Outsourcing King

How I Research Virtual Assistant Companies

This is the playbook I run for every company on the companies list. It’s the same thing I’d do before spending my own money on a service - because that’s exactly what I’m doing here. No AI summaries, no scraped review aggregations, no affiliate placements.

If a company on the list doesn’t pass these checks, I say so on the page. If something’s unclear, I email them and ask. If they don’t respond, that goes on the page too.

My Bias (Stated Up Front)

The single thing I weigh hardest is credibility. Cheap pricing, slick websites, and big logo clouds don’t move me. What moves me is whether a company is who they say they are, and whether the social proof they’re showing actually exists when you click through.

Most VA review sites grade on features and price. I grade on whether you can trust them with your business.

Step 1 - Verify the Legal Entity

Before I write a single line of review copy, I check whether the company is a registered business and where.

  • I look up the company on state Secretary of State filings (Delaware, California, Ohio, etc.) or the equivalent in their stated country.
  • I record the registered legal name - which is often different from the marketing name. Hello Rache and Pineapple both file as Temark International Inc. WoodBows files as VA Services Pro, LLC.
  • I record the state or country of registration, the business start date, and any DBAs (“doing business as” names).
  • I cross-check the registered address against what the website claims. Mismatches get flagged.

If a company can’t be tied back to a real registered entity, that’s the headline of the review.

Step 2 - Investigate Leadership

A VA company is selling you trust. The leadership has to be findable.

  • I look for the founder’s name and a real LinkedIn profile. If the “About” page says one name and the “Team” page says another, I write that down (this happened with WoodBows - “John” on one page, “Mario Suntar” as CEO on another, and a third name on a third-party site).
  • I check whether founder photos are stock images. Reverse image search is cheap and fast.
  • I note whether the CEO has a public footprint - YouTube, podcast appearances, conference talks. This isn’t required, but it’s a strong positive signal.

Step 3 - Cross-Reference Reviews on Third-Party Platforms

Almost every VA company shows a logo cloud of review platforms on their homepage: Google, Trustpilot, Clutch, GoodFirms, ProductHunt, G2, BBB. I click through every single one.

  • Does the rating on the homepage match the platform’s actual rating? Often it doesn’t - the homepage shows 5.0 stars and the platform shows 3.3 with four reviews.
  • Are the reviews real? I read individual reviews looking for copy-paste patterns, dates clustered too tightly, generic language. On G2 in particular, I check whether reviews are from clients or employees - several India-based companies lean heavily on employee reviews to inflate their score.
  • Are reviews of the parent company being passed off as reviews of the brand on the page? ScaleSupport got flagged for this - the homepage cited Clutch reviews that actually belong to its parent, WingAssist.
  • Is the BBB profile accredited and clean? If they have one, I link it.

I screenshot every discrepancy and put it on the company page. That’s the whole point - if a company is going to claim social proof, I want a reader to see exactly what I saw.

Step 4 - Do the Pricing Math

Most VA companies bury real pricing under packages, credits, “starting at” rates, or task-based pricing. I convert all of it back to a real hourly or monthly number.

  • For credit/task pricing (e.g., Fancy Hands’ “15 requests/month”), I work out the effective hourly rate based on stated request duration.
  • For tiered pricing, I record the floor (cheapest plausible plan) and the realistic full-time equivalent ($1,999 in India vs. $5,400 in the US for the same vendor).
  • I flag when a vendor’s pricing depends on worker location and they don’t say so up front.
  • “Save up to 70%” claims get checked against actual BLS or country wage data, not the vendor’s marketing.

Step 5 - Email Them When the Site Doesn’t Answer

If a key question isn’t answered on the website, I email the company directly and ask. Examples I’ve added in the past:

  • Do you provide replacements if the assigned VA quits or underperforms? (MyOutDesk - confirmed yes, with limits.)
  • Can a VA work across task categories or are they locked to one scope? (Wishup - confirmed locked to scope.)

Whatever they say, I attribute it on the page with the date. If they don’t respond, that’s also on the page.

Step 6 - Screenshot Everything

If I’m going to make a claim about what a company shows on their site, the screenshot is right there next to the claim. Trustpilot ratings, fake review counts, mismatched founder photos, suspicious case studies - all captured at the time of review.

This is non-negotiable. Marketing pages get edited; my evidence shouldn’t quietly disappear with them.

Step 7 - Track Every Update Publicly

Every company page has a Historical Updates table at the bottom showing every revision: when the page was first published, when I rewrote sections, when I corrected mistakes, when new information came in. That history doesn’t get rewritten or deleted.

If I get something wrong and a company emails me about it (here’s how), I update the page and log the change.

What I Do Not Do

  • No affiliate links. Not on company pages, not in blog posts, not anywhere. Outbound links to vendor sites are tagged nofollow and carry a utm_source parameter so I can see traffic, but I’m not paid per click or per signup.
  • No sponsored placements. Nobody can pay to be on this list, move up the list, or remove a red flag from their page.
  • No AI-generated review copy. Every review on this site is hand-written. AI is fine for grammar passes; it does not write the analysis.
  • No scraped review aggregation. I read reviews myself. If I cite a number, I clicked through to the source.

What This Site Is Not

This is a one-person research project, not a directory trying to list every VA company on earth. The list is intentionally short and deep rather than long and thin. If a company isn’t here yet, it’s because I haven’t gotten to it - not because they failed the methodology.

If you think a company belongs here, or you’re a vendor who wants something on your page corrected, send me an email and I’ll take a look.

About the Author

James King runs this site solo. I’ve been buying VA, BPO, and remote staffing services for my own businesses for years, and the questions on this page are the ones I learned to ask the hard way. The whole bias here is buyer-first: what would I want to know before I send the deposit?