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. Years of evaluating virtual assistant providers, BPO firms, and remote staffing agencies from the buyer’s side - with a focus on pricing structures, worker ownership models, and operational risk. The bias is buyer-first: what would I want to know before sending a deposit?