Retell.ai vs Hey Rosie Comparison (2025)

Retell AI offers fast, scalable voice agents with response times under a second and impressive developer flexibility. You can bring your own LLM, customize behavior deeply, and monitor everything through real-time dashboards. It’s well-suited for teams with in-house engineering that want control and scale. But the learning curve is real—getting up and running takes work, integrations often require custom scripts, and pricing isn’t transparent. While it performs well under the hood, Retell isn’t the most approachable platform for teams seeking simplicity or industry-ready templates out of the box.

Rosie provides an entry‑level virtual receptionist service aimed at small teams. Setup is straightforward—connect a phone line and run a short wizard that draws context from your website or Google Business profile. The base plan costs $49 for 250 minutes, with overage billed at $0.25 per minute; higher‑priced tiers add live call transfers and more routing controls.

The agent speaks English and Spanish, can handle simultaneous calls, and sends a text or email summary after each conversation. Workflows beyond basic triage generally run through a single native integration (Zapier), which may suffice for simple CRM updates but can feel restrictive for more complex processes. Spam calls are detected quickly, though the minutes still count toward usage. Overall, Rosie is suitable for basic call answering and lead capture, but teams that require deeper scheduling, compliance safeguards, or custom integrations may need to look elsewhere.