What should you actually look for when hiring an STR virtual assistant company?

You should ask how much STR-specific training happens before your VA starts versus how much you’ll be teaching them yourself. Agencies that treat onboarding and SOP development as part of the placement consistently outperform agencies that place generalists.

Best Executive Assistant Companies for Founders

Author: Vincent Mijares
Date Published: September 8, 2026
Time Read: 7 min read

TL;DR

Executive assistant services split into real categories: premium dedicated (Delegate, BELAY, Boldly, Athena, Base), managed team coverage (Prialto), budget-dedicated (Time Etc, Zirtual, Double), LatAm-dedicated (Viva Talent), and region-specific options (DonnaPro for EU coverage). Commitment length, buyout terms, and employment model vary meaningfully across all of them and are worth checking as closely as the headline price. Delegate is the only premium-dedicated option on this list with no annual commitment or buyout fee attached.

Why Pricing Alone Doesn't Tell You Much

Every provider in this space can quote a monthly rate. Far fewer disclose the commitment length, buyout terms, or employment model behind that rate until you’re deep into a sales call. If you’re not yet sure whether an EA is the right hire versus a general VA, that’s worth settling first, since it changes which providers on this list are even relevant to you. This comparison checks each provider directly, on their own current site, rather than repeating headline pricing without the terms attached.

Quick Comparison

	Model	Talent Region	Employment Type	Commitment
Delegate	Dedicated	Philippines	Managed placement	Month-to-month, 30-day notice
Base	Dedicated	US	1099 contractor	Subscription, no long-term lock-in disclosed
BELAY	Dedicated	US	1099 contractor	Custom, not publicly disclosed
Boldly	Dedicated	US & UK	W2 employee	Subscription, no long-term lock-in disclosed
Athena	Dedicated	Philippines	Employed by Athena	12-month commitment, $24,000 buyout to hire directly
Viva Talent	Dedicated	Latin America	Managed placement	Not publicly disclosed
Prialto	Managed team	Offshore, US-managed	Managed service	Monthly, setup fee waived on annual plans
Time Etc	Dedicated	US	Contractor	Month-to-month, rollover hours
Double	Dedicated + software	US	Contractor	No long-term contract
Zirtual	Dedicated	US	Contractor	Month-to-month
DonnaPro	Dedicated	European Union	Contractor	Zero commitment for the first 2 months
Third-party figures checked against each provider's own current site or cross-verified across multiple independent sources as of September 2026. Confirm directly before signing, terms change.

1. Delegate.co

Model: Dedicated, one-to-one placement.
Best for: Founders who want dedicated, Philippines-based EA support, with real vetting, structured onboarding, and no long-term contract standing in the way.
What they do: Full-time dedicated executive assistants handling calendar protection, inbox triage, travel coordination, and operational support.
Core capabilities: Vetting through paid work simulations rather than a standard interview, with recruiting, onboarding, access managed through a password manager rather than shared credentials, payroll and benefits handling, and a dedicated client success partner all bundled into the rate.
Pricing: Scoped per placement rather than a flat published rate. Month-to-month, with a 30-day notice to terminate, no trial period, and no buyout fee if you’d ever want the relationship structured differently.

2. Base

Model: Dedicated, US-based contractor placement paired with proprietary delegation software.
Best for: Founders who want domestic talent plus a built-in tool for calendar summaries and briefing generation.
What they do: Dedicated executive assistants who own calendar, inbox, travel, and projects, matched through a company built specifically around EA placement for 14 years.
Core capabilities: Reported matching within 5 business days, with subscription support starting at 40 hours a month and temporary or trial-to-hire options also available.
Pricing: Subscriptions reportedly start around $2,800/month for 40 hours, with earlier-career EA rates from around $45/hour. Assistants are 1099 contractors, fully vetted onto Base’s own talent bench before matching.

