Best After Hours Answering Service UK in 2026: Out of Hours Costs

Looking for the best after hours answering service in the UK? We compared 8 services on what out of hours cover costs, who answers at 2am and how an urgent call reaches you.

Our pick for most small businesses is Jodie. It answers every call, evenings, weekends and bank holidays included, for a flat £49 a month ex VAT with unlimited minutes.

Some services that say 24/7 send night calls to voicemail or charge extra. Here is the honest shortlist.

Key takeaways

What an after hours answering service actually is (and what it is not)

An after hours answering service answers your business phone when you are closed: in the evening, overnight, at weekends and on bank holidays.

In the UK it is also called an out of hours answering service, or out of hours call answering. Some firms call it out of hours call handling.

It works in three steps:

1. You divert your number when you close. Divert means your calls are passed on to the service. You keep your own number.
2. It answers in your business name. It talks to the caller and takes their details, or books them in.
3. It tells you what came in. It also flags what is urgent.

There are four ways UK owners cover calls after 5pm:

• Voicemail. It is free, but many evening and weekend callers ring the next business instead of leaving a message.
• Divert to your own mobile. It costs nothing, but you are on call every night.
• A human answering service. A person answers live. You pay per call or per minute, so check what nights cost.
• An AI receptionist. Software answers at once, at any hour. You pay a flat price or by the minute.

Some services mix a person and AI, which is called hybrid cover. Team-Connect sells human backup on its Enterprise plan, and Moneypenny sells both PAs and an AI.

You may also see the term virtual receptionist: a person or AI who answers your calls from somewhere else. For daytime and overflow cover, see our main answering service comparison.

What an after hours answering service is not:

• Not voicemail.
• Not a phone menu that reads out your opening hours.
• Not a call centre that makes sales calls for you.
• Not an emergency service. Anyone in danger should ring 999.

How we ranked these after hours answering services

We judged every service on six things:

• Cost of 100 night calls. What 100 calls a month, each 2 minutes long, cost on the cheapest plan each provider publishes, before VAT where the provider says so. Setup fees are listed separately.
• Nights, weekends and bank holidays. How out of hours call handling works: whether a person or AI picks up at 2am, or the call goes to voicemail. Also whether calls outside office hours cost more.
• How an urgent call reaches you. Whether the service can put a caller through to your phone or only passes on a message, and on which plan. Also how the message reaches you: by email, in an app or by SMS.
• How you are billed. Flat monthly, per call or per minute, and what the plan includes.
• Contract and notice. The minimum term, and how much notice you give to leave.
• Free trial. How long it lasts, and whether you need a card.

We read each provider's own pricing pages and terms on 15 October 2026. Where a provider does not publish a figure, we say "not published" rather than guess.

We did not ring each service as a customer.

After Jodie, a service moves up for each of these it meets:

• It answers overnight at no extra charge.
• It publishes a price you can work out.
• You can leave within a month.
• It offers a free trial.

Ties go to the cheaper one at 100 calls.

Jodie is our own product. We rank it first, and we show where other services cost less or do things Jodie does not.

The best after hours answering services in 2026

We compared 8 services that answer calls for UK small businesses out of hours. Jodie comes first because every call costs the same flat price at any hour.

After that, services move up for each of the checks above. Every pick has a "best for", so read the one that sounds like you.

1. Jodie, best for owner-run businesses that miss calls after work

Jodie is an AI receptionist. She answers in your business name, asks the questions you set and takes the caller's details.

What you get

• A summary straight after the call, by email and in the Jodie app, with the recording and transcript.
• Your own number. Divert it to Jodie when you close, or all day if you like. Switching the divert off takes a minute.
• Professional (£99) adds bookings, call transfers and team members. Basic does not book jobs or put calls through.
• Premium (£199) adds Zapier integrations and priority support.

What it costs

• Basic is £49 a month ex VAT, with unlimited minutes, under fair use of up to 1,000 calls a month.
• The same price at 3am, at weekends and on bank holidays.
• No setup fee, and you pay month to month.
• Under about 50 night calls a month, ReceptionHQ can cost the same or less. Its 50-call bundle is £49 + VAT.

Watch out for: callers who would rather talk to a human, because Jodie is AI, not a person.

2. ReceptionHQ, best for a person on every night call at low volume

ReceptionHQ is a human answering service, and the UK name of the OfficeHQ group. Its message-taking plan is called MessageExpress.

What you get

• A person on every call. A receptionist speaks to the caller, takes a message and sends it to you straight away by email or SMS.
• 24/7 cover. Its UK pricing page says "24/7 coverage included" and "No after-hours surcharge".
• A 7-day free trial with no card. It is rolling monthly, with no minimum term.
• Per-minute plans (MyAssistant and MyDiary) that do more, priced by the minute.

What it costs

• Pay as you go: £15 a month plus £1.10 a call.
• Bundles cost less per call: 25 calls for £25, 50 for £49, 100 for £85 or 200 for £170.
• Extra calls are £1.10 each, and all prices are plus VAT.
• Setup fee: not stated on its UK pages.

