Everything outside the Brring row was read off each provider’s own website in October 2026. Where a price is not published, we say so. Where a service beats us on something, we say that too.
The comparison
Prices as of October 2026, from each provider’s own site. “POA” means quote-based: no published figure.
| Service | Type | Pricing model | 24/7 | Contract | Setup | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moneypenny | Human, AI add-on | Per-minute packages, quote-based | Yes | 3–12 months | Not published | Free trial offered |
| alldayPA | Human | Per call or per minute, quote-based | Yes | Not published | Not published | None published |
| AnswerConnect | Human | Per-minute bundles, quote-based | Yes | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Message Direct | Human | Monthly plans from £19.20 | Yes | None, pause anytime | Same-day reported | 14 days |
| ReceptionHQ | Human | From £15/mo + per-call or per-minute, plus VAT | Yes, no surcharge | No long-term contract | Not published | 7 days, no card |
| Answer.co.uk / JAM | Human, AI option | PAYG £2.20/call +VAT, £25 min credit | Yes | None | Online, minutes | Free test call |
| Best Reception | Human | POA, prices not published | Out-of-hours available | Not published | Not published | 14 days |
| Face For Business | Human | From £49/mo, billed per second | Evenings & weekends incl., not 24/7 | Not published | Not published | Free trial offered |
| Brring (us) | AI | Flat: £49 / £79 / £129 a month | Yes | None | ~10 minutes | 7 days, no card |
What the table actually says
Three things worth noticing before the marketing gets its turn.
- Most of the market will not tell you the price. Of the eight competitors here, four publish real numbers and four work from quotes. That is not automatically a bad sign; Moneypenny earns its quotes. But the industry norm is still: talk to sales before you know what this costs.
- 24/7 is now standard, with fine print. Seven of the nine answer around the clock. The differences are the surcharge (ReceptionHQ charges nothing extra for nights; Face For Business includes evenings and weekends but is not a 24-hour service) and what “answered” means at 3am.
- Contracts survive at the premium end. Moneypenny’s own FAQ states a three-month minimum on small schemes and six to twelve months on larger ones. The budget end has mostly gone month-to-month. A 12-month commitment on a service you have not trialled is a bet.
The per-call maths, worked honestly
Take a small business getting 60 calls a month, averaging two minutes each. Here is what each model costs, using only published prices.
| Service | Monthly cost | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Answer.co.uk PAYG | £132 +VAT | 60 × £2.20 a call. Human message-taking, 24/7. |
| Brring Cover | £54 | £49 flat. 120 minutes used, 100 included, 20 × 25p overage = £5. Every call answered 24/7, details texted to you. Booking capture needs Cover+ at £79. |
| Quote-based services | POA | Moneypenny, alldayPA, AnswerConnect, Best Reception: unknowable until you talk to sales. |
| Voicemail | £0 | Nothing. Most callers with a job in hand hang up and dial the next result. |
Two honest footnotes. First, that Brring figure includes going over the included minutes, because pretending overage does not exist is how comparison pages lie.
Second, per-call pricing has a wrinkle: some services bill every call handled, including the PPI ones, while Face For Business states it does not charge for sales and nuisance calls. Check that before you sign, especially if telemarketers have found your number.
The fuller breakdown of every price band is on our call answering service cost page, and the volume of calls you actually miss is covered in what a missed call service recovers.
Human or AI: which is right for you
This is the real decision in 2026, and the honest answer is that both are good at different jobs.
Pay for a human when your calls are long, complicated or delicate. If callers need twenty-minute technical conversations, judgment calls on ambiguous situations, or a sympathetic voice for upset clients, a good PA service earns every penny. Moneypenny built its reputation on exactly this.
Use AI when your calls are short, routine and volume-shaped. Enquiries, quote requests, bookings, “is someone available Thursday”, the 9pm burst pipe.
These are the calls a briefed PA handles on autopilot, which is why they suit automation: an AI answers in seconds, never puts anyone on hold, works the night shift for no surcharge, and costs a flat fee instead of metering every call. Paying premium human rates for that shape of call buys polish the job does not need.
The hybrid is real too. Moneypenny now sells an AI receptionist alongside its PAs, routing routine calls to software and saving humans for the valuable ones. Answer.co.uk offers an AI option at £10 a month plus 85p a call.
If your call mix is genuinely two-headed, that is worth a look. How a modern AI receptionist handles a call, second by second, is on our AI receptionist page, honest gaps listed.
The providers, one by one
Moneypenny
The premium end and the best-known name. UK-based PAs in teams of five, so yours is never the only one who knows your business, strong integrations, genuinely polished handling of complex calls.
The trade-offs: quote-based pricing, a three-month minimum contract even on small schemes (six to twelve months on larger ones, per their FAQ), and a service aimed at firms with a receptionist budget. If your average job is four figures, it is the safe answer. For “how much to look at my boiler” volume, you are paying for polish a simple job does not need.
alldayPA
A long-established 24/7 operation with a strong Trustpilot record (4.8 from over 400 reviews) and clients who have stayed a decade. Handles everything from message-taking to emergency call-out dispatch.
