- General market 2026: basic plans £30–£60 a month (greeting, message taking, routing); mid-tier £60–£100 (appointment booking, FAQs, CRM integration); enterprise from £99 to £2,000+ with integrations and volume.
- Published examples: IONOS £39 (30 calls), £69 (100 calls), £99 (unlimited, with booking), ex VAT, August 2026; Hey Jodie £49, £99, £199 flat with unlimited calls; trade-focused services mostly £39–£99; the cheapest, Team-Connect, £9.99 for sole traders.
- Human answering services price per call or per minute on top of a plan and rarely publish rates. For a trade business the cost that matters is the missed call, and one saved boiler survey pays for a year of any plan on this page.
The price bands
Independent UK guides in 2026 (Softomate Solutions, AI Workforce, Original Objective) put the market in three bands. Basic plans at £30–£60 a month answer, take a message and route the call. Mid-tier plans at £60–£100 add appointment booking, FAQ answering and a CRM integration. Above that, £99 to £2,000-plus buys volume, integrations and custom builds for larger businesses. Trade-focused services mostly sit at £39–£99.
| Provider or band | Price | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Basic band (general market) | £30–£60 a month | Greeting, message taking, simple routing |
| Mid-tier band (general market) | £60–£100 a month | Appointment booking, FAQ answering, CRM integration |
| IONOS AI Receptionist | £39 / £69 / £99 a month ex VAT (30 / 100 / unlimited calls), August 2026 | Booking and outbound on the £99 tier; web chat agent from £69 |
| Hey Jodie | £49 / £99 / £199 a month, flat | Unlimited calls on every plan, no per-call charge |
| Team-Connect | £9.99 a month | Sole traders and micro-businesses; the cheapest reported |
| Human answering service | Per call or per minute plus a plan | Message taking and transfer; booking often extra; rates rarely published |
| MyTradeBuddy AI receptionist | Included with the system; no per-call charge | Answers, qualifies for your trade, books into your diary, transcript on the CRM record. Pricing |
Per call, per minute, or flat
Three models. Per-call pricing is common on human services and some AI plans: cheap in a quiet month, expensive in a storm week, and it punishes the weeks you most need answering. Call-volume tiers (IONOS's 30 / 100 / unlimited) give you a cap to manage. Flat unlimited plans (Hey Jodie's, and MyTradeBuddy's, where the receptionist is included) cost the same whether the phone rings ten times or two hundred.
For a trade business the flat model is usually right, because the weeks the phone rings most are the weeks the work is worth most. A roofer paying per call in the week after a storm is paying most for the calls that matter most.
What it costs not to have one
The price of an AI receptionist is small next to the price of the calls it saves. Ring your own number at 5.30pm from a friend's phone and see what a homeowner hears. If it is voicemail, the enquiry rings the next firm within a minute or two; one industry guide's worked example has a sole trader electrician missing 40% of 150 monthly calls, which is 60 enquiries a month going elsewhere. You do not need that many. A single saved boiler replacement or re-roof covers a year of any plan above.
The other saving is the office. A receptionist that books the survey into the diary, confirms it by text and writes the transcript to the customer record removes the ring-back, the notebook and the double-keying. That is worth more than the price difference between a £39 plan and a £99 one, which is why the trade-specific comparison weights booking over price.
What to check before you pay
Does it book into your actual diary or just take a message. Does it ask your trade's questions (fuel type, urgency, postcode) or a generic script. What happens on an emergency call. Whether it writes to a customer record you will use. Whether there is a per-call charge. And whether it will introduce itself honestly as an assistant. The virtual receptionist UK page sets human against AI on those points.
Read next
Frequently asked questions
Basic plans £30–£60 a month, mid-tier £60–£100 with booking and CRM integration, and £99 to £2,000-plus for larger businesses. Published examples: IONOS £39–£99 by call volume, Hey Jodie £49–£199 flat, Team-Connect £9.99. All ex VAT.
Usually, and more predictably. Human services price per call or per minute on top of a plan, so busy weeks cost more. Flat AI plans cost the same however many calls arrive.
On some plans. IONOS caps calls per tier; Hey Jodie and MyTradeBuddy have no per-call charge. Check before signing, especially if your trade has seasonal spikes.
At the bottom, answering and message taking. At the mid-tier, appointment booking, FAQ answering and a CRM integration. Trade-focused services add qualifying questions for the trade and emergency handling.
No. It is included with the system alongside the CRM, quote follow-up and demand generation, with no per-call charge. Pricing for the system is on the pricing page.