Time etc is our pick for the best virtual personal assistant service
Updated on March 30, 2023
Fact checked byMadeline Simpson
We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more. Business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs can save time and money by outsourcing time-consuming tasks. Finding the best virtual personal assistant services reduces the need for additional full- or part-time staff. Instead of employees on the clock looking for something to do during downtimes, virtual assistants are paid as needed. The best services assist with simple tasks like scheduling appointments and handling correspondence, but they also can tackle more challenging assignments, such as writing social media marketing campaigns and acting as a business’s customer support.Top services also have dedicated assistants who can become familiar with your business and recurring tasks. Best Virtual Personal Assistant Services Best Virtual Personal Assistant Services Final Verdict Compare Services FAQ Methodology Why We Chose It We chose Time etc as the best overall because it offers dedicated VAs, a money-back guarantee, and the ability to roll over unused hours. Pros & Cons Pros Dedicated U.S.-based VAs Roll over unused hours month to month Change plans at any time Cons Only up to 60 hours per month Relatively expensive Overview Time etc’s virtual assistant team is led by Penni Pike, who served as the personal assistant to Virgin Group founder Richard Branson for 31 years. The company offers virtual assistants to more than 22,000 clients. Time etc offers only U.S.-based VAs, who have an average of 12 years experience and are vetted using a 10-step selection process. Skills offered by VAs include administration and organization, writing, marketing, social media, researching, sales administration, and more. Time etc users get access to a dedicated virtual assistant who gets to know their business inside and out, as well as access to VAs with specific skills for no extra cost. Clients can even share their assistants with colleagues. Users can request services online, via a mobile app, by email, or by phone. The company offers a 100% money-back guarantee, same-day turnaround, and the option to cancel services anytime. Time etc offers virtual assistant packages priced by total monthly hours with no setup costs. Even though the first task is free, and any unused hours can be rolled over into the next month, we found the service to be extremely expensive for the limited number of hours you can use per month. Users have access to only 60 hours of assistance per month. Why We Chose It MyTasker earned our choice as runner-up because it offers skilled VAs in a supervised environment, trial offers, and flexible pricing. Pros & Cons Pros Backup VAs Pay-as-you-go option Discounts available Cons Trial tasks cost money, and details are fuzzy Overview India-based MyTasker was founded in 2012 to offer 24/7 virtual assistant services in any country and time zone. Rather than relying on a network of work-from-home virtual assistants, MyTasker's VAs work in one office with 24/7 security camera monitoring for additional accountability and security. VA skills include administrative assistance, accounting, writing and editing, web design and development, digital marketing, and IT support. MyTasker always trains a backup VA so that if a client's assigned VA has to miss work, MyTasker is still able to respond quickly to emergency requests. MyTasker can assign an account manager to any user who needs VAs with multiple skills. This point of contact will help brainstorm and scope out the needs of each user and collaborate on implementation strategies. The company offers monthly plans priced by total hours, pay-as-you-go pricing, and pricing for a dedicated, full-time virtual assistant. Discounts are available for paying for three months, six months, or one year at a time. Moving back to that trial, users can try out MyTasker's services, but each task will cost you $1. Plus the details of this trial are fuzzy at best. You can get a full-time virtual assistant for $1,200 a month, and you can pay as you go for $18 per hour. Why We Chose It BELAY's dedicated, college-educated, U.S.-based career professionals earned it our selection as the best for highly qualified VAs. Pros Assistant acceptance rate lower than Harvard Dedicated U.S.-based VAs Client Success Consultant helps you find the right VA Cons Does not disclose pricing structure on site Must request a consultation for full service details Overview BELAY provides virtual assistants for small and large businesses nationwide. It uses a rigorous search process to find seasoned, remote professionals in the U.S. with proven experience in their careers, including virtual assistants, bookkeepers, and social media strategists. It provides services for executives, entrepreneurs, small businesses, attorneys, consultants, and more. Onboarding starts when clients meet with a team member to discuss their needs. Next, they are assigned a Client Success Consultant who works with them step by step through the process; the consultant works with the client to find the right talent for their needs. Finally, the Client Success Consultant sets up a kickoff call before onboarding the VA with the client. The company also supplies additional support and education for its clients, including a number of blog posts, guides, a podcast, and more to help businesses learn to use remote workers effectively. Except for noting that virtual assistants are available starting at $1,380 per month, pricing is not disclosed on the company's website; it offers prices only for clients who request and complete a full consultation. Why We Chose It Fancy Hands allows users to request quick or recurring tasks and provides dedicated virtual assistants with budget-friendly pricing. Pros & Cons Pros Simple approach Choose standard or live requests Unused requests are rolled over into the next month Cons Live requests charged by the minute Standard requests longer than 20 minutes require approval Overview Fancy Hands offers U.S.