Moneypenny alternative: how Klugon compares with Moneypenny

You probably found Moneypenny the way most UK owners do. The phone was ringing while you were with a client, a colleague was off sick, or the enquiry line was going to voicemail at lunchtime, and somebody said "just get Moneypenny". It's a well-known name in UK call answering, and for good reason.

If you're now looking for a Moneypenny alternative, it's usually for one of a few reasons. You want a price you can see before you speak to sales. You don't want a three, six or twelve-month commitment. You want calls answered properly at 9pm and on Sunday without paying for out-of-hours cover. Or most of your calls are routine, the same five questions and a booking, and a person feels like more than the job needs.

This page compares Klugon, an AI receptionist, with Moneypenny's people-first telephone answering service and its AI receptionist. We've used Moneypenny's own website for every fact about Moneypenny, checked in October 2026, and we say plainly where Moneypenny is the better choice. There are several such cases, and they matter.

The short verdict

Choose Moneypenny if your calls need a person. That means callers who want to be put through to a named colleague while they wait, conversations that need judgement or warmth, payments taken over the phone, or messages written by someone who understood the call. Moneypenny's PAs are UK-based, work in small teams that know your business, and can transfer calls to you in the office or at home. Nothing an AI does today replaces that for complex or sensitive calls.

Choose Klugon if most of your calls are routine: opening hours, prices, availability, "can I book in for Thursday?". You'd rather pay a published monthly price with no minimum term, and you want those calls answered at any hour, in several languages, by an assistant that also books appointments into a calendar. Klugon can't put a caller through to you. It flags the conversation for your team instead, which suits businesses that call people back rather than taking calls live.

Some businesses use both. Moneypenny itself offers a mix of PAs and AI, and the same idea works across providers: an AI for the high-volume routine calls, people for the rest. More on that further down.

Klugon vs Moneypenny at a glance

Moneypenny prices are in pounds and Klugon prices are in US dollars, as each company publishes them.

What Moneypenny is

Moneypenny is a UK call answering company. Its telephone answering service puts a Moneypenny PA on your calls, answering in your company name. According to the same page, PAs work in teams of five, so if yours is busy, one of four teammates who already has your information takes the call. The receptionists are UK-based and trained.

Each client gets a divert number, and you choose whether to send all calls or only those you can't answer, using your phone's keypad. The PA sees each of your team members' availability, transfer and message preferences, which you can change in Moneypenny's app or portal, or through your Microsoft Teams status. Depending on your instructions, the PA either transfers the caller to you or takes a message, which Moneypenny drafts with an AI-powered tool during the call and sends to you by email or text.

Moneypenny also sells services built on that: an appointment booking service where PAs book, rearrange and cancel in your calendar, a payment taking service, lead qualification, an outsourced switchboard and out-of-hours cover.

More recently it has added an AI receptionist. Moneypenny describes it as trained on the calls it has handled for clients, working 24/7 to take messages, book appointments and qualify leads. When it doesn't know how to respond, or senses the caller is frustrated, it hands over to a Moneypenny receptionist or to your own team, whichever you choose. You get call summaries by email, text or both.

So Moneypenny is no longer only a human service. It is a human service with an AI option, and a hybrid of the two.

What Klugon is

Klugon is an AI receptionist for small business. It answers your phone with a natural-sounding AI voice, answers questions from the information you give it, books appointments into a built-in calendar, and records the details of callers who need your team to get back to them. It answers at any hour while your plan is live.

The same assistant can also run your website chat and reply on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. Those are separate products with their own prices. Every conversation, whether by phone or message, lands in one inbox in your dashboard.

Klugon is self-serve. You sign up, add your services and information, test the assistant in your browser, and connect a phone number once the trial ends. There is no sales call and no quote. It is run by a German company, Softaar Technologies UG, and operated under the GDPR.

What Klugon is not: a team of people. Nobody at Klugon listens to your calls or steps in when the AI is stuck. When a caller needs a person, the person is you or your staff, and you call them back.

