The closest company to us, and what the difference costs

At a glance

Of the 27 companies we looked at while writing these pages, Hire Overseas is the one built most like us. A managed monthly subscription for a dedicated contractor, one fee covering the person's pay and everything around it, nothing to pay until you hire, month to month afterwards. Their figures come from their pricing, roles, FAQ and case study pages, read on 17 September 2026.

Where Hire Overseas is the better choice

This is the page where we have the least room to posture, because most of what they do, we do, and they do some of it for less money.

They are cheaper at the floor

Their pricing page, read on 17 September 2026, starts at $2,000 a month per role for a 40-hour-a-week embedded seat, with each role priced individually from there. Our assistant seats start at $2,400 a month and our finance seats at $2,800. At the bottom of both ranges they are about $400 a month below us, which is $4,800 a year. On a single assistant seat that is a real number and you should treat it as one.

The same nothing-until-they-start structure

No deposit, no setup fee, nothing owed until you hire, then month to month with no long-term commitment. That is our structure too. Plenty of this category asks for a deposit, a three-month trial or a six-month minimum, and neither of us does, so on the two terms that trip buyers up most often we are level.

On a standard VA, they may well be faster

They say a virtual assistant is usually sourced within 24 hours, with up to two weeks for narrow skill combinations. Our number is three availability-confirmed candidates within 48 hours of the brief, for every role, and we would rather publish one honest number than a fast one for the easy roles. For a general VA, 24 hours beats 48.

The tool-specific roles are a genuinely good idea

Their roles page lists a software assistant line built around named tools, Claude Code, n8n, Zapier, Make, Clay, Apollo, HubSpot, Figma, Klaviyo, Notion among them. If what you need is someone who already knows your exact stack on day one, being able to ask for it by tool name is better than describing it in a brief and hoping. They also publish 12 named client case studies, which is 12 more than most of this category manages.

The core difference

When two companies sell the same structure, the comparison stops being about the model and becomes about what the price gap buys. The gap here is roughly $400 a month at the floor. Four things sit inside it.

The guarantee does not end on day 15

Their 14-day money-back window means a full refund or a free replacement inside the first two weeks. Ours is a free replacement as many times as it takes, with four conditions published on our guarantee section. This is the biggest single difference between the two companies and the rest of this page keeps coming back to it.

We headhunt rather than post

The people we place are approached, not applicants. That matters most for the roles where the good candidates already have jobs: a bookkeeper who has run month-end for a US company, an SDR with a track record on US accounts. It also costs more to do, which is part of where the $400 goes.

Availability is re-confirmed every week

The featured people on our front page are public and carry a date next to each name, because someone who was free three weeks ago usually is not. Hire Overseas does not publish candidate profiles before a call, which is the norm; only three of the 27 companies we checked publish any, and not one of them shows dates or lets you book.

The AI layer is a system, not a training day

They say every candidate is trained on current AI tools, and we believe them, though no duration or programme detail is published. We train on AI tooling before day one too, including Claude Code, which they also name. The part that is different is what happens after: an AI layer captures how the seat is actually being done into a living playbook for that seat, then coaches the person on it every week. When someone leaves, the next person inherits the playbook rather than learning your close process from your memory of it.

What you get for the money

Run the arithmetic over a year rather than a month, because a month makes the gap look bigger than it is.

That is the argument, and we want to be careful with it, because it only holds if a replacement actually happens. Most seats do not fail. If yours does not, you paid $4,800 for insurance you never claimed, and the honest answer is that they would have been the better buy.

What both fees cover

On both sides the monthly figure is all-in: the person's compensation, payroll, admin, tooling, account management and the provider's margin. Neither of us bills a placement fee, a setup fee or a deposit. Neither of us makes you the employer. Comparing the two numbers is a fair comparison, which is not true of most pairs in this category.

What a from price means

Both of us publish a floor. Theirs is $2,000 and each role is priced from there; ours runs from $2,400 for an executive or virtual assistant, from $2,500 for operations and admin, from $2,500 for SDR, BDR and CSR, and from $2,800 for finance and accounting, with engineering and AI scoped on the call. A senior seat costs more than the floor at both companies, so get the actual quote for your actual role from both of us before you compare anything. Our bands are on the pricing section.