3. BELAY

Model: Dedicated, US-based contractor placement.
Best for: Founders who want the largest, most established provider with services beyond EA support.
What they do: Virtual assistants, bookkeepers, social media managers, and website specialists, with EAs handling calendar, travel, email, and recurring admin.
Core capabilities: Founded in 2010, headquartered in Atlanta, with team members across 48 states. Accepts a reported top 3% of US-based applicants and publishes a 93% first-match success rate.
Pricing: Not published, quoted after a consultation. Assistants are 1099 contractors, worth factoring in if continuity and compliance are priorities.

4. Boldly

Model: Dedicated, premium subscription staffing.
Best for: Founders needing coverage across US and UK time zones.
What they do: Senior executive assistants, plus project management, marketing, and customer service support on a monthly subscription.
Core capabilities: Staff are W2 employees with benefits, founded in 2012, with reported experience drawn from Fortune 500 backgrounds. Offers a buy-out option if you want to hire your assistant directly later.
Pricing: Reported starting rate around $2,600/month for 40 hours, scaling toward $4,800+ on higher-hour tiers, with specialist work outside core EA tasks billed separately. Confirm current rates directly.

5. Athena

Model: Dedicated, Philippines-based, employed directly by Athena.
Best for: Founders wanting a premium, full-time dedicated EA with structured delegation coaching, and who are comfortable with a real annual commitment.
What they do: Full-time dedicated Executive Partners covering calendar, inbox, research, travel, and personal tasks, working US hours.
Core capabilities: A reported sub-1% applicant acceptance rate, a structured onboarding bootcamp, and ongoing delegation coaching for the founder.
Pricing: Runs around $3,000/month with a 12-month commitment, roughly $36,000 annually, and a buyout fee of up to $24,000 if you later want to hire the assistant directly. This is cross-verified across seven independent sources; some competitor comparisons describe this as a “90-day commitment,” which does not hold up against the weight of independent evidence and should not be relied on. Whether “dedicated” genuinely means one-to-one exclusive support varies by provider more than the word suggests, worth verifying directly with any company on this list.

6. Viva Talent

Model: Dedicated, Latin America-based, fully managed placement.
Best for: Founders wanting real-time US-hour overlap from a nearshore assistant, without an offshore overnight shift.
What they do: Full-time dedicated executive assistants covering scheduling, inbox management, travel, meeting prep, and cross-team coordination.
Core capabilities: Reports over 300 executives matched, a sub-4% re-match rate within the first 30 days, sub-24-hour onboarding claimed, and assistants trained on common AI tools including Claude, Notion, and Zapier.
Pricing: Not published on Viva’s own site; third-party estimates for LatAm-based dedicated EA placements generally range from roughly $1,500 to $2,500 a month, confirm directly before assuming a specific figure.

7. Prialto

Model: Managed team, not a single dedicated hire.
Best for: Founders who want built-in backup coverage rather than a single-person relationship.
What they do: Admin support, CRM upkeep, scheduling, and sales support delivered by a primary assistant with a trained backup.
Core capabilities: A support team structure, a project manager, a primary assistant, and a backup, refined over time by an engagement manager, so coverage doesn’t break when one person is out.
Pricing: Reported around $1,600/month per 55-hour unit, plus a setup fee waived on annual agreements. Full-time dedicated support runs meaningfully higher.

8. Time Etc

Model: Dedicated, US-based, budget-tier.
Best for: Founders prioritizing the lowest cost for a dedicated, US-based assistant, more task execution than deep strategic partnership.
What they do: Email and calendar management, data entry, document formatting, expense cataloging, and social media updates.
Core capabilities: Matching US-based assistants with professionals since 2007, with the option to add extra assistants and share plans across a team.
Pricing: Reportedly runs roughly $36 to $39 an hour with rollover on larger plans, the lowest dedicated US-based rate among providers checked for this piece.

9. Double

Model: Dedicated, US-based, paired with proprietary delegation software.
Best for: Founders who think in tools and want visibility into every request through an app.
What they do: Calendar, inbox, travel, and expense management, run through delegation software built specifically for tracking and sharing preferences with an assistant.
Core capabilities: Reported matching within 2 to 4 business days depending on plan tier, with plans scaling from light support up to 60 hours a month.
Pricing: No long-term contract reported. Pricing scales by hours committed monthly.

