If you’re growing your business, but you find yourself and your team bogged down by routine business administrative support and basic marketing tasks instead of the actual growth marketing tasks, you need a virtual assistant (VA).
Virtual assistants can save businesses up to 78% of operating costs.
With virtual assistants, businesses don’t have to concern themselves anymore with the expenses required to maintain traditional employees. These expenses, which involve the costs associated with hiring, recruitment, paid training, providing equipment, and paying for benefits in long-term contract agreements, can add up to substantial amounts.
In 2018, around 37% of small businesses outsourced their business processes. This grew to 52% by 2019.
A 2022 survey by Manpower Group showed that 75% of employers in the U.S. alone required help finding suitable talent quickly. Today, virtual assistant statistics show that there are 49% of companies with over 1,000 employees turn to virtual assistants for this need.
Virtual assistants are in high demand among businesses of all sizes. There are 31% of companies that have between 100 and 1000 employees that hire virtual assistants for their business support processes. On the other hand, there are 19% of businesses with fewer than 100 employees that do so.
What Is A VA?
What exactly does a virtual assistant do?
A virtual assistant, or VA, is an independent contractor that provides business administrative and marketing support to their clients.
They function similarly to a personal assistant or an executive assistant, except that they work remotely from home or their own personal office, outside the company’s premises.
A typical virtual assistant’s job description involves:
- Answering phones
- Making calls
- Scheduling appointments or meetings
- Following up on tasks
- Making and managing travel arrangements
- Responding to emails
- Accounting
- Managing sales leads
- Posting on social media
- Handling Managed IT services
In addition to routine business administrative support tasks, specialized virtual assistant roles are more technical and often involve basic marketing functions such as:
- Email marketing
- Content writing
- Customer service
- Graphic design
- Social media management
- Marketing research
Why Hire A Virtual Assistant?
Hiring a virtual assistant:
- Saves you time by outsourcing them
- Saves you money by doing away with hiring and onboarding costs. A Stanford University study showed that hiring remote workers cuts attrition rates in half.
- Allows you to simply manage their work since they have increased efficiency and productivity, with fewer sick days and breaks. Around 60% of virtual assistants are college-educated and don’t need you to closely supervise them. The same Stanford University study showed that these remote workers are 13% more productive.
- It enables you to focus on your priorities, such as handling client relationships and increasing revenue, while taking on tasks. On time-consuming routine but necessary business support tasks,
Who is most likely to hire a virtual assistant?
Although there are currently more large companies hiring virtual assistants to outsource their routine business administrative and marketing support roles, virtual assistants are particularly helpful for small to medium businesses and companies looking to grow and scale fast. And with technological advancement, we might be able to outsource software development, recruitment, SEO, and other more advanced operations to a virtual assistant.
Top 10 Platforms for Hiring a Virtual Assistant
Where is the best place to get a virtual assistant?
It depends on your needs and goals.
Here, we’ve listed the 10 best virtual assistant websites or platforms based on what they’re best for, to make your selection easier.
Best for marketing virtual assistants: Toptal
Toptal’s elite virtual assistants are best suited for marketing roles, especially growth marketing.
They can do design, video, paid ads, organic social, email marketing, influencer marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), data reporting and analysis, sales support, marketing operations support, and more.
Each marketing assistant is college-educated, speaks and writes in excellent English, is off-shore, and has at least 2–5 years of business and marketing experience.
Your marketing VA works full-time for only you. They will be part of your Slack channels, join you for your meetings, and use your company email address as a full-time member of your team.
If you want to grow and scale your business faster than your competitors, you don’t want freelancers who probably have other clients and projects they’re working on.
You want dedicated marketing virtual assistants focused solely on your business who not only know marketing but have been pre-vetted by experienced marketers themselves.
Book a free consultation call with the Toptal team today.
Best for quick requests: Fancy Hands
If you just want to get stuff done faster without doing all the research and undergoing the learning curve of things yourself, Fancy Hands was made for this.
With Fancy Hands, you hire a virtual assistant on a per-task basis if you subscribe to a minimum of three tasks per month. Each task is valued at 20 minutes. If a task takes longer than this, you will be notified ahead of time about how many subscribed tasks your order will take. Unused requests are carried over to the next month for as long as you are a subscribed member.
Fancy Hands is best for your business if you just need things to be done quickly without back-and-forth negotiating for prices, like you would do on freelancer platforms. Its standard turnaround time is 48 hours to 72 hours.
