Beside (M1)
Beside is an AI receptionist and back-office agent that answers every call and books the job for local businesses.
For a one-to-five-truck shop bleeding jobs to voicemail, the Beside Phone line is a coherent buy: one bill covers the number, the receptionist, booking, reviews, website and ads, with a human approval gate on anything outbound. The cheap entry tier is where people get burned — a low call allowance vanishes in a busy week, so budget the uncapped plan from the start. If the phone is fine and the real pain is marketing and admin, the credit plans (Part-time $99/mo for 5,000 credits, Full-time
Verified 5d ago · liveness 74/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/beside-m1
- Plumbing, HVAC, electrical and roofing crews losing jobs to after-hours voicemail
- Salons, barbers and med spas that need booking and re-engagement while staff are mid-service
- Realtors answering mid-showing and keeping every lead warm until closing
- Insurance, legal and accounting offices screening calls and capturing context before a callback
- Businesses taking calls or texts outside the US and Canada
- Developers who want an API-first telephony platform to build their own agent on
- Enterprises needing complex IVR trees and custom routing logic
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Skip Beside if you need calls and texts outside the US and Canada, or if you want an API-first telephony platform to build your own voice stack on rather than a finished product for owners.
The $29/mo Baseline plan only covers 30 AI-answered calls; past that you need the $99/mo Unlimited Phone plan or you're paying more per call than you expect.
For a solo operator or small crew, the $99/mo Unlimited Phone plan is priced close to a part-time receptionist's daily rate and bundles phone, booking, reviews and site. The $29/mo Baseline tier only makes sense under roughly one AI call a day. The credit plans — Part-time $99/month for 5,000 credits, Full-time $249.99/month for 12,500, billed monthly — sit above a single-purpose site builder but under an agency retainer plus separate ads management.
In short
Beside (M1) — Beside is an AI receptionist and back-office agent that answers every call and books the job for local businesses. Best for Plumbing, HVAC, electrical and roofing crews losing jobs to after-hours voicemail, Salons, barbers and med spas that need booking and re-engagement while staff are mid-service, Realtors answering mid-showing and keeping every lead warm until closing. Plans from $99/mo.
What's new in Beside (M1)
Checked 5 days agoAcross the latest 4 updates: 4 news mentions.
Beside publishes Local SEO Audit Checklist for local business owners
A worksheet for owners with 0-5 employees covering website, Google Business Profile, listings, reviews and service-area coverage, with evidence and next actions logged per finding.
Beside guide: Do you need a website if Google or social already brings calls?
Beside compares credibility, control and discovery to help local businesses decide whether a website is still worth building when Google Business Profile or social sends the calls.
Beside publishes conversion diagnosis guide for sites with visits but no calls
A step-by-step method using Google Business Profile data, call logs and a site check to locate where a local service funnel breaks before making changes.
Beside details AI receptionist that books appointments from $16.67/mo
Product page describes answering 24/7 in the owner's voice, qualifying callers and placing confirmed times on the calendar, starting at $16.67 per month.
What people actually say about Beside (M1) — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
20 mentions across 1 source (App Store) · researched Jul 3, 2026.
Average across the 1 source that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +AI autonomously books appointments, sends quotes, and follows up after calls.
- +Unlimited calls and texts in US/Canada for $20/month — great value.
- +Self-training AI improves over time based on call summaries.
- +Call recording and transcription help resolve disputes.
- +Voice cloning and custom greetings personalize the experience.
- −AI sometimes fails to hear callers, causing one-sided calls.
- −Billing errors and double charges with no refunds reported.
- −Customer support is unresponsive to complaints.
- −Phone may not ring before AI answers, causing confusion.
- −WiFi calling glitches when switching networks.
