Quo Sona alternatives in 2026: what it costs and what to use instead

Sona is the AI receptionist built into Quo, the business phone app that used to be OpenPhone. It charges 100 credits a call: about 10 calls a month are free, then tiers run from $25 (about 40 calls) to $199 (about 600), on top of a Quo plan from $15 a user a month. It answers, takes messages and transfers, and it books by texting the caller a link. If you want the booking made on the call, the alternatives below do that; at 80 calls a month they run from about $69 (plus a Jobber plan) to $163.

Below: Sona’s published prices, what it does and doesn’t do, the alternatives side by side as of October 2026, and a worked month.

What does Quo’s Sona cost?

Two charges stack up. First, a Quo plan per user, from Quo’s pricing page in October 2026:

Then Sona’s automation credits, from Quo’s Sona pricing article. Sona “uses 100 credits per call,” and every workspace gets 1,000 credits a month free:

Three details from the same article are worth knowing:

1. A call is a call, however long. A ten-minute call uses the same 100 credits as a one-minute call, and calls under 15 seconds don’t count. Long calls favor Sona; per-minute services charge for every one of those ten minutes.
2. Overages are off by default. When credits run out, “Sona stops answering and routes calls through the fallback path in your call flow,” usually ringing your team or voicemail. Quo emails you at 80% and 100% of your credits.
3. It’s per workspace, on top of seats. A five-person team on Business pays for five seats plus one Sona tier.

What can Sona do, and what can’t it?

From Quo’s Sona page and help center:

• Answers 24/7, greets callers, answers questions from a knowledge base you write, and takes messages. You can put it on every call, after hours only, or only when nobody picks up.
• Speaks English, Spanish and French (beta). Set more than one and, per Quo’s setup guide, it answers in the caller’s language; call summaries are always in English.
• Answers texts too (beta): Quo’s Sona page lists capturing leads over text, including following up missed calls.
• Three actions during a call, per its actions guide: send a text to the caller, transfer the call, or create a request in Jobber.
• Books by text, not on a calendar. Quo’s own example tells Sona to “let the caller know you’ll text the scheduling link now.” The caller books themselves after the call. Sending that text needs your number registered for business texting (A2P 10DLC or toll-free).
• Transfers once. “When a call is transferred, Sona leaves the conversation immediately. If the recipient doesn’t answer, the call goes to their voicemail, and Sona cannot return to continue the conversation.”
• Inbound only. Sona “answers only inbound calls.”

If you mostly need messages taken, that’s plenty. If your calls are “can you come Tuesday?”, the texted link is a step the caller still has to finish.

Quo Sona alternatives compared (published prices, October 2026)

Dialpad and RingCentral also sell AI receptionists on top of their phone systems; Dialpad sells AI credits through sales, and RingCentral’s pricing page says its AI Receptionist “starts at $39” and works with any phone system.

A worked month: one owner, 80 calls

Say 80 calls a month at about three minutes each, roughly 240 minutes, from about 60 different people, and you want them booked.

So Quo with Sona is one of the cheapest ways to get an AI on the phone, and it comes with a full business phone app for the team. At this volume we cost more than Quo, Goodcall and Jobber’s add-on, about the same as Beside on Launch, and more on Starter. What the extra buys is the booking made on the call and the rest of the job in one place.

Where Stack Space fits

Stack Space is a CRM with the AI receptionist built in. The receptionist Stax trains answers your line 24/7, asks what the problem is, and books the visit straight onto the calendar built into Stack Space (Outlook sync available), then emails the confirmation. When a customer calls to move or cancel an appointment, it finds the booking and changes it while they’re on the phone. Before hanging up it reads the details back, and you get a summary of the call by text (summaries count toward your plan’s texts). Then the estimate, the invoice and the review request go out from the same customer record.

Plans are $30 (45 minutes), $125 (250), $355 (900) and $800 (1,500). Past your minutes you buy prepaid packs that never expire (100 for $24, 500 for $105); without one, callers hear a short message that you can’t take the call right now, the call is logged as missed, and your missed-call text-back goes out if you’ve switched it on. Nothing is billed beyond your plan. There’s no free trial; you pay monthly and cancel yourself.

Where Quo is better: it’s a real phone system, with shared numbers, team inboxes and calling apps for every seat, and Stack Space isn’t. Sona’s per-call pricing also beats per-minute pricing on long calls. If you mostly need messages taken and your team already lives in Quo, keeping Sona is reasonable. If the job is booking, moving and billing work from the call, a receptionist inside a CRM saves the retyping. You can keep your number either way: our guide to forwarding calls to an AI receptionist shows how.

How to choose

• You want a business phone system with some AI help: stay on Quo and pick the Sona tier that matches your call count.
• You want calls booked onto a calendar on the call, and nothing else: Beside or Goodcall cost the least.
• You run on Jobber: its own receptionist books straight into Jobber (Sona can create a Jobber request; the visit still gets booked in Jobber).
• You want the call to become a booked, quoted and invoiced job without retyping: a receptionist inside a CRM, like Stack Space.

Test any of them the same way: forward your line for a day, call it ten times with your customers’ real questions, and read every transcript. For the wider field, see the best AI receptionist in 2026.

FAQ

How much does Quo’s Sona cost?

Every Quo workspace gets about 10 Sona calls a month free (1,000 credits at 100 per call). Paid tiers are $25 for about 40 calls, $49 for 100, $99 for 250 and $199 for 600, with extra calls at $1.00 down to $0.45 if you switch overages on. That’s on top of a Quo plan from $15 per user a month billed annually (Quo’s pricing page and help center, October 2026).

Can Sona book appointments?

It sends a booking link. Quo’s guide has Sona text the caller a scheduling link during the call, and the caller books themselves. With Jobber connected, it can create a Jobber request.

What happens when Sona runs out of credits?

By default it stops answering and calls go to the fallback in your call flow, such as your team’s phones or voicemail. If you turn overages on, it keeps answering at your tier’s per-call rate.

Is Quo the same as OpenPhone?

Yes. OpenPhone renamed itself Quo in September 2025. Sona launched under the OpenPhone name in April 2025.

What’s the cheapest alternative to Quo’s Sona?

For booking on the call, Beside starts at $29 for 30 calls and Smith.ai’s AI plan is free for 25 calls a month. For volume, Goodcall’s $79 plan covers up to 100 different callers.