Hey Jodie sells a simple idea. Forward your calls, let Jodie answer, get the job details on your phone. Plans start at A$99 a month with unlimited minutes, no setup fee and no contract. That is hard to beat on price in Australia or New Zealand.

So why look further? Usually because the business has outgrown message-taking. You want the call booked, transferred or written into your job software. Or your callers ask detailed product questions a website scan cannot answer. Or you want your website visitors covered too, not just the phone.

This page lays out what Hey Jodie includes as of September 2026, the parts that are easy to miss, and six alternatives. We build Help Genie, so weigh our entry accordingly. Prices come from each vendor’s own page unless we flag a third-party figure.

What Hey Jodie actually offers

Hey Jodie is run by Jodie AI Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. It sells in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Canada and Ireland, with local pricing pages for each. Setup is quick. Jodie reads your website or Google Business profile, you test it on a sample number, then forward your calls. The company says most businesses are live in under 10 minutes.

Pricing, as published on its Australian pricing page.

• Basic, A$99 a month. Phone answering, unlimited minutes, email notifications, message-taking, recordings, lead qualification, training on your business.
• Professional, A$199 a month. Adds appointment bookings, call transfers and team members.
• Premium, A$399 a month. Adds Zapier integrations and priority support.
• Enterprise, from A$1,000 a month. API and webhooks, custom integrations, an account manager.

Prices exclude tax, which is added at checkout. Annual billing gives two months free. There is a 7 day free trial with no card, and the service pauses if you do not pick a plan. The NZ page uses the same numbers in NZ$. For the full cost breakdown, see Hey Jodie pricing explained.

Where Hey Jodie is strong. Low entry price, no minute meter on normal volumes, month-to-month terms and a mobile app on every plan. Reviews are good. Trustpilot showed 4.8 from 66 reviews when we checked, with 94% at five stars.

Where it gets harder. Three things stand out.

• Bookings and transfers are not on Basic. The A$99 plan takes a message. If you need Jodie to book or put an urgent caller through, the real starting price is A$199.
• Integrations are Zapier only, and only on Premium. No job software is named on the pricing page.
• Unlimited has a ceiling. The terms set fair use at 1,000 call events per 30 days. Every connected call counts the same, including spam, wrong numbers and silent calls. Above that, Hey Jodie may meter or rate-limit for the rest of the period, and repeat excess can mean a move to Enterprise.

The one soft note in the Trustpilot reviews we read was a four-star comment that Jodie “asks too many questions” on some calls. That is a tuning point, not a deal breaker.

Six Hey Jodie alternatives

1. Help Genie (we build this one)

Help Genie trains one genie on your website, manuals, FAQs, price lists and procedures. That genie answers by voice and chat on your phone line, website, email and QR codes. When it cannot finish the job, it hands over to your team with the context attached. It is built for businesses that sell, rent, service or support physical products.

Best for: Dealers, hire companies, marine, equipment and trade businesses whose callers ask about models, parts, specs, warranty or how to fix something.

Honest trade-off: It costs more than Hey Jodie Basic. It is voice AI, not a human. It emails you the lead but does not book into a calendar or send SMS.

Pricing: A$299 a month on Pro, the plan with the phone number, flat under fair use with no call or minute meter. Free plan to build and test before you pay. See /pricing.

Wins over Hey Jodie: Depth. It answers from your own documents, not a website scan. Your website visitors get the same genie by chat or voice. Speaks 40+ languages. White-label branding and a custom voice on Pro. Try the demo line on +64 9 886 4856.

Where it falls short: If all you need is a message from a missed call, Hey Jodie does that for a third of the price.

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2. Johnni

Johnni is a Brisbane-built product for Australian and NZ trades. It answers in an Aussie accent, books jobs and, on the Starter plan, rings missed leads back.

Best for: Established trade businesses that want jobs booked into their system and missed callers chased.

Honest trade-off: Plans meter minutes. Job software integration is a custom add-on quoted per business.

Pricing: From A$49 a month ex GST with 60 minutes, up to A$809 with 1,500 minutes. Overage runs A$0.35 to A$0.50 a minute. SMS is A$50 a month extra.

Wins over Hey Jodie: Outbound call-backs. Warm transfer and a dedicated number on every plan. Named integrations include ServiceM8, Simpro and ServiceTitan.

Where it falls short: A busy month with long calls costs more. Read the full breakdown on /compare/johnni-alternatives.

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3. Sophiie

Sophiie is an Australian platform for trades that goes beyond the phone. It covers calls, SMS, web chat, quotes, invoices and team scheduling. Its homepage claims 1,600+ businesses across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

Best for: Trade businesses that want the phone and a chunk of the office admin in one product.

Honest trade-off: No public price. You book a demo to find out.

Pricing: Not published. A third-party review last verified in April 2026 reports around A$300 a month plus a A$400 setup fee, not confirmed by the vendor.

Wins over Hey Jodie: Named integrations with ServiceM8, Simpro, Xero and QuickBooks. Web chat and SMS in the same product.

