Virtual Assistant Pricing: A Comprehensive Guide for Businesses

Since 2019, I've placed 500+ VAs from Clark. 70% of clients add a second assistant within six months. Most don't because the VA's broken—they do because it works. Understanding what you'll actually pay, what you'll actually get, and why the Philippines beats every other market is the difference between a useless hire and someone who runs half your business.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A VA is a remote person who handles tasks you shouldn't. Admin, tech, customer service, data, content—whatever frees you to do the $1,000-an-hour work instead of the $10-an-hour work. That's it. No mystique.

The industry's grown from 2012 (when I started at REMAX) to now. Demand's real. People stopped hiring locally because it was stupid—pay someone $50/hour to sit at a desk in your city when someone in Clark does the same job for $8/hour, better English, and no office lease.

Why Virtual Assistant Pricing Matters

You need to know the cost because it drives everything: cash flow, time ROI, whether you can afford two, whether the VA pays for themselves. Pricing varies wildly based on:

• What they actually know how to do
• How many hours they've been doing it
• Whether it's hard or it's email
• Where they live (Philippines, India, Eastern Europe, Australia)
• Whether you pay per hour, per project, or monthly

What Virtual Assistants Actually Handle

Real workload examples I've seen work:

• Admin: Email management, calendar blocking, scheduling, file organization.
• Customer stuff: Answering support tickets, managing feedback, basic troubleshooting.
• Social media: Content calendars, posting, responding to comments—not strategy, just execution.
• Data: Spreadsheets, databases, cleaning up records, data entry.
• Research: Competitor moves, industry changes, lead lists.

How to Actually Hire a Virtual Assistant

• Write down what wastes your time: Not a job description—actually list the stuff you hate doing. "Email" is too vague. "Respond to customer inquiries, flag urgent ones, forward specs to operations" is real.
• Figure out your budget: Know how much you'll actually spend. Don't lowball yourself.
• Find them: Upwork's fine, Fiverr's fine, specialized agencies like ShoreAgents beat both because we pre-screen.
• Interview:** Ask what they've done, not what they can do. Resumes lie. "Walk me through the last social media project you managed" beats "I'm experienced" every time.
• Trial:** Two-week paid trial before you commit to anything longer.

What You'll Actually Pay

Hourly Rates

If you pay per hour (which I don't recommend, but it happens):

• Basic (Philippines, entry-level): $6–$12/hour
• Mid (Philippines, 3–5 years): $12–$25/hour
• Specialized (tech, bookkeeping, project management): $25–$70/hour
• Expert (Australia, US, EU): $50–$120/hour

The Philippine average sits around $10–$15/hour for solid work. You'll see $5/hour on Upwork; that's where you buy headaches.

Monthly Retainers

Better deal. More predictable. Real numbers from 2026:

• Basic 20 hours/week: $600–$1,000/month
• Full-time 40 hours/week (Philippines): $1,200–$2,000/month
• Specialized (bookkeeper, project manager, tech VA): $2,000–$4,500/month

A mid-level Filipino bookkeeper runs $70/hour in Australia. We hire the same person for $1,600/month (20 hours) or $3,200/month (40 hours). That maths.

Why Philippine VAs Win

I've hired offshore since 2012. Here's what actually matters:

• Cost gap: A $70/hour Australian bookkeeper is a $600/month Filipino bookkeeper. Not negotiable.
• English: Philippines has the best English in Southeast Asia. No translation layer.
• Western work culture: They know deadlines, follow specs, don't need daily handholding.
• Time zone: Clark's only 2–4 hours behind Australian east coast. Overlap for handoff work, no waiting 24 hours.
• Stability: Clark Freeport residents have NBI clearance, background checks, labour law compliance. It's legitimate.

India's cheaper. You pay for silence and timezone lag. Vietnam's getting good. Eastern Europe's solid but costs more. Hire Australian if you want no friction and deep context—accept you'll pay $50+/hour for basics.

ShoreAgents: How We Price It

I built ShoreAgents to solve what I hated about hiring offshore: vetting took forever, turnover was brutal, onboarding was chaos. We screen, train, and replace for free if it doesn't work. No hourly rate guessing. You pick a role, we give you the cost, you get a person who actually does the job.

Outsourcing vs Hiring In-House (The Math)

Hire an Australian admin: salary $55k + superannuation + leave + equipment + office space = $70k/year minimum. Hire a Filipino VA: $12k/year + our margin.

Savings range 50–70% depending on the role. A $30k/year tech VA onshore is a $6k/year tech VA offshore, properly vetted.

The catch: you don't get someone who'll stay forever for $6k. Higher turnover. We manage that. That's why you use an agency instead of Upwork.

The Real Talk on VA Pricing

You get what you pay for, but you don't need to overpay. $8/hour VA who disappears after a month costs you more than $15/hour VA who stays a year. Cheapest hire ≠ cheapest cost.

Specialization drives price. A general admin is $400/month. A bookkeeper is $1,600. A dev VA is $2,500. That's real money—spend it on someone screened, not someone cheaper.

Next Steps

If you're looking for someone who'll actually execute, we can talk. You tell us what you need, we find the person, you pay once a month. No surprises.