Best AI receptionist for Australian tradies (2026)

1. The comparison

Read from each vendor’s own pages on 7 October 2026, reproduced as advertised. Prices are monthly. “Not stated” means the page does not say. The second column is what the call ends as: writes the job (a job in your system, against a client, with an address), takes a message (somebody still types the job), or a managed build (a scope of work and a setup fee). The last row is ours.

On a small screen, the table scrolls sideways.

How this table was read

We opened every vendor that appears for “best AI receptionist for tradies Australia” and “AI receptionist ServiceM8”, plus the ones named in the competing comparisons, and copied down what each vendor’s own pages say. Nobody was contacted. Nothing was estimated. If a page does not state GST or the currency, the table says so. Why the fuss about the source: on 26 September, one vendor’s comparison listed Relay at $99 a month when Relay’s own page says $199, and another described AiDial’s call unit as five minutes when AiDial’s page says ten. Both were plausible. Both were wrong.

• Johnni could not be re-checked this round, so its row shows the 26 September figures and it is left out of the scorecard. Check its pricing page for today’s.
• Never Miss a Call was in this table on 26 September. Since then it has left the trades market: the site now sells “Ruby” to salons, cafes and similar businesses and no longer mentions tradies or a job system, so it is no longer listed.
• Managed voice agents sold across many industries (Aussie AI Agency, Valory, Yes AI, Waboom) are priced in what an AI receptionist actually costs, which also shows how to turn minutes, calls and call units into your own month. They are not comparable across the cap column as printed.

2. The eight checks, vendor by vendor

Of the nine other vendors we could read, none says on its own pages that it checks the address against a map, captures consent before it texts your customer, or stops a duplicate job.

Those three are what put the van at the right house once. “Creates the job in ServiceM8” can mean a job with a verified address against the right client, or a job with whatever the caller said in the address field and a second copy from the call-back. Where a vendor does something nearby, such as matching a returning caller to the existing client or texting a confirmation without mentioning consent, it is marked Partial.

Not stated means the vendor’s own pages are silent, not that it cannot. Ask. Our column is our own claim about our own product, scored against what /trades says it does. It is Yes on all eight. That is our claim, so hear it and check.

On a small screen, the scorecard scrolls sideways.

Saying it is an AI, and recording

If your AI receptionist does not say it is an AI, you may be in breach of the Australian Consumer Law on misleading conduct, which the ACCC enforces. The ACCC can make a business hand over its call records and recordings, and since 10 November 2022 the maximum penalty for a company is the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit gained, or 30% of turnover during the breach. It is your business name on the call, so the risk is yours, not the vendor’s.

• noema says in its terms that its AI “informs callers at the commencement of each call that they are speaking with an AI assistant.” Its pages do not mention a recording notice, though the service records.
• TradieDee and Relay advertise the opposite. TradieDee’s FAQ: “Most customers have no idea they’re talking to AI.” Relay’s homepage: “Your customers won’t know the difference.”
• Frontly lets you choose how the agent introduces itself, “including as an AI assistant”, and its terms say not to configure it to “conceal their automated nature.” Recording is a $20 add-on whose legal obligations sit with you.
• Chime Labs, Sophiie, AiDial and Hey Jodie put the duty to tell callers on you, in their terms or FAQ. Chime Labs’ blog says “Best practice is to be upfront it’s an AI when asked”.
• ServiceM8’s Phone Agent pages say nothing either way.

Our view is on /trades: an unannounced AI in your business name is a misleading-conduct shape, and recording needs every party’s consent in Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT. One sentence at the top of the call deals with both. The long version is the compliance paper.

3. Where each one is genuinely the right answer

• Relay: a ServiceM8 shop that wants a job card and a schedule check on the call, at one flat price with no setup and no minutes to count.
• Chime Labs: the widest published list of job systems on Pro, including Jobber, Fergus and AroFlo, with uncapped minutes. Essential, if a calendar booking is enough. A free plan to try it first.
• TradieDee: the lowest headline price with a job-creation claim and urgent calls put through to your mobile, if you confirm the currency, GST and overage before you rely on it.
• Sophiie: a whole front office, through to quoting and invoicing in ServiceM8 or Simpro, with a free plan to start, if you can live without a published price.
• AiDial: a scoped, configured deployment with urgent calls routed to on-call staff, and a demo number you can ring today.
• Frontly: a plain ex-GST minute plan, triage with an on-call route, and a dashboard is where you want bookings to land.
• Hey Jodie: a predictable flat bill with unlimited minutes, when a summary by SMS is all you need.
• noema: the cheapest intake that says it is an AI at the start of every call, with spam not counted, for a business that mostly needs triage and a text.
• ServiceM8 Phone Agent: you already pay for ServiceM8 and an Inbox message or booking request is enough.
• A human answering service: most of your calls are complaints or existing jobs. No AI in the table beats a person at that, and the comparison says when to buy one instead.

4. Where vendors contradict themselves

Not accusations. In each case two pages on the same site say different things. Ask which one is true before you sign.

• TradieDee: claims “no per-minute charges” on plans capped at 50, 200 and 400 minutes, and does not say what happens past the cap.
• Chime Labs: its reception page shows a Tradify logo under “Works with”; the pricing page’s list of systems it books into does not include Tradify. And job-system writes are listed on Pro only, so the $99 Essential plan books a calendar, not a job.
• AiDial: the trade page names ServiceM8, Tradify, AroFlo, Fergus and Simpro. Its documented integrations cover ServiceM8, and the pricing page lists integrations as a custom quote.
• Every third-party comparison we read had at least one price the vendor’s own page does not support. Including, in all likelihood, a future version of this one, which is what section 6 is for.

5. Where we sit

Front Desk is the last row: $119 a month, flat, with no call caps and a 30-day free trial. It answers all day, or only out of hours if that is how you set it up. Setting up the number costs $29, which comes off the first bill. It says it is an AI first, writes one job into ServiceM8 or Simpro, and wakes the on-call phone only for an emergency. That is our claim about our own product, so hear it and check.

We are not the answer if you take a handful of calls a month (noema or the ServiceM8 Phone Agent costs less), most calls are complaints or existing jobs (a person wins), or you want a price quoted on the call, which we refuse to do.

On another system? ServiceM8 and Simpro work out of the box. Because we are a consultancy as well as a product, we connect Front Desk to whatever else you run: Jobber, Fergus, AroFlo, Tradify, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or anything built on them. If it has an API we use it, and if it does not we find another way in.

6. Re-check before you sign

Prices in this market change without notice: between 26 September and 7 October 2026, one vendor raised its entry plan and tripled its per-minute overage, another now lists job-system writes on its dearer plan only, and a third left the trades market. Treat the table as a map of what to ask, not a quote. Four questions, in order:

1. Is that price inclusive of GST, and in Australian dollars?
2. Which of the eight checks does your agent actually do, and can I hear it on a demo before I pay?
3. Is the ServiceM8 or Simpro write included at this price, or an add-on, and does it create a job card or a message?
4. Does the agent say it is an AI, and where is the recording consent handled?

If you find a figure here that a vendor’s own page no longer supports, tell us and we will change it the same week. Everything on this page was read on 7 October 2026.