A virtual assistant company is simply a firm that provides outsourcing services.
Many are located internationally (India and the Philippines are popular spots), but you’ll find a growing number of virtual assistant companies in the US and Europe.
Why’s that?
Well, the demand for qualified remote workers just continues to increase! Over the next 10 years, hiring managers expect nearly 40% of their workforce to be working remotely.
As more companies get on board with the idea of a virtual team, that means the virtual assistant industry is booming — and that’s great news for you.
Advantages of Working With a Virtual Assistant Company
There are several advantages of hiring through an established VA company vs. making a direct hire, and especially over making a local hire.
Recruiting
First, the company does the bulk of the recruiting and screening legwork for you, which can be a huge time saver.
As the demand for remote work has increased, so has the supply. And I get that. I mean, I’ve been working from home for over 10 years — it’s awesome.
But what that means for virtual assistant companies is that they can afford to be extremely picky with who they bring on board. In fact, on my VA company sites, you’ll find material on their hiring process and how they only accept the top 1-3% of candidates.
If you’ve ever tried to make a traditional job posting and screen candidates, you know that recruiting is incredibly time-consuming.
Backups and Replacements
Next, if and when your VA leaves, gets sick, or gets promoted, you’re not scrambling to replace them.
You’ll still have to train your new worker, but at least you won’t have to go out and source them completely on your own.
A Team of Assistants Under One Virtual Roof
And finally, many virtual assistant companies offer a cool hybrid model where you have a dedicated assistant for most of your tasks, but have access to the company’s broader talent pool for more specialized requests.
This allows you to amplify your productivity and keep all the communication and delegation under one roof.
Simple Accounting
Hiring through a VA company can also make for a simpler relationship come tax time too.
The fees you pay to the firm are a quick line-item deductible expense and you don’t have to stress about whether a freelance contractor you hired is technically an employee in the eyes of the IRS.
Here’s a quick profile of some of the top-rated companies. You can check them out or browse the full directory below.
| Online VA Team | Time Etc | Remote CoWorker | Tasks Expert | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Established | 2014 | 2007 | 2013 | 2017 |
| Location | USA and The Philippines | USA and UK | USA | US and India |
| Customer Rating | ||||
| Hourly Rate | $7+ | $27-29 | $5.99-8.00 | $4.50 |
| Minimum Package | $250 for 20 hours | $390 for 10 hours | $139 for 20 hours | $169 for 20 hours |
| Dedicated Assistant | ||||
| Team Access | ||||
| Rollover Hours | *Per policy | |||
| Free Trial | ||||
| Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More |
Drawbacks to Virtual Assistant Companies
The biggest disadvantage I see to working with virtual assistant companies is you’re paying a premium for:
- Their recruiting and training
- Their company overhead and infrastructure
- A management layer
In each case, those might not be a huge benefit for you. You could potentially go out and find a better skills and cultural fit by hiring directly.
The training an assistant receives through a company will probably be helpful — but it might not be directly applicable to your business.
If your VA is working from a dedicated call-center type of office, the rent, electricity, equipment, and Internet are all baked into your price.
And finally, virtual assistant companies have a management layer you’re also paying for — but unless something goes wrong — you might not need.
How Much do Virtual Assistant Companies Cost?
You’ll find virtual assistant companies with task-based plans starting around $30 a month. For that price, you’ll be able to delegate a handful of small requests.
Dedicated services begin in the $100-300 a month range for part-time support.
Overseas, you can hire a full-time VA through a virtual assistant company for $800-1500 a month. For assistants in the US or Western Europe, you can easily spend double or triple that.
My Experience with Virtual Assistant Companies
I’ve worked with several virtual assistant companies over the last decade, starting with my first dedicated assistant from Pakistan.
These companies, and increasingly specialized virtual agencies, are an important part of my virtual assistant “stack.”
(A specialist agency is a company that does just ONE thing, like graphic design, podcast editing, or bookkeeping.)
What I see as the biggest benefits are the team access and the VA replacement.
Over the last few years, there have been quite a few instances of my assistant getting promoted or taking a new job. And instead of me being stranded and stuck without support, a new qualified VA took their place seamlessly. In one case, I didn’t even know the change had happened for a couple weeks!
And similarly, when a company has lots of different skills under one roof, it’s been really helpful to send over a random request and have that taken care of.
For example, maybe your regular assistant does social media and content marketing for you — but you occasionally need some technical website stuff done. It’s a big time saver to just have one company able to handle it.
Which Virtual Assistant Company is Right For You?
What you should look for in a VA company, aside from positive customer reviews, is:
- professionalism (can you picture this person or company working for you?)
- response time (did they reply promptly to your inquiry?)
- price (will the work justify the expense?)
Related: 13 Questions to Ask a Virtual Assistant Company
Check out the top-rated VA companies below, see what other customers have to say, and narrow down your options.
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
UPDATE: It appears Trade Virtual Services is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. Trade Virtual Services is a small but growing virtual assistant and outsourced marketing company in India. They were founded in 2011 by a couple […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
UPDATE: It appears IconAssist 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. IconAssist Services is an Indian-based virtual assistant company. The company is headed […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
UPDATE: It appears Virtual Clouding is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. Virtual Clouding is virtual assistant outsourcing company in India. The business was founded in 2009 as a labor force “cloud” service to go alongside the […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
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 […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
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, […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
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. […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
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 […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
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 […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
Backup Office is a virtual assistant company with locations in the US and Central America. Their assistants work out of a small office in El Salvador. All of their virtual assistants have either lived or studied in the US, so […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
UPDATE: Supahands no longer provides virtual assistant service. Instead they specialize in content moderation for companies in the property, media & e-commerce industries. The information below pertains to their old business model. Please consider one of these alternatives or see below. Supahands […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
UPDATE: It appears Outsource2Africa is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives or see below. Outsource2Africa is an outsourcing company in Kenya, Africa. They have been in business since January 2013 and provide virtual assistants based in Africa. They […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
Life of Automation is a virtual assistant company providing dedicated virtual assistants to companies of all sizes across the globe. The company is based in California, the U.S., and their virtual assistants work remotely from all over the world. About […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
Lensa introduces itself as an orb for job seekers who are looking to take the right career path in their life. They help people to find the right job based on their choice and qualification. They do this by […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
RemoteJobs.ninja was created to link talent with opportunities in a digital world. With rising demand for remote work due to technology and workforce changes, RemoteJobs.ninja was founded in 2021 to connect companies with remote talent across industries, streamlining the hiring […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
UPDATE: It appears Athandz Research is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. Athandz Research is a Sri Lankan based company specializing in carrying out customized research and business intelligence. The company has been in operation since 2003. […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
UPDATE: It appears BoxChecked is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. BoxChecked is “The Entrepreneur’s Virtual Assistant” company. They are based in the US, and all of their virtual assistants also work across the US. The company is […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
UPDATE: It appears Buizoffic is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. Buizoffiz is a virtual assistant company based in Chennai, India. They are a relatively new company in the virtual assistant space, starting operations in March of […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
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 […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
Contentellect is a content marketing and SEO agency specializing in helping businesses improve their online presence through a range of digital marketing services. The company is headquartered in the United Kingdom, and most of their team is based in their […]
| Overall Rating | No Ratings |
| Quality of Work | No Ratings |
| Communication | No Ratings |
| Value | No Ratings |
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 […]