Magic charges $360 a week for a dedicated virtual assistant working 40 hours, or $540 a week for an executive assistant, billed every four weeks. That’s $1,440 a cycle for the standard plan. Cheaper options exist if you need fewer hours (Time Etc starts at $390 a month for 10 hours), and if the assistant was mostly for answering the phone and booking, software now does that for $125 to $355 a month. Below: Magic’s prices, four things in its terms to know before you sign or cancel, and eight alternatives with their own published prices, as of November 5, 2026.
What does Magic cost?
From Magic’s pricing page:
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Assistant | $360 a week | A dedicated assistant, 40 hours a week |
| Executive Assistant | $540 a week | A dedicated assistant, 40 hours a week, plus Magic 24/7 |
| Magic Teams | $540 a week per assistant | Custom hiring and training, discounts at scale |
“Prices shown use our standard four-week billing,” so the Virtual Assistant plan is $1,440 every four weeks, or about $9 an hour. Part-time plans exist, but their prices aren’t published. Magic 24/7 is a pool of assistants you message for one-off tasks around the clock.
Magic doesn’t say on its pricing page where assistants are based. Its own virtual assistant page pitches offshore help: “An offshore virtual assistant can offer exceptional support at a fraction of the cost.”
Four things in Magic’s terms to know
From Magic’s terms of use, last updated October 29, 2026:
- No refunds when you cancel. “You are not entitled to any refunds for cancellation.” Refunds are at Magic’s discretion.
- Cancelling takes effect from the next cycle. The plan auto-renews, and cancellation “will be effective in the billing period following the billing period you provide us notice.” The cycle you’re in runs out, and it isn’t refunded.
- Hiring your assistant costs $10,000. If you want to hire your Magic assistant directly, the terms set a fee “of no less than Ten Thousand U.S. Dollars ($10,000.00) per assistant.”
- Training and managing them is on you. Magic “does not warrant or guarantee that assistants are trained with any specific skills,” and managing them is “your sole responsibility.”
Reviews are mixed: 3.7 from 81 reviews on Trustpilot, which notes Magic hasn’t invited customers to review recently. Many recent reviews come from assistants rather than clients. Among the client reviews, complaints include being charged after closing an account and poor service quality.
Hear the receptionist take a real call — it rings your phone in about a minute.
What do Magic alternatives cost?
Published prices from each provider’s own page, November 5, 2026:
| Service | Published price | Minimum or terms | Where assistants are |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time Etc | $390/mo for 10 hours ($39/hr) to $2,160 for 60 | Unused hours roll over on 20 hours and up; switch or cancel any time | US |
| Fancy Hands | $35/mo for 3 requests, $55 for 5, $125 for 15 | Each request is up to 20 minutes of work | Not stated |
| Wing Assistant | $699/mo part-time (80 hours), $999 full-time (160) | No long-term contract | Not stated; a US-based option exists |
| Wishup | $1,999/mo (Prime), $2,999 (Elite), $5,400 for a US-based assistant | Billed quarterly or annually | India, or the US option |
| MyOutDesk | From $1,988/mo, full-time only | 8 hours a day, 5 days a week | Philippines, Latin America, Africa |
| Prialto | $1,600 per 55-hour “unit” a month; full-time from $3,600 | 90-day minimum and a $250 setup fee | Not stated |
| Boldly | $2,600/mo for 40 hours to $6,500 for 100 | 40 hours a month minimum | North America or Europe |
| BELAY | Quote only | Typically from 45 hours a month; month to month | US |
Two cheaper options stand out. If you need a few hours of real help a month, Time Etc’s 10-hour plan costs about what one week of Magic does ($390 against $360), and its plans from 20 hours up roll unused hours over. If you send small, separate tasks, Fancy Hands charges per request. For full-time help, Wing is cheaper ($999 a month), Wishup and MyOutDesk cost a little more (about $2,000 against Magic’s roughly $1,560 a month), and Boldly’s North American and European assistants cost more again; BELAY quotes on request.
What was the assistant for?
Most owners who hire a VA list some of these jobs: answering the phone, booking appointments, following up with leads, sending quotes and invoices, chasing payments and asking for reviews. The rest of the list is inbox triage, travel, research, data entry and personal errands.
Those two halves need different things. The second half needs judgement and a person. The first half is mostly the same steps every time, it happens at all hours, and a person on a 40-hour shift covers about a quarter of the week. That half is what software now does well.
Where Stack Space fits
Stack Space is a CRM with an AI receptionist built in. It covers the first half, not the second.
The receptionist Stax trains answers your business line 24/7 within your plan’s minutes, books straight onto the calendar built into Stack Space, and texts the confirmation, emailing it too when it has the address. You can switch on a text back for missed calls. From the same place you send estimates and invoices with card payment, set follow-up workflows (a missed call, a caller who didn’t book, an overdue invoice), and review requests go out when a job is marked done. Texts go out from our registered number with your business name on them; a number of your own is $15 a month.
Plans are $125 a month (Starter, 150 receptionist minutes) and $355 (Professional, 900 minutes), month to month, with no free trial. Extra minutes come in prepaid packs from $24 for 100; what an AI receptionist costs walks through the math at different call volumes.
It doesn’t answer your email, book your flights, do research or keep your books. If that’s most of what your assistant does, keep a human assistant, or pair a few hours from Time Etc with software for the phones. For how an AI receptionist compares with people on the phone, see virtual receptionist vs AI receptionist and human answering service vs AI.
How to switch away from Magic
- Write down what your assistant actually did last month, and sort it into phone and booking work versus judgement work.
- Time your notice near the end of a paid cycle. Cancellation takes effect from the next billing period, and the terms say you’re not entitled to a refund for the one you’re in.
- Get logins and documents back first: shared inboxes, calendars, passwords and any process notes your assistant wrote.
- Run the replacement for a week before the last Magic cycle ends, and check every booking and message it handled.
FAQ
How much does Magic cost? $360 a week for a dedicated 40-hour virtual assistant and $540 a week for an executive assistant, billed every four weeks ($1,440 and $2,160 a cycle), per Magic’s pricing page in November 2026. Part-time prices aren’t published.
Can I cancel Magic anytime? Yes. The terms say cancellation takes effect from the next billing period, and you’re not entitled to a refund for the cycle you’re in.
What’s cheaper than Magic? For a few hours of help, Time Etc starts at $390 a month for 10 hours and Fancy Hands at $35 a month for 3 tasks. For full-time help, Wing starts at $999 a month. If the job is mostly phones and booking, an AI receptionist costs $125 to $355 a month on Stack Space.
Where are Magic’s assistants based? Magic’s pricing page doesn’t say. Its own pages pitch offshore virtual assistants for their lower cost.
Can an AI replace a virtual assistant? For answering calls, booking, follow-up texts, invoices and review requests, mostly yes. For inbox management, research, travel and anything that needs judgement, no; keep a person for that.
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