“How much does a Virtual Assistant cost? Will I be able to afford one?”
You might have asked yourself several times. You are not alone in this dilemma. Small and medium entrepreneurs, researchers, start-up owners, business people, and professionals – all of them have asked this question at some point in their career.
We understand that you might have apprehensions about hiring an assistant and the costs associated with it. We can assure you one thing outright. Hiring a virtual assistant – who will work from a remote location – is cheaper than hiring a full-time employee. Moreover, a Virtual Assistant can, in turn, help you make more money.
“How can a Virtual Assistant help me make money?”
We can hear the question echoing loud in your brain. It’s true that you might incur some initial cost in hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA). However, in the long run, a VA will help you make your business more profitable. There are multiple ways in which a Virtual Assistant can increase your profitability.
- An administrative Virtual Assistant will take away the burden of repetitive administrative jobs like replying to emails, setting up meetings, calendar management. They will help you concentrate on critical business operations.
- A social media Virtual Assistant will help you stay on the top of social media and effectively engage your customers.
- A lead generation Virtual Assistant will help you find your prospective customers.
- A Virtual research Assistant will take away the burden of searching through the internet for relevant facts and figures.
- A WordPress Virtual Assistant will help you write blog content and maintain your site. A well-maintained blog means increased traffic to your site.
Hence, hiring a Virtual Assistant is like an initial investment you make to improve your business. However, as a prudent business owner, you should do the due diligence before signing a deal with a Virtual Assistant outsourcing company. You should find a definitive answer to how much does a virtual assistant cost. Thanks to the popularity of the Virtual Assistant domain, numerous service providers are in the market now. Each of them has a unique pricing plan and cost.
In this comprehensive article, you will learn everything about the cost associated with Virtual Assistants. At the end of this article, you will be able to assess how much does a virtual assistant costs.
How much does a Virtual Assistant cost? – Determining Factors
There is no simple equation to determine how much does a Virtual Assistant cost. Several factors contribute to the charges for Virtual Assistants.
Factor 1: Complexity of your tasks
If you want to hire Virtual Assistants for relatively simple tasks, like managing your calendar or clearing your email clutter, you might find the charges low. However, if you require assistance for complex functions that needs special skills – like graphic design – you might have to shell out a little more.
Factor 2: Experience of the Virtual Assistant
If you want an assistant who has multiple years of experience in the industry, you will have to pay more. On the contrary, if you can do with a relatively new assistant and don’t mind guiding them, you will be able to save a lot of money. However, you must make sure that your assistant has at least some relevant expertise in your field. You must also look for efficiency and effective communication skills. Those are the key traits of a Virtual Assistant that you don’t want to compromise.
Factor 3: Hours required and time zone
If you need an assistant for the regular working hours (say 9-6), it may not cost you much. However, if your business requires 24/7 attention and you expect your Virtual Assistant to do odd hours of work, it might cost you more. Another factor is the urgency of your work. For example, if you want an assistant to proofread your article in a week, it might not cost you much. But, if you need the job to be finished within a few hours, you will have to spend more money.
Factor 4: Level of technical expertise
It’s not a secret that technical expertise comes with a cost. If you have a highly technical job like writing a thesis paper, you shouldn’t settle for a newbie assistant. You will have to hire someone who has the relevant technical expertise and domain knowledge to help you with the task. Even for the same job, you will get many options for assistants with varying levels of technical expertise. You, as a buyer, need to determine what level of expertise is sufficient for your task. The better you assess your requirement; you can save more money by hiring a Virtual Assistant who is the right fit for your job.
Factor 5: Location
There are several Virtual Assistant companies across the globe, and you can choose to hire any of them. However, you should be cautious about the difference in cost that comes with different geographical locations. Typically, it would be cheaper to hire a virtual assistant from global outsourcing countries like India. However, if you would like to hire an assistant from a country where minimum hourly wages apply, you will have to pay more. If you choose a cheap Virtual Assistant from a different time zone, you should be aware of the communication challenges. If you think the geographic location of the assistant doesn’t matter, then you can go ahead and choose a Virtual Assistant from an affordable location.
How do you estimate the cost of a Virtual Assistant?
