The best Moneypenny alternatives for UK businesses in 2026.
Moneypenny earned its reputation on the strength of human receptionists, yet it publishes no pricing at all — the real cost only surfaces once you request a quote, and round-the-clock cover is a paid add-on on top. We weighed six alternatives against one another on price, contract terms and the Trustpilot scores customers actually leave, so the one that suits the way your phone really rings becomes obvious.
Where every caller deserves a warm human voice and the budget can stretch to it, Moneypenny and its human peers remain hard to beat. But if what you need is genuine round-the-clock cover at one predictable price and jobs dropped straight into your diary, an AI receptionist was built for precisely that brief. For the great majority of UK trades and small businesses, the answer is Cyberstaff, from £30 a month with 24/7 and setup folded in, one flat price and nothing to sign.
Why businesses look beyond Moneypenny
A fine reputation — but you won’t see a price until you ask.
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No published pricing
Moneypenny lists no prices at all. Every plan is quote-only, hidden behind a contact form, so you cannot compare the real cost without first booking a sales conversation.
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24/7 cover costs extra
Answering through the night is a chargeable add-on, roughly £75 a month on top, rather than something you get as standard.
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Overage on top of your bundle
Calls beyond your inclusive minutes are billed as overage at your plan’s contract rate, not at a premium — but with quote-only pricing you won’t know what that rate is until you have signed up.
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Long contracts and stacked extras
Minimum terms run from three months on smaller plans up to twelve on larger ones, with one to three months’ notice, pinning you in place while each add-on is layered onto the base price.
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A receptionist is a single point of failure
One dedicated person can hold only one conversation at a time, so a sudden rush of calls either queues or slips away unanswered.
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Light on AI, transcripts and CRM
Messages tend to arrive as handwritten notes, with little in the way of call transcripts, analytics or any real depth of CRM integration.
What to look for in an alternative
What is worth checking before you switch.
1
Transparent, published pricing. The full cost should be there in black and white, no sales call required.
2
24/7 cover included as standard. The after-hours calls are the ones that count, so the cost ought to be built in.
3
Low or no setup fee and no lock-in. Steer clear of hundreds of pounds upfront and contracts measured in months.
4
Calendar and CRM integration. Bookings ought to appear in your diary on their own, with nothing to re-key.
Based on 100 minutes/50 calls minimum using cheapest published/quoted
plan. As of June 2026. Trustpilot ratings used where found, otherwise
first ranking independent review site from Google search with ≥5 reviews.
The alternatives, ranked
Six Moneypenny alternatives, each with its honest case made.
1
CyberstaffAI
Best for:UK trades and SMBs wanting 24/7 AI at a flat price
From £30/mo
100 mins, 24/7, no setup
A British AI receptionist that picks up in your company name day or night, slots jobs straight into your diary and texts the particulars over to you. One flat, predictable monthly figure, and live in under 60 seconds.
Flat pricing, 24/7 included on every plan
Answers unlimited calls at once, no queue
Reads your website and is live in under 60 seconds
No setup fee, cancel anytime
Newer brand than the incumbents
Built for inbound, not large outbound campaigns
4.6Trustpilot
Customers single out the swift setup and the way calls become booked jobs; a handful would welcome more native integrations.
Best for:Businesses wanting human receptionists with 24/7 included
From £168.75/mo
100 mins, +£1.75/min
A long-standing human answering service that bundles round-the-clock and bilingual cover as standard, and carries the highest Trustpilot score in this field. The catch is per-minute pricing that mounts as volume grows.
24/7 human cover included as standard
Excellent 4.9 Trustpilot from over 200 reviews
Bilingual cover, app and integrations
Per-minute overage gets expensive at volume
Over 5 times the price of leading AI agent options
Extensive use of Add On Pricing and set up fees
4.9Trustpilot
Reviewers applaud the dependable round-the-clock human cover and obliging account managers; the odd grumble surfaces over billing and message accuracy.
