Smith AI alternative: Klugon vs Smith.ai compared honestly

You are probably here because the monthly Smith.ai invoice has crept up, or because you are about to sign up and want to know what else is out there. If you are searching for a Smith AI alternative, the first thing to know is that Smith.ai is not one product. It sells three ways of answering your phone: an AI receptionist, a hybrid where AI answers and live agents step in, and a human-first service with trained receptionists on every call. All three are billed by the call.

Klugon is an AI receptionist. It answers your phone with an AI voice agent, books appointments into a built-in calendar, captures leads and puts every conversation in one inbox. It is billed as a flat monthly plan with a set number of voice minutes. There are no human receptionists behind it, and it cannot put a caller through to a member of your staff.

That last point matters more than any price. This page sets out both products on the same criteria, with Smith.ai's prices taken from its own pricing pages as of October 2026, so you can work out which one actually fits the calls you get.

The short verdict

Choose Smith.ai if callers must be able to reach a real person, either straight away or when the AI gets stuck. Smith.ai's live agents can warm-transfer calls to your team, its AI records and transcribes every call, and it offers add-ons such as payment taking, conflict checks for law firms and text follow-ups. If you run a law firm or another business where one missed new client is worth hundreds, the per-call cost is easy to justify.

Choose Klugon if most of your calls are routine (opening hours, prices, "can I book for Thursday?") and you want a predictable monthly bill that doesn't rise with every ring. Klugon also has separate products for WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger and for a website chat widget, all feeding the same inbox, which Smith.ai's pricing pages don't offer as AI channels.

Choose neither as a straight swap if what you really need is a person to answer every call. In that case compare Smith.ai's human-first plans with other live answering services, such as Ruby.

Klugon vs Smith.ai at a glance

Smith.ai figures are from Smith.ai's pricing page and AI receptionist pricing page, as of October 2026. Klugon figures are from our own pricing page.

The rest of this page goes through each row in more detail.

What Smith.ai is

Smith.ai is a US answering service that started with human virtual receptionists and has added AI. Its pricing page now asks you to "choose how your calls get handled" across three tabs.

AI-first

The AI receptionist answers every call around the clock. Smith.ai says it speaks English and Spanish, records and transcribes every call, qualifies leads, routes calls, and schedules through tools such as Calendly. It integrates natively with Salesforce, HubSpot and Clio, and with thousands of other apps through Zapier and Make. Smith.ai says calls can be transferred to a live, North America-based receptionist at any time.

Hybrid

On the hybrid plans, AI answers first and live agents take the calls that need more care: new clients, all clients, or daytime calls, depending on the preset you choose. A call that starts with AI and goes to a live agent counts as one call.

Human-first

The human-first service is professional call answering by real people, 24/7, with agents based in North America. This is the plan most law firms, agencies and consultancies picture when they think of Smith.ai.

What Klugon is

Klugon is an AI receptionist for small business. On the phone, it answers with an AI voice, talks to callers in one of nine languages, answers questions from your own information, books appointments and takes the details of anyone who needs a person. Every call appears in your inbox.

Klugon sells three separate products, and you subscribe to the ones you need:

• AI voice agent: phone calls and voice on your website.
• AI social agent: WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.
• AI chatbot: a chat widget for your website.

All three share the same assistant settings, the same knowledge and the same inbox. The company behind Klugon is based in Dresden, Germany.

Smith AI alternative pricing: per call vs flat monthly plans

This is usually the reason people look for a Smith AI alternative, so it's worth being precise.

How Smith.ai charges

Smith.ai charges by the call, not by the minute. As of October 2026:

AI-first (AI receptionist pricing):

• Free: $0/month for 25 real calls, with $3.00 per extra call.
• Pro: $150/month at the 75-call level ($2.00 per call, $2.50 per extra call). Higher levels of 150 and 300 calls a month are priced at $1.80 and $1.67 per call, with overage at $2.30 and $2.17.
• Enterprise: from $500/month at 300 calls, with larger volumes on request.

Human-first (pricing):

• Starter: $300/month for 30 calls, then $11.50 per call.
• Basic: $810/month for 90 calls, then $10.50 per call.
• Pro: $2,100/month for 300 calls, then $8.50 per call.
• Enterprise: custom.

On human plans, many extras are priced per call: appointment booking $1.50, SMS or Slack notifications $0.50, text and email follow-up $0.50, call recording and transcription $0.25, a dedicated Spanish line $1.00, payment taking $1.00. A 12-month subscription gets 10% off.

