AnswerConnect UK alternative
Hey Jodie answers your calls 24/7 from a flat £49/month, with no per-minute meter and no setup fee.
Priya from Bristol
Jodie answering...
Lead texted to you
12 seconds after the call started
Two services that both answer your phone 24/7. The difference is the per-minute meter - and how predictable your bill stays when call volume spikes.
| Hey Jodie | AnswerConnect | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per call (60 calls/mo, 4 min avg) | £1.65 per call | £4.08 per call (Growth plan) |
| Starting monthly price | From £49/month (Basic) | £45/mo for 25 min; £205 for 150 min + £49.99 setup |
| Setup fee | £0 on every plan | £49.99 on Entry and Standard (£0 on Growth) |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly, unlimited minutes | Tiered + per-minute overage |
| Per-minute overage | £0.25 (Basic only) | £1.75/min (£1.85 on the 25-50 min plans) |
| Free trial | 7 days free, no card needed | Book a demo call |
| Contract | Cancel anytime, no minimums | Month-to-month per their site |
| Who answers | Trained AI receptionist | UK-based human receptionist |
| Setup time | Minutes - forward your phone | Onboarding call and script briefing |
| Average review rating | 4.82 out of 5 (56 reviews) | 4.9 out of 5 |
Figures reflect AnswerConnect's published UK rates on answerconnect.co.uk at the time of writing: a 25-minute plan at £45, featured Entry/Growth/Standard tiers at £205/£245/£395, and £1.75/min overage on those tiers. AnswerConnect bills by the minute, not per call; the per-call figures above are derived from a 60-call, 4-minute-average month. Hey Jodie pricing is published in full on the pricing page.
Slide the minutes you'd use - the calculator picks AnswerConnect's cheapest tier plus £1.75/min overage and compares to Hey Jodie's flat plan.
Cost calculator
Hey Jodie Basic
£49/mo
Flat. Unlimited.
Competitor: Growth
£245/mo
£245 base
You'd save
£196/month (£2,352/year)
AnswerConnect UK plans and overage rates are from answerconnect.co.uk at the time of writing. The ladder runs from a 25-minute plan at £45 up through Entry (£205, 150 min), Growth (£245, 250 min) and Standard (£395, 350 min); Entry and Standard add a one-off £49.99 setup fee, and the 25-50 minute plans meter overage at £1.85 rather than £1.75. AnswerConnect bills by the minute, not per call. Hey Jodie Basic is flat monthly with unlimited minutes at your locale rate.
Verifiable differences, not marketing claims. Each comes from public information on AnswerConnect's site and ours.
AnswerConnect bills by the minute and rounds each call up to the nearest minute - the Growth plan is £245/month for 250 minutes, then £1.75/min over. Hey Jodie's Professional plan is a flat £99/month with unlimited minutes, so 60 calls is £1.65 each and the price doesn't move when volume spikes.
£1.65 per call on Hey Jodie vs £4.08 per call on the AnswerConnect Growth plan, at 60 calls a month.
AnswerConnect's Entry and Standard plans charge a £49.99 setup fee, and onboarding requires a scripting call before agents go live. Hey Jodie has no setup fee on any plan - forward your phone and Jodie starts answering inside ten minutes.
£0 setup on every Hey Jodie plan vs £49.99 on the AnswerConnect Entry and Standard plans.
AnswerConnect sells tiered receptionist plans on a per-minute meter that suit higher, script-heavy call volumes. Hey Jodie is built for the other end - plumbers under sinks, accountants in tax season, electricians on jobs - at a flat price.
Forbes 2026 Best Answering Service for a reason - just not the right tool for a solo plumber paying £205/month for 150 minutes.
AnswerConnect advertises a 4.9 review rating; Hey Jodie sits at 4.82 across 56 verified reviews. The reviews are the real comparison - here are four from real customers.
In our view, AnswerConnect makes its pricing harder to compare than it needs to be: at the time of writing the full plan list and sign-up sat behind an account login, and the trial terms and billable-minute rules were not spelled out up front. Here is what each side puts in the open.
| Hey Jodie | AnswerConnect | |
|---|---|---|
Base monthly price | ||
Per-minute overage rate Hey Jodie has no per-minute meter. AnswerConnect publishes £1.75/min on its main tiers (£1.85 on the 25-50 min plans). | ||
Setup fee Hey Jodie: £0 on every plan. AnswerConnect: £49.99 on the £205 Entry and £395 Standard plans, and £0 on the £245 Growth plan. | ||
Free trial (no card) Hey Jodie offers 7 days free with no card. AnswerConnect advertises a trial but, at the time of writing, publishes no details of it on its website. | ||
Contract / notice period Hey Jodie: cancel any month from the dashboard. AnswerConnect says its plans run monthly with no long-term contract. | ||
Every plan price on one public page Hey Jodie lists every plan on its public pricing page. At the time of writing, AnswerConnect showed its featured tiers but gated the full plan list and sign-up behind an account login. | ||
Total first-year cost calculable from public info Hey Jodie: 12 x flat plan. AnswerConnect: depends on your minute usage at £1.75/min over the cap. |
If you are out on jobs and just need calls answered well without watching a per-minute meter, these are the businesses Hey Jodie was built for.
