The short version
We would rather tell you this plainly than bury it. AI Receptionist Report is referral-supported. You do not pay us. Some of the providers we write about pay us a referral fee when a reader we introduce signs up and becomes a paying customer. Cactus, the provider we recommend for the trades, is one of those partners.
That is the entire business model. There is no paywall, no subscription, and no charge to use the calculator or the get-matched form.
Free to you. Paid by providers, but only when a match we made turns into a real customer. If nobody signs up, we earn nothing.
What a referral fee does not do
A referral relationship pays us for an introduction. It does not pay us to lie. Here is where we draw the line, and we hold it because a guide that sells its rankings is worthless to a contractor and worthless to us.
What paying us gets a provider
- An honest introduction to a reader whose trade and situation actually fit their product
- Coverage that describes what they do well and who they suit
What paying us never gets a provider
- A better score or a higher spot in a comparison
- A pass on their weaknesses or a rewritten set of cons
- A recommendation for a use case they are wrong for
We recommend Cactus for home-service trades on its real strengths: it is built for the trades, it answers calls 24/7, it works in English and Spanish, it books into Housecall Pro and Jobber, and it stands behind a 3x-or-free guarantee. If a different provider fits your situation better, we say so on the page. Some of those other providers are not partners at all, and we still list them when they are the right call.
Why we run it this way
I run paid and organic acquisition for home-service businesses. I know what it feels like to pay for a lead and watch it leak. A guide that steers you to whoever pays the most is doing the same thing to you. So the deal is straightforward. We earn when we make a good match. We do not earn by tricking a contractor into a product that will not work for their shop, because that contractor cancels, the provider stops paying, and our credibility is gone. The incentive only holds up if the advice is honest.
Our review method, what we test, and what would get a provider removed.
A note on pricing
Prices on this site are shown as of the date noted on each page, usually early 2026, and they change often. Providers add tiers, drop tiers, and adjust per-call and per-minute rates without warning. Some do not publish a public price at all, including Cactus, which quotes pricing on a demo. Always confirm current pricing directly with the provider before you sign anything. If we could not verify a number from a primary source, we say so on the page rather than guess.
We are referral-supported, not vendor-owned. We recommend Cactus for the trades because it earns that pick on merit. Where another provider fits better, that is the one we send you to. If that ever stops being true, this page and the get-matched form should be the first things you stop trusting.
Questions about how we make money or how a specific recommendation was reached: learn who we are or read how we review.