Direct answer
An answering service puts a person on your phone, an AI receptionist answers with software, and missed-call text-back sends a message when you can't pick up. UK list prices in October 2026 start at £14.99 a month plus VAT for a basic human answering package and £39 a month plus VAT for an AI receptionist. None of them books the job unless it's connected to your calendar and CRM.
Per-call charges often come on top, and the monthly fee is rarely what decides the cost. What you pay depends on the billing unit (calls, minutes, messages or customers), the price of each call over the allowance, and whether anything happens after the call. A cheap receptionist that takes a message you return two days later can cost more in lost work than one that books the job on the spot.
This guide compares the three options, shows published prices from named vendors, and covers the part most comparisons skip: what happens to the enquiry once the call ends.
The three options
Prices below are vendor list prices as of October 2026, read on each vendor's own pricing page on 24 October 2026. They are entry points, not quotes, and providers define a "call" differently. Check the source before you rely on a figure.
Swipe or scroll to compare the columns.
| Option | What it does | Vendor list price (as of October 2026) | Billing unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human answering service | A receptionist answers in your company name and takes a message | Connect Communications: entry packages from £14.99 a month + VAT | Inclusive monthly messages | connect-communications.co.uk |
| Human answering service | Live answering in business hours, answerphone or forwarding outside them | MBE: £47.94 a month + VAT for 20 calls; extra calls £1.50 each (21–50), £1.20 (51–100), £1.10 (101–200), + VAT; three-month minimum | Calls | mbe.co.uk |
| AI receptionist | Software answers, takes details, forwards calls; higher plans book appointments | Fasthosts AI Receptionist: Lite £39 a month (30 calls, then 49p a call); Plus £69 (100 calls, then 39p, with appointment scheduling); Unlimited £99 (unlimited calls, CRM integrations); all prices and per-call charges excl. VAT (£46.80, £82.80 and £118.80 a month including VAT) | Calls | fasthosts.co.uk |
| Missed-call text-back | Sends an SMS or WhatsApp message when a call isn't answered | Not priced here: it is often a feature of a phone system, VoIP service or CRM rather than a separate product | Varies | Check your current phone or CRM provider first |
Many AI receptionist products are priced in US dollars. For comparison, these are US list prices read on the same day:
Swipe or scroll to compare the columns.
| Vendor | Published plans (US dollars, as of October 2026) | Billing unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Free tier with 25 calls; Pro from $150 a month; Enterprise from $500 a month | Calls | smith.ai |
| Rosie | $49 a month (250 minutes), $149 (1,000 minutes), $299 (2,000 minutes) | Minutes | heyrosie.com |
| Goodcall | $79 a month (100 customers), $129 (500), $299 (2,000) | Unique customers | goodcall.com |
Reading the tables:
- Count your calls first. Take last month's inbound calls, including the ones you missed. Then work out each option's monthly cost at that volume, with the overage, not the headline fee.
- Check the billing unit. A plan billed by minutes costs more if your callers ramble; a plan billed by customers costs less if the same people ring back.
- Check the contract. Some services have a minimum term; some AI tools are monthly with a free first month.
- Check what "booking" means. On the Fasthosts plans, appointment scheduling starts on Plus, not Lite. A human service may book into your diary only on a higher package, if at all.
How fast each one starts depends more on you than on the provider. A self-serve AI receptionist can run as soon as you've written its instructions and forwarded your number. A human service needs a call script, your opening hours and a list of who to put through.
What happens after the call: booking, CRM record, follow-up
Answering the phone is half the job. US call-tracking firm Invoca found that "55% of home services businesses don't ask leads to buy or book the job" (Invoca 2026, vendor data). That is about what happens on the call, and the same gap opens again afterwards, when a message sits in an inbox until someone has time.
For each option, ask what happens in the ten minutes after the caller hangs up:
Swipe or scroll to compare the columns.
| After the call | Human answering service | AI receptionist | Missed-call text-back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booking | Only if the package includes diary access | On some plans, into a connected calendar | No; it starts a conversation |
| CRM record | Usually an email or app message you copy in | Some plans connect to a CRM; others send a summary | Depends on the phone system |
| Quote or price | Only if you've given them a price list | Only what you've written into its instructions | No |
| Follow-up if they don't book | Up to you | Up to you, unless connected to a follow-up tool | Up to you |
| Who sees it | Whoever reads the email | Whoever reads the summary | Whoever reads the reply |
The enquiry only turns into work if three things happen without you: the details land in the system you run jobs from, the customer gets a time or a quote, and someone follows up if they go quiet. That's the part to cost, because it's where most of the lost work is.
When a receptionist is enough
You don't always need more than a receptionist. A message-taking service, human or AI, is enough when:
- Most calls are existing customers checking on a job, not new enquiries.
- Every new enquiry needs a site visit or a conversation with you before any booking.
- Your call volume is low enough that you return every message the same day.
- You already have someone in the office who picks up the messages and books from them.
It isn't enough when new enquiries wait more than a working day for a reply, when you find out about lost jobs from customers who went elsewhere, or when you're the only person who books. In those cases the fix isn't a better receptionist. It's the booking step behind it.
Adding the booking step behind the receptionist you already have
If you already pay for an answering service or an AI receptionist, you don't need to replace it. You can add what happens next:
- Capture. The receptionist's message, the call summary or the text-back reply goes to one place instead of an inbox. Most services can at least send an email, and some offer a webhook or an integration; either is enough to start.
- Create the record. An integration creates or updates the customer in your CRM or job system, with the call details attached, so nobody types it twice.
- Offer a time. Rules check your real calendar or job board and send the customer a link with available slots, or a WhatsApp message with two options. An AI agent can handle the back-and-forth ("can you do Thursday morning?"), within limits you set.
- Hand over the hard cases. Pricing questions, complaints, anything unusual and anything outside the agent's permissions go to a named person with the full context.
- Follow up. If the customer doesn't book, a reminder goes out after a set time, and then the enquiry lands on someone's list.
- Count it. A weekly count of enquiries received, booked, and waiting more than a working day tells you whether it's working.
The AI does the conversation; rules check the calendar and create the record; a person takes anything where a mistake would be expensive. We built that pattern for a personalised wall-art business on WhatsApp: an AI agent handles routine order conversations in parallel, a custom CRM shows each order's status, and the team takes over complex conversations with the context intact.
Limitations
Prices were read on vendor pages on 24 October 2026 and may have changed. Introductory discounts were not used; where a page showed both a discounted and a standard price, the standard price is given. VAT treatment is as stated by each vendor. Fasthosts shows its prices excluding VAT by default; the lower monthly figures on the same page are reseller prices and are not used here. US prices are in US dollars and may not apply to UK customers. The Invoca figure is US vendor data about home services businesses.
