Comparison guide · Australia

Hire, outsource or automate? What each option costs in Australia.

Four ways to handle repetitive admin, compared on published Australian prices.

Short answer

Hire (award minimum from $26.97 an hour + 12% super) when the work needs judgement, relationships or phone calls.
Offshore virtual assistant (sellers publish from $8 AUD an hour) for repeatable tasks that still need a person; budget time to supervise.
DIY tools (Zapier and Make have free plans) when the steps are predictable and someone in-house can build and maintain them.
Custom build (providers publish $1,500–$5,000 for one workflow build, plus running costs) when existing tools can’t handle the job’s decisions, connections or approvals.

Often the answer is a mix: automate the repetitive drafting and sorting, and keep a person for judgement and approval.

By Yo-Da Lai · AI consultant on the Gold CoastPublished 24 September 2026Prices checked 23 September 2026

I build custom automation, so I’ve linked every figure to its source.

Compare the four options See the 10-hour example

The four options side by side

Every cost is a published figure: award minimums from the Fair Work Ombudsman, the super rate from the Australian Taxation Office, rates published by virtual-assistant sellers, the software makers’ own plan prices and build prices published by Australian automation providers.

Published costs and trade-offs of four ways to handle repetitive admin in Australia. Prices checked 23 September 2026.
What to compare	Admin staff in Australia	Offshore virtual assistant	DIY tools	Custom build by a specialist
Published cost	$26.97 an hour Level 1 (entry-level) award minimum, or $1,024.70 a week full-time. Casual: $33.71 an hour. Plus 12% super. Sources: Fair Work Ombudsman (opens in a new tab), Fair Work Commission (opens in a new tab), Australian Taxation Office (opens in a new tab)	From $8 AUD an hour Virtual Coworker: Virtual assistants from $8 AUD an hour (20 to 40 hours a week). Remote Staff: “As low as AUD 8 – AUD 15 per hour”. Sources: Virtual Coworker (opens in a new tab), Remote Staff (opens in a new tab)	Free plans available Make Plan: $9 a month billed yearly (currency code not shown). Zapier Professional: US$19.99 a month billed yearly. n8n Starter: 20€ a month billed yearly. Zapier and Make also have free plans. Sources: Zapier (opens in a new tab), Make (opens in a new tab), n8n (opens in a new tab)	$1,500–$5,000 one-off Published by Australian providers for one workflow build. $3,500–$15,000 to connect several systems. Running costs: $50–$800 a month. Sources: HYPHN (opens in a new tab), Cognition Co (opens in a new tab), AutoCognition (opens in a new tab), FlowWorks (opens in a new tab)
What you’re paying for	A person’s time, on your team and learning how your business works.	A remote person’s time, arranged through a provider.	A software subscription priced by usage: tasks (Zapier), credits (Make) or executions (n8n). The building is up to you.	A one-off build of an agreed workflow, then running costs for software, hosting and AI usage. Support retainers are optional where offered.
Who sets it up and maintains it	You recruit, train and manage them.	The provider finds the person. You train them, give access and check the work.	You or someone on your team builds each workflow and fixes it when something changes.	The specialist builds, tests and hands it over. Who maintains it afterwards should be in the written quote.
Handles judgement and phone calls	Yes. This is where a person is strongest.	Yes, within the instructions and access you give them.	Not on their own. They follow the steps you set; AI steps can sort or draft text.	Partly. It can sort requests and draft replies; judgement calls go to a person. Phone answering would be a separate scope.
Works outside business hours	When rostered. Check the award for rates outside ordinary hours.	During the hours you agree with the provider.	Yes. Workflows run whenever they’re triggered, within your plan’s limits.	Yes. Anything that needs approval waits for a person.
Human approval	Agree which actions they can take on their own and which need your approval first.	Agree what they can send or change on their own and what needs your approval first.	Only if you build an approval step into each workflow.	Should be designed in. Agree in writing which actions need a person’s approval before access is enabled.
Main risk	An ongoing cost that’s harder to scale down, plus time to recruit, train and cover leave.	Supervision time, access to your systems and customer information, and quality that depends on the person and your instructions.	Workflows can break quietly when an app or form changes, and usage bills grow with volume.	Paying for more than you need, or depending on one builder. Agree ownership and handover first.
Best when	The work needs judgement, relationships or phone calls, and there’s enough of it to fill the hours.	Tasks are repeatable but need a person, and you have time to write instructions and check the work.	The steps are predictable and someone in-house can build and maintain them.	Existing tools can’t handle the job’s business-specific decisions, connections, exceptions or approval steps.

