Search for a Virtual Assistant and you could easily come away thinking there is one obvious way to hire one:
Find an agency.
Then find another agency.
Then find an article written by an agency explaining why you should definitely hire an agency.
Funny how that works.
But agencies are not the only way to hire a Virtual Assistant, and they are not automatically the safer, more professional, or more qualified option.
You can also hire an independent VA or Technical Virtual Assistant directly.
Which one is better depends less on who has the fanciest website and more on what you actually want from the relationship.
If you want to choose the person, build a relationship with them, work together again when you need them, and know exactly whose experience and reputation you are evaluating, direct hiring may be the better fit.
If you need dedicated hours, immediate coverage, multiple people, large amounts of work, or someone available when your assigned person is not, an agency may have a very real advantage.
Neither model wins every category.
And having worked on the VA side of two different agencies before running my own independent business, I can tell you they look very different from the inside.
Does a VA agency actually vet the people working with clients?
This is probably one of the biggest assumptions I would challenge.
People hear “agency” and assume there was some sort of extensive vetting process before that VA was allowed anywhere near a client.
Maybe there was.
Maybe there wasn’t.
I worked for two different VA agencies earlier in my career, and I can tell you with certainty that the two agencies I worked for were not hiring a roster full of experienced specialists who had already spent years doing the work clients were requesting.
They hired people they believed they could train.
There is a difference.
A lot of the people were stay-at-home moms who wanted flexible income. That does not mean they weren’t intelligent, capable, or able to learn. Many were.
And the agencies trained people within an inch of their lives.
But training someone how the agency wants a task completed is not the same as that person already having years of experience doing it.
I can give you one extremely embarrassing example from my own agency days.
I once accidentally deleted an entire website.
Yes.
The entire website.
I had never worked directly on a server before and did not understand that, with the way the FTP access and directory were configured, deleting that access could also delete everything attached to that directory.
That was not me maliciously doing something reckless.
It was me being assigned technical work I did not yet have the experience to recognize was beyond what I knew.
And that is an important distinction when someone says, “The agency vets and trains everyone.”
Training matters.
Experience matters too.
Most agencies do have some sort of hierarchy, team lead, manager, or more experienced person available when a VA runs into something they cannot handle. That can be a real benefit.
But do not assume the individual assigned to you personally has the experience you think you purchased simply because the agency as a whole advertises that service.
Ask.
Can you vet an independent Tech VA more easily?
In many ways, yes, because you know who you are evaluating before the relationship begins.
You can look at that person’s:
- Years of experience
- Certifications
- Website
- Portfolio or work examples
- Reviews
- References
- Professional history
- Service specialties
- Business registration
- Communication style
Most importantly, you can ask technical questions directly to the person who will actually do the work.
If you need someone working in ActiveCampaign, ask about their ActiveCampaign experience.
If you need WordPress maintenance, find out whether they actually maintain WordPress websites.
If you need a Zapier integration, ask how they would think through the workflow before building the Zap.
You can even start with a smaller paid test project before handing over a large or complicated piece of work. And yes, paid – please do not ask someone to prove they can do the work by working for free.
With an agency, you may thoroughly research the company and still not know much about the individual who will eventually be assigned to you.
And reviews can be tricky.
You may find 400 reviews telling you that XYZ Agency is fantastic.
Great.
But was Susie Q fantastic?
Because Susie is the one inside your CRM.
It is much easier to find direct reviews, referrals, recommendations, and references for an independent provider because that provider’s reputation belongs to them.
What happens if you want the same person long term?
This is where direct hiring has a major advantage.
Agency turnover can be brutal.
In my experience, VAs dropped like flies.
People left. Workloads changed. Clients were reassigned. Someone who worked with one client today may not be the person working with them six months from now.
Part of that can come down to the agency model itself.
When the person doing the work is earning substantially less than what the client is paying the agency, someone who becomes experienced and highly skilled may eventually realize they can earn more working independently.
An agency can replace them.
That is actually one of the benefits of the agency.
But replacement is not the same thing as continuity with the person.
If you genuinely do not care who completes the task – as long as someone qualified completes it – this may not matter at all.
In fact, that is one of the situations where I think an agency makes a lot of sense.
You are purchasing support.
Not necessarily a relationship.
There is nothing wrong with that.
But if you like knowing your person, want to request them again next year, or want to leave for a few years and come back to the same provider later, an independent relationship gives you more control.
I have had clients work with me, disappear for years because they no longer needed support, and return when they needed me again.
They know who they are coming back to.
With an agency, there is a very good chance the person you loved working with is no longer there – or may not be the person you are assigned again.
You also need to read the agency agreement carefully. Some agencies restrict whether clients can hire or continue working directly with a VA after that person leaves the agency.
So loving the person assigned to you does not necessarily mean you get to take that working relationship with you.
But does continuity matter as much for technical work?
Here is where I disagree with one of the arguments people commonly make for hiring a long-term Tech VA.
Continuity helps.
Of course it does.
Someone who knows your business does not have to start completely from scratch every time.
But I would not pretend continuity solves everything in technology.
Technology changes constantly.
An SOP can say exactly where to click today and be useless six months from now because the company moved the button.
- Software gets redesigned.
- Features are added.
- Features disappear.
- Pricing plans change.
- Platforms integrate with other companies.
