--- title: My AI Front Desk Alternative canonical: "https://lobbystack.com/blog/my-ai-front-desk-alternative/" pubDate: "2026-07-30T15:40:00.000Z" author: LobbyStack Team description: "Compare Frontdesk, formerly My AI Front Desk, with LobbyStack on voice, CRM tools, booking, pricing, open-source access, and self-hosted control." categories: [Comparisons] --- Buyers searching for a **My AI Front Desk alternative** should start with one pricing detail: Frontdesk's advertised $20 plan includes zero voice minutes. LobbyStack includes 30 voice minutes on its free plan, with appointment booking, summaries, call history, SMS alerts, and outbound call attempts. Frontdesk, formerly My AI Front Desk, now sells a broad AI sales workspace. LobbyStack gives businesses a complete phone receptionist at a lower entry price, more included voice usage on comparable paid plans, and the choice of managed cloud or self-hosting. ## Frontdesk vs LobbyStack | Area | Frontdesk | LobbyStack | | --- | --- | --- | | Ongoing free plan | None; Basic costs $20 with 0 voice minutes | 30 voice minutes, no card, all features | | Product scope | Omnichannel AI workforce and CRM | Complete AI receptionist and call operations | | Usable voice entry | $99 monthly plan with 200 minutes | Free with 30 minutes and receptionist features | | Around $30/month | $20 Basic has 0 voice minutes | $30 Starter has 150 voice minutes | | Around $100/month | $99 Business has 200 voice minutes | $100 Pro has 500 voice minutes | | Channels | Voice, SMS, chat, email, forms | Voice, SMS alerts and follow-up, dashboard | | Booking and call records | Included on the voice plan | Included on Free, Starter, and Pro | | CRM | Native CRM and sequences | Receptionist records plus integrations | | Deployment | Hosted | Managed cloud or self-hosted | | Source access | Not advertised on reviewed pages | Public AGPL-3.0 repository | Pricing and features were checked on July 30, 2026. ## LobbyStack lets you test real phone calls for free Frontdesk calls its $20 Basic tier an entry plan, but that tier includes zero voice minutes. You can test chat, SMS, email drafts, forms, and workflow tools. You cannot use the included allowance to test the core job of an AI phone receptionist. LobbyStack's Free plan includes 30 voice minutes, 10 SMS alert segments, two outbound call attempts, appointment booking, summaries, and call history. You can forward a real number, run actual customer scenarios, and inspect the result before paying a monthly fee. LobbyStack also excludes spam calls and calls under 10 seconds from usage, so a robocall or instant hang-up does not consume the included allowance. That difference matters more than the two headline prices. A $20 plan with no voice allowance does not compete with a free plan that answers calls. ## Frontdesk covers more channels, if you need them Frontdesk has moved beyond a phone-only receptionist. Its public product pages advertise inbound and outbound voice, two-way SMS, web chat, email drafting, form capture, lead sequences, and a native CRM. A business can keep several early sales interactions in one vendor's system. That scope helps a small team that has no CRM and wants one product to capture a web lead, text them, call them, and track the exchange. Frontdesk also sells a white-label program for agencies. LobbyStack avoids charging receptionist customers for a replacement CRM they may not need. It stores callers, appointments, messages, transcripts, summaries, and business rules, then connects the phone workflow to the systems the team already uses. ## The advertised $20 plan does not include voice minutes Frontdesk lists a $20 Basic plan, but the reviewed pricing page gives it no voice minutes. Business-in-a-Box lists 200 voice minutes for $99 per month, with a published annual equivalent of $79 per month. Enterprise pricing is custom. The Business-in-a-Box plan also lists: - 20 knowledge pages - the last 200 interaction logs - three notification recipients - two editor seats Those limits may be enough for a small operation. A team with a large knowledge base, a longer audit window, or more editors should price the next step before moving phone traffic. LobbyStack offers far more phone usage at the same spending level: - Free: 30 voice minutes, compared with zero on Frontdesk Basic at $20 - Starter: 150 minutes for $30 per month - Pro: 500 minutes for $100 per month, compared with 200 on Frontdesk Business at $99 At 200 minutes, LobbyStack Starter costs about $40 using its published $0.20 per-minute overage. Frontdesk charges $99 month to month for the same included voice volume. At about $100, LobbyStack includes two and a half times as many voice minutes. Frontdesk bundles more sales software into its $99 plan. That bundle creates value when a business needs those tools. A buyer who needs an AI receptionist gets more call capacity per dollar from LobbyStack. ## Focus can be an advantage A broad product can reduce the number of vendors. It also asks a team to adopt more of Frontdesk's workflow. Businesses that already run HubSpot, Salesforce, Jobber, ServiceTitan, or another operating system may not want a second CRM. LobbyStack fits between the phone and those business systems. Convex holds the receptionist's business state, while the voice gateway handles the live call. A self-hosted operator can control the deployment, provider accounts, logs, and retention. Frontdesk's reviewed pages do not advertise self-hosting or public source access. LobbyStack customers can inspect the AGPL-3.0 code, choose the managed product, or deploy the stack on infrastructure they control. They keep a route out of vendor lock-in. ## A lead-generation agency example An agency builds websites and paid search campaigns for ten home-service clients. It wants an AI receptionist for each client and automated follow-up after missed calls. Frontdesk gives the agency a hosted omnichannel product and a published white-label offer. That can shorten launch time when the agency wants the vendor to own the platform. LobbyStack gives the agency a lower-cost receptionist product, code it can inspect, and a stack it can deploy. The agency can control provider accounts, infrastructure, retention, and client-specific call logic instead of building those services around a closed platform. The agency should test tenant separation, client access, provider billing, call review, calendar failures, and export before choosing. A white-label logo alone does not settle those operational questions. ## Choose Frontdesk when Choose Frontdesk when you need a hosted voice, messaging, chat, email, and CRM bundle and plan to use those channels as one sales workspace. Its broader surface can replace several tools for a small team starting without a CRM. ## Choose LobbyStack when Choose LobbyStack when you want to test real calls free, pay less for 150 to 200 minutes, or get 500 minutes near the $100 price point. LobbyStack also gives you booking, transcripts, summaries, SMS alerts, human handoff, public code, self-hosting, and provider control without forcing a CRM replacement. ## Sources - [Frontdesk pricing](https://www.myaifrontdesk.com/pricing) - [Frontdesk AI receptionist](https://www.myaifrontdesk.com/ai-receptionist) - [Frontdesk white label](https://www.myaifrontdesk.com/white-label) - [LobbyStack features](/features/) - [Open-source LobbyStack stack](/blog/open-source-ai-receptionist-stack/) ## Verdict Frontdesk sells more channels. LobbyStack offers the stronger AI receptionist value: usable free voice service, lower-cost paid call capacity, complete call operations, and an open deployment path. If your priority is answering and converting phone calls, [start with LobbyStack's free 30 voice minutes](/pricing/). You can test booking, handoff, summaries, and call history before Frontdesk's first voice-enabled plan would cost you $99.