An Employer of Record, or EOR, is one of the best ways of hiring employees overseas without having to set up a legal entity in their country. An EOR service provider lets you hire as little as one worker in another nation by becoming their legal employer on your behalf.
Naturally, this space has been growing tremendously over the last few decades, so we’ve done the research and consulted experts in order to put together this list of the best employer of record service providers.
These companies can not only help you pay, provide benefits, and handle taxes for a foreign employee. They can also help with visa and sponsorship applications, stay compliant with local labor laws, and have people on the ground that can assist your workers with many other HR processes.
While we’ll focus on EOR services, most of these companies also have a software platform that you and your team can use to keep track of all this information. If you’re looking for a self-service approach to managing international payroll, you can complement this reading with our list of the best global payroll solutions. Good luck!
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Our criteria: How we chose the best vendors
We take our research seriously and want to make sure we are presenting our readers with the very best solutions in a given software category. Here's how we select vendors to be in our buyer guides:
- Product: We want to have a deep understanding of a vendor's product before recommending it. This usually means getting a demo by a senior executive (their CEO, head of product, etc), and/or using the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best in class offering.
- User feedback: We do our best to understand what users say when they experience this product. User input allows us to accomplish a more thorough due diligence of products, put new vendors on our radar, and generally make sure we are presenting the right products to our readers.
- Financial metrics: We are very much finance nerds and so use a product's retention rates, growth, profitability, and scale to understand whether or not it is truly best in class.
- Best for a use case: Sometimes the best solution is the cheapest, the best tool for international companies, or the best for startups. We try to include a diversity of solutions so that our readers can find the tool that is best for what they need.
Here's more detail if you want to read further on how we research vendors.
In this guide you'll find
Featured in
Top Employer of Record Services
We track thousands of HRTech solutions, these are the best Employer of Record services companies for several business sizes and types per our research and expert council as of 2022.
Why we love it
:
Deel is making waves in the payroll space, being one of the first companies to specialize in international payroll for remote teams.
Deel
Review:
With Deel, companies can hire employees in a multitude of countries without it getting messy. From the same dashboard, you can manage international payroll, benefits, taxes, and compliance in 150 countries.
Deel
Customers:
- Brex
- Doogle
- Duffel
- Andela
- HomeLight
- Makerpad
Deel
Stats:
- Trusted by over 2,400 companies
- Over 200 legal partners worldwide
Deel
Pricing:
A cool thing about Deel is that you can sign up for free and play around with the tool, not being charged until you pay your first team member. Once you do, pricing for Deel will vary as follows:
- Contractors: At $49 per contractor per month, Deel takes care of payroll and compliance for contracts in 150 countries.
- Full-time: From $500, this plan lets you hire full-time employees in a new country without having to set up a legal entity there. Deel becomes an Employer of Record and hires the employee for you.
Best For:
Companies, big or small, who wish to stay compliant when hiring people in multiple countries.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Papaya Global is one of the fastest-growing companies in this space. Their platform can automate payroll in hundreds of countries, manage all employee types, and onboard new hires.
PapayaGlobal
Review:
Papaya Global is on a mission to revolutionize global payroll management. This international people & payroll platform is one of the most complete solutions for having employees in multiple countries.
That being said, Papaya Global does more than cross-border payments. Their platform can also be used for hiring, onboarding, employee management, and they have a global equity management tool. This last tool helps with offering equity to employees as a part of their compensation, regardless of where they are.
PapayaGlobal
Customers:
- Microsoft
- Intel
- GDIT
- Toyota
- Wix.com
- Teradata
- Fiverr
- Johnson & Johnson
- Deezer
PapayaGlobal
Stats:
- Payroll for 160+ countries
- $1.3B total payroll under management
- Used by over 400 companies
- 99% customer retention rate
PapayaGlobal
Pricing:
Processing international payroll with Papaya Global is possible via the four following plans:
- Payroll: They’ll manage your entire payroll process for one all-inclusive fee per employee, per month. Depending on your operation, this fee will fall between $20 and $100.
- Global EOR: Papaya Global’s in-country partners function as employers of record, being responsible for payroll, workforce management, benefits, and compliance, and more. You can still stay up-to-date on everything through the platform, and this plan is between $770 and $1000 per employee per month.
- Contractor Management & IC Compliance: Particular services are outsourced to a domestic or foreign contractor, for periods of rapid growth and the need to reduce labor costs. This plan starts at $25 per employee per pay cycle.
- Payroll Intelligence Suite: This plan lets you consolidate all workforce and payroll data from all your operations into a single dashboard, priced at $250 for an annual plan or $320 quarterly per location.
Best For:
Global companies that want to be able to choose from a wide array of products from the same vendor as their organization grows and changes.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Remote is a robust and modern platform specialized in HR, payroll, and benefits for, as their name suggests, remote-first teams.
Remote
Review:
Remote fully owns local legal entities in all the countries they cover. Since they have no intermediaries to deal with, they’re able to offer more flexibility and speed at very interesting costs.
Their platform is a globally-distributed HR hub where you can process payroll, perform salary simulations, onboard new team members, manage benefits, and take care of most of the administrative tasks that come with having a distributed team.
Remote
Customers:
Arduino
GitLab
Paystack
Loom
cargo.one
Secureframe
Phaidra
Remote
Stats:
- 99.999% uptime
- <150ms response times
- Founded in 2019 as a remote-first company
- VC-backing from Sequoia, Index Ventures, and General Catalyst, among others.