10. Zirtual

Model: Dedicated, US-based, college-educated talent pool.
Best for: Founders and small teams with a steady stream of defined tasks who want a flexible, low-commitment entry point.
What they do: Scheduling, event planning, travel booking, invoicing, data entry, and research, with separate paralegal and legal assistant plans available.
Core capabilities: One primary matched VA, with teammates absorbing specialized tasks outside that person’s scope.
Pricing: Month-to-month plans with multiple users included on higher tiers, making it a reasonable option for a small team sharing one subscription.

11. DonnaPro

Model: Dedicated, EU-based contractor placement.
Best for: Founders and executives specifically needing EU or UK time zone coverage.
What they do: Email and calendar management, research, travel coordination, HR functions, and marketing support, with over 50 defined services listed.
Core capabilities: Assistants are contractors based across 13 European countries, working core hours of 9 AM to 3 PM CET, fully managed with training included.
Pricing: Runs around €2,500 to €2,700 a month for a roughly 60-hour package, with zero commitment for the first two months. The only provider on this list built specifically around EU-based coverage.

Executive Assistant vs. Virtual Assistant: Why This Distinction Matters Here

A virtual assistant executes defined, repeatable tasks. An executive assistant owns judgment-dependent work, protecting a calendar, filtering an inbox with real discretion, anticipating priorities before being asked. Every provider on this list is positioned around the EA side of that distinction specifically, which is part of why pricing here runs higher than general VA services. If your actual bottleneck turns out to be task volume rather than judgment-dependent work, a general VA may be the better and considerably cheaper starting point than anything on this list.

The Commitment Question Nobody Asks Early Enough

Athena’s structure is the clearest example of why this matters: a genuinely strong, well-regarded service, but a 12-month commitment and a $24,000 buyout fee are a real trade-off, not a footnote, and one that competing pages in this space sometimes describe inaccurately. Before signing with any provider on this list, four questions are worth asking directly:

What’s the actual minimum commitment, in months, not just “flexible”?
What does exiting early actually cost?
If I want to hire this person directly later, is there a fee, and how much?
Is my assistant an employee of the company or an independent contractor, and does that change if the relationship ends?

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between a managed team and a dedicated EA?

A dedicated EA, offered by most providers on this list, means one person working exclusively on your account. A managed team model pairs a primary assistant with a trained backup, so coverage continues even when one person is unavailable.

How does a premium annual-commitment EA service compare to a month-to-month option?

A service with a longer commitment can make sense if you’re certain of the fit and want the structure that comes with it, delegation coaching, a highly selective applicant pool. Month-to-month options exist too, worth weighing directly against your own certainty about the role before committing to either structure.

Are W2 employees better than 1099 contractors for this kind of role?

For ongoing, closely directed work, employment status matters. W2 employees generally see better retention, and using contractors for tightly directed, ongoing work can raise worker classification questions under IRS rules, worth understanding regardless of which provider you choose.

How much does an executive assistant service actually cost?

Published and reported rates across the providers checked for this piece span roughly $390 a month for 10 hours of task-focused support up to $3,000 or more a month for a premium, full-time dedicated EA. The headline number alone doesn’t reflect commitment length or buyout terms, both of which vary meaningfully and should be confirmed directly. Several providers, including Delegate, Viva Talent, and BELAY, price placements individually rather than publishing a flat rate.

What should I ask before signing with any of these providers?

The actual minimum commitment length, the exact cost of exiting early, whether a buyout fee applies if you want to hire the assistant directly later, and whether your assistant is an employee or a contractor.

See Delegate's Dedicated EA Model Directly

Delegate places dedicated, Philippines-based executive assistants, vetted through paid work simulations, with structured onboarding and ongoing account management built into every placement, on a flexible month-to-month basis.

Book a strategy call to see the process firsthand.