Full disclosure before we start: Base is on this list, and we ranked ourselves second. We compared 8 executive assistant services on the same criteria, with real pricing for every one, including ours. Where a company beats us, we say so. Use the table to narrow your options, then read the profiles for the details that matter to you. If you are still deciding whether to hire at all, start with our guide to hiring an executive assistant.
Quick comparison
| Rank | Service | Starting price | Model | Talent | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BELAY | Custom quote | Dedicated | US-based contractors | Established teams that want a large, proven provider |
| 2 | Base | $2,800/month for 40 hours | Dedicated | US-based, Base-vetted contractors | Founders and execs who want a long-term strategic partner |
| 3 | Boldly | $2,600/month for 40 hours | Dedicated | US and UK, W2 employees | Execs who need US/UK coverage or multilingual support |
| 4 | Double | $549/month for 10 hours | Dedicated | US-based | Tech execs who want an assistant plus delegation software |
| 5 | Athena | $3,000/month, full-time | Dedicated | Philippines-based, employed by Athena | Execs who want full-time support at offshore rates |
| 6 | Prialto | $1,600/month for 55 hours | Managed team | Offshore, US-managed | Teams that want managed coverage with built-in backup |
| 7 | Time etc | $390/month for 10 hours | Dedicated | US-based | Budget-conscious buyers who still want a dedicated assistant |
| 8 | Zirtual | $599/month for 12 hours | Dedicated | US-based, college-educated | Entrepreneurs with a steady stream of defined tasks |
Pricing verified against each provider's published pricing page on July 27, 2026. BELAY does not publish pricing. Always confirm current rates directly.
How we ranked them
Four criteria, applied to every service: dedicated vs pooled support, employment model and talent location, published pricing, and matching process. BELAY takes the top spot on scale and track record: they have been at this since 2010 and have grown into the biggest brand in the category. We put Base second because we believe our matching and our talent bar are the best in the market, and you should treat that claim with the same skepticism you would bring to any company ranking itself. The rest of the list follows from the criteria above.
The ranked list
1. BELAY
Snapshot: BELAY is the biggest name in US virtual assistant staffing. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Atlanta, the company has team members across 48 states.
Services: Virtual assistants, bookkeepers, social media managers, and website specialists. Their VAs handle calendar management, travel, email, research, and recurring admin work.
Process: BELAY matches you personally with a contractor VA and pairs you with a relationship manager who handles anything outside your VA's scope. They accept the top 3% of US-based applicants and publish a 93% first-match success rate.
Why they stand out: Scale, longevity, and range. If you want a provider with a long track record and services beyond assistant work, BELAY is the safest large choice. Note that BELAY VAs are 1099 contractors, which matters if continuity and compliance are top concerns for you.
Pricing: BELAY does not publish pricing. Plans are quoted after a consultation.
Best for: Established teams that want a large, proven provider with services beyond EA support.
2. Base
Snapshot: Base is a women-owned executive assistant company based in Austin. We have spent 14 years doing one thing: matching founders and executives with top US-based EAs.
Services: Dedicated executive assistants who own your calendar, inbox, travel, and projects, and increasingly your AI stack too: the prompting, the tool management, and the follow-through that AI tools create.
Process: Matching built on more than a decade of placement data, not a sales call and a spreadsheet. Your EA leads onboarding from day one. Subscription support starts at 40 hours a month, with temporary support and trial-to-hire also available.
Why we're on our own list: Match quality is the whole business. Our EAs are US-based contractors we have fully vetted and onboarded to our talent bench, matched for strategic fit, meaning they run ahead of you instead of waiting for direction.
Pricing: Subscriptions start at $2,800/month for 40 hours. Rising talent rates start at $45/hour for EAs earlier in their careers. Discounted rates are available for women in leadership through Base's 2072 Initiative. See current pricing.
Best for: Founders and executives who want a long-term strategic partner, and want to stop being their own assistant.
3. Boldly
Snapshot: Boldly is a premium subscription staffing company with W2 employees in the US and UK, founded by Sandra Lewis in 2012.
Services: Senior executive assistants, plus project management, marketing, and customer service support on a monthly subscription.
Process: After you share requirements, an account manager proposes a candidate. You review the profile and meet them before signing up.
Why they stand out: Boldly's staff are W2 employees with benefits, and many bring Fortune 500 experience. Tenure is a real strength here. If you need coverage across US and UK time zones or multilingual support, Boldly beats us on both. They also offer a buy-out option if you want to hire your assistant full-time later.
Pricing: Starts at $2,600/month for 40 hours, with plans up to 100 hours a month. Specialist work outside executive assistance bills separately.
Best for: Executives who want experienced W2 talent with international coverage.
4. Double
Snapshot: Double pairs US-based executive assistants with its own delegation software and AI tools.
Services: Calendar, inbox, travel, and expenses, managed through an app built for delegating, tracking, and sharing preferences with your assistant.
Process: Matching within 4 business days on the Starter plan, 3 on Grow, and 2 on the top tiers. Plans include access to Double's delegation tools and AI assistant.
