Call Marlin vs Smith.ai
Smith.ai is a staffed answering service with AI in front of it. We are an AI phone agent that somebody builds and looks after. The gap in price is large and so is the gap in what you get.
The short answer
Smith.ai's Starter plan is $300 a month for 30 calls. Ours is $300 a month for 900 connected minutes, which at three minutes a call is about 300 calls. If a human has to be on the line, that difference is what a human costs, and it is worth paying.
Both price ladders
| Who | Plan | A month | Included | Per call |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Call Marlin | Single line | $49 | 120 minutes | $0.408 |
| Call Marlin | Starter | $120 | 300 minutes | $0.40 |
| Call Marlin | Busy line | $216 | 600 minutes | $0.36 |
| Smith.ai | Starter | $300 | 30 calls | $10.00 |
| Call Marlin | Practice | $300 | 900 minutes | $0.333 |
| Call Marlin | Multi-line | $400 | 1,200 minutes | $0.333 |
| Call Marlin | Volume | $500 | 1,800 minutes | $0.278 |
| Smith.ai | Basic | $810 | 90 calls | $9.00 |
| Smith.ai | Pro | $2,100 | 300 calls | $7.00 |
The terms side by side
| Smith.ai | Call Marlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Per call | Per connected minute |
| Over the allowance | $11.50 per call | $0.50 per minute |
| Setup fee | None | $800, and it varies with what has to be built |
| Free trial | 30-day money-back guarantee | 14 days or 60 connected minutes, no card |
| Commitment | Month to month, no contract | Month to month. 15% off 3 months up front |
| Set up by | Them | Us |
| Calls recorded for you | Not stated | Every call, with a transcript |
Buy Smith.ai if
- A caller who reaches a machine will hang up and not call back.
- You are in law, medicine or anything else where a wrong answer is a liability rather than an inconvenience.
- You need outbound sales development by people, not software.
- Your call volume is low enough that per-call pricing is cheap.
Smith.ai has been doing this since long before the current wave of AI phone products, has 5,000+ businesses on it, and will put a trained person on your call. Nothing here matches that.
Buy Call Marlin if
- Most of your calls are the same eight questions and a booking.
- Your volume is high enough that $10 a call is not survivable.
- You want the calls recorded and transcribed so you can read what was actually said.
- You want to hear it on your own line for two weeks before committing to anything.
Questions people actually ask
Is Call Marlin cheaper than Smith.ai?
Substantially, at volume. Smith.ai's Pro plan is $2,100 a month for 300 calls. Our Practice plan is $300 a month for 900 connected minutes, roughly 300 calls at three minutes each. The difference is that theirs can be answered by a person.
Does Smith.ai use AI or humans?
Both. They sell an AI receptionist and a human-staffed receptionist service, and their published plans price the two tiers separately.
When is a human answering service worth the money?
When a caller reaching a machine costs you the customer, or when a wrong answer is a liability. Those are real cases and we will tell you when you are in one.
The part you can check
Whichever of these you end up buying, do not buy it off a table. Ours runs on your own number for 14 days or 60 connected minutes, with your own callers, and we do not ask for a card, so there is nothing to cancel. Every call is recorded and transcribed, so at the end of it you are judging the thing rather than the sales page.
Where these numbers came from
Every figure on this page was read off Smith.ai’s own pricing page on 29 September 2026, not off a comparison blog. Prices change and ours is the only one we control, so if you find a difference, theirs is right and we want to know. Our own numbers come from our pricing page and are the same ones you would be billed.