Moneypenny alternative pricing: a quote vs a published plan

How Moneypenny charges

For its people-first telephone answering service, Moneypenny doesn't publish prices. The telephone answering page says pricing is "flexible and based on your needs, such as call volumes and hours of coverage", and asks you to get in touch for a quote. So as of October 2026 we can't give you a Moneypenny price for live PAs. You'll need to ask.

The AI receptionist page is more specific. It says "Get started from £49 a month", and describes the AI as "often up to 65% less than traditional people-first answering". What's included at £49, such as how many calls or minutes, isn't set out on that page, and the page also says pricing is "built around what you need". Treat £49 as the starting point and ask what your call volume would cost.

The contract terms are published. On the telephone answering page, Moneypenny says that its smaller schemes, 150 minutes and below, have a minimum term of three months, then one month's notice from the date of your next invoice. Larger schemes need a six or twelve-month commitment, depending on the inclusive minutes, with three months' notice.

How Klugon charges

Klugon's voice product has three published tiers. Prices are in US dollars, as of October 2026 and on the Klugon pricing page.

A phone number costs $9 a month on top. Extra voice minutes cost $15 per started 100 minutes. The yearly price is the monthly price less 20%, charged once a year. There is no minimum term on monthly plans: you can cancel, and the 7-day trial costs nothing if you cancel before it ends.

A worked cost example

Because Moneypenny quotes individually, the fairest example is one you can check against your own quote.

Say you're a small firm of surveyors. You get about 250 calls a month. Most are short: "are you open Saturday?", "how much is a level 2 survey?", "can I book a valuation?". Say they average three minutes, including the booking ones. That's about 750 minutes a month.

• On Klugon: 750 minutes fits inside Starter's 1,000. That's $99 plus $9 for the number, $108 a month, or $79 plus $9 on yearly billing. Calls at 7pm or on Sunday cost the same as calls at 11am.
• On Moneypenny: ask for a quote for 250 calls a month, and ask specifically whether evening and weekend cover is included, since the standard service runs 8.30am to 6pm. Then ask how the £49 AI receptionist would price the same volume, and what the hybrid would cost.

Now look at what you'd be paying for. If 200 of those 250 calls are routine and 50 need a person, a Moneypenny PA's real value is in those 50. That's the question to settle before you compare numbers. If the 50 are the calls that win or lose your work, a human service may pay for itself. If they're mostly "can you call me back about my report?", a flagged message in an inbox does the job.

Who answers, and how it sounds

Moneypenny's PAs

A Moneypenny PA is a trained person, based in the UK, who has your company information on screen when the call arrives. Moneypenny says its PAs don't work to rigid scripts, and that its AI tells the PA a returning caller's name and why they called last time. You can mark VIPs for different treatment.

That's the core strength of a human answering service: a person adapts. A caller who rambles, who's upset, who's hard of hearing, or who has a question nobody wrote down gets a sensible human response.

Klugon's AI voice

Klugon answers in your business name with a natural-sounding AI voice. You can pick from ten voices and write your own greeting. Callers speak normally, with no keypad menus, and they can interrupt: when the caller starts talking, the AI stops and listens.

It answers in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and Arabic. You choose the language per assistant. For a UK business with a lot of callers in another language, that can matter.

Two honest notes. The AI only knows what you've given it, so a question outside your information gets a "let me take your details" rather than an improvised answer. And Klugon's default greeting doesn't say the caller is talking to an AI. We'd suggest writing a greeting that does. It's fairer to callers, and they adjust their expectations straight away.

That call shows the split. The AI handles prices and the booking. The judgement call goes to a person, but later, not now.

Handing calls to you or your staff

This is the biggest difference between the two, so it gets its own section.

How Moneypenny passes calls on

Moneypenny's PAs can transfer calls to you in the office or at home, including through Microsoft Teams, according to the telephone answering page. You set each colleague's availability and preferences, and the PA follows them: put the caller through if you're free, take a message if you're not. Messages go by email or text, as you choose, and can be sent straight away.

Moneypenny's AI receptionist also hands over to a real person, either a Moneypenny receptionist or your own team, when it's stuck or the caller is frustrated.

For a solicitor who needs to speak to a new client before a competitor does, or an accountant whose clients expect to be put through, that live transfer is the whole point.