-based virtual assistant services to clients around the world. Fancy Hands offers two types of requests. A standard request is for a maximum of 20 minutes of work is answered in less than 24 hours. These requests are best for research or tasks that involve a lot of back-and-forth. If a request takes longer than 20 minutes, the assistant will communicate with the client to discuss how many requests it will use up and request approval. Live requests connect users with an assistant via text or webchat for requests up to a maximum of 10 minutes of work. Live requests are charged by the minute, so a request that takes 12 minutes will count as two requests, leaving the user eight more minutes for their second request. Users also can request recurring tasks that can be set to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or on weekdays. Fancy Hands also will send an email one day prior, giving users the option to skip or stop the request completely. Any unused requests are rolled over into the next month. Features Like most virtual assistant services, Fancy Hands offers monthly pricing by the total amount of requests, but the company also offers annual rates at a discount. Users can request a dedicated VA, billed by the minute, with whom they can communicate using any tools they prefer (e.g., email, Slack). Why We Chose It We picked WoodBows as the best service guarantee because it promises to double the hours purchased and have an expert take over if you're not satisfied. Pros & Cons Pros Available from 8 a.m.–6 p.m. in your time zone Custom plans available Dedicated VAs Cons Somewhat more expensive than other companies Native English-speaking VAs cost extra Overview WoodBows boasts more than 1,100+ clients and a 98.9% client-retention rate. It provides dedicated, English-fluent virtual assistants based in the Philippines or India. U.S.-based native English-speaking VAs are available at a higher cost. The company selects only the top 3% of the VA applicants it receives and hires only college-educated candidates with 10 or more years of experience in their fields. Virtual assistants are available for bookkeeping, accounting, real estate, software development, digital and social media marketing, customer support, writing, and graphic and web design. Every WoodBows client is assigned a dedicated virtual assistant who can be reached by video, phone, or web chat any time of the day or night. Dedicated VAs will schedule appointments, coordinate meetings, and manage your calendar for you. All VAs work from well-supervised offices and are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.–6 p.m. in your time zone. Pricing is based on the number of hours the VA works per month, and clients can get a lower hourly rate if they sign up for longer time periods. You can pay monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. The prices below reflect the price if you purchase the plan on a monthly basis. There is also a custom plan that clients can build with WoodBows depending on how many hours of support they need. Why We Chose It Prialto is our choice as the best for executives because it focuses exclusively on providing virtual administrative assistants to executives, entrepreneurs, and businesses. Pros & Cons Pros Trains back-up VAs Specializes in VAs for executives and businesses Cons More expensive than most companies Pricing for organizations not disclosed Overview Prialto is a U.S.-based virtual assistant company offering VAs for executive teams. The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with a global network of talent in the Phillipines, Kenya, and Guatemala. Rather than assigning a single virtual assistant, Prialto offers clients a team with an engagement manager, a primary assistant, a backup assistant, and a team lead. Prialto trains its virtual assistants to be proficient in popular administrative tools and tasks. Once a client is onboarded, the company works with users to get their assistants trained on any specific processes. Assistants can be reached via email, chat, or phone. All of Prialto’s virtual assistants work in offices secured with desktop monitoring, security cards, IP restrictions, video monitoring, and more. All client processes are documented, and a backup is trained if a client’s primary assistant is unavailable. Prialto offers simple pricing without any extra fees or hourly charges. But we found Prialto's prices on the steeper side compared to similar services. And pricing for organizations is not disclosed on the company's website, so if your business requires services, you'll have to contact Prialto directly. Virtual assistants (VAs) can help your company manage a number of tasks. But these services and the cost vary widely. Time etc made our pick as the best overall virtual assistant provider because users have access to a U.S.