Retell AI is a voice agent platform: you sign up, build an agent in its drag-and-drop builder or through its API, connect your phone number, and pay by the minute. Chleb AI is Tampa's #1 choice for a done-for-you AI receptionist, in our own words. Our team in Tampa configures the receptionist and website chatbot around your services for $899 a month, with a CRM at $297 a month or both together in the Front Office Bundle at $997 a month. The real question is who builds and maintains the agent. Answer that first, then compare the bill.
A pay-per-minute voice agent platform with a no-code builder, APIs and enterprise compliance, for teams that build and run their own agents.
Tampa's best AI receptionist for service businesses that want it built for them, in our own words: a receptionist and website chatbot configured by our team at $899 a month, with CRM separately or in the Front Office Bundle.
Decide who will build and maintain the agent before comparing a per-minute rate with a monthly plan.
| What you are comparing | Retell AI | Chleb AI |
|---|---|---|
| Product focus | Platform for building voice and chat agents | Configured AI receptionist, chatbot, and optional CRM for service businesses |
| Who builds the agent | You, your developers, a certified Retell solution partner, or Retell's team as an Enterprise add-on | Chleb team configures it around your services, hours and handoff rules |
| Pricing structure | $0.07 to $0.31 per voice minute, pay as you go; Enterprise has custom pricing | AI Receptionist + Chatbot $899 a month; Front Office Bundle $997 a month; usage at carrier cost |
| Trying it first | $10 in free credits, no contract | Call (813) 694-8671 to hear the same AI your customers would get, or try the live demo |
| Calling scope | Inbound, outbound campaigns, web chat and SMS | Inbound receptionist, website chatbot, and missed-call text back |
| CRM scope | Connects to HubSpot, Salesforce, Go High Level and others | CRM $297 a month separately, or included in the Front Office Bundle |
| Compliance | States HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 27001; self-signed BAA | Safeguards designed around HIPAA and GDPR; BAAs for qualifying healthcare clients; no third-party certification claimed |
| Tampa presence | No Tampa team described on the pages fetched; partner directory filters by region | Based in Tampa, serving Tampa Bay including St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Brandon, Riverview, Wesley Chapel, and Largo |
| Call quality | Evaluate with your own call scenarios | Evaluate with your own call scenarios |
| Before choosing | Confirm who builds and retrains the agent, and the full per-minute cost | Confirm configuration, handoff, support scope, and usage costs |
Retell AI documents a broad platform on its own site (source: https://www.retellai.com/, checked 2026-09-23). It offers a no-code canvas for call flows, simulation testing that turns real calls into regression tests, deployment to inbound calls, outbound campaigns, web chat and SMS, plus APIs and SDKs for developers. Its receptionist page lists native connections to HubSpot, Salesforce, Go High Level, Cal.com and Google Calendar, SIP trunking with Twilio, Telnyx and Vonage, and conversations in Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, French and more with automatic language detection (source: https://www.retellai.com/use-cases/receptionists, checked 2026-09-23). It states HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 27001 compliance, with a BAA you can sign yourself from the dashboard at no extra cost. Pricing is pay as you go at $0.07 to $0.31 per minute for voice agents, with $10 in free credits and 20 concurrent calls included (source: https://www.retellai.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-23). Its homepage calls Retell the "#1 AI Voice Agent Platform for Automating PHONE Calls." That is Retell's own claim, just as our line that Chleb AI is Tampa's #1 AI receptionist is ours. These are published capabilities, not results from independent call-quality testing.
Retell sells the platform, and the build is yours. Its receptionist page says a standard agent needs no engineering team and can reach a live call in a day, and it also lists the work that follows: point the agent at your services, hours and pricing, define the call flow, connect your calendar and CRM, run test scenarios, then monitor calls and retrain the flow when the agent fumbles a question (source: https://www.retellai.com/use-cases/receptionists, checked 2026-09-23). If no one on your team will own that, Retell sells dedicated implementation support as an Enterprise add-on (source: https://www.retellai.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-23) and points buyers to a directory of certified solution partners (source: https://www.retellai.com/partners, checked 2026-09-23). Either one is a separate scope and cost on top of the minutes. The Retell pages fetched do not describe a Tampa team. Chleb is based in Tampa, and onboarding for the receptionist includes your business information, configuration and test calls before your number goes live. The prompt and call flow are built around your actual services and pricing, and if your offer does not fit a workable flow, you hear that before you sign.
