Missed-call text-back in New Zealand, compared.

Talkify is more than a receptionist: the same account can run outbound call campaigns, phone surveys, chase overdue invoices out of Xero, run a chat widget on your website and send SMS follow-ups, and they sell the business phone line underneath it all too. Books into multiple job management systems, with iOS and Android apps. $129 a month on their founding rate, $199 after that, and no setup fee.

Worth a look if you want the voice receptionist, outbound calls and a booking system all in one.

Voyager has been doing business phones in New Zealand since 2010. VAIA is their voice AI agent. It answers around the clock, handles several calls at once, books into Google Calendar or Outlook, and gives you transcripts and summaries in a portal. It runs on the Voyager Voice phone system, so it's a natural fit if you're already with Voyager or thinking about moving your phones over, and they can have you live within 24 hours. $49 a month plus GST per agent, with call minutes bundled or pay as you go.

Worth a look if you're already on Voyager Voice, or shopping for a new phone system anyway.

An Auckland AI receptionist with a Kiwi accent and a real +64 number. It answers 24/7, books appointments, and plugs into Jobber, ServiceM8, Google Calendar, Xero and HubSpot. Pay as you go is $19 to set up and 75 cents a minute, or monthly plans at $99 for 200 minutes, $199 for 500 and $399 for 1,500. Setup and onboarding come with every plan.

Worth a look if you're on Jobber or ServiceM8 and want a Kiwi voice booking straight into it.

Built in Auckland and the one to look at if your customers don't all speak English. Their agent, Amy, greets callers and switches between English, Mandarin and Korean depending on what she hears, with no "press 1" menu. You can talk to her live on their website before you sign up. $197 a month plus 69 cents a minute, no credit card for the trial, and live within 48 hours.

Worth a look if a good share of your callers speak Mandarin or Korean.

An NZ AI receptionist that answers every call, captures the lead and books the job. Their setup runs from gathering your details, to building the AI, to 30-plus test calls before it goes live, all inside two days. There's a live demo on their site where you pick a voice and have a chat with it. $297 a month.

Worth a look if you want to hear it before you commit. Their live demo is right on the homepage.

A self-serve AI receptionist with a natural Kiwi voice that works on any NZ number. The party trick is voice cloning: record 30 seconds of yourself and the agent sounds like you. Plans at $49, $149 and $349 a month with per-minute rates from 19 cents, and you configure it yourself through their dashboard.

Worth a look if you're happy to set things up yourself and like the idea of the agent sounding like you.

The managed end of the market. FirstVoice builds and runs a custom AI receptionist for trades, restaurants, salons and local businesses. It filters spam, books appointments and talks like a person. From $497 a month, get in touch with them for a quote.

Worth a look if you'd rather hand the whole thing over and have it managed for you.

Auckland-based, NZ owned and built for trade businesses. It answers calls, qualifies the job, books it into your calendar and runs the follow-ups, and it's inbound only, which keeps things simple. Kickstart is $199 a month per seat with a $299 setup, or there's a custom build from $2,500 setup and $499 a month. They configure the whole thing in five days and back it with a first-month guarantee.

Worth a look if you're a trade business that just wants inbound calls handled, with a guarantee behind it.

A Canterbury outfit that builds AI tools around how your business actually runs: call answering, job booking, follow-ups, and a separate product that requests and replies to your Google reviews for you. It runs on an established CRM platform and they do the setup, so you get the power without having to learn the dashboard. $97 or $147 a month plus around 25 cents a minute, with a $250 setup.

Worth a look if you want reviews, bookings and call answering handled together by one Canterbury team.

An Auckland AI agency working across New Zealand and Australia with more than 30 voice agents deployed. They do inbound answering with a Kiwi accent, and they're one of the few that also run outbound campaigns, win-backs and reminders. $1 a minute plus a $130 platform fee, prepaid packs of 500 minutes for $500, or monthly plans up to $2,299.

Worth a look if you want to ring out as well as answer, for campaigns, win-backs or reminders.

EnvokeAI Ltd is an Auckland platform doing chat, voice and AI search visibility for NZ businesses. Their voice agents take inbound calls, make outbound ones and follow up on their own.

Worth a look if you want chat on your website and voice on your phone from the same place.

An Auckland agency doing voice agents, AI agents, app development and automation. They build to your business and aim to have you live inside two to four weeks. Pricing is by project, so get in touch with them.

Worth a look if you've got a bigger build in mind than a receptionist and want it done properly.

A Wellington and Lower Hutt agency for service businesses: voice agents, database reactivation, automated follow-ups and review generation. Plans at $350, $499 and $950 a month with no lock-in, and their Google reviews are linked straight from the site.

Worth a look if you're a Wellington service business wanting follow-ups and reviews handled alongside calls.

Pulsebay builds custom voice assistants with a Kiwi accent, alongside broader software work for clients here, in the UK and in Europe. They'll tell you up front if they're not the right fit, which we like. Pricing by project.

Worth a look if you've got a spec, or a problem with no spec yet, and want a custom build.

A Tauranga agency that builds and runs AI voice agents as project work, inbound and outbound, for businesses that want something bespoke. Priced in project bands starting from $1,000.

Worth a look if you're in the Bay of Plenty and want a bespoke build with a local team.

An Australian AI receptionist for trade and service businesses that arrived in New Zealand in August 2025. It answers 24/7, books into your calendar or CRM and does outbound follow-ups. They set it up, then you can change the voice, hours and services yourself. A 5.0 rating from 19 Google reviews, a 7-day free trial, and from A$44 a month.

