Employer of Record Cost in 2026: What Providers Actually Publish
Published employer of record starting prices on 31 October 2026 run from $199 to $699 per employee per month. See what the fee covers, what is passed through, what drives price, and a worked Philippines example.
Published October 2026 · Last reviewed October 2026 · RSW Editorial
The short answer: on 31 October 2026, the pricing pages of eleven employer-of-record providers that publish a list price quoted a starting fee between $199 and $699 per employee per month in US dollars (ten providers), and one quoted 499 euros. Those fees buy the provider’s service. They are not the whole cost of the hire, because salary, statutory employer contributions and mandated pay sit on top. This page reconciles the published numbers, separates the fee from the pass-through costs, and shows one worked example. Providers are identified by reference (S1 to S13, plus S14 for a US benchmark) and named only in the Sources section at the end.
What the published prices say
Search results for this question disagree because they quote different things: a starting price, a price for an annual contract, a price for a different service such as a contractor plan, or the fee as a share of a particular salary. To remove that noise, the table below records one thing only: the employer-of-record (EOR) starting price shown on each provider’s own pricing page, with the billing terms and deposit or setup statements printed on the same page.
| Ref | Starting EOR price shown | Billing terms stated | Deposit, setup or exit fees stated | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | $599 per employee per month | Month-to-month, no long-term commitment (FAQ) | Not stated on the page | S1 pricing page |
| S2 | $599 per employee per month | For annual contracts | No setup or onboarding fee; no standard deposit, but a refundable reserve may apply | S2 pricing page |
| S3 | $699 per employee per month | Annual discounts available | Refundable deposit required; no extra setup, onboarding or termination charge | S3 pricing page |
| S4 | $499 per employee per month | "Starting from" | "No deposit required" | S4 pricing page |
| S5 | $599 per employee per month | Volume pricing for larger multi-country teams | Final payroll and statutory exit costs may still apply | S5 pricing page |
| S6 | $199 per employee per month | Fee may vary by country; no annual contract or minimum | No setup, onboarding or termination fee | S6 pricing page |
| S7 | $199 per employee per month | Larger discounts with more onboardings | Not stated on the page | S7 pricing page |
| S8 | $399 per month | No minimum commitment | No onboarding or offboarding fee; refundable security deposit of one month’s salary | S8 pricing page |
| S9 | $349 per employee per month | Cancel anytime (per page); price shown including tax | Not stated on the page | S9 pricing page |
| S10 | $349 per employee per month | Varies by country, headcount, project and expat versus local hire | No onboarding or offboarding cost | S10 pricing page |
| S11 | 499 euros per employee per month | Volume discounts | Not stated on the page | S11 pricing page |
Read plainly, the ten dollar-denominated starting prices run from $199 to $699 per employee per month. The most frequent starting price is $599, shown by three of the ten (S1, S2 and S5). Two sit at $199 (S6 and S7), two at $349 (S9 and S10), and the others at $399, $499 and $699. The base fee is therefore a spread, not a single market rate, and the figure on a page is the first tier of a plan that can change with country, headcount and contract length.
Two limits apply. One provider (S12) showed no EOR price in the page text we fetched and directs buyers to sales. And the eleven are providers that choose to publish, not the whole market, so the range is not an average of what buyers pay. The ledger of every page we tried, including those that failed to load, is kept with the sources.
One provider’s pricing page claims that competitors charge up to $1,200 per employee per month (S6). That is a marketing comparison, not a published price list, so it sits outside the range above. Treat it as a reason to ask for a written quote.
Flat fee or percentage of salary?
