AI receptionists for Australian small businesses, honestly compared

We sell one of the services on this list. DotVA sets up and manages an AI receptionist, and the setup we usually recommend pairs it with a person on staffed hours: a VA receptionist, or you and your team. If you only want AI answering with no person involved, you will find lower published entry prices than ours in this table, and you should look at those rows first. That is the most useful thing we can tell you, so it comes first.

The method is the same as our comparison of Australian VA agencies. Every claim about another provider comes from its own website, checked on 11 November 2026 and linked in the table. Where a figure is not published we write “not stated publicly” rather than guess, and where a site does not say where call data is stored, we do not assume.

The services at a glance

Service	Who it is built for	Published entry price and what it includes	Overage	What it books into	Company and data location	Terms
DotVA AI receptionist (that’s us)	Service businesses losing leads to missed calls or after-hours enquiries	From $89/month AUD plus setup and per-minute call usage, quoted in writing after a free scoping call	Per-minute call usage that depends on volume	Google Calendar, Calendly, Acuity, Cliniko, Halaxy, ServiceM8	Configured on a third-party voice platform (Vapi, Bland, Retell or Synthflow); data location not stated on our page	No lock-in; setup in 1-2 weeks; 30 days of post-launch tuning
Hey Jodie	Trades and small businesses	A$99 a month excluding tax on Basic, “Unlimited Minutes”; higher plans A$199 and A$399; no setup fee	None: pricing page says no call caps or overage charges; terms set fair use at 1,000 call events per 30-day billing period	Jobs and appointments into your calendar, per its homepage; Zoho CRM and Zapier named. Its pricing page lists bookings, call transfers and integrations on the A$99 plan card but shows a dash for all three on that plan in the comparison table, so confirm before you sign	Company registered in England and Wales; terms name processing locations in Ireland and the United States and say a local number does not guarantee local processing	Month to month; 7-day free trial
Johnni AI	Trades and service businesses	$49 a month billed monthly with 60 minutes, ex GST; larger plans to $899 a month; no setup fee	$0.50 a minute, falling to $0.35 on the largest plan	Google or Outlook calendar; ServiceM8 and simPRO connections are a custom add-on quoted per business	Brisbane company; data location not stated on the pages we read	Month to month; 7-day free trial
Sophiie AI	Trades and services	Not stated publicly: its site shows no prices and offers a demo. Its terms say fees, which may include a setup fee, are set in an order form	Not stated publicly	ServiceM8 and simPRO (two-way sync), Ascora (one-way), Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Xero, QuickBooks	Founded on the Gold Coast; data location not stated in its terms	30 days’ written notice; the term is set in an order form and renews automatically
Binary Elements	Sole operators and after-hours cover on Starter; clinics, trades and small offices on its $299 Business plan	Receptionist Starter $149 a month with 200 AI minutes, ex GST; works on your existing number or with its phone system	$0.45 a minute on Starter	Not stated on its pricing page; the first business-system connection is set up free and further ones are quoted	Port Melbourne company; data location not stated on its pricing page	Month to month; free pilot on your own number
Siptalk	Any business; its page lists healthcare and medical, legal, real estate and professional services; pay as you go	No monthly fee: 27.5c a minute (GST basis not stated); no setup fee	Every minute is 27.5c	Not stated publicly; it lists message taking, enquiries and information	Melbourne company; its page says its phone platform is hosted in the NextDC M1 datacentre in Port Melbourne; where AI recordings and transcripts are processed is not stated	No contract; no minimum monthly spend; cancel anytime
Lyngo	Allied health clinics	A$139 a month with 45 calls; A$249 with 100; A$395 with 200, ex GST; free setup	A$3, A$2.50 or A$2 a call by plan	Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite and Splose	Offices in Sydney and London; data location not stated on the pages we read	No lock-in; 14-day free trial; a cancelled plan runs to the end of the billing period
Aeva AI	Healthcare and allied health clinics	$259 AUD a month with 100 calls; $389 with 200 (GST basis not stated); no setup fee	$2.80 AUD a call	Cliniko, Splose, PracSuite and Nookal	Auckland company; recordings and transcripts stored on servers in Australia	Month to month, no contract; 14-day free trial
Helen AI (Healthengine)	GP practices	Not stated publicly; demo on request	Not stated publicly	Best Practice, Pracsoft	Page footer says “Australian data” and “ISO 27001 certified”; hosting detail not stated	Not stated publicly
Xaida (Avant)	Medical practices that use Best Practice	Not stated publicly; “Flexible pricing based on call volume”	Not stated publicly	Best Practice	”All data stored and processed in Australia. Never offshore.”	Not stated publicly
Dentalflo AI	Dental practices	Voice Flo (inbound AI voice) $499 a month with 100 credits, billed $2,994 every six months, excl GST (currency not stated); Web Flo (web chat and booking) $299 a month; setup fee ($599 on Voice Flo) shown as free	Not stated publicly	Web Flo and Voice Flo list PMS integration; its site lists Dental4Windows/Web, Dentally, Core Practice, Praktika and Principle as partners	Gold Coast office; privacy policy says data may be transferred outside your country of residence, including between Australia and the UK	6 or 12 month term chosen at checkout, with 12-month billing shown as 20% less; free 14-day trial for APAC Dentally clinics. Renews automatically unless 30 days’ written notice is given before expiry; ending early leaves the rest of the term payable; fees non-refundable except where the law requires
Waboom AI	Law firms: an intake product from a company that also sells a general AI receptionist	A$500 starting credit plus A$130 a month platform fee, ex GST	95c down to 71c a minute, taken from the credit	Books an intake meeting; names Actionstep, LEAP, Smokeball, Clio and MyCase	Auckland company; a sovereign Sydney option on its Enterprise tier, at a custom rate, keeps calls and data in Australia	No contract, month to month; 30-day money-back guarantee; credit never expires; notice period not stated
OfficeHQ MyAI Receptionist	Businesses that want AI with a person as backup	$20 a month with 10 calls; $75 with 50; $130 with 100, plus GST	$1.50 a call; calls routed to live agents are charged at the applicable rate	Booking is not listed among the AI plan’s features; it takes messages, answers questions and transfers calls	Hands over to “live Australian-based receptionists” (its FAQ says the majority of its live calls are answered in Australia, with support from its global teams); data location not stated on the page	No minimum term; three days’ notice before the monthly renewal date; 7-day free trial
Your Phones Covered (Ellie AI)	Small businesses that want messages and leads captured after hours or on overflow	”29.00/month” with unlimited calls on a “fair go basis” (no currency symbol or GST wording on the page); no setup fee (free onboarding marked as a limited time offer)	None published	Message summaries by email as standard; live call transfers, direct diary bookings and CRM sync are listed as further functionality on enquiry	Not stated on the page	Cancel anytime, no contract; 14 days free

