AVA vs Zirtual: Pricing, VAs, and Hiring Model Compared

AVA vs Zirtual at a glance

Zirtual has been a US-based dedicated VA service for over a decade, with a focus on placing American executive assistants with founders and busy professionals. AVA’s approach is structurally similar (managed dedicated placement, pre-vetted candidates, matched not browsed) but priced for the LATAM and Europe labor markets, which makes the per-hour rate significantly lower.

The decision: if US-based VA status is a hard requirement, Zirtual. If you want the same dedicated managed-placement model at a lower price with bilingual coverage, AVA.

Feature comparison

Feature	AVA	Zirtual
Starting price	$10.99/hr (40 hrs/wk)	Custom quote (historically $30-$45/hr equivalent)
VA location	LATAM and Europe	United States
Education	College degree or final term	College degree
Bilingual (EN+ES)	Yes, every VA	Not standard
Hiring model	Managed placement	Managed placement
Time to placement	1-2 weeks	1-2 weeks
Contract minimum	Monthly, adjustable with 30 days notice	Custom
Replacement guarantee	Yes	Yes
Dedicated vs shared VA	Dedicated	Dedicated

Pricing comparison

Plan	AVA price	Zirtual price	What’s included
Part-time (10-20 hrs/wk)	$12.99-$14.99/hr (~$520-$1,200/mo)	Custom quote	Dedicated VA, US hours
Full-time (40 hrs/wk)	$10.99-$12.99/hr (~$1,760-$2,080/mo)	Custom quote (historically $4,000-$7,000+/mo)	Dedicated VA, US-based, full-time

Zirtual does not currently publish a public pricing page, so the right column reads “custom quote.” For accurate current numbers, request a quote directly from Zirtual.

When to choose AVA vs Zirtual

Choose AVA when:

• You want a dedicated VA at a price you can see before talking to sales.
• Bilingual English and Spanish coverage is useful for your business.
• The work doesn’t require US tax residency or in-person presence in a specific US city.

Choose Zirtual when:

• US-based VA status is a hard requirement for your industry or your stakeholders.
• You’ve used Zirtual before and the existing relationship has institutional value worth preserving.
• You specifically need a VA who can handle US-only banking or legal paperwork requiring physical presence.

How the hiring process compares

Both companies use a managed-placement model: discovery call, pre-vetted candidates presented, you interview, VA starts within days. Both manage employment so you don’t deal with payroll, HR, or contractor paperwork on the VA side.

The substantive differences come down to two things: where the VA lives and what you pay. The work product, the candidate quality bar, and the placement speed are roughly comparable. If US-based status doesn’t actually matter for your specific work, the price gap is hard to justify.

A useful gut check: write down the 10 tasks you most want a VA to handle this month. Now ask which of those 10 require the VA to be physically in the US. If the answer is zero or one, AVA is the lower-cost path to the same outcome.