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TradeHalo vs Clara

A Clara alternative with bookings built in

Clara answers your calls with AI from £39/month, with automated text follow-ups on its £69 Pro plan. TradeHalo starts at £19/month with SMS to you and your caller on every plan — and books jobs straight into your calendar from £39.

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TradeHalo vs Clara at a glance

The short version: two AI receptionists with honest flat pricing. TradeHalo is trades-only, cheaper at entry, and puts more into every plan.

TradeHalo Clara
Starting price From £19/month £39/month (or £399/year)
Higher plan Pro at £39/month Clara Pro at £69/month (or £699/year)
Built for UK trades only Small service businesses — trades, hairdressers, clinics…
24/7 AI answering Included Included
SMS follow-ups Included on every plan — to you and the caller Automated text follow-ups on Pro (£69/month)
Calendar booking Voice booking + Google Calendar sync (Pro, £39/mo) Not detailed on published plans
Free mini-website Included on every plan Not offered
Free trial 14 days 7 days

Competitor details taken from publicly available pricing pages and independent guides, checked July 2026. Always confirm current pricing directly with the provider.

Clara pricing vs TradeHalo pricing

Clara publishes clean, simple pricing: £39/month for the core plan (billed £399 annually if you pay yearly), and Clara Pro at £69/month adding business-trained AI, automated text follow-ups, personal contact exclusion and priority support. Both have a 7-day free trial and cancel-anytime terms. A Teams tier at £149.99/month is listed as coming soon.

TradeHalo's Starter undercuts Clara's entry plan at £19/month — and includes things Clara reserves for Pro or doesn't list at all. Instant SMS job alerts to you and confirmation texts to your caller are on every TradeHalo plan, not a £69 upgrade. So are emergency detection, spam blocking, transcripts with AI summaries, call analytics and a free SEO-ready mini-website.

Step up to TradeHalo Pro at £39/month — the same price as Clara's entry plan — and you add what trade businesses actually run on: voice appointment booking during the call, Google Calendar sync, travel-aware scheduling between jobs, and booking confirmation and reminder SMS.

Three reasons tradespeople choose TradeHalo

01

The texts aren't a £69 upgrade

With Clara, automated text follow-ups come with Pro at £69/month. Every TradeHalo plan — including £19 Starter — texts you the job details the moment a call ends and texts the caller a confirmation, because for a trade business that's not a premium feature, it's the product.

02

It books the job, not just the lead

Capturing a lead still leaves you playing phone tag. TradeHalo Pro books the appointment during the call, syncs it to Google Calendar, respects your working hours and service radius, and pads slots with realistic travel time between jobs.

03

Trades-only, all the way down

Clara serves hairdressers, clinics and carpenters alike. TradeHalo picks up your trade at signup and asks callers what a tradesperson would — job, property, access, urgency — with a service exclusion list so it never books work you don't do.

From missed call to booked job

A homeowner wants a quote for a new consumer unit. Here's the journey with a lead-capture AI versus a booking AI.

Lead-capture AI receptionist

  1. AI answers, takes the caller's details and what they need.
  2. You get a structured summary of the enquiry.
  3. You call back when you're off the tools — maybe hours later.
  4. Phone tag: they're at work now, you're on a job later.
  5. The job books eventually — or goes to whoever answered first and offered a slot.

TradeHalo Pro

  1. AI answers, captures the job and the postcode.
  2. Checks your real availability — working hours, existing bookings, travel time from the job before.
  3. Offers the caller a slot and books it during the call.
  4. Both of you get confirmation SMS; the caller gets a reminder before the visit.
  5. The appointment is in your Google Calendar before they've put the phone down.
The difference: every callback you have to make is a chance for the customer to keep shopping. Booking in the moment converts the enquiry while their intent is highest.

Feature-by-feature: TradeHalo vs Clara

How the two services compare on the things that matter to a trade business.

