Ruby is a live receptionist service billed by the minute: $250 for 50 minutes up to $1,725 for 500, roughly $3.45 to $5.00 per minute. A cleaning company taking 60 to 200 calls a month uses 240 to 800 minutes, which means Ruby's top tier or beyond. AI receptionists cover that volume for $99 to $349, and cleaning-specific ones also quote and book.
What does Ruby actually cost a cleaning company?
Ruby's published plans, as of September 2026:
| Ruby plan | Minutes included | Monthly price | Effective per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 50 | $250 | $5.00 |
| Professional | 100 | $395 | $3.95 |
| Business | 200 | $720 | $3.60 |
| Enterprise | 500 | $1,725 | $3.45 |
Ruby does not publish an overage rate on its pricing page; it says "larger offerings" are available on request. It does state there are no activation, onboarding, or setup fees.
The per-minute model is the whole issue for cleaning. A message-taking call ("please tell them Mrs. Alvarez called") is a minute. A real cleaning inquiry is not. A caller wants to know what a 3-bed, 2-bath biweekly clean costs, whether you do inside the oven, whether Thursday at 9 works, and whether you bring supplies. Handled properly, that is a 4 to 6 minute call. Handled by a receptionist who cannot quote and has to take a message for a callback, it is a 2 to 3 minute call that does not book anything.
How many minutes does a cleaning company use?
Here is the math for three typical volumes, assuming an average of 4 minutes per call. That is a conservative figure for inquiry calls; it blends short calls from existing customers with longer new-customer quote calls.
| Calls per month | Minutes per month | Smallest Ruby plan that covers it | Ruby monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | 240 | Enterprise (500 min) | $1,725 |
| 100 | 400 | Enterprise (500 min) | $1,725 |
| 200 | 800 | Above published plans | Custom (at $3.45/min, roughly $2,760) |
Two notes on that table. First, a 60-call month at 240 minutes technically overshoots the 200-minute Business plan ($720), so you would either pay Enterprise or pay Business plus overage at an unpublished rate. Second, the 200-call row is an estimate at the Enterprise per-minute rate, because Ruby does not publish a plan that size. Either way, a cleaning company doing real volume is spending $700 to $1,700 or more a month for someone to take messages and schedule callbacks.
For context, a $180 first clean at 40 percent gross margin nets about $72. At $1,725 a month, Ruby needs to bring in roughly 24 net-new first cleans a month just to pay for itself, before you count the owner's time doing the callbacks.
What are the alternatives to Ruby for a cleaning company?
There are three kinds: cheaper live services, AI receptionists on published flat plans, and a cleaning-specific AI receptionist. All prices are USD, monthly, published as of September 2026.
| Alternative | Type | Model | Price for ~100 calls (~400 min) | Quotes a clean? | Books? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai | Live | Per call | Basic, $810 for 90 calls, plus $8.50–$11.50 per extra call; booking $1.50/call add-on | Script-based | Yes (add-on) |
| Dialzara | AI | Per minute | Plus, $199 for 500 min; overage $0.40/min; Spanish included | Only what you load into its knowledge base | Yes, via integrations |
| Goodcall | AI | Per agent, unlimited minutes | Growth, $129 (250 unique customers) | FAQ-style | Yes, via logic flows |
| Rosie | AI | Per minute | Scale, $149 for 1,000 min | FAQ-style | Direct calendar booking on Scale and up |
| My AI Front Desk | AI | Flat plus overage | $99 for 200 min, then $0.25/min (≈ $149 at 400 min) | FAQ-style | Yes, via integrations |
| Jobber AI Receptionist | AI | Bundled | $29 add-on, or free on Jobber Plus ($280/mo annual) | No rate-card quoting | Yes, into Jobber only |
| MeetZela | AI, warm transfer to human | Custom by call volume | Set after a free demo | Yes, from your own price list | Yes, into your live schedule, with confirmation and reminder texts |
Smith.ai
If you want to stay with a live service, Smith.ai is the direct comparison: humans, 24/7, but billed per call rather than per minute. That helps when your calls run long. It hurts when a lot of them are quick. At 100 calls a month you are on the $810 Basic plan plus per-call add-ons for booking and texting. We compared it in depth in Smith.ai alternatives for cleaning businesses.
