Over the past decade, the call center and outsourcing business has exploded in the Philippines.
In fact, the island nation in Southeast Asia has built a solid reputation for loyal remote workers.
Advantages of Virtual Assistants in the Philippines
The new technology combined with a young, educated, and ambitious workforce has made the Philippines a popular (and affordable) location for virtual assistants.
English is widely spoken, and I think you’ll find the culture is slightly more “Western” than that of India. Many workers are used to working with Americans from past careers in customer support call centers or other BPO operations.
Students grow up learning English in school, even though they may not use it in their home.
For these assistants, the opportunity to work with you could mean a life of greater freedom. It’s the chance to work from home, have some flexibility in terms of their hours, and probably earn more money.
Virtual or remote work is seen as a prestigious, sought-after, and maybe even envious career path.
Workers are loyal and polite, but sometimes slow to ask for help or clarification — sometimes to the point of disappearing without a trace. (Yes, it happens!)
And because of the time zone differences, you can essentially have a virtual assistant or assistants working while you sleep. Depending on your business, that could be a huge plus.
| OnlineJobs.ph | Wing Assistant | FreeUp | Online VA Team | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Rating | ||||
| Established | 2009 | 2018 | 2015 | 2014 |
| Hourly Rate | $3-8 | $6.878.75 | $5-20 | $7+ |
| Minimum Package | $69 to post a job | $699 for 80 hours | Free to post a job | 20 hrs for $250 |
| Dedicated Assistant | ||||
| Best For | Full-time hires | Small & Medium Business Owners, IT Services, Marketing Agencies, SaaS | Quick pre-vetted hires in e-commerce and marketing | Small & Medium businesses |
| Team Access | ||||
| Rollover Hours | ||||
| Free Trial | *For limited range of services | |||
| Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More |
*Dedicated option available.
Drawbacks to Hiring Virtual Assistants in the Philippines
Infrastructure
As in other developing countries, infrastructure problems can come up from time to time as tropical storms and brown outs knock out electricity and Internet access.
Magical Disappearing Assistants
It’s never happened to me, but I’ve heard frequent stories of virtual assistants just “ghosting” their employers — going dark and not responding to any communication.
My understanding this is often out of an extreme cultural shyness or passiveness. It’s seen as better to avoid conflict altogether than to rock the boat.
For most Westerners, that’s incredibly frustrating and hard to comprehend. Like, if you have a question, just ask! If you’re going to be late on a project, say why! I hired you for a reason, and I’ll probably understand.
This issue underscores the importance of regular communication and insisting on an open door policy where questions and even failures are encouraged at the beginning of a relationship.
Time Zone Considerations
The Philippines is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time and 16 hours ahead of Pacific time. That can make communication tricky if your assistant is working the day shift.
(The time zone is much closer to Australia, which makes Filipino outsourcing an even more popular choice for businesses there.)
Still, many assistants are used to working American business hours from previous outsourcing jobs.
The 13th Month
This isn’t so much a drawback is it something to be aware of, but there’s a custom in the Philippines known as the 13th month.
What that means is workers essentially expect a “Christmas bonus” equal to a month’s salary in December. If you hire a dedicated freelance VA through a service like OnlineJobs, it would be considered very polite and appropriate to pay that bonus.
If you hire through a virtual assistant company, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Education May Not Be as Strong (and Ends Earlier)
College graduates in the Philippines are often 20 years old, instead of 22 or 23. And this may be personal experience, but I don’t think the education system is as strong as in Western countries.
For example, when I was recruiting web developers, college grads with programming degrees couldn’t complete basic test tasks or answer simple coding questions. Maybe they were just overstating their qualifications, but I found that frustrating.
And that brings up a best-practice: before you hire, try a few “trial tasks” as part of your interview process.
How Much Do Virtual Assistants in the Philippines Cost?
Through a virtual job board like OnlineJobs, you’ll find full-time workers for as little as $400 a month, which equates to $3 an hour or less.
Naturally, the more skilled the hire you’re looking for, the rates go up. But let’s put it this way: it’s a country where you can live VERY well on $1000-1500 a month. That $1500 would be at the very high end of the pay spectrum for a solo freelance VA.
If you hire through a virtual assistant company, you’ll often see rates in the range of $6-15 an hour.
And as you might expect when hiring through a company, the bigger the monthly package you sign up, the better your equivalent hourly rate.
My Experience Working with Virtual Assistants in the Philippines
Like my outsourcing adventures elsewhere, I’ve found some amazing talent here — interspersed with some less-than-awesome experiences.
I’ve found workers on OnlineJobs with masters degrees in nursing and marine biology, who found it was more rewarding to work online.
One of my longest-running outsourcing relationships is with OkayRelax. I’ve been assigned several different assistants from the Philippines and they’ve all been above average.