- • Additional phone lines cost $4.99/month each
- • Potential double charges if account setup goes wrong (reported by users)
- • No free trial? (Not explicitly stated, but users mention paying upfront)
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Beside (M1)? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- AI receptionist answers calls 24/7 in your cloned voice or a library voice
- Caller qualification using your own custom screening questions
- Appointment booking written directly onto your calendar
- Own US/Canada business phone line with calls and SMS, ported or forwarded
- Public scheduling link for customers to self-book around real availability
- Automatic appointment reminders to cut no-shows
- AI handles inbound texts based on your rules and tone
- AI call transfer and routing to a human with full context
- Live Agent drafts follow-ups, campaigns and review replies for one-tap approval
- Call transcription, summaries and AI conversation labels in the Customers tab
- Ask Beside search across calls, texts and voicemails
- Voice cloning, bilingual voice library and custom greetings
- Website knowledge import to train the agent on your business
- Re-engagement and lifecycle sends: timely offers, maintenance reminders, follow-ups
- Reviews Manager requests a review after every job and replies in your voice
About Beside (M1)
Beside runs the admin layer of a small local business — the phone line, the follow-up, the calendar and the reputation — with an AI receptionist as its centerpiece. You get your own US/Canada business line (ported or forwarded) and an agent that answers 24/7, screens callers with your own qualifying questions, and puts confirmed appointments straight onto your calendar. Around the phone sits a CRM written from each conversation, a public booking link, automatic reminders, review requests and replies in your voice, a website builder that maintains the site, and Google Ads management. Blog, SEO and GEO — appearing inside ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini — are still flagged "Soon" on the site. What separates Beside from fully autonomous agents is the approval gate: Live Agent proposes each move as a finished draft (a follow-up text, a reactivation campaign, a review reply) and nothing sends until you tap approve. The company raised $32M in late 2025 to build this out. It's built for people holding a wrench or a pair of scissors, not for developers: plumbers, HVAC crews, electricians, roofers, salons, barbers, med spas, realtors, insurance and legal offices. Two purchase paths exist — Beside Phone for the line and receptionist, and credit-based agent plans for the broader marketing and back-office work. If your phone rings and you can't always pick up, this is the category to evaluate before hiring a part-time receptionist.
Behind the Verdict
Start with the job you're actually trying to offload. If it's missed calls, Beside Phone is the purchase — a business line with an AI receptionist that answers, qualifies and books. If it's the marketing to-do list, the credit-based agent plans are the purchase, and the phone is a separate line on the bill. Buyers conflate the two constantly, then wonder why their plan doesn't include call answering. Where Beside earns its keep is the approval gate. Owners are rightly nervous about an AI texting customers unsupervised, and "every move arrives as a finished draft" is a genuine answer to that — you review a reactivation campaign or a review reply in one tap rather than trusting a black box. The tradeoff is your time: a queue of drafts you never open is worse than no automation at all. Watch the credit mechanics on the agent plans. Monthly credits reset at renewal and don't roll over, and different actions consume different amounts. Top-ups are 1,000 for $25, 5,000 for $125 or 10,000 for $250, and purchased credits never expire, so heavy months are recoverable. Part-time versus Full-time is an allowance name, not a working-hours limit — pick by workload, not by how many hours a day you imagine the agent on. On the phone side, the low entry tier is a trap for anyone whose phone genuinely rings. Budget the uncapped plan and treat the cheaper tier as a trial, not a plan. Note too that this is a US/Canada product: businesses taking calls elsewhere are out of scope. Closest alternatives are the field-service suites that bundle a phone agent with dispatch and invoicing, or a dedicated AI receptionist wired into your existing stack. Pick Beside when you want one vendor for phone, booking, reviews and site maintenance and you value the approve-first model. Pass if you need
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Beside (M1) actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
A burst-pipe call comes in at 9pm while you're on another job. Beside's AI receptionist answers on your business line, asks your screening questions, books the slot in your calendar and texts you the transcript.
Outcome: You wake up to a booked job instead of a voicemail, and the call record is already written into the CRM.
You import your services and hours via website knowledge import, then share the public scheduling link so clients book around your real availability. Reminders go out automatically and the reviews manager asks for a review after each visit.
Outcome: Fewer no-shows and a steady stream of new reviews replied to in your voice, without staff touching the phone.
A lead calls mid-showing. The AI receptionist qualifies them, and Beside's Live Agent drafts a follow-up text and email built from the call summary. You approve it with one tap between appointments.
Outcome: Leads stay warm through closing without you breaking away from a client.
Use Cases
- Answer and qualify inbound sales calls after hours without a receptionist
- Book appointments and send calendar invites with no human in the loop
- Text a quote immediately after an AI-answered call ends
- Draft and send follow-ups built from call summaries, pending your approval
- Write call transcripts and AI notes back to your CRM record
- Get a daily recap of missed calls and completed tasks
- Answer hours-and-services questions while staff are mid-job
- Transfer a call to the right person with full context attached
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-10-18
Limitations
- Beside answers calls and texts in the US and Canada only.
- Each user includes one phone line; additional lines run $4.99/mo each.
- The 30-call cap on the $29/mo Baseline plan goes fast for anyone whose phone actually rings.
- The newer agent plans are credit-metered — 5,000 credits for $99/mo or 12,500 for $249.99/mo, billed monthly — and unused monthly credits do not roll over, while different actions draw different credit amounts, so budgeting requires watching usage in the workspace.
