Top 7 Employer of Record (EOR) Solutions for Compliant Global Hiring

The top Employer of Record services can relieve you of many stressors and administrative duties, allowing you to concentrate on growing your business. In fact, many organizations typically manage most of the employee lifecycle, such as hiring, signing contracts, and onboarding.

After careful research, we’ve put together a list of the top Employer Of Record companies that can assist you with tasks like managing deductions, dealing with unemployment and worker’s compensation, and processing payroll, among others. Keep reading to find out what services from Deel, Multiplier, and Remofirst can offer you.

The 7 Best Employer Of Record Services

1. 1. Deel — Overall, the best EOR service with a centralized platform for creating contracts, managing payments, and tracking compliance requirements in multiple countries.
   2. Multiplier — Offers highly customizable services with a dedicated customer support team for each process during employment in over 150 countries.
   3. Remofirst — Boasts a team of HR professionals and legal experts to help you avoid work misclassification and get ahead of changing global regulations.
   4. Papaya — A secure all-in-one platform with powerful integrations and real-time data monitoring and analysis.
   5. Oyster — A budget-friendly solution for bulk hiring and streamlining hiring processes to attract high-quality international employees.
   6. Rippling — Ideal for workflow automation, company information and device management, and integrations with popular third-party platforms.
   7. Atlas HXM — Popular pick for global mobility and Visa permits with additional services for your employees, such as housing, car leasing, and more.

The Top-Rated EOR Services Reviewed

Let’s dive into the details and see what these providers can do for your business, the number of countries they cover, their best features, pricing, and more so that you can find the one best suited to your needs and budget.

1. Deel — Overall, the Best EOR Service 

Deel is a global Employer Of Record solution that uses a tech-enabled self-serve process to help you hire independent contractors or full-time employees in over 100 countries.

That said, it’s quickly gained popularity thanks to its flexible pricing options, user-friendly platform, and transparency. It provides detailed information on local employment regulations and laws for each country it operates in, including other critical considerations for international employment.

Overall, Deel is a flexible and professional employer organization that can help your company overcome the complexities of international employment, and it provides phenomenal support for legal and HR matters.

Its free plan for up to 200 people is ideal for SMBs in industries such as tech, where remote workers and freelancers are becoming increasingly common. However, if you decide to expand or own a larger company, you’ll find its advanced features on the paid plans invaluable.

Having said that, it allows you to request, add, and store documents for each international employee on its centralized platform and helps you onboard or offboard workers from foreign countries.

And onboarding with Deel is quick since it localizes every item for you, including country-specific documentation requests and minimum wage compliance, so you can save time while onboarding anyone.

Beyond this, there are automatic payments for a seamless payroll process, ample payment and withdrawal options, plus easy management of time off, taxes, and location-specific compliance for things like wages, overtime, benefits, and more.

The company provides a complete HR solution alongside its EOR services. However, the only nitpick we have is that Deel can sometimes take time to respond to HR-related support tickets.

2. Multiplier — Highly Customizable Services

Multiplier stands out with its comprehensive global coverage in over 150 countries, making it an ideal solution for businesses with complex international employment needs.

It provides transparent and tech-driven solutions for hiring employees and freelancers, running global payroll, and providing employee insurance with zero hidden charges and no additional fees.

Multiplier helps you hire highly-trained professionals globally without setting up a legal entity in each foreign country. That means it’s a cost-effective solution in the long term, especially since it also crafts multilingual and regionally compliant employment contracts for your employees.

It also helps you with employment compliance for taxes, insurance policies, and social contributions, eliminating the global employment compliance risk.

Besides assisting you in fully adhering to regulatory compliance in countries where you onboard and hire employees, it lets you seamlessly process payroll in over 120 countries.

Of course, having a remote team involving many nationalities, holidays, and time zones can become hard to track. With Multiplier, you can track time off, expenses, benefits, and more.

The platform even provides a holiday calendar, which allows international team members to plan their time off in advance and successfully coordinate with others.

That said, Multiplier, unlike Deel, lacks advanced Human Resource Information System (HRIS) features, making it a worse choice for SMBs and startups. However, it’s one of the few EORs that support businesses issuing Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP) to global employees.

