Frontly vs OfficeHQ
OfficeHQ is an Australian human-staffed virtual receptionist service. Frontly is a flat-rate AI front desk. Same problem (you keep missing calls), two different categories of solution. Here's an honest side-by-side so you can self-select.
The short answer
Should I choose Frontly or OfficeHQ?
OfficeHQ is an Australian human-staffed virtual receptionist service billed per call, so the bill grows with every call and premium rates apply after hours and at weekends. Frontly is an AI front desk on a flat monthly plan with a published minute allowance, answering at the same rate at 3am as at 10am. Humans still win on genuinely complex or emotional calls.
- You handle 25+ inbound calls a day and OfficeHQ's per-call pricing is biting your budget
- You need 24/7 coverage including weekends and public holidays without after-hours surcharges
- You want every call captured as a structured booking or lead in your Frontly dashboard, ready for your team to act on the next morning
- You want unlimited concurrent calls. OfficeHQ relies on staffed agents, so peak hours queue or roll to voicemail
- You want a fixed monthly cost that doesn't move with your call volume
- You're running outbound campaigns (recall, arrears, follow-up) that aren't economic at human-receptionist rates
Coverage & Capacity
| Feature | Frontly | OfficeHQ |
|---|---|---|
| 24/7 / 365 day coverage | Yes | Business hours + after-hours add-on |
| Unlimited concurrent calls | Yes | No |
| No call queuing at peak | Yes | No |
| Natural conversational English voice on every call | Yes | Yes |
| Call answered in under 5 seconds | Yes | Subject to agent availability |
| Public holiday + weekend coverage included | Yes | Premium rate |
Swipe the table to see the OfficeHQ column.
Billing & Value
| Feature | Frontly | OfficeHQ |
|---|---|---|
| Flat monthly rate | Yes | No |
| Per-call billing | No | Yes |
| Per-minute billing | No | Yes |
| Predictable monthly cost | Yes | No |
| Onboarding included in the plan | Yes | Yes |
| No commitment beyond your plan | Yes | Yes |
Swipe the table to see the OfficeHQ column.
Workflow & Intelligence
| Feature | Frontly | OfficeHQ |
|---|---|---|
| Visual workflow builder | Yes | No |
| Cross-call memory (returning callers recognised) | Yes | Agent dependent |
| Outbound campaign manager (recall / arrears / follow-up) | Yes | No |
| Real-time appointment booking into calendar | Yes | Manual |
| AI-generated call summaries | Yes | Human notes |
Swipe the table to see the OfficeHQ column.
Capture & Delivery
| Feature | Frontly | OfficeHQ |
|---|---|---|
| Bookings captured in vendor's own dashboard | Yes | Message relay |
| Outbound campaign manager included | Yes | No |
| Cross-call memory of returning callers | Yes | No |
Swipe the table to see the OfficeHQ column.
Compliance & Data
| Feature | Frontly | OfficeHQ |
|---|---|---|
| Australian data hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Full call transcript on every call | Yes | Recording on request |
| Audit trail accessible in dashboard | Yes | No |
Swipe the table to see the OfficeHQ column.
DEEP DIVE
Key Differences Explained
When OfficeHQ is genuinely the better choice
OfficeHQ is a solid pick if you're a sole trader or boutique practice handling under 5 calls a day and the human touch is core to your brand (e.g. concierge real estate, premium professional services). At low volume the per-call pricing is competitive and a real human's empathy is something AI cannot fully replicate. We don't pretend otherwise.
The volume crossover point
OfficeHQ charges for every call, so the invoice climbs with each one. Frontly charges a flat monthly rate covering a minute allowance, then $0.50 a minute past it, which at a two-minute average is about a dollar a call against OfficeHQ's per-call rate. The crossover where Frontly becomes cheaper is typically around 15 to 25 calls per day depending on your call duration, and past our largest published plan we move you to an Enterprise model priced for the volume.
