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First Deploy vs Smith.ai

By Daniel Graham, founder of AgentHive Inc, Palm Coast, Florida. 25 years in enterprise IT and telecom.

Checked October 4, 2026. The prices below are from Smith.ai’s own pages. First Deploy is AgentHive Inc’s after-hours desk for trade shops: $1,750 setup, then $250 a month. Smith.ai sells two products. The AI Receptionist page is an AI front desk that can hand a call to a live receptionist. The virtual receptionist page is live people first.

Side by side

First DeploySmith.ai
Who it’s for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other trade shops that miss calls after hours. Also auto and truck repair. The AI page describes answering, qualifying, and booking. The live page names solopreneurs and small teams on Starter, growing teams on Basic, and mature organizations on Pro.
How it answers An AI voice line that takes the caller’s details, books the job, and sends the follow-up. One leak is written down and put live. AI Receptionist: 24/7 AI call answering, with a transfer to a live North America-based receptionist when a call needs it. Virtual receptionist: “Professional call answering by real people,” live-staffed 24/7.
Pricing model $1,750 one-time setup, then $250/month per company. Not billed per call or per minute. AI: per real call, with a monthly allowance. Live: per call, with a monthly allowance and a higher overage rate. Details below.
Setup $1,750. Start with 50% ($875), balance at completion, or pay in full. One leak goes live this week on a written plan. AI Free is self-serve. AI Pro includes “dedicated onboarding setup.” AI Enterprise includes “full-service setup & ongoing optimization.” The live plans say “No setup fees.”
Contract The desk is monthly from go-live. Cancel any time; when the month is turned off, the line goes dark. That is the line on our pricing page. AI Receptionist: month-to-month, 30 days’ notice to cancel. Live receptionist: month-to-month, billed through the end of the current cycle. The live page also describes a 30-day refund of the initial plan, up to $1,000, with overage excluded.

How Smith.ai answers

On the AI Receptionist page, every tier lists 24/7 call handling. Free includes recording, transcription, summaries, lead qualification, routing, scheduling (Calendly and others), and integrations including Clio and Zapier. Calls start with the AI. A complex call can be transferred to a live North America-based receptionist. Calls from “20 million+ known spammers” are filtered before the AI answers and do not count toward the quota.

The live receptionist page is a separate product: “Professional call answering by real people,” live-staffed 24/7, with “No overseas agents.” Appointment booking on that page is an add-on at $1.50 per call.

Pricing model, from their pages

AI Receptionist, as listed on October 4, 2026:

  • Free. $0 a month, 25 calls a month, then $3.00 per call.
  • Pro. Starts at $150 a month, shown as $2.00 per call (about 2–3 calls a day). Call-volume steps on the page are 75, 150, and 300. The per-real-call rates in that order are $2.00, $1.80, and $1.67. Extra calls are $2.50, $2.30, and $2.17.
  • Enterprise. Starts at $500 a month, shown as $1.67 per call (about 10 calls a day). Steps are 300, 500, and 1,000+. Rates are $1.67, $1.60, and Custom. Extra calls are $2.17, $2.10, and Custom.

A 6-month plan is mentioned for rollover and a lower rate, with no rate printed. The 150-call and 300-call Pro steps do not show a monthly total beyond those per-call rates, so none is added here.

Live receptionist plans on the same date:

  • Starter. 30 calls, $300 a month, $11.50 per call over 30. One free transfer destination.
  • Basic. 90 calls, $810 a month, $10.50 per call over 90. Two free transfer destinations.
  • Pro. 300 calls, $2,100 a month, $8.50 per call over 300. Ten free transfer destinations.
  • Enterprise. Custom. The page says to ask about enterprise pricing.

Setup

AI Free is self-serve, and custom AI prompting is marked “Not included.” AI Pro says “Set it up yourself with dedicated support,” plus dedicated onboarding and live phone, email, and chat support. AI Enterprise includes full-service setup, custom prompting, custom integrations, multi-location support, and a dedicated success manager. The live plans say “No setup fees.” First Deploy’s setup is a separate $1,750, for one leak, live this week on a written plan.

When Smith.ai is the better choice

Smith.ai’s AI Receptionist is the better choice if you want the free 25-call tier before you pay, and you want the bill to follow call count. The Pro and Enterprise tables step the per-call rate down as the allowance grows. It is also the better choice if a hard call should transfer to Smith.ai’s live receptionist network. Their AI page describes that handoff. First Deploy takes the details, books, and follows up. It does not staff that live network.

The live receptionist plans are the better choice if you want a person on every call. They start at $300 for 30 calls, with no setup fee, and they list Clio, HubSpot, and Salesforce among CRM handoffs, plus a dedicated number or a port at no charge. A firm that wants that intake stack is the buyer those pages describe.

First Deploy is the fit when the job is one after-hours leak for a trade shop — HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, pest, landscaping, or auto and truck repair — installed for $1,750 and then left at $250 a month, with no per-call line.

Our price

Setup is $1,750. Start with $875 or pay in full. Then $250 a month per company from go-live. The numbers and the checkout links are on the pricing page. Related reading: First Deploy vs Ruby, First Deploy vs Goodcall, and what an after-hours answering service costs.

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