Virtual receptionist services in Australia, honestly compared
13 virtual receptionist, phone answering and AI receptionist services sold in Australia, compared on published price, per-call cost, location and terms.
We sell one of the services on this list. DotVA places dedicated VA receptionists, and for a business that gets a few calls a week we are the wrong product: a shared answering service will cost you a tenth of what we do. That is the most useful thing we can tell you, so it comes first.
The method is the same as our comparison of Australian VA agencies. Every claim about another provider comes from its own website, checked on 11 November 2026 and linked in the table. Where a figure is not published we write “not stated publicly” rather than guess. We left out providers whose sites were parked, blocked our checks or priced only in US dollars.
The services at a glance
| Service | What it is | Published entry price | Each extra call or minute | Where calls are answered | Books appointments | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DotVA virtual receptionist (that’s us) | One dedicated VA receptionist on your number, plus admin between calls; optional AI receptionist | $12-17/hr AUD ex GST from 10 hrs/week (about $520-736/month); AI from $89/month plus setup and per-minute usage | Not per call: billed for the hours you book | Philippines, working Australian business hours | Yes, inside your own software | No lock-in contract; stop any time in the first 14 days, then 30 days’ notice |
| OfficeHQ | Shared receptionists, per call; also an AI plan | MessageExpress $25/month; MyReceptionist $35/month, or $190/month with 50 calls; MyAI $20/month with 10 calls, all ex GST | $2.65 a call on pay-as-you-go MessageExpress; $3.40 on MyReceptionist Starter and $3.99 on a 50-call or larger bundle; $1.50 on AI, with calls passed to a live receptionist charged at the live rate; after-hours surcharges apply | Majority in Australia, with overflow from NZ, UK and US offices | Yes, on MyDiary: $50/month plus $2.50 a minute, setup from $99 | No minimum term, three days’ notice before the monthly renewal date, 7-day free trial |
| Your Phones Covered | Shared receptionists, untimed calls, three tiers | Priced per week ex GST: Value from $6, Essential from $7, Premium from $9; Essential with 105 calls a month is $89/week | Calls over plan $2.90 (Value), $4.90 (Essential), $5.90 (Premium) | Premium and Essential in Australia; Value plan and after-hours calls in the Philippines | Yes, diary management add-on | Pricing page: “no lock-in contracts”. Terms: minimum engagement two months; notice to the end of the plan period or 28 days, whichever is longer. Trial up to 7 days or 100 calls, whichever comes first |
| Business 1300 | Shared operators, per call, 24/7 | Messages from $30/month with 15 calls; Virtual Receptionist from $48/month with 15 calls, or $236/month with 80, ex GST; $29 setup | $2.00 (Messages Lite), $3.20 (Virtual Receptionist Lite), $2.95 on the 80-call plan | Australia, 24 hours a day | Yes, on its Virtual Assistant plan from $33/month | One-month minimum; cancel any time, with the full monthly fee charged for the month of cancellation; no free trial stated |
| Well Done | 24/7 contact centre | From $30 a month ex GST through its budget division, reception.net.au; Well Done itself quotes on enquiry | Not stated publicly | Melbourne, Adelaide and Nowra | Bookings mentioned; detail not stated publicly | Month to month available; 30 days’ notice |
| OracleCMS | 24/7 contact centre | Not stated publicly: quoted case by case, with a setup fee and time-based usage | Not stated publicly; it says it charges for minutes, not calls | Australia: it says every operator is based in Australia; offices in Melbourne | Yes | Not stated publicly |
| Servcorp | Virtual office with a receptionist at a city address | Communications Package from $128.80/month and Virtual Office from $247.20/month excl. tax on its virtual office page; its location price list shows 12-month prices from $155.20 and $271.20 ex GST | Not stated publicly | At the Servcorp location you choose | Not stated publicly | Month to month or 12 months; one full calendar month’s notice; first month free on most packages |
| Paperless Admin | Reception and admin package, psychologists only | From $180/week incl GST; each additional psychologist $80/week (GST basis not stated) | Not per call | Brisbane | Yes, in your practice software (it offers Halaxy or Power Diary setup); also processes Medicare rebates and sends private health invoices to clients | FAQ says 4 weeks’ written notice |
| Hey Jodie | AI receptionist, trades and small business | A$99/month excluding tax, “unlimited minutes”; higher plans A$199 and A$399 | None published; terms set fair use at 1,000 call events per 30 days | AI, 24/7; the company is registered in England and Wales | Yes, per its homepage; check which plan includes it | Month to month, 7-day free trial |