Dialzara
The lowest entry price of any credible option, with Spanish included and a cleaning-companies page. Its FAQ addresses quotes, recurring-schedule changes, and cancellations. The $199 Plus plan covers 500 minutes, which is enough for most 100-call months. Quoting is limited to whatever pricing you enter in its knowledge base; there is no bedrooms-and-bathrooms calculator.
Goodcall
Goodcall removes the minute meter entirely. You pay per AI agent ($79, $129, or $249) with unlimited minutes and a cap on unique callers (100, 250, or 500 a month, then $0.50 each). For a cleaning company with long quote calls, that is the most predictable bill in the category. The trade-off is a generic voice and generic scripting.
Rosie
Rosie's $149 Scale plan includes 1,000 minutes, direct calendar booking, warm transfers, and Spanish on every call. It is built for home services broadly, not cleaning specifically, and the $49 plan does not book directly (it texts appointment links).
Jobber AI Receptionist
If you already pay for Jobber Plus, this is free and you should try it first. It answers calls and texts, creates requests, books into Jobber, and texts back hang-ups. It does not quote from a rate card, and it does nothing if your schedule lives somewhere else.
MeetZela
Zela is built only for cleaning businesses. On a call it asks what your own team would ask, quotes from your price list (per bedroom and bathroom, per room, per turnover, or any structure you already use), books into your live schedule, and sends confirmation and reminder texts. It answers in under a second, 24/7, takes structured messages, and warm-transfers calls that need a person. Pricing is custom by call volume and set after a free demo, so we cannot put a number in the table above. What we can say is that it is not metered per minute, so a 6-minute quote call costs the same as a 1-minute one.
When is Ruby still the right choice?
Ruby is a good product for the business it was built for. It is the right call when:
- Your calls are mostly short and few (under 50 minutes a month), where the $250 Starter plan is cheaper than the human alternative and comparable to AI.
- You are a commercial or janitorial company whose inbound calls are from facility managers and property groups, and you want a person to handle them. AI can capture and transfer these, but some accounts expect a human on the first call. See our commercial cleaning page for how Zela handles that workflow with warm transfer.
- Your callers are mostly existing customers with complaints or sensitive issues, where a live receptionist's judgment matters more than a quote.
For a residential cleaning company where most calls are new customers asking for a price and a time, none of those apply. The bottleneck is quoting and booking on the first call, and that is what a cleaning-specific AI receptionist is for. See how it works for house cleaning, or check coverage in your state on our locations page.
FAQ
How much does Ruby cost per minute?
Between $3.45 and $5.00 per minute on published plans: $250 for 50 minutes (Starter), $395 for 100 (Professional), $720 for 200 (Business), and $1,725 for 500 (Enterprise). Overage rates are not published.
Can a live receptionist quote a cleaning job?
Only from a script you provide, such as "deep cleans start at $250." Live services are built for intake, screening, and message-taking, not for applying a rate card. If your pricing depends on bedrooms, bathrooms, frequency, and add-ons, a receptionist will usually take a message and promise a callback.
What is the cheapest Ruby alternative that books cleaning appointments?
On published pricing, Dialzara ($29 for 60 minutes) and Rosie ($49, appointment links only; direct booking from $149) are the lowest entry points. Jobber's AI Receptionist is $29 as an add-on or free on Plus. Cheapest is not the same as best fit; check whether the tool quotes from your price list before choosing on price. Our cost guide goes through the trade-offs.
Sources
- Ruby pricing: https://www.ruby.com/pricing/
- Smith.ai pricing: https://smith.ai/pricing
- Dialzara pricing: https://dialzara.com/pricing
- Dialzara cleaning companies page: https://dialzara.com/industries/cleaning-companies
- Goodcall pricing: https://www.goodcall.com/pricing
- Rosie pricing: https://heyrosie.com/pricing
- My AI Front Desk pricing: https://www.myaifrontdesk.com/pricing
- Jobber AI Receptionist: https://www.getjobber.com/features/ai-receptionist/
- Jobber pricing: https://www.getjobber.com/pricing/