A burst pipe at 11pm doesn't care about your 150-minute Entry plan. Jodie answers, captures the postcode, and texts the job to your phone before the next call lands.
See Hey Jodie for plumbersSelf-assessment season volumes spike fast. A flat plan with unlimited minutes beats £1.75/min when every existing client is calling about an HMRC letter at once.
See Hey Jodie for accountantsAnswerConnect sells tiered plans on a per-minute meter suited to higher, script-heavy call volumes. Hey Jodie is built for the solo solicitor whose phone rings during court calls and client meetings.
See Hey Jodie for solicitors & law firmsA buyer browsing Rightmove at 8pm is calling the next agent if you don't pick up. 24/7 cover comes standard at £99/month, not £395 with a 350-minute cap.
See Hey Jodie for estate agentsAnswerConnect is a virtual receptionist service founded in 2002 in Portland, with a UK operation at answerconnect.co.uk. CCH AnswerConnect is a different product entirely - a tax research platform from Wolters Kluwer used by accountants. If you are researching call answering, AnswerConnect is what you want.
AnswerConnect's UK plans start with small tiers at £45 (25 minutes), £89 (50 minutes) and £125 (75 minutes), then step up to Entry at £205 (150 minutes, plus a £49.99 setup fee), Growth at £245 (250 minutes, no setup fee) and Standard at £395 (350 minutes, plus £49.99 setup). Overage is £1.75/min on the 75-minute plan and above, and £1.85/min on the 25 and 50-minute plans. Hey Jodie is £49/£99/£199 with unlimited minutes on every plan.
AnswerConnect is a 24/7 virtual receptionist service. UK-based human agents answer calls in your business name, take messages, transfer urgent calls, capture web chat on higher tiers, and notify you by SMS or email.
The two recurring complaints in public reviews are billing surprise from per-minute overages on tiered plans, and occasional inconsistencies in message accuracy across agents. Hey Jodie addresses both: flat-rate pricing removes billing surprise, and AI consistency means message accuracy does not depend on which agent picked up.
AnswerConnect advertises a free trial, but at the time of writing we could not find any details of it on their website - no length, terms, or whether a card is required, and the "free trial" link routes to a demo booking. Confirm the terms with them directly before signing up. Hey Jodie offers 7 days free with no card - real customer calls go through Jodie before you pay anything.
This is our opinion, based on what their website showed at the time of writing. Most answering services put a plain price list on a public page; we found AnswerConnect harder to pin down - the full plan list and sign-up sit behind an account login, the free trial is advertised but its length and terms are not published, and the rules for what counts as a billable minute are easy to miss. None of that is wrongdoing, but we think you should be able to see the price and the terms before you hand over your details - so Hey Jodie publishes every plan, the trial length and the overage rate in full.
Published UK entry-tier prices: Hey Jodie £49 with unlimited minutes, AllDayPA from around £40 for capped minutes, Moneypenny custom-quoted from around £100, AnswerConnect from £45 for 25 minutes (£205 for 150 minutes). Hey Jodie is the cheapest published-price unlimited-minutes option in the bracket.
AnswerConnect states its plans run monthly with no long-term contract, so you can cancel anytime. Hey Jodie also has no minimum - cancel any month from the dashboard.
Hey Jodie setup takes minutes - forward your phone and Jodie starts answering. Check your AnswerConnect contract for any notice period before cancelling. Most businesses run both for 5-7 days during cutover, then cancel.
Move off the per-minute meter without dropping a call. Run both for a week, then cancel AnswerConnect - their plans run monthly with no long-term contract.
Total time: Under 1 hour active time, 5-7 days for safe parallel running
Sign up at the register page. No card needed. You get your Hey Jodie phone number on the spot.
Set conditional forwarding (busy / no answer / always) from your phone provider to the Hey Jodie number.
Hey Jodie picks up via the forward; AnswerConnect remains as a backup until you decide. Listen to a few call recordings to confirm the AI is doing the job.
AnswerConnect's plans run monthly with no long-term contract, so you can cancel anytime. Confirm your final billing date with your account manager or dashboard.
Once cancellation is confirmed, cancel from your AnswerConnect dashboard or via your account manager. Leave the forward to Hey Jodie in place. Confirm a test call lands on Hey Jodie.
Buyer's guides
This comparison is part of our independent buyer's guides ranking the whole field.
7 days free. No card needed. Cancel in one click.
First 7 days free, then pricing from £49/month
