Talkify / Alternatives / AlwaysAnswer
AI receptionist · Described from their own pages

They publish a from-price. We publish the whole bill.

If you are weighing up AlwaysAnswer, you should know exactly what they do before you decide, so here it is straight. A New Zealand AI receptionist promising every call answered, leads captured and appointments booked, with a stated go-live inside 48 hours.

Talkify is the bigger machine sitting behind the same job: built in Christchurch by a studio twelve years deep in phone systems and integrations, running on a New Zealand line we sell you ourselves, connected to the software you already use, with your call recordings held in this country. Reception is one of nine things it does.

The fair bit

When AlwaysAnswer is the right call.

A business that wants to be live quickly and likes a clearly stated turnaround. A supplier who commits to 48 hours in public is making a promise you can hold them to, and they publish a New Zealand phone number you can ring to hold them to it, which is more than several providers in this market do.

We would rather you bought the right thing than bought from us. If the paragraph above describes your situation, go and talk to them.

What to ask before you sign anything.

Not gotchas, and not accusations. These are the three things about this kind of product that cost people money when they find out late. Ask us the same sort of questions.

Question 1.

The plan prices. Their pricing cards carry tier names but no figures, with a single from-price in the page header, so ask what each tier actually costs before you get attached to one.

Question 2.

The setup fee. They state that every plan includes a one-time setup fee and link to an FAQ, and the amount is not stated there either, so get the number in writing.

Question 3.

Included minutes and the rate past them, neither of which is published, so a busy month cannot be modelled before you sign.

Where we would argue for us.

Fast setup is worth something, and we would not argue otherwise: a Talkify agent can be answering the same day, with no setup fee to negotiate first. Compare the two on what the first invoice actually says once setup is added in.

We sell the phone line itself, not just the thing that answers it.

We hold a direct commercial relationship with the New Zealand carrier our numbers ride on, so numbers are provisioned on our own account and the routing is ours to change. It also means we sell you the line: a real New Zealand business phone service, hosted here, with local numbers, seats for your team, published per-minute rates and the agent already sitting on it. One number, one bill, nobody to blame in the middle. Most AI receptionists are a layer of software sitting on top of a phone account somebody else sold you, which is invisible on a good day and is the whole game on a bad one. When something breaks at three in the morning, that is the difference between us fixing it and us logging a ticket with whoever can.

The integrations are ours, written one at a time.

Every system we name has a connector we wrote and can point you at in code. Calendars, CRMs, accounting, job management, gym and workshop and salon software, plus a documented REST API, webhooks and Zapier for whatever we have not built yet. We keep a hard internal rule that nothing gets named on this website until the connector behind it exists, which is why our integration list is shorter than some and why every name on it is real.

A New Zealand phone number, answered by the people who built it.

Support is 0800 002 967, in New Zealand, in your timezone. You are not going through a chat widget to reach a partner agency, and you are not waiting overnight for a reply from a different hemisphere. The people who answer are the people who wrote the thing, which is the practical advantage of buying from a studio rather than a sales funnel.

Cost is deliberately not on this page. It lives on the comparison table, with a checked date against it, so there is one place to keep honest instead of twelve. See the rest of the market on alternatives.

Frequently asked.

Nine of the questions we hear most. If yours isn't here, ring our live demo agent on 03 242 1262, it'll either answer or queue a callback from a human.

What does AlwaysAnswer actually do?
A New Zealand AI receptionist promising every call answered, leads captured and appointments booked, with a stated go-live inside 48 hours. We have described it from their own published material. If we have got something wrong about your product, email [email protected] and we will fix it.
When would AlwaysAnswer be the better choice?
A business that wants to be live quickly and likes a clearly stated turnaround. A supplier who commits to 48 hours in public is making a promise you can hold them to, and they publish a New Zealand phone number you can ring to hold them to it, which is more than several providers in this market do.
What should I ask AlwaysAnswer before signing?
The plan prices. Their pricing cards carry tier names but no figures, with a single from-price in the page header, so ask what each tier actually costs before you get attached to one. The setup fee. They state that every plan includes a one-time setup fee and link to an FAQ, and the amount is not stated there either, so get the number in writing. Included minutes and the rate past them, neither of which is published, so a busy month cannot be modelled before you sign.
Why would I choose Talkify instead?
Fast setup is worth something, and we would not argue otherwise: a Talkify agent can be answering the same day, with no setup fee to negotiate first. Compare the two on what the first invoice actually says once setup is added in.
How does the cost compare?
Cost lives on our comparison page rather than here, because prices change and we would rather maintain them in one place than let two pages drift apart. That page works out what 200 minutes of answered calls actually costs on every provider's published pricing, with setup fees, monthly platform fees, GST treatment and per-minute overage included, and it carries the date it was last checked.
Can I hear Talkify before I decide?
Yes, and without handing over your details. Ring 03 242 1262 any time, day or night, and talk to a live Talkify agent in a real New Zealand voice. No form, no card, no follow-up call unless you ask for one. Try to do the same with everyone on your shortlist, because five seconds of listening tells you more than any comparison table.
Is Talkify only an AI receptionist?
No. Reception is one product on the platform. The same account also runs outgoing call campaigns, phone surveys, overdue invoice chasing from your own Xero, daily wellness check calls, an on-call roster that keeps ringing until a human accepts, a front counter agent, a website chat widget that talks as well as types, and SMS follow-ups that catch whatever the call missed. We sell the phone line itself as well.
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Talkify is currently available to businesses in New Zealand & Australia only.

Personal Assistant
Single mobile or landline. Built for one person, not a business.
$89/mo
Shortwave plan

Founding rate Your price is locked in at the founding rate for your first 3 months, then the standard rate applies. Plans include 50 to 250 minutes a month, then 10c a minute. The first 20 texts each month are free, then 10c each.

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TALKIFY VS ALWAYSANSWER

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