What Klugon does instead of transferring

Klugon cannot put a caller through to a person. There's no live transfer and no transfer number setting. What it does is this:

• The AI tells the caller someone will get back to them, and takes their name, number and reason for calling as a lead.
• It marks the conversation as needing a person, which shows as a "Needs a person" banner in your inbox.
• If you've connected Slack or Zapier, on the Business plan or above, it posts the handover there, so you see it on your phone.
• The call appears in your inbox with the AI's side of the conversation. Don't rely on it for a full two-sided transcript.

Klugon doesn't send email or text alerts, and it doesn't record calls. If your follow-up process depends on an email for every message, you'd need Zapier to create one, or check the inbox.

This works well for businesses where calling back within the hour is normal: trades, salons, surveyors, letting agents doing viewings. It doesn't work where the caller must reach a person in that moment. Our guide to handing calls to staff goes through how to set up a call-back routine that callers trust.

Appointment booking

Moneypenny's approach

Moneypenny's PAs book, rearrange and cancel appointments in your calendar or booking software while the caller is on the line. Its AI receptionist also lists appointment scheduling among its core tasks, and Moneypenny names Calendly among the tools it connects to. Because a person does the booking on the human service, it can cope with awkward diaries, such as "only book Mr Patel for new clients on Wednesday mornings unless it's urgent".

Klugon's approach

Klugon books into its own built-in calendar. You set your opening hours and timezone, how long each service takes, which staff member does it, a buffer between bookings, minimum notice and how far ahead people can book. During a call the AI lists your services, checks free slots and books one, and the caller gets a reference before hanging up. It can cancel bookings on the phone; rescheduling by phone isn't available yet, though it works in chat and messaging.

If you run your diary elsewhere, Klugon can also check Google, Outlook or Apple calendars and send Calendly links, after you connect them on the Business plan or above. That's not an automatic two-way sync, so if your diary is complicated, test it before you rely on it. Klugon doesn't send booking confirmations or reminders by email or text. The confirmation is the reference given in the call. The AI appointment booking page has the full detail.

Hours of cover

Moneypenny's standard telephone answering runs from 8.30am to 6pm. Outside those hours, calls go to a voicemail greeting your PA records. Evening, weekend and 24-hour cover are available, and Moneypenny's 24/7 answering service page describes that option, but you'll need to ask what it adds to your quote. The AI receptionist works 24/7.

Klugon answers whenever your plan is live and your number is routed to it. There's no business-hours setting and no surcharge for nights or weekends: a call at 3am uses minutes the same way as one at 3pm. If your problem is specifically the calls after you close, the after-hours answering service page covers how Klugon handles them.

Channels beyond the phone

Moneypenny is a phone business first. Its homepage mentions live chat, but the service pages we checked don't describe WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger handling, so we'd count those as not offered unless Moneypenny tells you otherwise.

Klugon runs on several channels from the same assistant and knowledge base, each sold as its own product:

• Phone and browser voice, in the voice plans above.
• WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, in the social plans from $79 a month. These need your own Meta business setup, and Instagram needs Meta's app review before the public can message it. See the WhatsApp AI chatbot page.
• Website chat, in the chat plans from $49 a month. You paste one script tag into your site. See the AI chatbot for your website page.

If your customers book by WhatsApp as often as by phone, this is a real difference. If they only ring, it isn't.

What each knows about your business

Moneypenny builds a profile of your business that appears on the PA's screen when your call arrives, and its AI receptionist uses a KnowledgeBase that a Solutions Architect helps you put together. You tell Moneypenny what you want, and its team sets it up.

Klugon's knowledge is something you build yourself in the dashboard. You can enter services with prices and durations, paste FAQs and policies, upload PDFs, Word documents and spreadsheets, and import pages from your website. The AI searches that knowledge during a call and answers from it. When it can't find an answer, set it up to take the caller's details and hand over, and the Insights page shows the questions it couldn't answer well so you can fill the gaps.

The trade-off is effort. Moneypenny does more of the setup for you. With Klugon you're in control and can change a price at 10pm without asking anyone, but you have to do it.

