Virtual Headquarters is a genuine Australian answering service with the most transparent price card in the market and a real Australian daytime team. Two published details decide whether you need an alternative: calls outside 8am–6pm weekdays carry a surcharge, and its 24/7 service is answered in London and the USA.
AiDial is a competitor of Virtual Headquarters and publishes this page, so read it for the sourced facts rather than the verdict. Every Virtual HQ figure below is quoted from Virtual HQ’s own current public pages — its pricing page, its terms and conditions and its FAQs — checked on 25 August 2026. Nothing here comes from a review site.
Most “alternative” pages are a competitor’s brochure with someone else’s name in the heading. This one tries to be useful instead: what Virtual HQ actually publishes, what it is genuinely good at, and the two specific circumstances where an Australian business should look at something else.
What Virtual HQ is good at, stated plainly
- It publishes its prices. A complete plan-by-plan price card with excess rates, in a market where several competitors publish nothing and quote on application. That alone puts it ahead of most of the field for a buyer trying to compare.
- The entry point is genuinely cheap. $25 a month plus $2.50 a call for message-taking, $33 a month plus $3.89 a call for live reception, both plus GST, both with no setup fee.
- There is a real Australian team. During business hours, calls are answered by Australian receptionists. That is not true of every provider selling into Australia.
- You can try it without committing. A seven-day free trial on basic packages with no deposit or credit card, month-to-month terms, and plan changes on demand.
- The product range is wide. Message-taking, live reception, diary management, virtual addresses, 1300 and 1800 numbers, call diversion and voicemail-to-email, all on one account.
If you take a modest number of calls inside business hours and want an Australian voice on them cheaply, that is a strong offer and this page is not going to argue you out of it.
The two things worth reading before you sign
One: there is an out-of-hours surcharge, and it is in the terms rather than on the pricing page. The clause reads: “Calls answered by VHQ outside of 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday or on Australian National Public holidays (in the Customer’s local time) will incur a surcharge as part of Customer’s Usage Charges of $1.00 per call for Virtual Receptionist subscriptions.” The same clause sets $0.60 per call for MessageExpress and $0.80 per minute for MyAssistant and MyDiary. It applies on top of the plan fee and any excess-call rate, and it covers evenings, all weekend and national public holidays.
Two: the 24/7 service is answered overseas. Virtual HQ’s FAQs state that for the 24/7 service, calls “are answered in London by our London-based receptionists and in the USA by our American-based receptionists” on a follow-the-sun basis, with the Australian team covering daytime. Activating 24/7 is free and those calls count against your normal plan allowance.
Neither is hidden and neither is unreasonable — follow-the-sun is how you staff an overnight desk without penalty rates, and a surcharge is an honest way to price the cost of doing it. They matter because they invert the value of the service for two specific kinds of buyer: anyone whose calls arrive mostly outside business hours, and anyone for whom the answering location is a compliance or procurement question.
What proportion of your calls arrive outside 8am to 6pm on a weekday? Under a quarter, and Virtual HQ’s entry pricing is hard to beat. Over half, and you are buying the surcharge rather than the plan.
Swipe to compare →
| Compared | Virtual Headquarters | AiDial |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | ||
| Business hours | Australian receptionists | AI, hosted and processed in Australia |
| Overnight and weekends | London and USA follow-the-sun, per its FAQs | Same system, in Australia |
| Two callers at once | Queued shared roster | Answered together |
| What it costs | ||
| Entry plan | $25/mo + $2.50 per call message-taking; $33/mo + $3.89 per call reception | $149/mo Core, 60 calls included |
| Mid plan | $80/mo inc 20 calls, then $3.99; $185/mo inc 50 calls, then $3.99 | $249/mo Scale, 150 calls, then $1.99 |
| Out-of-hours surcharge | $1.00 per call reception, $0.60 message, $0.80 per minute diary | None |
| Public holidays | Surcharged national public holidays named in the clause | Same rate |
| GST | “Plus GST” stated | Not stated on the pricing page |
| What it does | ||
| Appointment booking | MyDiary from $49/mo + $2.99 per minute, setup from $99 | Included |
| Live transfer after hours | Messages taken transfers offered in business hours | Escalation rules you set |
| Virtual address, 1300 numbers | Yes from $5/mo | No not offered |
| Free trial | 7 days no card required | Not published |
| Setup fee | None on answering plans | None |
| Lock-in | None | None |
Note the two rows where Virtual HQ wins outright: it publishes GST treatment and we do not, and it sells virtual addresses and 1300 numbers, which we do not offer at all. If you want your phone answering and your registered office on one invoice, this comparison ends here.
