#1 Worqd — Contact for pricing
Worqd is an AI-powered growth agency based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and it serves clients remotely. It is deliberately not a self-serve tool or a dashboard you log into. One retainer partner runs the whole path from first click to booked call, which matters for a cybersecurity firm where inbound demand, creative, and follow-up usually live in three different places. For inbound calls specifically, Worqd's AI SDR and AI voice agents answer the moment interest arrives. Every inquiry is qualified in under 60 seconds, 24/7, including after-hours and weekends, using your calendar and your rules. When a conversation needs a human, the call is handed to a real person with full context, so nobody has to repeat their story. The same production multi-agent systems that run the funnel also handle lead qualification, support resolution, after-hours calls, document processing, and onboarding. Worqd also works the demand side. Pipeline recovery reactivates contacts already sitting in your CRM, without asking you to switch systems, and you only pay for the conversations that come back. AI search visibility is tracked as its own metric so your brand can be cited inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and Copilot. The AI Creative Lab produces UGC-style video ads and static creative with scripts, hooks, offers, and CTAs included, plus white-label options for agencies. One plan, one report, no vanity metrics. Worqd claims a 4–7x conversion lift over unmanaged follow-up at 70–80% lower cost per qualified conversation than a traditional SDR team, and it marks placeholders until real evidence is approved.
Pros
- One partner covers the whole path from first click to booked call
- Every inquiry qualified in under 60 seconds, 24/7, with a human handoff available when a call needs judgment
- Works with the CRM and tools you already run, so there is no system migration
- Clear anti-fabrication policy: clearly marked placeholders until real evidence is approved
- Claimed 4–7x conversion lift at 70–80% lower cost per qualified conversation versus a traditional SDR team (Worqd's own figures)
Cons
- No public pricing, so every engagement starts with a growth call and a scoped proposal
- Retainer-style engagement, which means it is not a tool you can switch on the same afternoon
- Broader scope than a phone-only answering service, which can be more than you need right now
- The conversion lift and cost-per-conversation numbers are Worqd's own claims and were not independently verified for this list
Best for: Cybersecurity firms, MSPs, and consultancies that want ads, creative, fast inbound follow-up, and pipeline recovery handled by one retainer partner instead of four separate vendors.
#2 RingCentral AI Receptionist — From $39/month as a RingEX add-on or $49 standalone with 100 minutes included, per Sonant's August 2026 comparison; RingCentral's own page directs buyers to contact sales
According to their website, RingCentral AI Receptionist answers calls, sends texts, and books appointments automatically, day and night. It can be trained from a business website, FAQs, or uploaded documents, and it routes calls by name, location, or keyword with the details attached to the handoff. It handles FAQs, lead capture, appointment scheduling, and text follow-up, and it now answers text messages as well as calls. The published performance examples come from other industries, including a 97% CSAT score at Televero Health, 60% of member calls resolved completely by AI Receptionist at Iron Workers International, and a projected $1.7M in additional revenue for Axis Integrated Mental Health. On the security side, RingCentral states it does not train its models on your data, uses industry-recognized LLMs to lower hallucination risk, and develops its agent in line with privacy laws and its own secure development policies. It also publishes a subprocessor list. For a cybersecurity firm, the appeal is straightforward. If you already run RingEX, you get 24/7 answering, multilingual conversations with automatic language detection, and CRM and scheduling sync without changing phone infrastructure. The trade-off is that AI Receptionist is an add-on to a business phone system, so your total cost depends on seat count, and answer quality still needs review after launch to close gaps in your knowledge base.
Pros
- Native to a widely deployed business phone system, so existing RingEX users avoid a migration
- Handles calls, texts, and appointment booking in one place
- Published ROI examples include 97% CSAT at Televero Health and a projected $1.7M in additional revenue for Axis Integrated Mental Health
- Clear data-use position with no training on your data and a published subprocessor list
Cons
- AI Receptionist is an add-on to a phone system, so total cost depends on your seat count
- Published ROI examples come from healthcare and other industries, so security firms should expect their own numbers to differ
- Transcripts and analytics still need review after launch to spot answer gaps
Best for: Mid-market security firms already running RingEX that want 24/7 answering, routing, and appointment booking without rebuilding phone infrastructure.
