Smith.ai Australia alternative
Jodie answers your calls 24/7 from a flat A$99/month, with no per-call fees.
Calls answered
Plan includes 30 calls for A$474
Any number of calls
Two services that both answer your phone. The difference is what you pay per call when volume spikes.
Cost per call (50 calls/mo)
Starting monthly price
Pricing model
Per-call overage
Free trial
Setup time
Who answers
Practice management integration
24/7 coverage
Pricing reflects Smith.ai's published rates at smith.ai/pricing, checked October 2026. Smith.ai bills in USD (no AUD price card); AUD figures convert at a 1.4367 USD/AUD reference rate. Smith.ai operates three product tiers; figures reference the AI plan and the Virtual Receptionist Starter. Jodie pricing is published in full in AUD on the pricing page.
Slide the calls you'd take - the calculator picks Smith.ai's cheapest plan plus overage and compares to Jodie's flat plan.
Cost calculator
Jodie Basic
A$99/mo
Flat. Unlimited.
Competitor: AI Free
$75/mo
roughly A$108/mo
$0 base + $75 overage
You'd save
A$9/month (A$105/year)
Smith.ai tiers and per-call overage rates are from smith.ai/pricing, checked October 2026, and billed in USD. Calculator picks the cheapest of the AI Receptionist plans (Free: $0 / 25 calls + $3.00 per extra call; Pro: from $150 / 75 calls + $2.50 per extra call) and Virtual Receptionist Starter ($300 / 30 calls + $11.50 per extra call). Jodie Basic is flat monthly with unlimited calls at your locale rate.
FX rates as of 2026-10-05. Jodie price is the published locale rate, not converted.
Verifiable differences, not marketing claims. Each comes from public information on Smith.ai's site and ours.
Smith.ai's Virtual Receptionist Starter is A$431/month for 30 calls, then A$16.52 per extra call. Jodie's Basic plan is A$99 flat with unlimited calls - the price doesn't move when your phone rings more.
A$1.98 per call on Jodie vs A$15.23 per call on Smith.ai Starter at 50 calls a month.
The recurring critical theme in Smith.ai's customer reviews is pricing surprise - the per-call meter auto-bumps you into the next tier when calls spike. Jodie holds 4.8 across verified customer reviews with a flat monthly bill.
Jodie 4.8 across customer reviews - and no per-call meter on our side.
Smith.ai's native Clio integration suits multi-partner firms with a dedicated intake desk. Jodie is built for the sole solicitor on the Gold Coast whose phone rings during a mediation, with LEAP and Actionstep handoff via Zapier on Professional.
Smith.ai if you need a US intake team; Jodie if you are the team.
Smith.ai leans hard on native legal-practice-management integrations. Here's where that matters and where it does not.
| Integration | Jodie | Smith.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Clio Legal practice management Smith.ai pushes intake into Clio directly. Jodie routes via Zapier on Professional and Premium plans. | Zapier | Native |
| MyCase Legal practice management | Zapier | Native |
| PracticePanther Legal practice management | Zapier | Native |
| HubSpot CRM Both route via integration partners rather than first-party. | Zapier | Partner |
| Salesforce CRM | Zapier | Partner |
| Slack Team notifications | Zapier | Partner |
| Email / SMS notifications Lead capture | Native | Native |
| Zapier (6000+ apps) Universal automation Zapier-only on Jodie Professional and Premium covers tools Smith.ai has no path to. | Native | Not supported |
Smith.ai's integration list is from smith.ai/integrations at the time of writing. Jodie integration coverage reflects the Professional ($99) and Premium ($199) plan tiers - Basic is voice + email/SMS only. 'Native' means first-party, 'Partner' means via an official integration provider, 'Zapier' means routed through Zapier's connector library.
