Virtual assistant companies have moved well beyond inbox triage. The strongest providers now place trained executive assistants who run calendars, travel, vendor follow-ups, CRM hygiene and personal errands for founders and leadership teams, often for years at a time. The models differ sharply, though: some employ US-based assistants on payroll, some recruit globally and match you in days, and some sell flexible hours rather than a dedicated person. This list is for founders, executives and operations leaders comparing virtual assistant services for themselves or for a team.
For each provider we reviewed its own website to confirm the assistant services offered, where the company and its assistants are based, how it vets and trains talent, and what it discloses about scale and security. We left out general recruiting platforms that do not actually provide assistants, and brands that redirect to other businesses. Rankings reflect that review, not payment.
Top Virtual Assistant Companies In 2026
| Company | Best For | Headquarters | Core Services |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prialto | Teams that need managed, SOC 2 compliant assistant support | Portland, OR | Executive, sales and operations assistants |
| Boldly | Executives who want a long-term, US-based W2 assistant | New York, NY and Towcester, UK | Executive assistant staffing, project support, bookkeeping |
| Athena | Founders who want a full-time EA with a delegation playbook | United States | Executive assistance, business ops, household management |
| Time etc | Entrepreneurs who want flexible hours with experienced US assistants | United States (remote) | Email, scheduling, admin, marketing support |
| Magic | Businesses that want a dedicated assistant plus 24/7 backup | Not listed on site | Executive, admin, ecommerce and support assistants |
| Delegated | Busy professionals who want college-educated US assistants | Not listed (US-based assistants) | Front office, back office and personal assistance |
| Persona | Companies hiring executive assistants or chiefs of staff globally | North America | Virtual EAs, personal assistants, chiefs of staff |
| Wishup | Small businesses that want trained VAs on a subscription | Dover, DE (US office) | Virtual, executive and personal assistants, bookkeepers |
| Cyberbacker | Real estate, accounting and service firms that need role-based VAs | Ogden, UT | VAs across 33 roles, call center support |
| Virtalent | UK businesses that want UK-based assistants | London, UK | Virtual PAs and EAs, admin, marketing, finance admin |
1. Prialto
Prialto is a managed virtual assistant provider headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with more than 15 years of experience and millions of hours of professional support delivered. Every assistant is a full-time Prialto employee who passes a background check and completes four weeks of core training, and work is cross-trained across backup staff so coverage continues when someone is out.
Prialto stands out for organizations that care about governance. It states that it is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, which matters when an assistant will touch inboxes, CRMs and financial tools. It offers fractional or full-time support for individuals, teams and enterprises, and client logos on its site include Rapid7, Compass, Underscore VC and MIT.
Services and expertise: Managed executive assistants, sales assistants, operations assistants, fractional and full-time plans, team and enterprise programs.
2. Boldly
Boldly is led by CEO Bill Harrison and COO Sharyanne McSwain, with offices at 295 Madison Avenue in New York and in Towcester, Northamptonshire, in the UK. Its executive assistants are US-based W2 employees rather than 1099 contractors, and the company sells staffing on a monthly subscription.
Retention is Boldly’s strongest selling point. It says clients stay with the same EA for about four years on average, and that companies where it supports multiple executives make up more than 70% of its work. Testimonials come from leaders at Ginkgo Bioworks and Permira, which fits its focus on senior executive assistant services rather than task-by-task help.
Services and expertise: Executive assistants, project management, marketing and social media support, customer service, bookkeeping, multilingual support, personal assistants.
3. Athena
Athena was founded in 2021 and is led by CEO Jonathan Swanson, President Kandy White and Chief Revenue Officer Chris Ho. The US-based company has grown to a team of more than 3,500 people worldwide and invests in Executive Partner communities in Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya and the Philippines.
Athena says more than 3,000 founders and executives use its service, and it selects assistants from tens of thousands of monthly applicants. The work scope is broad: email, calendar and travel, but also CRM and pipeline tracking, SOP creation, board meeting preparation and household management. Testimonials include Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover.
