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The best AI receptionist in the UK

Seven products a UK business would actually shortlist in 2026, including ours. No invented scores and no self-crowning: each entry gets its published price, its strongest case, and its honest caveat, with every claim linked to the provider's own pages.

The field, checked 22 July 2026

Kalvo

£49/mo for 100 call minutes, £99 for 400, £199 for 1,000; 24/7 included

Strongest case: Flat published pricing with booking on the call, plus website chatbot and email run by the same receptionist. You can talk to it on the demo page before signing up.

Caveat: Disclosure: Kalvo is our product. Judge this entry on the demo, not our word.

Moneypenny AI Receptionist

From £25/mo, full pricing by tailored quote

Strongest case: The biggest UK answering brand, with an AI trained on their own claim of 180 million answered calls and human receptionist teams available behind it.

Caveat: Full pricing needs a quote; the offer is phone-led.

HeyJodie

£49/mo, £99, £199; unlimited minutes on every plan, no overage

Strongest case: UK-focused AI answering with unlimited call minutes at flat prices and a 7-day trial with no credit card required.

Caveat: Phone answering only: no website chat or email channel listed on its plans.

IONOS AI Receptionist

£39/mo for 30 calls, £69 for 100, £99 unlimited (ex VAT)

Strongest case: Aggressive published pricing from a major hosting company, including an unlimited-calls tier and a one-month free trial.

Caveat: A young product from a hosting provider rather than a phone-answering specialist.

RingCentral AI Receptionist

No published UK price; sold as a platform add-on via their sales team

Strongest case: The natural pick if you already run RingCentral phones: routing, lead capture and CRM integrations inside one platform.

Caveat: Comes with a platform attached, and UK pricing is by conversation.

Cyberstaff

States plans from £30/mo, 100 to 600 minutes, overage £0.20 to £0.30/min

Strongest case: Low entry price for minute-based UK AI answering with 24/7 included.

Caveat: No central public rate card page; pricing is stated across their comparison pages.

Smith.ai

$300/mo for 30 calls (USD), overage from $8.50/call; booking $1.50/call extra

Strongest case: AI backed by live North American agents, with deep intake workflows and a strong US professional-services reputation.

Caveat: US-centric pricing and operations; roughly ten dollars a call at entry.

All third-party facts from the linked provider pages, checked 22 July 2026. Kalvo is our product and is disclosed as such above.

The criteria that actually separate them

Price transparency first: half this market publishes a rate card and half quotes. Neither is wrong, but quoted pricing makes comparison your job. Second, what happens on the call: routing a caller and taking a message is not the same as answering their question and booking them in, and the gap between those is most of the value.

Third, coverage: 24/7 included or extra, and how simultaneous calls are handled. Fourth, what the product asks of you: a divert on your existing number, or a platform migration. Fifth, proof: whether you can hear the product working, on your kind of calls, before paying. Weigh those five against your own call log and the shortlist usually picks itself.

Where Kalvo honestly sits in this field

Kalvo's case rests on three things you can verify in minutes: the whole price list is published with 24/7 and booking included, the same receptionist covers phone, website chatbot and email from one knowledge base, and the demo page lets you talk to it before you give us anything.

What we do not offer: human receptionists, platform consolidation, or a decade of brand. If those are your constraint, the entries above serve you better, and this page has hopefully made choosing between them quicker.

Common questions

So which one is actually best?

It depends on which constraint binds you. Want a trusted brand with humans available: Moneypenny. Already on RingCentral: their add-on. Tightest budget: IONOS or Cyberstaff. Unlimited minutes on a busy phone-only line: HeyJodie. US firm wanting live agents: Smith.ai. Want flat published pricing with booking, chat and email included: that is the case for Kalvo, and the demo page is how you test whether we have earned the claim.

Why is Kalvo not ranked first on its own website?

Because a vendor crowning itself in a roundup is worthless to you. We would rather state each provider's strongest case accurately, disclose our interest, and win on a demo you can hear. If a competitor genuinely fits your constraint better, this page says so.

What should I check before choosing any of them?

Five things: total monthly cost at your real call volume including overage, whether 24/7 is included, whether it books appointments or only takes messages, whether you keep your number, and whether you can hear it working before you pay. Every linked pricing page on this list answers most of those in minutes.

Are human answering services not in this list?

Deliberately not: this page is the AI field. If you are weighing AI against human answering, our AI receptionist vs answering service comparison covers it, and the UK answering cost guide prices the human market with sources.

How current is this page?

Every price and claim was checked against the linked provider pages on 22 July 2026. This market moves quickly, so follow the links for today's numbers; if you spot something out of date, the source link will show it.

Related pages

Kalvo vs MoneypennyKalvo vs RingCentral AI ReceptionistKalvo vs Smith.aiHow much does an AI receptionist cost?

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