The GetFriday Alternative: Delegated.com
If you’re looking for a virtual assistant company--any virtual assistant company--you won’t have to look far. There are plenty of options. But the question isn’t which virtual assistant companies simply exist. The question is: which virtual assistant company will be right for your business needs?
Ideally, your virtual assistant company won’t just be a fit. It will be an affordable way for you to grow your team, identify the VAs who can most help your company, and expand your business without the expensive long-term commitments that come with full-time hires.
Before you commit any money to this process, you need confidence. You don’t only need to know that a virtual assistant is the right option for you, but that the VA service you’re choosing is dedicated to matching the right VA to your needs--and that their packaging, pricing, and features all fit neatly in line with what you need. To accomplish that, we’re doing side-by-side comparisons with Delegated and some of the competing VA services out there.
Today, we’re focusing on Delegated as an alternative to the popular virtual assistant service known as “Get Friday.”
What You Need to Know About Delegated and Get Friday
Why bother with a Get Friday alternative? It starts with knowing the difference between the two services. Let’s compare the two companies from an eagle-eye view:
- Get Friday: Get Friday is one of the most established virtual assistant services you’ll find. Established in the 2000s, Get Friday has gained notoriety in working with authors like AJ Jacobs--who reported just how much he enjoyed hiring a virtual assistant. Get Friday is based in Bangalore, India, which allows for the lower labor costs there to translate to lower prices for their customers. According to BloggerLocal.com, “Get Friday was founded in 2005 and has employed over 200 active virtual assistants serving more than 11,000 clients in over 40 countries.”
- Delegated: As a Get Friday alternative, it’s hard to imagine a more clear distinction between the two services. True, they both offer VA services. But Delegated is a new arrival on the scene. Its goal is to put its VAs through an “intense” screening process. It also offers packages that include a backup VA and 24/7 support for emergencies, in case the client’s VA isn’t available at the time. Delegated also prides itself on using U.S.-based, employed VAs.
But that’s just the overview. Let’s take a step further and dive into the individual packages that separate Delegated and Get Friday’s VA services:
A Virtual Assistance Service Side-by-Side Comparison
In comparing two companies, it’s only natural that the packages won’t look exactly the same. Many VA services price their VA packages differently. But we can’t present Delegated as a Get Friday alternative unless we dive into the nitty-gritty of what separates the two companies. To do so, we’re going to compare two packages that are about as similar as we could find.
To find two comparable packages, we opted to sort them by the amount of VA hours available per month. For Delegated, we’re using the “Executive 24” package, which includes 24 hours of VA services per month. The closest equivalent Get Friday package is the “Basic 20,” which runs for 20 hours per month. Using information from Get Friday’s website, you’ll find the comparisons below:
The most obvious difference here is the price: how does Get Friday make it possible to hire VAs for such a lower cost? There’s also the interesting note that while the price for Get Friday is lower overall, additional hours on the plan will cost additional, while Delegate’s additional hours are based on the plan pricing’s hourly rate.
To make sense of the differences, we’ll have to dig deeper into how Delegated works as a Get Friday alternative, and just how Get Friday’s approach to virtual assisting differs from Delegated’s.
The Minimum Hourly Rate Offers and Virtual Assistant Packages
Since it’s important to avoid making direct comparisons with only one package tier included, we’ll try to include more thorough information about each. Here are the two available minimum packages at each virtual assistant service:
Delegated’s Minimum Package:
Delegated’s minimum package is called the “Personal 12.” Its target: those who need a virtual assistant to tackle a to-do list, but don’t need the longer commitments associated with growing a small business. Here’s what it looks like:
- 12 hours per month
- $420/month
- $35 per hour
- 1 user included
- Additional hours for $40/hour, allowed in 5 hour increments
Get Friday’s Minimum Package
The minimum plan at Get Friday is known as the “Basic 5.” That’s five hours per month. As with its Basic 20 plan, Get Friday does charge a higher rate for any additional hours you take on with the plan. Here’s what you can expect with the Basic 5:
- 5 hours per month
- $65/month
- $13/hour
- Additional hour purchase allowed, but at a price of $14/hour
Once again, we see the difference: although the pricing between the two is more comparable than in our table above, Get Friday’s lower labor costs mean a lower cost for you, the end user.
Get Friday vs. Delegated: Who’s Working For You?
If we were to only look at the side-by-side comparison, the most determining factor we would notice is the price per hour. But it’s important to understand the appeal of Get Friday against the appeal of a Get Friday alternative like Delegated.
Delegated’s approach is based on using highly-skilled, U.S.-based workers who are available throughout the day. This is ideal for any company whose work hours are highly time-sensitive. And in many cases, having someone who can handle the phones during the appropriate hours is integral to doing business.
Delegated also works hard to make sure that there’s a support system in place if one VA isn’t available. In the course of doing business, it can be common for companies to rely on one aspect of their operation always working. But what happens if you’ve relied on a VA’s work so you can go on vacation? If they’re not there to handle your sensitive emails, for example, you may find yourself scrambling at the worst time for you and your family.
Delegated works that out by using a backup assistant who will be ready to jump on task if a situation like that occurs. There’s also a 24/7 support system in place so businesses who work odd hours can always contact Delegated for their immediate needs. The end-result is a VA service that functions much like a full-time employee; because that’s who Delegated does, in fact, work with.
Get Friday’s Bangalore-focused service is not without experience and expertise. Delegated, in contrast, focuses on the U.S., especially through what we call a “proprietary training and ongoing education” system to keep VAs in the know for the most important tasks you have on your plate. We also maintain a dossier on individual clients so that backup assistants stand ready to take on the work of your primary virtual assistant in case of an emergency.
The Key Differences From Get Friday
Given the direct comparison we’ve just made--and how many similarities show up in the table above--is it possible to point out some key differences? You’d be surprised. There are more than a few reasons that Delegated is different than Get Friday:
- Location. With our U.S.-based virtual assistants, you’ll have access to people who are working on your time.
- Flat rates. Delegated’s flat rate per-hour for extra hours that you need beyond your current plan help provide more flexibility. If business picks up in a particular month, you can make a purchase of five more hours at the same rate; Get Friday allows extra hours, but often chargers higher rates for these additional hours.
- 24/7 support. We often find that with virtual assistant services, one thing that’s lacking is 24/7 support. We don’t have virtual assistants that work 24 hours a day, but we do have a system in place for making sure we remain responsive to your business’s needs.
What Should You Do Now?
Is it enough to know the name of a Get Friday alternative? If you ask us, there’s one more step. Sign up with Delegated and work with our customer success manager to match with a virtual assistant.