OfficeHQ is an established Australian answering service: live receptionists answered in Australia, plus a separate AI phone-answering plan with live human take-over, priced by included-call tiers and per-call charges (ex GST). The OneBookPlus AI Receptionist answers calls and SMS 24/7 in 10+ languages and books straight into the same calendar, CRM and invoicing you already run on — for a flat $49/mo inc. GST with no setup fee and no per-call metering.
TL;DR
OfficeHQ A long-running Australian call-answering company. Its heritage is live human receptionists answered in Australia (with global overflow), handling message-taking, call transfers, virtual-assistant tasks and appointment booking, with instant email/SMS message delivery and a client portal — on a month-to-month, pay-per-call model. It now also sells a separate AI phone-answering plan that gathers caller details and answers common questions, and crucially keeps a LIVE HUMAN who can take over when the AI gets stuck or the caller asks for a person. AI plans are priced by included calls (from $20/mo for 10 calls up to $365/mo for 300) plus $1.50 per excess call, ex GST (see officehq.com.au).
OneBookPlus An Australian AI receptionist that answers calls and SMS 24/7 in English plus 10+ languages, books and reschedules straight into your own OneBookPlus calendar, captures callers as leads in the same CRM, and offers live human take-over to your own mobile. Flat $49/mo inc. GST (requires AI Companion $25/mo — free on the Growth plan), a free Australian number included, AU-hosted in AWS Sydney, with no setup fee and no per-minute or per-call metering.
Who wins where: These solve overlapping but different problems. Choose OfficeHQ if hearing a real, trained Australian human voice on the phone matters most — it is a mature, staffed answering service with people who can take over a tricky call, and a low entry point if your call volume is genuinely tiny. Choose OneBookPlus if you'd rather an AI receptionist that lives INSIDE the platform that already quotes, invoices and CRMs your customers — flat-fee with no per-call metering, multilingual, booking into one shared calendar instead of being relayed back to you as a message.
Key takeaways
5Side by side
The capabilities that matter when you’re choosing how your phone gets answered. Competitor cells link to the page that substantiates (or fails to substantiate) the claim.
| Category | Feature | OneBookPlus | OfficeHQ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answering | 24/7 call answering | AI, 24/7 | Yes |
| Live human receptionists answer the call | AI answers; take-over to you | Australian-based humans [src] | |
| Answers inbound SMS as well as calls | Yes | Message delivery via SMS/email [src] | |
| Bookings | Books into a calendar that's already part of your platform | Native calendar | Works to your diary / tools [src] |
| All-in-one | Receptionist lives inside your CRM, calendar & invoicing | Yes | Standalone answering service [src] |
| Languages | Multilingual answering | English + 10+ | Not documented [src] |
| Phone number | Free Australian number included | Yes | Local / 1300 / 1800 add-on [src] |
| Live transfer | Live human take-over | Push-to-takeover to you | Human steps in for AI [src] |
| Local presence | Australian-based & AU support | AWS Sydney hosting | AU-based, global overflow [src] |
| Pricing | Per-call metering | No — flat fee | Included calls + $1.50/excess (AI) [src] |
| GST treatment | Inc. GST | Prices ex GST [src] | |
| Starting price (AUD, inc. GST) | $49/mo inc. GST | From $20/mo (AI, ex GST) | |
| Flat, self-serve, no setup fee, no per-call metering. Requires AI Companion ($25/mo). Free AU number included. | AI plans by included-call tier + $1.50 per excess call, ex GST; live-human plans pay-per-call from $25/mo ex GST. 7-day free trial. |
Where OfficeHQ wins
OfficeHQ deserves real credit, and on one axis it does something OneBookPlus does not: it puts a trained, Australian-based human on the phone. It is a long-running, staffed answering service — it reports serving 25,000+ businesses — with people who answer in Australia, handle complex scripting and escalations, take messages, transfer calls and manage a diary, and who can step in even on its AI plan when a caller would rather speak to a person or the AI gets stuck. For a business where the human touch on every call is the whole point — high-empathy, high-stakes, or heavily scripted calls — a real receptionist who can read the room is something an AI cannot replicate, and OfficeHQ delivers that with month-to-month flexibility and a low entry tier if your call volume is genuinely small. If a live human voice (with AI as the front line) is non-negotiable for you, OfficeHQ is the better fit.
Where the OneBookPlus AI Receptionist wins
OfficeHQ is a standalone answering service: it answers, captures the details and relays the message or booking back to you to action in your own diary or software. The OneBookPlus receptionist books straight into the same calendar, captures the caller as a lead in the same CRM, and that record is the one your quotes, invoices, jobs and BAS already run on. There's no second system relaying information back — the call outcome lands directly in the business you already run.
OfficeHQ's AI plans meter by included calls — from $20/mo for 10 calls up to $365/mo for 300 — and charge $1.50 for every call beyond your tier, with all prices quoted ex GST, so a busy month costs more and the headline figure understates the real bill once GST and excess calls are added. The OneBookPlus AI Receptionist is a flat $49/mo inc. GST you switch on yourself — no setup fee, no per-call or per-minute metering, with extra conversations as simple top-ups — plus a free Australian number and AU hosting in AWS Sydney. What you see is what you pay.
