Best AI receptionists for UK heating, plumbing and HVAC firms in 2026

You are under a sink with wet hands when the phone goes. By the time you ring back, the customer has booked whoever answered first. That lost job is why so many engineers are now trying an AI receptionist.

There are plenty to choose from, and the adverts all promise the same thing: every call answered, day and night. The differences sit underneath. Some book the job and some only take a message. Some drop the booking into your job software, and others leave you typing it in after tea. Pricing ranges from a flat fee to a meter on every call.

We make one of these, so bear that in mind as you read. We have tried to be fair about where the others do better, and every price below comes from the provider’s own website, checked on 23 September 2026.

How we compared them

We judged each receptionist on the things that change your working day:

What it does on the call. Taking a message still leaves you ringing everyone back in the evening. Booking the job doesn’t.
Where the booking ends up. A receptionist that writes to Google Calendar still leaves you copying the job into your job software.
How it is priced. A flat fee, a cap on calls and a bundle of minutes behave very differently in a cold snap, when the phone never stops.
Contract and setup. Minimum terms, setup fees, and whether you keep your number.
Whether it knows the trade. A gas smell is not a routine booking, and a receptionist for heating engineers should treat it differently without being told.

All prices are per month and exclude VAT, unless we say the provider doesn’t state it.

The comparison at a glance

Receptionist	Starting price	Books into your diary?	Links to job software	Pricing model
Mucka	Included with Solo £29	Yes	It is the job software	60 free minutes and texts, then £45 per 500
Jodie AI	£49	From £99	Zapier, on £199	Unlimited minutes
Trade Receptionist	£49	From £89	Google Calendar	50 to 600 calls
TradeCaller	£99*	No	None named	Flat price
ServiceM8 Phone Agent	£25 add-on	Online booking	Built in	500 minutes
Powered Now Receptionist	£29 add-on*	Yes	Coming soon	Unlimited calls
Moneypenny AI	From £25	Yes	Not stated	Quote only
Human answering service	£49 to £115+	Some plans	Rarely	Per minute or call

*VAT not stated by the provider. Every option here can be cancelled monthly, apart from some human services with minimum terms.

1. Mucka: best if you want the receptionist and the job software to be one thing

This one is ours.

The Mucka AI Voice Receptionist is part of Mucka, the job management app built for heating, plumbing and HVAC firms. It answers your business line in your business name, in a voice you pick. You keep your number and forward calls to it.

On the call it checks your real diary and pencils the job in for you to approve. It offers times the way you do, whether that is exact slots, morning or afternoon, or windows like 8 to 10. Each item on your price list can carry how long the job usually takes, so a boiler service holds an hour and a powerflush holds the day. Tick an item and it can quote that price to the caller as your standard charge.

It looks every postcode up against the Royal Mail address file and reads the real address back to the caller, so a bad line doesn’t send your engineer to the wrong street. It recognises existing customers from either of their numbers, tells them what they already have booked, and can pencil in a change. A gas smell or a major leak gets flagged as urgent, and you get an alert with the caller’s number straight away. Each call is saved against the customer with a summary, transcript and recording. It answers texts to your number as well, and it will ring customers when you ask it to, to chase an invoice or confirm tomorrow’s visit.

It comes with every paid plan, from Solo at £29 a month. Each business gets 60 free minutes of calls and 60 free texts a month. After that, 500 more minutes cost £45 + VAT and 500 more texts cost £45 + VAT, and the packs never expire. It isn’t on the free plan, but you can use it during the 14-day free trial, and you switch it on yourself from Skills in the app.

The receptionist only comes with Mucka, which is the main reason to look elsewhere. If you are settled on Tradify or Commusoft, a standalone receptionist like Jodie fits around what you already use. And if your line is busy with long calls, Jodie’s unlimited minutes are simpler than our 60 free minutes and top-up packs.

2. Jodie AI: best for a standalone receptionist with no call meter

Jodie is the one you have probably seen advertised. It is a London company selling an AI receptionist to UK service businesses of every kind, with pages for plumbers and HVAC engineers alongside estate agents and accountants. It says over 1,600 UK service businesses use it, and it holds 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 63 reviews.

You keep your number and forward calls to Jodie. It learns your business by reading your website or Google Business Profile, and most people are live within minutes. On the call it takes the caller’s details, qualifies the enquiry, and sends you a summary by text, email and app notification. The plumbing script is well thought through. It asks where the leak is and whether the water is off, and flags anything urgent. A caller who smells gas is told to ring the gas emergency line and leave the property, and you get a text.

Mucka’s receptionist covers the same ground on the call: it takes the details, flags anything urgent and sends you the summary. The difference is that it also books the job into your diary on every paid plan.

