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Smith.ai is best known for live virtual receptionists in North America, and now offers an AI receptionist backed by live agents. Narvin is an AI-first platform for UK businesses, combining inbound calls, outbound campaigns and web chat with GBP pricing.
Last reviewed
At a glance
Smith.ai offers two services: live virtual receptionists staffed by its own agents, and an AI receptionist that can escalate calls to those agents. Both are priced per call in US dollars, with add-ons for features such as booking and live involvement.
Narvin is built for UK businesses that want to run their own AI agents without writing code: pick a template, add your knowledge, connect a number and go live — with pricing in pounds and a team to help you.
| Area | Narvin | Smith.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | UK small and mid-sized businesses and the teams that run their phones | Small businesses and professional firms, especially in North America |
| How you build agents | No-code dashboard with 25+ ready templates; webhooks and custom API tools when you need them | Guided setup of an AI receptionist, or a live service configured by Smith.ai |
| Pricing model | GBP: plans from £0, £99 and £199 a month plus per-minute usage from prepaid credits | Per-call plans in USD, with add-ons charged per call |
| Channels | Inbound phone, outbound campaigns, web voice and chat from one agent | Phone answering, with AI-and-live website chat sold as a separate service |
| Outbound campaigns | CSV upload, time zones, calling windows, pause and graceful end, outcome stats | Outreach campaigns made by live, sales-trained agents, sold as a separate service |
| Human backup | Messages, callbacks, tickets and webhooks to your team; live transfer is on our roadmap | Live agents can take over or handle calls, for an extra charge |
| Business integrations | Google Calendar, Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Jira, Asana, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, webhooks | CRM, calendar and Zapier integrations, including legal tools such as Clio |
| Onboarding | Hands-on onboarding from our team included | Self-serve on free plans; onboarding and support on paid plans |
Smith.ai information is summarised from its public website as of October 2026. Features and pricing change, so checksmith.ai for current details. Product names are trademarks of their owners.
FAQ
No. Narvin is an AI platform: your agents answer calls and chats, and anything that needs a person is passed to your own team as a message, callback, ticket or webhook. If you want an outsourced human receptionist service, Smith.ai or a UK answering service may suit you better.
Per-call pricing charges the same for a 30-second call and a 5-minute call. Per-minute pricing charges for the time used, so short calls cost less and long calls cost more. Look at your typical call length and volume, then compare total monthly cost — our pricing calculator helps.
Start on the Free plan, hear a sample call first, or let our team set it up with you.