Where to hire a virtual assistant: 7 places and hiring options

If you're wondering where to hire a virtual assistant, you have several options: VA hiring platforms, freelance marketplaces, Philippines-focused platforms, virtual assistant agencies, job boards, professional referrals, and online communities. The right choice depends on the type of support you need, where you want to hire, and how much of the recruitment process you want to handle yourself.

Some options give you access to a large candidate pool and leave the hiring work to you. Others take on more of the sourcing and screening. Understanding that difference will help you choose a hiring channel before spending hours browsing profiles.

Key takeaways

• Freelance marketplaces are useful for project-based work and employers who want a large candidate pool.

• VA agencies suit businesses that want more of the recruitment or staffing process handled for them.

• Job boards and direct sourcing provide greater control but require more work from the employer.

• Philippines-focused platforms make sense when you've already decided to hire Filipino remote talent.

• VA hiring platforms can provide recruitment support while allowing the employer to choose who to interview and hire.

Where can you hire a virtual assistant?

You can hire a virtual assistant through specialist hiring platforms, freelance marketplaces, VA agencies, job boards, referrals, and online communities. If you already know where you want to hire, such as the Philippines, a country-focused platform can narrow the search further.

Here's how the main options compare.

The differences become clearer when you look at what each option actually requires from the employer.

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1. Virtual assistant hiring platforms

A virtual assistant hiring platform combines access to candidates with tools or support for parts of the recruitment process.

This model can work well when you're hiring for an ongoing position and want to choose the person yourself, but don't want to manually handle every application, follow-up, and interview request.

HeyVA follows this model for businesses hiring Filipino remote talent. Alexandra, HeyVA's AI hiring manager, can help define the role, create screening questions, review applicants against your criteria, follow up with candidates, and coordinate interviews.

You review the candidates and make the final hiring decision.

This is most useful for businesses that want more hiring support than a candidate database provides without handing the entire decision to a staffing provider.

If you're ready to start looking at candidates, you can hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines with HeyVA.

2. Freelance marketplaces

Freelance marketplaces give you access to large pools of independent professionals.

Upwork is a strong option when you want to search a broad global talent pool, compare candidates, and manage the selection process yourself.

Fiverr takes a more service-led approach. Instead of recruiting someone into a traditional ongoing role, you can browse services offered by freelancers for specific types of work.

That creates an important distinction:

Are you hiring a person into an ongoing role, or buying help with a defined task?

A freelance marketplace can be a good fit for:

• Short-term projects

• Flexible freelance support

• Specialized tasks

• Businesses comfortable evaluating candidates themselves

For an ongoing VA who will learn your systems, customers, and recurring workflows, you'll usually want to evaluate more than whether someone can complete a single task.

3. Philippines-focused virtual assistant platforms

If you've already decided to hire a Filipino virtual assistant, starting with a Philippines-focused platform can make the search more targeted.

You don't need to browse a global candidate pool and repeatedly filter by location. You can focus on candidates who already match the geographic part of your hiring criteria.

These platforms can be useful for roles such as:

• Executive assistance

• Administrative support

• Customer support

• Social media

• Bookkeeping

• Operations support

The important differences between providers usually appear in how candidates are presented, what happens before the interview, and how much support the employer receives during recruitment.

A Philippines-focused platform isn't automatically the better choice simply because you're hiring in the Philippines. You should still compare how each provider works.

If you're deciding between different Philippines hiring models, see our guide to choosing a virtual assistant agency in the Philippines.

4. Virtual assistant agencies

A virtual assistant agency is worth considering when you want the provider to handle more of the recruitment or staffing process.

Depending on the company, the agency may source candidates, conduct initial screening, recommend a VA, manage the working arrangement, or provide replacement support.

This model can work well for employers who prioritize convenience and don't want to run recruitment themselves.

Before choosing an agency, ask:

• Can I review multiple candidates?

• Can I interview them myself?

• Who makes the final selection?

• How is the VA paid?

• What happens if the working relationship doesn't work out?

The answers matter because VA agency models vary considerably.

If your main goal is to compare agencies specifically, that deserves a separate comparison rather than turning a broader where to hire a VA guide into an agency ranking.

5. Online job boards

Traditional job boards such as Indeed and ZipRecruiter are another option.

You publish the position, attract applicants, and run the hiring process internally.

Job boards make the most sense when you already have:

• Clear role requirements

• Someone available to review applications

• A screening process

• Time to conduct interviews

For businesses with internal recruiters, this can be straightforward.

For a small company where the founder is also handling sales, operations, hiring, and client work, the time requirement can be more significant.

A job board helps you generate applicants. You still need a process for deciding which applicants deserve your time.

6. Referrals and professional networks

Your professional network can be one of the simplest places to find a VA.

Ask other founders, clients, existing employees, previous contractors, or trusted professional contacts whether they know someone they'd recommend.

The advantage is that a good referral comes with firsthand context.

The limitation is choice.

You're working with whoever happens to exist within your network, and a VA who performed well for another business may not match your role, schedule, communication preferences, or required experience.

Treat the referral as a useful signal rather than a substitute for evaluating the candidate.

7. Facebook groups and online communities

Facebook groups and other online communities can provide direct access to virtual assistants without requiring a traditional hiring platform.

They're attractive because sourcing can be inexpensive and you can contact candidates directly.

The tradeoff is that you may need to create much of the recruitment process yourself, including verification, qualification checks, interviews, and reference checks where appropriate.