Best for:UK firms wanting a human team and willing to commit
From £90/mo
£210/mo for 150 mins
A Manchester outfit that has been at it since 1999. The UK receptionists are genuinely warm, but you are tied to a 30-day minimum plus 30-day notice, and the pricing only surfaces once you fill in a quote form.
UK-based human receptionists
Strong 4.7 Trustpilot for staff friendliness
Handles email and web chat too
30-day minimum plus 30-day notice
Pricing sits behind a quote form
Lower on Google (3.7) and Indeed (2.5)
4.7Trustpilot
Warmly received on Trustpilot for its UK staff, though weaker on Google, where contract and notice-period gripes tend to cluster.
Best for:Flexible pay-as-you-go human reception with no lock-in
From £99/mo
+£1.75/min
UK receptionists handle the weekday calls, with Australian and US teams taking the after-hours shift so 24/7 comes built in, all billed by the second and free of any contract. A neat fit for overflow and seasonal spikes, though reviews do flag the odd billing and cancellation snag.
24/7 included, no after-hours surcharge
Per-second billing, no minute rounding
No lock-in, 7-day free trial
Out of hours and surge calls are answered off shore
A human handles one call at a time
Billing and cancellation complaints in reviews
3.6Trustpilot
Commended for friendly, reliable cover at fair value; the persistent gripe is disputes over billing and cancellation.
Best for:Professional services needing CRM-deep AI plus human backup
From ~£230/mo
Per-call charges apply
A hybrid arrangement in which AI fields the routine calls and humans step in for the knotty ones, backed by 30+ native CRM integrations. It is US-based, so the UK hours and per-call costs are worth scrutinising.
Hybrid AI plus human agents
30+ native CRM integrations
Strong lead qualification
Per-call charges add up
US-based, UK timezone and pricing vary
Human tiers get pricey
4.0G2
Valued for its CRM integrations and lead capture; per-call charges and US hours are the criticisms UK users return to.
Best for:DIY teams happy to build their own voice agent
From ~£23/mo
No-code, you build it
A no-code platform for assembling your own AI voice agent. The most affordable way in here, but the setup, the tuning and the call flows are all yours to own, rather than a receptionist handed to you ready to go.
Lowest entry price
True no-code builder
Templates for common use cases
You build and maintain the agent
Minute caps on lower tiers
Not a managed UK service
LimitedG2
The early verdict praises the no-code builder; just bear in mind the setup and ongoing tuning fall to you, not a done-for-you service.
Head to head
Cyberstaff vs Moneypenny, feature by feature.
Feature
Cyberstaff
Moneypenny
24/7 cover
✓ Included free
+£75/mo add-on
Pricing model
Flat monthly + low overage
Base + per-minute
Starting price
From £30/mo
From £99/mo
Included minutes
100 to 600 mins/mo
Variable, with premium overages
Per-minute overage
20p to 30p/min, same as contract rate
£1.10 to £2.35/min
Setup fee (inbound)
£0
Up to £250
Minimum contract
Rolling monthly
4 months with some providers
Calls at once
✓ Unlimited parallel
Limited by staffing
Calendar and CRM booking
✓ Built in
Mostly message taking
Call transcripts
✓ Included
Often an additional charge
Time to go live
Under 60 seconds
Days to weeks
Pricing in the real world
What you actually pay as call volume grows.
Flat AI pricing holds steady where per-minute human services climb with every call that lands. The figures below assume roughly four minutes a call with round-the-clock cover switched on.
Monthly mins/calls
Cyberstaff (AI)
Moneypenny (human)
AnswerConnect (best published plan)
100 mins (c. 50 calls)
£30/mo
+£0.30/min
On quote
£168.75/mo
+£1.75/min
300 mins (c. 150 calls)
£75
+£0.25/min
On quote
£332.50/mo
+£1.75/min
600 mins (c. 300 calls)
£120/mo
+£0.20/min
On quote
£692.50/mo
+£1.75/min
Additional fees
Simple pricing
+£30/mo transcriptions
+£30/mo transfers
Moneypenny publishes no pricing, so its bill can only be confirmed on a quote. The AnswerConnect figures are worked from its published base and per-minute rates at a four-minute average call.