Seller, software and provider prices are their own published claims, not what businesses pay. Award figures are minimums from 1 July 2026; many roles pay more.

Not sure which column your job fits?

Bring one task to a free 15-minute build review. If a hire, a virtual assistant or a DIY tool would suit you better, we’ll work that out, and you still leave with your top three time leaks.

Book a free build review Not ready to talk? Choose your first workflow

Hiring admin staff in Australia

Best when

The work needs judgement, relationships or phone calls, and there’s enough of it to justify the hours.

What it costs

Level 1: $26.97 an hour, or $1,024.70 a week full-time
Level 2: $29.45 an hour, or $1,119.10 a week full-time
Casual Level 1: $33.71 an hour, including the 25% casual loading
Super: 12% super guarantee on top of wages

Minimum rates under the Clerks – Private Sector Award from 1 July 2026. Many roles pay more. Recruitment, workers’ compensation insurance and supervision are extra.

Sources: Fair Work Ombudsman (opens in a new tab), Fair Work Commission (opens in a new tab), Australian Taxation Office (opens in a new tab)

Strengths

Handles judgement calls, relationships and phone conversations.
Learns how your business works and can pick up new jobs without a rebuild.
Can cover many kinds of work in the same week, including tasks on site.

Limits

Wages and super are an ongoing cost that’s harder to scale down than software.
Recruitment, training and cover for leave take your time.
Work outside rostered hours needs rostering, and award rates for those hours can be higher.

Questions to ask yourself

Is there enough varied work to fill the hours each week?
Which tasks need a person, and which follow the same steps every time?
Who will train and supervise the new starter?

Offshore virtual assistants

Best when

The tasks are repeatable but need a person, and you have time to write instructions and check the work.

What it costs

Virtual Coworker: Virtual assistants from $8 AUD an hour (20 to 40 hours a week)
Remote Staff: “As low as AUD 8 – AUD 15 per hour”

Rates as published by the sellers themselves. Check what the rate includes, any minimum hours and how the arrangement ends.

Sources: Virtual Coworker (opens in a new tab), Remote Staff (opens in a new tab)

Strengths

Published hourly rates are lower than the Australian award minimums above.
Suits varied, repeatable tasks that still need a person, such as inbox sorting, data entry and scheduling.
The provider finds the person for you.

Limits

You still write instructions, answer questions and check the work.
They need access to your systems and customer information, so decide what they can see and do.
Quality and continuity depend on the person and the provider.

Questions to ask the provider

What does the hourly rate include, and are there minimum hours?
Who supervises day to day, and how is quality checked?
How is access to our systems and customer information controlled?
What happens if the assistant leaves?

Running an agency? See real estate virtual assistant or automation

DIY automation tools: Zapier, Make and n8n

Best when

The steps are predictable and someone in-house can build and maintain them.

What it costs

Zapier: Professional: US$19.99 a month billed yearly, or US$29.99 monthly, for 750 tasks Free plan: 100 tasks a month. A task is each successful action step. AI steps use 1–5 tasks each; agents and chatbots are paid add-ons. Zapier converts to AUD at checkout; prices exclude taxes.
Make: Make Plan: $9 a month billed yearly for 5,000 credits (currency code not shown) Free plan: 1,000 credits a month. A credit is each module action in a scenario. Make’s built-in AI is billed in credits; with your own AI key you pay that provider directly.
n8n Cloud: Starter: 20€ a month billed yearly, or 24€ monthly, for 2,500 workflow executions An execution is one full run of a workflow, however many steps. AI models inside workflows use your own provider key or prepaid credits.

Prices as each software maker publishes them, in the currency shown. You also need someone’s time to build and look after the workflows.

Sources: Zapier (opens in a new tab), Make (opens in a new tab), n8n (opens in a new tab)

Strengths

The lowest cost to start: Zapier and Make have free plans.
Ready-made connections to many common business apps.
You control every step and can change it yourself.
Good for predictable steps, such as turning a website form into a CRM record and a task.

Limits

Someone has to build, test and maintain each workflow, and fix it when an app changes.
Usage pricing grows with volume, and AI steps use more of the allowance.
Approval steps, exceptions and business-specific decisions take more design work.

Questions to ask yourself

Who will build it, and who fixes it when it breaks?
How many tasks, credits or executions will a normal month use?
How will you notice if a step fails?

Custom automation built by a specialist

Best when

Existing tools can’t handle the job’s business-specific decisions, connections, exceptions or approval steps.