Hybrid pricing starts at about $2.50 per call, with Smith.ai's own calculator showing totals by preset and volume.

Smith.ai says spam and wrong numbers don't count towards your quota when your forwarded line passes caller ID, and AI plans let you remove up to 10% of calls you mark as spam.

How Klugon charges

Klugon's AI voice agent is a flat monthly fee with included minutes:

Each phone number is $9/month. Extra minutes are $15 per started 100 minutes. Short calls and long calls cost the same per minute, and a spam call that lasts ten seconds uses ten seconds.

The messaging products are priced separately: the social agent starts at $79/month for 300 conversations, and the website chatbot at $49/month for 100 conversations. See Klugon pricing for every tier.

A worked cost example

Assumptions, so you can swap in your own numbers: a small firm gets 120 calls a month, averaging 3 minutes each (360 minutes). About 40 of those calls want an appointment.

• Smith.ai human-first: Basic at $810 covers 90 calls. The other 30 calls at $10.50 add $315. Booking on 40 calls at $1.50 adds $60. That's about $1,185 a month, before any other add-ons.
• Smith.ai AI-first: the Pro 75-call level at $150 plus 45 extra calls at $2.50 comes to $262.50. Moving to the 150-call level (150 × $1.80, about $270) is roughly the same. Call it about $265 a month.
• Klugon voice Starter: $99 plus one $9 number is $108 a month. The 360 minutes sit well inside the 1,000 included.

Now double the calls to 240 a month. Smith.ai's AI Pro moves to the 300-call level, about $500. Klugon stays at $108, because 720 minutes still fit inside Starter.

The comparison isn't fair to Smith.ai on one point: its human-first plan gives you a trained person on every call, which Klugon can't. If you need that, the honest comparison is with other live services. If you were going to choose Smith.ai's AI-first plan anyway, the gap is about how you are billed, per call or per minute.

Who answers the phone

Who answers on Smith.ai

You pick. AI-first means the AI answers and live agents are a fallback. Hybrid means AI handles routine calls and live agents handle the ones you choose. Human-first means a trained receptionist on every call, around the clock.

Who answers on Klugon

The AI answers every call while your plan is live and your number routes to it, at any hour. You choose a voice (there are ten), write the greeting and set the language. It answers in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese or Arabic. Callers can interrupt it mid-sentence, as they would a person.

Klugon has no human receptionists. Nobody at Klugon will pick up when the AI can't help. That is the main trade-off, and the next section covers what happens instead.

Handover to your staff

This is where the two products differ most, so here it is plainly.

Smith.ai transfers calls

Smith.ai lists warm transfers on its AI receptionist: callers are routed to your team with context. Human-first plans include one to ten transfer destinations depending on plan, with extra destinations at $15/month each. The AI receptionist can also hand a caller to a live Smith.ai agent.

Klugon flags the conversation; it does not transfer

Klugon cannot put a caller through to a person. There is no transfer number setting. When a caller needs your team, for instance a complaint or a question the AI has no answer for, the AI takes their name, number and reason, tells them someone will get back to them, and the call appears in your inbox. On messaging channels, the conversation is marked "Needs a person" so your team can reply from the inbox.

On the Business plan and above, you can also have new leads, bookings and handovers posted to Slack or sent through Zapier. Klugon doesn't send email or text alerts to you.

Here is what that sounds like. A sample call; the business is made up.

On Smith.ai, the same call could have been put straight through to Daniel, or answered by a live agent who knows how to handle quote queries.

So the honest question is: can your callers wait for a callback? For a hairdresser, a plumber's routine quote or a dental practice's opening hours, usually yes. For a person in legal trouble ringing a law firm at 4 pm, perhaps not. Our guide to handing calls to staff goes through how to decide which calls should go to a person.

Appointment booking

Booking on Smith.ai

AI plans include AI scheduling, with Calendly named as an example, and connections to your calendar and practice management tools. On human plans, booking is a $1.50 per call add-on, and custom calendaring is another $1.00 per call.

Booking on Klugon

Booking is included on every voice plan. The AI books into Klugon's own calendar, which uses:

• your opening hours and timezone;
• each service's length;
• which staff member does which service, with clashes checked per person;
• a slot interval, a buffer after each booking, minimum notice and how far ahead people can book;
• closed dates.

The caller gets a booking reference during the call. The AI can cancel bookings by phone, and in chat it can also reschedule them. You can edit, cancel or move anything from the dashboard.

On Business and above, the assistant can also check Google, Outlook or Apple calendars and send Calendly links, after setup. Klugon doesn't send booking confirmations or reminders by email or text afterwards; the confirmation is what the AI says in the conversation. More detail is on the AI appointment booking page.

