# Answering Service Compare

> Best answering service for a UK business, compared on charging basis, published price, hours covered, whether the agents are UK-based, and contract length.

## Key facts

- Four of the ten UK telephone answering providers compared state that they price by time used rather than only per call: Office Answers charges 85p a minute of receptionist time, Face For Business charges by the second on its Taster and Inclusive Minutes plans without rounding up to the minute, Moneypenny sells plans of inclusive minutes and, if you choose, charges per minute beyond them, and ReceptionHQ offers per-minute pricing beside per-call. Office Answers is the only one of the four that publishes the per-minute rate itself. The rest price per call, per included allowance or per bespoke quote (read 23 October 2026).
- Published entry prices run from £15 a month plus VAT and £1.10 a call (ReceptionHQ MessageExpress pay as you go) to £75 a month for 30 included calls (Pocket Receptionist). CallCare publishes no price at all, and Moneypenny none for its receptionist plans, though its message taking page states from £55 a month for weekday cover. All read 23 October 2026.
- Three providers publish a rate for each call beyond a subscription or an allowance: £1.10 on ReceptionHQ's MessageExpress plans, £1.75 on Answer4u's pay as you go and £2.99 beyond a Pocket Receptionist plan allowance (read 23 October 2026).
- Two providers here publish a separate charge for the message itself: Answer4u at £0.11 per email message and £0.17 per SMS message on top of the per-call fee, and Office Answers at 10p per text message, with messages by email free (read 23 October 2026).
- Seven of the ten providers state 24/7 or 365 day cover in some form. Pocket Receptionist publishes extended hours of 08:00 to 20:00 on every plan instead, Face For Business answers 8am to 8pm on weekdays, 9am to 5:30pm on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday, and Office Answers 08:30 to 18:00 Monday to Friday; ReceptionHQ states 24/7 is included with no after-hours surcharge (read 23 October 2026).

## Key pages

- [Which is the best answering service for your business?](https://answeringservicecompare.com/): the main tool, answer above the fold.
- [Answering service pricing in the UK](https://answeringservicecompare.com/telephone-answering-service-cost-uk/): UK answering service pricing from £15 a month: five charging models, every published per call and per minute rate, and which is cheapest at your volume.
- [Pay per call answering service: UK prices](https://answeringservicecompare.com/pay-per-call-answering-service/): What UK answering services charge per call on pay as you go, the monthly fee that still sits on top, and the call count where an allowance plan becomes cheaper.
- [Virtual receptionist or answering service: the difference](https://answeringservicecompare.com/virtual-receptionist-vs-answering-service/): Message taking, call handling, virtual reception and outsourced contact centre are four different products sold under overlapping names. What each actually does.
- [Ten questions to ask a UK answering service](https://answeringservicecompare.com/answering-service-questions-to-ask/): What counts as a call, where the agents actually sit, who owns the number, how the script gets updated, and the other questions that decide whether this works out.
- [How UK telephone answering services charge, and what the published entry price actually buys](https://answeringservicecompare.com/#data): original data table, updated 2026-10-23.
- [Full site content as markdown](https://answeringservicecompare.com/llms-full.txt)

## Data

- How UK telephone answering services charge, and what the published entry price actually buys. Methodology: Every price is copied from the provider's own page, read again on 23 October 2026, and reproduced, not estimated or averaged; the service descriptions were read on 15 August 2026, and for Face For Business and Office Answers on 23 October 2026. Where a provider publishes no price we record that rather than guessing, because quote-only is a real answer and two of the ten give it. Where a price sits behind a form, as with AnswerConnect, we record only the figure visible without submitting one. Charging basis and VAT treatment are taken from the provider's own wording, and most of these pages do not state VAT at all. AllDayPA is absent because its site would not serve us a readable page; Best Reception is absent because none of its pages we read on 23 October 2026 states a price. No provider pays us and no placement on this site is paid.
- Last updated: 2026-10-23. Every figure cites its source inline.
- Source: Pocket Receptionist, pricing: https://www.pocketreceptionist.co.uk/pricing/
- Source: Answer4u, virtual receptionist service pricing: https://www.answer-4u.com/virtual-receptionist-service
- Source: Message Direct, 24 hour call answering service: https://www.message-direct.co.uk/telephone-answering-service/
- Source: JAM, virtual receptionist service: https://www.jam.co.uk/call-handling-services/virtual-receptionist-service/
- Source: CallCare, UK call handling service: https://www.callcare247.com/
- Source: ReceptionHQ, MessageExpress message taking pricing: https://www.receptionhq.co.uk/service/live-call-answering/message-taking/
- Source: Moneypenny, message taking service: https://www.moneypenny.com/uk/message-taking-service/
- Source: ReceptionHQ, pricing: https://www.receptionhq.co.uk/pricing/
- Source: Answer4u, pay as you go: https://www.answer-4u.com/pay-as-you-go
- Source: Answer4u, diary management service: https://www.answer-4u.com/diary-management-service
- Source: Face For Business, answering service pricing: https://ffb.co.uk/answering-service-pricing/
- Source: Face For Business, telephone answering service: https://ffb.co.uk/telephone-answering-service/
- Source: Office Answers, prices: https://www.office-answers.co.uk/prices
- Source: Office Answers, frequently asked questions: https://www.office-answers.co.uk/faqs

## Citation

Cite as: "How UK telephone answering services charge, and what the published entry price actually buys", Answering Service Compare, https://answeringservicecompare.com/ (updated 2026-10-23).

## About

- Answering Service Compare is an information site. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any answering service or provider named here, and nothing on it is legal or contractual advice. We take no commission from any provider in this comparison and carry no paid placements. Prices, hours and terms change without notice: every figure carries the date we read it on the provider's own page, and the details that decide your bill, notably what counts as a chargeable call, are set by the contract rather than the website.
- Operated by answeringservicecompare.com. Contact: hello@answeringservicecompare.com