What it costs when the calls are after hours
The surcharge is small per call and easy to dismiss. It stops being small when most of your calls land in the surcharged window, because it behaves like a second per-call rate. Virtual HQ figures exclude GST as published; AiDial does not state GST treatment.
| After-hours calls a month | VHQ MessageExpress $25 + $2.50 + $0.60 surcharge | VHQ Virtual Receptionist $33 + $3.89 + $1.00 surcharge | AiDial Core $149 flat, 60 calls included |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 calls | $87.00 | $130.80 | $149.00 |
| 40 calls | $149.00 | $228.60 | $149.00 |
| 60 calls | $211.00 | $326.40 | $149.00 |
| 100 calls | $335.00 | $522.00 | $248.60 |
The crossover is exact: message-taking with the surcharge reaches $149 at forty after-hours calls a month. Below that Virtual HQ is cheaper, above it the flat plan is. Inside business hours, where no surcharge applies, Virtual HQ stays cheaper considerably longer.
When to stay, and when to look
Modest call volume, inside business hours, and you want it cheap
Stay with Virtual HQ
You want phone answering, a virtual address and a 1300 number on one account
Stay with Virtual HQ
Most of your calls arrive at night, on weekends or on public holidays
Look at a flat-rate alternative
Where the call is answered is a compliance or procurement question for you
Look at an onshore alternative
Your calls arrive in bursts and the second caller cannot be left waiting
Look at a non-queueing alternative
You want a human voice, in Australia, overnight
Look at Oracle CMS
That last row is not a typo. If your requirement is specifically an Australian human answering at 3am, the alternative is not us — it is a provider that staffs an Australian overnight roster. Oracle CMS states that all of its call centres are based in Australia and that it operates 24 hours a day, all year round.
Sources and method
Every Virtual HQ figure and quotation was read from Virtual HQ’s own current public pages on 25 August 2026 and is reproduced as published. Where a figure is not published, this page says so. Prices change; anything here more than six months old will be removed rather than shown stale. If you find a figure that no longer matches their page, it is out of date and we would rather hear about it than have it stand.
| Source | What was taken from it, checked 25 August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Virtual HQ pricing | virtualheadquarters.com.au call answering pricing page: all plan fees, per-call and excess rates, add-on pricing, setup fees, free-trial terms and “Plus GST” treatment |
| Virtual HQ terms | Terms and conditions: the out-of-hours surcharge clauses, quoted verbatim above |
| Virtual HQ FAQs | FAQs page: business-hours definition, the free 24/7 activation, and the London and USA follow-the-sun statement |
| Oracle CMS | oraclecms.com live phone answering service page: the statement that all call centres are based in Australia and that service runs all year round |
| AiDial | aidial.com.au pricing page: plan fees, included calls, extra-call rates, setup and contract terms, and Australian hosting and processing |
Frequently asked questions
Does Virtual Headquarters charge extra after hours?
Yes, and it publishes the rates in its terms and conditions: $1.00 per call on Virtual Receptionist plans, $0.60 per call on MessageExpress and $0.80 per minute on MyAssistant and MyDiary, for calls answered outside 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday or on Australian national public holidays, in the customer’s local time.
Are Virtual Headquarters receptionists Australian?
During business hours, yes. Its FAQs state that the 24/7 service is answered in London and the USA by London-based and American-based receptionists on a follow-the-sun basis, with the Australian team covering the daytime. If you only take business-hours calls, the distinction never affects you.
Is Virtual HQ the same company as OfficeHQ or ReceptionHQ?
We make no claim about ownership either way. What is observable is that all three publish near-identical plan names — MessageExpress, MyReceptionist or Virtual Receptionist, MyAssistant, MyDiary — at near-identical entry prices, with ReceptionHQ’s site priced in USD and describing US-based receptionists. Check each one’s own pages before assuming they are interchangeable, or that they are not.
What is the cheapest Virtual Headquarters alternative?
On headline price, probably nothing — $25 a month plus $2.50 a call is at the low end of the Australian market. Cheaper is the wrong target. Work out your monthly total including excess calls, the out-of-hours surcharge and GST, then compare that number, because that is the one that reaches your account.
Talk to an Australian team about it
AiDial is an Australian AI receptionist and answering service, hosted and processed in Australia, with no out-of-hours surcharge and no queue when two people ring at once. Send us your last three invoices and we will tell you honestly whether switching would save you anything.
Compare the virtual receptionist options, see what each answering service tier really costs, read the after-hours comparison, check how the AI providers compare, or see what the review platforms actually show.
