Best AI Receptionist and Call Answering Services for UK Trade Businesses (2026)

A missed call is a lost job, and a UK tradesperson on the tools misses most of them. The fix is one of three shapes: a human answering service that takes a message, an AI receptionist that answers and books, or an office team that answers and then does everything the call creates. Here is the ranked verdict, with the reason each one wins its slot.

1. Tradehand. Best for sole traders who want the enquiry answered, quoted, booked and chased, not just written down. No monthly fee, no setup fee, no card fees and no contract. It earns 5% of the invoice payments it chases and collects.
2. AnswerConnect. Best for real people at the lowest published entry price. Its UK rate card starts at £45 per month for 25 minutes.
3. Face for Business. Best for UK human receptionists with no setup fee and per-second billing. Plans start from £49 per month.
4. Voco. Best for AI answering priced per call rather than per minute. Starter is £49 per month with 75 calls included.
5. Answrd. Best for flat-rate AI minutes aimed squarely at trades. Starter is £49 per month for 150 minutes.
6. Moneypenny. Best for firms that want a named human team and will take a sales call to get a price. Moneypenny publishes no figure.
7. alldayPA. Best for round-the-clock human cover across calls, email and chat, again on a quote. No price is published.
8. Jobber AI Receptionist. Best for teams already running Jobber who want answering inside the system they use. $29 a month on top of a Jobber plan, included on Plus.

Every price above was read from that vendor's own live UK pricing page on 19 August 2026. If you want to know what a customer searching for your trade is told today, before you pay anyone to answer your phone, the free Tradehand AI report scores your listing and names the competitors ranking above you.

Four things decide whether an answering service is worth the money to a UK trade business, and they are the four this ranking uses.

• Does it answer, or does it only take a message? A message on a pad at 8pm is still an unanswered customer. AnswerConnect, Face for Business, Moneypenny and alldayPA put a person on the call. Voco, Answrd, Jobber AI Receptionist and Tradehand answer with a voice that handles the conversation itself.
• What happens after the call? This is where most of the money is won or lost. Almost every service on this list hands you a message and stops. Tradehand quotes the job, books it and chases the invoice.
• Is the price published? AnswerConnect, Face for Business, Voco and Answrd publish a rate card you can read without talking to sales. Moneypenny and alldayPA do not. That is a real difference for a one-van business deciding on a Sunday night.
• What does a busy month cost? Minute bundles look cheap at the entry tier and stop looking cheap in a heatwave or a cold snap. The comparison table further down shows the entry price and the shape of the bill when volume climbs.

Every price in this article was read from the vendor's own live pricing page on 19 August 2026. Where a vendor publishes no number, this article says so rather than repeating a figure from a review site.

Tradehand is not an answering service, and that is the point of putting it first. An answering service ends at the message. Tradehand is a whole office team without hiring a single person: it answers the call, the text, the email, the WhatsApp and the web chat in your own business name, at any hour, then writes the quote, chases the quote, books the job into your diary and chases the invoice when the work is done.

Pricing. No monthly fee, no setup fee, no card fees and no contract. The office team earns 5% of the invoice payments it chases and collects. A quiet week costs nothing, because if it does not collect, it does not earn. Set that against the honest alternative, which is hiring somebody: an office manager is a £25,000 a year salary or more, paid every month whether or not the invoices land.

Pros

• It answers every channel, not only the phone, so the customer who texts at 9pm gets the same reply as the one who rings at 9am.
• The work after the call is included: quoting, chasing the quote, booking, and chasing the invoice. No other service in this list does all four.
• Nothing to pay in a slow month, which is the month a £245 minute bundle hurts most.
• A free trader website is included and kept current, so the enquiries have somewhere to come from.

Cons

• If all you want is a human to take a message and text it to you, this is more than you need. AnswerConnect or Face for Business will suit you better.
• It is built for UK trade businesses. A non-trade office looking for general reception cover is not the fit.

Best for: sole traders and small trade firms who lose jobs to missed calls and then lose more to quotes never sent and invoices never chased. See how the follow-up side works on the Tradehand follow-up page, and how the included site is built on the free trader website page.

AnswerConnect is a UK telephone answering service staffed by people, and it publishes a full rate card, which most of its human rivals do not. Its lowest tier is £45 per month for 25 minutes, with additional minutes at £1.85 each. Above that the published tiers run 50 minutes at £89 per month and 75 minutes at £125 per month. The larger receptionist plans are 150 minutes at £205 per month with a £49.99 setup fee, 250 minutes at £245 per month with no setup fee, and 350 minutes at £395 per month with a £49.99 setup fee, with extra minutes at £1.75. Interactions are rounded up to the nearest minute, and there is no charge for the first 30 interactions under 30 seconds in a billing cycle.

Pros

• A real published price, which lets a sole trader work out the cost without a sales call.
• Human receptionists, so an upset customer gets a person.
• The short-interaction allowance takes the sting out of wrong numbers and cold callers.

