Hey Jodie is a capable AI receptionist for all kinds of small businesses, at £49/month. TradeHalo answers your calls 24/7 from £19/month — with emergency triage, on-the-call job booking and a free mini-website built in — for businesses that live and die by the next appointment.
Updated • Prices checked against Hey Jodie's published pricing
The honest version: two UK AI answering services with flat pricing and no contracts. The differences come down to features, focus and price.
| TradeHalo | Hey Jodie | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From £19/month | £49/month + VAT (Basic) |
| Plan above entry | Pro at £39/month — still under their entry price | Professional £99/month, Premium £199/month, Enterprise from £500/month |
| Best fit | Service businesses that book jobs by phone | All small businesses, office-based sectors included |
| 24/7 AI answering | Included | Included |
| Usage limits | Unlimited AI-answered calls | Unlimited minutes |
| Appointment booking | Books into Google Calendar with travel-aware slots (Pro, £39/month) | From Professional (£99/month) — not included on the £49 Basic plan |
| Free mini-website | Included on every plan | Not offered |
| Free trial | 14 days (card taken at signup, not charged until the trial ends) | 7 days, no card required |
Hey Jodie details taken from its published pricing page, checked 2 November 2026. Hey Jodie prices exclude VAT. Always confirm current pricing directly with the provider.
Fair play to Hey Jodie: like us, they publish their pricing. Basic is £49/month with unlimited minutes, AI training and email notifications; Professional at £99/month adds appointment booking, call transfers and team members; Premium at £199/month adds Zapier integrations and priority support; and Enterprise starts from £500/month. Prices exclude VAT, there's a 7-day free trial with no card required, no setup fees, and you can cancel anytime. It's exactly the transparent, flat-rate model we think every answering service should use.
The difference is what you get for the money. Hey Jodie is a broad receptionist that flexes across every kind of small business. TradeHalo is tuned for the businesses that turn phone calls into booked jobs — so Starter is £19/month, and our top standard plan, Pro at £39/month, still costs less than Hey Jodie's entry price while adding voice appointment booking, Google Calendar sync with travel-aware scheduling, and booking reminder SMS. On Hey Jodie, appointment booking starts on the £99 Professional plan.
Because TradeHalo is built for hands-on, appointment-led work, the £19 plan already includes things you'd otherwise piece together yourself: emergency call detection with instant SMS alerts, job-focused questioning, a service exclusion list so it never takes work you don't do, and a free SEO-ready mini-website so customers who Google you find a proper page with your number on it.
TradeHalo is tuned for businesses that turn calls into booked jobs. It asks callers the questions that matter — what the job is, where it is, how urgent — and can book it straight into your calendar. Set your services and your no-go list once, and it runs from there.
Starter is £19/month against Hey Jodie's £49 — a £360 annual difference for answering calls and capturing leads. If you want the AI to book appointments, TradeHalo Pro is £39/month; on Hey Jodie that needs Professional at £99/month. That's £720 a year, before VAT on their side.
Every TradeHalo plan includes a free SEO-ready mini-website with photo gallery, call analytics with top enquiry keywords, spam blocking, and missed-call SMS alerts. It's a front office for your business, not just an answering service.
How the two services compare on the things that matter to a trade business.
| Feature | TradeHalo | Hey Jodie |
|---|---|---|
| Call handling | ||
| 24/7 AI answering | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unlimited usage on entry plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dedicated UK business number included | ✓ | Keeps your existing number via call forwarding |
| Spam call blocking | ✓ | Not detailed on published plans |
| Missed call detection & SMS alert | ✓ | Lead alerts by text |
| Job capture | ||
| Business type selected at signup, AI pre-tuned to it | ✓ | Custom AI training you configure |
| Emergency detection with instant SMS alert | ✓ | Urgency capture varies by setup |
| Confirmation SMS to the caller | ✓ | Not detailed on published plans |
| Service exclusion list (skip work you don't take) | ✓ | Via custom training |
| Full transcripts and AI call summaries | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bookings and diary | ||
| Voice appointment booking during the call | Pro (£39/mo) | Professional (£99/mo) |
| 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) | Not detailed on published plans |
| Extras, price and terms | ||
| Free SEO-ready mini-website with gallery | ✓ | — |
| Call analytics and enquiry keywords | ✓ | Dashboard reporting |
| Entry price | £19/month | £49/month + VAT |
| Cancel anytime | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free trial | 14 days | 7 days |
Hey Jodie has built real experience across a wide range of sectors — including office-based ones like GP surgeries, accountants and estate agents — and its custom AI training is designed to flex across all of them. Its 7-day trial doesn't ask for a card, it lets you keep your existing number with simple call forwarding, and its higher tiers add call transfers, team members, Zapier integrations and an Enterprise API that go places TradeHalo doesn't. If your calls are less about booking on-site work and more about complex, sector-specific reception, that breadth counts.
TradeHalo's strength is a different kind of focus: turning phone calls into booked, well-documented jobs — capturing the details, flagging the emergencies, and scheduling around the work you've already got on. If that's the shape of your day, you get more of what matters, for less than half the price.
TradeHalo isn't the only option. Here are the other UK answering services people weigh up against Hey Jodie, from AI receptionists to human PA teams, with their entry prices and who each one suits best.
| Service | Who answers | Entry price | Appointment booking | Free trial | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TradeHalo | AI assistant | £19/month (Starter) | Pro at £39/month | 14 days | Businesses that book jobs by phone and want unlimited 24/7 answering |
| Clara | AI receptionist | £39.99/month | Not detailed on published plans | 7 days | Small service businesses that mainly need messages taken |
| Cyberstaff | AI receptionist | £30/month for 100 minutes | Included on all plans | 7 days, no card | Businesses wanting SMS, WhatsApp and CRM integrations alongside calls |
| Answerphone AI | AI answerphone | £59/month (200 calls) | Calendar on Growth (£199/month) | 14 days, no card | Trades that want AI answering and rarely exceed 200 calls |
| Face For Business | Human PAs | From £49/month (business hours) | On higher plans | 7 days | Office-hours cover from a named human PA |
| Moneypenny | Human PAs | Quote-based | Varies by package | 7 days | Larger firms wanting a dedicated human PA team |
| AnswerConnect | Human receptionists | From £205/month (150 mins) | Yes, via their scheduling tools | None advertised | Businesses that want people, not AI, around the clock |
| alldayPA | Human call centre | Around £90/month (quote) | Diary services on bigger packages | Varies by offer | Firms happy with per-call billing and a UK call centre |
Competitor details are taken from each provider's published pricing or independent guides. Last checked — Clara: 2 November 2026. Cyberstaff: 4 November 2026. Answerphone AI, Face For Business, Moneypenny, AnswerConnect and alldayPA: July 2026. Providers change pricing, so always confirm current figures on their own site.
Want the full picture? See every UK answering service we've compared, or click a provider above for a head-to-head comparison with TradeHalo.
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