Designed as an on-demand solution for quick action, Fancy Hands’ website maps all logged-in VAs and their locations for transparency, with all VAs being U.S.-based.
However, you may not always get the same VA. The tasks are accepted by those who were logged into the system when you placed your order.
Fancy Hands offers four pricing plans: Small, Medium, Large, and XL. Pricing is based on the number of requests:
- Small: Three requests: $17.99 a month
- Medium: Five requests: $29.99 a month
- Large: 15 requests: $74.99 a month
- XL: 30 requests: $149.99 a month
Although it has a simple pricing structure, the rates can get quite expensive for more complex tasks. Fancy Hands is best for simple and quick personal and professional tasks you want to be done quickly.
To use Fancy Hands, you need to sign up first. Once signed up, you can assign your tasks to a virtual assistant.
Fancy Hands has a mobile application that you can download, sign up for, sign in to, and submit your tasks.
Fancy Hands serves English-speaking clients all over the world.
Best for entrepreneurs: Time Etc and Zirtual
Time Etc is also a U.S.-based platform that provides VA services to business owners. Their services cover general tasks like helping with your to-do lists and sorting your receipts and expenses, social media and content marketing, sales administration, marketing administration, and research.
You can first try a virtual assistant for free, and no credit card is required. After they complete your first task, you could hire them as a dedicated VA if you like their work.
Time Etc’s VAs undergo a 10-stage selection process designed by Penni Pike, former executive assistant to Sir Richard Branson. On average, they have 12 years’ experience in the role.
Time Etc operates on a monthly subscription. Whether you have a busy month or a quiet month, you can adjust your subscription up or down by switching plans anytime.
Plans are priced based on the number of hours:
- Ten hours: $380/month ($38/hour)
- 20 hours: $740/month ($37/hour)
- 40 hours: $1,440/month ($36/hour)
- 60 hours: $2100/month ($35/hour)
Time Etc also offers plans for teams, where everyone on your team can have their own personal assistant, starting at $14.40 per user per month. Each of your team members can then have a highly experienced assistant to handle personal tasks, travel and accommodations, research and sourcing, liaising with providers, and more.
Plans for teams are based on the number of users in a team:
- Team of 15: $290/month ($19.33/user), with 2 dedicated U.S. assistants
- Team of 30: $560/month ($18.66/user), with 2 dedicated U.S. assistants
- Team of 75: $1,080/month ($14.40/user), with 3 dedicated U.S. assistants
- Team of any size: custom-built pricing and features
Time Etc also offers a “lifetime happiness guarantee”: if, for any reason, you’re unhappy with its services, you get your money back.
On the other hand, Zirtual prides itself on having PowerPoint VAs who have top administrative skills such as:
- Calendar management
- Content creation
- Data entry
- Event planning
- Inbox management
- Issuing invoices
- Making travel arrangements
- Making PowerPoint presentations
- Recording expenses
- Social media management
- Using Google Docs and Microsoft Office Suite
- Web research
- Website maintenance
Zirtual’s VAs are all college-educated and based in the U.S. You get one dedicated virtual assistant to work with who will do all these tasks and more. If you have more specialized requests, they can consult with their manager and other Zirtual VAs for help at any time. Zirtual VAs have ongoing support from their delegation strategists and task specialists.
You also benefit from Zirtual’s 2-hour standard response time for tasks. You have direct contact with your dedicated virtual assistant through phone, short message service (SMS), and email.
Executives, entrepreneurs, and small business owners from the following industries or professions typically hire VAs from Zirtual:
- Agencies
- Authors/writers
- Business services
- Ecommerce
- Financial analysts
- Nonprofits
- Property services
- Property management
- Real estate
- Startups
Zirtual also has a Partner Network with companies that clients might need, from bookkeeping to housekeeping, meal delivery, and content creation. Your VA then becomes the point person to coordinate all your specialized and offline needs.
You pay one monthly fee for a specified number of VA hours. Zirtual has four pricing plans:
- Entrepreneur: 12 hours, 1 user, $549/month
- Startup: 24 hours, 2 users, $849/month
- Small Business: 36 hours, 3 users, $1249/month
- Team: 50 hours, 5 users, $1699/month
There are no long-term contracts. You can upgrade or downgrade your plan as your needs change. There is no rolling over of unused monthly hours, though. Your VA, along with their managers, will strategize ways to help you maximize your time. You can also cancel anytime, but the cancellation will take effect the following month.
