You’ve found the ideal candidate, but there’s a catch—they’re in a different country. How do you hire them?
Hiring global remote talent may seem confusing because of all the different laws, taxes, and local currencies. In this article, we’ll guide you through hiring across borders so you can expand your team and business without the legal headaches.
Selecting the right Employer of Record (EOR) can make hiring international talent a breeze. An EOR handles legal, payroll, and HR duties, navigating complex global employment laws for you.
We will explain the basics of EORs and then compare the top EOR services: Deel, Remote, HireGlobal, and Oyster. Knowing what each HR tool offers ensures you can hire worldwide smoothly and legally.
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What’s an EOR?
An Employer of Record (EOR) enables you to hire globally without needing to establish local entities. They handle the legal details, payroll, and HR tasks. This simplifies international hiring, allowing you to concentrate on your main business objectives.
An EOR employs your workers legally and offers a global payroll solution, while you still manage them day-to-day. It’s especially valuable when expanding into new markets or navigating unfamiliar local labor laws and regulations.
Why Use an EOR?
Small businesses can simplify global hiring by using EOR services. These services remove the need to establish local offices in different countries. They also handle complex international payroll tasks. This simplifies the process of hiring global talent.
- Stay compliant: Navigating international employment laws can be daunting without local legal entities. EORs ensure compliance, minimizing legal concerns and the risk of fines.
- Save money: Setting up overseas offices and hiring local HR teams can be costly. EORs offer savings in both time and money, reducing effort.
- Increase efficiency: Let them handle payroll processing, HR, and benefits administration. This allows you to concentrate on other business areas.
- Reduce risk: Employing people through an EOR lowers legal and financial risks associated with local regulations and tax compliance.
EOR services offer a practical and effective strategy for startups and small businesses aiming for global expansion. They enable you to hire employees across borders while managing legal risks and the heavy lifting of human resources.
Read More: Remote Developer Salary Calculator compares salaries in different regions
Introducing Deel, Remote, HireGlobal, and Oyster
Deel was founded in 2019 and quickly gained recognition for its payroll and legal services worldwide. Remote started the same year in 2019 and helps companies hire and manage people and contractors globally. HireGlobal by Toptal entered the marketplace in 2025, and while it’s a new company, it is built on Toptal’s 12+ years of experience in global talent and payments. Oyster, launched in 2020, makes it easy for companies to hire and support people across the globe. They provide tools for payroll, benefits, staying legal, and handling contractors, aiming to make hiring worldwide easier.
About Deel
- Global Coverage: Works in 150+ countries. Discover all the countries they support here.
- Key Services: Offers a complete platform for global teams. This covers payroll, legal matters, hiring, taxes, and HR all in one place.
- Special Features: Deel stands out because it can pay anyone, anywhere quickly and brings HR tasks into one global system. It also manages equity in over 110 countries.
- Safety and Law: They follow GDPR, SOC2, and ISO 27001, keeping data safe and private.
- How It Feels: Users appreciate the simplicity and ease of use.
Understanding what Deel has to offer
Deel helps you hire in over 150 countries, making managing international teams easier. They ensure you can support team members almost anywhere in the world.
Deel has tools to help your business grow. They have a user-friendly interface, flexible payment options, and 24/7 help.
The top 5 most popular countries to hire from are The Philippines, United States, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil. This comes from Deel‘s State of Global Hiring report and overall trends in international hiring.
Deel was named one of the Best EOR Services in 2024 by US News & World Report. They were recognized as the “Best Overall” employer of record service.
Resources from Deel
Deel makes it easier to hire and manage employees from around the world with its global hiring and management tools.
The Global People Platform helps with all stages of an employee’s time with your company, from onboarding to offboarding. Over 25,000 companies worldwide use it.
The Global Hiring Guide gives advice on hiring in different countries. The Compliance Hub keeps you informed about global laws and regulations. Here are some of Deel’s most helpful guides and tools:
- 🌎Deel hiring guide
- 🛠️Global hiring toolkit
- 💰Salary insights
- 🧮Employee cost calculator
- 🗺️Global employment comparison
- 🙌Global benefits tool
- 💵Take-home pay calculator
Visit Deel’s resources library for more insights and tools.