For small teams, that's worth considering before choosing a sourcing channel based purely on cost.

A free place to post a role can still become an expensive place to hire if the founder spends days reviewing applications that aren't a fit.

Where is the best place to hire a virtual assistant?

The best place to hire a virtual assistant depends on what you're hiring for. Use a freelance marketplace for flexible or project-based support, an agency when you want a more managed service, a job board when you have your own recruitment process, and a specialist hiring platform when you want recruitment support while retaining control over the final hire.

Another option is working with virtual assistant agencies and companies, which can provide different levels of screening, matching, and ongoing support.

A simple way to choose is to start with your priority:

There isn't one provider or model that makes sense for every employer. The useful question is what you want the provider to do before you meet the candidate.

Three questions to ask before choosing where to hire a VA

Instead of comparing virtual assistant websites by the number of profiles they advertise, look at who actually does the hiring work.

Ask three questions:

1. Who finds the candidates?

Do you search for people yourself, publish a job and wait for applications, or does the provider bring relevant candidates into the process?

2. Who screens the candidates?

Once people apply, determine who reviews their experience, checks whether they match the role, asks follow-up questions, and decides whether they should move forward.

3. Who chooses the final hire?

Some providers give employers full control over the final decision. Others operate a more managed model where the provider recommends or assigns someone.

Here's how the main hiring models typically differ:

The largest candidate database isn't necessarily the most useful if you're still responsible for finding, qualifying, following up with, and scheduling every candidate yourself.

Marketplace vs agency vs VA hiring platform

For many businesses, the decision eventually comes down to three models.

A marketplace gives you broad access and flexibility.

An agency takes responsibility for more of the process.

A VA hiring platform can sit between those models by helping with recruitment while keeping the employer involved in candidate selection.

If you want a detailed step-by-step process after choosing your sourcing channel, read our guide on how to hire a virtual assistant.

What should you look for in a virtual assistant website or platform?

Once you've narrowed your options, compare what each virtual assistant website or hiring platform actually provides.

Candidate verification

Find out whether the platform verifies candidate identity and what that verification covers.

Don't assume that appearing in a candidate database means every claim on a profile has been independently confirmed.

Relevant experience

A candidate having several years of work experience doesn't automatically mean that experience matches your role.

Look for evidence that they've handled responsibilities similar to the ones you plan to delegate.

Role-specific screening

Generic VA screening only tells you so much.

A bookkeeper, Executive Assistant, customer support representative, and social media VA need different skills. The evaluation process should reflect the job you're actually filling.

Communication

For a remote hire, communication affects nearly every part of the working relationship.

Pay attention to how clearly candidates answer questions, explain previous work, ask for clarification, and communicate availability.

Reliability signals

No platform can guarantee how a working relationship will turn out, but you can look for evidence before making a decision.

Consider previous experience, references where appropriate, work samples, communication during recruitment, and specific examples of how candidates have handled deadlines, mistakes, and changing priorities.

Employer workload

Ask what happens after you post the role.

If 100 people apply, who determines which ones meet your requirements?

That distinction matters more to a busy employer than the total number of people in the database.

Hiring control

Decide whether you want to choose the person yourself or prefer the provider to manage matching more closely.

Make sure the platform's process fits that preference.

Pricing

Compare more than the candidate's hourly rate.

Your total hiring model may include candidate compensation, subscriptions, platform fees, agency charges, payment costs, and the time your team spends recruiting.

For a more detailed budget breakdown, see how much it costs to hire a virtual assistant.

Where should you hire a Filipino virtual assistant?

If you're deciding where to hire a virtual assistant from the Philippines, look beyond location and compare candidate screening, relevant experience, and employer involvement.

Here's the practical difference:

Many global marketplaces have Filipino candidates. The advantage of a Philippines-focused platform isn't simply access to the country. It's starting the search with the geographic decision already made.

You still need to evaluate candidates based on the actual role.

A founder hiring someone to manage an inbox and calendar needs a different profile from an e-commerce company hiring customer support or an agency building a remote delivery team.

Define those requirements before comparing candidates.

How HeyVA approaches virtual assistant hiring

HeyVA is built for businesses hiring remote talent from the Philippines that want help with the repetitive parts of recruitment while keeping control of the final decision.

The process is straightforward:

1. Describe the role.
 Tell Alexandra, HeyVA's AI hiring manager, what you need and what matters for the position.

2. Screen against your requirements.
 Alexandra can review applications against your criteria and follow up with candidates about relevant experience, skills, and availability.

3. Review candidates.
 You decide which candidates you want to meet.

4. Interview and hire.
 Alexandra can help coordinate interviews. You decide who gets hired.

The goal is to reduce the work between defining a role and meeting relevant candidates, without taking the hiring decision away from the employer.

Explore Filipino virtual assistants on HeyVA when you're ready to start hiring.

Choose where to hire based on how you want to hire

Choose a hiring channel based on the relationship you're building and the amount of recruitment work you want to own. 

Marketplaces and job boards provide broad candidate access. Agencies take on more of the process. Philippines-focused platforms narrow the search when you've already chosen where to hire. Specialist hiring platforms can provide additional recruitment support while keeping you involved in the final decision.

The answer to where to hire a virtual assistant depends on how much of the hiring process you want to manage yourself.

For businesses looking specifically for Filipino remote talent, HeyVA helps with the repetitive work between defining the role and meeting candidates, while you stay in control of who joins your team.