Feature TradeHalo Clara
Call handling
24/7 AI answering ✓ ✓
Dedicated UK business number included ✓ Clara number or use your existing number
Spam call blocking ✓ Personal contact exclusion on Pro
Missed call detection & SMS alert ✓ Not detailed on published plans
Outbound calling — ✓
Trade job capture
Trade selected at signup, AI pre-tuned to it ✓ Custom greetings and questions
Emergency detection with instant SMS alert ✓ Urgency captured in summaries
Instant job SMS to you on every plan ✓ Text follow-ups on Pro (£69/mo)
Confirmation SMS to the caller ✓ Text follow-ups on Pro (£69/mo)
Full transcripts and AI call summaries ✓ ✓
Bookings and diary
Voice appointment booking during the call Pro (£39/mo) Not detailed on published plans
Google Calendar sync Pro (£39/mo) Not detailed on published plans
Travel-aware scheduling between jobs Pro (£39/mo) —
Booking confirmation and reminder SMS Pro (£39/mo) —
Extras, price and terms
Free SEO-ready mini-website with gallery ✓ —
Call analytics and enquiry keywords ✓ Not detailed on published plans
Entry price £19/month £39/month
Cancel anytime ✓ ✓
Free trial 14 days 7 days

When Clara might suit you better

Clara is a well-built AI receptionist with some genuinely nice touches — you can keep your existing number, it supports outbound calling, and it serves a broad range of service businesses, so if you run a salon or a clinic alongside other work it flexes further than we do. Its £39 entry plan is honest value by market standards.

TradeHalo's case is simple: for a UK trade business, our £19 plan includes the SMS follow-ups Clara prices at £69, our £39 plan books jobs into your calendar rather than just capturing leads, and every plan ships with a free mini-website and trade-tuned triage. Same honest pricing model — more of the trade essentials at each price point.

Clara alternative FAQs

How much does Clara cost? +
Clara's published pricing is £39/month for the core plan (£399/year if billed annually) and £69/month for Clara Pro (£699/year), which adds business-trained AI, automated text follow-ups and priority support. Both include a 7-day free trial. TradeHalo is £19/month for Starter and £39/month for Pro, with a 14-day free trial.
What does TradeHalo include that Clara doesn't? +
On every plan: instant SMS job alerts to you and confirmation texts to your caller (Clara lists automated texts on its £69 Pro plan), emergency call detection, spam blocking, call analytics and a free SEO-ready mini-website. On Pro (£39/month): voice appointment booking, Google Calendar sync, travel-aware scheduling and booking reminder SMS — none of which appear on Clara's published plans.
What does Clara have that TradeHalo doesn't? +
Clara supports outbound calling and lets you use your existing number directly, and it's designed for a wider range of service businesses — hairdressers, clinics and more. TradeHalo provides a dedicated UK number you divert to, doesn't make outbound calls, and only serves trades.
Are both services really 24/7? +
Yes — both Clara and TradeHalo answer around the clock with AI, including weekends and bank holidays. The difference shows in what happens next: TradeHalo texts both parties immediately on every plan, flags emergencies, and on Pro can close the loop by booking the job during the call.
Can I move from Clara to TradeHalo easily? +
Yes. Both are self-serve, contract-free services. Start TradeHalo's 14-day free trial, select your trade and services, and divert your line to your new dedicated UK number. You aren't charged until the trial ends, so you can run both side by side and compare what lands in your inbox.
Is annual billing cheaper with TradeHalo? +
TradeHalo keeps it simple with monthly rolling pricing — £19 or £39 a month, cancel anytime. There's no annual lock-in to get the advertised price, which is worth checking with any provider whose headline price assumes yearly billing.

Compare TradeHalo with other services

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TradeHalo vs alldayPA

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TradeHalo vs Face For Business

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TradeHalo vs Hey Jodie

A well-regarded AI receptionist at £49/month — compared with TradeHalo's job-focused AI answering from £19/month.

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TradeHalo vs Answerphone AI

A trades-focused AI answerphone from £59/month with call caps — compared with unlimited answering and £39 calendar booking.

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Answering is table stakes. Booking wins the job.

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14 days free • Cancel anytime • No long-term contracts