10 Best Virtual Assistant Companies in 2026 (Tested & Compared)

The best virtual assistant company for most businesses in 2026 is Magic, which pairs you with a dedicated, heavily vetted assistant for $13.50 an hour. Time etc is the runner-up if you'd rather have a US-based assistant and only need 10 to 20 hours a month. We reviewed the top ranking roundups, then went to each company's own site in August 2026 to verify pricing, work model, and where assistants sit. We also pulled third-party ratings from Clutch, Trustpilot, and similar review sites, and we list an honest downside for every pick, including our number one. Here's how all 10 of the best virtual assistant companies compare.

Quick comparison

1. Magic (best overall)

Magic matches you with a dedicated human assistant drawn from what it says is the top 0.5% of applicants, after live interviews and training. The company has been at this for 10 years and reports more than 2 million tasks completed per year. Every assistant gets paid access to top AI tools, so routine work like inbox triage and research moves faster than it would with a typical offshore hire. It's the best fit for founders and small teams who want full-time or half-time help without a US salary.

Pricing as of August 2026 is $270 a week for a 20-hour part-time assistant or $540 a week for full-time, billed every four weeks with no contracts. Both work out to about $13.50 an hour. Placement usually happens in under a week.

Pros:

• The effective hourly rate undercuts every US-based service on this list by 60% or more.
• Assistants come trained on AI tools, and Magic pays for the subscriptions.
• You can cancel anytime, and you pay nothing until your assistant starts.

Cons:

• Independent reviews are mixed. RatingFacts shows a polarized 3.5/5 across 37 reviews, with complaints about billing and support alongside the praise.
• The site doesn't clearly state where your assistant will be based, so ask during matching.

2. Time etc (best US-based virtual assistant on a budget)

Time etc has offered US-based dedicated assistants since 2007, and its assistants average 12 years of professional experience. You get one named assistant, unused hours roll over, and the company covers sickness and holidays with backup help. It suits solopreneurs and small business owners who need steady part-time support from someone in a US time zone.

Official pricing runs from $390 a month for 10 hours to $2,160 a month for 60 hours, so $36 to $39 an hour. Customers rate it 4.9/5 on Trustpilot, the highest client score we found among US-based services.

Pros:

• Pricing is public, simple, and cheaper than most US-based rivals.
• Unused hours roll over to the next month.

Cons:

• There's no full-time option, so you'll outgrow it if you need 40 hours a week.
• At $36 an hour and up, heavy usage gets expensive fast.

3. Belay (best for executive assistants plus bookkeeping)

Belay places US-based executive assistants, and it also staffs bookkeepers, accountants, and payroll help under the same roof. The company claims a 93% first-match success rate and has made the Inc. 5000 list ten years running. It works well for churches, nonprofits, and established businesses that want one vendor for admin and finance support.

Belay doesn't publish prices. You have to book a sales call, and Assistant Scout's 2026 review estimates around $42 to $46 an hour, or roughly $1,380 a month for 30 hours. The same review puts Belay at 4.1/5 on Trustpilot.

Pros:

• You can add bookkeeping or payroll without hiring a second vendor.
• Matches come with a dedicated success consultant and a re-match guarantee.

Cons:

• Hidden pricing means you can't compare costs without a sales call.
• It's one of the priciest options here for plain admin work.

4. Boldly (best premium service)

Boldly runs a subscription staffing model where every assistant is a W2 employee with benefits, not a contractor, and most bring 10 to 15 years of experience. You meet your candidate before you subscribe. Its clients skew toward executives at larger companies who need senior-level support and clean compliance.

Pricing starts at $2,600 a month for 40 hours, about $65 an hour, with plans up to 100 hours and specialist work billed at $79 an hour. You can pick staff based in North America or Europe. Boldly holds a 4.8/5 on Clutch and a 4.8/5 employee rating on Glassdoor, which usually signals low assistant turnover.

