Updated September 29, 2026: Answer 1 has operated as Nexa since 2019, and this comparison now covers Nexa’s current published plans and services.
Answer 1, the Phoenix answering service whose roots go back to 1982, announced in April 2019 that it would operate under the new name Nexa; answer1.com no longer serves a website. Nexa sells 24/7 live answering by the minute on quote-based plans, with a “Voice + AI” hybrid service alongside its human receptionists. Abby Connect publishes the prices of its four standard plans (Enterprise on request) and sells one plan used three ways: human receptionists, an AI Receptionist, or both. Both answer around the clock, both answer in English and Spanish, and both put people and AI on the phone; they differ on published versus quoted pricing, on how a minute is counted, on what each publishes about its receptionist teams and on how the human-and-AI mix is set. We sell one of the two, so read this as an informed comparison rather than a neutral review. Every Nexa fact below comes from nexa.com and its job board as published on September 29, 2026, and every Abby price from abby.com/pricing the same day.
Abby vs Nexa at a Glance
| Abby Connect | Nexa (formerly Answer 1) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per Abby Minute; a minute with the AI Receptionist counts as half | Per “voice minute” of receptionist work, on plans of 100, 300 and 500 minutes (Nexa 100, 300 and 500) |
| Published prices | $165/mo for 50 Abby Minutes, $329/100, $599/200, $1,380/500 on abby.com/pricing; Enterprise on request | None listed on its plans page: each plan leads to a “Get Started” request for a quote |
| Overage | Billed at your plan’s Abby Minute rate | Every additional minute billed at your base rate |
| How time is counted | Ring, talk and transfer time, rounded up to the next 30 seconds; hold time and after-call work excluded | Receptionist work time: live talk time plus after-call follow-up, email, post-call scheduling, dispatching and any other time spent on your behalf |
| Live answering hours | 24/7, including weekends and holidays, no upcharge | 24/7/365 live coverage on every plan |
| AI receptionist | Yes: built and trained in-house, part of every plan at half-rate minutes; hands complex calls to a human receptionist | Yes: “Voice + AI”, offered in three configurations (human first, AI first, human with some automation), priced on request |
| Human receptionists | Yes: 100 percent of receptionists work in the office in Las Vegas, none from home; a dedicated team per client | Yes: 600+ employees per its about page; office in Phoenix, Arizona; its job board recruits “Virtual Receptionist – Remote” roles |
| Bilingual (English/Spanish) | Included, human and AI | English and Spanish, 24/7 |
| Scheduling and intake | Included: Calendly for human receptionists, hundreds of platforms for the AI Receptionist; custom intake | Appointment scheduling on every plan; client and patient intake and inbound and outbound sales on the 300 and 500-minute plans |
| Integrations | 1,000+ integrations, including Clio, Lawmatics, HubSpot, Salesforce and Calendly | CRM integration listed on the 500-minute plan; its plans page lists integrations by industry (home services, healthcare, legal, other) |
| Phone numbers | Abby hosts your business number; forward your existing number and keep it | A local and a toll-free number provided with every plan |
| HIPAA | HIPAA-compliant handling by human receptionists | HIPAA-compliant service offerings |
| Setup fee | None | Yes; the amount is not published (it covers programming, onboarding and training) |
| Free trial | Yes, on every plan: 14 days or 500 Abby Minutes | None listed on its plans page |
| Contract | Month-to-month | Not stated on its plans page |
| App and portal | AbbyGO app and portal: summaries, transcripts, sentiment, usage | Mobile app and desktop portal: calendar, messages, usage, call reporting |
Nexa’s plans, features and history are taken from nexa.com (its plans, about, services, Voice + AI and careers pages and its rebrand announcement) and its job board (nexa.applicantpro.com) as read on September 29, 2026; answer1.com no longer serves a website. Abby prices are from abby.com/pricing the same day. Check both providers for current terms before you buy.
Pricing: Published Plans vs a Quote
Abby publishes the prices of its four standard plans, so you can price a month before you talk to anyone. Plans are $165 a month for 50 Abby Minutes (Starter), $329 for 100 (Essential), $599 for 200 (Professional) and $1,380 for 500 (Growth), with Enterprise plans on request. Every plan is month-to-month with a free trial and no setup fee, 24/7 coverage carries no after-hours or weekend upcharge, and bilingual English and Spanish answering is included for both human and AI.
