A virtual staffing agency finds, vets and manages remote workers for your business. Some only place a person and leave you to manage them. Others, like MyRemoteVA, manage the work and review it. You pay by the hour, from $5.62 on a dedicated plan, and can scale hours up or down.
A virtual staffing agency helps you add remote people to your team without hiring one by one. The label covers very different businesses, though, so it pays to know which kind you are looking at. This guide explains the three main types, what to ask and what it costs.
1. Placement agencies
A placement agency screens candidates and introduces one or more to you. After that, you manage the person. This can work if you have time to train and supervise. The risk is cover: if the person is away or leaves, you may be back to square one.
2. Marketplaces
A marketplace lets you search profiles and hire directly. Choice is wide and prices vary. You do all the work of vetting, training and managing, and quality depends on your process.
3. Managed services
A managed service supplies a trained person and supervises the work. A team lead reviews tasks, covers absences and keeps standards steady. This is how MyRemoteVA works. You get human assistants who use AI to work faster, and a team lead checks the work before it reaches you.
What a good virtual staffing agency gives you
A good virtual staffing agency does more than send a name. It trains the person, sets up a clear way to give tasks, checks the work and handles cover when someone is away. It also gives you a simple way to change course: more hours, fewer hours or a different role. If an agency cannot explain these points in plain words, treat that as a warning.
It should also be open about where its people work and how shifts match your hours. At MyRemoteVA, the team is in Kerala, India, and shifts are planned around your working day.
Questions to ask any agency
- Who manages the daily work, you or them?
- Who checks the quality of each task?
- What happens when my assistant is away?
- How do hours work if I use fewer one month?
- What is the notice period, and are there set-up fees?
- How do you protect my data and logins?
Red flags
- No clear answer on who supervises the work.
- Long contracts with no way to test first.
- Promises of results that nobody can guarantee.
- Hidden fees for swapping or ending.
What a virtual staffing agency costs
Prices depend on the model. With MyRemoteVA, pay-as-you-go is $12 an hour and the hours never expire. A dedicated full-time assistant starts from $5.62 an hour, which is 160 hours for $899 a month. A part-time plan is 80 hours for $500. New registrations can start for $1 a month, which adds one hour each month. Plans are billed in US dollars.
Which roles to start with
Start with work that is steady and easy to check. Good first roles are admin support, bookkeeping, customer support email and website upkeep. These are tasks done on a screen, with clear steps. See the full list of virtual assistant services.
How to start without risk
- Pick one repeat task.
- Test it for two weeks on a small plan.
- Review the work line by line.
- Scale hours only after the results are clear.
Compare more options in our guides to virtual assistant companies and recruitment agencies vs a managed team. When you are ready, start for $1.
Frequently asked questions
What is a virtual staffing agency?
It is a company that finds and supplies remote workers, such as virtual assistants, bookkeepers or support agents. Some only place workers. Others manage them day to day.
How is a managed service different from a placement agency?
A placement agency introduces a worker, then you manage them. A managed service also supervises the work with a team lead, and covers training and backup.
How much does a virtual staffing agency cost?
It varies. With MyRemoteVA, a dedicated full-time assistant starts from $5.62 an hour (160 hours for $899 a month) and pay-as-you-go is $12 an hour.
What should I ask before I sign?
Ask who manages the work, who covers absences, how hours roll over, what the notice period is, and how you can stop or change plans.
What is doing this yourself costing you?
Doing it yourself: $2,165 a month of your time.
The same hours at our $12/hr pay-as-you-go rate: $520. Dedicated plans start at $5.62/hr.
Simple maths from the numbers you enter. It assumes a VA can take on those hours.
Start for $1Written by the MyRemoteVA team. Search-trend figures come from Google Trends. Prices shown are our current plans. Last updated October 9, 2026. Questions or corrections? Contact us.