You will also see EOR cost described as a percentage of salary. None of the pricing pages checked published a percentage-of-salary plan; every price in the table is a flat monthly amount per employee. A percentage figure is therefore a translation of a flat fee for one assumed salary, and it moves a great deal with the salary you pick. The arithmetic below shows why a flat fee can look like a small or a large percentage.
| Monthly fee | On a $1,500 monthly salary | On a $3,000 monthly salary | On a $6,000 monthly salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| $199 | 13.3% | 6.6% | 3.3% |
| $349 | 23.3% | 11.6% | 5.8% |
| $599 | 39.9% | 20.0% | 10.0% |
| $699 | 46.6% | 23.3% | 11.7% |
The practical lesson is that the fee weighs most on lower-paid roles. A flat $599 is a fifth of a $3,000 monthly salary and a tenth of a $6,000 one. If you are weighing an EOR for a role in a lower-wage country, the fee can be a large share of the payroll line, which is the point at which the saving you expected from cost arbitrage needs checking against the full price. Use the Remote Hiring Cost Calculator to run your own numbers rather than relying on a percentage quoted for someone else’s salary.
The fee is not the cost: what the EOR passes through
An EOR is the legal employer in a country where you have no entity. It signs the local contract, runs payroll, pays statutory contributions and handles compliance, while you direct the work; our employer of record and professional employer organization entries and the EOR vs PEO comparison explain the structure. The monthly fee pays for that service. The employee’s costs are billed to you in addition.
Think of an EOR invoice as three layers:
- Gross pay: the salary and any contractually required pay, such as a mandatory annual or thirteenth-month payment (see 13th-month pay).
- Statutory employer costs: payroll taxes, social security, health and pension contributions, and similar charges the employer owes by law in that country. The provider remits them and passes the cost through to you. One provider’s pricing page says this directly: its monthly fee covers the core service, while statutory employment costs and country-specific government charges are billed separately (S8).
- The service fee: the flat amount in the table, plus any extras the contract adds, such as benefits administration, equipment, visas or health cover.
Our total cost of employment page expresses the same idea as a formula: gross salary plus statutory costs plus benefits plus onboarding and equipment plus management overhead. The EOR fee belongs in the benefits-and-overhead part of that sum; it does not replace the statutory part. As a reference point for how large benefits can be, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that benefits made up 30.0 percent of employer compensation costs for private-industry workers in June 2026 (S14). That is a US average and says nothing about another country, but it shows why comparing salaries alone misleads.
What drives the price you actually pay
Country
Several pages say the fee varies by country (S6, S10). The country changes the total in two ways: through the service fee and through the statutory contributions and mandated pay. The country guides on this site set out those rules for the places we cover.
Headcount and volume
Pages mention volume pricing (S5, S11), larger discounts with more onboardings (S7) and headcount as a pricing variable (S10). A one-person pilot and a ten-person team in the same country are unlikely to be quoted the same per-head fee. The starting price in the table is the entry point, and bigger teams are where negotiation is expected.
Contract length and billing terms
Of the pages that say, one prices from $599 “for annual contracts” (S2), one offers month-to-month terms (S1), two state no annual contract or minimum (S6 and S8), and one offers annual discounts (S3). The same plan can therefore carry a different monthly figure depending on whether you commit for a year. Check whether the number you were quoted is the annual-contract rate or the monthly rate.
Contractor or employee
Several providers show separate contractor plans next to the EOR plan, each at its own price. Do not read a contractor price as an EOR price. A contractor engagement and an employment arrangement carry different obligations and different risks, which our EOR vs contractor comparison walks through. Whether a person can be engaged as a contractor depends on the facts of the working relationship, and a lower fee is not a reason to choose that route. See misclassification before you decide.
Deposits and reserves
The pricing pages differ on deposits. One states that no deposit is required (S4). One requires a refundable deposit (S3). One requires a refundable security deposit equal to one month’s salary (S8). One says it charges no standard deposit but may ask for a refundable reserve in certain circumstances, to be disclosed before payment (S2). A refundable deposit is not a fee, but it is cash tied up while the employee is on the books.
Currency conversion
If you pay in US dollars and the employee is paid in local currency, someone converts the money. Pages describe this differently: one applies its own exchange rate, set once per monthly billing cycle and shown on the invoice (S2); one converts at a published spot rate plus a disclosed markup, with wire fees included (S5); one charges a conversion fee only if you pay in a currency other than the contract currency (S3). The exchange-rate margin does not appear in the headline fee, so ask for it in writing.