Pricing is quote-based: you choose per-call or per-minute billing, then get a tailored plan. Nothing published on setup fees, contracts or trials, so expect a sales conversation first.
AnswerConnect
A US-based service selling 24/7 human answering on a per-minute pricing model, confirmed in its own blog, but no UK price list is published at the time of writing. Pricing lands in the quote column. Third-party reviews mention trial minutes; we could not verify that on their site, so we do not state it as fact.
Message Direct
The value pick of the human services, and refreshingly transparent: plans from £19.20 a month (“from £0.64 a day”), 24/7 included, no long contracts, upgrade or pause any time, 14-day free trial.
Running since 1994, with a dedicated account manager and a real specialism in emergency call-outs. If you want a human PA service without a quote form, start here.
ReceptionHQ
Published prices from £15 a month plus VAT for message-taking (MyReceptionist from £16, assistant and diary plans from £30), per-call or per-minute billing, no long-term contract, 7-day free trial with no card.
Its differentiator is on the pricing page itself: 24/7 cover included with no after-hours surcharge, which most of the market still charges for. Solid, legible, month-to-month.
Answer.co.uk / JAM
Two brands, one operation. Answer.co.uk is the pay-as-you-go arm: no monthly fee, £2.20 a call plus VAT for new customers, £25 minimum credit, 24/7 included, online sign-up, plus an AI option at £10 a month and 85p a call. JAM is the bespoke arm with transfers, booking capture and call-outs.
The most flexible entry point in the market, with the classic metered catch: every answered call costs, including the spam, and 60 calls a month lands at £132 plus VAT.
Best Reception
UK-based since 2006, with a 14-day free trial, appointment booking against real diary software (Cliniko, Jane, PracticeHub), and clients who have stayed years. Prices are not published, so it is a quote conversation.
One honest note: the Google reviews on its own homepage include recent complaints about answer rates since a change of ownership, alongside a strong Trustpilot history. Trial it before committing, which is what the two weeks are for.
Face For Business
The most transparent human service after Message Direct: telephone answering from £49 a month, switchboard from £115, published on the homepage.
Genuinely likeable details: billing per second rather than rounded-up minutes, no setup fees, no charge for sales and nuisance calls, evening and weekend answering included with no out-of-hours premium, and an automatic move to the cheapest package in your usage band each month. Not a 24/7 service, so weigh that if your missed calls are overnight.
Brring (us)
AI answering built for UK trades, at flat prices. Cover £49: every call answered 24/7, details taken, SMS to your mobile, 100 answered minutes. Cover+ £79: your own prices quoted on the call, booking capture, known-caller memory, 300 minutes. Front desk £129: URGENT texts while the caller is still on the line, call recording, warm transfer, 500 minutes.
Overage 25p a minute, setup about 10 minutes from your website, no contract, 7-day free trial with no card.
The honest weaknesses: some callers notice the AI, no AI service today should handle a long technical conversation, and the headline features sit on the higher plans. If your calls are quote-shaped and booking-shaped, the maths above is the argument.
How to actually decide
- Count last month’s calls honestly. From your phone log, not memory. Under five business calls a month: voicemail or Answer.co.uk’s PAYG. Twenty-plus routine calls: flat pricing wins. Complicated, high-value calls: a premium human service earns its quote.
- Check the hours your calls actually arrive. If your missed calls are 6pm to 9am, the 24/7 question is the decision. ReceptionHQ and Brring include it flat; check what your other candidates charge for the night shift.
- Read the billing model against your call mix. Per-call punishes short and spam calls, per-minute punishes long ones, flat rewards volume. Sixty two-minute calls cost £132 plus VAT at Answer.co.uk and £54 at Brring Cover.
- Trial two, not nine. Every service here either publishes a trial, offers one through its quote form, or lets you walk away monthly. Run your real calls through two candidates for a week each and read the transcripts yourself.
Sources
All prices above come from providers’ own websites, October 2026. Moneypenny moneypenny.com/uk/telephone-answering-service (quote-based; contract terms from its FAQ), alldayPA alldaypa.co.uk/pricing-packages, AnswerConnect answerconnect.com (minutes-based, per its blog).
Message Direct message-direct.co.uk/telephone-answering-service (from £19.20/mo, 14-day trial), ReceptionHQ receptionhq.co.uk/pricing (from £15/mo plus VAT, 24/7 included), Answer.co.uk answer.co.uk/pay-as-you-go-call-answering-service (£2.20/call plus VAT, £25 minimum credit).
Best Reception bestreception.co.uk (14-day trial, prices unpublished), Face For Business ffb.co.uk (from £49/mo, per-second billing). Brring’s plans: brring.co.uk pricing. Prices change; check before you sign.
One call from now
However you decide, the next call is coming whether you have chosen or not. If your calls are the quote-and-book shape most trades get, start Brring’s 7-day free trial, point it at your website, and let real callers decide over the next week. No card, no contract, no quote form.