About Remote
- Global Coverage: They’re in 200+ countries and territories. Discover all the countries they support here.
- Key Services: Include EOR, managing contractors, global payroll, HR, and finding remote talent. They handle payroll, benefits, self-service for employees, and managing pay.
- Special Features: Remote’s mobile app for self-service, managing talent, and handling expenses sets them apart. They also have a strong API for moving employee data between systems.
- Safety and Law: They focus on fair prices and strong safety and compliance measures. They also operate with a 100% owned-entity model in all countries where they offer EOR services. This means less risk for everyone.
- How It Feels: People enjoy the design and how fast employees can begin using it.
Understanding what Remote has to offer
Remote provides a Global HR Platform tailored for businesses seeking to expand their operations internationally. They assist in expanding businesses worldwide by hiring and managing teams. They ensure timely payments. They also make sure to follow local labor laws.
They offer great services to help with paying employees, providing benefits, managing taxes, and following the local laws when hiring globally.
Their platform is easy to use and matches your work style. This is because of its powerful API capabilities. These capabilities help make processes more efficient and streamlined.
Using Remote can help your business grow by ensuring that your hiring practices comply with local laws and customs.
Remote was named one of the Best EOR Services in 2024 by US News & World Report. They were recognized as the best option for companies with remote and distributed workforces.
As a preferred EOR partner of Arc, Remote is offering a First year 20% discount for contractor management, EOR, and global payroll services plus free HRIS platform access and free global growth assessment consultation.
Resources from Remote
Remote helps businesses effortlessly hire, manage, and pay global teams, providing essential resources to make global HR processes smooth. They provide services such as EOR, managing contractors, and handling global payroll in over 200 countries and territories. They aim to ensure that you complete all tasks accurately and efficiently. Here are a few of Remote’s useful guides and tools to help you understand the intricacies of global employment:
- 🌏Global Payroll Guide
- 💸Employee Cost Calculator
- ⚠️Misclassification Risk Tool
- 📚Global HR and remote work research
Visit Remote’s resources library for more insights and tools.
About HireGlobal
- Global Coverage: Works in 150+ countries, offering comprehensive support to hire, manage, and pay workers worldwide.
- Key Services: Provides a complete platform for global teams covering payroll, legal compliance, hiring, taxes, and HR management, all consolidated in one system.
- Special Features: HireGlobal stands out with its $1 million indemnification protection per worker under its Virtual Employer of Record (EOR) model. It supports flexible hiring models, including contractor and employee management with robust global compliance and automated global payroll services.
- Safety and Law: HireGlobal adheres to the highest security standards and provides automatic legal protection and financial coverage starting the moment hires begin, ensuring compliance with local labor laws globally.
- How It Feels: Users appreciate its seamless onboarding, centralized HRIS platform, and the peace of mind from built-in compliance and indemnification protection.
| HireGlobal by Toptal | |
|---|---|
| Year founded | Toptal was founded in 2010, and launched HireGlobal in 2025 |
| Global coverage | 150+ countries |
| Currencies supported | 120+ currencies supported |
| Price for contractors | $29 per contractor/month |
| Price for employees | $199 for Virtual EOR and $399 for Local EOR per worker, per month |
| Compliance expertise | Offers full local and international labor law compliance, backed by $1 million indemnification per worker and legal defense support for its Virtual EOR plan. |
| HR support | Centralized human resources information system (HRIS) to manage hiring, payroll, benefits, and compliance—streamlining global workforce management. |
| Data security | Follows strict data security practices with high standards for safeguarding client information. |
| Onboarding and offboarding | Fast and seamless onboarding supported by automated compliance and payroll services. |
| Owned entities | Operates through local legal entities worldwide to ensure compliant hiring and payment processes. |
| Special features and advantages | Indemnification protection of $1 million per worker in its Virtual EOR offering, flexible hiring models, no hidden fees, automated local compliance, integrated global payroll, consolidated invoicing, and dedicated support teams. |
Understanding what HireGlobal has to offer
HireGlobal helps businesses hire and manage teams in over 150 countries through its trusted EOR service, a platform built on over 12 years of global payroll and compliance expertise at Toptal.
HireGlobal charges the same contractor fees, but significantly less for employees, than Deel, Remote, and Oyster. Its simple global hiring and payroll platform supports both full-time employment and contractor engagements with legal compliance and data security at its core.
