Alternatives
Moneypenny alternatives
Moneypenny alternatives include per-minute and per-call answering services, AI receptionists and dedicated receptionists billed per person. Moneypenny publishes US telephone answering from $132 a month and AI answering from $99, with UK pricing on request and 24/7 cover (moneypenny.com, September 2026). This page compares eight options using each provider's own published figures.
· Reviewed by Nimra Khalid
- Checked on their own site
- Dated and sourced
- No ratings or rankings
Overview
Moneypenny is a large telephone answering business with UK and US teams, founded in 2000, handling more than 40,000 calls a day according to its UK site. Its model is a receptionist briefed by you with a wider team behind them, plus an AI receptionist option (moneypenny.com/uk and /us, September 2026). Businesses look for alternatives when they want a published price list rather than a quote, a lower entry point for light call volume, per-call billing, or a receptionist who does the diary and inbox work after the call. The list below covers each of those. Ruby, PATLive, Abby Connect, AnswerConnect and Posh publish minute plans. Smith.ai and ReceptionHQ publish per-call plans. AssistBPO supplies an employed receptionist in your hours who also runs the admin desk. Every figure is quoted from the provider's site with the month checked. Where a provider does not publish a figure, we say so. Nothing here is a ranking.
How does Moneypenny compare with AssistBPO?
The same ten rows on every comparison page, so two providers can be read against each other without re-learning the layout.
| AssistBPO | Moneypenny | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Employed receptionist dedicated to you, running phones and admin, with backup and team lead | Receptionist briefed by you with team overflow; AI receptionist available | moneypenny.com, Sep 2026 |
| Pricing as published | Published rate card, plus a costed staffing plan within 1 business day | US telephone answering from $132 a month; AI from $99 a month; UK pricing on request | moneypenny.com/us, Sep 2026 |
| Where receptionists are based | Second office in Pakistan, working your hours on managed devices | UK and US teams, 1,000 team members as published | moneypenny.com/uk, Sep 2026 |
| Hours | Your business hours; AEST shifts and a 24/7 pod on request | 24/7 | moneypenny.com, Sep 2026 |
| Work beyond the call | Diary management, inbox, CRM updates, intake follow-up included | Message forwarding, lead qualification, appointment management and payment processing as listed | moneypenny.com/uk, Sep 2026 |
| Countries served | US, UK, Canada, Australia | UK and US | moneypenny.com, Sep 2026 |
Moneypenny facts as published on the dates shown. The AssistBPO rate card is published too, from $400 a month, and the staffing plan is what sets where on it you land. Spotted a change? Tell us and we update the row with a new date.
Who should choose AssistBPO, and who should choose Moneypenny?
Choose AssistBPO if
- You want one person to answer and then do the diary and inbox work
- You want to pay per person rather than per plan tier
- You need Canadian or Australian hours as well as UK or US
Choose Moneypenny if
- Onshore UK or US receptionists are a firm requirement
- You want human and AI answering from one large provider
- You need 24/7 cover as standard
Which companies are the main Moneypenny alternatives?
-
AssistBPO
A dedicated, employed receptionist who answers in your name in your hours and runs the admin desk between calls: diary, inbox, CRM, intake follow-up. Named person, trained backup, team lead, monthly QA scorecard. UK, US, Canada and Australia.
-
Ruby
US answering brand with published minute tiers, 24/7 cover including holidays, English and Spanish around the clock, and managed website chat sold separately.
-
Smith.ai
Per-call plans, month to month, 24/7 at one price, with the site stating no overseas agents and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
-
AnswerConnect
24/7 answering by home-based agents with website chat included, one-minute rounding and the first 30 interactions under 30 seconds free each cycle.
-
Abby Connect
US-based receptionists, month to month, 24/7, with an optional AI blend where one Abby Minute counts as two AI minutes.
-
PATLive
US-based receptionists, 24/7, eleven published tiers from pay-as-you-go up to 5,000 minutes with a falling per-minute rate.
-
ReceptionHQ
Per-call and per-minute plans with a very low base, US-based receptionists on the US site, and separate Australian and UK sites for local numbers and pricing.
-
Posh
Month-to-month minute plans with 24/7 live answering and a published trial of seven days or 250 minutes.
How does AssistBPO work?
A discovery call, then a named assistant proposed within 72 hours. That person works your hours inside your tools through your own user accounts, sends an end-of-day report, and is covered by a trained backup when they are off. A team lead runs a 20-minute weekly review with you and scores calls and tickets monthly. Assistants are employees of the group, never freelancers, and you never co-employ them. Plans start at $400 a month for 40 hours, at $10 an hour, and rates improve as you add assistants. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day.
Keep comparing
- Moneypenny vs AssistBPOThe head-to-head table for Moneypenny
- Abby Connect alternativesAnswering service
- PATLive alternativesAnswering service
- Nexa alternativesAnswering service
- Davinci Virtual alternativesAnswering service
- All comparisons, by familyIncluding the rest of the answering services and virtual receptionists
What this desk actually does
- A receptionist who knows your business, not a call queueService
- Every call answered by a person who knows your nameService
- Front desk & phonesThe desk this sits on
- What moves a staffing planThe rate card, and the six things that move a plan off it
Frequently asked questions
Is AssistBPO cheaper than Moneypenny?
Plans depend on hours, desks and coverage. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day. Moneypenny publishes US telephone answering from $132 a month and AI answering from $99, with UK pricing on request (moneypenny.com, September 2026). An entry plan will be the smaller monthly number for a light caller. A dedicated receptionist earns its place when you would otherwise pay both an answering service and an admin assistant, because one employed person does both jobs.
Per plan or dedicated: which fits my volume?
Answering plans, whether by minute, call or tier, suit spiky and unpredictable call patterns because the provider absorbs the peaks. A dedicated receptionist suits steady patterns: a clinic, a law office or a trades business where the phone rings all day and each call creates a booking or a job. If you are unsure, look at three months of call logs: steady volume with follow-up points to dedicated, bursts of short calls point to a plan.
Which alternatives have UK receptionists?
Moneypenny itself publishes UK and US teams. ReceptionHQ runs a UK site with UK pricing. The other US providers listed here publish US-based or unspecified locations. AssistBPO serves UK clients in UK business hours from a second office in Pakistan, with receptionists trained on UK telephone answering conventions, PECR and TPS rules for outbound work, and UK GDPR handling. We state that plainly so UK buyers can weigh it.
Which alternatives include an AI receptionist?
Moneypenny sells one from $99 a month in the US, Abby Connect blends AI minutes into its plans, and Nexa and Smith.ai market AI answering alongside live receptionists (their sites, September 2026). AssistBPO does not sell AI answering. If you want AI overnight and a human by day, we will design the human half and point you to the AI half without pretending we offer it.
How is this list compiled?
We include providers in the same category, telephone answering and receptionist services, that publish enough on their own sites to compare: model, pricing, hours, and where stated, receptionist location. Figures are quoted with the month checked. We do not rank, rate or quote reviews. AssistBPO is listed first because this is our site; the entries are written so that a per-minute plan can win if that is what you need.
Sources
Ask an AI assistant to summarize this page
Opens the assistant with a prefilled prompt so you can check our claims against the page yourself.
Next step
See how a dedicated assistant compares on your numbers
Tell us the hours, the desk and the tools. A named person replies within 1 business day with a staffing plan and a plain answer on whether we are the right fit, or who is.
Or call +1-657-777-0006 during US, UK or Australian business hours, or hear our demo receptionist.
- A named assistant proposed within 72 hours
- Employed, screened and managed staff, never freelancers
- Your hours, your tools, your data