Basic is £49 a month, Professional £99, Premium £199, and Enterprise starts at £500. Every plan has unlimited minutes and no overage charges. There is no contract and no setup fee, the free trial runs 7 days without a card, and paying annually gets you two months free.

The catch is in the plan table. The headline cards look alike, but the comparison table underneath shows Basic can’t book appointments or transfer calls. Diary booking starts at £99. Linking Jodie to other software goes through Zapier and needs the £199 Premium plan. We found no direct link to any trades job management software, so a booked job still has to be typed into Tradify, Commusoft or whatever you run.

If what you want is every call answered and a clean message in your pocket, the £49 plan is good value, and there is no meter to watch. For a heating firm the gap is what Jodie can’t see. It has no access to your price list or your jobs, so it can’t quote a standard price or tell a regular when their service is due. A few Trustpilot reviewers also say it asks too many questions.

3. Trade Receptionist: best for a calendar booking on a lower budget

Trade Receptionist is a London company that sells only to UK trades, mainly plumbers, electricians and builders. It takes the caller’s details, screens out time-wasters, and sends you the job by text. The higher plans book it straight into your Google Calendar instead.

Starter is £49 a month for up to 50 calls. Pro is £89 for 150 calls and adds calendar booking and call transfer. Business is £159 for 350 calls and Agency £249 for 600. Paying annually takes 20% off, prices are marked plus VAT, there is no contract, and the free trial runs 14 days with a setup call.

The prices are clear and the trial is longer than most. The limits are the call caps, since the site doesn’t say what happens once you pass one, and the booking destination: Google Calendar rather than job software, so the job still gets moved across by hand. It is also a newer company than most on this list.

4. TradeCaller: best for a done-for-you message service

TradeCaller is another London firm that sells only to trades, including HVAC engineers. It answers, qualifies the caller, and texts you their name, number, address and what they need. It flags emergencies and tells callers it is an AI if they ask. It doesn’t book into a diary.

It costs £99 a month or £999 a year. The site doesn’t say whether that includes VAT, or whether there is a call limit. There is no contract, and you sign up through a demo call, after which they set it up for you within 48 hours.

You get one price and someone else does the setup. For message-taking only, though, it costs twice Jodie’s entry plan, and it names no integrations.

5. ServiceM8 Phone Agent: best if you already run on ServiceM8

ServiceM8 is an Australian job management app with UK pricing, and its Phone Agent comes inside the Phone add-on. It answers questions and takes messages into your ServiceM8 inbox. It can also text the caller a booking form, or submit an online booking on their behalf. It puts emergencies through to you and screens out spam, and recordings and transcripts sit on the job. You can run it in working hours, after hours, or in place of voicemail.

The Phone add-on is billed separately from your ServiceM8 plan. Connect Plus is £25 a month for 500 minutes and includes the Phone Agent, and Unlimited is £119 a month. ServiceM8’s prices exclude VAT.

The link to the job card is native, and 500 minutes for £25 is generous. You do need to be on ServiceM8, which is built for every trade rather than heating and plumbing, and bookings come in through its online booking form, so check that suits how you schedule. We compare the two apps in Mucka vs ServiceM8.

6. Powered Now Receptionist: best for existing Powered Now users

Powered Now is a UK quoting and invoicing app for trades, and it now sells an AI receptionist as an add-on. It takes the caller’s name, number and job and creates a follow-up task. It books jobs, and returning customers can rebook or check their next visit. It texts back missed calls and puts urgent ones straight through when it hears words you choose. Customers can send photos by link, and the voices are British.

Speech costs £29 a month and Speech + Text £39, with unlimited calls, no setup fee and no contract. The page doesn’t say whether VAT is included, and you need a Powered Now plan on top.

It is the cheapest flat price we found. At the time of writing, though, their page says full sync with the Powered Now diary is “coming next month”, so calls don’t yet turn into jobs on their own. More on the two apps in Mucka vs Powered Now.

7. Moneypenny AI Receptionist: best if you want a human to fall back on

Moneypenny is one of the best-known UK call answering firms, and it now offers an AI receptionist alongside its human team. The AI qualifies leads, books appointments, routes calls and answers common questions. When it is unsure, or a caller sounds frustrated, it hands over to a live UK receptionist.

Pricing starts “from £25 a month”, but you have to talk to them for a real figure. There is no plan table and no VAT statement.

Having a person behind the AI is the strongest backstop on this list. The drawbacks are quote-only pricing and a service built for every kind of business, trades included but not in mind.

8. A human answering service: the baseline

Before AI, this was the answer, and for some firms it still is. A person can use judgement, and a good service gets to know your regulars.