3. Remofirst — Avoid Work Misclassification

Remofirst helps you avoid fines and lawsuits by setting everything up according to your employee’s local laws. It provides global and regional expertise to help you keep track of employment compliance in an ever-changing regulatory landscape.

This is a huge plus, as it means you get to avoid hiring consultants and lawyers in each country, which leads to cost savings and fewer legal requirements from your end.

Overall, Remofirst focuses on improving your remote work experience by ensuring you understand the employment laws of other countries. Besides the legal responsibility, it takes care of your relationships with foreign employees with local teams that speak their native language.

It has a straightforward and self-service platform that shows the details of each team member to team managers. That information includes their location, title, salary, and other details.

To add a new team member, you select one of 150+ countries on its list, input the job details, and add start and end dates for the contract. It’ll then automatically calculate the total monthly cost of employment, considering the salary, contributions, Remofirst fees, and estimated taxes.

You can also add private health and dental insurance — RemoHealth — which is available in almost every country at additional costs. However, all things considered, Remofirst is a relatively complex tool with multiple platforms.

That said, this service would suit enterprises with complex international employment needs and could be overly complicated for those with simple employment needs.

4. Papaya — Secure All-In-One Platform

Papaya offers unparalleled security, including dedicated access for every customer, extensive data monitoring, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud backup.

Besides keeping everything secure on its servers, it offers comprehensive cybersecurity training to your employees to help them combat security breaches. And it only gets better from here.

Unlike most of its competition, Papaya has a license to transfer money across the globe, which ensures compliance in every country you operate, increases security, and cuts the cost of third-party money-transferring services most other EOR providers employ.

It uses a single, centralized platform to gather massive volumes of data, from expenses, benefits, and vacations, to time and attendance. It presents all that data to you with a standardized, intuitive view that’s always up to date.

Papaya can also help you overcome the endless paperwork involved in Visa permits that often stand in the way of hiring the world’s best talent. It offers guidance at every step of the immigration lifecycle, from permits to maintaining and renewing status, giving you peace of mind knowing your workers are always legally employed.

At $770/employee/month, Papaya offers some of the most expensive EOR solutions, which won’t suit budget-conscious companies.

However, its full-service payroll solution costs as little as $12/employee/month, while hiring a contractor costs just $25, meaning its HR and payroll fees are lower than with most of its competition.

5. Oyster — Budget-Friendly Solution for Bulk Hiring

Oyster helps you manage cross-border payroll and offer attractive compensation with minimal paperwork and expenses. Its team of experts in over 180 countries can guide you on competitive salaries, relocation plans, health care plans, and expense reimbursements.

It also has a self-serve global benefits tool that helps you calculate employee benefits in various countries.

That said, if your company plans to grow its global workforce or needs dedicated support for its existing international employees, Oyster offers discounts for businesses hiring up to 10 employees and assigns client success managers to ensure the transition goes smoothly.

Your employees will have access to Oyster Academy, a knowledge base for remote workers with numerous guides on collaborating, connecting, increasing productivity, and more.

It also has a limited free plan that lets you hire up to two contractors at no cost, while every worker seat costs $29. Besides training your employees, it offers dedicated support for onboarding and makes it easy to request time off, access payslips, and file reimbursements.

These benefits can help you attract high-value employees or convert contractors to full-time workers without worker misclassification risks.

Hiring an employee costs $599 every month or $499 annually, but the prices can be higher for some less developed countries. It also depends on various third-party partners, which may be an issue for companies that value the stability of a single partner.

6. Rippling — Ideal for Workflow Automation

Rippling integrates with more third-party apps than most of its competition, allowing you to trigger actions across multiple platforms, just like some of the best workflow tools.

Beyond this, it’s a cost and time-effective solution because it automatically manages internal data, software tools, and apps. That means you can use its workflow automation feature to automate tasks, such as onboarding, offboarding, and benefits administration.

While these workflow automation tools are powerful and can save time by completing repetitive, time-consuming tasks, businesses with highly complex HR processes or unique requirements might not need this feature.

That said, it can also help you with headcount management by automatically approving planned hires who meet your role criteria while leaving off-plan hires for manual approval.

And beyond this, Rippling will notify you to remove the job posting when a new team member joins and automatically update your headcount reports and other data sheets.

