Best Au Pair Agencies

This was the very first agency to open up in the U.S. back in 1986, which means it's been offering au pair placement services longer than any other option on this list. With competitive pricing (program fees are about $10,000 and include standard training, transportation, and insurance services), you don't pay extra for Au Pair in America's long-standing expertise in the business.

The agency has had time to establish an extensive screening and training program, comprehensive matching services, and even partnerships with other organizations like AAA, Red Cross, and the American Institute for Foreign Study.

If you’re at all squeamish about the safety of hiring an au pair to care for your child, know that Au Pair in America has perfected the art of placing caregivers with families. Its experience can put your mind at ease.

If you’re looking to spend the least amount of money on agency program fees while also receiving quality services, Expert AuPair might be the best fit for you. Its program fees are about $8,400, which includes a background check, psychometric screening, visa application, airfare, childcare training, and local support—but you won't pay an application or match fee.

The company is based in Florida but serves families in 38 other states as well. As long as there's a local representative stationed within a one-hour drive from your home, Expert AuPair can provide services to you.

Although its smaller reach as a business could be a downside if you’re not located in one of the service areas, this can also be a big benefit: A smaller agency often means staff members have the time to get to know you and communicate with you individually.

Au Pair International prides itself on being family-oriented and having a high ratio of support staff to families.

All au pair agencies are required by federal regulations to provide host families with a local representative who lives no more than one hour from their home. This is to ensure that local support staff can be present in the event of an emergency and that someone can provide in-person, face-to-face support as the host family and au pair get to know one another, sort out scheduling, and work through any challenges.

In terms of cost, Au Pair International charges roughly $9,190 in program fees (not including the mandatory weekly stipend paid to your au pair). That fee also doesn’t include international travel or car insurance, so by the time you fill in the gaps, the price is comparable to other agencies.

If you’re looking for an au pair arrangement that’s somewhat different from the norm, or customized to your individual needs, you might want to consider Agent Au Pair. The agency offers several different program options, including one featuring more experienced caregivers and a TutorCare model geared toward families of school-aged children that primarily need early morning and after-school care.

What’s more, you don’t have to worry about sacrificing the quality of service as you search for an au pair to fit your individual needs. Agent Au Pair fulfills the expectations of a reliable agency: It provides extensive screening and matching services, state-based resources, and local support staff to assist you.

Agent Au Pair also emphasizes educational opportunities for its au pairs and is competitively priced at about $9,625 for its program fees (plus the weekly au pair stipend).

Go Au Pair is also a well established agency that has also been serving families since 1989. When you're searching for an au pair, you can sort through the agency's pool of candidates, searching and filtering by everything from childcare and driving experience to specific personality traits.

For example, if you’re looking for an au pair who has more than 500 hours of experience caring for infants between the ages of three and six months, you can search by those metrics in the Go Au Pair database.

On the other hand, if personality is more important to you, you can view photo and video collages of many au pairs, read "Dear Host Family” letters, and see how they describe their own character traits, likes, dislikes, and talents.

Chances are, you’ll get a very clear idea of who you’re hiring and bringing into your home when you work with Go Au Pair. And, with program fees coming in at about $9,595, you can do it somewhat affordably.

Working with PROaupair means you’ll be hiring a professional with plenty of experience caring for children with physical and behavioral health needs.

PROaupair caregivers have training and experience in physical and occupational therapy, pediatric nursing, medication administration, feeding tube care, and developmental milestones. Since many families of special needs children also have typically developing children in the home, au pairs from PROaupair are more than comfortable managing the everyday needs of all children in the family.

Overall program fees are not published on the website, but PROaupair does indicate its average rate for an au pair is about $20 per hour. That’s significantly higher than the standard au pair hourly rate, but remember that you’re receiving specialized care often not found when you work with other agencies. You can inquire directly with PROaupair for more pricing information.

Overview

For families who would like to choose an au pair from a variety of countries, it might be worth establishing a relationship with EurAuPair. You can be as personally involved with the match process as you want, from selecting and interviewing your own au pairs to asking the agency for help finding a good fit for your family.

EurAuPair also takes a leadership role in assessing the compatibility of the host family and their au pair; if, after 60 days of placement in the home, a match between a host family and au pair is not succeeding, a EurAuPair community counselor will work with the family to find a replacement as soon as possible.

EurAuPair includes the standard features within its pricing packages, from interviewing and training to visa applications and medical, travel, and liability insurance. The agency offers discounts for repeat and military families, as well as new host referrals. The annual program fee is $9,560.

If you’re intimidated by the process of finding the right au pair for your family, Au Pair 4 Me has a three-pronged approach to help guide you to your best match: You can browse its database yourself, get assistance from a placement representative, and “reserve” up to three au pairs at a time for a 72-hour exclusive access period.

That means you can interview your top three choices without worrying about another family snapping up one of the candidates. Not competing with other families or rushing through the interview process makes matching with an au pair much less stressful.

Au Pair 4 Me ballparks the annual cost of hiring an au pair through its agency at about $19,579 (with almost $9,400 going toward program fees that cover recruitment, screening, orientation, health insurance, and international airfare for your au pair).

Cultural Care Au Pair has been in the business since 1989, using that time to expand its pool of au pair candidates into one of the largest in the U.S. The agency also personally selects, screens, and matches au pairs by hand, and provides specialized training to each one. (That training includes household safety, CPR and first aid, and U.S. driving laws.)

The agency runs like a well-oiled machine, making the process of hiring an au pair as smooth as possible for families.

Cultural Care Au Pair charges approximately a $75 registration fee, a $450 processing fee, $10,595 in program fees, and $9,983 in stipend payments, bringing the grand total to somewhere around $21,103. This is competitive with other agencies similar in scope and covers most of the typical expenses associated with hosting an au pair.