Best for bilingual virtual assistant services: Uassist.ME
Founded in 2009 with only four employees, Uassist.ME has grown into a full Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company that offers both virtual assistance services and contact center services to worldwide clients. It offers a diverse range of services, from accounting to graphic design, customer service, and web development.
Uassist.ME is an El Salvador-founded company now based in Miami Beach, Florida. It calls its service “near-shore assistance, with bilingual virtual assistants who speak both English and Spanish.
It also features dynamic in-person services if needed, since it’s only a two-hour flight to major U.S. cities.
VAs are vetted and then paired with their small and medium-sized business (SMB) clients based on their backgrounds. Uassist.ME’s VAs typically have backgrounds in business, customer service, design and development, finance, lead generation, marketing, and sales.
Virtual administrative assistance services include:
- Data entry
- Email management
- Event planning
- Note-taking in meetings
- PowerPoint presentations
- Research
- Social media management
- Translations
- Transcriptions
- Travel arrangements
Administrative assistant services’ pricing is based on the number of hours per month:
- Starter Pack: 10 hours, $300
- Efficiency Enhancer: 20 hours, $460
- Professional Boost: 40 hours, $760
- Productivity Plus: 60 hours, $1,020
There are no long-term contracts. You simply upgrade or downgrade your plan as you need to.
Other services offered include sales assistance, customer service, creative services, and bookkeeping assistance. You have to contact them to get a customized quote for your specific needs.
Uassist.ME’s contact center services include back office, sales support, and customer service.
Best for large teams: Prialto
What makes Prialto different from most VA platforms is that it brings in, trains, and manages its virtual assistants as full-time employees. This means that you and your team can become more productive without needing to manage another employee.
Prialto’s VAs take care of administrative tasks, customer relationship management (CRM), and complex project coordination, so the executives they work with have more time to focus on growing their companies.
Prialto’s VAs have bachelor’s degrees and have extensive experience in business support services. They undergo a month-long new-hire training program before they are assigned to work with clients. They also undergo ongoing training on the latest trends in business practices and technology.
Founded by Eric Taussig in 2010 in Silicon Valley after he traveled throughout Asia and Latin America meeting college graduates stuck in unsatisfying jobs, Prialto caters to executives “crumbling under a load of administrative work forced on them by technology that replaced administrative assistants.”
With a global workforce, using a distributed workforce model and a U.S.-based project management system, Prialto assigns its VAs to executives or teams to provide support for the executive and their team.
All of their clients’ work is cross-trained among a team of people, and everything is documented, even as processes evolve and tools change.
So, if your VA is temporarily out for a vacation, leaves, or is promoted, the transition is seamlessly managed by Prialto. Another VA with existing knowledge is there to step in, and Prialto’s team of managers ensures that support remains intact. You never have to start over again with a new VA.
Pricing is based on whether you need to help yourself or as a team or organization. Prialto’s pricing scheme scales with your business, given the following Prialto Units:
- Yourself (1-3 Units): One VA with 55 hours of monthly support, $1500 per month
- Your Team (3+ Units): Three VAs with over 165 hours of monthly support, $4,500 per month
- Your Organization (8+ Units): Eight VAs with over 440 hours of monthly support (inquire for pricing)
Each Prialto Unit comes with a dedicated VA, an engagement manager (EM) who ensures that you get the most out of your Prialto Unit, a specified number of assistance hours each month, and fully trained primary and secondary backup assistants, with free episodic overflow time.
There is a $250 initial set-up fee in the first month, but this is waived if you subscribe to a one-year agreement.
Onboarding for individuals and small teams typically begins within three to five days. Larger teams start based on an agreed-upon timeline.
Best for client satisfaction: WoodBows
WoodBows offers VA support from offices in the U.S., India, and the Philippines. It boasts a 98.4% retention rate among its clients. It also has a 99.7% client repetition rate from repeat customers seeking to lighten their administrative load.
It has received consistently high ratings from the U.S. review site Clutch.com, with excellent recommendations from TimeDoctor.
Virtual assistant services are diverse: administrative tasks, app development, appointment scheduling, bilingual support, content writing, customer support, data entry, digital marketing, financial management, graphics, real estate support services, software development, web design, and many more.
You get a dedicated VA, so you are always working with the same professional for your job needs. This ensures a deeper understanding of your workflow and more consistency in work.
