Gist vs. Ruby Virtual Receptionist Services

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Gist
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Gist is a unified marketing, sales, and support platform. It includes live chat, a help desk, knowledge base, email marketing, marketing automation, opt-in forms, and more.
$29
per month
Ruby
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Ruby, or Ruby Receptionists headquartered in Portland, boasts supporting more than 10,000 businesses with live virtual receptionists and 24/7 available chat services. Users set their preferences to have Ruby answer the phone part-time, full-time, or after hours, and Ruby deploys personalized company greetings to custom call handling instructions.
$129
per month
Pricing
GistRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Editions & Modules
Professional
$29.00
per month
Premium
$99.00
per month
Chat Ruby 10
$129
monthly
Chat Ruby 30
$299
monthly
Call Ruby 100
$319
monthly
Chat Ruby 50
$469
monthly
Call Ruby 200
$599
monthly
Call Ruby 350
$999
monthly
Call Ruby 500
$1,399
monthly
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GistRuby
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsBundled Chat Ruby 10 Your Call Ruby Plan + Up to 10 Chats for $99 Bundled Chat Ruby 30 Your Call Ruby Plan + Up to 30 Chats for $249 Bundled Chat Ruby 50 Your Call Ruby Plan + Up to 50 Chats for $399
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
GistRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Features
GistRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Chat Analytics and Reports
Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Product A and Product B
Gist
8.9
2 Ratings
3% above category average
Ruby Virtual Receptionist Services
-
Ratings
Chat history and transcripts8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
Chat reporting8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
Chat and web analytics8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
GistRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Small Businesses
Olark
Olark
Score 10.0 out of 10
Smith.ai
Smith.ai
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
GistRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Likelihood to Recommend
9.5
(112 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
GistRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Likelihood to Recommend
Gist
If your marketing model is selling products, services, or SAAS where you are doing inbound marketing and your website will do most of the lead generation and conversion, this is a great product. From live chat, support, event tracking, and automation, you could almost put your entire business on autopilot. If your marketing model is mostly outreach to cold leads and conversion, this software currently does not have any type of sales stages or task generation. I would still use Gist for website inbound but use another software for outreach and cold leads then when they become a lead put them into Gist for marketing automation.
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
Ruby Virtual Receptionist Services is well suited for a business that needs call screening and message-taking services. The service is expensive but if the user is willing to put a lot of time and effort into planning and scriptwriting, as well as call handling instructions, it may work well. Also, if there is not much information that must be captured by the receptionist, I feel this may be a better fit.
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Pros
Gist
  • Customer service via a unified inbox so you dont have to separately monitor your twitter, Facebook or IG account for consumer communication there. Gist unified all into one inbox, better than anyone else I've seen in the market. They archive all communications and tie them back to a single user so you get unified customer history / data.
  • Marketing segmentation and automation: they track user history and behavior across the site and have super detailed segmenting capability, on par with ActiveCampaign's, but better I'd say. Better UI for the marketing admin person, and more unified data than in AC.
  • Live chat and chatbot. Usually it's either one or the other but with Gist you can do both seamlessly.
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
  • Call-out request "personal assistant services."
  • Ruby Receptionist app.
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Cons
Gist
  • Plan limits can be confusing. For example, there is a monthly charge for support and a monthly charge for "growth," plus there's a separate charge depending on how many contacts and seats you have. Perhaps this is normal in the industry, but it can make it a little challenging to understand the bill every month.
  • The vast amount of features means development will never be as fast as you'd like it to be (even though they release updates all the time). This may not actually be a valid concern, and it certainly isn't unique to Gist (who doesn't have a wishlist they're waiting on their favorite SaaS to get to?), but I do believe the likelihood of being stuck without your desired feature being developed goes up a lot as the product gets bigger and bigger.
  • Email deliverability has been less than perfect in the past, but it has improved drastically in the last year.
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
  • Clarity in billing.
  • Shortened hold times.
  • Less transfer time from call to receptionist (between English and Spanish).
  • Better training of receptionists to prevent certain things from being said to clients - decreases client confidence.
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Likelihood to Renew
Gist
Gist is a quite reliable service with a lot of added values. We don't need to pay for different Saas for these important features. If I had an issue the team was super responsive and helpful, that is essential for every business. The email delivery is great, so virtually no email has landed into spam folder
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Usability
Gist
It’s pretty simple, but it does a lot so there are more complicated features which depend on an individuals ability for software implementation. I am not an IT expert and I’ve managed to implement everything myself, others that are more tech-minded may find everything easier.
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Gist
Fantastic support. Ask a question, get an answer within 24 hours every time. And sometimes within a few minutes. They've always come through for me, helpful and, even when it's an issue on my end, they point me in the right direction.
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Gist
Gist combines all our previous products into one application and adds many more features that would require more apps. Gist is excellent and a no-brainer all-in-one application when compared to having to manage multiple applications at higher cost. The support from the whole Gist team has been extremely responsive.
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
We switched over from Answer First to Ruby Receptionist because we wanted a more full-service answering service. We wanted to be able to call out using our business number as well as text in and out. We also really liked the "call-out request" feature as it freed up our time and allowed Ruby to handle minor client communications, etc.
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Return on Investment
Gist
  • They are perfect for me as a someone who needs a lot of bang for the buck. The chat messenger device on my website alone has brought me new prospects that I did not have to spend money recruiting.
  • I am able to save hours of time with the automated emails that are GDPR compliant.
  • I don't have to pay for a designer to have excellent looking emails either.
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
  • Increased efficiency.
  • NEGATIVE ROI.
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ScreenShots

Gist Screenshots

Screenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of Email MarketingScreenshot of Marketing Automation WorkflowsScreenshot of Knowledge BaseScreenshot of Meetings