Last updated 20 October 2026
Call answering service.
Short version: for a sole trader who misses calls on the tools, a UK answering service costs roughly £20 to £180 a month before VAT, depending on how many calls you miss and whether a person or an AI picks up. AI receptionists are now the cheapest way to get calls answered, from £10 a month plus 85p a call.
But the price per call is the least of it. What decides whether it pays is the hours they actually answer, what counts as a chargeable call, whether they can book the job or only take a message, and how many calls you could stop getting in the first place.
The five options
Every way to stop missing the call.
Every page that ranks for this sells one of these. Here they are side by side.
| Option | What the caller gets | Rough cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own voicemail | A beep, and a wait for you to ring back | Free | Low call volume, callers who will wait |
| A person answering | A real voice in your business name, a message taken | About 99p to £2.20 a call | Callers who want a human, higher-value jobs |
| An AI receptionist | An instant answer, questions handled, sometimes a booking | From £10 a month plus 85p a call | Lots of calls, out-of-hours enquiries |
| A quick text back | "Sorry I missed you, I will call back by…" | Varies | Keeping the caller from ringing the next name |
| A website that takes the booking | Books or requests a quote without calling at all | Part of your website | Routine jobs that do not need a conversation |
Customers are clear about one thing. On a Screwfix Community thread about automated replies, a customer wrote that they want nothing more than "Sorry I've missed your call... I'll get back to you", and that an auto-generated quote is meaningless. Whatever answers your phone should acknowledge the call and promise a time, never price the job.
The number nobody works out
What it costs at your call volume.
Per call, per minute, bundles with overage: the pricing is designed to be hard to compare. So here it is turned into one monthly figure, for 20, 40 and 80 answered calls, on each provider's own published UK prices, before VAT:
| Service | 20 calls | 40 calls | 80 calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Answer Centre (weekday office hours) | £19.80 | £39.60 | £79.20 |
| ReceptionHQ messages, 24/7 | £25 | £41.50 | £85 |
| Answer.co.uk, a person, 24/7 | £44 | £88 | £176 |
| Answer.co.uk AI | £27 | £30 | £55.50 |
| Fasthosts AI | £39 | £43.90 | £63.50 |
The cheapest row is cheap for a reason: it answers 8.30 to 6, Monday to Friday, and the burst pipe at 9pm goes to voicemail. Booking the job into your diary costs more everywhere: Fasthosts only books on its £69 plan, Answer.co.uk's AI only on its £120 plan, and ReceptionHQ's diary service is charged by the minute from £30 a month.
Read the small print
Four things to check first.
The hours they really answer
Moneypenny and The Answer Centre answer 8.30am to 6pm as standard, then voicemail. Face for Business answers 8am to 8pm on weekdays and shorter at weekends. ReceptionHQ and Answer.co.uk include 24-hour cover. If your work comes in emergencies, this matters more than the price.
What counts as a call
Answer.co.uk's terms count wrong numbers, auto-dialled cold calls, other sales calls and callers who hang up as chargeable calls. On a per-call plan, junk costs the same as a customer.
The extras in the terms
ReceptionHQ's terms list 20p for each message sent by text or WhatsApp and 30p for each call put through to you on transfer plans. Small, but they add up on a busy month.
How long you are tied in
ReceptionHQ and Answer.co.uk are monthly. Moneypenny's smaller schemes have a three-month minimum, then a month's notice. Face for Business has a 90-day minimum. Fasthosts lets you cancel online.
Setting it up
Diverting your mobile, and what it costs.
Every service gives you a number to divert to. Divert only the calls you do not answer, so you still get first go at every job. Vodafone publishes the codes:
| To divert | Dial |
|---|---|
| Calls you do not answer | **61* then the number then # |
| Calls when you are busy | **67* then the number then # |
| Every call | **21* then the number then # |
| Cancel all diverts | ##002# |
On the cost, EE says diverting to another UK number is charged at your plan's normal call rate, so it comes out of your minutes if that kind of number is included. Pay as you go is where it bites: Three charges each diverted call, 35p a minute to a UK number, and Vodafone pay as you go only lets you divert to voicemail.
The option nobody sells you
Fewer calls in the first place.
Plenty of calls only exist because there was no other way to ask. Are you free next week? Do you cover my area? Roughly how much? A website that answers those and takes the booking or the quote request turns those calls into a message waiting for you, with the details already filled in. An electrician on a trade forum described doing the low-tech version years ago: changing his answerphone message to send people to email instead.
The calls that are left are the ones worth a person: the emergency, the big job, the customer who wants to talk it through. That is where an answering service earns its money. For getting more of those calls in the first place, read how to get more calls, and for taking bookings online, online booking systems for small business.
Why us
Why take our word for it?
We build websites and run ads that make the phone ring for trades, so a missed call is money we helped pay for. We do not sell answering services and make nothing from which one you choose. Every price, hour and clause here comes from the provider's own UK page or terms, read in October 2026.
Straight answers
Questions trades actually ask.
- How much does a call answering service cost?
- On published UK prices, from about £20 to £180 a month for a sole trader missing 20 to 80 calls, before VAT. Per-call services run from 99p a call (The Answer Centre, weekday office hours) to £2.20 (Answer.co.uk, 24 hours). Bundles start at £25 for 25 calls (ReceptionHQ). AI receptionists start at £10 a month plus 85p a call (Answer.co.uk) or £39 for 30 calls (Fasthosts). Moneypenny quotes on request.
- Is there a free AI answering service for a small business?
- Not a permanent one that we could verify on a UK provider's own pages. There are free trials: Fasthosts gives a month free on its AI receptionist. The cheapest ongoing AI we found was Answer.co.uk Lite at £10 a month plus 85p a call. Your phone's own voicemail is free and always there, it just answers nobody's questions.
- Is a call answering service worth it for a tradesman?
- It is worth it if the calls you miss are jobs, not tyre-kickers, and the service answers when those jobs ring. Check the hours first: some services cover 8.30 to 6 on weekdays as standard and send evenings to voicemail, which is when an emergency call comes in. Check what counts as a call too, because on some per-call plans a wrong number or a sales call costs the same as a customer.
- What does a call answering service actually do?
- A receptionist, or an AI voice, answers your calls in your business name, takes the caller's details and what they need, and sends them to you by text or email. On dearer plans they can also put the call through to you or book the job straight into your calendar. You divert your mobile to the number they give you, usually only when you do not answer.
- How do I divert my mobile to an answering service?
- Use the divert-on-no-answer code so you still get first go at every call. On Vodafone that is **61* followed by the number and #, and you can set how long it rings first. Diverting to an ordinary UK landline or 03 number usually comes out of your plan's minutes. On pay as you go it can cost per minute, and on Vodafone pay as you go you can only divert to voicemail.
Keep reading
More straight answers for trades.
Want the work to come in while you're on the tools?
See what it costs, then tell us about your business and we'll show you what a website that takes the details for you looks like. Got a question first? Just message us.