Nexa’s plans page lists the shape of its plans but not their prices: Nexa 100, 300 and 500 voice minutes, each ending in a request for a quote, with a setup fee whose amount is not published and overage at your base rate. A price table is therefore not possible here. What matters more than the headline rate is what a minute buys. Nexa counts receptionist work time, which its plans page defines as live talk time plus after-call follow-up, email, post-call scheduling, dispatching and any other time spent on your behalf. Abby counts ring, talk and transfer time only, rounded up to the next 30 seconds, with hold time and after-call work excluded. A three-minute call followed by two minutes of notes and a booking is five Nexa minutes; at Abby it is three Abby Minutes with a human receptionist, or one and a half with the AI Receptionist. When you ask Nexa for a quote, ask for the per-minute rate, the setup fee, the overage rate and an estimate of the after-call time its receptionists log for a business like yours, then compare that with Abby’s published $2.76 to $3.30 per human minute and $1.38 to $1.65 per AI minute.
Human, AI, or Both
Abby is one subscription used three ways: just human receptionists, just the AI Receptionist, or a mix you can change at any time. Usage is measured in Abby Minutes: a minute with a human receptionist uses one Abby Minute, a minute with the AI Receptionist uses half, so AI-handled calls make the same plan go twice as far.
Nexa also pairs people with AI. Its Voice + AI page offers three configurations under its own labels, “human first”, “AI first” and “human with some automation”, and prices them on request through its contact form. At Abby the mix is yours to set, call by call and hour by hour: human receptionists on the calls you choose, the AI Receptionist on the rest, and a handoff from the AI to a person on the same call whenever a caller needs one. It is one plan with one usage unit, AI minutes count as half, and you can change the mix at any time without a new plan or a new price. Under the hood, Abby’s AI Receptionist runs on Deepgram Flux for speech recognition, the latest OpenAI models with automatic failover to Anthropic, and ElevenLabs for voice, trained in-house on more than 20 years of receptionist calls.
Receptionist Teams and Where They Work
Nexa’s about page counts more than 600 employees serving more than 5,000 U.S. businesses, its footer gives an office in Phoenix, Arizona, and its job board recruits “Virtual Receptionist – Remote” roles. Every Abby receptionist works in the office in Las Vegas, none from home, so calls are supervised and coached in real time, client information stays on office systems, and the team that answers for you trains together on your account; each client is assigned a dedicated team and a Client Success Manager who sets up call handling instructions and reviews results. Abby has answered calls for small businesses for more than 20 years, and the same experience trains its AI Receptionist.
Features Side by Side
Both include 24/7 live answering, English and Spanish, custom scripting, appointment scheduling, lead qualification, message taking, outbound calls, and a mobile app and portal; both describe HIPAA-compliant handling for healthcare callers (Abby with its human receptionists, Nexa as HIPAA-compliant service offerings).
- Included with Nexa: a local and a toll-free number with every plan, client and patient intake and inbound and outbound sales on its 300 and 500-minute plans, industry pages for home services, healthcare and legal, and live chat and text answering listed as separate services.
- Included with Abby: published prices and a free trial, an AI Receptionist on the same plan at half-rate minutes, a receptionist team that works 100 percent in the office, a dedicated team and Client Success Manager, 1,000+ integrations including Clio, Lawmatics, HubSpot, Salesforce and Calendly, call summaries, transcripts and sentiment in the AbbyGO app, and no setup fee. Abby hosts your business number too.
Trials, Setup and Contracts
Abby’s free trial runs 14 days or 500 Abby Minutes, whichever comes first, with human and AI receptionists on your real calls, no setup fee and nothing charged until the trial ends; new clients are also covered by a 22-day money-back guarantee on their initial purchase, and every plan is month-to-month. Nexa’s plans page lists a setup fee (amount not published) that covers programming, onboarding and training, no free trial, and no contract length; its terms and conditions are linked from the page.
