Author:
Vincent Mijares
Virtual assistant pricing spans roughly $4 an hour for general offshore admin support to $85 an hour for specialized US-based expertise. Three variables set the price independently: where the assistant is based, how specialized the role is, and whether you’re hiring through a marketplace, direct hire, or managed agency. A US in-house hire’s true first-year cost typically runs 1.25x to 1.4x their base salary once payroll taxes, benefits, and onboarding are counted, a comparison most VA pricing guides skip entirely.
Ask five VA providers what they charge and none of them are lying, they’re just describing different products wearing the same job title. Geography, specialization, and hiring model each move the price independently, and most pricing pages only show you one variable at a time.
Freelance marketplace
Low headline rate
Direct hire
Medium headline rate
Managed agency
Single flat invoice
Self-vetted, high
turnover risk
Founder handles payroll, compliance, replacement
Vetting, onboarding,
replacement included
Freelance marketplace
Low headline rate
Self-vetted, high
turnover risk
Direct hire
Medium headline rate
Founder handles payroll, compliance, replacement
Managed agency
Single flat invoice
Vetting, onboarding,
replacement included
A general admin VA in the Philippines costs meaningfully less than a specialized bookkeeping VA in the same country. A US-based executive assistant costs more than either, regardless of model. And the same role at the same experience level can cost two or three times more or less depending on whether you’re hiring a freelancer directly or working with a managed agency that bundles recruiting, training, and replacement coverage into the rate.
This guide breaks all three variables down separately, then puts them together.
Cost of living, not skill or quality, drives most of the gap between regions.
|
Region
|
Hourly range
|
Full-time monthly
|
Best for
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Philippines
|
$5–$17/hr
|
$1,000–$2,800
|
English proficiency, mature BPO infrastructure
|
|
India
|
$4–$18/hr
|
$700–$3,000
|
Technical, data, and analytical work
|
|
Latin America
|
$8–$30/hr
|
$1,400–$4,800
|
Live US-hours overlap, bilingual support
|
|
South Africa
|
$5–$25/hr
|
$900–$4,000
|
Native English, UK and US East Coast overlap
|
|
Kenya and Nigeria
|
$4–$8/hr
|
$700–$1,100
|
Budget-conscious, full UK-day overlap
|
|
United States
|
$18–$65/hr
|
$3,200–$10,400
|
Domestic presence, regulatory-specific work
|
|
United Kingdom
|
$20–$60/hr
|
$3,200–$9,600
|
UK business hours, client-facing roles
|
Ranges aggregated across multiple independent salary and market-rate sources as of mid-2026. Individual providers vary.
The Philippines has become the default choice for a lot of English-speaking VA work, not because it’s the absolute cheapest option (India and parts of Africa can undercut it), but because of English proficiency, a mature BPO infrastructure, and decades of built-up cultural alignment with US business norms.
South Africa carries a modest premium over the Philippines that buys native-level English fluency and a timezone that overlaps the full UK workday and US East Coast mornings, real-time collaboration that async-only offshore markets can’t offer. Latin America’s premium reflects the same logic in reverse: LATAM-based assistants work the same hours as US teams without an overnight shift.
$4–$85/hr Full market range across all countries, roles, and hiring models
$4,700–$5,475 SHRM’s average cost per hire for a US employee, recruiting costs alone
1.25x–1.4x True first-year cost of a US employee relative to base salary once benefits and onboarding are included
Skill and specialization move price more than almost anything else once geography is held constant.
|
Role
|
Entry level
|
Mid-level
|
Senior/specialits
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
General admin
|
$15–$25/hr
|
$18–$28/hr
|
$25–$40/hr
|
|
Customer service
|
$15–$22/hr
|
$18–$28/hr
|
$25–$40/hr
|
|
Bookkeeping
|
$18–$25/hr
|
$22–$35/hr
|
$35–$75/hr
|
|
Marketing support
|
$18–$28/hr
|
$25–$40/hr
|
$40–$85/hr
|
|
Executive assistant
|
$20–$30/hr
|
$25–$45/hr
|
$45–$85/hr
|
These are US-market rates specifically, aggregated across independent salary and marketplace sources (ZipRecruiter, Indeed, Glassdoor, Upwork, PayScale). Offshore rates for the same roles run meaningfully lower, following the country ranges above. Specialization compounds with experience rather than adding to it: a senior bookkeeping VA isn’t “senior admin plus a bit more,” it’s a genuinely different skill set, which is why the top of that range roughly triples the bottom.
|
|
Freelance marketplace
|
Direct hire (self-managed)
|
Managed agency
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Typical hourly range
|
$10–$35/hr
|
$4–$45/hr depending on country
|
Often billed monthly, $1,300–$3,200/mo dedicated
|
|
Vetting
|
Self-managed by you
|
Self-managed by you
|
Handled by the agency
|
|
Onboarding support
|
None
|
None
|
Usually included
|
|
Replacement if it doesn't work out
|
Start over yourself
|
Start over yourself
|
Often included
|
|
Best for
|
One-off, well-defined tasks
|
Founders with bandwidth to manage directly
|
Ongoing, recurring operational support
|
The headline rate on a marketplace or a direct-hire job posting is genuinely the lowest number on paper. It’s also the number that excludes the most: your own hours sourcing and vetting candidates, ongoing management overhead, and the cost of starting over if the hire doesn’t work out. A managed agency’s monthly rate looks higher in isolation because it’s pricing in work that the other two models simply shift onto you.
