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Perceptionist VS ShellNewHandler

Compare Perceptionist VS ShellNewHandler and see what are their differences

Perceptionist

A live answering and revenue capture service for small businesses. Our agents answer 24/7 as part of your team, so every call becomes a booked job, not a voicemail. Since 1998.

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ShellNewHandler

SourceForge.net: ShellNewHandler details page

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Recalert.us
Free recall lookup for U.S. businesses. Search CPSC, FSIS, NHTSA and FDA product recalls by product, brand, model or UPC in seconds. sponsored
Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, ShellNewHandler seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 2 times since March 2021.

social mentions
0 vs 2
Appointment Scheduling popularity
100% vs 0%

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Perceptionist
ShellNewHandler
Website perceptionist.com sourceforge.net
Listed in
Call Answering Call Center Services Answering Service Phone Answering Appointment Scheduling +2
Cloud Storage Monitoring Tools File Sharing Website Monitoring +1

About Perceptionist and ShellNewHandler

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

Perceptionist
ShellNewHandler

Perceptionist is a 24/7 live answering and revenue capture service for small businesses across the United States and Canada. Founded in 1998, we answer as an extension of your team: when you cannot pick up, our agents answer in your business name, ask your custom intake questions, qualify the...

Read more about Perceptionist

No description of ShellNewHandler yet.

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Perceptionist 12 features
ShellNewHandler 0 features
  • 24/7 Live Answering
    Real agents answer days, evenings, weekends, and holidays in your business name
  • Appointment Booking
    Agents schedule directly into your available time slots, not just take messages
  • Call Qualification
    Custom intake questions capture job details and filter out non opportunities
  • CRM Integrations
    Direct connections with ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, ServiceMinder, and Inspection Support Network
  • Custom Integrations
    In-house engineering team connects Perceptionist to other platforms via API and Zapier webhooks
  • AI Call Routing
    In-house AI reads caller intent and routes urgent calls to the right place instantly
  • Call Recordings
    Clients receive a recording of every interaction
  • Agent Notes
    Personalized agent notes plus AI assisted notes on each job
  • Dedicated Agents
    Option for the same trained agents on every call
  • Overflow Coverage
    Use Perceptionist for all calls, after hours only, or just the calls you miss
  • Built-in Scheduler
    Clients without their own software can book through Perceptionist's scheduler
  • Payment Collection
    Agents can collect credit card payments on calls

No features have been listed yet.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

Perceptionist
ShellNewHandler

No analysis of Perceptionist yet.

Overall verdict

  • ShellNewHandler is a niche, lightweight utility hosted on SourceForge designed to give users more control over the Windows 'New' context menu (the ShellNew menu). It can be considered good for its specific narrow use case, but it is an older, minimally maintained tool that may not suit all users, especially those on modern Windows versions.

Why this product is good

  • Provides direct control over customizing the Windows right-click 'New' menu, allowing users to add or remove file type entries
  • Lightweight and free, without bundled bloatware typical of some other free utilities
  • Simple and focused in scope, making it easy to understand for its specific purpose
  • Open distribution via SourceForge allows transparency and no-cost access

Recommended for

  • Power users who want to declutter or customize the Windows New context menu
  • IT administrators managing standardized desktop environments across multiple machines
  • Users comfortable with older utility-style tools and Windows registry-related tweaks
  • Not recommended for casual users seeking modern, actively supported software with regular updates

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Perceptionist
ShellNewHandler
100% 100%
Appointment Scheduling
0% 0%
0% 0%
File Sharing
100% 100%
100% 100%
Call Center Services
0% 0%
0% 0%
Cloud Storage
100% 100%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Perceptionist and ShellNewHandler.

What makes your product unique?

Perceptionist's answer

We have answered phones for small businesses since 1998, and our agents do more than take messages. They answer in your business name, ask your custom intake questions, qualify the caller, and book the appointment directly into your schedule, including ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, ServiceMinder, and ISN. More than half of our agents have been with us for years, so the person answering actually knows your industry.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Perceptionist's answer

Most answering services hand you a message. Perceptionist books the job. Our agents schedule directly into your software, capture job details, and send call recordings and notes on every interaction. We are human first, backed by AI that reads caller intent and routes urgent calls instantly, so callers get a real conversation, not a bot.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Perceptionist's answer

Small business owners who cannot afford to miss calls, especially home service and trade businesses like plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, and home inspection, plus franchise networks and multi location brands across the United States and Canada.

What's the story behind your product?

Perceptionist's answer

Tiger Downey founded Perceptionist in 1998 with a simple idea: give small businesses the kind of phone coverage big companies have. Instead of sending callers to voicemail, calls route to trained agents who know the business and can book the work. Nearly three decades later that is still the model, now with direct software integrations and AI assisted routing behind the human conversation.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Perceptionist's answer

Our platform combines live agents with an in-house AI layer that reads caller intent and routes calls in real time. We integrate through APIs with field service platforms like ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro, support custom integrations built by our engineering team, and offer our own scheduler for clients without software.

User comments

Share your experience with using Perceptionist and ShellNewHandler. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Perceptionist 0 mentions
ShellNewHandler 2 mentions

Tracking Perceptionist since Sep 2026.

  • I recently got libreoffice, but now the new option in right click looks like a mess. Can someone help me get rid of them please?
    Use Shell New Handler. Run the portable app and simply untick the items you don't want to appear in your new context menu. Source: about 4 years ago
  • This menu should be easy to add/remove programs to... Who is really creating Access Databases from this menu often enough to keep it here? (Not me!) Is there an easy way to edit this?
    I've always used ShellNewHandler for this. It's a really simple portable utility that allows you to remove most of the items from that menu. Tested it out on Windows 11 and it's still compatible. Source: over 5 years ago

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