Last updated: 2026-10-27
NextPhone is an AI receptionist from Pure Labs Inc that, by the vendor's count, has answered more than 2 million calls since going live in 2024. It answers a business line 24/7 or only after hours, runs caller intake, books appointments into Google or Outlook calendars and transfers urgent callers to staff, with unlimited calls on every plan.
About NextPhone
NextPhone is an AI receptionist and answering service from Pure Labs Inc, a San Francisco company run by founder and CEO Yan Mellata, who previously founded the voice platform Kosy. It answers a business line around the clock or only when the team cannot pick up, runs caller intake, books appointments and passes urgent callers to a person. The vendor reports more than 2 million calls handled and 5,000+ businesses signed up, with the product in production since 2024.
The pricing model is the reason most buyers look at it. Every plan is a flat monthly fee with unlimited inbound calls, no per-minute billing and no overage, which is unusual in this category. Builder platforms such as Retell AI and Vapi bill by the minute, and echowin sells prepaid credits that do not roll over, so a busy month costs more on each of them. On NextPhone a slow month and a record month cost the same.
Setup starts with your website. NextPhone reads it to learn services, hours and common questions, then you set rules for which callers to book, which to transfer and what to ask each one. You keep your number and forward calls to it, either all of them or only when the line is busy, unanswered or closed. After each call it texts and emails a summary, and returning callers are recognised so they are not asked the same questions twice.
It is built for small service businesses where a missed call is a lost job: law firms first, then accounting and insurance offices, HVAC, plumbing and other trades, real estate and property managers. Legal practices get the deepest integration set, with Clio, MyCase, Lawmatics and PracticePanther, while trades get ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro and GoHighLevel. HubSpot sync arrives on the middle plan, along with automation through Zapier, and Make works there too.
It is not a developer platform. Teams that want to script their own voice agent, choose the speech model or wire calls into their own stack will be better served by Vapi, Retell AI or AgentPhone. It also does not run email or chat tickets, so a support desk that needs one queue across channels is a job for Zendesk, with Intercom as the chat-first choice. Independent review volume is still thin: we found no rated listing on G2, Capterra or Trustpilot in October 2026.
Pricing
Pro $199/mo: you set it up yourself, unlimited calls and users, booking into Google or Outlook, transfers to up to 10 people, alerts to 1 recipient. Growth $299/mo: NextPhone's team builds, tests and tunes the agent, adds CRM updates (HubSpot, Clio, MyCase, GoHighLevel), Zapier, Make, webhooks and API, priority support. Scale $599/mo: custom call flows and routing, more than 10 transfer destinations, 2-way texting from your own number, custom integrations, extra numbers per office.
Yearly billing: $1,990, $2,990 and $5,990 a year. No setup fee, no per-minute charge, no overage. Month to month.
Multi-location or annual agreements are quoted. com/pricing on 2026-10-27.
| Tier | Monthly price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | $199/mo | |
| Growth | $299/mo | |
| Scale | $599/mo |
Key Features
- Website-trained setup: Reads your website to learn services, hours and FAQs, so a self-serve account can go live in about 5 minutes.
- Warm call transfers: Tells the person picking up who is calling and why before connecting them, with up to 10 transfer destinations on Pro and Growth.
- Booking during the call: Checks open slots in Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly, Acuity, Cal.com or OnceHub, books the caller and texts a confirmation.
- Returning-caller memory: Recognises a repeat number and skips intake questions that caller already answered on an earlier call.
- Overflow or full coverage: Takes every call or only nights, weekends and busy-line overflow, while you keep your current number and phone carrier.
- Post-call summaries: Sends a text and email summary the moment a call ends, with the recording, transcript and intake answers kept in the dashboard.
- Multilingual answering: Switches language when the caller does and offers 30 voices; the vendor's fact file lists 10 languages, up to 3 per phone line.
Pros
- Legal intake is the deepest of the small-business receptionists we list: native Clio Manage, Clio Grow, MyCase, Lawmatics and PracticePanther connections.
- Done-for-you setup on Growth: the team ships a first build within 48 hours and tunes it on real calls, which suits owners with no time to configure software.
- Works on top of an existing carrier such as RingCentral, Nextiva, Ooma, Dialpad, Verizon or AT&T, so nobody has to port a number to try it.
- Month to month with no contract, no cancellation fee and no setup fee on any plan.
Cons
- CRM sync, Zapier and webhooks start on Growth, so a law firm that wants calls logged in Clio pays for the higher plan from day one.
- Thin independent review record: no rated G2, Capterra or Trustpilot listing in October 2026, so the customer rating it advertises cannot be checked.
- No Android app; mobile access is the iOS app plus the web dashboard.
- No published SOC 2, HIPAA or GDPR attestation; the vendor states TLS 1.3 and AES-256 encryption with data stored in the United States.
- Voice and text only: there is no email or web chat queue for teams that want every channel in one place.
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- Privacy policy (effective 2026-08-14) says customer data is never sold and is used to provide and improve the service; no statement on model training.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are NextPhone's pricing plans in 2026?
Pro costs $199 a month and you set it up yourself, Growth is $299 a month and NextPhone's team builds and tunes the agent, and Scale is $599 a month for custom routing and 2-way texting. All three include unlimited inbound calls with no per-minute charge, overage or setup fee. Paying yearly saves about 17%. The cost most buyers miss is that Pro has no CRM or Zapier connection, so anyone who needs one starts on Growth.
Is NextPhone free to use?
No, there is no free plan. New accounts get a 7-day free trial, and you can hear a test call trained on your own website before signing up. Cancel before the trial ends and nothing is charged.
What are the best alternatives to NextPhone?
[echowin](/hub/tools/echowin) is the closest no-code match and suits a business with low call volume that prefers paying only for what it uses. [Retell AI](/hub/tools/retell-ai) and [Vapi](/hub/tools/vapi) are for developers who want to build their own voice agent and pick the models behind it. Live answering services such as Ruby or Smith.ai put a human on the line but bill by the minute or by the call.
NextPhone or echowin: which should you pick?
echowin is cheaper to start, with a free build and a paid plan under $50 a month, but its credits cover roughly 100 voice minutes and do not roll over, so the bill climbs with volume. NextPhone costs more at entry and stays fixed however many calls arrive. A firm taking a few dozen calls a month will spend less on echowin; one taking hundreds usually comes out ahead on NextPhone. echowin also reaches chat channels such as Discord, which NextPhone does not.
What does it take to start using NextPhone?
Enter your website and NextPhone drafts what it knows about your services, hours and common questions. Set which callers to book, transfer or take a message from, make a test call, then forward your existing line, either every call or only when busy or closed. On Growth you fill in a short questionnaire instead and the team delivers a first build within 48 hours.
Top Alternatives
- echowin: Pick NextPhone if call volume swings month to month and you want one fixed bill; pick echowin if volume is low and pay-as-you-go credits cost less.
- Retell AI: Pick NextPhone if nobody on the team writes code; pick Retell AI if a developer wants to build the agent and choose the models behind it.
- Vapi: Pick NextPhone for a ready-made receptionist with legal CRM sync; pick Vapi for a per-minute voice platform you assemble yourself, with enterprise SOC 2 and HIPAA options.
- AgentPhone: Pick NextPhone to answer customer calls out of the box; pick AgentPhone when you need phone numbers and SMS wired into your own AI agent.