Watch out for: busy months, because you pay per call (at 200 night calls ReceptionHQ is £170, and Jodie is still £49).

3. Team-Connect, best for the lowest AI starting price

Team-Connect sells an AI receptionist on monthly plans. Most plans come with a set number of AI minutes: the time the AI can spend on the phone for you each month.

What you get

• Essential, £9.99 a month: one number, 250 divert minutes, 24/7 AI answering and voicemail-to-text. It does not say how many AI minutes are included.
• Lite, £19.99 a month: 30 AI minutes, call transfer and booking.
• Business Pro, £79.99 a month: 250 AI minutes. That is enough for 100 calls of 2 minutes.
• Enterprise, £199.99 a month: 750 AI minutes and 24/7 human backup, which makes it a hybrid plan.

What it costs

• The cheapest way to start with AI on your phone at night, from £9.99 a month.
• Top-ups: £34.99 for 150 AI minutes, or £99.99 for 500.
• No contracts. You can cancel any time. It offers a free trial, but does not say how long it lasts.
• VAT: its pages do not say whether prices include it.

Watch out for: minutes that run out on a busy night, so price the plan for your busiest month, not your average one.

4. AnswerConnect, best for round-the-clock human cover on minute bundles

AnswerConnect uses UK-based receptionists and promises "real people, 24/7". It suits you if your night volume is steady and you want a live person every time.

What you get

• A bundle of minutes each month, on plans that run month to month.
• It advertises a free trial, but gives no details.

What it costs

• The smallest plan is £45 for 25 minutes. Extra minutes cost £1.85 each on the 25 and 50-minute plans, and £1.75 on bigger ones.
• Its Growth plan was £245 for 250 minutes, which covers 100 calls of 2 minutes. Growth has no setup fee.
• Entry (£205 for 150 minutes) and Standard (£395) add a £49.99 setup fee.
• These are the last prices it published. Its pricing page now asks for your details before it shows any plans. Its pages do not say whether prices include VAT.

Watch out for: long calls at 3am, because you pay by the minute and a 4-minute call costs twice as much as a 2-minute one.

5. Answer.co.uk, best for occasional cover with no monthly fee

Answer.co.uk charges by the call. There is no monthly fee for its live answering, and it says it answers "day or night".

What you get

• A person on every call, with no limit on how long the call lasts.
• An AI receptionist as a second option.
• No contracts. Its home page says "No contracts. No subscriptions." No free trial is published.
• Cover for quiet spells. It is a good fit if you only need cover for a two-week holiday, or your phone goes quiet for months at a time.

What it costs

• Live answering: £2.20 a call + VAT for new customers. There are no management or setup fees.
• AI receptionist: £10 a month plus 85p a call, + VAT.
• The smallest credit you can buy is £25. Bigger bundles of call credit get discounts of up to 20%.
• At 100 calls a month, live answering is £220 at the standard rate. The AI option is £95.

Watch out for: busy months, because every call costs money.

6. Jam, best for a UK PA team that answers 24/7/365

Jam is a UK team of human PAs. A PA is a personal assistant who answers in your business name.

What you get

• PAs who answer 24/7/365 "at no extra cost". Nights, weekends and bank holidays cost the same as a weekday.
• A 30-day rolling agreement as standard, and you are invoiced monthly.
• A person on every call, around the clock. It suits firms that do not mind talking to sales first.

What it costs

• Jam lists "prices starting at £35 a month", but it publishes no rate card, so you need a quote. Ask for the price of your busiest month, with bank holidays included.
• No free trial or setup fee is published.
• Its FAQ says UK telephone answering services cost between 90p and £2 a minute. That is the market in general, not Jam's own price.

Watch out for: the missing rate card, because you cannot work out the monthly bill before you get a quote.

7. Moneypenny, best for firms that want a premium PA team

Moneypenny sells human PAs and a separate AI receptionist, so you can build a hybrid set-up.

What you get

• Message Taking from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Out of hours, calls go to voicemail unless you add 24/7 answering "from an additional £35 per month", depending on your minute plan.
• An AI receptionist that answers 24/7. It can pass calls to a Moneypenny receptionist or to your own team.
• A free trial, but its length is not stated.

What it costs

• How much does Moneypenny charge? It does not publish prices, so you need a quote.
• Plans are sold in minutes. When the minutes run out, calls go to voicemail or you pay per minute.
• Plans of 150 minutes or less have a 3-month minimum, then one month's notice. Bigger plans need 6 or 12 months, with 3 months' notice.
• The AI has a one-off setup fee, but the amount is not published.

Watch out for: the cost and the contract, because it is a premium service, priced and tied in like one.

8. AllDayPA, best for busy or unpredictable nights

AllDayPA is a UK-based team that says it uses "no bots". It is for owners who want a person on every call.

What you get

• "Full 24/7 night and daytime cover" from its UK team.
• A fit for nights that are busy or hard to predict. Think of a roofer on a stormy night, or a heating firm in a cold snap.

