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An honest comparison series By James Mulholland Updated May 2026

Compare AI receptionists. Three honest comparisons, signed by the founder.

Three UK vendors most often shortlisted alongside Clevaa: Moneypenny (the human-PA incumbent, since 2000), EBI.ai (the IBM-Watson-lineage enterprise platform, since 2014), and Yomdel (the managed live-chat service for UK estate agents, since 2012). Each comparison is written by James Mulholland, CEO of Clevaa, with public sources for every concrete claim.

See all three Speak to a consultant
  • 3 pages live
  • UK service businesses
  • Public sources
  • Updated May 2026

Three honest comparisons, side by side.

Click the page that matches your shortlist. Deeper reading lives below.

  1. vs Moneypenny

    Moneypenny

    UK telephone answering & live chat, since 2000.

    Founded
    2000
    Scale
    1,000+ human PAs
    Heritage
    25-year UK practice

    Where they win

    Real humans 24/7 with a 25-year voice-call practice. Strong brand recognition with mid-market UK SMBs.

    Where Clevaa wins

    AI on your website, 60-second setup, flat-rate, 13 native languages, EU-hosted.

    Read the comparison
  2. vs EBI.ai

    EBI.ai

    Enterprise AI conversation platform, since 2014.

    Founded
    2014
    Scale
    7,000+ businesses
    Heritage
    IBM Watson partner

    Where they win

    Configurable enterprise platform, 130+ languages, IBM Watson lineage, UK public-sector references (local councils incl. Coventry, Watford, Barking & Dagenham).

    Where Clevaa wins

    Off-the-shelf vertical AI receptionist, no platform to configure, flat-rate, UK SMB-positioned.

    Read the comparison
  3. vs Yomdel

    Yomdel

    UK-managed live chat for estate agents, since 2012.

    Founded
    2012
    Scale
    2,500+ UK agencies
    Heritage
    First UK 24/7 chat

    Where they win

    Trained UK human agents 24/7, 15-second response guarantee. Reapit-native, 13+ years estate-agency practice.

    Where Clevaa wins

    Autonomous AI agent in 13 native languages, flat-rate at any volume, no per-branch fees, EU-hosted.

    Read the comparison

How we picked, wrote, and update these.

A comparison page is only useful when it tells you what each tool actually does, in your context, with sources you can verify.

  1. Public sources only

    Every concrete claim is anchored to a public URL: vendor site, gov.uk Contracts Finder, Companies House, ICO Register, or a third-party listing. No private intel, no leaked emails.

  2. Same criteria across all three

    10 anatomy rows, 10 feature rows, 6 use-cases per page, written so a UK SMB buyer can scan in under a minute.

  3. Where they win, named

    Each page surfaces 2 to 3 things the other vendor genuinely does better than Clevaa. UK ASA CAP rules require fair comparison. Buyers read past the puff anyway.

  4. Updated when we notice

    Pricing, language counts and customer stats are dated against the public source on the day each page was written. Spot a stale fact? Email hi@clevaa.com.

Vendors we deliberately did not include, and why

  • Tidio Global B2B chatbot, not UK-SMB-receptionist intent. Cheap-tier add-ons make like-for-like pricing slippery.
  • Drift / Intercom Enterprise SaaS-marketing intent. Different buyer, different price band.
  • Smith.ai US-anchored receptionist. UK GDPR posture less clear; not a typical UK SMB shortlist.

Looking for a specific fit?

Match by the thing that matters most to you, then read the matching comparison.

You want real humans answering inbound calls
Moneypenny is the honest pick. Read our take to see when Clevaa makes sense alongside.
You're evaluating a UK enterprise AI conversation platform
EBI.ai is the long-lineage option. Clevaa is the SMB-focused one.
You run a UK estate agency and want a managed chat service
Yomdel is the managed default. Clevaa is the AI-first alternative.
You want a single AI agent across voice, text, and 13 languages
That's Clevaa. Start a free trial or talk to us.

Questions about these comparisons

  • Who writes these comparison pages?

    James Mulholland writes the long-form comparison pages himself. He is CEO of Clevaa and runs Revenuru Ltd, the company behind it. The point of a first-party comparison is that it's signed by the operator, not delegated to an outsourced content team. If you disagree with any claim on these pages, email hi@clevaa.com and we'll fix it.

  • How current are the public-fact claims?

    Pricing, language counts, and feature claims for each competitor are dated against the public source on the day each page was written, and noted on the comparison rows where the value is most likely to move. We update when we notice changes or when a reader tells us a fact has shifted. If you spot a stale number, email hi@clevaa.com and we'll fix the page and date the update.

  • Why is the Where they win section always there?

    Three reasons. UK ASA CAP rules require fair comparison, not selective. Google's HCU and E-E-A-T updates penalise content written for SEO over readers. And buyers read past the puff anyway, so being honest about trade-offs builds more trust than any superlative.

  • Do you take affiliate fees from any of these vendors?

    No. There are no referral or affiliate fees on these pages. We compare against vendors we lose deals to, not vendors we monetise.

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Written by James Mulholland CEO, Clevaa Updated May 2026

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