What a Virtual Assistant Costs
Most outsourcing sites make you fill in a form to find out. Here are the numbers.
These are market ranges for the Philippines, not a quote. What you pay depends on the role’s skill level, the hours, and whether you are hiring through an agency or direct. Where we sit in each range depends on the brief — tell us the role and we will price it.
What roles actually cost, per hour
| Role | Through an agency | Hiring direct |
|---|---|---|
| Data entry and back office | $7 – $10 | $4 – $7 |
| Customer service and live chat | $8 – $12 | $5 – $8 |
| Social media and content support | $8 – $13 | $5 – $9 |
| Appointment setting and cold calling | $9 – $14 | $6 – $10 |
| E-commerce and marketplace operations | $9 – $14 | $6 – $10 |
| Bookkeeping (Xero, QuickBooks) | $10 – $16 | $7 – $12 |
| Real estate transaction coordination | $10 – $16 | $7 – $12 |
| Executive assistant | $11 – $18 | $8 – $13 |
| Specialist and technical roles | $14 – $25+ | $10 – $18 |
Rates are US dollars per hour worked, and reflect the Philippine outsourcing market as of 2026. Agency rates include employment costs, equipment, management and cover; direct rates do not.
Why the same job costs $8 to one buyer and $16 to another
Four things move a rate, and only one of them is negotiable.
Experience, which is the real driver
A bookkeeper who has closed month-end for Australian businesses for six years costs roughly twice a bookkeeper who has done it for one. That gap is not markup — it is the difference between someone who catches your errors and someone who creates them.
Whether the person is full-time on your account
A dedicated assistant working only for you costs more per hour than a shared resource splitting attention across four clients. Both models exist. Only one of them learns your business.
Timezone
Asking someone to work a US Eastern day means asking them to work through the Philippine night. Sustained night shifts carry a premium in every market, and providers who do not pay one have retention problems they will not mention.
What is bundled
This is where quoted rates stop being comparable.
What should be included, and usually is not
Ask any provider to confirm each of these in writing before comparing their number to anyone else’s:
- Recruitment and screening
- Onboarding and training time
- Equipment, backup power and backup connectivity
- Statutory employment costs, including 13th month pay
- Paid leave and public holidays
- A named account manager
- Documented quality assurance on delivered work
- Cover during sickness and leave
- Free replacement if the fit is wrong
At iFOVS all nine are included in the hourly rate. There is no recruitment fee, no setup fee and no minimum contract term. A quote that excludes four of these is not cheaper — it is smaller.
Against a local hire
The comparison people usually run is hourly rate against hourly rate. That understates it, because a local employee costs considerably more than their wage.
| Local hire | Philippines through an agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Wage or rate | Full local market salary | $7 – $18 per hour worked |
| Payroll taxes and benefits | Typically 20–30% on top | Included |
| Recruitment | Agency fee or your time | Included |
| Equipment and desk | Yours to provide | Included |
| Paid leave and sick cover | You absorb it | Included |
| Notice period risk | Weeks or months | None |
| Scale down | Redundancy process | Reduce hours |
You also pay a local employee for the whole day. You pay an offshore assistant for hours worked, which for most support roles is where a large part of the saving actually comes from.
The number that matters more than the rate
The cost of the arrangement failing.
Paying at the bottom of a range for a role that needs the top of it is the most expensive decision in this category. You get someone, they learn on your time, and either you accept worse work or you start again in month four — having paid for both.
The gap between an $8 assistant and a $13 assistant is $200 a week. The gap between a good hire and a bad one is the entire engagement.
Frequently asked questions
Do you charge a recruitment fee?
No. No recruitment fee, no setup fee, and no minimum contract term. You pay for hours worked.
What is the minimum engagement?
Enough hours for the person to build real context in your business. Below roughly 20 hours a week, most arrangements stay permanently junior because there is not enough contact time — which is a warning we would rather give before you hire than after.
Can I scale hours up and down?
Yes. Accounting practices commonly scale up through busy season and back down after, and e-commerce clients do the same around peak. Tell us the pattern and we will staff for it.
How does payment work?
Monthly, against hours worked, in US dollars. No deposits and no minimum term.
Why is your rate higher than a freelancer’s?
Because a freelancer’s rate is a wage and an agency rate is a service. The difference covers recruitment, employment costs, equipment, management, quality assurance and cover during absence. If you would rather buy those things yourself, hiring direct is a legitimate choice — we wrote an honest comparison of OnlineJobs.ph versus an agency.
Can you beat a quote I have been given?
Not reliably, and we would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise. What we will do is tell you what is missing from the cheaper quote, so you are comparing the same thing.
Work out what a team would actually cost you with the savings calculator, or tell us the role and we will quote it.
Let's talk
Ready to transform your business?
Tell us what's taking up your time. We'll show you exactly how a trained iFOVS team can take it off your plate — and what it costs.