R&D is a crucial department of any business. Right from facilitating new innovations to existing product advancements—this business function operates at the core of every activity that directly affects an organization’s growth.
However, creating an in-house team to help with research can be a costly affair, especially if you’re a small business or a solopreneur with limited resources at your disposal.
That’s where research VAs can come to your rescue!
Research VAs are professionals who remotely supplement different research activities conducted by a business.
Here are some tasks a research VA can help you with:
To create a list of the best research VA websites, here are the metrics we took into consideration:
Let’s dive in!
Starting Price: $2,600/assistant/month, working full-time
Types of Remote Staff Provided: Virtual Assistants, Marketers, Designers, Developers, and Customer Support
US-Based Staff Availability: No. Globally based
Languages Supported: English
Credibility: High
Leverage Assistants is a white-glove virtual assistant staffing company. The company was founded by Stephen Turban, a serial entrepreneur and McKinsey alum (his last company was bootstrapped to 8-digit revenue), and it focuses on picking 1% talent globally and then training you to delegate to them effectively. Leverage is highly selective for applicants—selecting less than 0.2% of its applicants who apply.
Leverage Assistants match businesses with flexible, college-educated, competent offshore talent. Most of Leverage’s talent is in the Philippines or South Africa. Leverage is known for its high quality of talent and its delegation training for founders.
The service, however, is not as in-demand as other virtual assistant companies like Upwork (placement times are 2-4 weeks), and the service often includes a waitlist for interested founders. Leverage only provides full-time virtual assistants.
Starting Price: $50/hour
Types of Services Offered: Literature Review, Policy Analysis, Concept Testing, and more
Location of Staff: Global
Full-Time/Part-Time: Both
Credibility: High
Upwork is a freelance marketplace. With a workforce of over 18 million freelancers, it can help you hire a suitable research VA for your business. Some of the core skills of research VAs on Upwork include literature review, market research, data collection and analysis, etc. Other popular services on the platform are digital marketing, content writing, and customer support.
Upwork scouts talent from across the globe, which makes it ideal for businesses located in any part of the world. This also means you get greater flexibility in terms of price. However, Upwork neither matches you with a VA nor manages your experience with them. So, check for alternatives if VA-matching as a feature is vital for you.
Starting Price: $10.50/hour
Types of Services Offered: Market Research, Data Analysis, KPI Generation and Tracking, and more
Location of Staff: Philippines, US, India, Europe, Southeast Asia, and South Africa
Full-Time/Part-Time: Both
Credibility: High
If you want a VA who can aid your research projects, 20four7VA is an option. Its business support professionals are adept at handling basic market research activities. You can also delegate related tasks like data analysis and quality checking to them. Apart from this, the platform has a rich roster of VA profiles that provide support in administrative and marketing activities across most major industries.
We particularly chose 20four7VA for its high credibility. Besides, the range of services offered by this platform is quite comprehensive.
Starting Price: $2,299/month (8 hours/day, Mon-Fri)
Types of Services Offered: Product Research, Data Research, Advertising Research, and more
Location of Staff: US
Full-Time/Part-Time: Both
Credibility: High
YesAssistant LLC is a US-based VA platform. It assists businesses in several core activities like data entry, cold calling, real estate management, etc. It also offers web research services that include researching products, leads, documents, events, and more.
We included this website in our list because of its wide range of services. However, all VAs on YesAssistant LLC are US-based, so communication barriers may occur, especially if your business operates at a different timezone.
Starting Price: Custom pricing
Types of Services Offered: Market Analysis, Trend Analysis, Risk Assessment, and more
Location of Staff: US
Full-Time/Part-Time: Both
Credibility: Medium
If you want to recruit vetted, US-based research assistants, Wishup can make for a good option. It has a pool of over 1,500 professionals you can choose from. As for its services, research VAs on Wishup mainly specialize in market analysis, forecasting, industry report preparation, as well as other miscellaneous research tasks.