Why they stand out: The software layer. If you think in tools and want visibility into every request, Double's product is the most polished in the category. Plans scale from light support to 60 hours a month with no long-term contracts.
Pricing: $549/month for 10 hours, $999 for 20, $1,899 for 40, and $2,799 for 60.
Best for: Tech executives who want an assistant wrapped in good software.
5. Athena
Snapshot: Athena provides dedicated, Philippines-based executive assistants and puts heavy emphasis on teaching clients to delegate well.
Services: Full-time dedicated EAs covering calendar, inbox, research, travel, and personal tasks, with delegation training included for the executive.
Process: You're matched with a dedicated, full-time EA who is vetted, equipped, and employed by Athena, works your time zone, and is backed by Athena's training program.
Why they stand out: Price-to-hours ratio. A full-time offshore EA costs a fraction of a US hire, and Athena's delegation coaching gets clients using the hours well. The tradeoff is distance: your EA works your hours from another country, and offshore contracting adds compliance questions to check.
Pricing: $3,000/month for a full-time dedicated EA, with a 90-day initial commitment, then month to month. Extra hours beyond your EA run $15/hour.
Best for: Executives who want full-time support at offshore rates and are willing to invest in the delegation habit.
6. Prialto
Snapshot: Prialto is a managed service: offshore assistants backed by US-based engagement managers, sold in units of 55 monthly hours.
Services: Admin support, CRM upkeep, scheduling, and sales support, delivered by a primary assistant with a trained backup.
Process: A discovery assessment, then an assigned support team of a project manager, a primary assistant, and a backup, refined over time by an engagement manager.
Why they stand out: Continuity by design. Because a backup assistant is trained on your account from day one, coverage doesn't break when someone is out. There are no overage fees, and the setup fee is waived with an annual agreement.
Pricing: $1,600/month per 55-hour unit, plus a $250 setup fee in the first month. Full-time dedicated support starts at $3,600/month.
Best for: Teams that want managed, always-covered support rather than a single assistant relationship.
7. Time etc
Snapshot: Time etc has matched US-based virtual assistants with busy professionals since 2007 and publishes the lowest dedicated-assistant rates on this list.
Services: Email and calendar management, data entry, document formatting, expense cataloging, and social media updates.
Process: Expert matching with a dedicated assistant, plus the option to add extra assistants at no charge and share plans across a team.
Why they stand out: Price. At $36 to $39 per hour with rollover on plans of 20 hours and up, no one on this list gives you a dedicated US-based assistant for less. The fit is task execution more than strategic partnership.
Pricing: $390/month for 10 hours, $760 for 20, $1,480 for 40, and $2,160 for 60.
Best for: Budget-conscious buyers who still want one consistent, US-based assistant.
8. Zirtual
Snapshot: Zirtual, part of the Startups.com platform, staffs US-based, college-educated virtual assistants.
Services: Scheduling, event planning, travel booking, invoicing, data entry, and research, plus separate paralegal and legal assistant plans.
Process: Zirtual matches you with one VA who works with you directly; teammates absorb specialized tasks your VA can't cover.
Why they stand out: Flexible entry point and legal-adjacent options few competitors offer. Month-to-month plans with multiple users included make it easy for a small team to share one subscription.
Pricing: $599/month for 12 hours, up to $1,699/month for 45 hours and 4 users.
Best for: Entrepreneurs and small teams with a steady stream of defined tasks.
Other services worth a look
Four more options, depending on your situation. Persona runs a selective vetting process for remote assistants and suits execs who want heavy screening done for them. Squared Away staffs military spouses (profiled in Inc.) and is a strong pick if that mission resonates. Fancy Hands sells task-based help from $35/month for 3 requests, good for one-off errands rather than a relationship. Magic offers 24/7 on-demand offshore assistants for round-the-clock coverage.
Executive assistant vs virtual assistant: what's the difference
A virtual assistant executes defined tasks: book this flight, format this document, update this spreadsheet. An executive assistant owns outcomes: protect my time, run my inbox, make sure the board deck ships. VAs are usually part-time and priced accordingly, roughly $36 to $55 per hour on this list. EAs are dedicated, embedded in how you work, and priced from $65 to $70 per hour at the strategic end, with newer-career EAs from $45. If you can write every instruction down, a VA is enough. If the instructions are the work you're trying to get rid of, you want an EA.
What does an executive assistant service cost in 2026?
Based on the published pricing above, four tiers. For a deeper breakdown of what drives these numbers, see our guide to how much an executive assistant costs.
- Task-based plans: $35 to $125/month for a handful of requests. No relationship, no context, fine for errands.
- Part-time dedicated, US-based: $390 to $2,800/month for 10 to 40 hours. Hourly rates run $36 to $55 at the task-execution end and $65 to $70 at the strategic-partner end.
- Offshore dedicated or managed: $1,600/month for 55 managed hours, with full-time dedicated offshore EAs from $3,000 to $3,600/month.