Smith.ai publishes most figures up front - the question is what the bill looks like once per-call overage and tier auto-bumps kick in.
| Jodie | Smith.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Base monthly price | ||
| Per-call overage rate Jodie has no per-call charge. Smith.ai publishes $3.00/extra call on the free AI plan, $2.50 on AI Pro and $11.50/extra call on Virtual Receptionist Starter. | ||
| Setup fee Both are $0 setup. | ||
| Free trial (no card) Jodie offers 7 days free with no card. Smith.ai offers a free AI plan (25 calls a month) and a 30-day money-back guarantee on human plans. | ||
| Auto tier-upgrade rules Jodie's flat plan doesn't auto-upgrade. Smith.ai's tier behaviour at the overage ceiling is in the terms of service, not the pricing page. | ||
| Total first-year cost calculable from public info Jodie: 12 x flat plan. Smith.ai: depends on your call volume because the per-call rate compounds. |
Smith.ai's A$431 human Starter is priced for multi-partner firms. If your phone rings while you are in court or on a site visit, these are the AU businesses Jodie was built for.
LEAP and Actionstep - the practice systems most Australian firms run - are not on Smith.ai's native list. A$99 flat with Zapier-routed LEAP or Actionstep handoff on Professional beats A$431 for 30 calls plus A$16.52 per overage.
See Jodie for lawyers & law firmsFor a single-doctor clinic with 40 inbound calls a week, Smith.ai's per-call cap doesn't survive a flu surge. Jodie answers in seconds and notifies the front desk at a flat price.
See Jodie for medical centres & gp clinicsA buyer scrolling Domain at 8pm calls the next agent if you don't pick up. 24/7 cover comes standard on Jodie Basic at A$99 - with no 25-call cap and no per-call meter.
See Jodie for real estate agentsBAS and tax season volumes spike fast. A flat plan with unlimited calls beats A$16.52 per overage when every client is calling about an ATO notice at once.
See Jodie for accountantsSmith.ai's AI Receptionist has a free plan for 25 calls a month plus around A$4.31 per extra call, and a Pro plan from around A$216/month for 75 calls plus A$3.59 per extra call. The Virtual Receptionist Starter is around A$431/month for 30 calls plus A$16.52 per extra call. Jodie publishes A$99 Basic, A$199 Professional, A$399 Premium - all with unlimited calls.
Smith.ai is a US-incorporated company in Palo Alto with no Australian office, no smith.ai/au site and no AU phone number. Australian firms sign up through smith.ai by forwarding a landline; agents are North American and the invoice is in USD. Jodie supports Australian numbers natively and bills in AUD.
Yes. Smith.ai is a US-incorporated company founded in 2015 and based in Palo Alto, with thousands of US law-firm customers. The questions worth asking are about price predictability and contract terms, not legitimacy.
The pattern is consistent: praise for receptionist quality and the native Clio integration. The recurring critical theme is pricing surprise - a busy week pushes you into overages, and a busier month auto-bumps you to the next tier.
Jodie is A$99/A$199/A$399 with unlimited calls, billed in AUD. Smith.ai bills per call in USD. Australian-built options like OfficeHQ and Wavetel mostly charge per call or per minute on top. Smith.ai's per-call pricing is rare, so model your expected call volume before you sign.
For sole solicitors and small firms, yes. Australian firms more often run LEAP or Actionstep alongside Clio, and Jodie's Professional plan routes into all three via Zapier at A$199/month flat.
Jodie setup is minutes - forward your phone and Jodie starts answering. Smith.ai's site states month-to-month, but its AI plan needs 30 days' notice to cancel, so check your agreement. Most businesses run both for 5-7 days during cutover, then cancel.
Move from a per-call meter to a flat plan without losing coverage. Most switchers run both for a week, then cancel Smith.ai.
Total time: Under 1 hour active time, 5-7 days for safe parallel running
Sign up at the register page. No card needed. You get your Jodie phone number on the spot.
Set conditional forwarding (busy / no answer / always) from your phone provider to the Jodie number.
Jodie picks up via the forward; if it does not work for you, you cancel Jodie and your Smith.ai line is unaffected. Listen to a few call recordings.
Smith.ai's site states month-to-month, with 30 days' notice on the AI plan - cancel from your account dashboard or via your sales contact. Watch for any pro-rated per-call overage on the final invoice.
Once Smith.ai is cancelled, leave the forward to Jodie in place. Confirm a test call lands on Jodie and a summary arrives in your inbox.
Buyer's guides
This comparison is part of our independent buyer's guides ranking the whole field.
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First 7 days free, then pricing from A$99/month
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