Cons

• 25 minutes is roughly eight calls a month. A working electrician or plumber will burn through it in a fortnight and land on a much larger tier.
• Per-minute billing punishes exactly the calls you want: the long, detailed enquiry that turns into a big job.
• The receptionist takes the message. You still write the quote, send it, chase it, book it and chase the invoice.

Best for: a trade business that wants a human voice and a price it can read on the page tonight.

Face for Business is a Lancashire-based UK answering service using human PAs rather than bots, and its published plans start from £49 per month for the Taster Plan, from £115 per month for Inclusive Minutes, and from £99 per month for its Message Only service. It offers a free trial, and it bills by the second rather than rounding every call up to a full minute.

Pros

• Per-second billing, which is materially fairer than per-minute rounding when most trade calls are short.
• UK-based call handlers who learn your business, so the customer does not feel routed.
• A free trial, so you can hear how your customers are handled before committing.

Cons

• Every published price is a "from" figure, so the number you actually pay still comes out of a conversation.
• Like every human answering service here, it ends at the message. The quote, the diary and the invoice remain yours.

Best for: a trade business that wants people, not AI, and objects to paying for a full minute on a 20 second call.

Voco is a UK AI receptionist that prices by the call rather than by the minute, which is closer to how a trade business actually thinks about its phone. Starter is £49 per month with 75 calls included, Professional is £149 per month with 250 calls included, and Business is £249 per month with 500 calls included. Paid annually those become £39, £119 and £199 a month. Setup is free on all three published tiers, and there is a 30 day money-back guarantee rather than a free trial.

Pros

• Per-call pricing means a long, detailed enquiry costs the same as a wrong number, which removes the incentive to rush a good customer.
• No setup fee on the published tiers.
• It answers around the clock, so the 7am boiler call is picked up.

Cons

• No free trial. You pay first and rely on the money-back guarantee.
• 75 calls on the entry tier is comfortable for a quiet month and tight for a busy one, and the next step up is a large jump.
• It answers and captures the enquiry. It does not price the job or chase the invoice.

Best for: a trade business that wants AI answering with a bill that does not move when a customer talks for ten minutes.

Answrd is a UK AI answering service pitched directly at trades, with three published tiers: Starter at £49 per month for 150 minutes, described as being for sole traders and quieter businesses, Growth at £99 per month for 400 minutes, and Pro at £199 per month for 1,000 minutes for multi-staff and higher volume businesses. It offers a thirty day money-back guarantee.

Pros

• 150 minutes at £49 is a far larger allowance than the human services offer at a similar entry price.
• Flat monthly rate with the minutes stated on the page, so the bill is predictable.
• Written for trades, so the questions it asks a caller are the ones a trade job needs.

Cons

• A small, young vendor, so there is less independent evidence of how it performs at volume than there is for Moneypenny or AnswerConnect.
• Minutes still run out, and a busy winter can push a sole trader onto the £99 tier.
• It answers the call. The quote, the booking and the invoice chase remain your evening's work.

Best for: a sole trader who wants the largest published minute allowance for the smallest published monthly figure.

Moneypenny is the best-known telephone answering service in the UK and it answers with real people, assigning a receptionist who learns your business rather than routing you round a pool. It also sells a separate AI receptionist product. What it does not do is publish a price. Its UK telephone answering page carries no figure at all: the only route to a number is "Get your quote", alongside a free trial of unstated length.

Pros

• The strongest brand and the deepest bench of human receptionists in this list, which matters if your customers are commercial clients or landlords.
• A named receptionist who knows your business, rather than whoever picks up.
• A free trial before any commitment.

Cons

• No published price, so you cannot compare it against anything on this page without a sales call.
• Priced for firms rather than for one van, in the experience of most sole traders who ask.
• It is answering, not job handling. Nothing after the message is included.

Best for: an established trade firm with staff, commercial clients and a reason to want a recognised name answering the phone.

alldayPA describes itself as the UK's leading call answering service and covers calls, emails, live chat and social media around the clock with human operators. Its pricing and packages page publishes no plan prices. It carries a savings calculator and two buttons, "Get A Quote" and "Book a Callback", so the cost of covering your phone is a conversation, not a number on a page.

Pros

• Genuine 24/7 human cover, including the channels a customer actually uses when the phone goes unanswered.
• Long-established and used to handling volume for larger businesses.
• Multi-channel from the start, rather than phone only.

Cons

• Quote-gated. There is no self-serve entry point for a one-man business that wants to start tonight.
• You cannot compare it on price against AnswerConnect or Face for Business without going through sales.
• Again, it is answering. What happens to the enquiry afterwards is still your job.

Best for: a growing trade firm that wants human cover on every channel and is comfortable buying through a sales process.

Jobber's AI Receptionist answers calls and texts around the clock and books jobs straight into the Jobber calendar, with transcripts, live text monitoring and keyword escalation. It is included on Jobber's Plus plan and sold as a $29 a month add-on on the plans below Plus. Jobber is a large, well-established platform built North America first and priced in US dollars, with UK dedicated numbers now available.

Pros

• The answering lands inside the system your jobs already live in, so nothing is retyped.
• Transcripts and keyword escalation mean you can see what was said and be pulled in when it matters.
• Mature product with a large customer base behind it.

