Honest comparison · prices checked September 2026
Moneypenny is a well-known UK answering service: people, or an AI Receptionist, picking up your calls and website chats. BLAM8 does a different job. It answers your email and runs the diary: replies in your voice from your real prices, the work booked, the quote and invoice sent. BLAM8 doesn't answer calls. Neither does the other's job, and the two can run side by side.
BLAM8 doesn't answer the phone. If calls are the problem, look at an answering service.
They answer your phone; BLAM8 answers your email and runs the diary.
Moneypenny's AI Receptionist price from moneypenny.com/uk/ai-receptionist, as shown to a UK visitor on 25 September 2026. Its human answering has no public price.
| Moneypenny | BLAM8 | |
|---|---|---|
| What it answers | Phone calls and website live chat | Customer email, in your existing Outlook or Gmail mailbox |
| Who answers | Human receptionists, or an AI Receptionist | An AI agent that drafts in your voice. Draft-only until you choose auto-send, so you approve each reply first |
| Phone calls | Yes, that's the service | No. SMS and missed-call text-back are built and being tested; they switch on when testing is done |
| Where the answers come from | The details you give them about your business | Your uploaded prices, services and policies. When the answer isn't there, the email is held and you're asked, rather than it guessing |
| The diary | Outside what we compared (call and chat answering) | Books into a live diary against real capacity, and never books a date or time nobody chose. Stays can be extended, shortened or moved, with the price following |
| Quotes, invoices, getting paid | Outside what we compared | On every plan: quotes, invoices chased at 7, 14 and 30 days, and card payments into your own Stripe account (Stripe Connect) |
| Customer records | Outside what we compared | On Pro, a CRM that fills itself in from the email |
| An assistant for you | Not what it's for: it answers your callers | The Concierge, on Pro + Concierge only. Ask and it looks it up; say it and it drafts a card; you confirm. By typing or live voice. It's for you, not your callers |
| Pricing | AI Receptionist from £25 a month. Human answering by quote; Moneypenny's own blog puts UK answering services at 60p–£1.50 a minute | Per business per month: Starter £39 · Pro £99 · Pro + Concierge £249. Free trial of the full product for 14 days or 100 handled emails, whichever comes first, no card to start |
For a wider view of call answering prices: on the same day Answer.co.uk listed human answering at £2.20 a call plus VAT, and AI answering at £10 a month plus 85p a call plus VAT.
A business owner is mid-appointment. The phone rings and an email lands at the same moment.
Someone picks up in the business's name, takes the caller's details and what they need, and passes the message on. The caller feels looked after instead of hitting voicemail.
A reply in the owner's voice gives the price from their list and offers a free slot on Thursday, held so nothing else takes it. After the appointment they approve it from their phone, and it's sent and booked.
Recent one and two-star Trustpilot reviews of Moneypenny mention a few recurring things: finding it hard to cancel, callers being given the wrong details, and a move to billing by time. Plenty of customers are happy; these are the themes, not the verdict.
On email, here's where BLAM8 stands. It's month to month, cancel any time, and the trial needs no card. Replies come from the prices and policies you gave it, and until you choose auto-send you see every one before it goes. When the answer isn't in your knowledge, it holds the email and asks you rather than guessing. And it's priced per business by emails handled, not by the minute.
No. BLAM8 answers email and runs the diary. The Concierge on Pro + Concierge has a voice, but that voice is for you, the owner, not your callers. SMS and missed-call text-back are built and being tested; they switch on when testing is done. If you need your phone answered, that's what Moneypenny and services like it are for.
On 25 September 2026 Moneypenny's UK AI Receptionist page said from £25 a month. Its human call answering is priced by quote, and its own blog says UK answering services typically charge 60p to £1.50 a minute. For comparison, Answer.co.uk listed human answering at £2.20 a call plus VAT and AI answering at £10 a month plus 85p a call plus VAT on the same day. BLAM8 is priced per business for email: Starter £39, Pro £99 and Pro + Concierge £249 a month.
No. The Concierge is your own assistant, on Pro + Concierge only. Ask it something and it looks it up in your inbox, diary and records; tell it what you want and it drafts a card; you confirm before anything happens. You can type or talk to it. Your customers' emails are answered by BLAM8's email agent, on every plan.
Yes, and for a business that gets both calls and emails it can make sense. Moneypenny answers the phone and the website chat; BLAM8 answers the email, books the work into your diary, sends quotes and invoices, and fills in the customer record on Pro. Neither does the other's job, so nothing is doubled up.
Look at where your enquiries arrive. If most come by phone and a missed call is a lost job, a call answering service is the thing to look at. If most come by email and the evenings go on replying, quoting and booking, that's BLAM8. If it's both, run both.
Free trial of the full product, the Concierge included, for 14 days or 100 handled emails, whichever comes first. No card to start.
Moneypenny is a trademark of its owner. BLAM8 is not affiliated with or endorsed by Moneypenny. Competitor details and prices were checked against public sources in September 2026 and may have changed — see Moneypenny's AI Receptionist page for current rates.
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