Smith.ai uses humans. Kordial uses AI trained on your reviews.

The right alternative depends on what you're actually paying for. Smith.ai's strength is human receptionists with professional training and strong CRM integrations, particularly for law firms. If you need human judgment on complex calls or a deep Clio integration, Smith.ai is a credible choice. If you want 24/7 coverage, a receptionist that learns your business from your reviews instead of a script you wrote, and a price that starts free and scales to $79 a month, Kordial is built for that. Most businesses switching from Smith.ai cite cost and the script maintenance burden as their main reasons.

Smith.ai's human virtual receptionist plans start at $292.50 per month for 30 calls and scale to $585 per month for 60 calls (verified live, 2026), with overage charges at $9.75 per call beyond the included amount. Their AI receptionist product is self-service and starts at $95 per month for simple call flows (~2 calls/day). Their AI is a real product, but the configuration burden sits with you. Kordial starts free, paid plans from $79 per month, no per-call charges, and the AI already knows your business from your Google reviews and Business Profile before the first call.

Kordial currently focuses on voice answering, lead capture, and SMS follow-up rather than deep CRM integrations. If your practice depends heavily on a Clio or Salesforce integration with two-way data sync, Smith.ai's native integrations are more mature. If your primary need is answering every call, capturing leads, and having a receptionist that already knows your practice from your Google reviews and website, Kordial handles that without integration configuration. We're adding more integrations over time.

It depends on what 'intake' means for your practice. Kordial handles the first stage of intake well: answering the call, capturing the caller's name and contact information, describing your practice's services and areas of focus, and sending a follow-up SMS with next steps. What it doesn't do is conflict checking or the kind of nuanced case-qualification that requires a trained legal professional's judgment. For practices where intake primarily means 'answer the call, get their name and matter type, and schedule a callback,' Kordial works. For complex litigation intake where the first call involves substantive legal screening, Smith.ai's human receptionists are better suited.

A human virtual receptionist is a real person, typically at a call center, who answers calls on your behalf using a script you provide. They're trained on what you tell them. When your business changes, you update the script. Human services typically cost $200 to $800 per month or more, with per-call or per-minute charges. An AI receptionist uses voice AI to answer calls. Kordial reads your Google reviews, website, and Business Profile before the first call, so it arrives with context a scripted human wouldn't have. It costs significantly less, covers all 24 hours at the same price, and updates itself as your business changes. The tradeoff is that AI handles structured conversations well and improvisation less so. For most local businesses fielding calls about hours, services, pricing, and bookings, AI is more than capable.

Two reasons. First, your receptionist doesn't go live until you sign off. New businesses land in a verification state with the phone number parked. You walk five sections, hours, prices, FAQ, booking, and voice, and you click Activate yourself. The line stays cold until you do. Smith.ai's operators start reading their script the day after onboarding. You never sign off on what comes out of their mouths. Second, when callers ask Kordial yes-or-no questions about pricing, scheduling, or whether someone can come out tonight, the agent probes for context, captures the details in the call summary, and defers. We tested this with 17 commit-trap questions and it deferred on all 17. It tells callers when it doesn't know. It doesn't invent.