| Johnni AI | AI receptionist, trades and service businesses | $49/month billed monthly with 60 minutes, ex GST; larger plans to $899/month | $0.50 a minute, falling to $0.35 on the largest plan | AI, 24/7; Brisbane company | Yes; ServiceM8 and simPRO connections quoted as add-ons | Month to month, 7-day free trial, no setup fee |
| Lyngo | AI receptionist, allied health clinics | A$139/month with 45 calls; A$249 with 100; A$395 with 200, ex GST | A$3, A$2.50 or A$2 a call by plan | AI, 24/7; offices in Sydney and London | Yes, in Cliniko, Nookal, PracSuite and Splose | No lock-in, 14-day free trial, no setup fee |
| Aeva AI | AI receptionist, allied health clinics | $259 AUD/month with 100 calls; $389 with 200 (GST basis not stated) | $2.80 a call | AI, 24/7; Auckland company, recordings stored in Australia | Yes, in Cliniko, Splose, PracSuite and Nookal | No contract, 14-day free trial |
| Binary Elements | AI receptionist with a business phone system | From $149/month with 200 AI minutes, ex GST | $0.45 a minute | AI; Port Melbourne company | Not stated publicly | Month to month, free pilot |
| Siptalk | AI receptionist, pay as you go | No monthly fee (GST basis not stated) | 27.5c a minute | AI, 24/7; Melbourne company | Not stated publicly | No contract, no setup fee |
Checked on each provider’s own pages on 11 November 2026. Prices are as published and mostly exclude GST; confirm before you sign. Two other brands, Virtual Headquarters and Virtual Reception, publish matching call-answering plans at the same prices as OfficeHQ; their terms say Virtual Headquarters Pty Ltd provides the service as agent for Office HQ Pty Ltd, so we list them once. “Not stated publicly” is an observation, not a criticism.
Our row in full is on the virtual receptionist page and pricing.
Three products share one name
Most of the confusion in this market comes from comparing across three different things.
- A shared answering service (OfficeHQ, Your Phones Covered, Business 1300, Well Done, OracleCMS). A pool of receptionists answers in your business name and takes a message or transfers the call. The first three publish plans with a small weekly or monthly fee plus an amount per call; Well Done quotes on enquiry and OracleCMS says it bills by the minute. It starts within days and costs very little at low volume. Booking appointments is usually a separate plan or add-on.
- An AI receptionist (Hey Jodie, Johnni AI, Lyngo, Aeva AI, Binary Elements, Siptalk, plus the AI plans at OfficeHQ and Your Phones Covered). Software answers every call at once, around the clock, usually on a monthly plan with a call or minute allowance; Siptalk is pay as you go. The trades-focused ones book jobs; the clinic-focused ones book into practice software. In our experience AI is good on routine calls and weaker when a caller is upset or the request is unusual.
- A receptionist billed for time rather than calls (DotVA by the hour; Paperless Admin for psychologists by the week; Servcorp by the month if you also want a city address). With a dedicated VA, the same person answers every call on your own number, books inside your software, and does the work the call creates: the follow-up email, the invoice, the reminder, the inbox.
What about 100 calls a month costs
A worked example makes the trade clearer. These are published plans closest to 100 calls a month, all ex GST unless noted. Where we have added or multiplied, that is our arithmetic, not the provider’s figure.
| Option | Published plan | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Business 1300 Messages (message only) | 80 calls for $132, extra calls $1.65 | About $165 for 100 calls |
| Business 1300 Virtual Receptionist | 80 calls for $236, extra calls $2.95 | About $295 for 100 calls |
| OfficeHQ MyReceptionist 100 | 100 calls | $370 |
| Your Phones Covered Essential (Australian team) | 105 calls a month for $89 a week | About $386 |
| Your Phones Covered Value (Manila team) | 120 calls a month for $49 a week | About $212 |
| OfficeHQ MyAI 100 | 100 AI-answered calls | $130 |
| Hey Jodie Basic | Unlimited minutes under fair use | A$99 excluding tax |
| Lyngo Growth | 100 calls | A$249 |
| Aeva AI | 100 calls | $259 (GST basis not stated) |
| DotVA dedicated VA receptionist | 10 hours a week at $12-17/hr | About $520-736, whatever the call count |
On calls alone, we are the most expensive row. The dedicated option earns its place when each call creates work: a booking to make in Cliniko or ServiceM8, a quote to send, a form to chase, a debtor to follow up. A shared service hands that work back to you as a message. If you are spending five or more hours a week acting on those messages, compare the cost of your time, not the cost of the calls.