- Companies get acquired.
- Products are renamed.
- Programs shut down completely.
- Something that required Zapier last year may suddenly have a native integration.
- Something that worked perfectly for three years can disappear with one software update.
So while there is value in working with someone who understands your business and preferred way of doing things, technical continuity is not the same as having someone memorize one unchanging process forever.
That is actually more realistic in administrative work.
An administrative SOP can remain useful for years if the business process does not change.
Technical work requires the person doing it to keep learning because the systems themselves refuse to sit still.
Rude, but true.
When does an agency clearly have the advantage?
Availability.
This is one where I am not going to try to make the independent provider win.
When I go on vacation, the work stops.
If I am sick, the work stops.
There is one of me.
An agency has people.
If your assigned VA is unavailable, there may be a manager, lead, backup VA, or someone else who can step in.
Depending on the agency, you may also be able to get:
- Dedicated hours
- Extended coverage
- Last-minute support
- Emergency support
- Multiple VAs
- Several specialties under one company
- Large amounts of work completed at once
- Coverage while someone is out
If the business needs someone available constantly, has a huge project, needs a large number of hours every week, or genuinely does not care who completes the work as long as it gets done, an agency may be the better choice.
No argument from me.
Just make sure the agency actually provides the coverage you are assuming it provides.
“Agency” does not automatically mean 24/7.
Ask what happens when your person is unavailable.
What if you need someone available during specific hours every day?
This is where the conversation can start drifting away from freelancer versus agency and toward contractor versus employee.
If you need someone at their computer from 9:00 to 5:00 every day, following your specific schedule, available whenever you call, handling a constant queue of work, and working according to the exact methods you dictate, you may not actually be describing an independent freelancer anymore.
You may be describing an employee.
An agency can sometimes solve that differently if the worker is employed by the agency and assigned to your account.
But if you are directly hiring an independent contractor, there are limits to how much control a business should expect to have over that person’s schedule and working methods.
This is one of those areas where I would absolutely tell someone to talk with an employment or tax professional rather than taking legal advice from a blog post written by a Tech Manager.
As Daffy Duck said in The Looney Tunes Show: “Know your role!”
Is hiring an independent VA cheaper than using an agency?
Not necessarily.
This is another assumption I would throw out.
An established independent specialist may actually charge more per hour than an agency.
Why?
Because they set their own pricing.
They may have certifications, years of experience, specialized expertise, insurance, business expenses, continuing education, and a track record that supports that rate.
When you hire through an agency, the amount you pay the agency is not necessarily what the VA earns.
In the agencies where I worked, those numbers were very different.
That is part of how the agency pays for management, training, recruiting, administration, coverage, and its own operating expenses.
So comparing:
Agency: $50/hour with Independent specialist: $75/hour does not automatically tell you which option offers better value.
- Who is doing the work?
- How experienced are they?
- How much instruction will they need?
- Can you choose them?
- What happens if the task becomes more technical?
- Can they identify that the problem you asked them to solve is not actually the problem?
A certified or highly experienced independent specialist will generally cost more than someone who is just beginning.
They should.
You are paying for the experience that means they do not have to learn everything on your dime.
Is one model safer when someone needs access to your business systems?
I do not think agency versus independent determines whether someone will handle access responsibly.
The person matters.
The controls matter.
The agency or independent business’s processes matter.
You can hire an independent provider who behaves terribly.
You can work with an agency VA who handles extremely sensitive information professionally.
I have personally been trusted with highly sensitive client systems while working through an agency and treated that access exactly as I should have.
Someone else could have been given the same access and made a very different choice.
What direct hiring can give you is more information about the specific person you’re trusting before you give them access.
An established independent provider may have a registered business, contracts, insurance, years of public reviews, professional references, certifications, and an online history that follows them.
They do not disappear simply because they stopped working for an agency.
Either way, ask:
- Who exactly will have access?
- Will anyone else on the team see the credentials?
- Can the provider have their own user account?
- How is 2FA handled?
- What happens to their access when the work ends?
Security should be intentional regardless of which hiring model you choose.
An agency logo is not a security strategy.
So…agency or direct Tech VA?
I would make the decision based on what you actually value.
Hire directly when the person matters.
- You want to choose who does the work.
- You want to evaluate their individual experience.
- You prefer working directly with the person inside your systems.
- You want the flexibility to leave and come back later.
- You want a professional relationship that belongs to the two of you rather than to an agency assigning people behind the scenes.
Consider an agency when the coverage matters more than the person.
- You need a lot of hours.
- You need immediate availability.
- You want backup when someone is out.
- You need several people or specialties.
- You need dedicated coverage.
- You have a large project that one independent person realistically cannot complete within your timeline.
- Or you simply want to hand the work to a company and let them worry about staffing it.
Neither choice is inherently more professional.
Neither guarantees expertise.
Neither guarantees security.
And neither guarantees that you will enjoy working with the person on the other side of the screen.
The real difference is what you are buying.
With an agency, you are largely buying infrastructure and coverage.
With an independent provider, you are largely choosing the actual professional and the relationship that comes with them.
Figure out which one your business actually needs before assuming the first three pages of search results made that decision for you.
If direct technical support is the better fit, you can learn more about Technical Virtual Assistance from Kopf Consulting, including one-time, flexible, and ongoing support options.