Frontly vs Hiring a Human Receptionist
A full-time receptionist costs $60K-$70K a year before on-costs, works 38 hours a week, and can only handle one call at a time. Frontly works 24/7, handles unlimited calls simultaneously, and costs a fraction of the price.
The short answer
Is Frontly cheaper than hiring a receptionist?
For most Australian small businesses, yes. A full-time receptionist costs roughly $72,000 to $88,000 a year once superannuation, leave loading and training are counted, and covers one caller at a time during business hours. Frontly starts at $199 a month, answers every caller at once, and works nights and weekends. A person still wins on judgement, empathy and walk-ins.
- Replaces a $72K-$88K fully loaded salary line with a flat monthly rate
- 24/7 coverage, not just 9-5 Monday to Friday
- Handle 100 calls at once with no hold times and no missed calls
- Never calls in sick, takes leave, or quits without notice
- Captures every lead in your Frontly dashboard, not just takes messages
CAPABILITY
Built for how your business runs
A good receptionist is irreplaceable at the front counter. On the phone, this is what a platform can run that one person cannot.
| What your front desk needs | Frontly | Human Receptionist |
|---|---|---|
| Answers every call 24/7, public holidays included | Yes | Business hours |
| Every caller answered at once, no queue | Yes | One call at a time |
| Full conversations in 40+ languages on one number | Yes | The languages they speak |
| Warm transfer to your team with a spoken briefing | Yes | Yes |
| Books the appointment during the call | Yes | Yes |
| Remembers returning callers across calls | Yes | If they remember |
| Every booking, transcript and outcome in one dashboard | Yes | Manual notes |
| Outbound AI campaigns from your own lists | Yes | One call at a time |
| Separate workflows per location or brand, one account | Yes | One desk |
| Customised to your process on our own codebase | Yes | Trained on the job |
Swipe the table to see the Human Receptionist column.
Availability
| Feature | Frontly | Human Receptionist |
|---|---|---|
| 24/7/365 Coverage | Yes | No |
| Unlimited Concurrent Calls | Yes | No |
| No Sick Days or Leave | Yes | No |
| Instant Scale During Peak | Yes | No |
| Weekend & Public Holiday Coverage | Yes | Overtime |
| No Recruitment or Turnover Risk | Yes | No |
Swipe the table to see the Human Receptionist column.
Capabilities
| Feature | Frontly | Human Receptionist |
|---|---|---|
| Consistent Call Quality | Yes | Varies |
| Multi-Language Support | Yes | Rare |
| Cross-Call Memory | Yes | Varies |
| Outbound Campaign Calling | Yes | No |
| Automated Appointment Booking | Yes | Manual |
Swipe the table to see the Human Receptionist column.
Cost Comparison (Annual)
| Feature | Frontly | Human Receptionist |
|---|---|---|
| Base Annual Cost | From $2,388/year | $60K-$70K/year |
| Superannuation (12%) | N/A | $7.2K-$8.4K |
| Training & Onboarding | $0 on annual | $2K-$5K |
| Leave Loading (17.5% on 4 weeks) | N/A | $0.8K-$0.9K |
| Workers Compensation (3-5%) | N/A | $1.8K-$3.5K |
| Recruitment (one-off, when they leave) | N/A | $3K-$8K |
| True Annual Cost | From $2,388 | $72K-$88K |
Swipe the table to see the Human Receptionist column.
Where Humans Still Win
| Feature | Frontly | Human Receptionist |
|---|---|---|
| In-Person Visitor Reception | No | Yes |
| Complex Judgment Calls | Transfers to team | Yes |
| Relationship Building in Person | No | Yes |
Swipe the table to see the Human Receptionist column.
DEEP DIVE
Key Differences Explained
The True Cost of a Human Receptionist
Salary ($60K-$70K, SEEK 2026) is just the start. Add superannuation at 12% (the ATO guarantee rate from 1 July 2025), leave loading at 17.5% on four weeks, workers compensation and training. That takes the true cost to $72K-$88K a year, and they still only work 38 hours a week. Recruitment is left out of that total on purpose: replacing a receptionist costs $3K to $8K, but it is a one-off when somebody leaves rather than an annual cost, and counting it every year would overstate the comparison.