Years ago, I used a recruiting service to try and find a full-time assistant but wasn’t impressed with the results. I was in a rush to fill the position and should have invested more time in training, but this person didn’t show much initiative in problem solving and didn’t show up to work when we’d agreed.
Now I’m testing a new design service and we’re off to a good start. My dedicated designer is fast to respond and incorporate feedback.
Which Filipino Virtual Assistant Company Should You Choose?
But despite the popularity of outsourcing to the Philippines, I don’t yet have a clear cut “favorite” company I refer people to. There are different “flavors” and different specialties depending on your needs.
The good news is that because of the robust VA economy, you have several options to choose from ranging from low-cost task-based services like OkayRelax, all the way up to full-time dedicated assistants — and everything in between.
Check out the reviews below to see which option is right for you.
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Task Network is a Canadian based virtual assistant company with their head office in Toronto, Canada, and their fulfillment office in Metro Manila, Philippines. The company was founded in 2014 by founder and president Eric Opinion. About Task Network The […]
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Cloudstaff have been in business since 2005 and provides virtual assistants to businesses and entrepreneurs across Australia, UK, USA, China, and are soon expanding to cover the Middle East. They have several offices in the Philippines and manage their assistants […]
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The Virtual Hub provides a scalable, cost-effective support layer that enables your talent to focus on high value work. They hire, onboard, train and manage staff who embed into your business and take ownership of recurring tasks that create operational […]
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VA4REI (Virtual Assistants for Real Estate Investors), is a company specializing in providing virtual assistant services to real estate investors. The company has been operating since 2010. They have a team of assistants trained and experienced in the US real […]
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Atticus is a virtual assistant company based in the Philippines. They specialize in recruiting and supplying virtual assistants to entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses all over the world. The company started operations in early 2016. All of their VAs […]
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UPDATE: Sidekicks has pivoted to a “different type of business model.” Please consider one of these alternatives. Sidekicks enables entrepreneurs and business owners to quickly hire and build their own virtual teams. The company does this by connecting clients with hand-picked […]
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UPDATE: It appears Virtual Valley is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives or see below. If you own this listing or this information is incorrect, contact me here. Virtual Valley is a UK-based virtual assistant company specializng in connecting […]
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UPDATE: It appears Virtual Hires is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. Virtual Hires is a remote-staffing agency based in the Philippines. Since 2008, they have specialized in providing full-time virtual employees in four categories: writers, virtual […]
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Somebody 2 Hire is a virtual assistant company in the Philippines with a large number of virtual assistants ready to handle administrative, customer service, and marketing tasks. Founded in 2013, they pride themselves on having virtual assistants with a wide […]
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UPDATE: It appears Virtual Assistant Freedom is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. Virtual Assistant Freedom is a virtual assistant company with presence in the Philippines and in India. According to the copyright date, the company was […]
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UPDATE: It appears Hire in the Philippines is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. Hire in the Philippines is a young outsourcing company founded by entrepreneur Bobby Hicks. The startup story is a somewhat common one. Hicks, […]
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UPDATE: It appears Virtual Assistant Gold is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. Virtual Assistant Gold is a virtual staffing company in the Philippines. The company was founded in 2010 and maintains its US-headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. […]
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CrewBloom provides outsourcing services to small to medium-sized businesses. The company has been operational since 2016 with headquarters based in New York. About CrewBloom CrewBloom is a remote staffing agency based in New York. They connect the top 2% of […]
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Personiv is a US-based business process outsourcing (BPO) company. Their headquarters is in Austin, TX, while their assistants are based in their offices in the Philippines and India–allowing them to offer competitive rates. They specialize in creating custom solutions for […]
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2nd Office is a Philippines-based virtual assistant company. They have a team of virtual assistants, all based and managed in-house and they specialize in providing support to businesses of all sizes looking to outsource tasks. The company was founded in […]
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My Cloud Crew is an Australian owned and managed virtual assistant company. Their virtual assistants are based in Australia, the US, and predominantly the Philippines, allowing them to offer a wide range of services and business hours. The company was […]
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Extend Your Team is a virtual assistant company specializing in providing experienced virtual assistants to small and medium-sized companies all over the world. The company is headquartered in the US, and all of their assistants are based in the Philippines. […]
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Work Hero is a company that provides support and maintenance plans at a flat monthly rate for WordPress users. The company is headquartered in Austin, TX, and also has support staff based remotely around the world in locations like Brazil, […]
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Are you looking for reliable, high-skilled virtual assistants to help streamline your business operations? Whether you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, or part of a larger organization, Somewhere.com offers a solution that meets the growing demands of today’s fast-paced, globalized […]
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5 Star VAs is a virtual assistant recruiting service with a twist. The Philippines-based company offers both “unmanaged” and “co-managed” matchmaking services. The company was founded in 2013 and has attracted a growing client base since then. When the co-founder, Neil […]