Straight answers on automation
Buyer's guides for people spending real money. What vendors actually sell, what it costs, what breaks later, and the times the honest answer is to not automate it at all.
Custom AI Software for Trades: When It's Worth It, and What It Costs
Most trades who ask us for custom software do not need it. There are three layers, at roughly $29 a month, $20 a month, and $5,000 upwards, and the middle one gets skipped because nobody earns commission selling it. The four tests for when a build is genuinely justified, and the five ways custom fails after delivery.
How it actually worksWhat an AI Receptionist Does When It Doesn't Know the Answer
Every demo shows the call that goes right. This is the one that goes wrong: the five ways a real call derails, the four escalation behaviours ranked, why warm transfer is often a paid upgrade two tiers above the price you were quoted, and seven test calls that take twenty minutes and tell you more than any demo.
Buyer's guideBest AI Website Builders for Small Business Owners (2026)
All seven build you a decent site in ten minutes, so that stopped being the question. This compares what the headline price actually commits you to, what it renews at, and whether you can leave with your site. Ours is in there, and it is the only one that does not publish what publishing costs.
Buyer's guideBest AI Automation Agencies for Small Business (2026)
Eight vendors compared on what they actually sell and what they publish about price, including the platforms that cost $12 a month and the reasons you might not need an agency at all. We put ourselves in the same table, with the situations where you should hire somebody else.
What goes here next
This is a working notebook, not a content calendar. Each piece answers one question a buyer actually asks us, and goes up when the research behind it holds rather than on a schedule. Everything we had queued is now published. If there is a question you want answered honestly, including one where the answer might be that you should not buy from us, send it over.