CaughtLeads vs Goodcall: Paying per Caller or per Minute?

Two AI receptionists, two ways to count a month

If you have looked for an AI receptionist for a trade business, you may well have come across Goodcall.

Its pitch is a good one. Goodcall gives you a bill you can predict: it charges by the caller, not by the minute, so a long call costs no more than a short one.

We are an AI receptionist built for home-services trades like HVAC, roofing and plumbing. Both of us answer your calls when you can't. The biggest difference is what each one counts, and that decides which one costs less for your shop.

Every Goodcall price here is from its own pricing page, checked on 12 October 2026. Prices change, so check them again before you decide.

Per caller against per minute

Goodcall charges per unique caller. It counts one phone number once a month, so a customer who rings three times counts once, and spam and wrong numbers do not count. Starter is $79 a month for 100 callers, then 79 cents for each extra one. Growth is $129 for 500 callers, then 26 cents. Scale is $299 for 2,000 callers, then 15 cents. Minutes are never metered, and every plan includes a local number.

We charge per minute. A $49 monthly base that includes your own local number, then $0.12 for each minute of talk time. Each call is rounded up to the next whole minute, and calls under 15 seconds are not billed. Texts to your customers are $0.03 a segment once your business's text registration is approved, and alerts to you and your team are free. A 3-month plan takes 15% off the base, a 12-month plan 30%, and there is no setup fee.

So it comes down to how long each caller talks. Past Goodcall's first 100 callers, an extra caller on Starter costs 79 cents. With us, 79 cents buys about 6.6 minutes of talk time from that caller in a month.

What a normal month costs

Here are three examples with round numbers. Swap in your own. Goodcall's own page counts about 3 calls for every 2 callers, so we use the same ratio.

• A quiet month: 60 calls at 3 minutes from 40 callers. Goodcall Starter is $79. We are $49 plus 180 minutes at $0.12, which is about $71.
• A normal month: 150 calls at 3 minutes from 100 callers. Goodcall Starter is $79. We are $49 plus 450 minutes, which is $103.
• A busy month: 400 calls at 3 minutes from about 270 callers. Goodcall Growth is $129. We are $49 plus 1,200 minutes, which is $193.

So on price alone, Goodcall wins for most busy shops. Price is only half of it.

Where Goodcall is the better choice

Your line is busy. Past about 250 minutes a month (around 55 callers at three-minute calls), Goodcall's plans cost less than paying by the minute.

Your calls run long. A nine-minute call costs Goodcall nothing extra. With us it is $1.08.

You want a predictable bill. Call length never changes it, only the number of different callers does, and Goodcall tells you when a bigger plan would cost less.

You want to try before connecting a number. You can build a demo agent and test it free, and only pay once you connect a phone number.

Where we are different

Built around home-services calls. Our receptionist asks what is wrong, where the job is and when suits the caller, then books the appointment into one of your open slots.

Safety calls come first. If a caller mentions a gas smell or a carbon monoxide alarm, the receptionist tells them to get somewhere safe and call 911, then emails you and phones the emergency contacts who agreed to take these calls. It does not try to book a gas leak.

You see which bookings actually happened. We report which bookings were kept and what each job was worth, using the final invoice total. You enter the total, or it comes back from Jobber or ServiceTitan through your own Zapier account, or from Housecall Pro directly (in beta).

Honest limits. It tells callers it is an AI. Texting your customers switches on only after your business's text registration (A2P 10DLC) is approved, and only for people who agreed to receive texts.

Test both on your own calls

You do not have to take our word for it, or theirs. It takes an afternoon.

• Pull last month's call log. Count the calls, the different callers and the total minutes.
• Price that month on both. The maths above takes five minutes.
• Call both the way a customer would, including one awkward call.
• Ask each one what happens when a caller says "I smell gas".

You can build and test our receptionist in your browser for free, with no card. The trial on a real phone line lasts 14 days or 100 voice minutes, whichever comes first.

Pick the one that fits your calls

If your line is busy (past about 250 minutes a month), your calls run long, or you want a bill that call length never changes, Goodcall is the better fit.

If your line is quieter (under about 250 minutes a month), you want a receptionist built around trade calls, and you want to see which booked jobs actually went ahead, we are worth a test.

For the same question with a per-call service, CaughtLeads vs Smith.ai walks through paying by the call.