Pros:

• W2 employment protects you from contractor misclassification risk.
• Happy staff tend to stick around, so you rarely re-onboard.

Cons:

• At $65 an hour, it costs nearly five times as much as Magic or Wing.
• There's no free trial before you commit.

5. Athena (best full-time executive assistant for founders)

Athena supplies one dedicated, full-time executive assistant who is vetted, trained, equipped, and employed by Athena, and it serves more than 3,000 clients. The company says it screens 30,000 to 60,000 applicants a month and accepts the top 1%. It targets startup founders and executives who want an EA embedded in their whole life, from inbox to travel to household admin.

Pricing is a flat $3,000 a month with a 90-day initial commitment, which works out to about $18.75 an hour for full-time coverage. Athena claims email management alone saves clients 5 to 7 hours a week.

Pros:

• A flat rate for a trained full-time EA is simpler than hourly plans.
• SOC 2 Type II certification is rare in this industry.

Cons:

• There's almost no third-party review footprint on Trustpilot, G2, or Clutch, so you're trusting Athena's own numbers.
• The 90-day minimum stings if the match doesn't work.

6. Prialto (best for teams and enterprises)

Prialto sells managed virtual assistant "units" that come with an engagement manager and a trained backup, so coverage never lapses when someone's out sick. Assistants work 9 to 6 in US and UK time zones. It fits sales teams and enterprises that need documented processes and support that survives staff turnover.

Pricing is $1,600 a month for 55 hours, about $29 an hour, with full-time support from $3,600 a month. There's a 90-day minimum and a $250 setup fee, waived on annual deals. Prialto holds a perfect 5.0/5 on Clutch across 45 reviews, the strongest verified client rating on this list.

Pros:

• Backup coverage and free overflow hours come standard.
• The Clutch record is flawless across 45 verified reviews.

Cons:

• The 90-day minimum and setup fee make it a slow, committed start.
• It's built for process-heavy teams, so solo owners will find it rigid.

7. Wing (cheapest dedicated full-time assistant)

Wing gives every client a dedicated assistant backed by internal quality management, and it says it screens over 2 million applicants a year across 10,000+ active assistants. Its offshore talent works your time zone, whatever that is. Wing makes sense for startups and ecommerce businesses that want a full-time person at the lowest possible cost.

Official pricing is $699 a month for part-time (80 hours) and $999 a month for full-time (160 hours), which comes to about $6.25 an hour full-time. Reviewers rate it 4.3/5 on G2.

Pros:

• Full-time dedicated help for under $1,000 a month is the lowest verified price we found.
• A management layer supervises quality, unlike direct-hire marketplaces.

Cons:

• At this price, expect a junior generalist rather than a seasoned EA.
• Wing doesn't say on its pricing pages where your assistant will be located.

8. MyOutDesk (best for real estate)

MyOutDesk has placed Philippines-based virtual assistants since 2008 and built its whole training program around real estate. Its VAs already know tools like Follow Up Boss, MLS platforms, and Mojo Dialer, so agents skip weeks of onboarding. If you run a brokerage or a lending shop, this is the specialist pick. If you're hiring offshore for the first time, our guide to hiring a virtual assistant in the Philippines covers what to expect.

Pricing starts at $1,988 a month for a full-time dedicated VA, about $12.40 an hour, dropping to $1,788 on a 12-month plan. Assistant Scout's review confirms a 4.5/5 Trustpilot score.

Pros:

• Real estate training out of the box saves weeks of ramp-up.
• Full-time-only staffing keeps your VA loyal to one client: you.

Cons:

• There's no part-time plan at all.
• Outside real estate, its training advantage mostly disappears.

9. Zirtual (best US-based option for solo professionals)

Zirtual matches you with a US-based, college-educated assistant and promises a match in as little as 24 hours, with 2-hour response times once you're running. It also staffs virtual paralegals, which few rivals offer. It fits attorneys, consultants, and solo founders who want an American assistant on a small monthly plan.

