Four ways to handle inbound calls
A keypad menu, an AI answering service, a team phone system, or a menu with AI only on the branches you choose. Here is what each approach is, who it fits, and what each vendor publishes.
Approach
What it is
Best for
Keypad call menu
Callers press a number and every key always goes to the same place
Businesses that want routing they can predict
Conversational AI answering service
An AI agent answers and handles the call in natural language
Businesses whose calls are mostly questions and bookings
Team phone system (cloud PBX)
A full phone platform with user licences, queues, integrations and reporting
Teams of people on the phone all day
Call menu with AI on selected branches
A keypad menu where AI answers only the branches you switch it on for
Owners who want control of the flow and AI only where it helps
Approach
Keypad call menu
Conversational AI answering service
Team phone system (cloud PBX)
Call menu with AI on selected branches
What it is
Callers press a number and every key always goes to the same place
An AI agent answers and handles the call in natural language
A full phone platform with user licences, queues, integrations and reporting
A keypad menu where AI answers only the branches you switch it on for
Best for
Businesses that want routing they can predict
Businesses whose calls are mostly questions and bookings
Teams of people on the phone all day
Owners who want control of the flow and AI only where it helps
Double Menu
Goodcall
Aircall
Rosie
Approach
Call menu with AI on selected branches[1]Verified
Conversational AI answering service[2]Verified
Team phone system (cloud PBX)[3]Verified
Conversational AI answering service[4]Verified
Caller interaction
Keypad[1]Verified
Natural language[5]Verified
Keypad IVR built in a visual editor[3]Verified
Natural language[4]Verified
AI deployment
Optional, per branch, from the Smart plan[1]Plan-specific
Answers every call it receives; first-line or overflow[6]Verified
Optional add-on sold in minutes[7]Verified
Answers every call forwarded to it; you choose when[4]Verified
Caller speech sent to AI
The AI agent answers every call it receives[6]Verified
Only where the optional AI Voice Agent is deployed[7]Plan-specific
The AI answers every call forwarded to it[4]Verified
Human handoff
Any branch can ring a person[1]Configuration-specific
Transfer to a line, a person or a department[6]Verified
Human routing is the default[3]Verified
Warm and live transfer from the Scale plan[9]Plan-specific
Appointment booking
Keypad or AI branch, from the Smart plan[1]Plan-specific
Built-in agent skill[6]Verified
In-call action of the AI add-on[7]Plan-specific
From the Scale plan[9]Plan-specific
SMS to the caller
Every plan, 50 to 300 messages a month by plan[1]Plan-specific
SMS and MMS on Essentials and Professional, country-dependent[7]Plan-specific
From the Scale plan[9]Plan-specific
Recordings and transcripts
Call log every plan; audio and transcripts from AI branches only[1]Plan-specific
AI interaction recorded and transcribed; its April 2024 article says the transferred portion was not recorded[10][11]Plan-specific
Call recording from Essentials[7]Plan-specific
Every published plan[9]Verified
Analytics
From the Smart plan[1]Plan-specific
Analytics dashboard[2]Verified
Agent and team analytics[3]Verified
Summaries and transcripts; no dashboard described[9]Not documented publicly
Data location
Hetzner, Nuremberg, Germany; subprocessors and retention defaults published, DPA on request[8]Verified
United States[12]Verified
Oregon, USA; EMEA recordings in Frankfurt, transcriptions always Oregon[13]Verified
Not stated in the public DPA[14]Not documented publicly
Published entry price
€29/mo without AI, €69/mo with AI[1]Verified
$79 per agent/mo[11]Verified
$49/mo for 250 minutes[9]Verified
Several locations
Flat monthly price, phone numbers by plan[1]Plan-specific
Per agent; no location price published[11]Not documented publicly
Per licence; no location price published[16]Not documented publicly
Custom multi-location pricing[17]Verified
SourcesLast checked: 2026-07-25
- [1]Double Menu — Pricing and plans — plan matrix, limits and top-up rates. https://doublemenu.ai/pricing
- [2]Goodcall — Product overview. https://www.goodcall.com/
- [3]Aircall — IVR — Smartflows visual call-flow editor, multi-level keypad menus. https://aircall.io/call-center-software-features/ivr/
- [4]Rosie — Overflow answering service — forwarding and when calls reach Rosie. https://heyrosie.com/solutions/overflow-answering-service
- [5]Goodcall — Help Center — how to use branching logic in your call flow. https://help.goodcall.com/en/articles/9977576-how-to-use-branching-logic-to-customize-your-call-flow-in-goodcall-3
- [6]Goodcall — How it works — first-line and overflow answering, transfers, skills. https://www.goodcall.com/how-it-works
- [7]Aircall — Pricing and plans — AI Voice Agent minutes, messaging, call recording (prices render in a live widget, not in the page text). https://aircall.io/pricing/
- [8]Double Menu — Security and data — hosting location, subprocessors, retention defaults and DPA availability. https://doublemenu.ai/security
- [9]Rosie — Pricing — plans, included minutes and per-plan features. https://heyrosie.com/pricing
- [10]Goodcall — Help Center — call recording notification and what is recorded (published 28 April 2024). https://help.goodcall.com/en/articles/8007564-goodcall-s-call-recording-notification
- [11]Goodcall — Pricing — per-agent plans, unique-customer allowances and data retention windows. https://www.goodcall.com/pricing
- [12]Goodcall — Help Center — privacy policy, AI Assistant audio and transcriptions. https://help.goodcall.com/en/articles/8007565-privacy
- [13]Aircall — Privacy FAQs — storage region per data category and transfer mechanisms. https://aircall.io/privacy-faqs/
- [14]Rosie — Data-processing agreement. https://heyrosie.com/legal/data-processing
- [15]Aircall — Aircall vs Dialpad — Aircall's own published plan price table (published 3 December 2025). https://aircall.io/blog/aircall-vs-dialpad/
- [16]Aircall — Help Center — plans: pricing and flexibility (licence minimums). https://support.aircall.io/en-gb/articles/30599733509277
- [17]Rosie — Multi-location pricing explanation (Rosie vs Goodcall). https://heyrosie.com/blog/rosie-ai-vs-goodcall
How we compare: we read each vendor’s own product, pricing, help and privacy pages and link every material claim to the page we read. We have not independently tested the competing products. Where a vendor does not publish something, we say so rather than marking it as missing.
Our own column is sourced the same way: plan figures from our published pricing page, hosting and retention from our security and data page.
Every cell above links to the vendor document it came from, with the date we read that document and the evidence state we judged it to have. Nothing here is a calculated per-location total — where a vendor does not publish one, we say so. Prices are the vendors' own published listings and sit in different currencies and billing terms.