Typical Cost of a Virtual Assistant

There are a lot of factors that go into determining how much it costs to hire a virtual assistant. Are you hiring them directly from a job board or are you partnering with an agency? Will this be a full time VA, how many hours a week or in a month? What type of skills or experience is important to you?

Answering these questions will better prepare you to budget for a Virtual Assistant. Let’s jump into a few of these areas and discuss the typical cost of hiring a VA.

The Type of Service

Just like hiring a local team member, a candidate's background, skill set, education and experience will significantly influence the rate you pay a virtual assistant. For example, a front end developer with multiple years of experience and certificates might be 3-4x the salary of a general virtual assistant or executive assistant.

Determining the skills needed and a minimum amount of experience you’re comfortable with is the first step in setting a budget for a VA and what you can expect to pay. In the example above, typically you can find a great general VA from the Philippines for $5/hr, where you might pay +$15/hr for an experienced developer in the same location.

Location

Speaking of location, that’s another massive factor in determining the cost of a virtual assistant. If you prefer to work with US based Virtual Assistants and that makes more sense for your business, you can!

Finding a VA on your own based in the States can be pretty straightforward. With job boards like LinkedIn (suggested), Indeed or UpWork you can find local(ish) talent. For quality VA’s living in the US expect to pay a minimum of $25/hrs, typically more, depending on skill level.

For a reference point, Time etc and Trusty Oak are agencies that help place US based freelancers and VA’s, both start around $35/hr at a minimum.

Using that $35/hr rate for US based talent, for a general VA, you can get a ballpark budget for talent located in other parts of the world. Below is a list of locations, percentage discounted from the typical US rate. Keep in mind this will vary depending on specific talent and their experience.

• Western Europe, 15%, $25 - $30/hr

• Eastern Europe, 30%, $20 - $25/hr

• South Africa, 50%, $15 - $20/hr

• South/Central America, 70%, $10 - $15/hr

• SE Asia + Philippines, 80% $5 - $10/hr

How you find a VA is also a critical part of determining the budget for a Virtual Assistant. If you are familiar with interviewing, hiring, and vetting candidates then hiring directly is probably your best bet.

If the idea of sifting through 100’s of applicants, verifying resumes, and interviewing dozens of candidates sounds grueling, then consider hiring a VA using a virtual assistant agency.

Virtual Assistant agencies help small businesses, solopreneurs, and consultants find great talent, all over the world. There are a few different business models, each will affect your search and budget differently.

Job Boards

For those of you with hiring experience and not worried about finding solid talent out of a stack of resumes/profiles then UpWork, Fiverr and OnlineJobs.ph (if hiring in the Philippines) are great places to start. These offer really low fees and typically provide a profile and resume of the candidates.

At the end of the day these are job boards, so it’s up to you to create a job description, budget, employee agreement, process payments, track hours etc. (Note: UpWork and Fiverr have some of this functionality for a fee/depending on agreement type).

Types of Virtual Assistant Agencies

Another business type in the world of VA agencies in the “headhunter” model. Much like an executive search in the US, these types of agencies search for talent based on a job description, line up interviews, allow you to make the decision who you work with, and then charge you 30-40% of the yearly salary of that Virtual Assistant.

The best example of this is Support Shepard, recently renamed Somewhere. They are a great solution for those looking for full time help, and can afford the initial “finders fee”.

Similarly, there are agencies like VirtuHeroes that pre vet candidates based on a client's job description, conduct initial interviews and then allow the client to pick a candidate. But instead of charging a “finders fee” based on the salary of the candidate, VirtuHeroes charges an hourly rate on an ongoing basis to cover the cost of our initial time/investment.

Most of our clients pay a $2-$3/hr fee on top of the VA’s salary, putting the out of pocket costs for our clients usually $7-$10/hr.

Another model, maybe the most popular, is the idea of buying a “bucket of hours” from a virtual assistant agency. These agencies have dozens of VA’s ready to execute tasks, and you engage them as needed, typically pre paying for a set of hours per month. Flexi Work and Ask Sunday are good examples of this type of model. This can be a solid option for full or part time help. But keep in mind you won’t have a dedicated VA that you hired, but rather a pool of talent that can execute on a variety of tasks.

Ask Sunday rates range from $9-$17/hr depending on total hours purchased and Flexi Work has a bucket of hours starting at $300 for 25 hrs ($12/hr).

So to wrap all of this up, talent location, the specific role and how you hire a virtual assistant will all influence how much you’ll pay for a virtual assistant. VA’s can be a great way to offload tasks, scale your business and focus on the things only you can do. If you’re curious about hiring a VA, grab some time with our team! We’re happy to answer any questions, share best practices and see if a virtual assistant is a good fit.

FAQs

1. How much does it cost to hire a Virtual Assistant?
   VA rates vary based on location, skills, and experience. General VAs in Southeast Asia may cost $5-$10/hr, while U.S.-based VAs may cost $25-$35/hr or more.

2. What factors influence the cost of a VA?
   The cost depends on factors like the VA’s location, type of service, skills, experience, and whether they are hired through an agency or directly.

3. Are agency-hired VAs more expensive than direct hires?
   Yes, agencies usually charge an additional fee for vetting and managing VAs. This can be a set hourly fee or a “finder’s fee,” depending on the agency model.

4. How do VA rates differ by region?
   For example, VAs in Western Europe may charge 15% less than U.S. rates, while VAs in South America or Southeast Asia can cost 70-80% less.

5. What are the pros and cons of hiring through an agency?
   Agencies handle screening, interviewing, and management, saving time but adding costs. Direct hires require more effort but may offer lower rates.