Moneypenny is the name most UK businesses think of first for telephone answering, and for good reason: trained UK PAs, 24/7 cover, a strong brand. It is also, in our experience, the name people are searching alternatives to for three specific reasons. This is a straight comparison of six alternatives on what each publishes, the maths on a typical call volume, and the cases where Moneypenny is still the right answer.
Every competitor figure below is quoted as published on the vendor's UK page and was checked on 24 August 2026. Rate cards change; treat these as a snapshot and read the page before you buy. We are one of the six, and we say plainly where the others win.
Why people look for an alternative
Price you cannot see. Moneypenny publishes "from" figures only: AI receptionist from £25 a month, the human message-taking service from £55 a month, 24/7 cover as an add-on from £35. There is no rate card, so the real monthly bill depends on your call volume and a conversation with sales. For a business that wants to compare on a page, that is a wall.
Messages rather than outcomes. A message-taking service tells you someone called. What most small businesses actually need is the appointment booked, the deposit taken, the reminder sent and the invoice chased. Moneypenny's PAs can book into a diary; the cheaper tiers are message-taking, and the AI service does not publish what it books into.
Channel. A growing share of customers, especially under 45, message a business on WhatsApp rather than ring it. A voice-only service covers half the door.
The six alternatives
1. Remi (AI, books, WhatsApp, invoice chasing)
An AI receptionist that treats the job as an employee's rather than a phone feature: answers every call and WhatsApp 24/7, books into Google Calendar, Acuity and Cliniko, lets the caller reschedule or cancel on the same call, sends reminders and takes deposits to cut no-shows, texts back missed calls, and chases unpaid invoices until they are paid. Warm transfer to a human, done-for-you setup, UK GDPR data processing agreement.
Published price: £149 a month ex VAT with 1,000 talk-minutes, then 15p a minute; £89 with 500 minutes. One-week free trial, no setup fee.
Where it loses: it is AI, not a PA team. A call that needs human judgement from the first word gets transferred, not handled.
2. Hey Jodie (AI, flat price, unlimited minutes)
A UK AI answering service with three flat tiers: £49, £99 and £199 a month, all advertised with unlimited minutes and no per-call charges, under a fair-use threshold of 1,000 calls a month in its terms. The important detail is that the £49 tier is message-taking; appointment booking and call transfer start at £99. Its pricing page says prices exclude tax. We have compared the two in full in Remi vs Hey Jodie.
Where it wins: at very low volume, £49 for message-taking with unlimited minutes is among the cheapest credible options in the UK.
3. IONOS AI Receptionist (AI, per call)
£39, £69 or £99 a month ex VAT for 30, 100 or unlimited calls, with extra calls at 49p or 39p. Billed per call rather than per minute, so a 20-second wrong number costs the same as a ten-minute booking. Booking is not on the £39 tier. Full comparison: Remi vs IONOS.
Where it wins: a business with a small number of short, predictable calls and a self-serve appetite.
4. RingCentral AI Receptionist (AI, per minute, phone-system add-on)
£32 a month per account with 100 minutes included, then 40p a minute in 30-second increments. The UK page lists appointment booking as "coming soon". Full comparison: Remi vs RingCentral.
Where it wins: you already run RingCentral's phone system and want call answering without a second vendor.
5. AnswerConnect UK (human, published rate card)
The useful human benchmark because it publishes everything: £45 a month for 25 minutes, £395 for 350, £1,135 for 1,050, with overage at £1.75 to £1.85 a minute and a £49.99 setup fee on the middle tiers. Trained people, 24/7, they book appointments by hand.
Where it wins: you want humans and a price on a page. Where it loses: 350 minutes is under twelve minutes of talk time a day, and the overage rate is where the real bill lives.
6. alldayPA (human, quote)
A large UK answering operation with a stated pay-per-call or pay-per-minute model and no published prices; its pricing page carries a quote request.
Where it wins: high-volume overflow for a business that wants a big human team behind it and is happy to negotiate.
Side by side, on what is published
| Option | Published price | Included | Booking | Hours | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moneypenny | From £25 (AI), from £55 (human), 24/7 +£35 | Not published | Yes (human PAs) | 24/7 as add-on | Not published |
| Remi | £149 ex VAT (1,000 min), £89 (500 min) | Minutes, then 15p/min | Yes, into 5 diaries, on the call | 24/7 included | Native |
| Hey Jodie | £49 / £99 / £199 | Unlimited minutes (fair use: 1,000 calls a month) | From £99 | 24/7 | Higher tiers |
| IONOS | £39 / £69 / £99 ex VAT | 30 / 100 / unlimited calls | Not on £39 | 24/7 | Not published |
| RingCentral | £32/account | 100 min, then 40p/min | "Coming soon" | 24/7 | "Coming soon" |
| AnswerConnect | £45 to £1,135 | 25 to 1,050 min, then £1.75+/min | Yes (human) | 24/7 | No |
| alldayPA | Quote | Not published | By quote | 24/7 | No |
The sum on a typical volume
Take a small clinic or salon at 20 calls a day, three minutes each: about 1,320 minutes a month.
- Remi Standard: £149 + 320 minutes over the bundle at 15p = £197.
- RingCentral: £32 + 1,220 minutes at 40p = roughly £520.
- AnswerConnect: the 1,050-minute plan at £1,135 plus 270 overage minutes at £1.75 = roughly £1,608.
- Hey Jodie Professional: £99 flat (unlimited minutes within its 1,000-call fair-use threshold; ex VAT).
- Moneypenny: not calculable from published figures. Ask for the per-call or per-minute rate and the included bundle, then do this sum.
Two honest notes on that. Hey Jodie is cheaper than Remi at that volume on price alone; the difference is what each does with the call (Remi books into clinical diaries, takes deposits and chases invoices, Hey Jodie does not publish those). And the human services are not overpriced; you are paying for people, and for some calls that is the right thing to pay for.
When Moneypenny is still the right choice
If your calls need a trained person from the first word, if a client-facing firm wants a name it can say with confidence, or if you value a UK PA team that can hold a difficult conversation and take a message with judgement, Moneypenny is a good service and the price is the price of people. Legal and professional services in particular often land there. The honest comparison of the two models is in AI receptionist vs a human answering service, and the direct head-to-head is Remi vs Moneypenny.
How to choose
- Decide whether you need messages or outcomes. If callers must leave with a booking, rule out the tiers that cannot book.
- Count your minutes. Multiply calls a day by three, then by 22. Run every option through that number, not the headline price.
- Ask for what is not published. A "from" price is the start of a conversation; get the rate, the bundle and the overage in writing.
- Check the channel. If customers message you, a voice-only service is half a receptionist.
- Trial it. Remi's free week exists so you can run the sum on real calls rather than ours.