Apart from this, Wishup also offers VAs for lead generation, social media management, content writing, and several other business needs. It claims to recruit the top 0.1% of talent from the US. We also like its simple onboarding process. But on the downside, Wishup’s pricing is ambiguous, so we can’t assess if it’s affordable or expensive.
Starting Price: $1,200/month (160 hours/month)
Types of Services Offered: Database Curation and Updation, Lead Generation, Trends Research, and more
Location of Staff: US, India
Full-Time/Part-Time: Both
Credibility: Medium
Vgrow Solution is a US-incorporated agency that sources talent from India and the US. Its range of VA services includes real estate management, event planning, data entry, etc. It also provides VAs specifically for market research, trends research, product research, and so on.
As a platform, Vgrow Solution’s biggest advantage is its high credibility. We also like how it offers a free trial of its services, which can be pretty useful if you’re deciding between multiple VA services. However, the skills of Vgrow’s research VAs are pretty basic. So, if your needs are slightly more specific, you may want to check out the other alternatives.
Starting Price: $1,120 /month (160 hours/month)
Types of Services Offered: Competitor Research, Legal Research, Property Research, and more
Location of Staff: India
Full-Time/Part-Time: Full-Time
Credibility: Medium
GetFriday is a company that offers remote assistance in personal and corporate tasks. It has a pool of 200+ college-educated VAs who are skilled in services like travel management, SEO, bookkeeping, and more. As for its research VAs, they mainly conduct tasks like market research, legal research, event research, etc.
GetFriday has a straightforward VA onboarding procedure. Moreover, you also get a backup team for occasions when your hired VA is unavailable—the reason we included it on our list. However, all of GetFriday’s VAs are India-based. So, that might pose a challenge in seamless communication.
Starting Price: $2,000/month
Types of Services Offered: Competitor Analysis, Market Research, Data Visualization, and more
Location of Staff: India, Philippines, Bolivia, Colombia
Full-Time/Part-Time: Both
Credibility: Low
If you are looking for a platform that provides VAs with skills in a specific research domain, Express Virtual Assistant can help. This company has a long list of research VA services—ranging from data visualization to business statistics research and so on.
Besides this, Express Virtual Assistant also offers VAs for bookkeeping, marketing, legal assistance, etc. This comprehensiveness is one of the aspects we like about it. Moreover, the platform also operates across various industries. However, on the downside, it has a long-drawn VA onboarding process, which might not be suitable for every organization.
Starting Price: $796.80 for 2 months (160 hours)
Types of Services Offered: Market Research, Comparative Research, Data Research, and more
Location of Staff: India
Full-Time/Part-Time: Both
Credibility: Low
Webcenture is an Indian VA platform that connects businesses with professionals adept in a range of industry-specific skills. Its research VAs offer services such as market research, information gathering, data research, etc. Apart from this, the company also provides several other VA services like SEO, graphic design, and website development.
As a platform, we like Webcenture’s flexible pricing plans. Depending on your needs, you can choose whether you want to hire a VA on an hourly basis or a monthly retainer basis. However, its range of services is very limited, and the platform isn’t very credible either.
Starting Price: Custom pricing
Types of Services Offered: Financial Research, Investment Research, Social Media Monitoring, and more
Location of Staff: India
Full-Time/Part-Time: Full-Time
Credibility: Not enough data to be asserted
Outsource2india is another destination to hire research VAs. Their range of services in this field is comprehensive and includes financial research, business research, market research, etc. They also provide VAs to assist in software development, accounting, BPO, photo editing, and other tasks.
The company claims to have 20 years of experience in outsourcing. It also has a long list of services, which makes it a good choice for businesses with a variety of delegation needs. However, its pricing plans are not clear. So, it’s difficult to assess its quality of services.
Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Leverage Assistants is a white-glove service that helps you find 1% assistants and then teaches you how to build leverage with them.
If you’re interested in a strategy session to learn how to use an assistant, click here.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.
Fill out this form, and we’ll be in contact to schedule a 1-1 delegation strategy session.
We’ll get in touch as soon as we are ready to onboard a new company.