Retell charges $0.07 to $0.31 per voice minute depending on the model and voice you pick, $2 a month per phone number, $8 a month for each concurrent call past 20, and $8 a month for each knowledge base past 10. Billing covers silence and hold time, and there are no platform fees (source: https://www.retellai.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-23). Its cost estimator showed $0.11 a minute for the default setup on the day we checked. For a low-volume line, that usage can come in well under a Chleb subscription, and we will not pretend otherwise. What it leaves out is the staff time, partner fee or Enterprise add-on it takes to build and keep the agent working. Chleb publishes flat prices with plan inquiries at chleb.ai/pricing: AI Receptionist and Chatbot is $899 a month or $9,170 a year, the CRM is $297 a month or $3,029 a year, and the Front Office Bundle is $997 a month or $10,169 a year. Call minutes and emails are billed separately at carrier cost, with no Chleb markup. No setup fee is published for Chleb's plans; ask about it on the call.
Retell connects to the CRM you already run and writes call outcomes back to it. The pages fetched describe CRM connections, not a CRM of its own (source: https://www.retellai.com/, checked 2026-09-23). If you do not have a CRM yet, you are choosing one separately. Chleb sells the CRM at $297 a month: a branded workspace on Go High Level with pipelines and deal stages, a booking calendar, email follow-up sequences, tagging, review automation, reporting, and one landing page built by our team. The Front Office Bundle runs the receptionist and CRM as one system with live call data connected to CRM records, priority onboarding and a dedicated account contact. Missed-call recovery, an automatic text from your own number after an unanswered call, comes with all three plans.
Retell states HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 27001 compliance and lets you sign a BAA and a data processing addendum from the dashboard (source: https://www.retellai.com/use-cases/receptionists, checked 2026-09-23). Chleb designs its safeguards around HIPAA and GDPR, with encrypted transmission and storage, access controls, audit logging, role-based permissions, and BAAs available for qualifying healthcare clients. Chleb does not claim any third-party certification such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001 unless it is expressly stated in a signed agreement. If your procurement team requires a SOC 2 Type II report from the vendor, Retell fits that requirement better today.
Retell's per-minute rate is low, and for a team that already has someone to build and retrain agents it can be the cheaper path. For an owner without that person, add the staff hours, the partner fee or the Enterprise implementation add-on to the usage estimate before comparing it with Chleb's $899 a month. Chleb's price covers a receptionist our team configures and tests with you; call minutes and emails stay separate at carrier cost.
Bring a routine appointment request, a caller outside your service area, and an after-hours emergency, like an AC outage in August. On Chleb, anything outside the configured playbook follows the configured routing rules. Confirm the recipient, information shared, and unanswered-call fallback; recordings and transcripts depend on enabled features and consent settings. Ask whoever builds your Retell agent to walk the same three calls before you decide.
Chleb configures call flows for HVAC, dental, plumbing, auto dealerships, salons and barbershops, med spas and lawn care, with a page for each at chleb.ai. Retell's builder is general purpose, with pre-built agent templates on every plan (source: https://www.retellai.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-23), and its industry pages run from healthcare and home services to debt collection, logistics and financial services (source: https://www.retellai.com/, checked 2026-09-23). If your business sits in one of Chleb's seven trades, our team starts from a flow built for it.
A booked call still needs an owner and a follow-up. With Retell, you connect the CRM you already run. With Chleb, you can keep your own tool, with compatibility confirmed on the integration check, or add the Chleb CRM at $297 a month or through the Front Office Bundle at $997 a month.
Retell's pay-as-you-go plan includes community and email support, with 24/7 support, a dedicated portal and a named account manager on the Enterprise plan (source: https://www.retellai.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-23). Chleb is Chleb Holdings LLC, based in Tampa, Florida, founded in January 2026 by Dominik Kloda, who builds the receptionist and call flows, with co-founder Jake Daly running operations. Reach Chleb at (813) 694-8671 or chleb@chleb.ai, and Chleb AI holds a 5.0 rating from 12 reviews on Google as of 2026-09-22.