Frontly Augments, Not Replaces
Many businesses use Frontly alongside their existing team. The AI handles after-hours calls, overflow during peak times, routine enquiries and outbound follow-up, freeing your human team for high-value client interactions. For in-person visitors, relationship building, and complex judgment calls your team still leads, and Frontly transfers anything that needs real judgment straight to your team.
24/7 Coverage vs a 38-Hour Week
A human receptionist works about 38 hours a week, takes sick days and annual leave, and weekend or public holiday cover is paid as overtime. Frontly answers 24/7/365 with no sick days and no leave, weekends and public holidays included at no extra cost, so the calls that arrive at 7pm or on a Saturday are answered rather than missed.
Unlimited Calls at Once vs One at a Time
One receptionist can only take one call at a time, so in the busy periods, such as Monday morning or Saturday after open homes, calls queue, the rest hit voicemail and prospects hang up. Frontly handles unlimited concurrent calls and scales instantly during peak, answering 100 at once with no hold times and no missed calls, and without a recruitment drive when volume grows.
Consistent Capability on Every Call
Frontly qualifies the caller and captures the booking or lead in your Frontly dashboard, keeps call quality consistent on every call, supports multiple languages, remembers returning callers, and runs outbound campaigns. With a single person at the desk, those either vary from call to call or are done by hand, if at all.
How Pricing Compares
24/7 coverage. Every caller answered at once. All features included.
38 hours/week. One call at a time. Plus super, leave, training.
INDUSTRY FIT
Is Frontly right for your industry?
AI receptionist for dental practices loses its front desk to the chair constantly, so calls go unanswered while the receptionist you are already paying is busy with the patient in front of them.
AI front desk for small business is the front office an owner-operator can have before a full-time hire makes sense, answering every call while you are on the tools or with a customer.
AI reception for property managers gets the volume argument most clearly: one receptionist takes one call at a time, and a burst pipe on a Friday night generates several at once.
AI service desk for IT providers cannot staff a service desk at 2am for the one client whose server went down, and a single coordinator cannot log three outage calls at once.
AI IVR to replace your phone menu is the other half of a receptionist's day: routing callers to the right person. An AI IVR does that from one sentence of the caller's own words, and never puts anyone on hold to do it.
AI front desk for hotels cannot roster a receptionist across every hour a guest might ring, and the overnight calls are frequently the ones carrying a booking.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Not necessarily. Many businesses use Frontly to handle after-hours calls, overflow, and routine enquiries while keeping their human receptionist for in-person visitors and complex client interactions. It's about augmentation, not replacement.
A full-time receptionist costs $60K-$70K a year in salary alone (SEEK, Australia, 2026), plus roughly $12K-$18K in on-costs, for a loaded total of $72K-$88K. Frontly costs a fraction of that and covers 24/7 rather than 38 hours a week.
Yes. Frontly answers 24/7/365, including weekends and public holidays, at no extra cost. A human receptionist works about 38 hours a week, and weekend or public holiday cover is paid as overtime, so the calls that arrive outside 9-5 are exactly the ones a single receptionist misses.
Unlimited. Frontly handles concurrent calls in parallel and can answer 100 at once with no hold times and no missed calls. A human receptionist takes one call at a time, so when several people ring together the rest drop to voicemail.
On top of the $60K-$70K base salary (SEEK, Australia, 2026) come superannuation at 12%, leave loading at 17.5% on four weeks, workers compensation at roughly 3 to 5%, and training and onboarding. That takes the true annual cost to $72K-$88K, before the one-off $3K-$8K of replacing them. Frontly carries none of these on-costs.
Yes. In-person visitor reception, relationship building in person, and complex judgment calls are still a human's strength. Frontly transfers anything that needs real judgment straight to your team, which is why many businesses run it alongside their receptionist rather than instead of one.
Yes. Frontly qualifies the caller, captures the booking or lead in your Frontly dashboard, books appointments, and runs outbound campaigns. A human receptionist typically does these manually, or not at all, and quality varies from person to person.
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