The best answering service for cleaning companies, compared on the quote
Eight providers that answer for cleaning companies, on the price each one publishes and on the call that pays for the service: a new inquiry that wants a price for a three-bed, two-bath every other week, while the whole crew is inside a house with their phones in the van.
Prices re-read from each vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-05 · first published 2026-09-05
“How much for a three-bed, two-bath, every other week?”
Quoted from bedrooms, bathrooms and frequency · First deep clean booked Thu 9–12
- 8 providers
- that name cleaning companies on their own sites. Five publish a price
- $19.99–$150
- the published monthly entries, from a flat AI plan to a live-human pay-as-you-go
- Two numbers
- bedrooms and bathrooms are the whole price list. A service that cannot ask them takes a callback
The short version
- Cheapest published entry: SkipCalls at $19.99 a month, flat, with a cleaning-company guide of its own.
- Cheapest entry that books into your calendar: OnCallClerk from $29, which also wrote the roundup post that sits on page one for this search.
- Free to try: Phonely gives 100 minutes, then $50 for 200, and publishes a cleaning-company page.
- Best for a cleaning company that quotes on the call: Vandial at $99 a month, which asks bedrooms, bathrooms, frequency, first clean or ongoing and pets, quotes from your price list, and books the first clean at the longer length so the crew is not two hours late unpaid.
- Live humans: Smith.ai from $300 for 30 calls on the human plan; MAP, AnswerForce and Nexa quote rather than publish.
- A recurring customer is worth twenty times a one-off. Whatever you choose must ask 'one-off or regular, and how often' on the first call, not the second.
What each one publishes
Read from each vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-05. Cells marked 'not published' are exactly that.
| Best for | Model | Meter | Entry price | Then | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkipCalls | The lowest published price, flat | AI | Flat, unlimited minutes | $19.99/mo, or $199/yr | None published |
| OnCallClerk | Calendar booking on the cheapest tier | AI | Flat per plan | From $29/mo, calendar booking and transfers on the entry plan | Full-feature plans $99–$299/mo |
| Phonely | 100 free minutes to test on real inquiries | AI | Per minute of talk time | Free for 100 minutes; $50/mo for 200 | $0.25/min on Starter, $0.30 on the $150 Pro tier |
| Vandial | Quoting the clean on the call and booking it | AI | Per unique customer | $99/mo, unlimited call flows | None. The plan caps talk time, not calls |
| Smith.ai (human) | A bilingual human on every new inquiry | Human | Per call | $300/mo for 30 calls | $11.50 per call over 30 |
| MAP Communications | Commercial and residential under one contractors desk | Human | Per minute | Quote only; the pricing page refused the request (403) on the read date | Not published |
| AnswerForce | Live humans who book and arrange follow-ups | Human | Not published | Not published; /pricing redirects to the home page | Not published |
| Nexa | Virtual receptionists with a cleaning page | Human | Not published | Not published; the plans page carries no figure | Not published |
- skipcalls.com/pricing · read 2026-09-05
- oncallclerk.com/pricing · read 2026-09-05
- phonely.ai/pricing · read 2026-09-05
- smith.ai/pricing, human-first · read 2026-08-14
- mapcommunications.com/pricing · read 2026-09-05
- answerforce.com · read 2026-09-05
- nexa.com/plans · read 2026-09-05
How we compared them, and what we have to gain
Every figure on this page was read from the vendor's own public pricing page on the date shown, by us, and copied without rounding. Where a vendor publishes nothing, the cell says so; no estimate from a review site has been substituted, because a reader can check a published price in ten seconds and a wrong one discredits the rest of the page.
The eight were chosen from the first page of Google for 'answering service for cleaning companies' on the read date, keeping every vendor that publishes a page for cleaning companies and dropping the one result that was a cleaning company. Smith.ai's human plan is the one shown because its cleaning page sells bilingual human receptionists; its AI tier is compared on the small-business page.
We sell one of the products on this list. That is a conflict of interest and it is the reason the ranking is not a ranking: each provider gets the thing it is genuinely best at, Vandial is not placed first by default, and where a competitor is cheaper on a comparable meter the page says so in the first paragraph about them.
The second axis is whether the service can produce a quote on the first call, which in this trade is the difference between a booking and a callback to a number that has already rung the next company on the list.
The quote call, and why the price list is two numbers
Almost every residential cleaning price list is built on bedrooms and bathrooms, with a multiplier for frequency and a longer first visit. A caller who gives you those two numbers and a frequency can be quoted and booked in one call. A caller who is told somebody will ring back has, in the time it takes, rung the next company on the search results.
So the comparison is on whether the service asks those questions and can do something with the answers. A human agent on a script can ask them and can read a price off a sheet you have given them. An AI service can do the same if the price list is a setting it reads rather than a paragraph it remembers. A message-taking tier of either kind writes down 'wants a quote' and the callback problem is back.
The second thing the call has to establish is one-off or regular, and how often. A biweekly customer is worth twenty times a one-off and the rate is different, and it has to be asked on the first call, not discovered on the second.