If you need a more specialized task your VA can’t do, they can get support from another VA who has the expertise for the task. Essentially, you get a team of experts but you pay only for a single VA.
VAs are also supported by supervisors, who ensure the quality and timeliness of their work. They are also hired among the very best, with at least 10 years of industry experience.
VAs will work in your time zone and are available for communication by phone, email, text, and video chat.
WoodBows positions itself as an outsourced virtual assistant service that feels in-house.
Pricing depends on the number of hours a month you need their VA services. You may choose from weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual plans. The monthly pricing scheme is as follows:
- 40 Hours Monthly: $499 a month ($12.48 per hour)
- 80 Hours Monthly: $699 a month ($8.74 per hour)
- 160 Hours Monthly (Full Time Plan): $1,299/month ($8.11 per hour)
- 160 Hours Monthly (US-Based VA): $27 per hour
Unused hours may be rolled over. WoodBows offers a 100% money-back guarantee. WoodBows will issue a full refund if clients inform them within two days of the start date.
Hiring a VA from WoodBows involves four steps:
- Request a free consultation and explain your requirements.
- Decide on your subscription plan.
- Sign up at WoodBows’ website.
- Get matched within 24 hours.
WoodBows has received dozens of security awards from various U.S.-based organizations. It has an advanced Data Encryption technology to protect your data, with Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with its clients. As a client, you own 100% of the work performed by virtual employees.
Best for budget-friendly and diverse virtual assistant services: VA Staffer
If you’re a start-up or small business owner with big dreams, a VA staffer can be the wind beneath your wings. This Philippine-based virtual assistant service provider is known for its cost-effective pricing structure and thoroughly vetted and trained virtual assistants with diverse skills and expertise. They offer their services hourly, which is a valuable advantage for business owners seeking to manage costs and cash flows effectively.
The Philippines, in general, is one of the outsourcing capitals in the world, popular for its cost-effective, high-quality outsourcing solutions. It has a hub for BPO, call centers and knowledge-based services.
Known for their efficiency and economy, VA Staffer virtual assistants can support your business with a variety of services, from data entry to accounting, email marketing, graphic design, social media management, video editing, website development and maintenance, strategic business planning, and more. They are college-educated, and some have undergone training to learn English for better communication, ensuring they can effectively support your business needs.
Its Hourly Plan options are for 20 hours, 50 hours, and 100 hours a week, starting at $298 a month. Its Dedicated Assistant Plan options range from 20 hours to 40 hours a week, starting at $800 a month.
The Hourly Plan is best for busy entrepreneurs who need a variety of support that provides multiple skill sets. It provides the following standard services:
- Administrative Task Support
- CRM Set-Up
- Data Entry
- Graphic Design
- Research and Lead Generation
- Social Media Management
- Video Editing
- Web Development
The Dedicated Assistant Plan is best for busy entrepreneurs who need a dedicated virtual assistant to help them with daily tasks. It provides the following standard services:
- Administrative Task Support
- Data Entry
- Research and Lead Generation
- Social Media Management
- A Dedicated Assistant
- Work on Your Hours
Both Plans are flexible. You can easily change plans, skip a month, or cancel indefinitely. The Hours don’t expire. They remain in your account, which you can use at a later date when you want to use their VA services again.
Hiring a virtual assistant from VA Staffer takes three steps:
- Schedule a Strategy Call
- Meet with their Client Success Advocate to strategize what to delegate.
- Get matched to a VA based on your specific needs.
VA Staffer has a state-of-the-art project management tool that you can use as soon as you start with them. The tools allow you to assign tasks, start discussions, upload files, and fully integrate with your email for quick communication.
Best for U.S.-based virtual assistant services: Belay
If you want your virtual assistant to be U.S.-based so they work within your time zone at regular waking hours, Belay may be the platform for you. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it is spread out across 48 states in the United States.
Belay specializes in offering first-class, U.S.-based virtual assistant services to entrepreneurs, executives, and businesses of all sizes. With a personalized approach, dedicated account managers match you with a VA that meets your needs. Belay boasts of a 93% first-match success rate.
Led by a team of four women—Tricia Sciortino, Liza Zeeveld, Lisa Seal, and Krisha Buehler– Belay values diversity and culture. It explicitly states its stance as “Just Be You.”
It has won many culture and business awards from prominent national magazines such as FlexJobs, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine, and The Atlanta Business Chronicle. It provides resources such as a blog, podcast, ebooks, guides, and courses for the holistic support of its clients.
