Agencies sell convenience. But the math rarely adds up for small business owners. Here's what you're actually paying for.

When you hire a VA through an agency, the invoice looks simple. A flat hourly rate, a monthly retainer, maybe a one-time placement fee. Clean. Easy.

What's not on the invoice is the markup — and for most small businesses, it's significant.

What agencies actually charge

A typical offshore VA earns $5–12/hr depending on their skills, experience, and location. Agencies selling "managed VA services" routinely bill clients $25–45/hr for the same person. The difference — anywhere from 2x to 4x — is the agency's margin.

That's not inherently wrong. Agencies provide real value: screening, managing, replacing VAs if someone drops out, handling HR compliance. But for a solo founder who needs 10 hours of inbox management per week, that overhead is a lot to pay for.

The placement fee nobody talks about

Many agencies also charge a one-time placement fee — often equivalent to 1–3 months of the VA's salary — when you hire someone full-time. This is sometimes called a "recruitment fee" or simply buried in an onboarding charge.

On a $1,500/month hire, that's $1,500–$4,500 upfront before a single task is completed.

The cost of hiring a VA isn't just the hourly rate. It's the markup, the placement fee, the lock-in contract, and the time it takes to navigate all of it.

When agencies are worth it

To be fair, if you're hiring 5+ VAs, need SLA-backed coverage, or don't want to be involved in any management at all — agencies make sense. The overhead is worth it at that scale.

But for most founders? You're paying enterprise prices for a 10-hour-a-week hire. That math doesn't work.

The DIY alternative

Hiring directly — through a platform like Delegatoo — means paying the VA their actual rate, not a marked-up version of it. A $10/hr VA costs $10/hr. You keep the difference. The VA earns more of what they're worth. Everyone wins except the agency.

The tradeoff is that you do your own screening, onboarding, and management. For most small business owners, that's a few hours upfront — worth it to save hundreds of dollars a month.