Checked on each provider’s own pages on 11 November 2026. “Not stated publicly” means we could not find the figure on the provider’s public pages; it is an observation, not a criticism.

Our row in full is on the AI receptionist page. If a 30-minute call beats ten tabs, book a discovery call, and if another row fits your business better we will tell you on the call.

One label, seven different products

An AI receptionist is software that answers the phone, and what it can do after “hello” depends on who it was built for.

1. General small business and trades (Hey Jodie, Johnni AI, Sophiie AI, Binary Elements, Siptalk). Hey Jodie’s homepage and Johnni AI say they answer, capture the job and book into a calendar (confirm which Hey Jodie plan includes bookings). Sophiie AI goes further into the office: its site lists quoting, invoicing and email alongside call answering, with two-way sync to ServiceM8 and simPRO. Binary Elements sells its AI receptionist with or without a business phone system, and Siptalk bills by the minute with no monthly fee. Our tradie admin comparison covers the trades options next to human admin services.
2. Allied health clinics (Lyngo, Aeva AI). Both book into Cliniko, Nookal, Splose and PracSuite, and both price by the call rather than the minute.
3. General practice (Helen AI, Xaida). Both book into Best Practice; Helen AI also names Pracsoft. Healthengine describes Helen as “Admin calls only” and says it “never gives clinical advice or discusses symptoms”. Avant says Xaida “accesses only booking-related data, never patient medical records”. Neither publishes a price.
4. Dental (Dentalflo AI). Web chat on its $299 plan, inbound voice on its $499 plan, and outbound voice and campaigns on its $899 plan, sold on six or twelve month terms.
5. Law firms (Waboom AI). Its law firm product takes the enquiry, captures the facts and books an intake meeting, and its page says the AI tells callers it cannot give legal advice.
6. AI add-ons from answering services (OfficeHQ MyAI, Your Phones Covered’s Ellie AI). The same companies that sell human receptionists by the call. OfficeHQ’s page says that if the AI gets stuck or the caller asks for a person, the call is handed over to a live receptionist. Your Phones Covered sells Ellie AI at one flat price for message taking and lead capture.
7. AI sold alongside a person (DotVA). We configure and manage the AI receptionist, and the setup we usually recommend is a VA receptionist, or you and your team, on staffed hours with the AI catching nights, weekends and overflow.