7. Atlas HXM — Great for Global Mobility and Visa Permits

Atlas HXM offers one of the most sophisticated SaaS platforms with excellent coverage and owned legal entities that eliminate its need for third-party partners — meaning it offers the most streamlined, compliant solution for moving your employees across borders.

That said, this EOR services provider charges $2,500/employee that requires visa and mobility sponsorship, plus government filing, translation, and shipping.

Besides the permit, it offers corporate housing in each country, which can be helpful if your employees need to relocate with their families or have special needs. Similarly, it helps you rent offices that fit your budget in other countries.

And beyond all this, Atlas HXM will set everything up for your workers, whether a desk, a small office, or an entire office complex. However, some of its users complain about its lack of outsourced payroll service for companies with legal entities in the countries they seek to hire in.

That means there are better EOR solutions on our list if you need a provider to handle your payroll only, but if you just started expanding, Atlas HXM is among the best options.

The Best International Employment Solutions Compared

Here’s a head-to-head comparison of the EOR services on our list to give you a clear overview of their pricing, use case, and global coverage:

What is An Employer of Record?

Previously, only large manufacturers took advantage of cheap labor in foreign countries with free trade agreements, which changed the global economic landscape.

Remote work brings a similar change, and the technology needed for remote work already exists, leaving labor regulations and national laws as the last obstacle to overcome. That’s where EOR services come in handy.

Global employer-of-record companies can:

• Process paychecks
• Deduct tax payments
• Onboard new employees
• Administer benefits packages
• Assume work-related liabilities
• Maintain regulatory compliance

It can do so because, in a legal sense, the EOR is the official employer.

EOR vs PEO Services

Although a professional employment organization (PEO) and an EOR organization handle similar responsibilities, some differences distinguish them and make them suitable for different tasks.

We know that an EOR provider is best if you need a reliable partner in foreign countries you lack a presence in. So what is a professional employment organization?

Similarly to EOR providers, these companies enter into a co-employment relationship with other companies and deal with hiring employees, their compensation and benefits, and regulatory risks.

However, PEOs only work with companies and businesses with existing branches in other countries. That means hiring a professional employer organization is ideal for companies that already spent time and funds establishing legal entities in other countries.

That said, there are two crucial factors to consider while deciding between EOR and PEO organizations — cost and risks. PEO services may have higher long-term costs, making them unsuitable for companies aiming to hire just a few employees in foreign countries.

You’ll also share risks partnering with a PEO since the company will have access to some of your sensitive HR data. On the other hand, an EOR assumes employee-related risks and liabilities and handles HR data separately.

Why You Need An EOR if You Hire Internationally

Hiring an EOR provider has its pros and cons, as with most outsourcing services. Here are some crucial benefits to consider while deciding if you need an EOR service to hire internationally:

Ensuring Compliance

With international hiring, you’re presented with tremendous opportunities for sourcing skilled, high-value, and competitive employees. However, you also face legal liabilities and risks since your international employees work within regulatory environments.

These are often very different from what your HR and management teams are used to working with at the home office. That said, hiring an EOR provider frees you from the responsibility of becoming an expert on these regulations to deal with international labor and tax laws.

A global employer of record won’t leave you in the dark either, as these companies often have extensive documentation and consultants to keep you informed. It also shoulders the legal liabilities related to hiring an international workforce.

So, all in all, they mitigate the risks of error leading to fines and legal fees for international employers and constantly adapt to ever-changing employment laws and regulations worldwide.

Financial Savings

A traditional expansion of businesses of any size would incur high legal, consulting, and material costs even before you hire a single employee, open an office, or sell a product.

Using global EOR changes that because all that work is already done, and it’s the EOR’s job to hire qualified talent, including employees and contractors, while complying with local regulations.

Hiring these companies also eliminates the need for foreign investment, which many countries set high minimums for. Global EORs already have established legal entities, meaning your company can devote resources to other helpful software, such as the best project management software.

EOR services charge substantial fees, but in most cases, these cost less than obtaining local licenses, hiring local accounting and administration departments, and setting up a legal entity.

Time Savings

Besides the financial costs, hiring from foreign countries without a partner can be time-consuming. In fact, setting up a legal entity in foreign countries can often take weeks or even months to finish and is required by local laws in many cases.

By contrast, EORs can take less than 24 hours to hire an independent contractor or international employee. And besides legal matters, they can also help you overcome natural differences between your home office representatives and potential employees.

