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Comparison · Human virtual receptionists

Right On Call vs Ruby.

Ruby is a well-known virtual receptionist service with real people answering your line. People like Ruby for good reason: a warm human voice. It is priced by the minute at human rates. Right On Call is AI, priced for volume, and built to finish the job on the call.

Their details checked September 26, 2026. Sources are listed below.

Where Ruby wins

  • A real person on every call.
  • Better with emotional or unusual callers.
  • Live transfer to your team.

Where Right On Call wins

  • Roughly 200 minutes for $150 CAD, against about 50 minutes for US$250.
  • Trade triage, postal-code checks, and booking against your live calendar.
  • Writes the job into Jobber, not a message into your inbox.
  • Same quality at 3 AM on call 200 of the day.

The 9 PM call that rings out

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

Ruby

  1. 1A human receptionist answers with your greeting
  2. 2Takes a message or answers basic questions
  3. 3Transfers to you, or schedules where that is set up
  4. 4Minutes billed at human rates

Right On Call

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

Side by side

Ruby compared with Right On Call
TopicRubyRight On Call
PriceAbout US$250 a month for 50 minutes$150 CAD a month for 200 answered minutes, then $0.75 a minute
Who answersLive human receptionistsAI, with escalation to your own team by text
What the call ends withA message, a transfer, or basic schedulingA triaged, booked job or a dispatch text
Emergency triageGeneral screeningEmergency vs routine rules written for your trade. Gas, smoke, or spark reports get a bounded safety script and a human callback
Field-service toolCheck current integrationsJobber connect in the plan: the call creates the client and the job. Housecall Pro and ServiceTitan on request
LanguagesBilingual receptionists availableEnglish and French on every call. Others on request
CurrencyUS dollarsCanadian dollars

A receptionist, or a catch for missed calls?

Ruby replaces a front desk with a remote one. That is the right shape if nobody in your business can answer the phone during the day, and a person has to.

Right On Call is a different shape. It is not built to be your receptionist. You keep answering when you can, and it picks up the calls that would have rung out: on a job, at lunch, after hours, on the weekend. Those calls are short and they are usually someone who needs a technician, so the useful ending is a booked job, not a message.

The price gap follows from that. Human minutes are expensive because a person is on every one. When the job is catching the calls you miss and booking them, you do not need to pay human rates for it.

What a minute costs

  • Ruby, 50-minute planabout US$5.00
  • Ruby, 500-minute planabout US$3.45
  • Right On Call Essential$0.75
  • Right On Call Managed$0.70
Ruby figures are US dollars, from its published minute bundles. Ours are Canadian dollars, and a minute costs the same inside the plan and past it.

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.

Right On Call is on the pricing page, in Canadian dollars, with what each tier does not include.

Where both sit in the market

Message → job in your tools

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. Ruby is highlighted.

Choose Ruby if

  • Every caller needs a human voice.
  • Your volume is low and message-taking is enough.

Choose Right On Call if

  • Your calls are service requests that should end on the schedule.
  • You need 24/7 coverage at a price that scales with a busy season.

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 is not 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 Ruby: questions

Is an AI receptionist cheaper than Ruby?

Usually by a wide margin. Ruby is priced at human per-minute rates, around US$250 for 50 minutes. Right On Call is $150 CAD for 200 minutes, then $0.75 a minute. The trade-off is a human voice. Our answering-service comparison covers when that matters.

Get a Free Missed-Call AuditTalk to Maya, our demo line(226) 559-5680

Sources

Ruby details come from its 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 is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ruby.

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