What is the Cost of a Virtual Assistant in 2024 (2024)

“How much does a virtual assistant cost?”-has been a common query since the term “virtual assistance” became a hype.

Although we can see more and more global businesses recognizing the value ofhiring a virtual assistant, they can not move forward with the idea as certain questions remain unanswered.

This includes differences in expectations and outcomes out of virtual assistant services. And so, the cost becomes a variable depending upon specific requirements. Nevertheless, a virtual assistant can still save you approximately 70% of your overhead costs.

To help you weigh the pros and cons before you even consider hiring a virtual assistant, this article will gradually guide you through the following topics:

How Does a Virtual Assistant Help Your Business?

A lot of businesses, specifically startups, can benefit from virtual assistants in several ways:

Although these may seem redundant to many, those with a precise business vision know-how non-core administrative tasks can throw you off course. Moreover, with over 23 types of virtual assistant services available in the market, there’s something for everyone to streamline their operations.

And since we’re already quite aware of cost constraints, finding an expert within the budget can be challenging but not impossible. ASL BPO, for example, conducts a rigorous screening process to provide the most efficient and specialized VA upon client demands.

Thus, the long-drawn-out process of VA recruitment, which may otherwise seem complex due to limited resources or knowledge regarding VAs, will be easier for your business.

Rise of Virtual Assistants in the Post-Pandemic Era

A virtual assistant is, more often than not, a cheaper option than an in-house employee. The COVID-19 pandemic and seemingly “house arrest” situation in 2020 forced most companies to adopt remote or hybrid working methods.

This left a generic message to all employers: a hybrid work model can be more useful when leveraged carefully with a well-thought-out plan.

What are the critical considerations of the plan that we faced back then?

This not only allows employees to remain happy and motivated to work but also eventually contributes to the business revenue as most employees may feel inspired to offer quality work. Consequently, ensuring both quality and quantity for your desired business outcomes.

Virtual Assistants vs. On-Site Employees: Which is Better?

Instead of simply announcing the verdict on your behalf, let us explain the possible scenarios so you can decide for yourself:

Let’s say you need your organization’s data entry tasks or SEO handled regularly and efficiently to ensure smooth operations. However, confusion surrounding the reliability, cost, and work model for outsourcing a virtual assistant over an on-site employee is definitely a logical concern.

Reliability of Virtual Assistance Services

Firstly, let’s focus on the benefits each has to offer:

This leads us to get acquainted about the major comparison facts that might make virtual assistants a cheaper option than on-site employees:

Pay Per Hour Pricing

Simply paying for the hours your remote worker has worked for, a flexibility that is unavailable for full-time on-site employees.

Replacement Flexibility

Although replacement factors entirely depend upon company policies and guidelines, virtual assistants may seemingly offer better flexibility. On-site employees require prior notice which provides them ample time to ensure job safety.

However, it’s necessary that you take ethical concerns into consideration before coming to a decision.

No Training Cost

In most cases, virtual assistants need little to no training sessions since they are known to have a decent grasp on their job responsibilities and expertise. Influencing factors such as gelling in with the team and maintaining consistent communication may seem concerning at first, but isn’t rocket-science.

On-site workers may need training sessions from time to time depending on the roles and responsibilities, unless they have previous work experience with mentionable performance and achievements.

Factors Affecting the Cost of a Virtual Assistant

Just as the salary of every employee is negotiated based on specific variables, the same applies to the cost of hiring a virtual assistant:

Experience

Experience is what sets an employee apart from the rest. This includes hands-on past employment or freelancing gigs, self-taught skills for consistent improvement, as well as adapting and improvising during difficult situations.

In a word, conventional degrees are surely a measuring factor while the aforementioned ones contribute to the whole judgment making process. In return, this contributes to the VAs continual thrive for success and companies acquire a fair benefit from their relentless efforts.

Thus, hiring an experienced VA might even cost you a bit over your budget sometimes. But in the long run, they will use their experience to get your tasks done in a professional, error-free manner, and with maximum return.

Service/Skills

The services offered or the skills required from an employee's end may cause the remuneration, either hourly, fixed, or contractual, to greatly vary.

For example, the cost of hiring a virtual assistant for data entry purposes and the cost of hiring for technical jobs differ, where VAs with technical skills require better pay.

