Moneypenny vs AllDayPA: which should you choose?

Moneypenny and AllDayPA are both long-established UK telephone answering services staffed by human receptionists, so the choice between them is rarely about whether they can do the job. It is about how each is packaged and billed, and whether that shape matches the way your callers actually behave.

Get it wrong and you pay for the mismatch every month. A business with a few long, involved calls and a business with a hundred short ones can be quoted the same headline plan and end up with bills that look nothing alike.

One note before anything else. Both companies price per business and both have changed their packaging over the years. This page describes how each is structured, not what either costs today. Read the current numbers on their own sites on the day you decide, and get both quotes in writing.

What is the difference between Moneypenny and AllDayPA?

Less than the comparison articles suggest. Both answer your calls in your business name with UK-based people, take messages, put callers through, and pass details on by email, text or an app. That underlying job is the same at both.

The difference is emphasis. Moneypenny has built its brand on continuity — a small, named team that learns your business, so your callers hear the same voices. AllDayPA, as the name says, has built its around round-the-clock cover at scale. Those are marketing positions rather than hard technical limits, but they are honest signals about what each is organised to be good at, and they point at different buyers.

How is each one priced?

Both use the shape almost every human answering service in the UK uses: a monthly minimum that buys a bundle of calls or minutes, then an overage charge past it, with extras for out-of-hours cover, additional numbers and additional users.

That shape exists for a simple reason — a human service’s cost is a person’s time, so the price has to track how long your callers talk. Neither company can publish one flat figure that fits a solicitor and a plumber, because those two do not use a receptionist in remotely the same way.

The practical consequence: the two quotes are only comparable if you give both suppliers the same numbers. Take your last three months — total inbound calls, roughly how long a typical one runs, and how many arrive outside your opening hours — and ask each for a written quote against that. Then compare the totals including VAT, not the headline plans.

Which suits which kind of business?

Match the overage model to your call shape and the decision usually makes itself.

• Few calls, but long ones. Per-minute billing is the expensive model for you. Push hard on rounding, and look for a per-call structure.
• Many calls, but short ones. Per-call billing is the expensive model for you. A minutes bundle will usually land better.
• Most of the value is after 5pm. The out-of-hours arrangement is the entire decision. Everything else is noise.
• Clients who ring weekly and expect to be known. Weight continuity heavily, and ask how it is protected when someone is off.
• A wall of calls at 9am on Monday. Weight capacity. Ask what happens to caller six when five are already being handled.

Ten questions to ask both before you sign

1. What is the monthly minimum, and does it include calls or minutes?
2. How is a call measured — per call, per minute, and rounded up to what?
3. Which calls are chargeable? Spam, wrong numbers, hang-ups, numbers we have asked you to block?
4. Is 24/7 inside the plan or an add-on? What about bank holidays?
5. What does patching a call to my mobile cost, and is that talk time billed on top of the answered minutes?
6. Does an unused allowance roll over?
7. What is the minimum term, and what notice must I give?
8. If you give me a phone number, who holds it, and what happens to it if I leave?
9. Where are my messages and any recordings stored, for how long, and will you sign a data processing agreement?
10. Will you quote against my own last three months of call data, in writing?

What about Moneypenny vs Answer Connect?

Answer Connect is another human answering service operating in the UK, and the same three questions decide it: how a call is measured, what out-of-hours costs, and what happens when your callers need more than a message. The model is the same, so do not let a feature list do the choosing — ask all three to quote against your own three months and compare the totals.

Where an AI receptionist fits as a third option

Both of the above are human services, and there are calls where that is the right answer. An upset customer, a delicate negotiation, anything needing judgement — a person handles those better, and no honest comparison pretends otherwise.

But a large share of business calls are not that. They are enquiries, messages and “is anybody there” — the sort a receptionist deals with in under two minutes. For those, an AI receptionist answers on the first ring, at any hour, and is priced on a different shape entirely: a flat monthly licence with no per-minute meter bolted to it.

Side by side

The honest verdict

If most of your calls genuinely need a person — sensitive conversations, negotiation, judgement — a human service is the right answer and you should buy one. If most of them are enquiries and messages, paying by the minute for that is the expensive way to do it: an AI receptionist answers every one instantly, at any hour, for a flat licence, and hands you the ones that need a human. Odette is Solo £19/month (list £29), Pro £49 (list £79) or Business £99 (list £149), plus your own Twilio and ElevenLabs usage paid to those providers at cost — so compare all-in figures, not licence against retainer.

Moneypenny and AllDayPA are trademarks of their respective owners; comparison provided for information — verify current pricing and features on their site.

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