{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "ruby",
 "name": "Ruby",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "ruby.com",
 "category": "Communication & Voice",
 "task": "Someone — or an AI — to answer the calls we miss",
 "summary": "Live human receptionists answering your calls, plus chat. Premium rates that pay off only when a missed call is a lost client.",
 "best_for": "client-driven service businesses (law, home services, clinics) where a live human answering every call directly wins business",
 "skip_if": "your call volume is low or mostly routine — an AI answering service or a solid voicemail-to-text setup costs far less",
 "honest_knock": "You're paying premium rates for real human receptionists billed per minute — worth it when a missed call is a lost client, but expensive if your call volume is low or an AI answering service would do the job for a fraction.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$250",
  "entry_price_terms": "Virtual receptionist, 50 receptionist minutes a month · per month as published",
  "from_price_usd_month": 250.0,
  "plans": null,
  "plans_source": null,
  "notes": "Read on their own plans-and-pricing page, 6 September 2026, and unchanged on 6 October 2026. Virtual receptionist plans are sold by monthly minutes: 50 minutes $250, 100 minutes $395, 200 minutes $720, 500 minutes $1,725 — $5.00 a minute at the bottom, $3.45 at the top. Live chat is sold by monthly chats: 10 chats $143, 30 chats $335, 50 chats $520. Add chat to a receptionist plan and those become $115, $268 and $416 — the 20% the page advertises, exact at the two larger tiers and rounded up from $114.40 at the smallest. Larger volumes are quoted. Ruby states there are no extra fees for activation, onboarding, setup, customisation or out-of-hours coverage, and every feature is included at every tier — the plans differ only in the number of minutes or chats. No rate is published for minutes used beyond your plan.",
  "verified_at": "2026-10-06",
  "source_url": "https://www.ruby.com/plans-and-pricing/",
  "schema_offer": {
   "price": 250.0,
   "currency": "USD",
   "description": "Virtual receptionist, 50 receptionist minutes a month, per month as published — Ruby's plan card shows no annual alternative beside it; larger volumes are quoted on request. Read on the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-08-18.",
   "page": "https://zerotouchsupport.com/ruby-review.html"
  },
  "source_quotes": null
 },
 "free_plan": false,
 "free_plan_evidence": null,
 "cost_traps": [
  {
   "id": "usage_metered",
   "label": "Usage-metered",
   "evidence": "You're paying premium rates for real human receptionists billed per minute — worth it when a missed call is a lost client, but expensive if your call volume is low or an AI answering service would do the job for a fraction.",
   "verified_at": "2026-10-06",
   "source_url": "https://www.ruby.com/plans-and-pricing/"
  }
 ],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "Smith.ai or an AI receptionist",
  "why": "cheaper or AI-based answering services"
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/ruby.json",
  "review": "https://zerotouchsupport.com/ruby-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/ruby/",
  "vendor_site": "https://ruby.com"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://get.ruby.com/wlngs0yc8d9c",
  "affiliate": false,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Plan-by-plan prices are not structured in this record yet; pricing.notes has the full text.",
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "Being verified: free trial and refund terms are not yet matched to a verbatim line on the vendor's own pages. Not matched does not mean there is none.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "verification": {
  "price": "read",
  "free_trial": "being_verified",
  "refund": "being_verified"
 },
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "ruby:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "ruby:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "ruby:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "ruby:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 },
 "task_scope": {
  "scope": "answering_service",
  "label": "Live answering service (human receptionists)",
  "why": "Live human receptionists answering your calls, plus chat.",
  "source": "our dossier",
  "phrases": [
   "answering service",
   "live answering",
   "live receptionist",
   "human receptionist",
   "call answering service",
   "virtual receptionist",
   "receptionist service"
  ]
 }
}