How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Cost in 2025? The Real Breakdown
If you've searched "virtual assistant cost" recently, you've probably landed on a range so wide it's almost useless — anywhere from $5 an hour to $4,000 a month. Both numbers are real. Neither tells you what you actually need to know.
This post breaks down every VA pricing model in plain terms, names real competitors and their real prices, exposes the hidden costs most buyers don't see coming, and gives you the framework to figure out what you should actually be paying for your situation.
The Three Major VA Pricing Models
Before comparing specific services, it helps to understand the three fundamental models in the VA industry.
Model 1: Freelance Marketplaces ($15–$30/hr Domestic, $5–$15/hr Offshore)
Platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer let you hire individual contractors directly. Domestic freelancers typically run $15–$30/hour for general admin work; specialists in bookkeeping, project management, or technical support can run $40–$60/hour. Offshore freelancers — primarily from the Philippines, India, and Eastern Europe — typically cost $5–$15/hour.
What you get: direct access to the VA, flexible hours, and low upfront cost.
What you don't get: vetting, a management layer, backup coverage, or any accountability beyond what you personally enforce. If your Upwork VA disappears mid-project — and many do — you absorb the cost and start over. According to SHRM, the cost of replacing a contractor or employee ranges from 50% to 200% of their annual cost, and every restart means you're rebuilding institutional knowledge from zero.
Model 2: Agency and Managed Services ($900–$4,000+/month)
Agency-model VA services do the hiring and management for you. You pay a monthly retainer and get a VA assigned to your account. The quality variance is enormous — some agencies run rigorous vetting programs, others run a staffing marketplace with a thin management veneer layered on top.
Here's how the major players actually price their services as of 2025:
Belay starts around $1,380/month with a 6-month minimum commitment. Belay is U.S.-based and well-regarded for executive assistant work, but that contract lock-in and premium price puts it out of reach for many growing businesses. Read a detailed breakdown at compare Belay vs THC.
Athena starts at $3,000+/month with a 12-month lock-in. Athena targets high-earning executives and startup founders, positioning itself as a premium dedicated assistant product. The experience is genuinely excellent — but committing $36,000 before the relationship has proven itself is a significant risk. See the full comparison at compare Athena vs THC.
Wing runs around $1,099+/month. Their marketing uses "dedicated VA" language, but the model is often team-based — multiple assistants may work on your account, which creates context loss and the constant need to re-brief.
Time Etc charges approximately $29/hour with packages starting around $360/month. Flexible, but you're pulling from a pool, not getting a dedicated assistant.
Model 3: Dedicated Managed VA — Mid-Market
This is where The Human Capital sits. One dedicated VA assigned to your account, supported by a Client Manager who handles oversight, QA, and performance — with no long-term contracts and no lock-in.
THC pricing: $700/month for part-time, $1,300/month for full-time, month-to-month.
The Competitor Pricing Table
| Service | Starting Price | Contract | Dedicated VA? | Client Manager Included? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belay | $1,380/mo | 6-month minimum | Yes | Limited |
| Athena | $3,000+/mo | 12-month minimum | Yes | Yes |
| Wing | $1,099+/mo | Month-to-month | Shared model | No |
| Time Etc | $360/mo ($29/hr) | Month-to-month | No (pool) | No |
| Upwork (domestic) | $15–$30/hr | None | You manage | No |
| Upwork (offshore) | $5–$15/hr | None | You manage | No |
| The Human Capital | $700/mo | Month-to-month | Yes | Yes |
The Hidden Costs of Cheap VA Services
The headline rate is never the full cost. Here's what most buyers learn the hard way — often after two or three bad experiences.
Turnover and Retraining
Freelance VA relationships on marketplace platforms average less than six months. Every time your VA leaves, you lose the institutional knowledge they've built — your preferences, your workflows, your client context, your communication quirks. Retraining a new VA takes 20–40 hours of your time in the first month alone. At your effective hourly rate, that's not a minor inconvenience. That's real money spent on a problem that could have been prevented.
No Management Layer
When you hire a freelancer directly, you become the manager. You're running performance reviews. You're chasing missed deadlines. You're re-briefing dropped tasks. This defeats a significant portion of the delegation benefit. The point of hiring a VA is to reclaim your time — not to add "VA manager" to your job description.