Worth a look if you want the most-reviewed option on this page and don't mind paying in Australian dollars.

A UK-based AI receptionist with a New Zealand site aimed at small businesses and tradies. No new number needed, it works by call forwarding and is live in minutes. NZ$49 a month with unlimited minutes, no contract, and a 7-day trial.

Worth a look if you want unlimited minutes at a flat price and are happy to set it up yourself.

A US AI receptionist that gets talked about a lot online. No NZ presence, but it works anywhere with call forwarding.

Worth a look if you've been reading about it online and want to try it. It works here with call forwarding.

If you already run your business on Jobber, the AI receptionist is built in. The simplest path if you're a Jobber customer.

Worth a look if you're already on Jobber. It's already there.

A US voice agent, popular with car dealerships, that texts the caller a follow-up if they hang up before it's finished. There's some NZ interest in it.

Worth a look if you run a dealership. That's where it's most at home.

An AI receptionist that publishes plenty of NZ-focused guides. Their team helps train the agent on your services, hours and booking rules at no extra charge. From US$79 a month plus 15 to 25 cents a minute.

Worth a look if you'd like help training it without paying a setup fee.

A US AI receptionist that reads your website and Google Business Profile and builds itself in about an hour. Books appointments, screens spam and texts you after every call. US$49 a month with unlimited minutes.

Worth a look if your website already says everything about your business and you want it live this afternoon.

Built by ElevenLabs, the voice company. Well documented, priced in US dollars, and you set it up yourself. From US$22 a month for 60 minutes.

Worth a look if you're technical, want the cheapest entry point and don't mind paying in US dollars.

100% New Zealand owned and answering calls for Kiwi businesses for over 60 years. Call answering and help desk work. Get in touch with them for pricing.

Worth a look if you want the most experienced Kiwi team on the phone in your name.

Supporting NZ businesses since 1989 with a telephone answering service built on reliability and getting the details right. Pricing on request.

Worth a look if consistency over decades matters more to you than the newest tech.

Every receptionist is based in Blenheim, and they've been answering for New Zealand businesses for over 20 years. Message taking, after-hours and overflow. From $60 a month.

Worth a look if you want every receptionist based in New Zealand and a published starting price.

Part of OfficeHQ, founded in Australia in 2003 and in New Zealand since 2018. Trained receptionists answer 24/7 in NZ or Australia, with overflow support at peak times. From $19 a month, no lock-in.

Worth a look if you want a low starting price and round-the-clock cover with no contract.

Zintel's NZ call centre answers 24/7 with a real person who represents your business and takes a message. Pricing on request.

Worth a look if you're already on a Zintel phone service.

A locally based live answering service that can take every call or just the overflow when you're flat out. Pricing is published in tiers.

Worth a look if you only need cover for the overflow, not every call.

The text reminder your doctor sends. Vensa's TXT2Remind is used by around two-thirds of New Zealand general practices for appointment, screening and immunisation reminders, and they run the patient portal and online booking as well. Pricing on request.

Worth a look if you're a GP practice. You may already have it.

Two-way reminders by SMS, email or voice. Clients confirm with one reply, and anyone who hasn't confirmed gets flagged for a follow-up. Going since 2012.

Worth a look if you want reminders by text, email and voice from one place.

An NZ SMS company going since 2004 with a dedicated appointment reminder product. "Reply Y to confirm, N to cancel."

Worth a look if you want an NZ company that's been sending texts for twenty years.

Simple reminder software where you set the message, the timing and whether clients can confirm by reply. From $9.99 a month.

Worth a look if you're a sole operator and want the cheapest reminder setup going.

Practice management software for allied health with SMS and email reminders built in. Clients confirm by replying to the text.

Worth a look if you're in allied health and want reminders inside your practice software.

A New Zealand CRM out of Lower Hutt with a phone system, chatbots, email, SMS, landing pages, booking, review management and an AI receptionist all in one place. $97, $247 or $497 a month.

Worth a look if you want the whole stack from one NZ company.

The platform a lot of marketing agencies run their clients on. Missed-call text-back is built in as a toggle under Settings that sends a set message within 15 seconds of a missed call. US$97, $297 or $497 a month plus usage charges for SMS, email, calls and AI.

Worth a look if your agency already has you on it. It's a switch in the settings.

Does one thing: texts the people whose calls you missed, with different messages for working hours and after hours. US$99 a month for 1,000 texts plus a $99 setup, with two-way texting and AI available as add-ons.

Worth a look if you want a single-purpose text-back and don't need a conversation.

Big US all-in-one platforms for local businesses that bundle text-back with reviews, payments and a shared inbox. Typically US$99 to $300 a month.

Worth a look if you want reviews, payments and messaging in one US platform.

Missed-call text-back replies to a missed call by SMS. An AI receptionist answers the call with a synthetic voice. Text-back never puts AI on the phone. An AI receptionist can book while the caller's on the line, which text-back does by conversation instead. They're different, and we hope this guide helps your business find the right fit for you.

Because we don't charge one. We charge a fixed cost which includes all initial setup and model training, ongoing model training and unlimited support. Our plans cost $99, $149 or $399 for Essential, Pro and Enterprise. We also offer unlimited rollover texts so any unused messages each month stack up for the next month, lowering the chance of hitting your limit on a busy month.

On a server in Auckland, New Zealand. The AI that reads and writes the messages, the transcription and the telephony are provided by overseas companies.