# Chirp vs Johnni: which AI receptionist is right for your business? Johnni is a low-cost receptionist you set up and edit yourself. Chirp builds, runs and improves the agent for you. Here's how they compare. - Publisher: Chirp AI (https://www.agentchirp.ai) - Published: 2026-10-04 - Canonical page: https://www.agentchirp.ai/post/chirp-vs-johnni **The short answer:** Johnni is a low-cost, self-serve AI receptionist from Brisbane, and it's good at putting the owner in control: you edit it yourself in its portal, there's no setup fee and no lock-in. Chirp is the better choice if you would rather have the agent built, run and improved for you. Our Melbourne team builds your agent around how your business handles calls, connects it to any software you use and tunes it every week. Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average, and plans start from $16 a day, plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee. Everything here about Johnni comes from its own website, checked in September 2026. Prices and features change, so check their site before you buy. ## Chirp vs Johnni: the comparison table | | Chirp | Johnni | | --- | --- | --- | | Setup | Built and managed by Chirp's team | Self-serve. Forward your calls, no setup fee | | Starting price | From $16 a day, plus a one-off build fee | $49 a month +GST, or $44 paid annually. About 30 calls | | Integrations | Any software you use. 6,000+ integrations, plus custom builds | Google Calendar included. Job software is a custom add-on, quoted | | After go-live | Every call scored. Tuned by our team every week | You edit it in the portal. Every call scored automatically | | Emergency triage | Sorts emergencies from quotes. Safety calls triaged after hours | Custom after-hours on-call routing available | | Channels | Phone, web chat and SMS | Phone, SMS, email, web chat and outbound calls | | Australian voice | Natural Australian voice. Melbourne team | Australian accents, male and female. Brisbane based | | Human handover | Puts the call through to your office | Warm transfer with context, takes a message if unanswered | | Contract | Set out in your proposal | No lock-in. Cancel any time | Facts about Johnni were read on its own website in September 2026. ## What Johnni is good at Johnni is a sharp product for an owner who likes to be hands on. Here's what it does well, in its own words where we could. - **Edit it yourself, live on the next call.** You change the voice, hours, services, service area and knowledge base yourself in the Johnni Portal. Its site gives the example: add "we don't do gas fitting" and it's live on the next call, with no support ticket. - **Every call scored automatically.** Johnni says every call is scored automatically, so if it fumbles one, that gets surfaced and fixed instead of quietly repeating. - **Low entry price, no setup fee, no lock-in.** The entry plan is $49 a month plus GST, or $44 a month plus GST paid annually, for about 30 calls and 60 minutes. There's no setup fee, a 7-day free trial on every plan, and you can cancel any time. - **More channels, plus outbound calls.** Johnni covers voice, SMS, email and a website widget for text chat and live voice. It also rings new website and Facebook leads back within seconds, chases unanswered quotes and follows up past customers. - **Custom builds for urgent after-hours calls.** For businesses that need more, Johnni builds custom flows. Its published example rings on-call operators in turn until one accepts, and that line has answered 4,760 calls and logged 1,423 emergency call-outs. - **Rated 5.0 on Google.** Johnni's reviews page shows a 5.0 rating from 19 Google reviews, pulled live from its Google Business Profile, alongside published case studies. **Who Johnni suits:** A tradie or small service business that wants a cheap, self-serve AI receptionist with no setup fee and no lock-in, and is happy to set it up, edit it and look after it themselves. ## Where Chirp is different Chirp is a managed service. Our team does the building, the connecting and the improving, so your time stays on the business. - **Built around how you already work.** Our Melbourne team maps how your business handles calls, your operating rules, and writes them into your agent. It sorts emergencies from quotes, books the job and puts the call through to your office when it should. You're live in weeks. - **A team improving it every week.** Each week our team reviews where your agent missed, retrains it, tests the change against last week's version, then ships it. That loop runs every week, and Chirp's resolution rate is rising about 1 point a month. - **Connects to any software you use.** Chirp works with 6,000+ integrations, APIs and data connectors. If your software isn't on the list, our team builds a custom integration, so bookings land where your team already works. - **Results you can check, and a guarantee on the build.** Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average, and has booked more than 10,000 appointments and handled more than 20,000 successful customer calls. Run it live for 60 days, and if it hasn't delivered, your Build & Implementation Fee comes back. ### It gets better every week Every AI receptionist gets things wrong. With Chirp, every call is scored, the misses surface on their own, and our team ships the fix that week. Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average, up from 52.6% in June 2025, and rising about 1 point a month. That comes from the self-healing loop, which runs every week: 1. **Every call is scored.** Each conversation is measured against what good looks like for your business. 2. **The misses surface.** Analytics and observability show exactly where your agent fell short. 3. **The agent is retrained.** Our team makes the fix. A person is in the loop every week. 4. **The change is tested.** This week's agent is measured against last week's before anything ships. 5. **It ships, and the loop runs again.** Your agent this month is better than your agent last month. ### It works with every system you use Chirp connects to the software you already run, and if yours isn't on the list, our team builds the connection. Chirp works with the software you already use: 6,000+ integrations, plus any custom connection you need. - **Ready-made connections.