Messages, records and reporting

Moneypenny sends message summaries by email or text as soon as the call ends, and its AI receptionist sends call summaries by email, text or both. Calls handled by the AI are kept in Moneypenny's caller analytics.

Klugon puts every call in its inbox, alongside chats and messages, with filters by channel and status, transcript download and CSV export. Leads go to a leads list, and bookings to the bookings page. The analytics page shows calls, minutes, bookings, leads and the share of conversations handled without a handover, with busiest hours and days. Notifications go to Slack or Zapier only. Klugon doesn't email you a summary of each call, and it doesn't record audio.

If you live in your email and want every message there within seconds, Moneypenny fits that habit better.

Setup and keeping your number

Getting started with Moneypenny

You contact Moneypenny, get a quote and agree a scheme. You get a divert number, and you forward calls to it from your phone system, either all of them or only those you don't answer. For the AI receptionist, Moneypenny says a Solutions Architect agrees call flows with you and collects your information, and most clients are live within a few days. A free trial is offered on the telephone answering page; its length isn't published.

Getting started with Klugon

1. Sign up and start the 7-day trial. A card is needed, and you're charged when the trial ends unless you cancel.
2. Add your business details, opening hours, services with prices and durations, and staff.
3. Add knowledge: FAQs, policies and documents.
4. Write a greeting and choose a voice and language.
5. Test the assistant by talking to it in your browser. During the trial you can't add a phone number.
6. When the trial ends, get a Klugon number at $9 a month and forward your existing number to it. Klugon doesn't port numbers; you keep yours with your current provider and forward it. Our guide to keeping your number with call forwarding explains the options, including forwarding only unanswered calls.

On the Business tier and above you can connect your own SIP trunk instead of forwarding.

Contract, trial and cancelling

Moneypenny's published terms for telephone answering are a three-month minimum on schemes of 150 minutes or fewer, then one month's notice from your next invoice date. Larger schemes need a six or twelve-month commitment with three months' notice. If you're comparing, ask which category your quote falls in and when your first chance to leave would be.

Klugon's monthly plans have no minimum term. Yearly plans are paid upfront at the 20% discount. The trial is 7 days, needs a card, and is free if you cancel before it ends.

Data protection

Both companies handle personal data from your callers, so under UK GDPR you'll want each one's terms and privacy information before you sign. Moneypenny says its AI receptionist is encrypted and GDPR-compliant, and its PAs are UK-based. Klugon is operated by a German company under the GDPR, and the sub-processors it uses, including US providers covered by standard contractual clauses, are listed in its privacy policy. Klugon doesn't claim to store data only in the UK or EU. If that's a requirement for you, ask both providers where call data is held. The ICO has plain guidance on what you need from a processor.

Where Moneypenny is the better choice

Be honest with yourself about your calls. Moneypenny is the better fit when:

• Callers need to be put through live. If "can I speak to Sarah?" must end with Sarah on the line, Klugon can't do that. Moneypenny's PAs transfer calls, including to Teams.
• Calls are complex or sensitive. Bereavement, complaints, legal enquiries, anxious patients, or a caller who's hard to understand. A trained person reads tone and context in a way an AI can't match.
• You want empathy that sounds like your team. Moneypenny's whole pitch is callers assuming they're speaking to someone in your office. An AI voice can be warm, but it's still an AI.
• Messages need judgement. A PA who understood the call writes a better message than any summary of half a transcript, and Moneypenny sends it by email or text straight away. Klugon doesn't send email or texts, and its call logs may contain only the AI's side.
• You take payments over the phone. Moneypenny offers payment taking. Klugon can't take payments on a call.
• You want someone else to set it up. Moneypenny works with you on call flows. Klugon is self-serve.
• You want people and AI from one supplier. Moneypenny's hybrid sends routine calls to its AI and hands the hard ones to its own receptionists, all in one service.