-based virtual assistant, a money-back guarantee, and the option to roll over any unused VA hours. But if Time etc's services aren't a good fit for you or your business, one of the other providers that made our list might be better suited for you. A virtual assistant service offers skilled remote assistants who can help business owners with a variety of tasks they otherwise would have to do themselves or pay an employee to do. It could be anything from responding to emails and customer service requests to updating a website or offering technical support. Most services offer their clients a dedicated virtual assistant. Virtual personal assistant services start by setting up a meeting with a client to assess their needs. Next, the service assigns either a dedicated assistant who matches those skills or an account manager who can delegate tasks to the right individuals. Virtual assistant services make it easy for users to request tasks directly with their VA by email, phone, or chat. These services offer pricing plans based on the total number of hours that users can request each month or week. Personal assistant services are offered in monthly plans priced by the total amount of requests, usually translated as hours, available to a client each month. Pricing ranges between about $9 per hour to about $25 per hour, with the smallest packages available coming in at around 10 hours per month. Higher-priced packages typically reflect additional available hours and sometimes include additional features, like a backup assistant or an account manager. Small business owners often are caught at that tipping point between having too much to do every day that distracts them from their business and not enough money to hire full-time employees to handle the overflow work. A virtual assistant can bridge that gap by handling a variety of tasks as needed for a reasonable hourly rate, freeing up time for owners to focus on the work that helps their businesses grow. We looked at more than a dozen personal assistant services for this review. We made sure to choose providers with well-trained and educated assistants, whether they were based in the U.S. or in another country. Reliability was another important consideration, so providers that offered security, supervision, project managers, and backup assistants also were high on our list. Finally, we wanted to find providers with affordable rates and multiple pricing plans that could meet the needs of both small and large businesses. The point of a virtual assistant is to save businesses time and money while helping them get more done. As a result, it didn’t make sense to choose services with exorbitant fees beyond the budgets of most small businesses. Article Sources Time etc. "About Us." Time etc. "Meet Our Virtual Assistants." MyTasker. "About Us." WoodBows. "Pricing." WoodBows. "WoodBows." Prialto. "Prialto Frequently Asked Questions," Select "Where Is Prialto Located?" 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Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content. Best Overall : Time etc
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Hours Monthly Cost 10 $360 20 $700 40 $1,360 60 $1,980 Runner-Up, Best Overall : MyTasker
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Hours Monthly Cost 10 $140 20 $250 40 $450 60 $600 100 $900 Best for Highly Qualified VAs : BELAY
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Best for Short Tasks : Fancy Hands
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Requests Monthly Cost Per Request Cost 3 $17.99 $6 5 $29.99 $6 15 $74.99 $5 30 $149.99 $5 Requests Annual Cost Per Request Cost 3 $179.99 $5 5 $299.99 $5 15 $799.99 $4.44 30 $1,599.99 $4.44 Best Service Guarantee : WoodBows
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Plan Cost Additional Hours Hours of Work Features 40 Hours Monthly $599 $14.99/hour 40 Dedicated part-time VA, dedicated account manager, no contract, cancel any time, staff-tracking system, work in any time zone ,video chat/call with virtual team 80 Hours Monthly $999 $13.99/hour 80 Dedicated part-time VA, dedicated account manager, no contract, cancel any time, staff-tracking system, work in any time zone ,video chat/call with virtual team Full-Time Monthly $1,499 $9.99/hour 160 Dedicated part-time VA, dedicated account manager, no contract, cancel any time, staff-tracking system, work in any time zone ,video chat/call with virtual team Best for Executives : Prialto
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Plan Monthly Cost Monthly Hours Features Individual $1,450+ 55 One member, month-to-month agreement, individual process design, quarterly consultations, setup fee Team $1,450+ 165+ Three or more members, discounts for contract duration, team process design, monthly consultations, pooled resource benefits Organization Not disclosed 440+ Eight or more members, extended metrics-driven pilots, organization-wide process design, utilization and feedback reporting, dedicated cohort of assistants and inter-department resource sharing, team lead support, operational projects, one-off projects, temporary workforce augmentation Final Verdict
Compare the Best Virtual Personal Assistant Services
Service Price Dedicated VAs Time etc Best Overall $360–$1,980 per month Yes MyTasker Best Overall Runner Up $140–$1,200 per month Yes BELAY Best for Highly Qualified VAs Starting at $1,380 per month Yes Fancy Hands Best for Short Tasks $4.44–$6 per request Yes WoodBows Best Service Guarantee $369–$1,499 per month Yes Prialto Best for Executives Starting at $1,450 Yes Frequently Asked Questions
What Is a Virtual Personal Assistant Service?
How Do Virtual Personal Assistant Services Work?
How Much Do Virtual Personal Assistant Services Cost?
Are Virtual Personal Assistant Services Worth the Cost?
Methodology
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