Voicemail, human answering service, in-house secretary or AI voice assistant: what each solution does, what it costs and where its limits lie. A comparison by type of solution, without running anyone down.
| Answering machine / voicemail | Human answering service | In-house secretary | AI voice assistant (e.g. AlloBob) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who answers? | Your recorded greeting; the caller leaves a message | An external team that answers in your name, following your instructions | A member of your team | An AI that introduces itself, by default, as your company's assistant |
| When? | At any hour | During the hours set in the contract | During their working hours, except holidays and absences | At any hour, 7 days a week |
| Languages | Those of your greeting | Depends on the provider | Those the person speaks | French, Dutch and English at AlloBob, detected automatically |
| Appointments | No: you call back | Depends on the provider and on access to your calendar | Yes | Yes, in your calendar (Google, Microsoft, Calendly) at AlloBob |
| Urgent calls | You find out about them when you listen to your messages | According to the instructions in the contract | Yes, during working hours | Sorted during the call; immediate alert or transfer, depending on your settings |
| What you receive | A voice message to listen to | A message or a summary, depending on the provider | Whatever the person passes on to you | A summary by WhatsApp and e-mail, and a follow-up board |
| Cost | Depends on your operator subscription | From €114 to €872 excl. VAT/month in our survey of two public rate cards | A salary plus employer costs | From €89/month (€67 billed annually) to €349/month excl. VAT depending on minutes, Enterprise on request |
| Limits | A caller in a hurry may hang up without leaving a message | Hours, volume included, cost per extra call | A single person, a high fixed cost | No advice on your behalf; can mishear on a noisy line; calls are recorded |
Comparison by type of solution, drawn up on 28 October 2026. It does not target any particular provider: real offers vary, so always check the terms of the one you're interested in. The “AI voice assistant” column describes AlloBob; other AI assistants work differently.
Simple and always available, but it leaves all the work for later: listening, calling back, and sometimes finding out too late that a customer has gone elsewhere. It suits you if you receive few calls and call back quickly.
A real person answers in your name. It's a good choice if its hours and languages fit your calls and if the price per call stays reasonable for your volume. See what a phone answering service costs.
Knows your business and your customers, and also handles the admin. It's the most complete option, but it means a salary plus employer costs: it makes sense when there's enough work to fill a position.
Answers at any hour, in several languages, books the appointment and sends you a summary, for a fixed price based on your minutes. It doesn't replace human advice and needs to be properly set up for your line of work.
Bob doesn't pretend to be human: by default, he introduces himself as your company's assistant, and if someone asks whether he's a robot, he honestly says yes. Your greeting, which you set yourself, can also announce that the call is recorded. Recordings are kept for 90 days at most.
Bob doesn't give legal advice and doesn't go beyond what you've taught him: for anything else, he takes down the request and passes it on to you. How data is processed is described in our privacy policy (in French).
Plumbers, electricians, heating engineers, locksmiths and the building trades.
Practices, consultants, healthcare and legal professions.
Co-owners, tenants and contractors, building emergencies.
Call handling without advice, respecting professional secrecy.
Call screening and appointment booking.
Qualifying prospective buyers and tenants.
Enter your website address: Bob prepares himself from what he reads there, then you call him from your phone on the number shown. You'll hear him answer just as he would for your customers.
A real call to a Belgian number, no premium rate · simulated appointments · 3 minutes maximum.
15 minutes of calls on us, no credit card required. You keep your number.
Then from €67/month billed annually, or €89/month with no commitment.
The one that covers the hours when you miss calls, in your customers' languages, at a cost suited to your volume. Voicemail is enough if you receive few calls and call back quickly; an answering service or an AI assistant becomes useful when missed calls are costing you customers.
For answering, qualifying a request, sorting urgent calls and booking an appointment, yes. For sensitive conversations or ones that call for human judgement, a person is still preferable. Bob never gives advice on your behalf: he takes down the request and passes it on to you.
By type of solution, without naming any provider. The figures for human answering services come from the public rate cards of two providers, checked on 28 October 2026 and detailed on our page about what a phone answering service costs.
Bob doesn't pretend to be human: by default, he introduces himself as your company's assistant, and if someone asks whether he's a robot, he honestly says yes. Your greeting, which you set yourself, can also announce that the call is recorded. Recordings are kept for 90 days at most.
Yes. You can keep answering your phone yourself and forward to the assistant only the calls you don't answer: this is “when you don't answer” forwarding, explained in our guide by operator.