What 100 calls a month costs

These are the published plans that can be priced at about 100 calls a month. They match on volume only, not on what the AI does: some rows take messages, some book into a calendar and the clinic rows book into practice software, as the middle column shows. Where we have added or multiplied, that is our arithmetic, not the provider’s figure.

Option	Published plan and what it does	Monthly cost
Your Phones Covered Ellie AI	Unlimited calls on a “fair go basis”; message summaries by email, with live transfers and diary bookings on enquiry	29.00 as published (currency and GST basis not stated)
Hey Jodie Basic	Unlimited minutes, with fair use of 1,000 call events in its terms; its plan card and comparison table differ on whether Basic includes bookings, call transfers and integrations, so confirm before signing up	A$99 excluding tax
OfficeHQ MyAI Receptionist 100	100 calls; messages, common questions and transfers, with no booking listed	$130 plus GST
Johnni AI Solo	200 minutes, which Johnni sizes at about 100 calls; books into a Google or Outlook calendar	$134 a month on annual billing, plus GST (about $149 billed monthly, our arithmetic from Johnni’s stated 10% annual saving)
Lyngo Growth	100 calls; books into Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite and Splose	A$249 ex GST
Aeva AI	100 calls; books into Cliniko, Splose, PracSuite and Nookal	$259 AUD (GST basis not stated)
For comparison: OfficeHQ MyReceptionist 100	100 calls answered by people	$370 plus GST

Johnni AI’s is the only annual-billing figure in this table; every other row is a monthly-billed price.

Per-minute plans depend on how long your calls run. Johnni AI sizes its plans on a two-minute average call. Applying that average to other providers is our assumption, not theirs: 100 calls would be 200 minutes, which is the allowance in Binary Elements’ $149 Starter plan (ex GST), or $55 at Siptalk’s 27.5c a minute (GST basis not stated). Waboom AI, Dentalflo AI and our own AI receptionist are left out because credit, six-month billing and quoted setup do not reduce to one monthly figure, and Sophiie AI, Helen AI and Xaida publish no price.

How to compare them

1. Check what it books into. A booking that lands in your diary is the point of the product. Match the “books into” column to the software you run before anything else.
2. Work out the unit. Some plans count calls, some count minutes and some are flat. Lyngo counts inbound calls longer than 10 seconds. Aeva AI does not count calls under 15 seconds or calls where the caller never speaks.
3. Read the overage and the cap. Extra calls are $1.50 plus GST at OfficeHQ, $2.80 AUD at Aeva AI and A$2 to A$3 ex GST at Lyngo. The two “unlimited” plans above carry a fair use limit: Hey Jodie’s is in its terms and Your Phones Covered’s is in its FAQ.
4. Read the term. Most are month to month. Dentalflo AI bills six or twelve months at a time, and Sophiie AI’s term is set in an order form with 30 days’ written notice.
5. Ask what happens when the AI cannot help. A transfer to you, a message, or a handover to a person. OfficeHQ’s terms say calls routed to live agents are charged at “the applicable rate”.
6. Ask where the recordings are stored. See the next section.

Where the call data goes

An AI receptionist records and transcribes your callers, so ask each provider where that data is stored and processed. This is general information, not legal advice.

On the pages we checked, some providers state an Australian location. Avant says of Xaida: “All data stored and processed in Australia. Never offshore.” Aeva AI says call recordings and transcripts are stored on servers located in Australia. Waboom AI offers a sovereign data option, on its Enterprise tier at a custom rate, under which calls and data stay in Australia. Healthengine’s Helen AI page carries an “Australian data” badge without further detail. Siptalk says its platform is hosted in a Port Melbourne datacentre, without saying where AI call recordings are processed. Hey Jodie’s terms name processing locations in Ireland and the United States. Dentalflo AI’s privacy policy says data may be transferred between Australia and the UK. The others, ours included, do not state where call data is held on the pages we read, so ask.