HireGlobal prioritizes simplicity and compliance, giving businesses the confidence to expand internationally without the burden of setting up multiple legal entities. Its Virtual Employer of Record model offers unmatched indemnification protection of $1 million per worker.
HireGlobal’s parent company, Toptal, is trusted by thousands of companies worldwide and processes billions in payroll and payments annually, making it a reliable partner for global workforce management.
About Oyster
- Global Coverage: Helps you hire in 180+ countries. Discover all the countries they support here.
- Key Services: Oyster has everything for hiring people worldwide. This includes managing pay in multiple currencies, rewarding your people, changing contractors to full-timers easily, and supporting talent wherever they are. They also help you care for your people – whether that’s health care, time off or equity.
- Special Features: It is an automated global hiring platform with local job market know-how.
- Safety and Law: They focus on being compliant globally, without the need to set up an entity
- How It Feels: Known for its automated systems, making hiring smooth and fast.
Understanding what Oyster has to offer
Oyster enables hiring anywhere in the world with reliable, compliant payroll, and great local benefits and perks.
Global employment is more than just hiring and paying around the world. It’s also about taking care of your team, which is what sets Oyster’s global employment platform apart. In addition to streamlining your HR processes, it offers an end-to-end employee experience that’s truly unmatched.
Oyster lets you build a global team with their simple EOR service. They have tools to help with paying employees, providing benefits, and handling taxes easily. They offer insights into local job markets.
Oyster also has many resources for remote and hybrid workers, showing they care about making global talent reachable for you. They stand for security, following the law, and being easy to use.
Oyster was named one of the best EOR services in 2024 by US News & World Report. They were recognized for their cost-effective workforce management.
As a preferred EOR partner of Arc, they are offering a First year 20% discount for your first seven hires plus access to all of Oyster’s Academy and Tooling for free and Premium People Concierge Service.
Resources from Oyster
Oyster simplifies the process of hiring, paying, and managing global teams. The platform is user-friendly and offers a variety of tools and resources for international employment.
Their Global Hiring Guides outline HR best practices for over 50 countries. The Employment Cost Calculator ensures accurate calculations of employment taxes and costs.
Oyster also provides Global Employment Tools for free, allowing for a deeper understanding of global HR practices. Here are a few of Deel’s most useful resources:
- 🧮 Total Employment Cost Calculator
- ⚖️ Worker Misclassification Analyzer Tool
- 🧭 55+ Country Profiles & Hiring Guides
- 🌍 180+ Countries Served
- 🎓 Oyster Academy
- 💻 Oyster Event Hub
Visit Oyster’s resources library for more insights and tools.
Read More: See how BAXUS saved $50k with global talent from Arc
EOR Comparison: Deel vs. Remote vs. HireGlobal vs. Oyster
Deel, Remote, HireGlobal, and Oyster each have their strengths in remote hiring. People know Deel for being complete and secure. Remote has many services and is user-friendly. HireGlobal was built by Toptal, a company with more than 12 years of experience in the global payments space. Oyster’s platform automates and smartly handles local jobs.
