Home / Turnpike Tech vs Smith.ai
Smith.ai is one of the largest answering companies in the market. Its AI receptionist meters by the call: a free tier with 25 calls, Pro at $150 for 75 calls, and Enterprise at $500 for 300 calls. Turnpike Tech is a done-for-you missed call text back, AI answering, booking, quote follow-up, and review system built only for home-service companies, priced in minute bundles from $349 to $1,249 a month. Smith.ai wins on brand, scale, and its free tier. Turnpike wins on trade focus and on the follow-through after the call.
One more honest difference: Smith.ai has shifted its own homepage and positioning toward law firms. Contractors are still welcome there, but they are no longer the headline customer. At Turnpike, home-service trades are the only customer.
| Turnpike Tech | Smith.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price (AI) | $349 to $1,249 | Free (25 calls), Pro $150 (75 calls), Enterprise $500 (300 calls) |
| How the price works | Minute bundles: 300, 1,000, or 2,500 minutes included, overage $0.25 to $0.35 per minute | Per call: overage about $1.67 to $3.00 per call depending on tier |
| Setup | Done for you, live in about 14 days | Self-serve at the tiers a small shop buys |
| Missed call text back | Yes. A text from your own number in under 60 seconds, then an AI text conversation | Not offered in the AI receptionist plans we checked in October 2026 |
| Appointment booking | Included on every plan, into your calendar, Jobber, Housecall Pro, or ServiceTitan | Included, with intake forms and calendar integrations |
| Live human option | No. An AI system; urgent calls alert your on-call tech | Yes. Separate human plans, $300 for 30 calls to $2,100 for 300 calls |
| Quote follow-up | Included. Open quotes chased by text on days 1, 3, and 7 | Not offered. Answering only |
| Review requests | Included. A Google review request after every completed job | Not offered |
| Monthly reporting | Included. Calls recovered and jobs booked, reported in dollars | Call records, recordings, and transcripts |
| Built for | Home-service trades only | Law firms first in current positioning; small businesses generally |
Competitor facts and pricing checked October 2026 against Smith.ai's published materials and our verified competitor file. We re-check quarterly. This page is written and published by Turnpike Tech; if we got a Smith.ai fact wrong, email john@turnpiketech.ai and we will fix it.
Smith.ai is an established, large-scale answering operation with years of history and infrastructure a young company cannot match. If vendor size is your top safety criterion, Smith.ai is the safer-looking name, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Smith.ai's AI receptionist starts free with 25 calls a month. That is a real, low-risk way to test whether AI answering fits your shop. Turnpike has no free tier; our entry point is a paid plan with a done-for-you build.
Smith.ai also sells human receptionists, from $300 for 30 calls to $2,100 for 300 calls a month, with bilingual English and Spanish coverage. Some owners simply want a person answering. We are an AI system, and that is a genuine trade-off.
Our intake questions, surge handling, and follow-up cadence are designed around home-service work: no-heat calls, burst pipes, storm damage, same-day door repairs. Nothing here was adapted from legal intake, because legal intake is not what we sell.
Per-call metering gets expensive in exactly the months you can least afford surprises. At Smith.ai's published rates, a 300-call month costs about $600 on Pro ($150 plus 225 overage calls at about $2.00 each), or the full $500 Enterprise plan. Turnpike's Recover plan is $695 with 1,000 minutes included, the same in a heat wave as in a slow month.
Smith.ai answers and books. Then the quote follow-up, the review request, and the monthly accounting of what was recovered are still on you. At Turnpike they are the core of the product, included on every plan.
The honest summary: if you want the biggest name in answering, a free way to start, or human receptionists, Smith.ai is a strong choice. If you run a home-service shop and the money leaks after the call, in unreturned messages, unchased quotes, and unasked reviews, that is the work Turnpike was built to do.
Most shops comparing us with Smith.ai land on Recover: full 24/7 coverage plus the follow-through system. After-Hours fits shops whose office answers well during the day.
Extra locations are $199/mo each on plans other than Dominate, which includes two. Annual agreement pricing takes 10 percent off the monthly rate. Full details, including overage, are on the pricing page.
What the one-time setup covers: a two-week white-glove build, done entirely by our team, not a sign-up fee.
Reading more than one comparison is the right move. Ours are all written the same way: our name on them, the competitor's real strengths stated, and pricing facts dated.
Smith.ai is a large, general answering company, now positioned law-firm first, that meters its AI receptionist by the call and stops at answering and booking. Turnpike Tech is built only for home-service trades, bundles minutes instead of calls, and adds missed call text back in under 60 seconds, quote follow-up on days 1, 3, and 7, review requests after jobs, and a monthly recovered-jobs report, all set up for you.
Yes. Smith.ai's AI receptionist tiers include a set number of calls: 25 on the free tier, 75 on Pro at $150 a month, and 300 on Enterprise at $500 a month, with per-call overage of about $1.67 to $3.00 depending on tier (pricing checked October 2026). Turnpike Tech bundles minutes instead: 300, 1,000, or 2,500 minutes included, with overage at $0.25 to $0.35 per minute by plan.
Smith.ai can answer a contractor's calls, and many small businesses use it. But its current positioning leads with law firms, its intake is built to be general across industries, and it does not follow up on quotes or request reviews. Turnpike Tech exists for home-service trades specifically, with intake and follow-through designed around that work.
Yes, on separate plans from $300 for 30 calls to $2,100 for 300 calls a month, with bilingual English and Spanish coverage (pricing checked October 2026). Turnpike Tech is an AI system, not a human service; urgent calls alert your own on-call tech. If a human voice on every call matters most to you, that is a real Smith.ai advantage.
Yes. Smith.ai's free tier includes 25 calls a month, which is a fair way to test AI answering. If you later move to Turnpike Tech, our setup includes porting help for your number, so your customers keep dialing the same number they already know.