“Are Virtual Assistants cost always cheaper than an onsite employee?” Not necessarily.
Assume you Google for “assistant charges” and compare it with the Virtual Assistant pricing plans presented in this article. You might be surprised to see that the Virtual Assistant cost is slightly higher than an average intern.
There is an essential factor you need to consider. The hourly price for a Virtual Assistant not only covers the charge for a service. It also includes the expenses of the equipment, the internet and electricity fees, charges for the office space, and other incidental costs.
This might seem unfair at first sight. Why should the VA cost include the charges other than for the service? When you hire a regular employee, you might need to pay additionally for all of the above prices. With an onsite employee, you might be paying only $8 per hour, but you need to add the indirect costs like office space, work laptop, refreshments, benefits, paid leaves, and health benefits.
So, it doesn’t seem a rip off when a Virtual Assistant costs a slightly higher price. When you hire a VA, you will not have to bother about any of the other costs. It’s not only about the cost. Even if you are running your business from home, you can have a fully functional virtual team elsewhere. You will not have to worry about arranging office space and equipment for them.
What is the industry standard rate for Virtual Assistant service?
As we have seen, the hourly charges for Virtual Assistants vary based on their experience, expertise, and location. But we will give you an overview of rates from across the world.
According to Upwork, in North America, a standard administrative assistant with over 1000 hours of experience will cost you $12-20 per hour. Marketing or accounting Virtual Assistant will cost you $20-35 per hour. In North America, an excellent executive Virtual Assistant will cost $38-50 per hour. According to Webcenture’s research, these prices are at a higher range.
If you compare the Virtual Assistant companies in India, the hourly rate changes from $13 per hour to $5 per hour based on the package.
In the below table, you can find a comparison of different Virtual Assistant service providers and their rates.
| Company Name | Pricing Plan 1 | Pricing Plan 2 | Pricing Plan 3 | Pricing Plan 4 |
| Webcenture | Silver
20Hour/ month $7.98/hour |
Golden
40 Hour/month $6.98/hour |
Platinum
80 Hour/ month $5.98/hour |
Diamond
160 Hour/Month $4.98/hour |
| Acelerar | Basic
20Hour/ month $9/hour |
Silver
40 Hour/month $8/hour |
Gold
80 Hour/ month $7/hour |
Platinum
160 Hour/Month $6/hour |
| GetFriday | Basic 20
20 hour/ Month $200/month $10/hour |
Plus 40
40 hours/ Month $360/month $13/hour |
Plus 80
80 hours/ Month $640/month $8/hour |
Plus 160
160 hours/ Month $1120/month $7/hour |
| Task Assistant | Small
10 hour/ Month $80/month $8/hour |
Standard
40 hours/ Month $279/month $6.99/hour |
Premium
80 hours/ Month $399/month $4.99/hour |
Most Popular
160 hours/ Month $798/month $4.99/hour |
| Use Per Wish | Hour Based
$9/hour Minimum of 5 hours
|
Full time
$900/month 8 hours a day 5 days week |
Pay Per Hour
$12/hour No expiry, Pay per use |
According to Truelancer, a global community of freelance Virtual assistants, these are the rates charged by some of their top Virtual Assistants in different fields.
| Domain | Hourly Charges | Location |
| Data Entry, Web Research | $5/ hour | India |
| Academic Research | $10/ hour | Malta |
| Lead Generation Assistant | $8/ hour | Bangladesh |
| Virtual Assistant | $20/ hour | USA |
| Typist/ email handler | $15/hour | USA |
| Social Media Assistant | $10/hour | Malaysia |
| Executive Assistant | $24/ hour | UK |
Virtual Assistant Pricing Models
Now that you have seen the industry standards for VA pricing, it is essential to understand three popular pricing models for Virtual Assistant services.
Hourly pricing plans
In this particular model, you will be paying a specific amount to buy a month’s subscription to the Virtual Assistant service. Most of the VA service providers have conditions on the minimum number of hours. In other words, even if you require only 10 hours a day, you might need to buy a 12-hour pack. Here are some of the crucial points you need to note about the hourly pricing plan.
- Buy in Bulk: The hourly plans get cheaper as the minimum number of hours increases. Hence, if you have an estimate on how many hours you need, you can buy a bulk plan, which will save you money.