Moreover, a few other employment factors may influence the decision making process:

Location

Geographical location plays a vital role in employment opportunities, often charged based on the living expenses of a VA.

For example, virtual assistants from Bangladesh may cost less than virtual assistants from the United States because of the comparatively lower living costs in Bangladesh. However, the advanced skill sets or learning curve offered upon your desired requirements may cause income-variability.

Contrarily, regular on-site jobs are offered with a fixed salary, irrespective of the employees location, making it quite stable and predictable.

Virtual Assistant Cost Chart on Industry-Basis

A typical virtual assistant in the United States may charge you $10-$60 per hour based on the type of service offered.

But given you consider offshoring, the cost may be lower depending on the various factors mentioned before.

Emerging business process outsourcing countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and Bangladesh can offer you virtual assistant services at a cheaper rate. Here is the cost comparison chart of virtual assistant assistants of different services to find how much a virtual assistant costs.

Note: All the costs are approximated based on the United States (US) market

The best part about hiring a VA is the flexibility and scalability you can enjoy as an employer. While the hourly cost of virtual assistants varies depending on their expertise level, availability, location, and such, the general pricing plans include the following:

Types of Pricing Plans for a Virtual Assistant

We have provided a rough estimate of services offered in different pricing packages for hiring a virtual assistant, whether it’s a part-time gig, a full-time employment, or contractual ones:

Hour-Based Pricing Plan

Pay per hour is the most popular virtual assistant pricing plan. You only pay for the hours that your VA has worked for you. Per hour payment of a virtual assistant in the United States starts at $20- $100.

Project-Based Pricing Plan

Project-based VAs have no fixed price. They charge based on the time, duration, and requirements of the project. Your VA will have a time contract to work on the project within a certain range of payment. You can also pay your project-based VA on a pay-per-hour basis.

Full-Time VA Pricing Plan

If you have regular repetitive tasks, you should hire a full-time VA. A full-time VA in the United States costs $1200-$5000/monthly. They work as per usual office hours and standards.

How to Calculate the Cost of a Virtual Assistant?

To determine the cost of a virtual assistant, first, you have to fix a base pay rate. The base pay depends on whether you are going to pay your virtual assistant based on the time frame, expertise, or project-based.

The most preferred one is the hourly pay. Allow us show you an example,

Step 1: Base Rate

Hour: 8 hours/ day

Budget: $10

Weekend: 2 days

Monthly Budget: $1760/ Mo

Step 2: Overhead Costs

Additional cost markups may be included in the invoice, although hiring from a BPO company will save you from such bindings.

For example, ASL BPO has no processing fee. Besides, they have an in-house training facility for the VAs. You will not be spending on training either. Thus, equalling to no indirect costs.

Step 3: Post-Hiring Costs

If your VA works for you more than the contractual or fixed hour, the extra hours will be calculated as overtime. You have to pay the overtime allowance accordingly.

Step 4: Formula for Calculation

$10* 176 hours = $ 1760.00

(+) Overhead cost 3% = $52.80

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Budget of hiring= $ 1812.80

(+) Overtime ( 5 hours) = $50

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The total cost of a VA = $ 1862.80

Number of VA = 2

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Total budget= $ 3725.60

[Postscript: Do not panic if you see the cost of hiring a virtual assistant exceeds your budget. Most companies offer discounts on full-time virtual assistant pricing.]

10 Well-Known VA Providers in the Global BPO Market

Now that we’re done looking at how the approximate costing is calculated, here, you can find a few virtual service providers and its related costs to acquire VA services from:

ASL BPO, a startup established in Bangladesh in 2014, has pioneered the provision of intelligent technology-based virtual assistance on a global scale. Their services now span a large customer base located in the USA, Spain, Hungary, and Australia.

2. Upwork

A globally recognized online platform that serves as a robust marketplace for connecting businesses, employers and skilled freelancers. Regarding virtual assistance services, Upwork offers a diverse pool of professionals to be hired for full-time, part-time, or contractual work at your desired budget.

If you want to find experts from their marketplace, simply follow their guidelines and give it a try!

Acquire dedicated support for your non-core administrative tasks from Prialto, a Portland-based virtual assistant provider with over 15 years of professional expertise.

