Voco vs Moneypenny
Moneypenny sells an AI receptionist from £25 a month and a human telephone answering service priced on request, with minimum contracts of three to twelve months. Voco is 29p a minute with no monthly fee and no contract. Compared on published price, commitment and cover.
Where Voco is stronger
- The rate you actually pay is published on the page, with no form in the way.
- No monthly minimum on pay as you go, so a quiet month costs close to nothing.
- No contract of any kind, so there is nothing to give notice on.
- One rate at every hour, including weekends and bank holidays.
- Monthly plans from £49 if steady volume makes one worthwhile.
Where Moneypenny is stronger
- You want the scale and reputation of a large, established provider.
- You want the option of human PAs alongside AI.
- A monthly plan with a minimum term suits how you buy.
Voco vs AnswerConnect
AnswerConnect is a UK live answering service staffed by people, 24 hours a day, advertising from £45 a month with full pricing behind a form. Voco is an AI receptionist at 29p a minute with no monthly fee and no contract. Compared on published price, model and cover.
Where Voco is stronger
- The rate you actually pay is published, with no form in the way.
- No monthly minimum on pay as you go, so a quiet month costs close to nothing.
- No contract of any kind, so nothing to give notice on.
- Every call answered at once rather than queued when several ring together.
- One rate at every hour, including weekends and bank holidays.
Where AnswerConnect is stronger
- You want a person, not AI, to answer every call.
- You want human cover 24 hours a day.
Voco vs AllDayPA
AllDayPA is a UK call handling service using real people, operating since 1999 from Salford. It publishes no prices and quotes on request, with per call or per minute billing at your choice. Voco is 29p a minute with no monthly fee and no contract.
Where Voco is stronger
- The rate you actually pay is published, so you can compare without a phone call.
- No monthly minimum on pay as you go, so a quiet month costs close to nothing.
- No contract of any kind, so nothing to give notice on.
- Every call answered at once rather than queued when several ring together.
- One rate at every hour, including weekends and bank holidays.
Where AllDayPA is stronger
- You want a human service trading since 1999.
- You want to choose between per call and per minute billing.
Voco vs Face for Business
Face for Business is a UK answering service using named human PAs, with plans published from £49 a month. Voco is AI, charged by the minute with no monthly fee. This compares what each costs, who answers, and which suits which kind of business.
Where Voco is stronger
- One rate whatever the hour: evening, weekend and bank holiday calls cost the same as a Tuesday morning.
- No monthly fee on pay as you go. You pay for the minutes you use and nothing else.
- No queue. Ten callers at once are all answered at once.
- Published rate on the page, not behind a quote form.
Where Face for Business is stronger
- You want a real PA to answer every call.
- You want to try it first on a 7-day trial.
Voco vs Smith.ai
Smith.ai is a US provider selling both an AI receptionist and a human virtual receptionist service. The AI receptionist starts free at 25 calls a month; the human service starts at $300 a month. Voco is UK-based and charges 29p a minute with no monthly fee. This compares them on cost per call, currency and out-of-hours cover.
Where Voco is stronger
- Priced and billed in pounds. No exchange rate movement between quote and invoice.
- No monthly minimum. A quiet month costs you close to nothing.
- Charged by the minute rather than by the call, so a 40-second call costs 40 seconds.
- UK business hours, UK phone numbers and UK data handling by default.
Where Smith.ai is stronger
- You take very few calls and a free AI tier covers them.
- You want US-based human receptionists as a separate service.
Voco vs Ruby Receptionists
Ruby is a US virtual receptionist service with live human receptionists, priced from $250 a month for 50 minutes, with optional AI enhancements included in every plan at no extra cost. Voco is a UK AI receptionist at 29p a minute with no monthly fee. This compares them on cost per minute, currency and who answers.
Where Voco is stronger
- Roughly a tenth of Ruby’s entry rate per minute, though against AI rather than a human receptionist.
- Billed in pounds, so the invoice does not move with the exchange rate.
- No monthly minimum and no allowance to waste in a quiet month.
- UK numbers, UK hours and UK data handling as standard.
Where Ruby Receptionists is stronger
- You want human receptionists answering every call.
- You want 24/7 cover included on every plan.
Voco vs JAM
JAM is a UK call answering service with human PAs, 24/7 cover and prices starting at £35 a month, though it does not publish a full rate card. Voco is a UK AI receptionist at 29p a minute with no monthly fee. This compares what each costs at your volume and what you commit to.
Where Voco is stronger
- No monthly fee on pay as you go, so a quiet month costs close to nothing.
- Charged for the seconds you use rather than an allowance you might not use.
- No contract at all, so nothing to give notice on.
- Every call answered at once rather than queued when several people ring together.
- One rate at every hour, including weekends and bank holidays.
Where JAM is stronger
- You want a human PA answering around the clock.
- You want a monthly plan with no long contract.
The four numbers that decide what you pay
A headline price is only the first of four numbers. Get all four in writing before you sign, from Voco as much as from anyone else, because a service that looks cheap on one can be the most expensive on the other three.
- The per-minute or per-call ratePer-call pricing is cheap for long calls and expensive for a run of short ones; per-minute pricing is the reverse. Ask how calls are rounded: rounding up to the whole minute charges a full minute for a 30-second call. Voco bills by the second.
- The monthly minimumMost services sell a bundle of minutes, so a quiet month still costs the bundle. Ask what a month with almost no calls costs you. Voco pay as you go has no monthly fee.
- The out-of-hours rateEvenings, weekends and bank holidays are where answering services have charged a premium, and it is the least published of the four. Voco charges the same rate at every hour.
- The notice periodThis is what it costs to leave. Moneypenny publishes its terms: 3 months minimum on smaller schemes, 6 or 12 on larger ones, and 1 to 3 months' notice. Voco has no contract and no notice period.
Why only some providers publish prices
Human answering services are priced against a real wage bill that varies with how long your callers talk, how often they call and at what hour. One published rate card would be too high for a small account or too low for a demanding one, so the honest commercial answer is a quote.
That is a reasonable way to sell a human service, and it is why comparisons like this one have gaps. If a provider will not tell you the four numbers before a sales call, that is worth knowing, but it is not by itself evidence that the price is bad.
Sources and dates
Every price and term on this page comes from each provider's own website and refers to the product named. Providers change prices without notice, and US providers publish in US dollars, so check the provider's own site before you buy. This comparison is published by Voco, which sells one of the services in it.
- Moneypenny prices and terms as published on moneypenny.com and in Moneypenny's answering service guide, checked 5 September 2026.
- AnswerConnect prices and terms as published on its own website, checked 5 September 2026.
- AllDayPA prices and terms as published on its own website, checked 5 September 2026.
- Face for Business prices and terms as published on its own website, checked 5 September 2026.
- Smith.ai prices and terms as published on its own website, checked 5 September 2026.
- Ruby Receptionists prices and terms as published on its own website, checked 5 September 2026.
- JAM prices and terms as published on its own website, checked 5 September 2026.