| Deel | Remote | HireGlobal | Oyster | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year founded | 2019 | 2019 | Toptal founded in 2010, launched HireGlobal in 2025 | 2020 |
| Global coverage | 150+ countries | 200+ countries | 150+ countries | 150+ countries |
| Currencies supported | 120+ currencies supported, including crypto | Supports local currency in most countries | 120+ currencies supported | 140 currencies supported |
| Price for contractors | $49 per contractor/month, not including Agent of Record service | $29 per contractor/month, not including Agent of Record service | $29 per contractor/month, including Agent of Record service | Free for 30 days, then $29 per contractor/month, not including Agent of Record service |
| Price for employees | $599 per month | $599 per month, when paid annually | $199 for Virtual EOR, $399 for Local EOR per worker, per month | $499 per month, when paid annually |
| Compliance expertise | Partners with local legal experts, immigration and visa support in 25+ countries. Fully GDPR compliant. | Offer industry-leading security and compliance for sensitive data and the strongest IP protection in the industry. Remote is currently ISO27001 certified. | Offers full local and international labor law compliance, backed by $1 million indemnification per worker and legal defense support for its Virtual EOR plan. | Hiring and payroll in 180+ countries with full compliance. Legal-reviewed agreements for 100& compliance. Insurance coverage over $8 million. In-house legal experts and compliance database. |
| HR support | Manage expenses, time off, bonuses with automated tools, Deel HR starts at $0 | Manages onboarding, offboarding, time and attendance, benefits, tax calculations | Centralized human resources information system (HRIS) to manage hiring, payroll, benefits, and compliance—streamlining global workforce management. | Assists with talent location, hiring, payroll, benefits, IP protection |
| Data security | They follow GDPR, SOC2, and ISO 27001, keeping data safe and private | Two-factor authentication (2FA), single sign-on (SSO), owns global compliance, SOC 2 compliant, ISO 27001 Certified | Follows strict data security practices with high standards for safeguarding client information, including SOC 2 and ISO 27001. | SOC 2 Type II audit, uses Amazon S3 for hosting. GDPR and SOC II privacy compliance. |
| Onboarding and offboarding | Automated support, can onboard employees within minutes | No fees for onboarding or offboarding, takes two to three days | Fast and seamless onboarding supported by automated compliance and payroll services. | Guided through the Oyster platform |
| Owned entities | 100+ countries | 60+ countries | Trusted partner network of local entities worldwide to ensure compliant hiring and payment processes. | Mix of third-party vendors and owned entities |
| Special features and advantages | Provides immigration support. Global payroll support. HRIS to manage your entire workforce. Global network of 200+ local experts. Dedicated CSM and 24/7 chat in-app. | Flat monthly service rate. Free HR management. Pays employees in local currency. Employee mobile app. Global payroll consolidation. | Transparent, low pricing with no hidden fees. Indemnification protection of $1 million per worker, flexible hiring models (Virtual EOR and Contractor Management), no hidden fees, automated local compliance, integrated global payroll, consolidated invoicing, and dedicated support teams. | Transparent pricing with no extra fees and all inclusive price. Superior customer experience with 90% CSAT. Deep integration of HRIS, ERP, expense management, team productivity, and equity platforms. Automated dashboard, compliance and liability coverage, seat recycling for cost savings. |
Deciding on an EOR for Your Business
In deciding on an Employer of Record (EOR) for global expansion, consider the distinct features, coverage, and pricing of Deel, Remote, and Oyster.
Deel, launched in 2019, serves over 150 countries and handles payments in 120+ currencies, including cryptocurrencies. It’s known for comprehensive compliance and legal expertise, offering immigration support in 25+ countries and a robust HR system. Prices start at $49 for contractors and $599 for employees monthly. With a 4.8 G2 score, users love Deel for its user-friendly platform and efficiency.
Remote, founded in 2019, covers more than 200 countries. It focuses on data security and compliance, charging similar rates to Deel but stands out with its ISO27001 certification and a mobile app that simplifies global payroll. It provides strong IP protection and local currency payouts, earning a 4.6 G2 rating.
HireGlobal by Toptal, founded in 2025, operates in 150+ countries and supports 120+ currencies. It charges similar contractor rates as the other services, but employee fees are significantly lower than Deel, Remote, and Oyster. It provides strong compliance and a trusted platform and infrastructure, proven across 12+ years and billions in payroll and payments.
Oyster, introduced in 2020, operates in 150+ countries and supports 140 currencies. It highlights compliance and transparent pricing, perfect for those new to global expansion. Charging $29 for contractors after a free month and $499 for employees per month, Oyster users enjoy easy onboarding with high customer satisfaction, reflected in a 4.4 G2 rating.
Choose an EOR that matches your specific business needs. Deel offers extensive services, Remote excels in global coverage and security, and Oyster prioritizes compliance and user experience, ensuring a fit for any expansion strategy.
Final thoughts
Remote and hybrid work are now the default for many businesses worldwide. You can now easily grow your business and attract high-quality employees without creating your own physical offices. Instead of setting up offices in multiple countries, consider using one of the EORs discussed here to save you time and money.
The top EOR services help with hiring and offer extra support when hiring globally. They assist with finding and hiring employees, as well as providing ongoing support. Ultimately your choice of the best EOR service for you should depend on where you want to hire, what HR services you need, and your budget.
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