Head to head
Ruby vs AnswerConnect.
Ruby and AnswerConnect are both live human answering services, billed by the minute. AnswerConnect advertises receptionists 24 hours a day and has a Canadian site. Ruby is chosen for a warm human voice on the line. On the published and reviewed numbers, AnswerConnect’s minute is cheaper; how it counts that minute is the thing to check.
Written by Right On Call, which competes with both. Their details checked September 26, 2026; sources are listed below.
Pick Ruby if
- The voice on the line is part of your brand.
- You take few calls and a message is enough.
Pick AnswerConnect if
- You need a person on the line at any hour.
- You want a lower human minute rate and will check how handling time is billed.
- You want a vendor with a Canadian site and a quote in Canadian dollars.
Side by side
The two of them, with Right On Call in the last column so you can see where a receptionist built for trades differs from both.
| Topic | Ruby | AnswerConnect | Right On Call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who answers | Live human receptionists | Live human receptionists, 24/7 | AI, with escalation to your own team by text |
| Entry price | About US$250 a month for 50 minutes | About US$350 a month for 200 minutes, per reviews | $199 CAD a month for 200 answered minutes, then $0.70 CAD a minute |
| Cost per minute | About US$3.45 to $5.00 | About US$1.75 in plan, about US$2.50 past it, per reviews | $0.70 CAD past the included minutes |
| What is metered | Minutes in bundles | Handling time, including after-call work, per reviews | Connected talk time, to the second |
| What the call ends with | A message, a transfer, or basic scheduling | A message, a transfer, or scheduling where set up | A triaged, booked job or a dispatch text |
| Languages | Bilingual receptionists available | Ask. We found no published French statement | English and French on every call. Others on request |
| Currency | US dollars | US plans published by reviewers; Canadian plans quoted | Canadian dollars |
What Ruby costs
Published in US dollars as minute bundles: about $250 a month for 50 minutes, up to about $1,725 for 500 minutes, roughly $3.45 to $5.00 a minute.
What AnswerConnect costs
Independent reviews list US plans at about $350 a month for 200 minutes (with a setup fee near $50 and about $2.50 a minute past the plan), $395 for 300 minutes, and $575 for 400 minutes, with larger plans quoted. Minutes are counted by handling time. AnswerConnect has a Canadian plans page, and one comparison reports a Canadian plan at CA$325 for 100 minutes, which doesn’t match the US figures. Ask for a written quote in the currency you pay in.
Where Right On Call fits
Both services put a person on every call and bill for that person’s time. For a front desk, that is worth paying for.
For a home-service shop’s missed calls, it is usually more than the job needs. Those calls are short: a name, an address, what is wrong, a time. Right On Call takes them at any hour, runs the emergency triage written for your trade, checks the address against your service area, and books the visit, then texts your on-call number when a person needs to step in.
Choose Right On Call if
- Your calls are service requests that should end on your schedule.
- You want 24/7 coverage without human minute rates.
- You want French handled on the same line.
Where all three sit
You build it → built for you
Built for the calls you miss, not to replace the people who answer
Right On Call can answer every call if you want it to. That isn’t what it is built for. It is built so that a call you would have missed, on a roof, in a crawlspace, at lunch, after 5, on a Saturday, gets picked up and ends as a booked job instead of a voicemail nobody returns.
Why Right On Call →Ruby vs AnswerConnect: questions
Which is cheaper, Ruby or AnswerConnect?
Per minute, AnswerConnect, on the figures independent reviews publish: about US$1.75 a minute inside a plan against roughly US$3.45 to $5.00 at Ruby. Reviews also report that AnswerConnect counts handling time, including work after the call, so compare real bills rather than talk time.
Do either of them book jobs into Jobber?
Check with each. Both list scheduling and integrations, and neither is built around a field-service tool in what we found. Right On Call connects Jobber from its dashboard and creates the client and the job on the call.
Sources
- Ruby
- Upfirst: answering service pricing compared
- AnswerConnect Canada: live call answering
- Vida: AnswerConnect pricing guide
- AnSer: AnSer vs AnswerConnect (a competitor’s comparison)
Ruby and AnswerConnect details come from their published pages and independent reviews as of September 26, 2026. Plans change; check theirs before you decide. If something here is out of date, email hello@rightoncall.com and we will correct it. Product names are trademarks of their owners. Right On Call isn't affiliated with or endorsed by either.