What it costs

One workflow build: $1,500–$5,000 One-off build. HYPHN’s $1,500–$5,000 is for its more complex builds; it says simple automations can start from a few hundred dollars.
Connecting several systems: $3,500–$15,000 One-off build.
AI agents and larger builds: $10,000–$50,000+ One-off build: AutoCognition’s AI agent tier and FlowWorks’ Enterprise tier.
Running costs: $50–$800 a month Software, hosting and AI usage.
Optional support retainer: $500–$2,000 a month Maintenance and improvements, where offered.

Ranges summarise prices published by HYPHN, Cognition Co, AutoCognition and FlowWorks. They are the providers’ own claims, not what businesses pay. I don’t publish a price list: I give a fixed-price quote in writing before work starts, based on your project brief or a free 15-minute build review.

Sources: HYPHN (opens in a new tab), Cognition Co (opens in a new tab), AutoCognition (opens in a new tab), FlowWorks (opens in a new tab)

Strengths

Built around your own business rules, several systems and approval steps.
Runs outside business hours; anything that needs approval waits for a person.
The specialist builds, tests and hands it over, so your team doesn’t need technical skills.

Limits

A one-off build cost before it starts running.
New channels, extra systems or changed business rules change the scope and the price.
You depend on the builder unless ownership and handover are agreed in writing.

Questions to ask the specialist

What exactly does the quote include, and what is excluded?
Which running costs are paid directly to software providers?
Who maintains it after handover, and what does that cost?

Fictional example: 10 hours a week of quote follow-ups and enquiry replies

A fictional small trades business spends 10 hours a week chasing quotes and replying to enquiries. It is an illustration, not a client or a result. The options buy different things: a price doesn’t tell you how much of the work each one can take over. Here is what each would cost on the published figures above.

Casual admin, Level 1

$377.55 a week ($1,636.05 a month)

$33.71 × 10 hours = $337.10 in wages
$337.10 + 12% super = $377.55 a week
$377.55 × 52 weeks ÷ 12 months = $1,636.05 a month
First year: $377.55 × 52 = $19,632.60

Excludes workers’ compensation insurance, recruitment, supervision and any above-award pay.

Offshore virtual assistant

$80–$150 a week, if 10 hours is offered

10 × $8 AUD = $80 a week
10 × $15 AUD = $150 a week
A month: $80 × 52 ÷ 12 = $346.67; $150 × 52 ÷ 12 = $650
First year: $80–$150 × 52 = $4,160–$7,800 (if 10 hours is offered)

This is arithmetic, not a confirmed 10-hour offer: Virtual Coworker publishes its $8 AUD rate for 20 to 40 hours a week, so 10 hours may cost more or not be available. Add your own time to brief and check the work.

DIY tool

Free plans; paid from US$19.99 (Zapier) or $9 (Make) a month, plus your time

Zapier Professional: US$19.99 a month billed yearly, or US$29.99 monthly, for 750 tasks
Make Plan: $9 a month billed yearly for 5,000 credits (currency code not shown)
First year: $0 on a free plan, or US$239.88 (12 × US$19.99, Zapier) or $108 (12 × $9, Make, currency not shown), plus your time

Plus your own time to set it up and keep it working. Check the allowance against your volume: Zapier counts each successful action step as a task, and AI steps use 1–5 tasks each.

Custom build

$3,500–$15,000 once, plus $50–$800 a month

Two jobs across your inbox and quoting tool are priced on the published $3,500–$15,000 band for connecting several systems. One workflow build is published at $1,500–$5,000.
Running costs: $50–$800 a month (published range)
First year: $3,500–$15,000 + 12 × $50–$800 = $4,100–$24,600

These are other providers’ published prices. The running-cost range comes from one provider, AutoCognition, and spans all its build sizes. My builds are quoted at a fixed price in writing before work starts, based on your project brief or a free 15-minute build review.

So which is cheaper? It depends on how much of the 10 hours can really be taken over, and how much still needs a person. Replies that need judgement or a phone call still need someone. Drafting the same follow-ups and sorting enquiries can be automated, with a person approving what goes out. Put your own numbers into the calculator to test the trade-off.

Try the cost calculator

Why keep a person in the loop

Around 65% of small and medium businesses not using AI cited distrust of AI decision-making or a preference for human control.

December 2025 to February 2026. The National AI Centre counts firms with up to 500 staff as small and medium. Source: National AI Centre (opens in a new tab)

That caution is sensible. Let automation sort, draft and prepare, and keep a person approving anything that goes to a customer, involves money or can’t easily be undone.

How approval works in my builds

The connected tools, permitted actions, approval points, and escalation rules are agreed in writing before access is enabled. Sensitive actions stay behind human approval unless a lower-risk exception is explicitly approved.