Face For Business publishes its prices. The Taster plan starts at £49 a month, billed by the second and covering core hours. Message Only starts at £99. Inclusive Minutes starts at £115 and adds evenings, weekends and appointment booking. There is no setup fee or long-term contract, the trial lasts 7 days, and the site makes a point of never using AI. Moneypenny’s human service is priced by the minute on a quote, with a 3-month minimum on smaller plans, and myalldayPA charges from 99p a call.

Human services bill per minute or per call, so the cost climbs in the weeks you are busiest: the first cold snap for heating firms, a heatwave for HVAC. At Face For Business, evenings and weekends only come with the £115 plan.

Also worth knowing about

Jobber, the US job management app, includes an AI receptionist on its Plus plan or sells it as a $29 add-on with 30 conversations, then $0.79 each. Its help centre says the number works in the UK, but prices are in dollars and it can’t quote customers. Sophiie, an Australian receptionist now selling in the UK, books into your calendar and connects to ServiceM8 and Xero, but publishes no price. Commusoft previewed AI booking agents on 21 September 2026 without a launch date, and Tradify has no phone answering.

What it actually costs in a busy month

Say your phone rings 120 times in a month and calls average two minutes. That is 240 minutes. Here is what a receptionist that books jobs would cost before VAT:

Option	Monthly cost	Where the job ends up
Mucka Solo	About £45	In your Mucka diary
Jodie AI Professional	£99 + job software	You type it across
Trade Receptionist Pro	£89 + job software	Google Calendar
ServiceM8 Connect Plus	£25 + ServiceM8 plan	ServiceM8
Face For Business	From £115	You type it across

Mucka’s figure is the £29 Solo plan, which includes 60 minutes, plus the other 180 minutes from a £45 pack of 500. That pack lasts nearly three months at this rate, so it adds about £16 a month, and the job software is already in the price. Jodie and Trade Receptionist need job software on top: Tradify, for example, starts at £34 a user (VAT not stated). Trade Receptionist drops to £74 if you pay annually, and Face For Business rises with the minutes you use.

In a quiet month Mucka costs nothing beyond the plan, and a pack bought in January is still there in February. In a very busy month full of long calls, Jodie’s unlimited plan can come out cheaper for the receptionist alone. For most heating firms the deciding question is the job software. If you already pay for it, ask whether you want to pay for two things and keep moving jobs between them.

Questions to ask before you choose

Does it book the job, or only take a message? Messages mean ringing everyone back after work.
Where does the booking land: your job software, a Google Calendar, or a text you retype?
What would it cost at triple your usual call volume? That is your January.
Does it know your prices and your customers? A receptionist that can say “a boiler service is £95” or “your next service is on the 14th” saves you a callback.
What does it do when someone smells gas? Ask to hear it handle that call before you sign up.
Can you keep your number and leave without a penalty? Every AI option above lets you keep your number and cancel monthly. Some human services have minimum terms.

Frequently asked questions

Will customers know they are talking to an AI?

Some will, and it is best to be upfront if they ask. Callers mostly want the job booked, so pick a receptionist that asks what a heating engineer would ask and stops there. Too many questions is the complaint that comes up most in reviews.

Do I have to change my phone number?

No. Every option here works by forwarding your existing number, usually after a few unanswered rings, or all the time outside working hours.

Can an AI receptionist handle an emergency call?

It can recognise one and get it to you fast. Mucka and Jodie both flag urgent calls and alert you straight away, and Powered Now and ServiceM8 can put an emergency straight through. None of them replaces the gas emergency line. Jodie tells a caller who smells gas to ring it.

How many minutes will I use?

Multiply your weekly calls by your average call length, then by 4.3. At 20 calls a week averaging two minutes, that is about 170 minutes a month.

The providers here all record calls and store customer details, so check where the data is processed and that callers are told the call is recorded. Our privacy policy explains how Mucka handles call recordings.

What is the cheapest AI receptionist for a plumber?

If you already use Powered Now, its £29 add-on. As a standalone receptionist, Jodie and Trade Receptionist both start at £49, and Trade Receptionist drops to £39 paid annually, though Jodie only takes messages at that price. For diary booking plus the job software to run on, Mucka Solo at £29 a month, with 60 free minutes and 60 free texts before any top-up.

The short version

If you want a standalone receptionist and are happy with your current software, try Jodie first, and budget for the £99 plan if you want it to book jobs. If you run on ServiceM8 or Powered Now, start with their own add-on. If you want the phone answered and the job booked straight into software built for heating, plumbing and HVAC, try Mucka free for 14 days. No card needed.

Prices and features checked on each provider’s website on 23 September 2026. If something has changed, tell us and we will update it.