- Full-time: From $3,000/month offshore. US-based full-time typically runs through trial-to-hire or placement rather than subscription.
W2 employees vs contractors: what it means for you
Some services employ their assistants; others match you with independent contractors. The difference shows up in two places. Continuity: employees with benefits stay longer, and turnover is the hidden cost of cheap support. Compliance: if you direct when, where, and how a contractor works, you can create misclassification risk under IRS worker classification rules, and penalties fall on you, not the staffing agency. On this list, Boldly uses W2 employees and Athena employs its EAs directly. BELAY and Base both match you with 1099 contractors; Base fully vets its contractors and onboards them to its talent bench before they ever meet a client. For the others, ask directly: "Is my assistant your employee or a contractor?" is a fair first question on any sales call.
Should you hire through Upwork or a freelance marketplace?
Sometimes, yes. Marketplaces work well for defined, short-term projects: a CRM cleanup, a research sprint, a one-time data migration. You get niche skills fast without a monthly commitment. The tradeoffs are real, though. You do the vetting, the interviewing, and the managing yourself. Freelancers juggle multiple clients, so response times and priorities shift. And ongoing direction of a contractor raises the same misclassification questions covered above. For a one-off project, try a marketplace. For someone embedded in your day, use a service that handles employment properly.
AI and your executive assistant
In 2023, we were told our work was about to get lighter. Smarter tools would take the slow parts of our jobs, and we'd finally focus on the work only we could do. Three years in, most executives we talk to are running ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot, and carrying a workload that changed shape instead of shrinking: prompts rewritten a dozen times, workflows you have to build and then keep running yourself, drafts sitting at almost-right waiting for someone to finish them.
At Base we call this AI Admin Debt: the work the tools themselves create. It grows with every tool you add, and because nobody named it, nobody thought to hand it off. So executives became their own admin, their own content writer, their own workflow manager. Before AI you had 3 unfinished projects. Now you have 51.
The person who pays that debt down is an executive assistant. EAs have done exactly this on every tech stack before this one: the project tracker, the legacy CRM, the spreadsheet system nobody else understood. The tools changed; the function didn't. A great EA now runs your AI stack the way they've always run your calendar: the prompting, the checking, the finishing, handled. What an EA does looks completely different than it did a decade ago. Why you need one hasn't changed at all.
How to choose: 4 criteria
Service model. Dedicated assistants build context and run ahead of you; pooled and task-based services execute what you hand them. Decide which problem you're solving before you compare prices.
Employment and location. W2 employees mean better retention and cleaner compliance. US-based talent means time zone overlap and shared context; offshore means lower cost.
Pricing structure. Compare hourly effective rates, not monthly stickers. Watch for setup fees, minimum commitments, and whether unused hours roll over.
Matching process. Ask how matches are made, how long they take, what happens if the first match misses, and what data backs the process. The match is the product.
Frequently asked questions
What does an executive assistant service cost per month?
Published plans on this list run from $390 a month for 10 hours of task support (Time etc) to $2,800 a month for 40 hours of strategic EA partnership (Base). Managed offshore support runs $1,600 a month for 55 hours (Prialto), and full-time offshore EAs start at $3,000 a month (Athena). Task-based plans start at $35 a month (Fancy Hands).
What is the difference between an executive assistant and a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant executes tasks you define. An executive assistant owns outcomes: your calendar, inbox, and projects, without waiting for instructions. EAs cost more per hour and return more time.
Are W2 executive assistants better than contractors?
For ongoing, directed work, employment matters: better retention and no misclassification risk for you. For short, defined projects, contractors are fine.
How fast can I get matched with an executive assistant?
Double publishes matching within 2 to 4 business days depending on plan, and Base matches clients within 5 business days. Other services typically quote one to two weeks on sales calls. Ask for a current timeline before you sign.
Can I switch assistants if the match doesn't work?
Every dedicated service here offers rematching. Time etc publishes a lifetime satisfaction guarantee and Boldly's plans include a satisfaction guarantee. Ask any provider what their rematch process and timeline look like before signing.
Do these services offer part-time or fractional executive assistants?
Yes. Fractional support is the core model for most of this list, from 10 hours a month (Time etc, Double) to 40-hour plans (Base, Boldly) and up.
Will AI replace executive assistants?
AI replaced the idea of asking for help, and handed executives a new job managing the tools. The judgment, context, and follow-through remain human work. The strongest setup we see is an EA who runs the AI stack for you.
Which executive assistant service is best for founders?
Depends on the problem. Tight budget and defined tasks: Time etc or Double. Ready for a long-term strategic partner who takes whole categories of work off your plate: that is what Base is built for.
The case for a dedicated executive assistant
Every service on this list can take tasks off your plate. The question is what you're actually buying: hours, or ownership. Hours run out every month. Ownership compounds: an EA who knows how you think closes loops before you see them open, and every month they know your world better than the last.
We've spent 14 years building that person. If you want to see what the right match looks like, talk to us about your first 40 hours.