How the models differ
Three very different products get sold with the same vocabulary. The difference that decides your year is not the platform — it is who chooses the person, and who is still accountable for them in month seven.
A free, no-prep call. No card on file.
The three models
Each of these is a legitimate product with a real job. They are just not substitutes, and comparing their monthly numbers as if they were is how a decision goes wrong before it starts.
Marketplace
A platform lists contractors and takes a cut of the hour. You write the post, sift the applications, judge the samples, negotiate, and manage whoever you pick. Fast to start, and every part of the employer's job stays yours.
Best for one-off, well-specified deliverables.
Managed app
The vendor employs or contracts its own staff and routes your requests through its own software. Real management exists behind it. The questions to ask are who chooses the person, whether they are yours alone, and whose screen the work has to live on.
Best when task throughput matters more than continuity.
Managed placement
We recruit, vet and employ, then bring you finalists. You interview them and you pick one. They work your business day in your tools, and HR, payroll, equipment and a floor manager stay on our side of the table.
Best when the same person, every day, is the point.
As seen on
Marketplace
The hourly rate on a marketplace is genuinely low, and the platform is genuinely useful for a bounded piece of work: a logo, a data clean-up, a month of transcription. What it does not include is any of the labour that turns a stranger into a reliable part of your week.
You write the post and sift the replies. You judge whether the samples are theirs. You discover in week three that they are carrying five other clients, or that the good weeks were the ones where they had time. When they go quiet, your escalation path is a support ticket and a refund window — and the ramp starts over with whoever comes next.
None of that is a scandal. It is simply the deal: the platform sells access, and the employer's job stays yours.
What stays on your desk
Managed VA apps
Companies in this category — Wing is the one we get asked about most — employ or contract their own staff and put their own software in front of the work. That is real management, and calling it a marketplace would simply be wrong. The trade sits in two other places, and both are worth asking about directly before you sign anything, including with us.
Question one
Ask whether you interview candidates and select one, whether that person is assigned to your account only, and what happens to continuity when they are unavailable. An assignment can work out very well. It is still someone else's judgement about who talks to your customers.
Question two
A vendor dashboard is how a product scales, and some teams genuinely like working that way. The cost is that your team learns a second place to put work, and your history lives somewhere you do not own. We take the other side of that trade — your teammate works in your tools, with a basic onboarding portal and nothing more.
Interview-select
This is the whole mechanism, and it is the reason the other two models are not substitutes: the choice of person is yours, and the employment behind that person is ours.
One call to understand the work, the hours, the tools and what a good week looks like. That conversation is what the recruiting brief is written from — not a keyword match against a profile database.
Sourcing, screening, skills checks and reference work happen on our side. You do not read applications. What reaches you is a short list of college-educated candidates our HR team would stand behind.
You talk to the finalists yourself and choose. If none of them is right, that is a normal outcome and we keep looking — still at no cost, because nothing is billed until a teammate you chose is doing real work.
Payroll, benefits, equipment, time-off coverage, and a floor manager who coaches them and stays the same person for the engagement. If the fit ever changes we re-staff at no extra cost and run that conversation ourselves.
Honest routing
We are not the answer to every version of this question. Two of these three routes lead somewhere other than us, and that is fine — a placement that should have been a one-off project helps nobody.
The work is one specified deliverable, you can judge the output yourself, and you do not need it again next month. Pay for the piece, not for a seat.
Your work is a stream of discrete tasks, throughput matters more than continuity, and your team is happy to submit work through a vendor's software.
You want the same college-educated person every day, working your hours in your systems, chosen by you, with HR and a floor manager behind them — and you are thinking in years, not weeks.
Already know the role and want the mechanics? How it works walks the placement end to end, and about a week to launch covers the calendar.
Line by line
Cost is one part of the decision. Capability is the other. The same dollar buys very different things depending on who you hire from — here's the honest comparison.
| Capability | Online VA Team | Other VA agencies | Freelancer | Local in-house hire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Same person every day | rotating | split focus | ||
| Vetted before you ever meet them | varies | — | — | |
| 4+ years professional experience | varies | varies | you screen | |
| HR, payroll, equipment handled | varies | — | — | |
| US business-hours availability | varies | varies | ||
| Floor manager support behind them | account mgr | — | — | |
| Salary + benefits cost burden | $ | $$ | $$ | $$$$$ |
✓ = standard, included. — = not provided / not applicable. Notes are accurate for typical engagements; specific freelancers and agencies vary.
Price context
A marketplace quotes you an hour. A managed placement quotes you a month that already contains recruiting, employment, equipment, onboarding and floor management. Here are both of our numbers.
Dedicated teammate
There throughout your business day
Working on what you need, when you need it
Dedicated staff, available throughout your business day — picking up whatever's piling up: email, scheduling, follow-ups, the work that keeps slipping. You don't fill a job description; you gain a teammate who learns your business and stays for the long haul.
Fractional / part-time
Fractional
When you only need a few hours a day
A few hours a day from a dedicated teammate — perfect for things like social media posting, light email triage, or weekly reports. Not a shared rep splitting time across other clients' accounts; your hours are blocked for you, with the same vetted person every shift.
Building out a team? We place multiple teammates in parallel — say a few customer service reps, or staff you'll train into your own systems. Let's scope it on a call →
Want the numbers? See full pricing →
Holding a promotional monthly rate next to ours? What an all-in rate has to cover breaks down the structure, with eight questions to ask both quotes.
Meet the finalists
A short call about the work, then a shortlist you actually interview. Nothing is billed until a teammate you chose is doing real work for you.
Month-to-month engagement — no long-term contract.
Rather write than talk? Send us a quick note →