They particularly excel at providing virtual assistant, accounting, and social media staffing solutions. Accounting services range from bookkeeping to payroll processing to fractional Chief Finance Officer (CFO) roles. They have more than 1,800 independent contractors currently servicing more than 10,000 clients.
Belay has a six-step process for you to get your VA:
- Meet with your Solutions Consultant to identify your exact needs and pain points and determine what’s right for you. If Belay is a good fit, you’ll be sent an agreement to sign, and then you’ll be paired with a Client Success Consultant.
- Meet with your Client Success Consultant for a deeper dive into your task, tools, culture, and personality requirements.
- Your Client Success Consultant will vet and interview candidates from its pool of around 2,000 specialists, and you will be matched within one week.
- You, your Client Success Consultant, and your new Belay Specialist have a kick-off call to meet each other, set initial goals, discuss communication plans, and basically set yourselves up together for success.
- You are officially onboarded, and your Client Success Consultant stays close to providing Belay’s signature exceptional service, guiding you through the onboarding process.
- You enjoy ongoing check-ins to support both you and your Belay Specialist throughout your partnership.
Belay’s pricing is not published on its site. Industry sources show that its Basic 20 Belay Solutions plan starts at $1,600 to $1,800 a month for 40 hours of service. This translates to $38 to $45 per hour.
Best for round-the-clock virtual assistant services: 24/7 Virtual Assistants
Living up to its name, 24/7 Virtual Assistants provides uninterrupted, round-the-clock virtual assistance for clients with flexible plans and an intuitive interface.
Based in the U.S., with an offshore office in India, 90% of their clients are also from the U.S. The U.S. office in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, handles all marketing and sales, while the Indian offshore office handles all online virtual assistants.
Their virtual assistance services include administrative support, back-office solutions, data mining, email marketing, inbound sales, online marketing, and lead generation, live support, mobile and web design and development, online branding solutions, real estate solutions, social media and digital marketing, and many more services to help clients grow their businesses.
They have three types of plans: Offshore, U.S., and Web Plans. The Offshore Plan starts at $349 a month with the Entrepreneur Plan, for 30 hours a month, a monthly membership, and 24/7 assistance. The U.S. Plan starts at $399 a month for 20 hours a month, a monthly membership, and 24/7 assistance. The Web Plan starts at $600 a month for 20 hours a month and a monthly membership.
To track your virtual assistant service subscription usage, you are given a daily task report. You will also be provided with login credentials to the 24/7 Virtual Assistants’ login portal, where you can generate a daily, weekly, or monthly task report to see how the hours are being used.
Business subscription plans can be shared with other users, sharing the allotted monthly hours in the plan. If you have any remaining unused hours at the end of your monthly cycle, 25% will be rolled over to the next month.
You can unsubscribe anytime by contacting 24/7 Virtual Assistance before your next billing cycle.
Hiring A Virtual Assistant
How much should you pay for a virtual assistant? What is the common hourly rate for a virtual assistant?
These questions often come up from business owners seriously considering hiring a virtual assistant. With the many virtual assistant platforms out there offering different features and pricing plans, how do you know you’re making a good deal?
In the United States, the average virtual assistant rate is $25.04 per hour, with an average range of $25 to $35 per hour. In India, it’s 106 rupees ($1.27) per hour, while in the Philippines, it averages at PHP 83.54 ($1.44) per hour.
It’s obviously way less costly to secure virtual assistants from the top two outsourcing capitals in the world, with quality skills, expertise, and professionalism. India is known for its technological expertise, while the Philippines is known for its people-centered services, with its people having a high level of proficiency in English.
Is It Worth Hiring A Virtual Assistant?
If you find yourself and your team spending tons of hours working in your business rather than on your business, it’s time to hire a virtual assistant.
Hiring a virtual assistant:
- Reduces your hiring and training costs
- Reduces micromanagement
- Makes it easy for you to hire replacement talent
- Boosts your efficiency by outsourcing non-core but necessary business support tasks
- Enables you to gain access to specialized talent from all over the world
- Frees up your time for strategic thinking and nurturing your client relationships and quickly scales your business operations
- Increase your business’s chances of success; and
- Helps you gain more peace of mind as you avoid burnout.
The key thing to remember is that you are clear about your specific business needs for a virtual assistant. Learn more about Toptal’s marketing virtual assistants HERE.