The hybrid model many businesses run
We work with practices that keep OfficeHQ for daytime warm-touch reception and use Frontly for after-hours, weekends, and overflow. You get both: humans during business hours where empathy matters most, AI catching every call the rest of the time. Frontly's outbound campaign manager also runs in parallel for recall, arrears, and follow-up calls that aren't economic at human rates.
After-hours, weekends and public holidays without a surcharge
OfficeHQ covers business hours, with after-hours as an add-on and weekends and public holidays typically at a premium rate. Frontly answers every call around the clock, 365 days a year, including nights, weekends, and public holidays, at the same flat monthly rate with no surcharge. Because Frontly runs on unlimited concurrent calls rather than staffed agents, there is no queue at peak and every call is picked up in seconds instead of waiting on agent availability. For anyone who keeps missing calls after 5pm or over the weekend, that is exactly where the lost bookings hide.
Where AI delivers what humans cannot
Structured booking and lead capture in your Frontly dashboard, simultaneous handling of unlimited concurrent calls, outbound campaigns at scale, and a dashboard with full transcripts on every call. These aren't features OfficeHQ is missing. They're features that fundamentally require automation, not human staffing.
How Pricing Compares
Flat monthly rate with a monthly call-minute allowance. Every feature included. No commitment beyond the plan you pick. Month to month cancels any time.
OfficeHQ uses per-call billing tiers. Costs scale with your call volume. After-hours and weekend coverage are typically priced at a premium rate. Contact OfficeHQ for current rates.
INDUSTRY FIT
Is Frontly right for your industry?
AI receptionist for dental practices is a classic answering-service customer, and also the clearest case for the per-call cost difference, because appointment and recall calls are frequent, short, and highly repeatable.
AI intake reception for law firms often keeps a human service specifically for intake quality, so the honest question is whether a scripted AI intake captures the same detail. Hear it handle one and judge for yourself.
AI receptionist for real estate agencies runs on buyer enquiries that arrive outside inspection hours, which is precisely the window a per-call answering service is most expensive to cover.
AI after-hours front desk is the overlap where this comparison matters most: a human answering service takes a message overnight, whereas the point after hours is usually to decide whether anyone needs waking at all.
AI front desk for hotels loses the most to a message-taking service, because a reservation enquiry taken as a message overnight is usually booked through an online travel agent by morning, commission included.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Above roughly 15 to 25 calls a day, yes. OfficeHQ's per-call model is competitive at low volume; under 5 to 10 calls a day Frontly's flat rate may be more than you'd pay them. Above ~15 to 25 calls a day Frontly almost always wins, because a per-call charge applies to every call while our metered rate applies only to minutes past your allowance. Send us your call log and we'll model it.
Most callers cannot tell. Frontly uses a natural conversational English voice tuned for your business's terminology. We've heard our dental scripts mistaken for the front-desk staff. That said, in highly relationship-driven industries (private wealth, executive coaching, boutique law) the human touch may genuinely matter, and those clients often run a hybrid model with us.
Yes. Frontly handles the qualification + booking, then transfers warm to your team (or to your OfficeHQ agents if you keep them) for anything that needs a human decision. The transfer rule is a configurable part of your workflow, not a fixed behaviour.
Usually about an hour. We map your existing OfficeHQ call flows, port your number (or provision a new AU local), build your workflow, and run a parallel pilot for the first week so nothing falls through the cracks during the change.
We map every call type during onboarding. Routine bookings, FAQ, intake and triage Frontly handles fully. Calls outside the AI's scope (escalations, complex dispute resolution, sensitive triage) get warm-transferred to a human you nominate (your team, your existing OfficeHQ contract, or our partner network).
Frontly captures every booking and lead as a structured record in your Frontly dashboard with the full transcript and qualifying answers attached. Your team logs in each morning, reviews what came in overnight, and acts on it. OfficeHQ relays messages to your team by email; you transcribe, then re-enter into your own systems.
Yes. Frontly is built and operated in Australia by DemoLabs. All caller data, transcripts, and bookings are stored on Australian infrastructure.
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