My AI Front Desk Alternative for Small Businesses (2026)

If you want the phone side of My AI Front Desk without a subscription, Botlery builds a custom AI phone agent for $300 one-time on your own accounts; your phone and AI providers bill its minutes to you directly, and Botlery charges nothing monthly or per minute. My AI Front Desk is a $99-a-month subscription bundling phone answering with web chat, texting, a CRM and automations, which suits owners who will use the whole bundle. A free working demo comes first.

Updated October 2026 · 5 min read · By Rohail Nisar, founder of Botlery

My AI Front Desk, which now calls its product Frontdesk, sells one subscription that bundles an AI phone receptionist with web chat, two-way texting, a CRM and follow-up sequences. Botlery's build covers the phone line only; it is paid for once and set up on accounts in your name. Both price lists are public, so the useful question is how much of the bundle you would actually use.

The Business-in-a-Box plan and its credits

Published pricing (checked 7 Oct 2026). Frontdesk lists one self-serve plan for small businesses and custom pricing above it.

Figures from myaifrontdesk.com/pricing as displayed on 7 Oct 2026. The page says there are no contracts and no hidden fees, and that unused pool credits expire each month while purchased credits do not. This comparison is written by Botlery, which sells the alternative.

What 400 minutes of calls a month costs

Suppose your phone takes about 400 minutes a month. On Business-in-a-Box, 200 minutes are included and the 1,000-credit pool covers 40 more. The other 160 minutes use 4,000 credits, which auto-reload buys for $40. That is about $139 a month, or $1,668 a year billed monthly ($1,428 on annual billing), before any texts or chats beyond the allowance.

The Botlery phone agent costs $300, paid once. Your phone and AI providers then charge for those 400 minutes at their own per-minute rates, so the bill tracks your call volume, with nothing added by Botlery. The build is not repeated in year two.

One subscription for several jobs, or one agent you own

Frontdesk's appeal is breadth. The same assistant answers calls, chats on your website, texts customers, logs everything in its built-in CRM and can run follow-up sequences, in more than 20 languages. If you are paying separately for a CRM, a texting tool and a chat widget, the bundle may cost less than the parts.

Botlery builds narrower and deeper: a phone agent trained on your price list, service area and booking rules, with each call saved as a row in a Google Sheet and an email to you, on accounts that stay yours. It does not come with a CRM or text campaigns. If you already use one, such as GoHighLevel, connecting the agent to it is a separate job priced with a free fixed-price quote; see business automation. A website chatbot from Botlery is also separate, at $10 a month or $200 one-time.

When the Frontdesk bundle is the better buy

Pick Frontdesk if you will use most of the bundle: outbound reminder calls, two-way texting, a CRM that fills itself from calls and chats, and sequences you set up yourself. It also suits agencies, since its white-label partner plans let them resell the product under their own brand, and owners who want to change settings themselves the same day.

An owned phone agent suits businesses that mainly need the phone answered well, already have a way to track customers, and would rather pay once than keep a subscription running.

Testing it against your own calls

Frontdesk has a free trial you can start yourself. For Botlery, you send your services and prices and get a working demo of your own agent to call before paying anything. Try both with the calls you get most, plus one awkward question. Ask for a Botlery demo; the Rosie and Goodcall comparisons cover two other subscriptions, and how the agent works is explained under AI phone answering service.

Frequently asked questions