Questions to ask any provider, including me

Ask these before you pay anyone to automate your admin. Good providers answer them in writing.

Who owns the accounts and the data? If you part ways, you need the logins, the workflows and your records.
What needs a person’s approval? Sensitive actions, such as messages to customers or changes to money, should wait for a person.
What will it cost to run each month? Ask which fees are paid directly to software providers and what makes them rise.
What happens when a connection breaks? Ask how you’ll find out and how the work carries on by hand.
How do you switch it off or hand it to someone else? Ask what a handover includes and how long it takes.

Where I fit

I build custom workflows with human approval built in, for the jobs in the last column of the table: business-specific decisions, several systems and approval steps.

You get a fixed-price quote in writing before work starts, based on your project brief or a free 15-minute build review. A single agreed workflow is commonly targeted for 7 to 14 days after the required access and inputs are confirmed. Ongoing support is optional and can be cancelled anytime.

If a hire, a virtual assistant or a DIY tool would suit you better, we can work that out in the review. You still leave with your top three time leaks and the job worth tackling first.

In person on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane. Remote across Australia and New Zealand.

Book a free build review Send a project brief Not ready to talk? Choose your first workflow

Common questions

Is AI automation cheaper than a virtual assistant?

Not always. For 10 hours a week, an offshore assistant at the seller-published $8 to $15 AUD an hour would cost $80 to $150 a week before supervision, if a seller offers 10 hours (Virtual Coworker’s $8 rate is for 20 to 40 hours a week). A custom build costs more up front: $1,500–$5,000 is published for one workflow build, plus running costs of $50–$800 a month. Automation suits repetitive, high-volume work; an assistant suits tasks where each one needs a person.

Can AI replace an admin assistant?

Partly. Automation can take over predictable, high-volume parts of an admin role, such as drafting replies, follow-ups, data entry and reporting. Whether it could replace a whole role depends on how much of the work still needs judgement, relationships, phone calls or approval. My builds aim to remove repetitive busywork so your team can spend its hours on that work, with people in control of sensitive decisions and exceptions.

Is Zapier or Make enough for a small business?

Often, for predictable steps between supported apps, as long as someone in the business can build and maintain the workflows. Both have free plans (Zapier: 100 tasks a month; Make: 1,000 credits a month), and paid plans start at US$19.99 and $9 a month billed yearly. They get harder to build and maintain when a job needs business-specific decisions across several systems, with approval steps.

What does an admin assistant cost in Australia?

Under the Clerks – Private Sector Award from 1 July 2026, the minimum for Level 1 is $26.97 an hour ($1,024.70 a week full-time) and for Level 2 $29.45 an hour ($1,119.10 a week full-time). Casual Level 1 is $33.71 an hour, including the 25% casual loading. Add 12% super. These are minimums: many roles pay more, and recruitment, workers’ compensation insurance and supervision are extra.

Sources

Checked 23 September 2026. Figures are copied as each source prints them, in its own currency. Seller, software and provider prices are their own published claims.

Fair Work Ombudsman — Pay guide: Clerks – Private Sector Award [MA000002], effective 1 July 2026 (opens in a new tab) — Published 24 June 2026 (Government · calculate.fairwork.gov.au)
Fair Work Commission — Clerks – Private Sector Award 2020, clause 11.1 (casual loading) (opens in a new tab) (Government · awards.fairwork.gov.au)
Australian Taxation Office — Super guarantee rates (opens in a new tab) — Updated 17 April 2026 (Government · ato.gov.au)
Virtual Coworker — Pricing and savings guide (opens in a new tab) (Seller or provider · virtualcoworker.com.au)
Remote Staff — Virtual assistants (opens in a new tab) (Seller or provider · remotestaff.com.au)
Zapier — Plans and pricing (opens in a new tab) (Software maker · zapier.com)
Make — Pricing and subscription packages (opens in a new tab) (Software maker · make.com)
n8n — Plans and pricing (opens in a new tab) (Software maker · n8n.io)
HYPHN — Workflow automations (opens in a new tab) (Seller or provider · hyphn.com.au)
Cognition Co — Pricing (opens in a new tab) (Seller or provider · cognitionco.com.au)
AutoCognition — What does AI automation cost in Australia? (opens in a new tab) — Dated 7 July 2026 (Seller or provider · autocognition.com.au)
FlowWorks — AI automation cost guide (opens in a new tab) — Updated 31 March 2026 (Seller or provider · flowworks.com.au)
National AI Centre — AI adoption insights: December 2025 to February 2026 (opens in a new tab) — Published 7 May 2026 (Government · ai.gov.au)