Best CRM for Virtual Assistants in 2026: retainers, hours, tasks

What a CRM for virtual assistants is (and what it is not)

A CRM for virtual assistants is the business side of an assistant's work: who the client is, what hours or tasks you agreed each month, who on their team can request work, what you logged and what is still unpaid. It is not an inbox replacement, a password vault or a project tool for the client's own team. Keep client logins in a password manager, not in notes. If a tool stores contacts but leaves time and billing to other apps, the hours agreement lives in an email thread and a second requester can quietly push the month over the cap.

How we compared these tools

We compared each tool on the same five points, using only the vendor's own pricing and product pages:

1. Entry price for one person, monthly and billed yearly, as listed on October 25, 2026.
2. Retainer and hours coverage on that plan: time tracking, recurring invoices or retainers, and turning logged time into an invoice.
3. Client-facing pieces: client portal, proposals or contracts, and tasks or projects.
4. Hard limits on the entry plan: active clients, projects, seats or lead forms.
5. Trial terms: length, and whether the vendor says a card is needed.

We did not test speed, support, reliability or mobile apps, and did not use third-party ratings. Order reflects fit for a VA who bills retainers and hour packages. HubSpot and Harvest are partial tools and are placed last.

The best CRM for virtual assistants in 2026

1. Workspace369, best for VAs who bill retainers and hour packages

Workspace369 puts the client record, a proposal the client approves online, a retainer with a monthly hour bank, tasks, time tracking with timesheets, a private client portal and invoices in one place. Cadet is $29 a month for one person ($23.25 billed yearly) and lists retainers, recurring invoices, deposits, billable time that turns into invoice lines and a payment follow-up automation on the plan. Email automations are included, with up to 3 active workflows. The screenshot is a demo record, not a customer result.

Limitations: Cadet allows 5 active projects and one seat, so a VA with many small clients can reach the cap; Voyager ($74 a month, two seats, calls and texts, shared inbox) lifts it, and extra seats are $10 a month from Voyager. Online booking, expenses and payment plans start at Specialist ($149 a month). It does not enforce an hours cap for you, so write the cap into the proposal. The 14-day trial needs a card.

Best for: solo VAs with up to five active client projects, or small VA agencies on Voyager, who sell monthly retainers and want time, tasks, portal and invoices without extra apps.

2. Moxie, best for the lowest checked price

Moxie lists a virtual assistants page on its site. Starter is $12 a month, or $10 a month billed yearly, and its pricing page lists client and project management, invoicing and payments, proposals, quotes and contracts, time tracking, a sales pipeline, a form builder and meeting schedulers. The trial is 14 days, and Moxie's homepage says no credit card is required. If you run the test below, every step up to the invoice is listed on Starter. Pro is $25 a month ($20 billed yearly) and adds the white-labeled client portal, custom domain and workflow automations.

Limitations: no white-labeled portal or automations on Starter, so reminders and client updates stay manual until Pro. The pricing page does not name recurring billing, but Moxie's help center documents recurring invoices and payment plans with no plan gate stated, so confirm them on Starter before you plan a retainer.

Best for: new VAs who want proposals, time and invoices cheaply and can chase updates by hand.

3. Plutio, best for an everything-included solo plan

Plutio lists projects, invoices, contracts, schedulers and forms as core features on every plan. Core is $19 a month ($190 billed yearly) and includes 100 GB of storage; the page says projects, invoices, contracts, schedulers, forms and time tracking are on every plan. The trial is 7 days and the page says no card is required. The catch is the cap: Core allows 9 active clients and no contributors, and the trial allows 3 active clients. Count the clients you actively serve before you start; a tenth moves you to Pro at $49 a month.

Limitations: solo only on Core, 500 workflow actions a month, and white-label is an add-on. A growing VA agency with a few assistants outgrows it quickly.

Best for: a solo VA with a small, steady roster who wants every module from day one.

4. Bonsai, best for hourly billing priced per user

Bonsai prices per user. Basic is $15 a month ($9 billed yearly) with time tracking, tasks, unlimited projects and a CRM. Essentials, at $25 a month ($19 billed yearly), adds invoices and payments, retainer and subscription invoices, proposals and contracts, forms, scheduling, the client portal and expense tracking. The trial runs 7 days, then Bonsai asks for card details to continue. Trial Essentials, not Basic, because Basic cannot send the invoice. Elite is $49 a month billed yearly ($59 monthly) with a three-user minimum, so it only matters once you hire.

Limitations: invoices and the portal are not in Basic, and custom fields and client tasks and messaging start at Premium ($39 a month, $29 billed yearly).

Best for: VAs who bill by the hour and add subcontractors one seat at a time.