For clinics, Healthengine says Helen has no access to patient clinical records, and Avant says Xaida accesses only booking-related data.

Ask too whether callers are told they are speaking with AI. We tell callers at the start of the call. Healthengine’s page says patients are always told when it is AI. OfficeHQ’s FAQ answers “Will my callers know they’re talking to an AI?” with “No, not unless you want them to.”

Where the Privacy Act applies to your business (health service providers holding health information are covered whatever their size), sending callers’ personal information to an overseas recipient is, in most cases, a cross-border disclosure under APP 8: you must take reasonable steps to make sure the recipient handles it in line with the APPs, and you generally remain accountable if they do not. That applies to an AI provider that processes calls overseas as much as to an offshore assistant, so check each provider’s stated data location. This is general information, not legal advice. Our guide to hiring an offshore VA legally covers the obligations for an assistant, and the setup we use is on our data security page.

When a person is still the better buy

Some of the providers above say this about their own products. Your Phones Covered says that for “full diary management or nuanced client relationships” its human receptionist service is the better fit. OfficeHQ built a handover to a live receptionist into its AI plan. Helen AI and Xaida both pass complex calls to practice staff.

In our experience a person is the better buy when:

• Callers are upset, anxious or unsure what they need. AI handles the routine booking well and does not read the room on an emotional call.
• Each call creates work. A quote to send, a form to chase, an invoice to raise, a debtor to follow up. Most of the AI receptionists above book the appointment and hand the rest back to you (Sophiie AI is the exception on this list: it lists quoting and invoicing).
• Your software is not on any integration list. A person works inside whatever system you run, under their own login.
• Most calls end in a decision rather than a booking. Pricing a non-standard job or handling a complaint needs judgement.

A person costs more per call. Our comparison of virtual receptionist services lists the per-call services, where OfficeHQ’s message plan is $25 a month plus $2.65 a call plus GST, and the dedicated options.

Combining AI with a person. Many businesses run both: a person on staffed hours and AI after hours. If the person comes from us, a DotVA VA receptionist is one dedicated person in the Philippines, working Australian business hours, at $12-17 an hour AUD ex GST from 10 hours a week (about $520-736 a month, our arithmetic at 4.33 weeks). There is no lock-in contract, and a $500 deposit is credited to your first invoice (see pricing). The virtual receptionist page has the rest of the detail.

Who should pick whom

• A tradie missing calls on the tools, where a calendar booking is enough: Johnni AI from $49 a month ex GST. Hey Jodie’s Basic plan is a flat A$99 a month excluding tax, but its plan card and its comparison table differ on whether Basic includes bookings, call transfers and integrations, so confirm before signing up.
• A trades business on ServiceM8 or simPRO that wants quoting and invoicing tied in: Sophiie AI, which lists two-way sync with both and does not publish a price.
• Low or unpredictable call volume, where a message is enough: Siptalk with no monthly fee, Your Phones Covered’s flat-price Ellie AI, or OfficeHQ MyAI from $20 a month plus GST with 10 calls.
• You want a person to step in mid-call: OfficeHQ MyAI.
• A phone system and an AI receptionist from one supplier: Binary Elements.
• An allied health clinic on Cliniko, Nookal, Splose or PracSuite: Lyngo has the lower published entry price of the two; Aeva AI states that recordings are stored in Australia.
• A GP clinic on Best Practice: Xaida or Helen AI. Helen AI also works with Pracsoft.
• A dental practice comfortable with a six-month term: Dentalflo AI.
• A law firm on Smokeball, LEAP or Actionstep that wants every new enquiry screened: Waboom AI.
• AI answering with no person involved: one of the rows above. Several publish entry prices below our $89 a month, and ours adds setup and usage on top.
• AI after hours and on overflow, with a person in business hours who does the work the calls create, set up and managed by one provider: that is what we built. See how our AI receptionist works and what a VA receptionist does between calls, including for trades, allied health, medical, dental and law firms.

If you want a person on the phones as well as AI, this is how to start.

Run your own numbers

Count your missed calls for a fortnight and note how many came after hours; that number is the business case for AI. Then count the hours you spend acting on messages, and price those on the VA cost calculator against our tiers on pricing. Medical, dental and legal practices each have a fuller comparison: medical receptionist services, dental reception and admin and law firm reception and legal admin. If the right answer for your business is one of the other names in the table, we would rather you find that out now than in month two.