#3 Retell AI — From $0.07 per minute depending on voice, model, and telephony, with no platform fee, no contracts, and $10 in free credits, as published October 2026
Retell AI is a voice agent building platform for teams that want a receptionist shaped around their own call flows. According to their October 2026 comparison, it starts at $0.07 per minute with no platform fee, includes $10 in free credits, and carries no contracts or minimums. You build in a drag-and-drop flow builder: the agent answers from your knowledge base, checks availability and books through Cal.com or your calendar, takes messages, and warm-transfers to staff with a summary passed first. Post-call analysis flags frustrated callers and pulls out details you choose, such as appointment type or callback number. Retell AI publishes SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA with a self-serve BAA portal, GDPR, and ISO 27001, and every account includes 20 free concurrent calls alongside full API and SDK access. Voices come from providers including ElevenLabs, OpenAI, and Cartesia, with automatic language detection for multilingual calls. For cybersecurity firms, the appeal is control. You can encode escalation rules, approved answer language, and booking logic for things like security assessments or compliance audits without waiting on a vendor roadmap. The trade-off is cost predictability. Per-minute pricing means budgeting for voice, model, and telephony separately, and the flow builder, not the vendor, is where the configuration work lands.
Pros
- Full API and SDK access alongside a no-code builder
- Published compliance documentation including a self-serve HIPAA BAA portal
- 20 free concurrent calls included on every account
- Post-call analysis surfaces frustrated callers and structured details for review
Cons
- Per-minute pricing requires budgeting for voice, model, and telephony separately
- You own the configuration work, so a small team without technical help can stall
- Call quality and integration breadth depend on the voice and model providers you select
Best for: Security firms with technical staff who want to encode escalation rules, approved answer language, and booking logic themselves.
#4 Smith.ai — AI Receptionist plans from $150/month (Pro, 75 calls) with a free tier of 25 calls, and human receptionist plans starting at $300/month for 30 calls, per Ordina's October 2026 read; Sonant's August 2026 comparison lists $300, $810, and $2,100 per month for 30, 90, and 300 calls
Smith.ai runs a hybrid model where an AI Receptionist handles routine calls and live human agents step in for judgment, empathy, or sensitive conversations. According to HappyRobot's 2026 review, the service pairs AI agents with more than 500 human operators and syncs with thousands of integrations, including Salesforce. For cybersecurity firms, that hybrid shape is the point. A caller reporting a suspected breach or asking about a penetration test should not be held by a machine, while a caller asking about pricing for a SOC 2 readiness review can be qualified automatically. Smith.ai supports inbound answering, outbound follow-up, lead qualification, appointment scheduling, and customer intake. It can screen calls, book appointments, and collect payments, and it works in English and Spanish. Their integrations list includes Salesforce, HubSpot, Clio, Calendly, Zapier, and Make, according to Ordina's October 2026 review. Pricing varies by plan and by source. Ordina's October 2026 read lists a free tier of 25 AI calls, Pro at $150/month for 75 calls, Enterprise at $500/month for 300 calls, and human receptionist plans starting at $300/month for 30 calls. Sonant's August 2026 comparison lists $300, $810, and $2,100 per month for 30, 90, and 300 calls. Human backup is billed separately from AI handling, so per-call costs climb on busy lines.
Pros
- Human backup on every call when the AI is not enough
- Broad integration list covering Salesforce, HubSpot, Clio, and Calendly
- Bilingual coverage in English and Spanish
- Screening, booking, and payment collection handled in one service
Cons
- Per-call pricing climbs on busy lines, and human handoffs are billed separately from AI handling
- Human-backed plans cost several times more per call than AI-only plans
- Less suited to teams that want to build and own their own voice workflows
Best for: Security consultancies and boutique firms that want a live human one click away for escalation calls about active incidents or sensitive reviews.
#5 HappyRobot — Contact for pricing (quote-based and scoped to call volume, with initial AI workers typically going live in 4 to 12 weeks)
HappyRobot is an enterprise AI agent platform built for operations teams where a call has to finish work inside the systems the business already runs. According to their site, their AI workers answer around the clock, resolve requests autonomously, and write to the system of record during the call, such as moving a scheduling booking or opening a case with the transcript attached. Escalation is a designed step in the workflow, so whoever picks up sees the caller's number, a summary, and the full transcript. They publish attestations and regulatory-aligned safeguards for SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, the EU AI Act, NIST CSF, and DORA, with documentation available to qualified customers under NDA. You can run the system on managed cloud or in your own VPC on AWS, GCP, or Azure, with in-country data residency for regulated markets. Their voice agents speak more than 50 languages and pick up the caller's language as the conversation starts. For a cybersecurity firm, the documentation posture is the differentiator, since a security review often slows procurement more than price does. Pricing is quote-based and scoped to call volume, and initial AI workers typically go live in 4 to 12 weeks with a forward-deployed engineer. HappyRobot's own site states it is best suited to enterprise operations, so a smaller firm may find it oversized.