SkipCalls and OnCallClerk: the flat-rate bottom of the market
SkipCalls publishes $19.99 a month, or $199 a year, with unlimited minutes, bilingual English and Spanish, spam filtering and a cleaning-company guide on its own site. OnCallClerk starts at $29 with calendar booking and call transfers on the entry plan and full-feature plans from $99 to $299; it also wrote the 'best call answering services for cleaning companies' post that sits on page one for this search, and ranks itself first in it.
At these prices the question is not whether to try one but what the entry tier withholds. Ask whether the agent can quote from your price list or only take the inquiry, and ask how many message scenarios the entry plan allows, because 'wants a quote for a deep clean' and 'regular customer wants to skip next week' are different calls and a one-scenario plan treats them the same.
Phonely: 100 free minutes to find out whether your callers tolerate it
Free for 100 minutes, then $50 a month for 200 at $0.25 a minute over and $150 for 650 at $0.30. Phonely publishes a page for cleaning companies that promises to capture quote requests and bookings around the clock. The free tier is enough to run a fortnight of real inquiries through it before paying anything, which is the right way to buy this.
The meter is per minute, and a quote call with five questions in it runs two or three minutes. At 200 minutes the $50 tier covers roughly seventy such calls, which for most residential companies is more than a month's inquiries.
Vandial: quotes the clean on the call and books the first visit at the right length
$99, $349 and $899 a month, metered on unique customers with unlimited calls and no per-minute charge. Our cleaning configuration asks how many bedrooms and bathrooms, one-off or regular and how often, first clean or ongoing, and whether there are pets and whether they will be in. It quotes from your price list, which is a setting you can change at eight in the evening and have the next call use, and it books the first deep clean at the longer length rather than the regular one, because booking it at the regular length is how a team ends up staying two hours late unpaid.
It writes the booking into your Google, Outlook, Apple or CalDAV calendar during the call. It never quotes a job that needs to be seen, such as post-construction or a hoarding clean, and says so in a configured sentence.
Where it is not the answer: a company whose inquiries are mostly commercial bids that need a site visit, where a message-taker is genuinely all the phone needs to do, and SkipCalls or Phonely will do that for less.
Smith.ai, MAP, AnswerForce, Nexa: live humans, mostly on quote
Smith.ai's cleaning page sells bilingual human receptionists who answer 24/7 and intake new leads; the human plan publishes $300 a month for 30 calls and $11.50 a call after, and the AI tier is free for 25 calls. MAP Communications lists cleaning under its contractors desk, AnswerForce promises to book appointments and arrange follow-ups for commercial, residential and specialty cleaners, and Nexa publishes a cleaning-company page; none of the three publishes a price.
A human agent given your price sheet can quote on the call, and for a company whose customers expect a person that is the deciding factor. The trade-off is the meter: per-call or per-minute, so the spring rush is the expensive month, and a price you cannot see until you have given a salesperson your phone number.
How to test any of them
Ring the trial number as a new customer and ask for a price on a three-bed, two-bath every other week with a dog. The call should end with a figure and a first-clean appointment, not with a promise of a callback. Then ring as an existing customer who needs to skip next week; that call should not be treated as a lead. A service that handles both without a human touching the phone has earned its month.
Hear it before you decide anything
The free tier builds the agent, takes your services and your prices, and lets you talk to it in the browser. Nobody should hand their phone to something they have not argued with first.
What is the best answering service for a cleaning company?
For the lowest price, SkipCalls at $19.99 flat. For calendar booking on the cheapest tier, OnCallClerk from $29. For a free test on real inquiries, Phonely's 100 minutes. For quoting the clean from bedrooms, bathrooms and frequency and booking the first visit at the right length, Vandial at $99. For a bilingual human on every inquiry, Smith.ai's human plan from $300.
How much does an answering service for a cleaning business cost?
Published entries run from $19.99 (SkipCalls) through $29 (OnCallClerk), $50 (Phonely), $99 (Vandial) and $300 (Smith.ai human). MAP, AnswerForce and Nexa quote rather than publish. Per-minute and per-call plans cost more in the spring rush; flat and per-customer plans do not.
Can an answering service give quotes for cleaning?
Only if it has your price list and the caller's bedrooms, bathrooms and frequency. A human agent can read a price from a sheet you provide; an AI agent can quote if the price list is a setting it reads. A message-taking tier of either kind cannot, and the inquiry becomes a callback.
Do cleaning companies need a 24/7 answering service?
Most inquiries arrive during the day while the crew is inside a house with their phones in the van, so the case is less about midnight than about 10 a.m. That said, every vendor here answers 24/7, and the evening inquiry from someone comparing three companies is the one worth catching.
Should the answering service book the first clean differently?
Yes. A first deep clean takes far longer than the visits after it, and booking it at the regular length is how a team stays late unpaid. Ask any vendor whether the first visit can be booked at a different length from the recurring one.
Still comparing
The rest of what somebody deciding this actually needs to read.
Answered for your trade, in your words
The questions, urgency rules and escalations are configuration. 31 trades have their own page.