Services and expertise: Full-time executive assistants, business operations support, hiring support, board preparation, household and family management, personal wellness scheduling.
4. Time etc
Time etc was founded by CEO Barnaby Lashbrooke and has supported clients since 2007. It says it has helped more than 22,000 entrepreneurs and freed them from over 2.1 million hours of tasks, and its assistants, who average 12 years of experience, are based across the United States.
Time etc suits owners who want experienced help without committing to a full-time hire. Plans scale up or down, accounts can be cancelled at any time, and a free trial covers the first task. The company ranked 19th in the 2023 Elite Business Top 100, and Lashbrooke is the author of The Hard Work Myth, a book on delegation.
Services and expertise: Email management, scheduling, project management, administrative support, content and digital marketing, social media, personal and executive assistance.
5. Magic
Magic launched in 2015 out of NASA Ames Research Center, founded by Aaron Kemmer and Mike Chen, who previously founded Made in Space. It describes itself as the first 24/7 on-demand assistant, and today it places dedicated remote assistants with more than 10,000 businesses.
Magic recruits from a very large applicant pool, saying it has interviewed more than 750,000 candidates and accepts the top 0.5% after live interviews, tests and training. Its catalogue is unusually specific, with assistants for ecommerce, customer support, bookkeeping, sales and project management, plus a 24/7 backup assistant and a Magic Vault feature for sharing private information. There is no charge until you hire.
Services and expertise: Dedicated executive, admin, ecommerce and customer support assistants, 24/7 backup assistant, Magic Teams, industry-specific assistants.
6. Delegated
Delegated provides assistants who are college educated, live in the United States and are trained by the company. Each client is assigned a backup assistant, and Delegated will switch the client to a different assistant if performance falls short.
Delegated covers front office work such as calendars, email and client responses, back office tasks like document organization and data entry, and personal errands including travel, bills and family activities. Its named clients include Beats By Dre, which gave each new employee an hour of Delegated support during orientation, and Hulu.
Services and expertise: Executive, administrative, bookkeeping, marketing, social media, real estate and property management assistants, personal assistance.
7. Persona
Persona was founded in North America in 2018 and co-founded by Jason Hreha, a behavioral scientist who previously built Walmart’s behavioral science practice. It now recruits from 98 countries across six continents and reports about 1.4 million applicants a year.
Persona offers two models: managed staffing, where it handles HR, payroll and compliance, and permanent placement, where you hire the person directly. For remote assistant company buyers who want more than admin help, its roster includes virtual executive assistants, personal assistants and chiefs of staff, and it says matches often happen in about a week.
Services and expertise: Virtual executive assistants, personal assistants, chiefs of staff, managed staffing, permanent placement.
8. Wishup
Wishup lists a US office at 8 The Green in Dover, Delaware, and says it has more than 1,500 virtual assistants available for over 1,200 clients in more than 50 industries. Assistants go through a six-step screening process, background checks and an eight-week training program.
Wishup suits small businesses that want trained remote help on a subscription with no long-term contract. Beyond general VAs, it offers executive and personal assistants, bookkeepers, Amazon specialists and project management support, and it will replace an assistant if the fit is not right.
Services and expertise: Virtual assistants, executive and personal assistants, bookkeepers, Amazon VAs, automation and no-code support, project management.
9. Cyberbacker
Cyberbacker is based at 2447 Kiesel Avenue in Ogden, Utah, and places part-time and full-time virtual assistants with businesses worldwide. It reports more than 3,000 placements to date and says fewer than 1% of its weekly applicants become Cyberbackers.
Cyberbacker is organized around 33 defined roles and lists industry experience in real estate and mortgage, accounting, medical and professional services. It also runs call center services, including outbound calling, appointment setting and outsourced customer service, which helps firms that want admin and phone support from one provider.
Services and expertise: Role-based virtual assistants, appointment setting, telemarketing, outsourced customer service and sales teams.