Per The EA Index, plans run $549 a month for 12 hours or $1,249 for 36 hours, so roughly $35 to $46 an hour, month to month with no setup fee. Zirtual sits at 4.3/5 on Trustpilot.

Pros:

• The 12-hour plan is a low-risk way to test a US-based assistant.
• The paralegal option is a genuine niche strength.

Cons:

• Plans cap at 36 hours a month, so it can't scale with you.
• Its per-hour cost beats Belay but still triples the offshore picks.

10. Fancy Hands (best for one-off small tasks)

Fancy Hands works differently from everyone else here. Instead of one dedicated person, you buy a monthly bundle of requests, and any available US-based assistant handles each one within about 20 minutes of work. That's handy for calls you dread making, appointment scheduling, and quick research. Skim our virtual assistant tasks list to see which jobs fit a 20-minute window.

Official pricing starts at $35 a month for 3 requests, with 15 requests for $125. Buyer beware, though: it scores just 2.4/5 across 81 reviews on VirtualAssistantAssistant, with complaints about quality and communication.

Pros:

• You can start for $35 with zero commitment.
• Unused requests roll over.

Cons:

• The 2.4/5 aggregate review score is the worst on this list.
• Nobody learns your business, since a different assistant may handle every task.

How we chose the best virtual assistant companies

Most pages ranking for this keyword are written by VA companies that put themselves first, quote stale prices, and skip ratings entirely. We did it differently. We pulled pricing from each company's own site in August 2026, confirmed the work model (dedicated versus on-demand) and assistant location, and only cited ratings we could trace to a source. We scored each company on verified price per hour, vetting depth, flexibility (contracts, minimums, cancellation), and independent review scores. We cut candidates we couldn't verify, including WoodBows, whose claims we couldn't confirm through any reliable third party. The market itself keeps growing, from $6.37 billion in 2024 to a projected $8.17 billion in 2025, and about 41% of US small businesses now use a VA, so stale roundups age quickly.

Once you've picked a company, our step-by-step guide on how to hire a virtual assistant walks through interviews, trials, and onboarding.

FAQ

How much does a virtual assistant cost?

Verified August 2026 prices range from about $6.25 an hour (Wing full-time) to $65 an hour (Boldly). Offshore dedicated assistants cluster around $6 to $14 an hour, and US-based services run $35 to $65. Companies report cutting costs about 52% on average by using a VA instead of a full-time employee. If you mainly need phone coverage, compare these numbers against our breakdown of virtual receptionist pricing first.

What's the best virtual assistant company for startups?

Our top overall pick works well for startups because it's cheap enough for a pre-revenue budget and has no contracts. Wing is the strongest pure-budget alternative at $999 a month full-time. Founders who insist on US-based help should start with Time etc's $390 plan.

Should I hire a US-based or an offshore virtual assistant?

Pick US-based (Time etc, Zirtual, Boldly) when the work involves phone calls with your customers or US-specific context. Go offshore when the work is email, scheduling, research, or data entry, because you'll pay a third of the price for comparable output. Entrepreneurs who delegate consistently report getting back roughly 13 to 15 hours a week either way.

What's the difference between a dedicated and an on-demand virtual assistant?

A dedicated assistant works only for you on a set schedule, learns your tools, and gets better over time. On-demand services like Fancy Hands route each task to whoever is free. Dedicated wins for recurring work, and on-demand only makes sense for occasional 20-minute errands.

How many hours a month do I actually need?

Start by tracking a week of admin work. Most solo owners find 10 to 20 hours a month (Time etc or Zirtual territory) covers inbox and scheduling. If you delegate whole functions like customer support or bookkeeping prep, jump straight to a full-time plan, since the per-hour math improves sharply.

Can I cancel these services anytime?

Usually, but check the fine print. Time etc, Zirtual, and Wing run month to month. Prialto and Athena both require 90-day initial commitments, and MyOutDesk discounts its rate if you lock in 12 months.