If you run a small contracting shop and you want new leads answered the second they come in, you have three serious options in 2026: Hatch, LeadTruffle, and Fred. Here is the short version before the detail.
Hatch is the enterprise choice. Deep, powerful, built for high-volume operations, and priced accordingly. It was acquired by Yelp for $270 million in January 2026, which tells you where it is headed.
LeadTruffle is a broad channel toolkit. Website texting, missed-call text-back, AI voice, email, and a unified inbox, with public tiered pricing metered by lead volume.
Fred is the simplest of the three. One AI voice agent that answers, qualifies, and books, on flat pricing with no metering and no annual lock-in.
Now the side-by-side.
The comparison table
Hatch | LeadTruffle | Fred | |
|---|---|---|---|
Built for | High-volume shops, call centers, PE-backed operators | Contractors and agencies wanting a channel toolkit | Small home-service shops that want it simple |
Channels | Voice, SMS, email | Website texting, missed-call text-back, AI voice, email | Website texting, missed-call text-back, AI voice, email |
Voice | Yes | Yes (included in all plans) | Yes (core of the product) |
SMS / text-back | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Pricing | Not public. Third-party reports put it around $600 to $900 per month, platform fee plus usage, annual commitment. Tiers: Standard, Pro, Enterprise. | Public. Essential $229/mo, Growth $399/mo, Scale $629/mo, Enterprise custom, plus a non-refundable onboarding fee. Priced by leads processed. | Flat $499 setup, then $49/mo. No metering, no annual contract. |
Autonomy | AI plus human follow-up, with enterprise playbooks and configuration | AI handles the first back-and-forth, you can jump in anytime | Voice agent answers and handles the call end to end |
Integrations | ServiceTitan, AccuLynx, LeadPerfection, Angi, Yelp, Google LSA | CRMs, Google LSA, Yelp, Thumbtack, Angi, webhooks | CRMs, Google LSA, Yelp, Thumbtack, Angi, webhooks |
Setup effort | Higher. Configuration takes time. | Moderate. Onboarding fee, guided setup. | Low. Named deployment timeline. |
Pricing note: LeadTruffle's numbers are published on their site. Hatch does not publish pricing; the range shown is from third-party user reports, not an official figure, so treat it as an estimate and confirm on a demo.
Hatch: powerful, enterprise, and now owned by Yelp
Hatch is a unified AI platform that runs voice, SMS, and email for service businesses. It answers inbound calls, follows up on unsold estimates, and runs outbound drip campaigns, all in one layer. It integrates with the CRMs bigger shops actually use, like ServiceTitan and AccuLynx, and it has a strong track record with high-volume operators.
Two things matter for a small contractor. First, pricing is not public, and the reported range sits well above what most one-crew and two-crew shops want to spend, on an annual commitment. Second, Yelp acquired Hatch for $270 million in January 2026. That is a signal. Hatch is moving further upmarket and deeper into the Yelp lead ecosystem, not toward the small local shop paying month to month.
If you run a call center or a multi-location operation, Hatch is a real contender. If you are a solo plumber or a small roofing crew, you are probably not the customer it is built for anymore.
LeadTruffle: the channel toolkit
LeadTruffle is an AI-first lead capture platform built specifically for home-service contractors in the US and Canada. It covers a lot of surface area: website texting widgets, missed-call text-back, AI voice answering, email, and a unified inbox with a kanban board for tracking leads. It pulls in leads from Google LSA, Yelp, Thumbtack, and Angi, uses 10DLC-registered numbers, and offers an agency portal with white-labeling.
Pricing is public and tiered: Essential at $229 per month, Growth at $399, Scale at $629, and a custom Enterprise plan, plus a non-refundable onboarding fee. Plans are metered by the number of leads processed, with unlimited users on the account.
LeadTruffle is a strong fit if you want a full toolkit across channels, or if you are an agency reselling to contractors. The tradeoff is that a toolkit is more to configure and manage, and lead-metered pricing means your cost moves with your volume.
Fred: one agent, flat price, less to manage
Fred takes the opposite approach. Instead of a platform of channels and campaigns to configure, it is one AI voice agent that answers the phone, has the conversation, qualifies the caller, and books the job. The point is not to give you more tools. It is to answer every lead without you running a stack.
The pricing is the clearest difference. Fred is a flat $499 to set up and $49 per month. No per-lead metering, so a busy month does not raise your bill. No annual contract, so you are not locked in. No quote-gated pricing, so you know the number before you talk to anyone. Against Hatch's opaque enterprise pricing and LeadTruffle's lead-metered tiers, flat and transparent is the whole pitch.
How to choose
Pick Hatch if you are a high-volume or multi-location operator, you already live in ServiceTitan or AccuLynx, and an enterprise budget on an annual commitment is fine.
Pick LeadTruffle if you want a broad channel toolkit across text, voice, and web, or you are an agency reselling to contractors, and lead-metered pricing suits your volume.
Pick Fred if you are a small shop that just wants the phone answered instantly, on a flat price, with almost nothing to set up or manage.
The right tool depends on how big you are and how much you want to run yourself. If the honest answer is "I just want my calls answered so I stop losing jobs," that is the case Fred is built for.