AI receptionist buyer’s checklist

Do this before a demo. Use your cell, not the desk phone. Write what actually happened, not what the staff remembers.

After hours — date, time, rings, voicemail, text, or a person:

Busy lunch — same notes, while rooms are full:

• I called after the door was locked.
• I called during a busy lunch.
• I wrote down whether anyone could book, and how long a text took.

A missed-call text tells the caller you saw the ring. An AI receptionist tries to handle the call. They are different purchases. If a person already answers and can book, the leak may be the calls that bounce, not the whole phone.

On Weave, Missed Call Text is in the base plan, which starts at $199 per month (plans page checked October 27, 2026). Weave’s AI Receptionist, voice and messaging, is labeled early access and that page does not print its price. Do not treat $199 as the AI receptionist price. The split is on the comparison.

The speed-to-lead playbook says missed calls get a text within a minute. Most people who hit voicemail do not leave one. The text is the lead.

• Does it answer the call when the desk is closed, or only text after a missed ring?
• Is the included volume sized for after hours, or for the main line all day?
• What happens when the minutes or calls run out, and is that rate published?

A complete answer looks like a number, not “unlimited” with an asterisk. A few shapes already in the directory:

• Cordiva starts at $299 a month. The listing treats Starter’s 150 minutes as after-hours volume and says a main-line spa will outgrow it. Overage on that plan is $0.60 a minute.
• GoSona answers inbound calls around the clock. $329 a month with 200 minutes, then $0.15 a minute, plus a $750 setup.
• Boulevard’s Beau answers on a Boulevard number. After the free window, $125 per location per month for the first 200 minutes, then $0.60 a minute. You are only charged in months it handles at least one call.
• Quo includes Sona. One call uses 100 credits. Every plan includes 1,000 credits, which the pricing page calls 10 calls. A busy phone buys a credit tier on top.

The book of record today:

• It can create, change, and cancel the appointment in that system.
• Or it only texts a link, or captures a lead a person still has to enter.
• If we are not on that vendor’s book, I know what is left of the product.

A missed-call text does not book by itself. Someone, or another product, still has to take the reply and put it on the book. Read the listing for the system you actually run. The directory’s published distinctions:

• Beau books, reschedules, and cancels inside Boulevard. It only helps if the phone number and the book are already in Boulevard.
• Mira answers on the Mangomint number. Calls need the Mangomint Phone add-on at $70 per line. Mira’s own monthly price is Not listed. It does not help a spa that is not on Mangomint.
• Reception by GlossGenius is $50 a month and books into the GlossGenius calendar, on top of a GlossGenius subscription. It is not a receptionist you point at Boulevard.
• MedspAI does not publish a monthly price. On October 29, 2026 the public pages did not name a booking system. A missing name is not a yes, and Not listed is not a price.
• Cordiva names Boulevard, Mangomint, Jane, Zenoti, and Aesthetix as integrations.
• First Ring’s plan card lists booking sync with Boulevard, Vagaro, Mindbody, Acuity, and Google Calendar. The same page’s logo row and FAQ also name Mangomint, Aesthetic Record, and Jane. The med spa page lists $399 a month. The homepage lists $199 a month. Get the quote in writing, and note which page it came from.
• Ignitara books into the calendar they set up. The listing says it is not a native Boulevard or Zenoti write-back.
• bookr puts the appointment on a GoHighLevel calendar. It is Instagram, web chat, and SMS, not the phone. Direct booking into Boulevard or Zenoti is not the pitch.
• Quo does not write appointments into Boulevard, Mangomint, or an aesthetic chart.

• They will sign a BAA before this connects to anything that holds treatment history.
• That BAA is on the plan in the quote, not on a different tier.
• The agent will not decide candidacy, dosing, or a complication.

• Cordiva includes a BAA and an MSA from Starter, not only on an enterprise tier.
• First Ring’s med spa FAQ says a BAA is available on the Growth plan, on HIPAA-eligible infrastructure. The priced card is labeled Flat-rate plan. Ask which plan the quote is.
• The GlossGenius pricing page does not publish a BAA for the Reception add-on. It also does not publish minute caps or overage for it.
• Quo’s HIPAA row says Talk to Sales. Do not assume a BAA comes with the $15 plan.
• GoHighLevel lists HIPAA compliance as an add-on at $297 a month. Ignitara is a done-for-you desk on GoHighLevel. bookr books onto a GoHighLevel calendar. Neither listing says that add-on is included. Ask who signs the BAA.

The speed-to-lead playbook: a price range and “do you offer this service” are fair if they match the menu you would say out loud. Candidacy, dosing, and anything that sounds like a complication go to a person. A post-treatment scare goes to the provider, not a nurture sequence. Ignitara describes a clinical safety handoff and says it stops marketing if a client reports a complication.