Channels: phone, chat and messaging

Smith.ai channels

Smith.ai's pricing pages are about phone calls. Its money-back terms mention chat services and chat quota, so live chat exists, but the main pricing page doesn't publish chat prices as of October 2026. WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger aren't listed as channels on its pricing pages. Smith.ai's human plans can send you SMS or Slack notifications and follow up with callers by text or email, at $0.50 per call each.

Klugon channels

Klugon's voice product covers phone calls and voice on your website. The other channels are separate products using the same assistant:

• WhatsApp: connected through your own Meta WhatsApp Business account. See the WhatsApp AI chatbot page.
• Instagram and Messenger: connected through your Facebook Page. Instagram needs Meta's app review before the public can message the assistant.
• Website chat: a text chat widget you add with one script tag. Voice is on your Klugon public page, which you can link to or embed with an iframe. See AI chatbot for websites.

Everything lands in one inbox, with search and filters by channel and status. You can reply yourself on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram within Meta's 24-hour window. Phone and website chat conversations can't be replied to from the inbox.

Klugon doesn't send SMS of any kind.

What the AI knows and how it learns your business

How Smith.ai's AI is trained

Smith.ai's AI plans include a "Quality Studio" for testing before going live, plus test and simulated calls each month. Pro includes dedicated onboarding; Enterprise includes custom prompting by Smith.ai's own team.

Teaching Klugon your business

You teach Klugon yourself. You can:

• upload PDFs, Word documents, text and CSV files (up to 20 MB each);
• paste FAQs and policies;
• import single web pages, or scan your homepage plus up to 7 key pages;
• add a library of links the assistant can share, such as a map or a price list.

The assistant answers from that material and hands over when it doesn't know. All of your assistants share the same knowledge. Our post on what to teach your AI receptionist has a checklist.

Records, recordings and reports

Smith.ai's AI receptionist records and transcribes every call, with summaries and call history. On human plans, recording and transcription are a $0.25 per call add-on.

Klugon doesn't record calls. Each call is saved to your inbox with its duration and a message log, but the log may only hold the AI's side of the conversation, so don't plan on full two-sided transcripts. The analytics page shows conversations, calls and minutes, bookings, leads, busiest hours and how many conversations were handled without a handover, with CSV export.

If you need recordings for compliance or training, that is a point for Smith.ai.

Setup and keeping your number

Setting up Smith.ai

Smith.ai quotes about 15 minutes to set up its AI receptionist and includes a dedicated phone number on every plan. On human plans you can also port your existing number at no charge.

Setting up Klugon

Klugon is self-serve: sign up, add your business details, services and knowledge, pick a voice and greeting, and test it in your browser. A phone number can only be added after the 7-day trial ends. You then have three options:

• buy a new number at $9/month;
• forward your existing number to a dedicated Klugon number, using your carrier's call forwarding (same $9/month);
• bring your own SIP trunk, on the Business plan or above.

Klugon doesn't port numbers. Keeping your number means forwarding it, which our guide to keeping your number with call forwarding explains.

Contract and trial

Smith.ai: human plans are month-to-month, with cancellation billed to the end of the current cycle, and a 30-day money-back guarantee for new clients covering the plan and add-ons up to $1,000 (overage excluded). The AI receptionist has a free plan with 25 calls a month and is also month-to-month; Smith.ai asks for 30 days' notice to cancel AI and hybrid plans.

Klugon: a 7-day free trial on each product. A card is required, and you're charged when the trial ends unless you cancel first. You can then pay monthly, or yearly at 20% less. During the trial you test the assistant in the browser, because phone numbers activate when the trial ends.

Privacy and compliance

Smith.ai's pricing and AI receptionist pages don't publish a HIPAA position as of October 2026; if you handle health information, ask Smith.ai directly. They describe encrypted storage for recordings and transcripts.

Klugon is operated by a German company under the GDPR, with transfers to providers covered by standard contractual clauses, as listed in the privacy policy. Klugon is not HIPAA compliant and doesn't sign BAAs, and it has no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification. US practices handling protected health information should read the HHS guidance on HIPAA and choose accordingly.

Where Smith.ai is the better choice

Be honest with yourself about these. If two or more apply, Smith.ai is probably the right call.