5. HoneyBook, best for packaged VA services

HoneyBook Starter is $29 a month billed yearly and lists unlimited clients and projects, invoices and payments, proposals and contracts, a calendar, a client portal and basic reports. Its FAQ gives a 30-day trial with no credit card required. If you sell fixed packages such as an inbox-management setup, the inquiry-to-payment flow fits well. The pricing page also lists a 60-day money-back guarantee, which lowers the risk of testing it on real work. Starter is $29 a month billed yearly; the monthly Starter price is See site.

Limitations: Starter allows up to 2 live lead forms. The pricing page does not list time tracking or its plan, although HoneyBook's help center describes a Time Tracker that puts billable hours on invoices, so confirm it in the trial before you rely on it for an hours cap. Essentials ($49 a month billed yearly, $59 monthly) adds a scheduler, automations, up to 10 lead forms and up to 2 team members besides the account owner.

Best for: VAs who sell fixed packages rather than logged hours.

6. Dubsado, best for form-heavy onboarding

Dubsado Starter is $335 a year and Premier is $525 a year; the monthly prices are See site. The trial is 21 days with full Premier access and no card required. Both plans list unlimited clients and projects, invoicing and payment plans, client portals and form templates; three extra users are free. Starter has one active lead capture form, and public proposals, scheduling, automated workflows and the bookkeeping integration need Premier.

Limitations: the pricing page does not list time tracking, but Dubsado's help center says time tracking is a Premier feature that applies entries to invoices, so Starter needs another tool for hours. The monthly price is See site, so check it if you prefer not to pay yearly.

Additional brands are $10 a month each, which helps if you run a second VA brand, and users beyond the three free ones are priced in bands on the page.

Best for: VAs with a repeatable onboarding questionnaire who will build the forms once.

7. HubSpot CRM and Harvest, best as partial tools

HubSpot's free CRM says it is free for up to 2 users, with 1,000 contacts and no time limit and no card required. The page lists contacts, deal pipelines, tasks and activities, and reporting, but no time tracking, client portal or retainer billing, so it covers contacts and a pipeline. Harvest has a free plan with 1 seat and 2 projects, including time tracking, invoicing and expense tracking, and Teams starts at $9 per seat a month billed annually ($11 monthly) with a 30-day trial. Harvest says no credit card is required for a trial.

Limitations: neither lists a client portal, proposals or recurring retainer billing on the plans described.

Best for: a VA who needs only a free contact list (HubSpot) or only hourly tracking and invoices (Harvest). Either can sit beside a lighter tool, but then the hours agreement, the tasks and the invoice live in three places, which is the drift this guide is trying to avoid.

Side-by-side comparison

Which tool fits your VA business?

Workspace369 in action for a monthly retainer client

Here is how the hours-cap test below looks in Workspace369. Both screenshots are from a demo workspace with sample data (an auto-detailing business on the Commander plan), not a VA account and not a customer result.

The board shows 10 active projects in stage columns, each card with a progress bar, budget and days left. The sidebar lists Clients, Requests, Projects, Calendar, Tasks, Reminders, Time Tracking, Proposals and Invoices. A VA would keep one project per retainer client: tasks from each requester go on the project, and time tracking timers and timesheets log against it. Cadet allows 5 active projects; this demo is on Commander.

The invoice editor shows the details on the left and a client-facing preview on the right, with a partial payment already applied. At month end you turn the logged hours into invoice lines, and a retainer repeats the same invoice each month. The client sees the project, messages and invoice in the client portal rather than in a mail thread. The Payment Plan tab in this screenshot needs Specialist or higher.

Set the client up as an hour-bank retainer and the hours meter shows approved hours, hours waiting for your approval and what is left, with alerts at 80% and 100% of the month's hours. Retainer hour banks are on every plan.

What it does not do for a VA: it does not stop work at the cap, so agree in the proposal what happens to extra hours. It is not a password vault. Online booking starts at Specialist.

Run an hours-cap test during the trial

Take one fictional client through a month in each tool you shortlist:

1. Record the monthly hours agreement and the tasks included, and send it as a proposal or brief the client approves.
2. Create a project with tasks from two different requesters at the client.
3. Log time against both with the timer, then edit one entry in the timesheet.
4. Push the month over the cap, then write the client a message about it and attach the hours breakdown.
5. Turn the logged time into an invoice and set up the next month's retainer invoice.
6. Export the client's records and check what comes out.

If you run the test, the best tool keeps tasks, time, messages and invoice on one client record, and the invoice total matches your timesheet. Any mismatch is the leak this test is built to find. Price the extra hours first with the free scope-change request builder and set your rate with the hourly rate calculator.

When to keep it simple

If you have two or three steady clients, a shared task list, a timer app and an invoice template can carry you a long way. Move to a client-work tool when two requesters conflict, when you cannot say what hours you agreed three months ago, or when you chase late payments by hand. The virtual assistants product page shows how Workspace369 handles proposals, communications and invoices, and the pricing page has current plans. Workspace369 also supports Workflow Automations for reminders and follow-ups, with email automations on every plan.

Before importing real clients, run one full month on demo data and check that your records can be exported.