Upfirst Review: How It Works and What It Costs vs Right On Call

Where Upfirst wins

Much lower price per call, with short calls and spam not counted.
Self-serve, with a 14-day free trial and no contract on monthly plans.
Live transfer to people you choose.
Calendar booking or a scheduling link without a setup project.

Where Right On Call wins

Someone writes your script: your emergencies, your job types, your service area.
The call writes the client and the job into Jobber, or books your live Cal.com or Calendly calendar.
Canadian postal-code coverage with out-of-area bookings refused in code.
A bounded safety script when a caller reports gas, smoke, or sparks.
Photo intake by text after the call and a recovery text when the caller hangs up.
English and French on every call, billed in Canadian dollars.

The 9 PM call that rings out

The same call, followed through both products. Nobody at the shop could get to it.

Upfirst

1Upfirst answers with the business details you entered
2Answers questions and takes the caller’s details
3Transfers to staff you set up, or sends a scheduling link or books a calendar slot
4You get a summary and that call counts toward the monthly bundle

Right On Call

1You had your rings to pick up and couldn’t
2The receptionist answers as your shop, in English or French
3Triage: a no-heat call is urgent, a tune-up isn’t. Postal code checked
4A real open time is booked, or your on-call phone gets the job by text
5On a booking, the caller gets a confirmation text and a request for a photo

Side by side

Upfirst compared with Right On Call
Topic	Upfirst	Right On Call
Price	From about US$24.95 a month for 30 calls	$199 CAD a month for 200 answered minutes, then $0.70 CAD a minute
What is metered	Calls, with short calls and spam not counted	Connected talk time, to the second
Setup	None. You configure it yourself	$699 CAD once, no term. $1,299 CAD on Managed
Who builds the call flow	You, from your business details	We write the script, triage, and call flow for your shop, test it on your number, and tune it after launch
Emergency triage	Instructions you write	Emergency vs routine rules written for your trade. Gas, smoke, or spark reports get a bounded safety script and a human callback
Service area	Instructions you write	Canadian postal-code check with a readback. Out-of-area bookings refused in code
Booking	Calendar integrations or a scheduling link by text, per reviews	Live Cal.com or Calendly availability. It cannot offer a time the calendar didn’t return
Field-service tool	A Zapier pairing for Jobber; no native integration found	Jobber connect in the plan: the call creates the client and the job. Housecall Pro and ServiceTitan on request
Human handoff	Transfer to staff you set up	Texts your on-call number with name, number, and reason, every time. Live transfer to one number is on request, off by default, for safety emergencies and callers who ask for a person
Currency	US dollars	Canadian dollars

Cheaper per call. What is the call worth?

On price per call, Upfirst wins and it isn’t close. At the published rates a three-minute call costs well under a dollar past the bundle on its higher tiers. Calls under 15 seconds and spam don’t count. If price per call is the deciding number, buy Upfirst.

For a trade shop the deciding number is usually what the call turns into. A furnace call at 9 PM is worth a diagnostic fee and often a repair. What matters is whether the receptionist knows that call is urgent, checks that the address is one you serve, and puts the visit on your board, or whether it takes a message you return in the morning, after the caller has phoned someone else.

That is the work we charge for: someone writing the triage for your trade, wiring the booking into the tools you use, and listening to real calls after launch to fix what sounds wrong.

What Upfirst costs

Published in US dollars and billed per call: about $24.95 a month for 30 calls ($1.50 each past that), $59.95 for 90 calls ($1.00), $159.95 for 300 calls ($0.75), and $299 for 600 calls ($0.70), roughly 20% less billed annually, with a custom tier above that. Calls under 15 seconds and spam aren’t counted. There is a 14-day free trial, and reviews note one agent per account and that annual prepayments are non-refundable.

Right On Call is on the pricing page, in Canadian or US dollars, with what each tier doesn't include.

Where both sit in the market

Message → job in your tools

You build it, it booksBuilt for you, it booksYou build it, you get a messageBuilt for you, you get a message

You build it → built for you

Our read of the market, not a measurement. Across: who builds the call flow. Up: whether the call ends as a message or as a job in your own tools. Upfirst is highlighted.

Choose Upfirst if

Price per call is the deciding number.
You want to try it tonight and set it up yourself.
A message and a summary are enough, because you call every lead back.

Choose Right On Call if

After-hours emergencies are real revenue for you.
You run Jobber or a shared calendar and want the job on it before morning.
You would rather pay once for a build than tune prompts on weekends.

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 →

Right On Call vs Upfirst: questions

Is Upfirst cheaper than Right On Call?

Yes, per call. Upfirst starts around US$24.95 a month for 30 calls. Right On Call is $199 CAD a month for 200 minutes plus $699 CAD setup once. The setup buys a person writing your triage, service area, and booking, and testing it on your number before customers hear it. With a self-serve product you do that part yourself.

Does Upfirst work with Jobber?

In what we could find, through a Zapier pairing rather than a native integration. Ask Upfirst what that pairing creates in Jobber. Right On Call connects Jobber from its dashboard and creates the client and the job on the call. It doesn’t assign a technician, and it isn’t a Jobber App Marketplace listing.

Get a Free Missed-Call Audit Talk to Maya, our demo line

Sources

Upfirst details come from its published pages and independent reviews as of October 28, 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 Upfirst.

Right On Call vs Upfirst.