- Carry Forward: Assume that you haven’t used up all the hours that you purchased for a month, some companies allow you to carry them forward. Before buying the plan, you should enquire if such a provision is available.
- Type of Work: When you buy an hourly based plan, make sure you have a good understanding with the VA service provider about the expected task. If you require any specific technological expertise or odd working hours, you must specify them.
Task-based pricing plans
Some of the Virtual Assistant providers follow a task-based pricing plan. With a particular amount, you will be getting a certain number of tasks. For example, a company might offer you 5 task requests per month for a charge of $30. Just like the hourly based plans, it becomes cheaper if you opt for more task requests. For example, you might get 50 tasks for $200.
Ad-hoc pricing plans
If you need a Virtual Assistant for a specific task, the standard pricing plans may not apply. In this case, Virtual Assistant companies go for an ad-hoc pricing plan. You need to get in touch with them using a simple request form and send in your requirements. Soon, you will get a call back from the Virtual Assistant provider. After the initial negotiations, you can decide on a price for your particular task. Note that the Ad-Hoc pricing plan might even convert into an hourly pricing plan after the initial negotiations and discussions are done.
How to choose a Virtual Assistant Pricing Plan?
Now that you have seen how much does virtual assistants’ costs across the globe and different pricing plans, how to choose what suits you best? To answer that question, you need to think about the task you need to outsource and plan a little.
- Task type – Decide on what kind of tasks you are going to assign to the VA. Is it just administrative or social media marketing tasks?
- Experience – Do you need a highly experienced Virtual Assistant (for example, 1000 hours of experience), or can you manage with an assistant who has moderate experience?
- The volume of work – How many hours do you expect your task will require? Will you need an assistant for several months?
- Frequency of work – Is your requirement one time, or is it going to be recurring?
- Preferred time zone – What should be the ideal location of your Virtual Assistant? Do you want them to work in the same time zone as yours? Or do you prefer them working in a different time zone?
- Expertise – Does your task involves the use of any particular software or tool that requires specific skill? How many years of experience do you expect?
- Privacy – Do you expect your Virtual Assistant to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement? How do you want your Virtual Assistant to handle sensitive data?
Before venturing into hiring a Virtual Assistant, you need to do a thorough analysis of your tasks. Based on your insights, you can get in touch with different companies for their price quotes.
How to make sure you are not overcharged?
Now that you have a good idea about how much does the Virtual Assistant services cost, you will be able to approach a service provider with more confidence. However, there are a few tips to make sure that you are only being charged for the services you get.
- Tracking – Before you start assigning tasks to your Virtual Assistant, you should make sure that a time tracking system is in place. You also need to know in what increments the time is added. For example, most of the Virtual Assistants add work in 15 minutes increments.
- Monitoring – Make sure that your VA service provider monitors all their Virtual Assistants closely. For example, companies like Webcenture has a team lead assigned for each VA, who will oversee the performance of the assistants.
- Reporting – Webcenture will send you a weekly report on the tasks done and the number of hours used. Make sure that you get a weekly or even better, a daily log from your Virtual Assistant.
- Back up Assistants – When you hire a Virtual Assistant, make sure that the service provider has an excellent team of assistants. In case your assigned VA cannot complete a task, you should get a backup assistant. Also, there should be provision to replace your virtual assistant if you think the VA isn’t doing a good job.
How much does a Virtual Assistant from Webcenture Cost?
You have already seen the comparison of pricing plans by various VA service providers. We at Webcenture always strive to provide you affordable and flexible plans. We have multiple plans to cover 10, 20, 40, 80 and 160 hours/ month. You might have already noted that our Virtual Assistant prices are cheap, starting at just $4.98 per hour. However, pricing it low doesn’t mean that we will compromise on the quality. At Webcenture, we have a strict quality assurance process in place. All our Virtual Assistants are highly qualified with at least a graduation level of education. We assign a team leader for every Virtual Assistant to make sure your work is done on time with the highest quality. checkout here affordable virtual assistant plans.
With Webcenture, you can let go of all your worries about how much a Virtual Assistant cost, and rely on our high-quality assistants to get your job done!