- You want to know the price before you talk to sales, and a free trial before you pay anything.
- You want human receptionists and an AI Receptionist on one plan, with the mix under your control and AI minutes at half rate, at a published price.
- You want minutes that count the call and not the paperwork, a dedicated team that works in the office (not from home), a Client Success Manager and 1,000+ integrations.
Nexa’s own distinctions are its history (roots in 1982 as Answer 1) and size (600+ employees on its about page), a local and toll-free number in every plan, and intake and sales services aimed at home services and healthcare. Those are the facts to set against the published prices and the plan structure above.
From Answer 1 to Nexa: What Changed
Nexa’s about page traces the company’s roots to 1982 and its timeline records Answer 1 Communications’ Inc. 5000 listing, a change of ownership, a proprietary API, a mobile app and two acquisitions. In April 2019 it announced the Nexa name, describing a focus on technology-enabled services beyond answering the phone; the company now markets 24/7 answering, intake, sales, live chat and Voice + AI under that brand. If you signed up with Answer 1 years ago, Nexa is the same company; if you are researching “Answer 1” today, its current plans, prices and terms are the ones on nexa.com summarised above.
Switching from Nexa to Abby
Switching means forwarding your number to Abby (you keep your number), spending a few minutes on how you want calls greeted, transferred, messaged and scheduled, and letting your dedicated team and the AI Receptionist take calls during the free trial. Abby is month-to-month, so there is no penalty on our side for moving; check your Nexa terms for any notice period, and if callers reach you on a number Nexa provided, arrange to keep or forward it before you cancel. Set the mix however you like: human receptionists on every call, the AI Receptionist on routine and after-hours calls, or both.
Abby vs Nexa (Answer 1): Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to Answer 1?
Answer 1 announced in April 2019 that it would operate under the new brand name Nexa, and it trades as Nexa today; answer1.com no longer serves a website. Nexa’s about page traces the company to 1982 and counts more than 600 employees and more than 5,000 U.S. business clients.
How much does Nexa cost?
Nexa’s plans page lists no prices as of September 29, 2026. It lists Nexa 100, 300 and 500 voice-minute plans, each ending in a request for a quote, plus a setup fee whose amount is not published and overage at your base rate, as read on September 29, 2026. Abby publishes its plans: $165 a month for 50 Abby Minutes, $329 for 100, $599 for 200 and $1,380 for 500, with Enterprise plans on request.
Does Nexa have an AI receptionist?
Yes. Nexa offers Voice + AI in human-first, AI-first and human-with-automation configurations, priced on request. Abby’s AI Receptionist is part of every plan at half-rate minutes, and the human-and-AI mix is a setting you change at any time, with a handoff on the same call.
Does Nexa charge a setup fee?
Yes. Its plans page says the setup fee covers the initial programming, onboarding and training needed for an account to go live; the amount is not published. Abby has no setup fee on any plan.
Does Nexa offer a free trial?
Nexa’s plans page lists no free trial on September 29, 2026. Abby offers a free trial on every plan, 14 days or 500 Abby Minutes, with human and AI receptionists on your real calls and no setup fee.
Where are Nexa’s and Abby’s receptionists located?
Nexa gives a Phoenix, Arizona office and its job board recruits remote virtual receptionists. Abby’s receptionists all work in the office in Las Vegas, Nevada, in dedicated teams; none work from home.
Is Abby cheaper than Nexa?
It cannot be said from published figures, because Nexa’s plans page lists no prices. What can be compared is what a minute contains: Nexa bills receptionist work time including after-call follow-up, email and scheduling, while Abby bills ring, talk and transfer time only, rounded up to the next 30 seconds, with AI-handled minutes at half rate. Get Nexa’s quote in writing and compare it with Abby’s published $2.76 to $3.30 per human minute and $1.38 to $1.65 per AI minute.
See Abby’s plans and pricing, or start the free trial: 14 days with human and AI receptionists answering your real calls, no setup fee. Or keep comparing: Abby vs Ruby, Abby vs Smith.ai, Abby vs AnswerConnect, the best virtual receptionist services of 2026 and what a virtual receptionist costs.
