Cost of Outsourcing vs. In-House: Pricing Virtual Assistants

In 2019, I needed to hire three bookkeepers for client work. Australian bookkeeper: $70/hour. Filipino bookkeeper with the same skillset: $12/hour. Same work, 83% cheaper. That gap hasn't closed in seven years. That's the real maths behind outsourcing.

Outsourcing vs. In-House: What You're Actually Paying For

When you hire someone full-time in-house, you're paying for salary, superannuation, office rent, equipment, benefits, and the risk they'll leave halfway through a project. When you hire a VA from the Philippines, you're paying an hourly rate for work. No overheads. No drama.

There's a reason I built Shore Agents in Clark in 2019, not Sydney. The economics are brutal and obvious.

What a Virtual Assistant Actually Does

Depending on what you hire for, VAs handle:

• Email, calendar management, scheduling
• Data entry and basic bookkeeping
• Customer service and support tickets
• Social media posting and management
• Lead generation and sales follow-up
• Research and market analysis

The good ones own their role. The shit ones make you regret it. More on that below.

The Real Cost Breakdown

In-House in the US or Australia:

A full-time admin or bookkeeper runs $50,000–$70,000 annually. Add 15–20% for superannuation, equipment, office space. You're at $60,000–$85,000 minimum. And if they quit, you're hiring again in three months.

Outsourced from the Philippines:

General VA: $8–$12/hour. A bookkeeper or social media manager: $12–$25/hour. A specialist (real estate VA, marketing VA): $15–$30/hour. At 40 hours/week, that's $416–$600/week, or $21,600–$31,200 annually. No superannuation. No office. No equipment costs.

The maths: you're looking at a 60–75% cost saving. That's not an optimisation — that's a tier shift.

Why I Hire From the Philippines

Thirteen years ago, I started hiring overseas for REMAX. It wasn't idealistic. It was because we could get better work for less money. That hasn't changed.

The Philippines has:

• English speakers. Real English, not "we trained for six months" English. Most of our team grew up speaking it.
• Work ethic. Filipinos treat offshore work seriously. This is a career, not a side hustle.
• No attitude. I've hired from Eastern Europe, South America, India. The Philippines just... gets it. Cultural fit matters.
• Cost floor that actually works. At $12–$15/hour, a VA is affordable enough that you can hire someone to do the shit you hate, and the maths still work.

Clark Freeport is where we're based. It's a purpose-built business zone outside Manila. Infrastructure works. Internet is solid. Government stays out of the way. Companies like ICTSI, the world's largest port operator, are there.

Pricing Snapshot for 2026

• General Admin VA: $8–$12/hour
• Bookkeeper: $12–$20/hour
• Social Media Manager: $10–$18/hour
• Real Estate VA: $15–$30/hour
• Content Writer/Editor: $15–$25/hour

Rates vary by experience and specialisation. A skilled bookkeeper with ACCA is not the same as someone fresh out of school.

How to Hire Right

Here's what works:

1. Know what you need. "I need a VA" is useless. "I need someone to process customer refunds, update the CRM, and send weekly reports" is actionable.

2. Go through a proper agency or platform. We screen for NBI clearance, verify references, and test skills. If you grab someone off a freelance site, you get what you paid for.

3. Trial period. Hire for four weeks at 20 hours/week. You'll know in three days if it works.

4. Overlap onboarding. Don't hand off your bookkeeping and disappear. Work with them for the first two weeks.

5. Document everything. Processes, passwords, tools, edge cases. If you don't document it, your VA will invent their own way, and it'll be wrong.

The Hidden Wins

The 60–75% cost saving is obvious. The hidden stuff:

Flexibility. Need someone for 10 hours this week, 30 next week? Done. Try that with an in-house employee.

Specialisation without overhead. Want a bookkeeper for three months? A social media person for a campaign? A researcher for a project? You can. No hiring, no severance, no drama.

Redundancy. If your VA gets sick, we slot in a backup. If your in-house person gets hit by a bus, you're crying for two weeks.

Speed. Good offshore teams move fast. No meeting culture, no committee approvals, no "let me check with my manager."

What Goes Wrong

Not everything works out. Here's what I see:

• Vague briefs. If you don't tell them what success looks like, they'll make their best guess. Wrong guess every time.
• Abandonment. "I'll check in next month" doesn't work. Weekly check-ins, at minimum. You get what you supervise.
• Bad screening. Hiring the cheapest VA is a false economy. A $8/hour VA who fucks everything up costs more than a $15/hour VA who gets it right first time.
• Timezone issues. Philippines is eight+ hours ahead of US time. Plan for overlap or async communication.
• Trust issues. Some people panic about data security or think offshore equals untrustworthy. We work with contracts and strict confidentiality. Same as any vendor.

The Maths One More Time

You need a bookkeeper. Two scenarios:

In-house: salary $60,000, superannuation 10%, office/equipment $8,000. Total: $74,000/year. One person doing 40 hours/week.

Outsourced: VA at $15/hour, 40 hours/week, 52 weeks/year. Total: $31,200. Same output, $42,800 saving.

Put that $42,800 back into the business. That's what outsourcing actually is: taking money off the table for overhead and putting it back into growth.

Is Outsourcing Right for You?

Yes, if:

• You have repetitive, definable tasks (admin, bookkeeping, scheduling).
• You hate doing those tasks (most people do).
• You have $8,000–$15,000/year to spend on getting them off your plate.
• You're willing to document your processes and check in weekly.

No, if:

• You need someone for three hours/week (uneconomical).
• You can't describe what you want done.
• You need face-to-face contact for cultural reasons.
• Your work is so complex it requires months of training.

How Shore Agents Works

We find the person, screen them, match them to your role, handle the contract, and manage the relationship. You get onboarded, work with your VA for four weeks on a trial, and scale from there. If it's not working, we find someone else. If it works, they've got a long-term job and you've got a permanent team member.

We place VAs, not unicorns. Expect a good, reliable person, not a rockstar who'll read your mind. But a good, reliable person who costs $12–$20/hour beats a mediocre full-timer at $60,000/year, every single time.

Since 2019, we've placed 500+ VAs into full-time or long-term roles. 70% of clients hire a second VA within six months. That's because the first one actually works.

Get Started

If you're drowning in admin work and the maths makes sense, let's talk. Tell us what you need, and we'll find the person. It's that simple.