2026 guide

The best AI receptionists in the UK, honestly ranked.

Seven products a UK small business can actually buy, ranked on published pricing, what's metered, and honesty with callers. No dollar-priced imports padding out the list.

Cards on the table first: Sayora is our product and it's ranked first, so read that entry with the bias in mind. Everything else here is played straight: every price was read from the provider's live pricing page on 6 July 2026 and linked at the bottom, rivals' genuine strengths are stated plainly, and where a rival is the better buy for you, we say so.

How we judged

Four tests before any ranking.

Buyable in the UK, today

UK numbers and pound pricing on the live site. Plenty of "best UK" lists rank US tools with dollar pricing and no UK numbers; we left those out of the ranking and say so below.

Pricing you can verify

Every price in this guide was read from the provider's live pricing page on 6 July 2026, and each entry links to it. Where pricing is quote-led, the entry says "not published" instead of guessing.

What's actually metered

Flat-unlimited, per-minute, per-call and per-customer models all exist in this list. The meter decides what a busy month costs, so we name it for every product.

Honesty with callers

An AI receptionist should tell callers it's AI and present proper caller ID. We note disclosure where providers advertise it; Sayora discloses on every call as policy.

The ranking

Seven you can buy, ranked.

Sayora

Best flat-price AI receptionist for UK small businesses

Our product, so weigh this entry accordingly. Sayora is built UK-native and trades-first: she answers 24/7 in a warm British voice, presents Ofcom-compliant caller ID, tells every caller she's AI, screens cold sales, books jobs into your diary, and texts you the lead within seconds of hang-up. One published price: £49 a month, unlimited minutes, everything included, no contract.

  • £49/mo flat, unlimited minutes, nothing metered
  • UK numbers, Ofcom-compliant caller ID, AI disclosure on every call
  • Instant SMS lead summaries, recordings and transcripts, diary booking

Worth knowing: Early-access product from a small Edinburgh team: you get the founders' attention, not a big-brand support desk. If you want humans answering, pick a human service instead.

See Sayora pricing →

Jodie

Best self-serve trial

The closest thing to a direct rival: UK-native, unlimited minutes on every tier, and a seven-day free trial with no card, which makes it the easiest product on this list to test yourself. Published plans run £49, £99 and £199 a month (Enterprise from £500), with appointment booking and call transfers arriving on the higher tiers, plus a mobile app with an on/off toggle.

  • Published: £49/£99/£199/mo, unlimited minutes on all tiers
  • 7-day free trial, no card, month-to-month
  • iOS/Android app; booking and transfers on higher tiers

Worth knowing: Broad-market by design: features like diary booking sit behind the £99+ tiers, and the £49 plan is the slimmest version of the product.

Jodie's published pricing →

IONOS AI Receptionist

Best budget entry from a big brand

The hosting giant's mass-market play, launched in spring 2026. Published UK pricing starts at £39 a month for 30 calls (then 49p a call), £69 for 100 calls, and £99 for unlimited calls, all ex VAT, with a month's free trial. You get 24/7 answering, email summaries and, on higher tiers, SMS notifications and appointment scheduling.

  • Published: £39/£69/£99/mo ex VAT; unlimited calls only on Premium
  • Per-call metering below the top tier (49p/39p per extra call)
  • 1-month free trial, 30-day money-back guarantee

Worth knowing: Very new, and pricing has already moved since launch, so check the live page. Below Premium, a busy month is metered by the call.

IONOS's published pricing →

ARROW

Best done-for-you setup if you want it fully managed

A UK product aimed squarely at trades and field services, sold as a concierge: they build and manage the whole thing for you, live within about a week. Published pricing starts at £99 a month with 150 minutes of call time included; anything beyond that is discussed at onboarding rather than published.

  • Published: from £99/mo with 150 minutes included
  • Fully managed; UK trades and field-services focus
  • Books appointments, SMS/email lead notifications, no contracts

Worth knowing: Twice Sayora's price for metered minutes rather than unlimited, and there's no self-serve: what happens past 150 minutes is a conversation, not a rate card.

ARROW's published pricing →

Moneypenny AI Receptionist

Best if you want humans behind the AI

The UK's biggest answering brand added an AI voice receptionist in late 2025, with its human receptionists as the safety net for complex calls, a genuinely reassuring combination if brand and human backup matter most. Pricing is not published: it's quote-led, and reports place it on top of an existing telephone answering subscription.

  • AI answering with human receptionists as fallback
  • Pricing not published; quote-led
  • 25-year UK brand, strongest in law and professional services

Worth knowing: You can't budget for it from the website, and the AI is positioned as an extension of the human service rather than a standalone product.

