Honest comparison · June 2026
Short answer: Smith.ai is an established AI-plus-human receptionist service with per-call pricing (AI Receptionist from $95/month for roughly 2 calls a day, as of June 2026 per their public page). RAMELO's Ava is a flat-priced AI receptionist ($349–$1,399/month, public) built med-spa-first, whose core move is booking the real open calendar slot live on the call — and you can verify that claim yourself in 60 seconds by calling her demo line.
| Ava (RAMELO) | Smith.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | $349 / $699 / $1,399 per month — public, flat tiers | AI Receptionist from $95/mo (~2 calls/day) to $800/mo (~15 calls/day) month-to-month; annual "Done for You" $500–$2,000/mo; overage $2.40/call (as of June 2026, per smith.ai/ai-receptionist) |
| Setup | One-time setup from $499 (done-for-you: we build, tune, and launch) | Free white-glove setup; 30-day money-back guarantee (per their page, June 2026) |
| Books the appointment live, on the call | Yes — books the real open calendar slot live, on the call | Scheduling listed among features (Calendly integration named); their model is AI-led with live human agents stepping in (per their page, June 2026) |
| 24/7 coverage | Yes — 24/7, nights, weekends, holidays | Yes — 24/7 (per their page) |
| Try it before you talk to sales | Yes — public demo line you can call right now (books a real slot on a demo calendar) | Demo/consultation via their sales flow; no public always-on demo line listed on the pages we checked |
| Built for | Med-spas & aesthetic clinics first; any appointment-based front desk (early access) | Broad horizontal — sales & support for many industries; 7,000+ CRM connections claimed |
| Track record & reviews | Launched June 2026 — no public reviews yet (we say so honestly; see /reviews) | Established company, years of public reviews |
Pick Smith.ai if you want human agents available on the line, need one of their thousands of CRM integrations, or your call volume is tiny. Pick Ava if you run an appointment-based business, want every answered call to end in a booked slot, and want a flat bill you can predict. Either way, apply the same test to both: call it and ask it to book a real time.
Call the demo line, ask her a hard question, ask her to book a time.
+1 (650) 489-4915Honesty note: this is Ava's demo line — she books a real open slot on a demo calendar, so you can hear exactly how live booking works before you buy. Pricing & setup — call Mateo: +1 (650) 628-8717 · hello@ramelo.ai · Pricing