• Callers must reach a person. Smith.ai can warm-transfer calls and has live agents behind the AI. Klugon can only take details for a callback.
• You want a human on every call. Human-first plans put a trained receptionist on each call, 24/7.
• You need call recordings. Smith.ai records and transcribes every AI call. Klugon doesn't record.
• You want text follow-ups or text alerts. Smith.ai offers SMS notifications and text and email follow-up. Klugon has no SMS and no email alerts to you.
• You run a law firm. Conflict checks, Clio integration and legal intake are things Smith.ai has built for; see also our page on AI receptionists for law firms for what an AI should and shouldn't do there.
• You take payments on calls. Smith.ai offers payment taking as an add-on. Klugon can't take payments on a call.
• You want to port your number. Smith.ai's human plans include free porting. Klugon uses forwarding instead.
• Your calls are long. Per-call pricing favours long intake calls.

Where Klugon is the better choice

• You get a lot of short, routine calls. Flat minutes make 300 two-minute calls cost the same as 30, up to your allowance.
• You want a predictable bill. $99 or $299 a month, plus numbers, with extra minutes only if you go over.
• Booking is the main job. Built-in booking with service lengths, staff and buffers is included rather than an add-on.
• Customers also message you. WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and website chat can run on the same assistant, into one inbox.
• Your callers speak several languages. Klugon answers in nine languages, including German, French, Italian, Dutch and Japanese. Smith.ai's AI lists English and Spanish.
• You serve customers in Europe. Klugon is operated from Germany under the GDPR, and its European languages are built in rather than an add-on.
• You want to set it up yourself. You write the greeting, rules and knowledge, and change them whenever you like.

Still unsure? Our AI receptionist vs human receptionist comparison covers the broader trade-off, and the best AI receptionist for small business roundup puts both side by side with other tools.

How to switch from Smith.ai to Klugon

You can run both in parallel, so there's no reason to cut over in one go.

1. List your call types. Pull a month of Smith.ai call history and sort it: questions, bookings, new enquiries, existing clients, things that needed a person. That shows how much of your volume an AI can handle on its own.
2. Start the Klugon trial. Sign up, add your opening hours, services with lengths, staff and closed dates.
3. Copy your call instructions across. Whatever you gave Smith.ai (your FAQ, intake questions, pricing notes) goes into Klugon's knowledge base and assistant rules.
4. Decide what happens to calls that need a person. Since Klugon can't transfer, decide who calls back and how fast. On Business and above, connect Slack or Zapier so new leads and handovers reach you.
5. Test in the browser. Run through your ten most common calls. Ask awkward questions. Fix gaps in the knowledge.
6. Add a number after the trial. Buy one, or set up call forwarding from your existing number to the Klugon number.
7. Overlap for a week or two. Forward only after-hours calls to Klugon first, if your carrier allows conditional forwarding, and keep Smith.ai for daytime.
8. Cancel Smith.ai. Check the notice period first: Smith.ai asks for 30 days' notice on AI and hybrid plans and bills human plans to the end of the cycle.

Frequently asked questions

Is Klugon a good Smith AI alternative?

It is if your calls are mostly routine and you're happy for anything complicated to become a callback. It isn't if callers need to be put through to a person, because Klugon can't transfer calls.

Is Klugon cheaper than Smith.ai?

At most volumes, yes. Klugon's voice Starter is $99/month with 1,000 minutes. Smith.ai's AI Pro is $150/month for 75 calls and human-first starts at $300/month for 30 calls, as of October 2026. With very few, very long calls, Smith.ai's per-call pricing can come out lower.

Can Klugon transfer calls to my team like Smith.ai?

No. Klugon takes the caller's details and flags the conversation for your team, which then calls back. Smith.ai offers warm transfers and live agents.

Does Klugon have human receptionists?

No. Klugon is AI only. If you need people answering, Smith.ai's human-first or hybrid plans, or a service like Ruby, are the closer fit.

Does Klugon record calls like Smith.ai?

No. Calls appear in your inbox with their duration and a message log, but there are no audio recordings and transcripts may only show the AI's side.

Can I keep my phone number when I leave Smith.ai?

Yes, by forwarding it to a Klugon number after the trial. If your number is currently ported to Smith.ai, ask Smith.ai to release it back to a carrier first. Klugon doesn't take number ports.

Is there a free trial?

Yes, 7 days per product. A card is required, and you can cancel before the trial ends without being charged. Phone numbers become available once the trial ends; until then you test in your browser.

Which languages does Klugon speak on calls?

English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and Arabic. You set one language per assistant.

If Smith.ai's live agents are what you're paying for, keep them. If you mostly pay for an AI to answer routine calls, compare the bills for a month of your real call volume. The AI phone receptionist page shows what Klugon's phone assistant does in more detail.