pools queue at peak | Every call answered in two rings |
| Knows your business cold | Better than anyone — that’s the draw | Reads from a per-account script | Answers only from rules you set |
| Office work beyond the phone | Paperwork, walk-ins, scheduling crews | Phones, texts and bookings only | |
| Books jobs into a real schedule | Message relay; booking add-ons vary | Checks real availability, no double-booking | |
| Never off sick, never resigns | Hiring, training and turnover are yours |
Wage figures: BLS 2025 median for receptionists. Service pricing: published plans from Ruby, Smith.ai, Abby Connect and PATLive — the full price table is here.
When hiring is genuinely the right call.
A receptionist does a job, and the phone is only part of it. If your shop has walk-in traffic, physical paperwork, crews to dispatch, invoices to chase and a counter that needs a human face — that’s a real role, and no answering service or AI does it. Hire for it without guilt.
Long, delicate intake still belongs to people. A distressed caller, a complex commercial bid, a conversation that needs judgment and warmth for twenty minutes — a good hire beats every alternative on this page.
But don’t hire $38,010 of office presence to answer a phone. If the honest job description is “make sure calls get answered and jobs get booked,” that’s $3,168 a month for what published answering plans cover from $250 and cheaply covers from $97 — and the hire is still off at night, at lunch, and whenever two calls arrive at once.
The hybrid: a person by day, cheaply for everything else.
The most common setup isn’t either-or. Your office manager (or you) answers when hands are free, and cheaply catches what a person structurally can’t: the second simultaneous call, the lunch hour, the 9pm water-heater emergency, the Saturday morning rush. Callers who need a human get transferred to your cell; everything else gets answered, booked onto the schedule, and texted a confirmation — here’s exactly how that works.
The questions worth asking.
How much does it cost to hire a receptionist?
How much does an answering service cost compared to a receptionist?
Can an answering service replace a receptionist?
What about nights and weekends?
Want the market prices instead of the hiring math? See what every service charges.
A front desk for 3% of a receptionist’s wages.
Never lose another call to a ringing phone. Live in a day, no contracts.