Their unique subscriptions are easy-to-scale and starts from $1500 per month for each Prialto unit.

Time Etc is a virtual assistance provider to entrepreneurs, small businesses, and executives who are on the look for reliable and flexible administrative solutions from the USA.

Having served more than 22,000+ companies for streamlined services, working with global faces such as Google, Virgin, HermanMiller, Facebook, KFC, and others, have made them an unmatched competitor in the arena.

Formerly known as Worldwide101, Boldly has more than a decade of experience in the bag. Starting from our childhood craze Nickelodeon to our adult fascinations Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, Tiffany & Co., and many more have successfully collaborated with them since 2009.

Get in touch with skilled virtual assistants spanning different industries: E-Commerce, Legal, Healthcare, Insurance, and Hospitality, etc., and grow as you go with Remote CoWorker’s virtual assistance.

Big Outsource takes care of your administrative hassles and ensures 95% customer retention while letting you save up to 60% on organizational expenses. Explore their virtual assistance packages, which offer seamless scalability from 1 to 1000 agents, an unwavering commitment to legal and ethical compliance, and built-in redundancy measures.

A dynamic online platform to hire your virtual assistant without the inconvenience of training the candidates or committing to fixed contracts. Stay flexible and grow your business as Stellar Staff provides VA services across 38 time zones since 2022.

Backed by experience and incisive business foresight, Limitless came into being in 2017 and now offers virtual assistance to its clientele in 9 distinct languages. Their efforts are well-appreciated globally, owing to the 20% decrease in customer churn rate.

Formed almost two decades ago in 2015, Smith.ai offers personalized BPO services and virtual assistance by combining technologies and the sincere efforts of its staff members.

Back in 2023, LinkedIn stated that the Asia-Pacific business process outsourcing (BPO) market will grow at a CAGR of 8.6% during the forecast period of 2023 to 2030. And why is that? Here’s our summarized explanation:

BPO Companies Providing Virtual Assistance in Asia

While the average spending in the BPO industry in 2016 was $25.95 per employee, it stood at $40.02 in 2024. This not only depicts the rising demands for BPO services globally, but it also demonstrates the matter of increased pay.

However, to thrive in the competitive market and gain exposure, several countries in Asia are now offering affordable virtual assistants which are much cheaper than their European or American counterparts.

Since the Asian market is continually growing in the competitive global BPO industry, let’s look into a brief tabular description of three of the best BPO companies in each Asian region for your consideration:

South Asia has been one of the most prominent hubs for the growing BPO services industry. And thereby, becoming integral to global outsourcing operations.

An already pivotal region for outsourcing worldwide due to its multilingual workforce, competitive low labor pay, and advanced knowledge in tech.

Eastern Asia has been a dynamic landscape for outsourcing business services due to the inclusion of AI systems, big data, and self-learning apps.

The growing pool of skilled professionals in the BPO industry in western Asia has enabled the fostering of economic diversification and provided employment opportunities to the region.

Another Asian zone that shows a promising future in the business process outsourcing and IT services industry. The young and educated population is now increasingly leaning towards a tech-driven outsourcing region.

Without any further ado, allow us to guide you through the techniques of hiring and building a VA team for your company’s growth:

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant?

Every business owner faces the concern of getting their money’s worth when hiring a new recruit. Especially when it’s a virtual assistant, it may feel more troublesome as they will be working remotely with no direct supervision whatsoever.

So, here are a few key notes to follow:

How to Create the Strongest VA Team

Building a team is simply gathering all the ingredients for a recipe, each individual with unique skill sets that will shape the company’s future. And if that team is serving virtually from another geolocation, it’s necessary that you can entirely rely on their capabilities to run the operations.

But how do you create a virtual assistant team that can take responsibility head-on?

The solution is pretty straightforward:

Lastly, embrace the diversity in your VA team and incentivize the tough work they put in each month to keep them motivated and going!

To ensure that your VA’s monetary demands are met while your quality of work remains uncompromised, have a quick glance at one of the leading BPO companies in Bangladesh:

Hire a Cost-Effective VA from ASL BPO

At ASL BPO, we sternly believe that the right candidate can make a huge difference; thus we give our best to offer the most suitable virtual assistant for your growing business.