No Backup Coverage
A freelance VA goes on vacation, gets sick, or simply disappears. Work stops. For a business owner who has delegated email management, scheduling, and client communications, a 10-day gap isn't a minor inconvenience — it's an operational crisis. A managed service with backup coverage means your account never goes dark.
No Accountability
Without an agency structure, there's no one to escalate to when performance slips. The VA knows this. It affects how they prioritize your work relative to their other clients, and there's nothing structural to correct it.
What THC's Pricing Actually Includes
When you visit our pricing page, here's what's covered at the $700–$1,300/month range:
- One dedicated VA assigned exclusively to your account — not rotated, not shared, not a pool
- A dedicated Client Manager who runs weekly check-ins, monitors deliverable quality, handles escalations, and conducts quarterly performance reviews
- Backup VA coverage during leave — a briefed backup who already knows your account, so nothing falls through during your primary VA's absence
- Access to the full executive assistant services skill set — email management, scheduling, data entry, document handling, CRM updates, and more
- No setup fees, no lock-in, no rollover restrictions, no surprises on your next invoice
For businesses in major metro areas, we also offer specialized support — for example, our New York executive assistant service is designed to match the pace and expectations of New York-based executives and their teams. Our back-office support covers everything from inbox management to vendor coordination, all under one dedicated relationship.
The Real ROI Calculation
Here's the math that changes how most people think about VA pricing.
If your effective hourly rate — consulting fees, client billings, or what an hour of your focused work is genuinely worth to your business — is $150/hour, and you're spending 20 hours per week on administrative tasks (email, scheduling, invoicing, data entry, document management, social media), that's:
20 hours/week × $150/hour × 4 weeks = $12,000/month of your time on admin.
A THC part-time VA costs $700/month. A full-time VA costs $1,300/month.
That's a 17x return at part-time and a 9x return at full-time — before accounting for the fact that a dedicated VA executes many of those tasks faster and more consistently than you do, because they're not simultaneously running a business, managing a team, and context-switching between strategic and operational work.
Even if you value your time at $75/hour — a conservative number for most business owners — 20 hours per week is $6,000/month. A $700 VA still returns 8.5x.
The question isn't whether you can afford a VA. The question is whether you can afford not to have one.
Who Should Choose Which Model?
Freelance marketplace: Best for one-off projects, specialized skills, and founders who are comfortable managing contractors directly and have the bandwidth to do so. Not ideal for recurring operational support.
Premium agency (Belay, Athena): Best for C-suite executives with complex scheduling demands, significant travel logistics, and budget flexibility who need a white-glove experience and don't mind the long-term commitment.
The Human Capital: Best for founders, executives, and growing teams who want a dedicated, managed VA without a long-term financial commitment. The $700/$1,300 price point with no lock-in is specifically built for businesses that are scaling and need flexibility as they grow.
Offshore freelance only: Best for businesses with tight budgets, highly routine tasks, and genuine tolerance for the time investment required to manage offshore contractors effectively. Be honest with yourself about whether that tolerance exists before you commit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the cheapest way to hire a virtual assistant?
The cheapest entry point is a freelance marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr, where offshore VAs can cost $5–$15/hour. However, "cheapest" and "most cost-effective" are not the same thing. When you factor in your management time, turnover risk, retraining cost, and the absence of backup coverage, the total cost of a cheap VA is often higher than a managed service over a 12-month period. If budget is a real constraint, a part-time managed VA at $700/month frequently delivers better value than an $8/hour freelancer who requires significant oversight to function.
Is $700/month enough to get quality VA support?
Yes — if it's a managed service with a dedicated VA and a quality control layer. At $700/month, THC's part-time plan provides one dedicated VA supported by a Client Manager. That's not a shared inbox team or a rotating pool. It's one person, focused on your account, with oversight built into the model. The price is lower than competitors because THC operates with lean infrastructure and doesn't charge lock-in premiums or pass along expensive brand marketing costs. The quality is not a function of the price gap.
What's included in THC's pricing that isn't in other services?
Three things most services don't include at this price point: a dedicated Client Manager at every plan level (not just premium tiers), built-in backup VA coverage so your account never goes dark during your VA's absence, and a month-to-month commitment with no penalty for cancellation. Competitors like Belay and Athena charge significantly more and still require multi-month contracts. THC doesn't.
Ready to stop doing $15/hour admin work with a $150/hour brain? Book a free 15-minute strategy call and get matched with a dedicated VA within 48 hours.