Compare · prices read 2 September 2026
Retell is voice-agent infrastructure for developers, billed per component at about 8.8¢ to 13¢ a minute plus $2 a number. Sureline is the finished receptionist, billed the same way at about 8.3¢ a minute plus $2 a month for each pathway you keep live. The price gap is not the point: on Retell your developer builds the receptionist, the booking, the transfer and the inbox; on Sureline they are the product, started from a trade template and edited on a canvas by the owner.
Retell's prices are from retellai.com/pricing; Sureline's from the published rates. Both change, so the date at the top is part of the claim.
The same month on Retell: $24 to $35. Change the quantities on the pricing page.
The same month, billed by each
About 60 four-minute calls, the month a single-location shop with a forwarded line tends to have.
Retell, Rosie, Goodcall and Smith.ai from their public pricing pages, read 2 September 2026 · Retell at 8.8¢ to 13¢ a minute depending on the language model, plus $2 a number · Sureline at the published starting rate, carrier time on a local number included · calls taken as four minutes each
Criterion by criterion
| Sureline | Retell | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A finished receptionist: agents, inbox, knowledge base, rules, transfers | A platform to build voice agents on, with an API and SDKs |
| Who builds the agent | You, from a trade template, on a canvas | Your developer, or you, on the builder and the API |
| Pricing model | Per component at published rates, per AI model | Per component: voice, speech, language model, telephony, number |
| A minute of conversation | About 8.3¢ at the starting rate, carrier included | About 8.8¢ to 13¢ depending on the model, telephony included |
| Monthly | $2 a month for each pathway kept live; nothing else | $2 a number; concurrency and knowledge bases past the free allowance $8 each |
| Monthly minimum | None | None |
| Books appointments | Included, with Housecall Pro and Zapier | A function call you build and connect |
| Transfers a live call | Included, with a whispered summary before you pick up | Built with the SDK and your own conditions |
| Inbox, transcripts, texting the caller | Included, one thread per customer | Transcripts and analytics in the dashboard; the inbox is yours to build |
| Knowledge base | Read from your website, filled in once | Ten free, then $8 a month each, plus a per-minute add-on |
| Website and app | Same agent, same voice, two lines of code | Web call SDK, wired by a developer |
| Free to start | $10 credit, no card to try | $10 credit |
Retell from retellai.com/pricing, read 2 September 2026 · Sureline from sureline.io/rates and the product
Who should pick which
Pick Retell if you have a developer and a flow of your own to build, or you are a product team shipping voice into something bigger. Pick Sureline if you are the owner of a business with a phone that rings, you want the receptionist working this week, and you want to be able to open it up and change it yourself.
Matched at three volumes
| Monthly cost at | Sureline, Free plan | Retell | Rosie | Goodcall | Smith.ai |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 minutes, 1 line (about 25 calls) | ≈ $10 | $11 to $15 | $49 | $79 | $300 |
| 250 minutes, 1 line (about 60 calls) | ≈ $22 | $24 to $35 | $49 | $79 | $645 |
| 1,000 minutes, 2 lines (about 250 calls) | ≈ $87 | $92 to $134 | $149 | $129 (Growth tier) | $2,100 |
| Monthly minimum | none | none | $49 | $79 | $300 |
| Who builds the agent | You, on a canvas, from a trade template | Your developer, on the API | Rosie, from a form | Goodcall, with logic flows | Smith.ai, from your instructions |
| Booking an appointment | included | you build it | Scale tier and up | included | $1.50 a call |
| Transferring a call to you | included, summary whispered first | you build it | Scale tier and up | included | one destination free |
Retell, Rosie, Goodcall and Smith.ai from their public pricing pages, read 2 September 2026 · Retell at 8.8¢ to 13¢ a minute depending on the language model, plus $2 a number · Sureline at the published starting rate, carrier time on a local number included · calls taken as four minutes each
FAQ
No. Sureline runs its own telephony and its own cascade of speech and language models, and publishes a rate for each. The two bill the same way because component pricing is the honest way to bill a conversation.
You pick from the models Sureline publishes rates for, from the starting model to the best available, per agent. Bringing a model of your own is a Retell job.
You may not need to. If the inbox, the transfer, the after-hours rules and the booking are built and someone maintains them, Retell is doing its job. Sureline is for the owner who does not have that someone.
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