Who owns the handoff, by name:

• I know which calls transfer: clinical, upset, or a booking it cannot finish.
• That owner is on the schedule before lunch and before close. “The front desk” is not a name.
• I can get the recording or the transcript the same day.
• Open hours have a human target of a few minutes. After close, the target is the first hour of the next morning.

• GoSona transfers when you set the rule. Recordings and a monthly report are included. Support on the published plan is email.
• First Ring’s med spa page says it transfers clinical questions.
• Smith.ai can pass a call to a live receptionist. It is a general product, not a med spa chart integration. The card price is free, then from $150 a month.

Aesthetix CRM published response times for more than 200 aesthetic practices on its platform, sampled from July through September 2026. These are their customers, not every med spa. At the median, the first message from a person took 12 hours and 13 minutes, and 48.9% of sampled leads had no message from a person within seven days. An auto-reply is not a response. Buying an AI receptionist and then letting the handoff die is how you pay for both and book neither. If the auto-reply is fast and the human reply is half a day, the next purchase is a person, a script, and a calendar block.

One monthly number is not a quote. Fill these in. If a line is blank, you do not know the price yet. A lower sticker is not a better fit.

Monthly base

Setup fee

Included minutes or calls

Overage

Per location, per user, or per line

Text, email, and voice usage on top

The other bill you still pay (the book, GoHighLevel, a phone add-on)

Published shapes, so a one-number quote stands out:

• Ignitara is $397 a month plus a $397 setup, and usage is extra. AI voice is $0.03 a minute on the rate card. They say a typical single location uses $25 to $75 a month. No contract.
• Weave’s base is $199. Coordinate is $149. Attract is $149. A stack of all three is $199 + $149 + $149 before phones and before the AI price, which is Not listed.
• bookr is $2,000 a month, month to month, with no setup fee. The listing says the GoHighLevel subscription is separate, in the $50 to $100 a month range on bookr’s page.
• Mira’s help center says no setup fee, no minute cap, and no per-minute overage, invoiced separately from Mangomint. The monthly subscription is not on the pricing article. Phone is $70 per line on top.
• First Ring’s med spa hero says no setup fees. The plan card on that page says $400. The homepage lists a different monthly base. Confirm which page you are being quoted from.

The full table, with each card price or Not listed, is on Best AI receptionist for med spas.

• Month to month, or a term, and the notice required to cancel.
• There is a trial, and I know whether it is the full product.
• If the setup fee is refundable, I have the number of days from going live.
• If they guarantee booked appointments, I have the definition, including who is excluded.

• Weave’s plans FAQ says no long-term contract is required, yearly discounts exist, and there is no free trial for the full platform.
• Quo offers a 7-day trial and says you can cancel in the app. The page says the number stays 60 days after the cycle ends.
• GoSona: no contract, cancel anytime. They refund the setup fee if you are not satisfied within 30 days of going live.
• Beau has no minimum term. All usage is free for August through November 2026. Usage starts counting December 1, 2026. The first charge shows on the January 1, 2027 bill.
• Smith.ai is month to month, with 30 days’ notice to cancel.
• bookr does not invoice the first 30 days if they book no qualified appointments. They describe a qualified appointment as a real person, a matching service interest, a budget that fits your pricing, and a confirmed time on the GoHighLevel calendar. The listing notes that definition excludes no-shows who don’t rebook.
• First Ring’s med spa page says you can cancel anytime. The two public monthly prices still do not match. Get the page in writing.

• I know whether the quote is the phone, Instagram and Facebook DMs, web chat, Meta lead forms, or outbound calls.
• A DM that lives on someone’s personal phone is not covered by a phone agent.
• Outbound AI voice stays off until the consent matches what we will actually dial.

• Cordiva is phone coverage. Instagram DMs and lead-ad forms are not the product. GoSona is inbound voice. It does not claim Instagram DMs or Meta lead forms.
• bookr starts where a lot of med spa leads start: Instagram DMs, plus web chat and SMS. It is not the phone line.
• Beau does not cover Instagram DMs, Meta lead forms, or a CRM you run somewhere else.
• The speed-to-lead playbook: if the DM lives on someone’s personal phone, you do not have a speed-to-lead number. You have a rumor.
• MedspAI places outbound calls to new and old leads. The listing says to read the SMS compliance playbook before you turn campaigns on. That playbook cites the FCC’s February 8, 2024 ruling that an AI-generated human voice counts as an artificial voice under the TCPA, and it says answering your own inbound line is not the same thing as dialing a list.

• I called after hours and during a busy lunch, and I wrote down what happened.
• I know whether I need a missed-call text, an agent that handles the call, or both.
• A test booking landed in the system we already use.
• A BAA is signed, or I have it in writing that we will not send treatment history.
• A named person owns the handoff before lunch and before close.
• Base, setup, included volume, and overage are written down, or marked not published.
• Contract, cancellation notice, and trial are written down.
• Outbound AI voice is off until consent matches the calls we will place.

Vendor and the plan name on the quote

Date of the demo