This is the comparison most VA pricing guides skip, and it matters because a $25/hr in-house hire and a $25/hr VA aren’t actually the same cost once everything else is counted.
According to SHRM’s benchmarking data, the average cost per hire in the US runs $4,700 to $5,475 for non-executive roles, and that figure covers only direct recruiting costs, job postings, recruiter time, interview hours. It doesn’t include what happens after the hire.
Once payroll taxes (7.65% employer-side FICA, a fixed federal obligation), health insurance, paid time off, training, and the productivity ramp during someone’s first few months are factored in, the true first-year cost of a US employee typically lands at 1.25x to 1.4x their base salary. A $60,000 salary hire often costs $75,000 to $85,000 in actual first-year spend, and that’s before factoring in what happens if the hire doesn’t work out and the process restarts.
None of this makes a US direct hire the wrong choice. For roles that genuinely require domestic presence, specific regulatory knowledge, or real-time collaboration during US hours, it’s often the right one. But it’s a materially different cost basis than a job posting’s hourly rate suggests, and comparing that rate directly against a VA’s hourly rate without adjusting for it compares two different things.
Here’s an illustrative example, not a documented case, but a pattern worth thinking through before defaulting to the lowest number on a page.
A six-hour research task given to two different assistants. The first, an inexperienced VA at $4/hour, takes twelve hours instead of six and requires real review and correction afterward. The second, a more experienced VA at $30/hour, finishes in four hours with a light review pass. Once the founder’s own review time gets counted at any reasonable hourly value, the cheaper assistant frequently ends up costing more in total, not less.
The lesson isn’t “always pay more.” It’s that the headline rate is one input, not the whole answer. A hire that requires constant correction or re-explaining isn’t actually cheap, the cost just moved from an invoice to your own calendar.
Beyond the headline rate, a few costs show up regardless of which model you choose.
Recruiting and vetting time. Whether it’s your own hours screening freelancers, or a managed agency’s process built into their rate, someone has to do this work. It’s either your time or it’s priced into what you’re paying.
Management overhead. A freelancer or direct hire needs ongoing oversight, task assignment, quality checks, course correction, and it’s the cost most likely to be invisible until it’s already eating your week.
Replacement risk. If a freelance or direct hire doesn’t work out, you’re starting over, re-vetting, re-onboarding, re-explaining context. Managed agencies typically build a replacement guarantee into the arrangement specifically to remove this risk, which is part of what the higher monthly rate is actually paying for.
Early-stage, testing the model. A part-time offshore assistant, 15 to 25 hours a week, usually fits comfortably within $600 to $1,500 a month. The goal here is buying back founder time for revenue-generating work, not building a full operational team yet.
Growing, recurring operational load. Once the work is consistent rather than occasional, a managed agency or a mid-level direct hire in the $1,500 to $3,500 a month range typically provides more consistency than continuing to patch things together with freelancers.
Multiple functions need dedicated coverage. At this stage, budgets commonly run $4,000 to $10,000 a month across two or three specialized roles, customer service, admin, marketing, rather than one generalist stretched across everything.
Whatever stage you’re at, the actual signal that it’s time to add support usually shows up in your own calendar before it shows up in a budget spreadsheet.
Delegate operates as a managed agency model: dedicated Philippines-based assistants trained on the specific workflows and platforms your business runs, with recruiting, onboarding, and replacement coverage built into a single monthly invoice rather than billed hourly.
Delegate’s specific pricing isn’t published as a flat rate card, since placements are scoped to the role and workload. If you want an exact number for a specific role, that’s a fifteen-minute conversation, not a guessing game, and it’s worth comparing directly against the true cost of whichever alternative you’re actually weighing it against, not just the headline hourly rate.
There isn’t a single meaningful average, the honest range spans roughly $4 to $85 an hour depending on country, role, and hiring model. General offshore admin sits at the low end, specialized US-based expertise at the high end.
Not inherently. The price gap between regions primarily reflects cost of living, not skill level. A well-vetted offshore VA with real experience often outperforms an unvetted hire at any price point. Vetting and training predict quality far more reliably than geography does.
Don’t compare the headline hourly rate alone. A US in-house hire’s true first-year cost typically runs 1.25x to 1.4x their base salary once payroll taxes, benefits, and onboarding are included, per SHRM’s benchmarking data.
Typically recruiting, vetting, onboarding support, and a replacement guarantee if the placement doesn’t work out. A marketplace rate usually covers only hours worked, with everything else falling on you.
Latin America matches US hours closely with no overnight shift required. South Africa overlaps most of the US East Coast morning and the full UK workday. The Philippines and India work best for asynchronous tasks that don’t require live back-and-forth.
Delegate places dedicated, Philippines-based virtual assistants trained on your specific role and workflows, with recruiting, onboarding, and replacement coverage built into one predictable monthly invoice.
Book a strategy call to get an exact number for your specific hiring need.
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