The honest take
When Moneypenny is genuinely the better choice.
A comparison that pretends one tool always wins is not worth your time. Moneypenny is the right call when:
Every caller must hear a human. In premium law, wealth management or healthcare, the human voice on every call is the whole point.
A long-established name. Moneypenny has two decades behind it and one of the highest Trustpilot scores in this field; for some teams that track record is worth paying for.
You want a named, dedicated PA. Moneypenny can school one particular person on your business over time, an arrangement some teams genuinely prefer.
Brand voice is the whole product. Where the receptionist experience is itself the thing you are selling, a polished human team earns its premium.
Switching from Moneypenny
Move across without dropping a single call.
1
Start free, no card needed
Open an account and your Cyberstaff AI number is yours at once — and you can hold on to your existing number besides. It reads your website to learn your services and your patch.
2
Keep your number
Point conditional forwarding from your current business number to Cyberstaff. Your customers go on dialling the number they already know.
3
Run both in parallel
Leave Moneypenny running for 7 to 14 days while you listen back to calls and refine the script and the call flows.
4
Give notice and cut over
Once it feels right, serve Moneypenny notice as your contract requires (usually one to three months) and switch over fully. You cancel when you are ready, and not a moment sooner.
How to choose
Choose by the way your business actually takes calls.
Choose Cyberstaff
You want round-the-clock cover at one predictable price, you run a UK trade or small business, and you want jobs landing in your diary without a surprise bill.
Choose a human service
AnswerConnect, AllDayPA or Reception HQ are for you when every caller must reach a person, when volume is low and steady, or when brand voice comes first.
Choose Smith.ai
You want deep CRM workflows, with AI on the routine calls and humans on the complex ones, and US hours pose no problem.
Choose Synthflow
You are technical, on a tight budget, and content to build and look after your own AI voice agent.
FAQ
Moneypenny vs Cyberstaff, answered.
For most businesses, it is — though Moneypenny makes a like-for-like comparison hard, because it publishes no pricing and quotes only once you fill in a form. Cyberstaff opens at £30 a month as one flat price, with both 24/7 cover and setup included. Moneypenny prices every plan to quote, charges roughly £75 a month more for 24/7 cover, and bills anything beyond your bundle as overage at your contract rate — so the bill tends to climb with call volume where Cyberstaff’s stays flat.
For answering in your company name, taking caller details, booking appointments and capturing messages, yes. Cyberstaff is on duty 24/7, fields several calls at once, and hands you a full recording, transcript and summary of every one. Where you specifically need a human for nuanced or delicate conversations, a human service or a hybrid is the wiser fit.
Cyberstaff is AI-first: the AI answers and, following your rules, will either transfer a live call to you or your team or take a message. If what you want is a paid pool of human agents mopping up overflow, a human or hybrid service such as AnswerConnect or Smith.ai is built for exactly that.
It sounds natural and professional, it never goes off sick or leaves a caller on hold, and it answers every call the instant it rings, several at once if need be. You can judge for yourself with a free test call before you go live, then tune the greeting, the voice and the call handling until they match the way your business answers the phone.
Yes. You hang on to your existing business number and simply set conditional forwarding to your Cyberstaff AI number. Nothing changes for the people already calling you, and you can run both services together throughout the free trial before you switch over in full.
Cyberstaff itself is live in under 60 seconds, reading your website to learn your services. The only clock that really matters is Moneypenny’s notice period, typically one to three months. Most businesses run the two side by side, then give notice once they are satisfied and cancel when it suits them.
Make the switch in under 60 seconds.
Start free and keep your number. Your AI receptionist is answering as your business in about 60 seconds.