Sayora vs Moneypenny →

RingCentral AI Receptionist

Best if you already run RingCentral

An add-on for businesses already inside the RingCentral phone system (and, per their page, other phone systems too): 24/7 answering, keyword routing, lead capture into Salesforce, and calendar scheduling. UK availability is real, but pricing is "contact an account representative" rather than published.

  • Add-on to an existing phone system, UK-available
  • Pricing not published; sales-led
  • Salesforce lead capture, keyword routing, dashboards

Worth knowing: Not a standalone receptionist purchase: it makes sense as an upsell inside a phone-system contract, not as a first product for a small business.

RingCentral's product page →

BookedSolid

Best for healthcare clinics

A specialist rather than a generalist: AI reception for UK physio, chiropractic, podiatry and similar clinics, handling calls, SMS, WhatsApp and email in one place, with practice-management integrations. Published pricing is £99 a month per four practitioners with unlimited calls and messages, on a seven-day free trial.

  • Published: £99/mo per 4 practitioners, unlimited calls + messages
  • Healthcare-only: practice-management integrations built in
  • Multi-channel: voice, SMS, WhatsApp, email

Worth knowing: If you're not a clinic, it's not for you, and it doesn't pretend otherwise.

BookedSolid's published pricing →
Read the small print

The "UK best" lists are full of US products.

Several well-ranked "best AI receptionist UK" articles are led by tools whose own pricing pages show dollars only and offer US phone numbers. They may be fine products, but on the day we checked, none advertised UK numbers or pound pricing, so they're listed here for completeness rather than ranked.

Product As published on their pricing page, 6 July 2026
Rosie $49–$299/mo, minutes metered; US area codes only on the live site
Dialzara $29–$349/mo, minutes metered; USD only
Smith.ai AI + human hybrid; pricing behind a contact form on the day we checked
Goodcall $79–$249/mo per agent, metered by unique customers; USD only
My AI Front Desk $20–$99/mo, credits-based overage; USD only
Upfirst $24.95–$299/mo, metered per call; USD only
Marlie $49–$399/mo, minutes metered; USD only, despite topping one UK listicle
Choosing

Which one is yours?

  • You want to poke at something yourself this evening, free: Jodie's trial.
  • You want the cheapest big-brand entry and light call volume: IONOS at £39.
  • You want someone else to build and run the whole thing: ARROW.
  • You want humans catching what the AI can't, from the biggest UK brand: Moneypenny, if quote-led pricing suits you.
  • You run a clinic: BookedSolid.
  • You're a UK small business, trades especially, that wants every call answered 24/7 with nothing metered and one published price: Sayora, £49 a month, and you can hear her take a real call before paying a penny.

New to the category? Start with what an AI receptionist is. Weighing AI against the human services instead? That's the answering services guide, and the cost guide does the per-minute maths. Named comparisons live on the alternatives pages.

Fair questions

Picking an AI receptionist, answered.

What's the best AI receptionist for a UK small business in 2026? +

For a flat published price with nothing metered, Sayora (£49 a month, unlimited minutes; declared bias: it's ours). For a self-serve trial, Jodie. For a budget big-brand entry, IONOS. For AI with human backup, Moneypenny. The honest answer depends on which meter and which model you can live with.

How much does an AI receptionist cost in the UK? +

Published UK pricing runs from £39 a month (IONOS, 30 calls included) through £49–£99 flat-unlimited plans (Sayora, Jodie, IONOS Premium) to £99+ metered plans (ARROW). Quote-led options (Moneypenny, RingCentral) don't publish prices. All figures checked on live pricing pages on 6 July 2026.

Why are there no American tools in the ranking? +

Because a UK business can't straightforwardly buy them. Rosie, Dialzara, Goodcall, Marlie and the rest publish dollar pricing with US numbers, and none of their pricing pages showed UK availability the day we checked. Several popular "best AI receptionist UK" lists rank them anyway, which tells you something about those lists.

Does an AI receptionist have to tell callers it's AI? +

Callers deserve to know, and disclosure builds trust rather than costing it. Sayora announces she's AI at the start of every call as policy, alongside Ofcom-compliant caller ID. When you evaluate any provider, ask to hear how their agent opens a call.

Can I try these before committing? +

Jodie and BookedSolid offer 7-day self-serve trials; IONOS gives a free month. Sayora doesn't do an anonymous trial: instead you book fifteen minutes with the founder and hear her answer a real call for a business like yours before paying anything, month to month after that.

Sources (all read 6 July 2026)

Rankings are opinions. Calls are evidence.

Fifteen minutes with Jacob. We'll set Sayora up on a real call from a business like yours, and you decide where she ranks.

Book a 15-minute call

£49/mo. No contract. Cancel anytime.

Best answering services → All guides →