Where Klugon is the better choice

Klugon fits better when:

• Most calls are routine. Prices, opening hours, availability and bookings are what the AI handles well, and they're most of the volume for many small businesses.
• You want to see the price first. Klugon's prices are published, from $99 a month for 1,000 minutes, with no quote needed.
• You don't want a minimum term. Monthly plans have none, and the trial is free if you cancel in 7 days.
• You need nights and weekends covered without extra charge. Klugon's price doesn't change with the hour.
• Your callers speak other languages. The AI answers in nine languages, which you choose per assistant.
• Customers also message you. The same assistant can answer WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and your website chat, with everything in one inbox.
• You'd rather change things yourself. Update a price or a policy in the dashboard and the AI uses it on the next call.

If you want the wider argument, our comparison of an AI receptionist vs a human receptionist covers it without either company's name attached.

Running both: AI for routine calls, people for the rest

You don't have to choose all one or all the other. A common pattern:

• Your main number rings in the office first.
• Unanswered calls forward to Klugon, which handles bookings and routine questions and flags the rest.
• A separate line, for existing clients or urgent matters, goes to a human service.

Or the reverse: keep a human answering service in office hours, and point evenings and weekends at an AI. That way you aren't paying a person to say "we open at 9" at midnight, and you keep live transfer for the calls that need it. Moneypenny offers its own version of this within one service, which is simpler if you'd rather have one supplier.

How to switch from Moneypenny to Klugon

1. Check your notice period. Look at your Moneypenny scheme. On smaller schemes it's one month from your next invoice after the minimum term; on larger ones it's three months. Plan your switch date around it.
2. Gather what Moneypenny knows. Your call-handling instructions, FAQs, team availability rules and message preferences are a ready-made brief. Put the FAQs and policies into Klugon's knowledge base.
3. List the calls that need a person. Anything Moneypenny transfers today, decide how you'll handle it with a call-back instead, or keep a human line for it.
4. Set up Klugon in the trial. Add services, staff and opening hours, write the greeting, and test it in your browser with the ten most common calls you get.
5. Set up notifications. On the Business plan or above, connect Slack or Zapier so handovers reach you quickly.
6. Go live in stages. After the trial, get a Klugon number and forward only unanswered or out-of-hours calls at first. Watch the inbox for a week.
7. Move the rest when you're confident, then give notice on your Moneypenny scheme.

For more on how this compares with another live answering service, see our AnswerConnect alternative and Ruby comparison pages.

Frequently asked questions

Is Klugon a good Moneypenny alternative?

For businesses whose calls are mostly routine questions and bookings, yes: it answers at any hour on a published monthly price with no minimum term. For businesses that need live call transfer, payments over the phone or a person's judgement on most calls, Moneypenny is the better fit.

How much does Moneypenny cost compared with Klugon?

As of October 2026, Moneypenny doesn't publish prices for its people-first answering service; you get a quote based on call volume and hours. Its AI receptionist starts "from £49 a month". Klugon's voice plans are $99, $299 and $499 a month with 1,000, 3,600 and 6,000 minutes, plus $9 a month for a phone number.

Can Klugon transfer calls to me like a Moneypenny PA?

No. Klugon can't put a caller through. It takes their details, flags the conversation for your team in the inbox, and notifies Slack or Zapier if connected (Business plan and up). You then call them back.

Does Klugon tie me into a contract?

No. Monthly plans can be cancelled with no minimum term, and the 7-day trial is free if you cancel before it ends. A card is required to start it. Moneypenny's published terms include a three-month minimum on smaller schemes and six or twelve months on larger ones.

Can I keep my business number?

Yes, with both. With Klugon you forward your existing number to a Klugon number after the trial, either all calls or only those you don't answer. Klugon doesn't port numbers.

Will callers know they're talking to an AI?

Only if you tell them. Klugon's default greeting doesn't say so, and we recommend writing one that does. The voice sounds natural, but it isn't a person.

Does Klugon send messages by email or text like Moneypenny?

No. Klugon doesn't send email or text alerts. Calls and leads appear in the dashboard inbox, and handovers can be sent to Slack or to Zapier, which can forward them elsewhere.

Can I use Klugon and Moneypenny together?

Yes. A common set-up is to forward evening and weekend calls, or overflow calls, to Klugon and keep a human service for the calls that need live transfer.

Whichever you choose, start from a week's call log: how many calls are routine, how many need a person, and when they arrive. That tells you more than any comparison page, this one included.