OneBookPlus answers in English plus 10+ languages — Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic and more — via a simple press-1 menu, where OfficeHQ's public pages focus on English-language Australian answering. And because the receptionist sits inside the same OneBookPlus that handles your bookings, CRM, invoicing and accounting, it doesn't just take a message — it books the job, confirms by SMS with a self-service reschedule link, and drops every transcript, detected intent and outcome into your Insights dashboard alongside the rest of the business.
Pricing, normalised
The pricing models differ in kind. OneBookPlus is a flat $49/mo inc. GST (requires AI Companion $25/mo) you turn on yourself, with no setup fee, no per-call metering, and extra conversations as simple top-ups. OfficeHQ's AI plans are priced by included calls plus $1.50 per excess call, and its live-human plans are pay-per-call; all OfficeHQ prices are quoted ex GST, so add 10% GST to compare like-for-like and budget for excess calls in a busy month. Figures below are from officehq.com.au and subject to change — confirm directly with OfficeHQ.
OneBookPlus AI Receptionist
All AUD, inc. GST. See plans on /pricing.
OfficeHQ
OfficeHQ prices are quoted ex GST and metered by included calls plus per-excess-call charges; add-on charges may apply per their T&Cs. Figures above are from officehq.com.au and subject to change; confirm at officehq.com.au
FAQ
Both — and that's the heart of the difference. OfficeHQ's heritage is live human receptionists answered in Australia, and it now also sells a separate AI phone-answering plan that keeps a live human who can take over when the AI gets stuck or the caller asks for a person (see officehq.com.au). The OneBookPlus AI Receptionist is AI-first: it answers, books and captures the caller itself, and can hand a live call over to your own mobile when you want to step in. If a trained human voice on every call is non-negotiable, OfficeHQ is the stronger fit; if you want a flat-fee AI that books straight into your platform, OneBookPlus is.
OneBookPlus is a flat $49/mo inc. GST (requires AI Companion at $25/mo) that you switch on yourself — no setup fee, no per-call or per-minute metering, with extra conversations as simple top-ups and a free Australian number included. OfficeHQ's AI plans are metered: from $20/mo for 10 calls up to $365/mo for 300, plus $1.50 for every excess call, and its live-human plans are pay-per-call from around $25/mo. All OfficeHQ prices are quoted ex GST, so add 10% to compare and budget for excess calls in a busy month. Confirm current OfficeHQ pricing directly with OfficeHQ.
OfficeHQ's receptionists can manage a diary and book appointments, and the service can work to your tools — but it's a standalone answering service, so the booking is captured by OfficeHQ and actioned into your software or diary. The OneBookPlus receptionist books and reschedules straight into your own OneBookPlus calendar and texts the caller a confirmation plus a self-service reschedule link — the same calendar your quotes, invoices and jobs already run on, with no relay or second system to keep in sync.
Both are Australian. OfficeHQ answers calls with Australian-based receptionists (with global overflow support during peaks) and reports serving 25,000+ businesses. OneBookPlus is Australian-built and AU-hosted in AWS Sydney, and the AI Receptionist ships with a free Australian number and a greeting that builds in Australian recording-consent and AI disclosure. So this isn't an onshore-vs-offshore comparison — it's a human-first Australian answering service versus an Australian AI receptionist built into an all-in-one platform.
It puts a real, trained Australian human on the phone — including as a take-over layer on its AI plan — and offers staffed extras like complex call scripting, on-call escalation, lone-worker safety monitoring and virtual business addresses. If your calls need a human who can read the room, handle a sensitive or heavily-scripted conversation, or escalate to a person on demand, OfficeHQ's staffed service does things an AI receptionist can't. OneBookPlus answers with AI and hands live calls to your own mobile rather than to a pool of receptionists.
OneBookPlus answers in English plus 10+ languages — Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and more — via a simple press-1 IVR menu with a default voice per language. OfficeHQ's public pages focus on English-language Australian answering; confirm with OfficeHQ if you need other languages.
Answer every call and text in 10+ languages, book straight into the same calendar, CRM and invoicing you already run on, and keep it all on an Australian number — flat $49/mo inc. GST, no setup fee, no per-call metering.
Free AU number included · 14-day trial · Cancel anytime
About this comparison
Feature claims about OneBookPlus reflect what is shipping today on onebookplus.com.au. OfficeHQ pricing and feature claims were last verified against OfficeHQ’s public Australian product pages on the date below; vendor pricing changes frequently, so check the OfficeHQ website for your specific situation before making a decision.
Disclosure: OneBookPlus publishes this comparison and stands to benefit if you switch. We aim to compare like-for-like on capability and Australian tax compliance — if you spot something out of date, email hello@onebookplus.com.au and we’ll review it.
About the author
Founder & CEO, OneBookPlus
Bishal has over a decade of experience in digital marketing, web development, and small business consulting across Australia. Bishal regularly assists Australian small to medium businesses with software stack consolidation — including the trade-offs of moving from OfficeHQ to an integrated platform. The comparison above is informed by direct migration experience, not a single read of the OfficeHQ marketing site.
Last reviewed and updated: June 2026 by Bishal Shrestha