Cons

• It only makes sense if you already pay for Jobber, and the receptionist sits on the higher plan.
• North America first, priced in US dollars, so UK VAT, UK phone habits and UK trade language are not the design centre.
• It books the job. You still build the quote.

Best for: a trade team already running Jobber that wants answering without adding another supplier. Our side-by-side on Tradehand versus Jobber covers the rest of the difference.

Entry price is the cheapest published tier on each vendor's own page, read on 19 August 2026. "Not published" means the vendor shows no figure and quotes on request.

Service	Answered by	Entry price	What it does after the call	Best for
Tradehand	Your own office team, on call, text, email, WhatsApp and web chat	No monthly fee. It earns 5% of the invoice payments it chases and collects	Quotes the job, chases the quote, books it, chases the invoice	Sole traders who want the whole job handled
AnswerConnect	People	£45 per month for 25 minutes, then £1.85 a minute	Passes you the message	Real people at the lowest published entry price
Face for Business	People	From £49 per month, billed by the second	Passes you the message	UK human PAs without per-minute rounding
Voco	AI	£49 per month for 75 calls	Captures the enquiry	AI answering priced per call
Answrd	AI	£49 per month for 150 minutes	Captures the enquiry	The largest published minute allowance at the entry price
Moneypenny	People, with a separate AI product	Not published, quote only	Passes you the message	Firms wanting a named human team
alldayPA	People	Not published, quote only	Passes you the message	24/7 human cover across every channel
Jobber AI Receptionist	AI	$29/mo add-on, included on Plus	Books the job into Jobber	Teams already running Jobber

Read the middle column and the fourth column together. AnswerConnect, Face for Business, Moneypenny and alldayPA all end at the same place: a message. Voco, Answrd and Jobber's receptionist go one step further and capture or book. Only Tradehand carries on to the quote and the invoice.

Answering the phone is the first hour of the job and the smallest part of the money. Here is what AnswerConnect, Face for Business, Moneypenny, alldayPA, Voco and Answrd all leave sitting on your kitchen table at 9pm.

• The quote. A standard three bed rewire can take eight or ten hours to price properly. No answering service writes it, and a quote that arrives four days late loses to the one that arrived the same evening.
• The chase. Most quotes are never followed up once. The customer did not say no, they just went quiet, and nobody rang back.
• The diary. A message saying "call Mrs Patel back about a fuse board" is not a booking. Somebody still has to ring her, agree a morning and write it down.
• The invoice. The work is done, the invoice is sent and then it sits. Chasing it is the job nobody wants and everybody puts off.

That gap is the reason this ranking puts an office team above an answering service. If you would rather fix the front of the funnel first, our guide on how to stop missing customer calls covers the cheap changes to make before you pay anyone, and stop paying for leads and own your customers covers where the enquiries should come from in the first place.

Ask these of AnswerConnect, Face for Business, Moneypenny, alldayPA, Voco, Answrd or anyone else on the shortlist. The answers separate the services quickly.

1. What happens on the 26th minute? Get the overage rate in writing. AnswerConnect publishes £1.85 a minute on its smallest plan and £1.75 on the larger ones. A vendor who will not put the overage on the page is telling you something.
2. Is a call rounded up? Face for Business bills by the second. AnswerConnect rounds every interaction up to the nearest minute. On a diet of 40 second calls that difference is most of the bill.
3. Does it answer text, email and WhatsApp, or only the phone? Most of your customers under 40 will text you first. alldayPA covers several channels. Most phone answering services cover one.
4. What arrives on my phone afterwards? A message, a booked slot in a diary, or a finished quote sent to the customer. These are three very different products at similar monthly prices.
5. What does a quiet month cost? A minute bundle costs the same in February as in July. Ask what you pay in the month nothing comes in.

Once you know how the calls will be answered, check what a customer searching for your trade is actually shown. Our guides on getting found on ChatGPT and AI search and on Google Business Profile for trade businesses cover the two places that decide whether the phone rings at all, and the best trade software with AI customer support compares the job management systems that bolt answering on.

If your problem is a ringing phone you cannot reach with your hands in a consumer unit, any of these will help. Pick on what happens next.

• You want people and a price you can read tonight. AnswerConnect at £45 per month for 25 minutes, or Face for Business from £49 per month billed by the second.
• You want AI and predictable volume. Answrd at £49 per month for 150 minutes, or Voco at £49 per month for 75 calls if you would rather be billed per call than per minute.
• You are a firm with staff and commercial clients. Moneypenny or alldayPA, and expect a sales call to get a number.
• You already run Jobber. Jobber's AI Receptionist, on the Plus plan.
• You want the enquiry answered, quoted, booked and chased. Tradehand, with no monthly fee and 5% of what it collects.

Whichever way you go, the honest comparison is not against another supplier's monthly figure. It is against hiring somebody. An office manager is £25,000 a year or more, paid whether or not the invoices land. Start with the free Tradehand AI report to see what customers are told about you today, and read the best website builders for UK trade businesses if the enquiries are not arriving in the first place.