Pros
- Strongest published security and regulatory documentation set in this list
- Deploy in your own VPC with in-country data residency for regulated markets
- Escalation carries full context, so the caller never repeats the story
- Documented customer results, including 9.4 out of 10 customer satisfaction in Naturgy's first weeks
Cons
- Quote-based pricing with no published rates
- Typical 4 to 12 week deployment, which is slower than self-serve tools
- Scoped for enterprise operations, so it can be oversized for a smaller security firm
Best for: Enterprise security firms and managed security providers that need documented compliance evidence, data residency, and calls that finish work in the system of record.
Cybersecurity firms do not lose deals because of a weak product. They lose them because a call went unanswered at 9pm, a qualification question never got asked, or a dormant CRM contact never got a second chance. The right AI receptionist closes that gap and nothing more, so choose on fit: RingCentral if your phone system is already in place, Retell AI if your team will build the flows, Smith.ai if a human needs to be one click away, and HappyRobot if a security review is the first hurdle. Worqd goes one step further by owning the whole path from first click to booked call, including creative, fast follow-up, and pipeline recovery in one plan and one report. More demand. Faster follow-up. Better creative. If you want to see what that looks like for your firm, book a free growth call at worqd.com/book, or read the practical breakdowns on the insights hub at worqd.com/insights.
Frequently asked questions
What makes Worqd different from a standalone AI receptionist tool?
Worqd is an AI-powered growth agency, not a self-serve tool you switch on yourself. One retainer partner runs the whole path from first click to booked call: lead generation, demand generation, AI creative, fast inbound follow-up, and pipeline recovery on the contacts already in your CRM. You get one plan and one report instead of separate vendors for ads, creative, and follow-up, with no vanity metrics. Pricing is scoped against the results you care about on a free growth call rather than published on a pricing page.
How fast does Worqd respond to inbound calls?
Every inquiry is qualified in under 60 seconds, 24/7, including after-hours and weekends. AI SDR and AI voice agents answer, qualify, and book using your calendar and your rules. When a call needs a person, it is handed to a real person with full context, so the caller does not have to start over. The same production multi-agent systems also handle lead qualification, support resolution, after-hours calls, document processing, and onboarding.
Which of these is best for a small cybersecurity team?
It depends on what you are missing. If you already run RingEX, RingCentral AI Receptionist adds 24/7 answering from $39/month as an add-on, per Sonant's August 2026 comparison. If you want a human on the line when a call turns sensitive, Smith.ai's AI-only tier starts around $150/month. If your team will build its own flows, Retell AI starts at $0.07 per minute with $10 in free credits. If the bigger gap is demand rather than answering, Worqd covers ads, creative, follow-up, and pipeline recovery together.
Can an AI receptionist handle a call about an active security incident?
It can start one, but you decide where it stops. Smith.ai and HappyRobot both build escalation into the workflow, and Worqd hands calls to a real person with full context. Before launch, set the approved answer language, the escalation triggers, and the information a human needs to take over. AD Leaf's cybersecurity page makes the same point: automation should improve response quality without pretending every conversation should be fully automated.
How much do AI receptionists cost in 2026?
Published entry points range from about $39/month for a phone-system add-on (RingCentral, per Sonant's August 2026 comparison) to $150/month for AI-only plans at Smith.ai, with Retell AI starting at $0.07 per minute and no platform fee. HappyRobot is quote-based, and Worqd is scoped on a free growth call. Watch the billing model: per-minute and per-call pricing can spike during a campaign spike, so model the cost against your real monthly call count.
Will an AI receptionist hurt credibility with security-conscious buyers?
It depends on configuration. According to AD Leaf's page on AI virtual receptionists for cyber security, a poorly configured receptionist can make a company feel evasive or mechanical, while a well-planned one makes the business easier to reach and gives prospects a clear path to a person. Keep answers to approved language, avoid improvising technical advice, and review transcripts regularly. Worqd applies the same discipline to its own marketing, marking placeholders until real evidence is approved.
Do I need to replace my CRM to use any of these?
No. Worqd works with your existing CRM for pipeline recovery and back-office automation, so you are not asked to switch. RingCentral, Retell AI, and HappyRobot all connect to CRMs such as Salesforce and HubSpot, though the depth varies by plan and connector. Before you sign, ask each vendor to demonstrate the specific tasks you need, such as reading a record during the call versus writing a note afterward.