Answering service pricing in 2026: what cleaners really pay
Answering service pricing is deliberately hard to compare. Here is how the three models actually work, and which one fits a residential cleaning company.
The three pricing models
Nearly every vendor uses one of these, sometimes disguised with a different label.
- •Per-minute: roughly $1.00–$2.25 per talk minute, billed in rounded increments, often with a monthly minimum
- •Per-call: roughly $2–$6 per call, but 'call' frequently includes wrong numbers, spam, and hang-ups
- •Flat monthly: one predictable number regardless of talk time
Why per-minute punishes cleaning companies
A proper cleaning intake takes time. You want the specialist confirming the service area, counting bedrooms and bathrooms, asking about pets, frequency, and access — that is a five to eight minute conversation.
Under per-minute pricing, every one of those quality conversations is a bill. The vendor's incentive is a fast call; your incentive is a booked job. Those two things pull in opposite directions.
Hidden fees to ask about before signing
Get these in writing. Every one of them is common.
- •Setup or onboarding fee (often $100–$500)
- •Script change fees after the initial build
- •Holiday and after-hours surcharges, sometimes 1.5×
- •Rounding — 30-second calls billed as a full minute
- •Overage rates once you exceed the plan's included minutes
- •Annual contracts with early-termination penalties
What CareDesk charges
Assistant is $299/month and Secretary is $399/month. No setup fee, no per-minute billing, no annual contract. If you want to hear it before committing, there is a one-time $30 three-day live trial — we answer your real calls for three days and nothing renews automatically.
How to compare quotes honestly
Do not compare monthly prices. Compare cost per booked job. Take each vendor's realistic monthly cost, divide by the number of jobs you expect them to save, and compare that to your average ticket. A $299 service that books seven extra $180 cleans a month is not a cost line at all.
Frequently asked
How much does an answering service cost per month?
Small-business answering services typically run $150–$600 per month depending on volume and pricing model. CareDesk is flat-rate at $299 or $399 per month with no per-minute fees.
Is per-minute or flat-rate answering better for a cleaning business?
Flat rate. Cleaning intakes are long by design — service area, home size, frequency, pets, access — so per-minute billing penalizes exactly the calls most likely to convert.