Where it falls short: Price is opaque and reported to be about three times Basic. See /compare/sophiie-alternatives.

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4. Trillet

Trillet calls itself “Proudly Australian” and sells a low-cost AI answering plan plus white-label plans for agencies.

Best for: Very small businesses with short calls, or agencies that want to resell AI answering under their own brand.

Honest trade-off: It is metered by the minute, so long calls add up.

Pricing: US$ or A$ is not stated on the pricing page. The small business plan is $49 a month with 150 minutes, then $0.20 a minute. No setup fee, no contract and a 28-day money-back guarantee.

Wins over Hey Jodie: Lower entry price. 32 languages listed. White-label options if you are an agency.

Where it falls short: The minute meter. Confirm the currency and GST before you sign.

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5. Goodcall

Goodcall is a US product that bills by unique callers, not minutes, with unlimited minutes inside each tier.

Best for: Businesses with lots of repeat callers, such as a workshop where the same customers ring back for updates.

Honest trade-off: Priced in US dollars and built for the US. Check whether it can give you or work with an Australian or NZ number before you commit.

Pricing: US$79, US$129 or US$249 a month per agent for 100, 250 or 500 unique customers, then US$0.50 per extra customer. 15% off on annual.

Wins over Hey Jodie: Logic flows for routing. A clear meter with no fair-use judgement call.

Where it falls short: Currency, local numbers and a marketing push that brings in new callers. See /compare/goodcall-alternatives.

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6. ReceptionHQ

ReceptionHQ is a live answering service with human receptionists. It sells message-taking, transfer and diary plans in Australia and the US.

Best for: Businesses where a warm human voice matters more than price, like medical, legal or high-value sales calls.

Honest trade-off: You pay per call, and humans work from the script you give them.

Pricing: The Australian pricing page would not load when we checked on 26 September 2026. A third-party roundup checked in July 2026 reports plans from about A$19 a month plus A$1.99 per call, not confirmed by the vendor.

Wins over Hey Jodie: A person on the line. Better for upset or complicated callers.

Where it falls short: A busy month costs more. See /compare/help-genie-vs-answering-services for how live and AI answering differ.

Side-by-side comparison

Service	Entry price	Meter	Bookings and transfers	Integrations	Channels
Hey Jodie	A$99 a month plus tax	Fair use of 1,000 call events	From A$199 plan	Zapier on A$399 plan	Phone
Help Genie	A$299 a month on Pro	None, fair use	Hands off to your team with context	API on Pro, deeper sync scoped per deal	Phone, web chat, voice widget, email, QR
Johnni	A$49 a month ex GST	Minutes	Yes, all plans	ServiceM8, Simpro as quoted add-on	Phone, web widget from Solo
Sophiie	Not published	Unknown	Yes	ServiceM8, Simpro, Xero	Phone, SMS, web chat
Trillet	$49 a month, currency not stated	Minutes	Check with vendor	Check with vendor	Phone
Goodcall	US$79 a month	Unique customers	Check with vendor	Check with vendor	Phone
ReceptionHQ	About A$19 plus A$1.99 a call (third party)	Calls	Transfers, diary plans	Not listed	Phone

The question to ask before you switch

The reason to switch is rarely whether the phone gets answered. It is what happens next. Work out which of these you actually need.

You need the call booked or transferred. Price Hey Jodie Professional at A$199 against Johnni. The gap may be smaller than you think.

You need the job in your software. Johnni, Sophiie or, if you run ServiceM8, its own phone agent. Hey Jodie only gets there through Zapier on Premium.

You need real answers about your products. A genie trained on your manuals. Listen to a few at /hear-it-work or send us your manual.

You need a person. ReceptionHQ, or read how AI and live answering compare.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hey Jodie really unlimited? Minutes are unlimited. Calls are subject to fair use of 1,000 call events per 30 days under its terms, and every connected call counts, including spam. That is about 33 calls a day, so it rarely bites a sole trader. A busy multi-site operation may hit it.

Is Hey Jodie an Australian company? It sells in Australia with A$ pricing, but Jodie AI Limited is registered in England and Wales, and its terms are governed by English law. That matters if you ever need to dispute something.

What is the cheapest Hey Jodie alternative? On published prices, Johnni’s Pay As You Go at A$49 ex GST and Trillet at $49 both start lower. Both meter minutes, so long calls change the maths.

Can Help Genie replace Hey Jodie? For message-taking alone, it is more than you need. If callers ask product questions or you want your website answered too, yes. Build a free genie from your website and test it before you pay. See how it works.

Do any of these keep my existing number? Hey Jodie works by forwarding your existing number to Jodie. Johnni and Help Genie Pro each give you a number you can forward to.

The bottom line

Hey Jodie is a fair deal for the price when you need calls answered and messages sent. Just price the plan you actually need, which for bookings and transfers is A$199, not A$99.

Pick Johnni or Sophiie if the job has to land in your trade software. Pick ReceptionHQ for a human voice. Pick Help Genie when callers need real product answers and you want phone and website covered at one flat price.

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