Should we build our own voice bot or buy a ready service?
Sado AI team · · 4 min read
In short
Building a voice bot isn’t plugging in one model; it’s the whole chain: a phone line (SIP), recognising Uzbek and Russian speech, building answers from your company’s information, a natural voice, stopping when the caller cuts in, storing recordings and transcripts, CRM links and monitoring. That takes a development team and ongoing costs. If you have AI specialists in-house, or calls are the core of your product, building makes sense. If you need calls answered now, buy a ready service and, if needed, connect it to your system by API.
What a voice bot is made of
| Part | What it does | What building it yourself takes |
|---|---|---|
| Telephony (SIP) | Connects to your number, takes and makes calls | Setup with your phone operator, line quality |
| Speech recognition | Turns the caller’s speech into text | Testing on mixed Uzbek-Russian speech over the phone |
| Conversation logic | Understands the question, builds the answer from your information | Rules and tests so it doesn’t make things up |
| Voice | Says the answer in a natural voice | Uzbek pronunciation, numbers, names |
| Speed | Answers fast, stops when the caller talks | Cutting delay at every step |
| Recordings and portal | Stores and shows every call | Storage, search, access rights |
| CRM | Creates leads and deals, saves answers | A separate integration for each CRM |
| Control | Limits, a stop button, data protection | Encryption, retention, monitoring |
How to count the cost
Building costs more than developer salaries. Count:
- The team: developers, a telephony specialist, a tester, and how many months they work.
- Per-minute outside services: speech recognition, a language model, voice, the phone line.
- Servers and recording storage.
- Support: models update, APIs change, a bug appears at night, and someone has to respond.
- Your own time: the script, test calls, customer complaints.
For example, if two developers work for six months, that’s 12 monthly salaries before the bot answers its first customer. Then support is added every month. These numbers are only an example: use your own and compare them with the per-minute price on the pricing page.
When building makes sense
- Calls are your product: for example, you’re a telephony or CRM company.
- You have experienced AI and telephony developers who can work on it for years.
- Your requirements are unusual and ready services can’t meet them.
- You have a very large, steady volume of calls every month, so your own system pays off.
When to buy a ready service
- You need calls answered now, not in a few months.
- You have no developers, or they’re busy with your main product.
- Your call volume changes with the season and your ads.
- You need a ready CRM link, recordings and reports.
There’s a middle way too: buy a ready service and connect it to your own system by REST API and webhooks. Voice, telephony and speech come ready, and the data lands in your database: for developers.
Before you decide: five steps
- Write down the five questions customers ask most.
- Call the ready service from an ordinary phone with those questions.
- Read the recording and transcript: what was understood right and what wasn’t.
- If you have a prototype, test it with the same questions.
- Work out a year’s cost for both options with the same number of calls.
Sado: the chain is already built
Sado has every part of the table in one service: a SIP connection to your current number, Uzbek and Russian, the voices Malika and Shohruh, answers from your company’s information, and recordings, transcripts and answers in the portal. There’s a ready Bitrix24 connection; our team connects amoCRM, Google Sheets and 1C. Sado’s team does the setup, and no code is needed from you.
You pay only for talked minutes, 800 so‘m a minute, with no monthly or setup fee. It works for incoming and outbound calls. Try it live or call 78 778 01 23.
Questions
Wouldn’t a bot on open-source models be cheaper?
The model may be free, but servers, telephony, testing and support aren’t. Compare the full cost over a year.
Can a ready service connect to our own software?
Yes. Sado has a REST API and webhooks: you send lists and receive call data in your own system. Details are on the developers page.
What if we move to our own system later?
You can. Sado has no monthly fee, you pay only for talked minutes, and call results can be downloaded to Excel.