A full front desk for $129 a month.
A receptionist is the classic fix for a phone you can’t get to. It’s also $1,400–$4,000 a month (part- to full-time), set hours, and someone to hire, train, and manage. Skye is an AI front desk that answers every call and text, books the appointment, and chases the payment — 24/7, for $129 flat.
📞 Don’t take our word for it — call 855-677-9648 and ask Skye to book a time.
30 days free, no card · 60-day money-back — 90 days risk-free.
All-in U.S. cost as of July 2026. Full breakdown below.
A person is better at some things. We’ll say it first.
A great receptionist is a real asset, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise. The real question isn’t “human or AI” — it’s which parts of the front desk actually need a human, and which are repetitive volume you’re overpaying for.
Where a human front desk wins
Anything that needs a heartbeat. If your day is full of these, hire a great one.
- Warmth and empathy on a hard day
- Judgment in a gray-area or sensitive situation
- Reading the room for an in-person upsell
- The genuinely weird, one-off problem
- A familiar face greeting people at the counter
Where Skye wins
The high-volume, repetitive work — done reliably, cheaply, and the same way every time.
- Answers every call and text in seconds — 24/7, never on a lunch break
- Never forgets a reminder or a payment to chase
- Books, reschedules, and enforces your rules without being asked
- No hiring, training, scheduling, sick days, or turnover
- $129/mo flat — live the same day, nothing to manage
What a front desk actually costs.
The gap isn’t small. Here’s the real, all-in monthly cost of the usual options for a small service business — trainers, coaches, salons, studios, shops.
How we got these numbers. Wage figures are U.S. averages as of July 2026 — roughly $16–18/hour for a front-desk receptionist — before payroll taxes and benefits, which typically add another 15–30%. Your actual cost depends on your market, hours, and role. See something off? Tell us and we’ll fix it — accurate numbers matter more to us than a good-looking chart.
You might want both — and that’s fine.
If you can afford a great receptionist and your days are full of in-person, high-touch moments, hire one. But most small businesses can’t justify $3,000+ a month for a phone that rings a few times an hour. Skye covers that repetitive front-desk volume reliably and cheaply — so if you do have a person, they’re freed up for the moments that actually need one. Either way, your clients stop hitting voicemail.
Keep your own payments — no forced switch, no cut
Skye works on top of how you already get paid. Venmo, Zelle, and cash are tracked and never marked paid until you verify. There’s no new card processor to adopt and no 2.6%+ taken out of every transaction.
Try the $129 front desk risk-free for 90 days.
30 days free, no card — then a 60-day money-back guarantee. Works with the setup you already use — no migration.
Or hear it first — call 855-677-9648 and ask Skye to book a time.
Straight answers.
How much does it cost to hire a receptionist for a small business?
As of July 2026, a full-time front-desk receptionist in the U.S. averages about $16–18/hour — roughly $3,000/month in wages, or $3,500–$4,000 once you add payroll taxes and benefits. Part-time still runs several hundred to over a thousand dollars a month. Skye, an AI front desk, is $129/month flat.
Is an AI receptionist as good as a real person?
For some things, a person is better — warmth on a hard day, judgment in a gray-area situation, reading the room for an in-person upsell, and truly unusual one-off problems. Skye’s lane is the high-volume, repetitive front-desk work: answering every call and text, booking, sending reminders, and chasing payment — instantly, 24/7, the same way every time. Many businesses use both.
What does an AI front desk cost compared to a front-desk hire?
Skye is $129/month, flat — no per-booking fees or usage tiers. A human front desk runs roughly $1,400–$4,000/month all in depending on part- or full-time, works set hours, takes sick days, and needs hiring, training, and managing. Skye answers 24/7 with none of that.