- Blog, SEO and GEO are marked 'Soon' on the site, so AI-search visibility is not shipped.
- The website builder and ads manager are newer additions and may lack the depth of dedicated tools.
- Advanced custom scripting and developer APIs are not described in the sources reviewed.
as of 2026-10-03
Verification history
We have re-verified Beside (M1) 10 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 10 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Beside (M1) tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Part-time
$99/month
Ideal for
Owner-operators who mainly want the website, SEO and back-office work handed off rather than the phone line.
What this tier adds
Credit-based agent plan at $99/month billed monthly with 5,000 credits, the same Beside agent as Full-time, a business workspace for reviewing work and credit usage, and the option to buy extra credits.
Full-time
$249.99/month
Ideal for
Larger local businesses or agencies giving Beside a bigger share of the admin workload.
What this tier adds
Same agent and credit rates as Part-time but 12,500 credits per month at $249.99/month billed monthly for a larger workload.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Beside (M1)'s pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
For a solo operator or small crew, the $99/mo Unlimited Phone plan is priced close to a part-time receptionist's daily rate and bundles phone, booking, reviews and site. The $29/mo Baseline tier only makes sense under roughly one AI call a day. The credit plans — Part-time $99/month for 5,000 credits, Full-time $249.99/month for 12,500, billed monthly — sit above a single-purpose site builder but under an agency retainer plus separate ads management.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Beside (M1) — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Most owners are live the same day: port or forward your number, import your website so the AI learns your services and hours, and pick a voice — often under an hour of configuration. Salons and realtors who also want the scheduling link and review flow should budget an afternoon. The credit plans start with a free business audit instead of a phone port, which is a shorter path to first value on
Switching to or from Beside (M1)
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From a human answering service: Forward or port your existing business number so Beside answers the same line your customers already dial.
- →From Google Voice or a cell-only setup: Port the number into Beside and keep SMS history flowing to one shared line.
- →From a standalone booking tool: Share the Beside scheduling link and enable reminders, then let the AI book calls directly onto the same calendar.
- →From a HubSpot, Salesforce or Zoho pipeline: Connect the CRM so each call writes a record and transcript back to the contact.
- ↗To an API-first telephony platform: Export your call transcripts and CRM records, then rebuild the voice flow on a developer-focused stack.
- ↗To a dedicated website builder: Keep your domain and move the published site off Beside's builder once you want more design control.
- ↗To a standalone ads agency: Download campaign reporting from Beside and hand it to a specialist if you outgrow managed Google Ads.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Beside (M1)”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Beside (M1)” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Beside (M1).
Official links
Tools that pair well with Beside (M1)
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Beside (M1), with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
SkipCalls
SkipCalls is a 24/7 AI receptionist that answers your existing business line, books jobs, and texts you every call summary.
Inworld AI
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ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs AI voice generator turns text into speech in 90+ languages, with cloning, dubbing, music and voice agents.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Beside M1 vs B Rokratt
If you run a small business in the US/Canada and want an AI receptionist that qualifies leads, books appointments, and follows up automatically, Beside is the clear choice. For Estonian citizens or e-residents needing a free, secure gateway to government services, Bürokratt is unbeatable. These tools serve entirely different needs and geographies.
Beside M1 vs Truleo
Truleo and Beside (M1) serve fundamentally different markets. Truleo is a specialized law enforcement intelligence tool that connects siloed data (RMS, CAD, jail calls, BWC) to generate leads and reduce report writing time. Beside is an AI receptionist for small businesses, handling inbound calls, booking appointments, and automating follow-ups. Choose Truleo if you're in law enforcement; choose Beside if you're an SMB owner wanting to never miss a lead. Beside's recent $32M funding signals strong growth, while Truleo's lack of recent news may indicate a more stable but niche product.
Beside M1 vs Presto Voice
Choose Beside if you need an all-in-one AI receptionist for inbound calls, texts, and scheduling—ideal for small businesses. Choose Presto Voice if you run a QSR chain and want to automate drive-thru ordering with proven upselling (up to 6% revenue lift). These tools serve completely different verticals.
Alternatives to Beside (M1)
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SkipCalls
SkipCalls is a 24/7 AI receptionist that answers your existing business line, books jobs, and texts you every call summary.
Inworld AI
Inworld AI delivers realtime text-to-speech and speech-to-speech inference for consumer voice agents, with TTS-2 Flash hitting 50ms to
ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs AI voice generator turns text into speech in 90+ languages, with cloning, dubbing, music and voice agents.
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