10. Virtalent
Virtalent is a UK provider listing an address at 1000 Great West Road in London, with more than 12 years of UK business experience and hundreds of clients nationwide. All of its virtual assistants are based in the UK rather than offshore.
Virtalent is the clearest choice on this list for UK companies that want assistants working in the same time zone and business culture. Clients pay only for the hours they use, and support spans virtual PAs, executive assistants, marketing and social media help, finance admin and tech and systems support.
Services and expertise: Virtual PAs, virtual executive assistants, business admin, marketing and social media support, finance admin, tech and systems support.
How To Choose Among Virtual Assistant Companies
Do You Need A Dedicated Assistant Or A Pool Of Hours? Some providers assign one person who learns your preferences over months, while others route tasks to whoever is available. Executive assistant services work best with a dedicated person, especially for calendar and inbox work that depends on context. A pool of hours suits occasional research, data entry or bookings. Decide which model you need before comparing prices. Pricing on most provider sites sits behind a consultation, but the structures fall into three groups. Hourly or bundled plans charge for the time you use and suit lighter workloads. Monthly subscriptions for a dedicated assistant give predictable cost and usually include an account manager. Placement fees apply when you hire the person directly and take on payroll yourself. Ask each provider what is included in the rate, such as backup coverage, training and tool licenses, so you compare like with like.
Who Employs The Assistant? Ask whether the assistant is an employee of the provider, an independent contractor, or someone you hire directly after placement. The answer affects who handles payroll, benefits and compliance. The IRS explains the distinction in its guide to independent contractors versus employees, and it is worth reading before you sign a placement agreement.
How Will They Protect Your Accounts And Data? An assistant may have access to email, banking, payroll and customer records. Ask how access is granted and revoked, whether passwords are shared through a vault, and what audits the provider has passed. A SOC 2 report is one of the clearer signals; the AICPA’s overview of System and Organization Controls explains what those reports cover.
What Happens When Your Assistant Is Out? Coverage gaps are the most common complaint about remote assistant companies. Ask whether a backup is assigned, how quickly a replacement is found and how handover notes are kept. Providers that cross-train backup staff reduce the risk of a week of unanswered email. If you are also building a broader remote team, our list of remote hiring agencies covers partners for roles beyond assistance.
How Should You Run The First 30 Days? Most failed assistant relationships fail in the first month, usually because the client never wrote down how they like things done. Before day one, list the recurring tasks you want to hand off, the tools the assistant will need, and the decisions they can make without asking. Record short screen videos of tricky workflows rather than explaining them live. Schedule a 15 minute check-in every day for the first two weeks, then move to weekly. Track which tasks come back with errors and update your notes each time. By the end of the month, you should have a living playbook that makes the assistant faster and makes any future handover painless, whichever of these virtual assistant companies you choose. Many virtual assistant services now include social media scheduling, newsletter drafts and CRM updates. Those tasks are useful, but they are not a substitute for strategy. If marketing work starts to outgrow your assistant, compare options among marketing agencies and services and keep the assistant focused on coordination and follow-through.
Conclusion
The right choice among virtual assistant companies depends on how much of your work you want to hand over and how much control you need over who does it. Prialto and Boldly lead for organizations that want employed, well-supported assistants, with Prialto adding SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and Boldly offering US-based W2 executive assistants who stay for years. Athena and Magic suit founders who want a dedicated assistant recruited from a large global pool.
Time etc and Delegated work well for owners who want experienced US-based help with flexible scope, while Persona fits companies that also need chiefs of staff or permanent placements. Wishup and Cyberbacker offer role-based assistants for small businesses and service firms, and Virtalent is the natural pick for UK teams. Start with a clear task list, ask each provider about backup coverage and data access, and run a short trial before committing.
If you want to add your company to this list, drop us a line or submit a form in the Best Choices section. After a thorough review, we’ll decide whether it’s an appropriate addition.
