Compare · checked 14 November 2026
MaeDay vs Specialty Answering Service for property management
Last updated
Checked 14 November 2026
The short answer
Specialty Answering Service uses human operators, starts from $44 a month with a two-week free trial, and has Spanish-speaking staff. MaeDay uses Mae, an AI voice agent built for property managers, billed by the second from $197 a month. Choose Specialty if you want a person on every call, MaeDay for an on-call ladder with retries.
How do they compare side by side?
| MaeDay | Specialty Answering Service | |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | Mae, an AI voice agent | Human operators |
| Published price | From $197 a month for 500 minutes | From $44 a month |
| Billed by | The second | Not shown on the page |
| Emergency screening | Your emergency list, set for each property | Calls screened for emergency and non-emergency response by your protocols |
| Reaching on-call staff | Warm transfer by phone, then retries and backups in your order | On-call staff dispatched by phone, text, pager or email |
| Spanish | Not yet | Representatives fluent in English and Spanish |
| Trying it | A 20-minute setup call, then 3 to 5 business days to go live | Two-week free trial |
| Setup fee | $297 on monthly plans, free on annual | Not shown on the page |
Specialty Answering Service facts from its property management page, checked 14 November 2026. Sources: Specialty Answering Service page. Prices change, so follow the links for today's figures.
Which should you pick?
Specialty Answering Service is the better choice if
- You want a person on every call
- You need Spanish-speaking staff today
- You want a free trial before any setup
- You want on-call staff reached by pager or text
MaeDay is the better choice if
- You want billing by the second, with spam and wrong numbers left out
- Your on-call ladder needs retries and backups in a fixed order
- Different properties need different emergency lists
- You want the recording and transcript of every call
What would 150 calls a month cost?
Specialty Answering Service does not show a per-minute rate on its page, so a like-for-like cost cannot be worked out from published prices. At about 3 minutes a call, 150 calls is around 450 minutes, which fits inside MaeDay Starter at $197. Ask Specialty for a quote at that volume and compare.
Common questions
Is a human answering service better for emergencies?
Can MaeDay answer in Spanish?
Can I try MaeDay before I commit?
Hear Mae take an emergency call, then decide.
On a 20-minute setup call we go through your properties, your emergency list and who is on call. You leave with a plan and a price.