Voco vs AnswerConnect

AnswerConnect vs Voco: what each one publishes

AnswerConnect is a UK live answering service staffed by people, answering 24 hours a day. Its site advertises getting started from £45 a month, and its plans are shown only after you enter your name, email and phone number. Voco is an AI receptionist at 29p a minute ex VAT with no monthly fee, or plans from £49 a month, both published on the page. Checked on 5 September 2026.

What AnswerConnect charges

The published figure is a promotional one: “Get started for only £45/month”. Beyond that, the pricing page asks for your details before it will show you the range of plans, and the “See pricing” section on the homepage does the same.

So what you would actually pay at your call volume, what any plan includes, and what happens when you exceed it are not published. Those are the three numbers that decide the bill, and the only way to get them is to hand over your contact details and wait for a call.

We are not going to guess at them. If you are shortlisting, ask AnswerConnect directly for the included minutes or calls, the overage rate, any setup fee, and the notice period, and ask for all four in writing.

What Voco charges

29p a minute ex VAT on pay as you go. No monthly fee, no minimum, no contract. Calls are billed by the minute and rounded up to the whole minute. On Voco’s observed data the average billed call runs about 1.9 minutes, so a typical call costs around 55p. Monthly plans start at £49 if your volume is steady.

Those rates are on the page. There is no form between you and them, which is the practical difference when you are comparing several providers in one sitting.

People or software: the real choice here

AnswerConnect is explicit about this and it is their strongest argument. Their own wording is “Always people, not bots”, and they position the whole service around live UK-based answering rather than automation.

That is a genuine difference, not a marketing line, and for some businesses it is decisive. A caller who needs to be heard by a person, an unusual enquiry that does not fit a script, a situation where judgement matters more than speed: those are calls a person handles better, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

Voco answers with AI. It picks up on the first ring, handles several calls at once, works at 3am for the same rate as 3pm, and captures a structured record of every call. It does not build a relationship with a regular caller the way a named person does. If your callers expect a person, AnswerConnect is answering a need Voco does not.

Where the models differ in practice

A quiet month. A monthly plan costs the same whether the phone rings or not. Voco’s pay as you go charges only for the calls that come in, so a slow week costs close to nothing.

Several calls at once. A human service queues when more people ring than there are people to answer. Software answers all of them at the same time, which matters most during exactly the events that generate call spikes.

Knowing the price before you talk to anyone. You can work out what Voco would cost you tonight, from published rates, without speaking to a salesperson. That is the difference this page is really about.

The honest summary

Choose AnswerConnect if you want people rather than software answering your calls, you are comfortable requesting a quote for the detail, and a monthly plan suits how you buy.

Choose Voco if you want the rate published before you commit to a conversation, no monthly minimum so a quiet month costs almost nothing, no contract, and every call answered at once rather than queued. The rate is on the pay as you go page and the plans are on the pricing page.

Whoever you shortlist, ask for the same four things in writing: the per-minute or per-call rate, the monthly minimum, the out-of-hours rate and the notice period. Work out your own numbers first with the missed call calculator.