** More than 6,000 apps, including ServiceM8, simPRO, Fergus, HubSpot and Google Calendar. - **APIs and data connectors.** Chirp reads and writes to your systems directly, so it can look up a customer and book the job. - **Custom integrations.** If your software isn't on the list, our team builds the connection for you. Examples: ServiceM8, simPRO, Fergus, ServiceTitan, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Shopify, Notion, Zapier, Make. ## The real cost of managing it yourself A tool you run yourself is cheaper on the invoice. What you don't pay upfront, you can end up paying for in your own hours and in calls that go elsewhere. Here is Chirp's estimate for a typical trade business. **$45,840** is what a self-managed AI receptionist can cost a trade business in its first year, on top of the subscription. That is about $126 a day. | Cost | How we worked it out | A year | | --- | --- | --- | | Setting it up properly | 3 days defining process flows and operating logic, once, at $80 an hour | $1,920 | | Connecting your software | 2 days building the integration layers, once, at $80 an hour | $1,280 | | Managing it week to week | 2 hours a week at $80 an hour | $8,320 | | Troubleshooting | 1 hour a week at $80 an hour | $4,160 | | Maintenance and retuning | 1 hour a week at $80 an hour | $4,160 | | Performance drops | 2 calls a week handled badly, half of which would have become a $250 job | $13,000 | | Missed calls | 2 calls a week missed, half of which would have become a $250 job | $13,000 | | **Total** | First year, on top of the subscription | **$45,840** | For comparison, Chirp starts from $5,840 a year ($16 a day), plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee. Setup, integration, troubleshooting and tuning are done by Chirp's team. An illustrative estimate for a trade business running a self-serve AI receptionist itself, in its first year, on top of the subscription. The hours and call counts are Chirp's assumptions. Your numbers will differ. Hourly and job values are from the low end and the midpoint of the ranges in the [hipages plumber cost guide](https://hipages.com.au/article/how_much_does_a_plumber_cost). ## What Chirp costs - Chirp plans start from $16 a day, plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee for the custom build. - The price depends on call volume, coverage hours and the work you want handled. - Custom built, fully managed and tuned every week by an Australian team. - 90% lower cost than a part-time receptionist. - The Go-Live Guarantee: run it live for 60 days, and if it hasn't delivered, your Build & Implementation Fee comes back. ## The verdict Chirp is the better choice for a business that wants every call answered well and every job booked, without setting up and looking after an AI receptionist yourself. Our Australian team builds the agent around your rules, connects it to your software and improves it every week, and Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average. Chirp estimates that running an AI receptionist yourself can cost a trade business about $45,840 in its first year on top of the subscription, in your own time and in lost jobs. With Chirp, that work is ours. Plans start from $16 a day, plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee, and the Go-Live Guarantee means that fee comes back if Chirp hasn't delivered after 60 days live. - Johnni: [Johnni homepage](https://johnni.ai/), [Johnni pricing](https://johnni.ai/pricing), [Johnni reviews](https://johnni.ai/reviews/), [Google reviews](https://maps.google.com/?cid=7134595367343525887) - Chirp: [How we work](https://www.agentchirp.ai/how-we-work), [Guarantee](https://www.agentchirp.ai/guarantee), [Case studies](https://www.agentchirp.ai/case-studies), [Industries](https://www.agentchirp.ai/industries) If you work at Johnni and something here is out of date, email hello@agentchirp.ai and we'll fix it. ## See it on your own calls [Book a 15-minute discovery](https://www.agentchirp.ai/book). We'll map how your calls come in today and show you what your agent would do with them. You can also read our [case studies](https://www.agentchirp.ai/case-studies), try the [missed-call calculator](https://www.agentchirp.ai/calculator), or see how Chirp compares with [every alternative](https://www.agentchirp.ai/post/ai-receptionist-australia-comparison). ## Questions people ask ### What is the difference between Chirp and Johnni? Johnni is a self-serve AI receptionist: you forward your calls, set it up and edit it yourself in its portal. Chirp is a managed service: an Australian team maps how your business handles calls, builds the agent around those rules, connects it to your software and improves it every week. ### Is Chirp better than Johnni? Yes, for a business that would rather have its agent built, run and improved by a local team. Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average, rising about 1 point a month. Our team retrains the agent every week. It connects to any software you use, and it's backed by the Go-Live Guarantee on the build fee. ### How much does Johnni cost? Johnni's pricing page lists an entry plan at $49 a month plus GST, or $44 a month plus GST paid annually, covering about 30 calls and 60 minutes, then $0.50 a minute. Larger plans start at $134 a month plus GST. There's no setup fee, and connecting job software such as ServiceM8 or simPRO is a custom add-on quoted per business. Prices were checked in September 2026, so confirm on johnni.ai. Chirp starts from $16 a day, plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee. ### Is running an AI receptionist yourself cheaper? It can cost more than it looks. Chirp estimates that running an AI receptionist yourself can cost a trade business about $45,840 in its first year on top of the subscription, in your own time and in lost jobs. It's an estimate, and with Chirp that work is done by our team. ### Does Chirp integrate with my software? Yes. Chirp connects to any software you use, through 6,000+ integrations, APIs and data connectors. If yours isn't on the list, Chirp's team builds a custom integration for you. ### What happens if Chirp doesn't work for my business? Chirp is backed by the Go-Live Guarantee. Run it live for 60 days, and if it hasn't delivered for your business, your Build & Implementation Fee comes back.