AI SOLUTIONS
Every AI product being sold to you right now, compared honestly.
You have seen the ads. An $8 app that replaces everything. A dozen AI helpers for the price of one. Here is what each one actually is, what it really costs once you count your own hours, and the one question none of them answer.
The landscape
There are four tiers, and the ads only show you one.
| Tier | What it is | Typical price | Who runs it |
|---|---|---|---|
| The ad tier | Bundled "AI helper" subscriptions. Credit-metered, general purpose. | $8 to 197/mo | You |
| Bundled into your software | The AI receptionist your field-service platform now sells you. | $29 to 149/mo | You |
| Answering services | Purpose-built AI or human receptionists. Narrow job, done well. | $49 to 999/mo | You |
| Done-for-you | A system built around your business and operated for you. This is our tier. | Build fee + monthly retainer | Somebody else |
Prices as advertised by each vendor in July 2026; they change often. Verify on the vendor's own page before relying on any figure here.
Tier one
What is actually in those ads.
Most of these are real products. Several are good. None of them answer your phone.
| Category | Advertised | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| General-purpose AI assistants | ~$20/mo | Excellent general assistants. Stinger builds on this same class of AI. They wait for you to type. |
| Persona-bundle AI subscriptions | $16 to 197/mo | A bundle of a dozen generic helper personas on a monthly credit allowance. |
| All-in-one subscription wrappers | $8/mo | Bundles multiple AI subscriptions into one monthly fee. |
| AI ad/content generators | ~$20/mo | Generates ads and social content. Real product, narrow job. |
| Workflow automation tools | varies | Automation glue. Powerful, if you are the one building with it. |
| Premium voice generation | $5 to 30/mo | The clearest voices, from the standalone providers. |
| Desk "AI workforce" devices | pre-order | Unproven. Pre-launch hardware promising a workforce in a box. |
The pattern: every product above sells you a tool. The ad never mentions who configures it, connects it, watches it, and uses it every day. That person is you, at 9pm, after your last job.
Tier two: read this one carefully
If your field-service software already bundles an AI receptionist.
If all you need is someone to pick up and take a message, buy theirs. It is cheap and it works. Several field-service platforms now offer a basic AI receptionist as an add-on for a modest amount added to your plan.
Here is where those stop:
- They answer inbound only. Nothing goes back out.
- They book into their calendar, inside their platform.
- They repeat whatever your website says, including prices you have not updated in two years.
- They will not chase the quote, send the invoice, or follow up on the job that went quiet.
- They do not handle carrier registration for business texting the part that carries real exposure in Florida.
- Your data stays in their platform. Leaving means leaving it behind.
The real question is not AI or no AI. It is whether you want a tool you operate or a system somebody runs for you.
The question none of them answer
Your phone rings at 7:45am while you are on a roof. Which of these picks it up?
Quotes your real prices. Checks your real calendar. Books the job. Texts the customer a confirmation. None of them. Not because they are bad products, because that was never what they were built to do.
The stack math
What the cheap route actually costs.
To assemble something close to a full system you would realistically subscribe to four or five of these: an assistant, a CRM, a content tool, an automation layer, a voice service. Call it $100 to 250 a month in subscriptions.
Then add the real cost: 10 to 20 hours a month of your own time wiring them together and being the person who actually answers. If your time is worth $75 an hour, the "cheap" stack costs $850 to 1,750 a month and the phone still rings unanswered when you are under a house.
Estimates based on advertised vendor pricing and typical time investment. Not a guarantee; your own numbers will differ.
What we do instead
They sell tools you operate. Stinger builds and runs the whole system.
- It answers. Calls, texts and web enquiries, day and night, in your business’s voice, and never sends or spends without your confirmation.
- It quotes your real prices from a fixed list you control. It never invents a number.
- It books real jobs against your actual calendar, with travel time and job durations.
- It bills: invoices and payment links, and follows up on them.
- It is compliant: carrier-registered business texting, consent capture, automatic opt-outs.
- It starts supervised. Nothing reaches a customer without your approval until you loosen the reins.
- Your number and your data travel with you. Stinger ports the number and exports your records on request, any time.
Posted, so you don't have to book a call to hear it
What it costs.
One-time build
A $497 AI Opportunity Audit maps the build and credits in full toward the build fee if you proceed within 30 days.
Monthly
Launch $297, Ignite $497, Accelerate $697, Enterprise $1,397 (up to 50 people; larger teams quoted); every program included. Standalone: Teams $127, Forge from $77, Creator from $57. Month to month, no contract, cancel anytime.
Read the room
Six questions to ask any vendor, including us.
Every vendor in this space sounds the same on their homepage. These are the six questions that separate what's actually built from what's on a slide.
1. Can I hear your AI answer a real phone call, right now, on a number I can dial?
Our answer: Yes. Call (772) 666-7057 and talk to her before you talk to us. Same voice engine that ships on your own number.
2. Where does my customer data live, and what happens to it if I leave?
Our answer: In services Stinger operates for you, with your records exportable on request at any time. If you leave, you take your data and your number with you. We don't train on your data and we don't sell it.
3. Am I under contract, and what does it cost me to cancel?
Our answer: Month to month. No contract. Cancel anytime.
4. How do you handle business texting compliance in Florida?
Our answer: Text follow-up and confirmations included; carrier registration handled for you. Carrier review runs 10 to 15 business days, filed as part of the build. Consent capture and automatic opt-out are built in.
5. When something reaches a customer that shouldn't have, who's on the hook and how fast does it get fixed?
Our answer: The team that built your system is the team that answers when you call. Everything ships supervised: nothing reaches a customer without your approval until you loosen the reins.
6. Show me one thing you don't do yet, and when you'll do it.
Our answer: No drag-and-drop flow builder and no pre-built industry templates yet, both are on the roadmap. We build to your spec today because we haven't seen enough deployments to pattern from honestly.
Ask us all six. We wrote them.
Talk to Vincent
Still think you could piece it together cheaper?
You might be right, and this page is our straight answer either way. If you would rather someone built and ran it for you, that is a twenty-minute conversation.