What it costs

• From £90 a month. You pay per call or per minute, but the rates are by quote.
• A rough guide for a busy month: its own savings calculator shows £245 a month at 250 calls.
• Not published: the contract length, a free trial or a setup fee. You will need to ask about each one.

Watch out for: the lack of a rate card, so get the quote in writing and check that bank holidays cost the same.

After hours answering services compared side by side

How to read the table:

• Costs are for 100 calls of 2 minutes each, on the cheapest published plan, checked 15 October 2026.
• VAT: Jodie, ReceptionHQ and Answer.co.uk prices are before VAT. Team-Connect and AnswerConnect do not say.
• Setup fees are not included. AnswerConnect charges £49.99 on some plans.
• "Not published" means the provider does not say on its own pages.

We also checked two more services that answer overnight. Neither one publishes a price, so we could not cost them.

• Answer4u answers 24/7/365, including evenings, weekends and bank holidays. Its team is in Nottingham and never sends calls offshore. It is pay as you go, with a 30-day trial and no long-term contracts.
• Verbatim answers 24x7, 365 days a year including bank holidays, from Newbury. It sells bespoke packages, with a 14-day trial and a money-back guarantee.

Do you need 24/7, or just evenings and weekends?

Look at two normal weeks of your call log. Count the calls that come in outside office hours: after 6pm, at the weekend and on any bank holiday.

• If they stop by 8pm and you are shut on Sundays, longer daytime hours may be enough.
• If any come overnight or on a bank holiday, choose a service with real 24 hour cover.

You do not have to use it all day. You can divert your phone only when you close.

Jodie picks up day or night, weekends and bank holidays included, whenever your calls are diverted to her.

Christmas and bank holidays are where cover most often slips. Ask for them to be included in writing.

How an urgent out of hours call reaches you at 2am

First, decide what counts as urgent for you:

• A burst pipe.
• No heating in January.
• A tenant locked out.
• A flood at a let property.

Everything else can wait for the morning.

A service can do three things with a night call:

1. Put it through to your phone now.
2. Send you the details straight away, so you can call back.
3. Log it for the morning.

A good service lets you set the rule, so a quote request does not wake you up.

On an on-call rota? Ask if urgent calls can go to whoever is on call that night.

Here is how Jodie does it:

• On every plan, the caller's details reach you by email and in the Jodie app straight after the call, with the recording and transcript.
• On Professional (£99) and Premium, you can set rules that put certain callers straight through to you or a colleague. Basic does not transfer calls.
• Every caller hears your business name at 2am, just as they would at 2pm.

Most other providers do not publish how night calls are passed on, with two exceptions:

• Team-Connect lists call transfer from its £19.99 Lite plan.
• Moneypenny's AI can pass calls to you.

For the rest, use the questions below.

Want night callers booked straight into your diary? That needs Jodie Professional or a provider's booking plan. Basic takes the details for you to book.

An answering service is not an emergency service: anyone in danger should ring 999.

Which after hours answering service fits your business?

The best after hours answering service for small business owners depends on your night calls.

How many do you get, and do you want a person or AI? Find your row:

For more on your trade, see:

• Our pages for plumbers, electricians, heating and air conditioning, locksmiths, letting agents and solicitors.
• Our guides to after hours emergency calls for plumbers and out of hours calls for property managers.

What results look like

Say you run a two-van heating firm. Over a month you get about 100 calls after 6pm and at the weekend, each around 2 minutes.

Here is what that costs on Jodie and the per-call plans we could price, before VAT.

What the numbers show:

• Below about 50 night calls a month, a per-call plan such as ReceptionHQ's costs the same as Jodie Basic or less. Its 50-call bundle is £49.
• Above that, Jodie's £49 is the lowest published price on this list. A cold snap that doubles your calls does not change it, because fair use runs up to 1,000 calls a month.
• If you need a person rather than AI, ReceptionHQ at £85 for 100 calls is the lowest published human price we found.

Here is what Jodie customers say:

Questions to ask before you sign

Put these to the providers on your shortlist before you sign up, and get the answers in writing.

• Night prices: do nights, weekends and bank holidays cost more, or need an add-on?
• Staff: who answers at 2am, and where are they based?
• Urgent calls: how does an urgent call reach me, and on which plan?
• Billing: how are calls billed, per call or per minute, and are they rounded up? Do wrong numbers and sales calls count? What happens when the minutes run out?
• Contract: what is the minimum term, and how much notice do I give?
• Your number: can I keep my number and divert only when I close?
• Recordings: where are recordings and transcripts kept? (Jodie: processed in Ireland and the United States under UK GDPR, and you can switch recording off.)
• Trial: can I test it on my own number during a free trial? Divert your line one evening and ring it from another phone.

Try Jodie free for 7 days

Divert your number to Jodie when you close. She answers in your business name and asks your questions.

Then she sends you a summary by email and in the Jodie app, with the recording and transcript. Ring your own number at 10pm to hear it for yourself.

• 7 days free, with no card and no setup fee.
• Then £49 a month, month to month.

Start your free trial and see who rang while you were closed.