A busy practice: around 1,000 calls a month
The table above is for a quiet phone. A busy clinic, dental practice or trade business can take 40 to 50 calls a day, and per-call pricing adds up quickly. These are the same published plans at about 1,000 calls a month (roughly 46 calls each weekday), ex GST. The totals are our arithmetic: the plan price plus the provider’s published rate for each call over the plan, from the sources in the comparison table above.
| Option | How we worked it out | About 1,000 calls a month |
|---|---|---|
| OfficeHQ MyReceptionist Starter | $35 a month plus $3.40 a call | $3,435 |
| Business 1300 Virtual Receptionist | 80 calls for $236, then $2.95 a call | $2,950 |
| Your Phones Covered Essential (Australian team) | 105 calls a month for $89 a week, then $4.90 a call | About $4,770 |
| Your Phones Covered Value (Manila team) | 120 calls a month for $49 a week, then $2.90 a call | About $2,764 |
| Business 1300 Messages (message only) | 80 calls for $132, then $1.65 a call | $1,650 |
| OfficeHQ MyAI | $20 a month with 10 calls, then $1.50 a call | $1,505 |
| DotVA full-time dedicated VA receptionist | 40 hours a week at $12-17/hr | About $2,078-2,944, whatever the call count |
At this volume a full-time dedicated receptionist costs less than the live-receptionist plans above, and the same person makes the bookings, sends the quotes and works through the admin between calls. On these published rates the crossover sits somewhere between about 600 and 1,000 calls a month, depending on the plan. Message-only and AI plans still cost less, but they hand each booking back to you as a message, and an AI call passed to a live receptionist is charged at the live rate.
One person can’t answer two calls at once. If your calls arrive in bursts, keep a per-call or AI service as overflow behind the dedicated receptionist, and price both.
How to compare them
- Count your calls. Pull last month’s call log. Under 50 calls, a per-call service or AI is almost always the cheapest answer.
- Decide what should happen after the call. A message, a transfer, or a finished booking? Booking is where plans diverge: OfficeHQ bills it by the minute on MyDiary, Your Phones Covered sells it as an add-on, and the AI services book only in the software they integrate with.
- Check your hours. If most missed calls are after 6pm or on weekends, you need a 24/7 service (Business 1300, OracleCMS, Well Done) or an AI receptionist. OfficeHQ answers after hours for a per-call surcharge, and Your Phones Covered answers after-hours calls from the Philippines.
- Ask who answers. Australian-based, offshore, or a mix with overflow. It varies by provider and sometimes by plan, as the table shows.
- Read the terms, not just the pricing page. Look for minimum periods, notice, setup fees and per-transfer charges. They are usually in the terms document or a critical information summary rather than on the plan card.
Who should pick whom
- A few calls a week and a message is enough: OfficeHQ MessageExpress at $25 a month plus $2.65 a call, or Business 1300’s messaging plan from $30 a month with 15 calls. Either costs a fraction of our 10-hour weekly minimum.
- You want Australian-based people answering around the clock: Business 1300 states all its operators are in Australia, 24 hours a day. OracleCMS and Well Done also run Australian 24/7 centres and quote on enquiry.
- You are a tradie missing calls on the tools: an AI receptionist built for trades. Johnni AI starts at $49 a month and Hey Jodie at A$99; check which Hey Jodie plan includes bookings before you sign up. Our trades receptionist page covers when a person is worth the extra.
- An allied health clinic that wants after-hours bookings made straight into the diary: Lyngo or Aeva AI, which both integrate with Cliniko, Nookal, Splose and PracSuite.
- A psychologist: Paperless Admin’s psychology-only package, or see our separate comparison of admin support for psychology practices.
- A medical practice or a law firm: the options differ enough that each has its own page: virtual medical receptionist services compared and virtual receptionists and legal admin for law firms compared.
- You want a prestige address with a receptionist on site: Servcorp.
- Calls come with work attached and you need 10 or more hours a week: a dedicated VA receptionist. That is what we do, on your own number, inside your own systems. See how it runs for medical practices, dental practices, allied health clinics, law firms and property managers.
Run your own numbers
Count last month’s calls, then price your hours on the VA cost calculator and compare with the per-call plans above. If you want both, our AI receptionist covers after hours while a VA covers the day, and our comparison of AI receptionists sold in Australia sets out what each one publishes. If the right answer for your business is one of the other names in the table, we would rather you find that out now than in month two.