Virtual receptionist pricingUK: what it costs and what drives the price

Per-call and per-minute pricing is cheapest when calls are rare and simple and dearest when they are frequent or long, because every extra call is an extra charge. Bundles smooth that until the month you go over the allowance. A dedicated receptionist by the hour costs the same whatever the volume, so it wins once calls are steady, and it is the only model where the person answering knows your business. At Ant Assist a dedicated receptionist starts at £5 per hour on the entry rate; after the promotion the customer service rate card applies, £5.95 per hour full time or £6.50 part time on the Entry tier.

This guide covers the price of a human receptionist service answering calls for a UK business: the models providers use, the factors that move the price inside each model, and the comparison between paying per call and paying for a dedicated person. It does not cover phone systems, which are a separate subscription under every model, and it does not quote other providers' prices, which change and which you should read from their own pages. For the line-by-line comparison of a virtual assistant against a UK employee, read how much a virtual assistant costs in the UK.

Per call. You pay a fixed amount for each call answered, sometimes with a lower rate for calls that are only a message and a higher one for calls that involve booking or transfer. Simple to understand, and the cost rises in a straight line with your call volume. Watch for what counts as a call: wrong numbers, sales calls and hang-ups are often charged.

Per minute. You pay for talk time, usually in a bundle of minutes with a rate for minutes over it. Cheaper than per call if your calls are short, dearer if they are long, and hard to budget because you do not control how long callers talk.

Monthly bundles. A set number of calls or minutes for a fixed monthly fee, with overage charged above it. Predictable until it is not: the month with the campaign, the season, or the problem that makes everyone ring is the month the bill jumps. Many bundles also charge separately for extras such as message relay by text, diary booking or out-of-hours cover.

A dedicated receptionist by the hour. One named person, working your hours, paid per hour whatever the calls do. No per-call, per-minute or overage charges; the same person every day, who learns your business, your callers and your diary. The cost is fixed and the quality is continuous, and between calls the same person can cover your live chat and email. This is the model on the virtual receptionist UK page.

Call volume and length. The largest factor in per-call and per-minute pricing and irrelevant to an hourly receptionist. If you do not know your volume, count a fortnight of calls before you choose a model.

Hours of cover. Business hours are the base price everywhere. Evenings, weekends and bank holidays cost extra in every model; at Ant Assist, extended hours and weekend cover are available at additional cost, agreed during onboarding.

What the receptionist does on the call. Taking a message is the cheapest service. Booking into your diary, qualifying an enquiry, transferring to the right person, processing a payment or handling a complaint all cost more in per-call models, because they take longer and need training. An hourly receptionist does all of them for the same rate once trained.

Overflow and multi-channel. Answering only the calls you miss is cheaper per call than answering all of them, but it means two different experiences for your callers. Covering chat and email as well as the phone is an extra in most bundles and included in a dedicated hour.

Continuity. Per-call services rotate agents; a dedicated receptionist is one person. That is not a price line on any invoice, and it is the largest difference in what your callers experience.

Per call wins when calls are rare. A business with a handful of calls a week, all of them a name and a message, will pay less per month on a per-call plan than for a dedicated person, and should.

A dedicated receptionist wins once calls are steady. When the phone rings through the day, every per-call plan turns into a large variable bill, and a bundle turns into an overage bill. An hourly receptionist costs the same in the busy month as in the quiet one, and the busy month is when the quality of the answer matters most.

A dedicated receptionist wins outright when the call is more than a message. Diary booking, enquiry qualification, complaints, payments and follow-ups are where per-call models add charges and rotate agents. One trained person does them all, and between calls covers your chat, your inbox and your CRM.

The hidden cost of per-call pricing is not on the invoice. It is the caller who reached a different agent each time, the booking that was taken wrong because the agent did not know your rules, and the message that arrived as a text with no context. The e-commerce customer service outsourcing page describes what continuity means for a store where the call is usually about an order.

A dedicated receptionist from Ant Assist starts at £5 per hour on the entry rate: the first 6 months on the Entry tier, 3 months on Mid, 1 month on Expert. After the promotion, the customer service rate card applies: £5.95 per hour full time on the Entry tier (160 hours a month, £952) or £6.50 per hour part time (80 hours a month, £520), with Mid at £6.84 and Expert at £7.44 per hour full time for receptionists with longer experience. There are no per-call, per-minute or overage charges and no platform fees; the rate includes the receptionist's time, our office facilities in Cairo, and the supervision and management that keep quality up. Your phone system stays in your name.

What changes the price is hours and tier, nothing else: part time for a business whose phone is busy in the mornings, full time for one that needs the line covered all day, extended hours and weekend cover at additional cost where you need them. Put your own hours into the calculator for the comparison against a UK in-house receptionist once salary, employer National Insurance, pension, holiday and a desk are counted.

What the £5/hour entry rate includes

• Dedicated VA, never shared
• UK-hour aligned support
• Management and supervision included
• Recruitment and onboarding included
• Office infrastructure included
• VA replacement available
• No NI, pension, or holiday costs
• No long-term contract, rolling monthly

A dedicated receptionist VA fits the business whose phone rings steadily, whose calls are more than messages, and whose callers deserve the same person every time: trades that miss calls on site, clinics and salons that live by the diary, professional services that need a human first answer, and stores adding phone and chat cover. It does not fit a business with a handful of simple calls a week, which should use a per-call service and say so. At Ant Assist the receptionist is one named person, on your hours, under your brand, with a UK team supervising quality; most clients have their VA active within 5 to 7 working days of signing up, and if the fit is wrong we replace the VA and carry the handover.