If the comparison you are really making is offshore against a US hire, the cost calculator does the fully loaded version, including the payroll taxes, benefits and equipment that never show up on an offer letter.

One claim we do not make

Their site says they accept fewer than one percent of applicants. Several companies in this category publish a number like that; of the 27 we studied, exactly one published how many applicants it was measured against. We publish no acceptance rate at all, because without the denominator there is nothing for you to check, and a number you cannot check is not proof of anything.

Speed, and who you actually meet

Their sourcing times run from 24 hours to two weeks depending on the role, with virtual assistants usually inside a day and narrow skill combinations at the long end. Ours is three availability-confirmed candidates within 48 hours of the brief, and on recent placements 4 to 7 days from brief to first day of work.

Two things are worth pulling apart there. The first is what the clock is measuring. We define time to fill as brief to first day of work and we say so on the page, because time to shortlist and time to working are very different numbers and the category uses them interchangeably. The second is what happens at the wide end of a range. A range of 24 hours to two weeks tells you the easy roles are quick. It tells you less about the bookkeeper who has to know US GAAP and your accounting software.

Availability-confirmed means something specific

Every candidate we send has been asked that week whether they are free and when they can start, and the answer is on the shortlist with the date next to it. A shortlist of three people, two of whom accepted other offers last Thursday, is a shortlist of one. That check is unglamorous and it is most of why our 48 hours is 48 and not 24.

You can look at dated availability at eleven at night without speaking to anybody, which is the part neither of us saw anywhere else in this market.

How your risk is covered

Their pricing page and FAQ both publish a 14-day money-back guarantee: inside those two weeks you can take a full refund or a free replacement. It is a real promise and it covers the most visible kind of failure, the person who was oversold and is obviously wrong in week one.

Think about when hires actually go wrong, though. Picture a bookkeeper who starts on the 3rd. The first two weeks are onboarding, access, a walkthrough of your chart of accounts and some tidy-up work, and it all looks fine. The problem shows up at the first month-end close, on about day 35, when the reconciliations do not tie out and you realise the last place they worked closed the books quarterly. Day 35 is three weeks past the window.

Our four conditions, and why they exist

Free replacement as many times as it takes, with the conditions published rather than left to a terms page. The replacement is for the same role and scope, so a swap is not a way to change the job. You need to have given the person defined work and written feedback, because we cannot fix what was never said out loud. We need at least 10 working days before a request. And after three replacements either side can walk away on the standard 30 days' written notice, because an unlimited guarantee with no way out is just a way of holding on to a client who should have left.

Their notice period for cancelling is not published on their site (checked 17 September 2026). Ours is 30 days in writing. Ask both of us for that in writing before you sign, along with what happens to the person's access on your last day.

On security, since it comes up on these calls: what we do is an NDA before any access, logins that stay in your name and under your control, and same-day offboarding when a seat ends. Anything beyond that, ask us on the call.

Which one should you pick?

Questions people ask when comparing

Sources and how this page was written

We read Hire Overseas's public pages ourselves on 17 September 2026 and quote what they publish, not what a third party says about them. We describe their claims rather than reproduce their copy. If something here is out of date, tell us and we'll correct it. Our own numbers come from our pricing section and our published guarantee.

1. 01Hire Overseas pricing, floor price, payment timing, commitment and guarantee, hireoverseas.com/pricing, read 17 September 2026
2. 02Hire Overseas roles, including the software assistant line and named tools, hireoverseas.com/roles, read 17 September 2026
3. 03Hire Overseas FAQ, guarantee window, hireoverseas.com/faqs, read 17 September 2026
4. 04Hire Overseas case studies, 12 named clients, hireoverseas.com/case-studies, read 17 September 2026
5. 05Contractanaut rates, replacement conditions and availability, contractanaut.com/#pricing, published 17 September 2026