As of: 4 November 2026

For cleaning companies with more than 250 call minutes per month or with clients who want to see sub-processors and audio storage, Empfango is the cheaper and more transparent HalloPetra alternative; for trade businesses using fortytools, HalloPetra remains the obvious choice (as of 14 Oct 2026).

HalloPetra (Berlin) is an AI office assistant for the trades with a cleaning page, €99 to €499 per month with 100 to 700 included minutes; Empfango offers 1,000 minutes from €99, names its sub-processors and stores no audio by default.

Both providers are German GmbHs, both answer calls around the clock, both capture sick calls and report them to dispatch. The differences lie in the price per minute, in the disclosure of speech processing and in the industry focus: HalloPetra serves 14 trades from plumbing to pest control, Empfango concentrates on building service providers in cleaning, security and caretaking.

HalloPetra is a product of HalloPetra GmbH, Berlin (HRB 267962 B), which positions itself as "the first German AI office assistant" and offers email, website and WhatsApp as add-on modules alongside the phone (as of 14 Oct 2026).

The cleaning page targets building and industrial cleaning. Petra takes enquiries about site size, frequency and date, qualifies enquiries before handing them to sales, and keeps the company updated via WhatsApp. For sick calls, according to the page, she records name, date and expected duration and alerts the shift or dispatch manager via SMS or Slack. fortytools is named as an integration; English, Turkish and Polish are available as an add-on. HalloPetra itself describes its target group as trade businesses with 1 to 50 employees.

The pricing page lists three phone plans: Einzelkämpfer €99 with 100 minutes, Betriebe €199 with 250 minutes, Mittelstand €499 with 700 minutes, each per month and cancellable monthly. Additional minutes cost €0.20 to €0.30, and every started minute is rounded up to 60 seconds. Annual payers receive 50 to 150 bonus minutes. The add-on modules email, website, WhatsApp and custom voice cost €29 to €99 per month extra. The trial runs without a credit card, and the plan can be paused.

With HalloPetra, an included minute costs between €0.71 and €0.99, with Empfango €0.09 to €0.10; additional minutes cost €0.20 to €0.30 at HalloPetra, while Empfango does not top up automatically.

Table 1 converts the base price to the included minutes. The comparison is deliberately sober: a cleaning company with 300 call minutes per month needs the Betriebe plan plus 50 additional minutes at HalloPetra, so €199 plus €10 to €15; with Empfango the Solo plan at €99 with 1,000 minutes is enough. At 700 minutes it is €499 versus €99.

Two notes for context. First, the providers assume different call lengths: HalloPetra equates 100 minutes with around 80 calls, Empfango states 2.5 to 4 minutes per call and thus 250 to 400 calls for 1,000 minutes. Second, in the larger plans the HalloPetra price includes workflows such as emergency alerts and appointment scheduling, and from Mittelstand a cloned voice; Empfango includes transcript, summary, notification and the DPA in every plan. All Empfango plans are listed under Pricing.

HalloPetra states "servers in Frankfurt" and a DPA during onboarding, but names no AI or speech sub-processor in its privacy policy; Empfango publishes its sub-processors with purpose and location (as of 14 Oct 2026).

This is the point where the two providers differ most clearly, and it calls for a fair presentation. An AI phone assistant consists of speech recognition, a language model and speech synthesis. Which companies handle these steps is stated neither on HalloPetra's pricing page nor in its privacy policy; there it says that data processed via the voice assistant is processed on the instructions of the commercial customer. On storage, HalloPetra states that audio and transcripts are stored encrypted; we did not find a deletion period for audio. On the positive side: HalloPetra informs callers at the start that an AI is in use.

Empfango names every sub-processor in its privacy policy: Azure OpenAI in the EU region for the language model, Deepgram via the EU endpoint for speech recognition, ElevenLabs for speech synthesis, Twilio for telephony, Upsun for hosting in Frankfurt am Main. Deepgram, ElevenLabs and Twilio are US companies bound by a DPA with standard contractual clauses; we do not hide that. The difference lies in disclosure, not in Empfango doing without US services. Then there is the handling of audio: Empfango does not store call audio permanently by default; optional recordings are deleted after 30 days at the latest. The DPA is included in every plan. Which questions clients should ask "German" providers is explained on the page AI phone assistant from Germany.

HalloPetra serves 14 trades with a craft focus and has pages for cleaning and facility management, but none for guard and security services; Empfango has dedicated pages and workflows for cleaning, security services and caretaking.

For pure cleaning companies this is initially no disadvantage for HalloPetra. The cleaning page is detailed, describes special cleaning after water damage, post-construction cleaning and practice disinfection, and shows an example cockpit with shifts adjusted in fortytools. Anyone using fortytools and also offering trade services will find suitable coverage at HalloPetra.

It looks different when a building service provider runs several divisions. HalloPetra's "security technology" page means alarm and fire detection systems, not guard services. Empfango offers dedicated workflows for security services covering on-call and escalation and 24/7 fault intake, and for caretaking services damage reports with site assignment. Added to this is the optional connection to LiteLog, the patrol and checkpoint system from the same company: reports land directly in the LiteLog portal, and Empfango gives clients information about patrols from LiteLog data. This is an option; Empfango also works without LiteLog.

In day-to-day business, both assistants take the same calls: early-morning sick calls, quote requests, complaints from clients and questions about appointments.

Empfango captures name, callback number, site and request on every call, answers recurring questions from the stored knowledge base, checks and books appointments in the connected calendar, and transfers urgent cases to an on-call number with a ring timeout; if nobody answers, a callback is recorded. The notification goes via WhatsApp, Telegram, email or webhook to the responsible person; transcript and summary are in the dashboard. Empfango is multilingual. How a sick call at 5:40 am works in detail is described under Capturing sick calls by phone; the industry page building cleaning shows the typical calls of a day.

What Empfango does not do: it does not reschedule shifts, does not write into fortytools or other industry software except via webhook, keeps no site diary and builds no website. Anyone who wants these add-on modules will find them at HalloPetra.

HalloPetra is the obvious choice for trade businesses using fortytools, for companies that want email inbox, website and WhatsApp site diary from a single source, and for anyone making fewer than 100 call minutes per month.

• You use fortytools and want shifts adjusted there.
• You run a trade alongside cleaning, such as painting or plumbing, and want one assistant for both.
• You want email handling, website creation or a site diary via WhatsApp as add-on modules.
• You want a cloned voice that sounds like one of your own staff (included in the Mittelstand plan).

Empfango fits when call volume exceeds 250 minutes per month, when clients ask about sub-processors and audio storage in tenders, or when a security or caretaking division with on-call duty belongs to the business alongside cleaning.

• You make more than 250 call minutes per month and want a flat rate without additional minutes.
• Your clients require a published sub-processor list, a DPA included in the plan and a clear statement on audio storage.
• You also run a security or guard service or a caretaking service with night-time on-call duty.
• You use LiteLog or want to hand over reports to your own system via webhook.

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