For example, national certificates for trained workers in foreign countries may differ from those used at the home office, making it challenging to tell which candidates meet all the regulations and standards.

EORs often have local language-speaking representatives, which may be able to hire competitive candidates for positions that don’t require communication with the home office in English, expanding your opportunities.

In addition, these companies will already have data on information unique to the local labor market, such as competitive salaries. This insight makes the market immediately accessible and eliminates the need for an executive to relocate to an international location to learn these details.

High-Value Employees

One such solution is EOR which helps you bridge this gap to find qualified employees around the globe that would otherwise not be available for hire.

However, the covid-19 pandemic forced remote work platforms to develop rapidly, and the innovations from that period are here to stay, as well as post-covid remote work challenges.

That means you can access talent platforms with tens of thousands of talented freelancers that you can legally pay on a per-project basis in many jurisdictions.

Misclassification Avoidance

Deciding against using an EOR solution can cost you thousands in back payments on employee taxes and social security benefits in case of worker misclassification. This mistake happens when companies hire their workers as independent contractors instead of employees.

Classifying benefits-eligible employees as contractors can lead to fines, interest, and other penalties depending on the misclassified worker’s country of residence and the situation.

Working through an EOR is the easiest way to avoid this mistake, or even switch misclassified workers over to legitimate employees to avoid these penalties.

Termination Assistance

Hiring employees anywhere usually means you’ll sometimes have to deal with terminations. However, having an international workforce means the laws and regulations for termination won’t be the same for everyone, which means you’ll need a reliable EOR solution to assist you.

Terminating an employee in the United States can happen anytime, as hiring in the US is based on “at-will employment.” However, terminating employees in some foreign countries may not be as simple as they could legally require a one or two-month notice period.

An EOR will understand the protocols for termination for each country it can source talent from, meaning you won’t need to hire third-party consultants to avoid breaking the law.

In addition, these services can also help you safeguard sensitive intellectual property and keep data safe during a termination.

How to Choose the Best Employer of Record Partner for Your Business

Finding the best EOR partner for your business is a unique challenge that depends on your needs, goals, and budget. Some have representatives in more countries than others, while some offer additional services and cost less.

Here are some crucial factors to consider while looking for a perfect partner for you and your distributed workforce:

Coverage

You want to try to create a list of countries you plan to hire talent or could potentially operate in before you employ an EOR provider to ensure that they have a broad reach and coverage across the globe to avoid hiring a second provider to target a specific country.

Hiring EOR services with well-versed teams with knowledge and experience helps you stay compliant in the markets you want to expand to. Whereas an inexperienced one can lead to compliance risks, extra costs, reputational damage, and fines.

Each EOR service on our list has experience in over 100 countries, but you need to ensure they operate in your desired markets before you partner with one.

Support

Expanding your workforce is no small feat, especially if it involves international employees. Having a supportive EOR to guide you through the ins and outs of the process is mandatory for inexperienced companies and benefits even enterprises.

Look for a global EOR that provides a dedicated account manager, such as Oyster, instead of redirecting you to a guidebook or a chatbox. Besides responsive support, your EOR partner should have expert teams to support your employees in their time zones and local languages.

Transparency

Avoid EOR providers that don’t display their setup fees, taxes, or termination fees on top of other service costs.

Hidden fees and markups can affect multiple departments in your business by changing your budget, meaning you should look for EOR providers that present every element of their pricing upfront.

Additional Features

Running a dynamic business means you’ll face unique challenges, and your needs may evolve over time. For example, you may need to convert contractors into employees, establish your own foreign entity and require a different payroll method, or relocate talent to another country.

A single, multi-purpose EOR solution, like Deel, helps you avoid paying for and managing multiple HR solutions. Look for solutions with automations, seamless platforms, housing, Visa and immigration, and office leasing services.

Price

Look for a provider that provides a cost-effective service in the long run, which doesn’t necessarily mean cheap. Some EORs offer inexpensive but sub-par services, including complex invoicing, hidden fees, and accumulated costs in the long run.

Although this isn’t the case with any on our list, we still recommend you find a provider that suits all your requirements and has extensive knowledge of foreign countries’ labor laws and regulations and choose one best suited to your needs and budget.

EOR FAQs