Remote
Pricing:
Remote has four plans. “Contractors” lets you manage and pay global contract workers for free; you only pay for payment processing fees. Then, they have their “Global Employment” plan, which starts at $299 per employee per month. For the other two plans, “Payroll & Benefits” and “Global Employment Plus”, they offer customized pricing.
Best For:
Remote is great for both well-established distributed companies or remote-first startups.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Oyster lets you hire, pay, and provide benefits to your team members across a myriad of borders.
Oyster
Review:
Oyster is notable among the global EOR and payroll vendor landscape for being able to help with hiring, compliance, benefits, payroll, and other HR processes in over 180 countries. You can hire and onboard A-players, regardless of their location, in a matter of days.
Another cool thing about Oyster is that they’re a remote company too. Their team is distributed across 30+ countries and 5 continents, so they’re certainly no strangers to the remote-first philosophy, which is evident in their product and operation.
Oyster
Customers:
Quora, Wagestream, Impala, Grover
Oyster
Stats:
- Hiring and HR processes in 180+ countries
- Grew revenues 8x in the last year
Oyster
Pricing:
With Oyster, you can choose whether to hire people with them acting as the employer of record, or take people on as contractors. You can have up to two contractors for free. Then, pricing is as follows:
- Contractors: $29 per team member per month
- Business: pay $399 or $699 per employee per month, when Oyster acts as the EOR.
- Enterprise: get custom pricing for extra HR and legal support apart from payroll processing services.
Best For
Remote companies whose global workforce is growing quickly.
Worth Checking Out:
Oyster is currently offering a promotion for startups, letting you hire your first full-time employee free for a year.
Why we love it
:
GoGlobal is the world’s faster-growing privately-owned EOR provider. They are among the true pioneers of the space and have substantial expertise in many markets.
GoGlobal
Review:
GoGlobal started providing EOR services in Asia Pacific, quickly becoming highly sought-after experts in the region by companies from the West wanting to hire top talent there. They’ve been expanding rapidly while sticking to their credo of doing things themselves. For that reason, their country count of 50+ countries with direct operations may seem reduced in comparison to the 150+ boasted by several companies, but that’s because they rarely turn to third-party firms to establish a presence in a new territory; they actually have people in most places they operate in. They continue to grow rapidly, adding new countries virtually every week.
While it’s a relatively new and therefore smaller firm compared to the others mentioned here, GoGlobal turns their size into an asset, allowing them to be nimble, responsible, and adapt easily to what their clients need. Their workforce of approximately 100 passionate and fully remote individuals spans the entire globe.
GoGlobal
Customers:
They have worked with some of the most well known companies across various industries including social media companies, food delivery technology companies, streaming companies and one of the largest liquor producers.
GoGlobal
Stats:
- 500% anticipated growth in 2021
- 50+ Countries with direct operations including most recent launch into Latin America, and providing services in 70+ countries cover six continents
- ~ 100 employees
GoGlobal
Pricing:
GoGlobal’s pricing is custom-based, since it varies depending on the number of people you’re looking to hire and the location. One thing we can say is that they tend to be very transparent about their pricing, consistently providing breakdowns and very open about what is charged.
Best For
GoGlobal’s services can be helpful for businesses of all sizes and geographies. That being said, they tend to find great matches with VC-backed SaaS companies with a remote global workforce.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Globalization Partners are the makers of a global Employer of Record platform, putting together professional services and AI for more than just payroll.
Globalization Partners
Review:
Globalization Partners combines professional HR and global payroll services with an AI-driven platform. Through their offering, you can hire team members in any of the 187 countries they operate in. Their platform & services go well beyond payroll, helping with onboarding, managing, benefits, and compliance.
Since they own a business entity in almost every country on earth, they can let you hire talent globally within a matter of days. Naturally, all this is done without you having to handle any legal, tax, or HR burdens yourself.
Globalization Partners
Customers:
Zeeto
Globalization Partners
Stats:
- Payroll & compliance in 187 countries
- 97% customer satisfaction ratings
- 180 currencies
- Raised 150M in private equity during 2020
- 480+ employees
Globalization Partners
Pricing:
Pricing details are not provided by Globalization Partners. The best way forward is to request a demo and they’ll work with you to provide a custom quote.
Best For
Companies that want an employer of record provider with a platform to manage it all.
Worth Checking Out:
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Last Advice on Picking an EOR Service Provider
Ultimately, the question of whether to engage an EOR services firm, pick a global payroll solution, or hire people as independent contractors, is one that will require a lot of self-examination and planning. You have to think about the level of liability and workload that you’d like to keep, and consider the cost of doing it in-house versus the quote from an EOR company.
When looking at some of these companies, you also have to do some deep digging into how they operate within the countries you’re interested in. Some companies tend to partner with other EOR services firms and don’t really have people of their own within that region, which can be important when your employee needs timely support regarding their contract, taxes, or benefits.
We’d recommend reaching out to the companies listed here that you may have found interesting, getting a quote based on your current global expansion plans, and examining how you feel while interacting with these people. An EOR services firm will become a crucial part of your relationship with your employees, so it’s important that you feel comfortable with them.
If you’re not quite there yet and are looking for a global payroll solution that lets you hire employees overseas while staying compliant, but take care of most of the process yourself, check out our roundup of the best global payroll software.
Top Employer of Record Services
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