AMN Healthcare vs. Aya Healthcare: Which Travel Nursing Agency Is Right for You? (2026)

AMN Healthcare and Aya Healthcare are the two largest travel nursing agencies in the United States. Between them, they account for a significant share of the total travel nurse staffing market — which means a large percentage of nurses reading this will end up working with one of them at some point in their career.

The question most nurses face is not whether to consider these agencies, but which one fits their situation better — and whether the answer changes depending on where they are in their travel career. A first-time traveler and a five-year veteran often have opposite preferences when it comes to what matters most in an agency relationship.

This guide compares AMN and Aya across the factors that actually determine your experience: job volume, pay transparency, benefits, recruiter quality, technology, and who each agency is realistically best for in 2026.

The Core Difference: Scale vs. Technology

Both agencies are large. But they have pursued different competitive strategies, and understanding that difference explains most of what nurses experience when working with each of them.

AMN Healthcare built its position through depth of hospital relationships. Founded in 1985 as American Mobile Nurses, AMN spent decades building direct contracts with major health systems nationwide. That history means AMN has exclusive or preferred vendor relationships with hospital systems that smaller agencies — and even Aya — cannot access. AMN derives approximately 23% of its nurse and allied staffing revenue from a single client, Kaiser Permanente, which illustrates just how concentrated and relationship-driven its model is. For nurses who specifically want to work at major integrated health systems, AMN’s exclusive contract access is a genuine differentiator.

Aya Healthcare disrupted the market from a different angle. Founded in 2001 and private, Aya grew aggressively through a combination of lower bill-pay spreads (taking less margin per placement than legacy agencies) and technology investment. Aya’s self-service job platform lets nurses browse and apply to assignments directly, view real-time pay packages without waiting for a recruiter callback, and manage credentials digitally. By April 2026, Aya’s active job board showed approximately 32,600 open positions — more raw job volume than any competitor. Aya overtook AMN as the largest healthcare staffing firm in the U.S. by market share during the early 2020s and has held that position.

Job Volume and Assignment Availability

For raw volume of available assignments, Aya has a clear advantage. The self-service nature of Aya’s platform means you can see what is actually available without waiting for a recruiter to run a search for you. This is particularly useful for nurses who are researching markets, comparing pay across states, or want to move quickly on a contract.

AMN’s advantage is access, not volume. If you specifically want to work at a Kaiser Permanente facility, a major academic medical center with an exclusive AMN relationship, or a health system that uses AMN as a preferred vendor, you may find contracts through AMN that simply do not exist elsewhere. The depth of AMN’s hospital relationships — built over decades — is a structural advantage that newer or tech-first agencies have not been able to replicate.

Pay Transparency

This is one of the most practically significant differences between the two agencies, and it cuts clearly in Aya’s favor.

Aya’s platform shows real-time pay packages — taxable wage, housing stipend, M&IE stipend — before you ever speak to a recruiter. You can compare contracts across markets, run your own math, and arrive at any recruiter conversation already knowing what the market is offering. This transparency is a structural feature of how Aya operates, not a policy that varies by recruiter.

AMN’s pay transparency is more traditional. Pay details are primarily communicated through recruiter conversations rather than a self-service platform. This is not unique to AMN — most legacy agencies operate this way — but it does mean your ability to compare offers independently is more limited. The quality of your pay information at AMN is more dependent on the individual recruiter you are assigned to.

Benefits Comparison

Benefits packages at both agencies are competitive and broadly similar in structure. Both offer health insurance (medical, dental, vision), 401(k) with matching, housing options, travel reimbursement, and clinical support. Aya’s day-one health insurance availability is a notable feature — some agencies require a waiting period before coverage kicks in, which can create a gap between contracts. AMN’s free CEU access through RN.com is a practical ongoing benefit for nurses who need to maintain certifications.

The honest answer is that neither agency wins this category decisively. The actual value of any benefit depends on the specific plan terms and your individual situation — always request the full benefits summary and run the numbers before comparing offers.

Recruiter Quality

Recruiter experience at both agencies varies significantly by individual. This is the honest reality at any large staffing firm — with hundreds or thousands of recruiters, the quality range is wide. Reviews of both agencies consistently show the same pattern: nurses who had a great recruiter are loyal advocates; nurses who had a poor recruiter experienced the agency’s worst qualities.

A few patterns emerge from independent nurse reviews:

Aya: The self-service platform reduces dependence on recruiter quality for the early stages of job searching. You can find and apply to jobs without waiting on a recruiter. The onboarding process is well-structured and documented. Experienced Aya nurses frequently report multi-year loyalty to specific recruiters. The main risk: at Aya’s scale, some nurses report feeling like a number rather than a person — recruiter attentiveness varies considerably.

AMN: The recruiter relationship is more central to your AMN experience because job discovery and pay negotiation are more recruiter-dependent. Nurses who land a strong AMN recruiter often describe genuine long-term career support. Nurses who do not report difficulty navigating the corporate structure, communication gaps between contracts, and inconsistency in administrative follow-through. AMN’s compliance and credentialing team is frequently praised for efficiency in handling multi-state licensing.

Technology and App Experience

Aya’s technology platform is a genuine competitive advantage and one of the primary reasons the agency has grown so rapidly. The self-service job board with real-time pay visibility, digital credential management, and app-based contract signing represents a meaningfully different experience from legacy agency workflows. Nurses who value being able to research and apply independently — without waiting for recruiter availability — will find Aya’s platform significantly more efficient.

AMN has invested heavily in its own technology through its AMN Passport app, which handles timesheet submission, scheduling, and paperwork management. AMN Passport had approximately 48,000 monthly active users by end of 2025 and was recognized as a top-rated healthcare staffing app by Modern Healthcare. AMN’s technology is solid and functional — it just does not match the job discovery and pay transparency capabilities of Aya’s platform.

Who Each Agency Is Actually Best For

Choose Aya Healthcare if:

• You are a first-time traveler who benefits from a structured, well-resourced onboarding process and a large job pool to explore
• You want to browse and compare contracts independently without relying on recruiter availability
• Pay transparency and real-time package visibility are important to your decision-making process
• You want maximum raw assignment volume and the broadest possible choice of facilities
• You are in a high-demand specialty and want to leverage competing offers across multiple agencies

Choose AMN Healthcare if:

• You specifically want access to Kaiser Permanente facilities or other health systems where AMN holds exclusive or preferred vendor contracts
• You are an experienced traveler comfortable navigating a larger corporate structure and prioritizing prestige facility access over platform convenience
• You are targeting a specific academic medical center or integrated health system where AMN’s deep relationships give it exclusive placement access
• You value a dedicated recruiter model and are willing to invest time in building a strong recruiter relationship
• Multi-state licensing support and compliance infrastructure are important factors in your next assignment

The Real Answer: Use Both

The most experienced travel nurses do not choose between AMN and Aya — they maintain active profiles with both, plus one or two additional agencies, and use competing offers to negotiate better packages. Agencies know they are competing and will often match or improve on an offer from a competitor when you have documented alternatives.

Running your profile with two to three agencies simultaneously is not disloyal — it is standard practice. The agencies expect it. What matters is being transparent with each recruiter about your timeline and not accepting a contract from one agency while holding another offer you intend to take.

For a full breakdown of what makes a strong agency — and the red flags that should disqualify one before you sign — see our best travel nurse agencies guide. For independent deep dives on each agency, see our Aya Healthcare review and AMN Healthcare review. And to check whether any contract — from either agency — is paying what it should, use our contract red flags checklist.