TradeCatch vs Moneypenny for UK trades
Moneypenny is the UK’s best-known answering service, with real receptionists and now an AI receptionist from £49 a month. TradeCatch is an AI office manager for UK trades: it answers your calls, then drafts the quote, books the job and asks for the review. If you want a person on the end of the line, choose Moneypenny. If you want a Moneypenny alternative that does the whole office job for £79 a month, choose TradeCatch.
What Moneypenny offers
Moneypenny has been answering phones for UK businesses for years, with real receptionists. It now also sells an AI receptionist, starting from £49 a month. The AI takes messages, books appointments and answers common questions. When a call gets tricky, or the caller asks for a person, it can pass them to a live Moneypenny receptionist, any time of day.
The businesses it highlights are car dealers and garages, property, hospitality and legal firms. Trades aren’t one of its named sectors.
Where TradeCatch is different
- It knows your trade from the first call. Set up for plumbers, it knows a combi from an unvented cylinder and flags a gas smell or a burst pipe straight to you.
- The call is only the start. TradeCatch drafts the quote from what the caller said, chases it if it goes quiet, books the job when they say yes and sends a draft invoice to Xero.
- It rings people back. Callers who hang up without leaving details get a call back in your business’s name.
- It brings customers back. It asks for the Google review after the job and reminds people when their next service is due.
How good does it sound?
This is usually the worry with AI, and it’s the part we’ve spent most time on. Every voice is tested on real calls over real phone lines, scored, then listened to blind before it goes in front of a customer. TradeCatch is powered by AI from OpenAI and Anthropic, and we keep testing new voices and models as they come out. Ring the demo line and judge for yourself.
Side by side
| TradeCatch | Moneypenny AI Receptionist | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | £99 a month, or £79 locked for life for the first 25 UK trades, with 60 days free | From £49 a month, priced to your needs |
| Built for trades | Yes, set up for your trade from day one | Not one of its named sectors |
| Real person if needed | No, it’s AI only | Yes, a live receptionist 24/7 |
| Rings missed callers back | Yes | Not mentioned |
| Quotes, bookings, invoices | Drafts quotes, books jobs, sends invoices to Xero | Books appointments |
| Reviews and service reminders | Yes | Not mentioned on its website |
| Keep your own number | Yes | Yes |
Looking for a Moneypenny alternative? Which should you pick?
Choose Moneypenny if some of your callers will only talk to a human, or you need a receptionist who can handle anything at all. That’s what it does best.
Choose TradeCatch if you’re a one to ten person trade business and the phone is only part of the problem. The quotes, the bookings and the follow-ups are where the evenings go, and that’s the bit TradeCatch takes off you.
Weighing up more than these two? We’ve compared the best AI receptionists for UK trades.
Why trades pick TradeCatch over an answering service
- Built by someone who knows voice. Founder Rich Suplee has spent more than a decade building voice and AI products, including launching Alexa in the UK, and worked closely with small businesses at Xero.
- You get the founder’s number, not an account manager. The first 25 trades talk to Rich directly.
- Ask Catch from Claude or ChatGPT about your calls, quotes and diary, wherever you are. Read-only, so it can’t change a thing.
- A morning rundown on the phone. Ring Catch in the van and it reads you your day.
- Customer records that fill themselves in, from every call, quote, booking and review.
- Leads on WhatsApp or text, your choice.
- UK trade rules built in, from Gas Safe to WRAS-approved fittings, in British English.
- Set up in about ten minutes. No week-long onboarding, no setup fee.
- Hear it before you pay on 023 9200 2063.