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Employer of record
A great candidate can be in another country. Compare three employer of record providers, prepare the full hiring budget and agree the handoffs that will help your new teammate get started.
Explore the shortlistUpdated September 20, 2026 · US edition
Deel, Remote and Oyster all merit a country-specific conversation. Their published services overlap; the right fit depends on the employing entity, total funding, support and terms in your proposal.
Three selected tools with published Best HR Tools reviews. These are starting points for evaluation, not an exhaustive market list or a scored ranking. Several may suit the same need.
Compare employee and contractor service options together
Deel documents employer of record alongside contractor services, which helps when your team abroad mixes both. The published EOR fee is per employee monthly, and the deposit rules are documented separately from the service fee.
Confirm in your demoConfirm country eligibility and what the fee excludes
Read the Deel review Official product details
Separate EOR, entity payroll and contractor services
Remote describes employer of record, payroll through your own entity and contractor services as distinct products, which is useful when you are still deciding which one your situation calls for. Remote states it uses its own entities.
Confirm in your demoAsk whether an annual paid term changes your rate
Read the Remote review Official product details
Preparation and benefits questions for a first hire
Oyster documents a guided hiring process, local benefits options and separately quoted annual EOR seats. Explore the onboarding steps with the people who will own your first international hire.
Confirm in your demoAnnual seats are paid upfront, nonrefundable and reusable
Read the Oyster review Official product detailsVendor links are direct and untracked. Our publisher has joined Deel’s partner program; BestHRTools-specific approval and tracking are not confirmed. Commercial relationships
Use the published service fee as one line in your country budget. Add salary, employer charges, selected benefit premiums and applicable extras or currency conversion costs. A discounted or customized proposal may differ from the public benchmark.
Deposits are a separate matter again. A deposit is a cash requirement with its own calculation rules, not an automatic expense line, so treat it as a funding question and ask for the rule in writing.
| Provider | Per employee | Five employees |
|---|---|---|
| $599 | $2,995 |
| $699 | $3,495 |
| $699 | $3,495 |
Illustrative arithmetic, not a quote. Excludes salary, employer charges, benefits, FX, deposits and additional services. No annual discount assumed. Remote also advertises $599/month paid annually on its EOR product FAQ; Oyster annual seats are quoted separately. Confirm commitments before comparing.
Providers publish their onboarding steps, so read them before the call and map them onto your own timeline. Ask who collects documents, who signs the local contract, and what blocks a start date in your target country.
Then look past day one. Name the approver on your side, the support path when something goes wrong in country, how payroll is funded each cycle, and what termination or transfer to your own entity would involve.
Write one brief with the country, the role, the target start date and the benefits you expect, then send it unchanged to each provider. Identical inputs are the only way the proposals become comparable.
Remote describes owned EOR entities; Oyster describes owned entities and vetted partners. These are operating models to understand, not quality scores. Ask every shortlisted provider to name the legal employer, the service contact and the escalation route in the country you need.
Before choosing an EOR, confirm the employment model for the role with your advisers. Payroll for employees hired by your own entity and administration for independent contractors are different service conversations.
Once the model is settled, ask for written country eligibility, a complete quote and a realistic start-date plan. Use the linked head-to-head comparisons to investigate the remaining differences and our country worksheet to record the answers.
Carry the same brief into a closer comparison.
Leave with something useful
Separate service fees, employment costs and upfront funding. Then agree who owns each onboarding step.
There is no universal winner for every country and role. Compare the employing entity, complete budget, support, benefits and commitment terms on a common brief. This page offers three researched starting points rather than a numerical ranking.
Read the sourceSend the same country brief and role description to each candidate, then compare the legal entity that would employ your hire, the benefits quoted, the support path and the exit terms, all confirmed in writing.
Read the sourceFor the three providers on this shortlist, published monthly EOR service benchmarks are $599 per employee at Deel and $699 at Remote and Oyster. These are not market-wide averages or complete employment costs. Confirm the country quote and any annual commitment separately.
Read the source Additional sourceIt excludes salary, employer charges, benefit premiums and currency conversion, plus any extras your setup needs. Ask for a sample invoice for your target country so the full monthly outflow is visible upfront.
Read the sourceA deposit is a cash requirement with documented calculation rules, not an automatic expense. Ask how it is sized for your country and headcount and under what conditions it is returned or applied.
Read the sourceNot automatically. Providers describe employing staff where they are legally able to, so ask for written confirmation per country and bring in an immigration adviser for anything involving visas or relocation.
Read the sourceEntity ownership alone does not establish fit. Oyster documents owned entities and partners, while Remote describes owned EOR entities. Compare the named employer, country-specific responsibilities and support commitments in the actual agreement.
Read the source Additional sourceWith EOR, a local employing entity hires the employee under the agreed arrangement. With payroll for your own entity, your company remains the employer while the provider delivers the contracted payroll services. Contractor administration is a separate scope.
Read the sourceOyster documents annual seats as discounted against monthly pricing, quoted and paid upfront, nonrefundable, and reusable. Read the support article and confirm the reuse conditions before committing budget to seats.
Read the sourceRemote's own EOR FAQ describes a lower monthly rate when the service is paid annually, alongside the rate on its pricing page. Ask which term your quote assumes and confirm the commitment length.
Read the source Additional sourceExpect a country-specific hiring brief, employee information and required documents, agreement review, signatures and funding steps. Ask your provider which dependencies affect the proposed start date and which team owns each step.
Read the sourceThere is no fixed headcount at which an entity beats an EOR. Compare real quotes against the cost and effort of incorporating locally, and take advice on the obligations an entity would create.
Read the sourceReviewed September 20, 2026. This selected shortlist uses official product documentation and our published reviews. Fit descriptions and demo questions are editorial judgments, not measured outcomes. We did not test customer accounts or score every product in the market. Prices are dated benchmarks; confirm the proposal for your team.
Three questions came from People also ask in our September 20 Google US desktop DataForSEO scan; the remaining questions are editorial. Search visibility and advertising CPC are not product quality scores.