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If the job is really 'answer the phone, take messages, book appointments', a full-time hire is the most expensive possible way to do it: a salary, benefits, vacation coverage, sick days — for one person, forty hours a week, one call at a time.
But sometimes the hire is right anyway. Here's the honest breakdown of every option, including when we'd tell you to post the job listing instead of signing up for Callara.
From a full salary to a flat monthly subscription — what each really buys you.
| Option | Best for | Typical cost | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time receptionist | A true front desk: walk-ins, payments, paperwork, and phones | Typically $35,000–$50,000+/yr plus benefits | One person, business hours only; vacations, sick days and turnover leave gaps |
| Part-time / shared receptionist | Predictable busy windows a few hours a day | Hourly wage for booked hours | Everything outside those hours rings to voicemail; scheduling is a constant puzzle |
| Virtual receptionist service | A remote human voice without an employment contract | Minute bundles, commonly $100–$400+/mo | The meter runs on every call; after-hours coverage often costs extra or ends at 5 p.m. |
| Answering service | Overflow message-taking at volume | Per-call or per-minute | Scripted call-center feel; messages get relayed, appointments usually don't get booked |
| AI receptionist (like Callara) | The phone side of the job, done 24/7 for less than a day of salary per month | Flat — Callara from $59/mo, 7-day free trial | It can't greet a walk-in, take a payment at the counter, or file anything physical |
The cleanest way to think about it: a receptionist role is usually two jobs stapled together. One is physical — greeting people, handling payments, managing the space. The other is the phone. The physical job needs a human. The phone job is repetitive, around-the-clock, and interrupt-driven — exactly what software does better and roughly 50 times cheaper than a salary.
Plenty of Callara customers keep (or later add) a human for the desk and let the AI own the phone: every call answered in English or Quebec French, appointments booked into the calendar, messages and transcripts waiting in the dashboard.
Sometimes the answer really is: hire the person.
A full-time hire typically runs $35,000–$50,000+ per year plus benefits. Virtual receptionist bundles commonly land at $1,200–$5,000 per year. Callara starts at $708 per year ($59/month) with 24/7 coverage — about what two weeks of a salary costs.
The phone part, largely yes: answering, FAQs from your business info, booking, messages, texting callers back. The in-person part, no — and we won't pretend otherwise. If your desk needs a human presence, the right comparison is 'human for the desk + AI for the phone' versus 'human doing both'.
That's the quiet cost of a single hire: coverage gaps. With conditional forwarding, Callara picks up whenever your line is busy or unanswered — so vacation weeks, lunch hours and sick days stop being missed-call weeks.
No. Callara is month to month with a 7-day free trial — the opposite of an employment commitment. If it doesn't earn its keep, cancel from the dashboard.
Seven days on your real number beats any comparison page. No contract, month to month, cancel anytime.
Start Your 7-Day Free TrialCard required, no charge until the trial ends.