Setup, onboarding and offboarding
Several pages state that there is no setup, onboarding or termination (offboarding) fee, in slightly different words (S2, S3, S6, S8, S10). Others are silent. One provider’s guide to hidden EOR costs says that some providers in the market charge a setup fee per hire ranging from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars, and gives an example of a termination fee of $6,000 quoted to a company it spoke to (S13). That is a provider’s claim about competitors, not a market measurement, but it names the places to look.
Even where there is no exit fee, leaving is not free. The employee’s local-law entitlements, such as notice pay, severance or unused leave, are statutory costs that the provider will pass through (S5 states that final payroll and statutory obligations may still apply). These are set by the country, not the provider.
Worked example: the Philippines
To make the layers concrete, the example below uses the Philippines because the hiring in the Philippines guide publishes the relevant statutory figures, dated and sourced. The salary is an illustrative number chosen for the arithmetic. It is not a market rate, and the example does not use any provider’s price as the fee.
| Line | Monthly amount (PHP) | Basis | Who bills it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic salary | 20,000 | Illustrative assumption | Passed through to you |
| 13th-month pay accrual | 1,666.67 | One twelfth of basic salary earned in the year, paid by 24 December (Presidential Decree 851) | Passed through to you |
| SSS employer contribution | 2,000 | Employer share on a 20,000 PHP monthly salary credit (SSS Circular 2024-006, effective January 2025) | Passed through to you |
| Pag-IBIG employer contribution | 200 | 2 percent of the 10,000 PHP maximum fund salary (Circular 460, as summarised by a secondary source) | Passed through to you |
| PhilHealth employer share | Not calculated | The guide gives a 5 percent premium rate for 2025 but not the employer share, and no 2026 advisory was available | Passed through to you |
| Subtotal of items shown, excluding PhilHealth | 23,866.67 | Salary plus 13th-month accrual plus SSS plus Pag-IBIG | Passed through to you |
| EOR service fee | See the table of published prices above | A flat dollar amount, billed in dollars or converted at your provider’s rate | Provider’s fee |
The statutory items shown add 3,866.67 pesos to a 20,000 peso salary, which is 19.3 percent on top of basic pay before the PhilHealth employer share, holiday pay and leave are counted. That layer is a cost of employing the person under Philippine law, whether you use an EOR, your own entity or a local payroll provider. What the EOR adds is the monthly service fee on top. A quote that shows the fee without the statutory layer is incomplete.
To rerun this for another country, take the contribution rules in that country’s guide, add mandated pay, then add the provider’s fee and deposit. The salary benchmark explorer gives published pay data for the salary line.
When an EOR can cost less than setting up an entity
An entity brings its own costs: incorporation, a registered address, local accounting and tax filings, payroll set-up, a local legal contact and the management time all of that takes. An EOR replaces most of those fixed steps with a monthly per-head fee. Qualitatively, that makes an EOR a sensible fit when you have one or a few employees in a country, when you are testing a market, or when the timeline is short. The balance shifts as the number of people in one country grows, because a per-head fee repeats every month while an entity’s setup costs are largely one-off.
We give no break-even headcount, because it depends on the country, entity type and fees, and no pricing page publishes entity costs on a comparable basis. Ask each option for a written year-one and year-three estimate, including exit costs.
Tax exposure belongs in this decision as well. Hiring a person abroad can raise a permanent establishment question, which concerns whether your company becomes taxable in that country. Employing the person through an EOR’s own entity can mean the worker’s employment sits with the EOR rather than you, but, as our glossary explains, it does not remove every risk, and activities such as negotiating or signing contracts on your behalf can still raise questions. Take tax advice for client-facing or senior roles.
How to compare quotes
Ask every provider for the same written breakdown, so that two quotes can be laid side by side:
- The monthly fee per employee, whether it assumes an annual or a monthly contract, and what happens to it as headcount changes.
- Which statutory contributions and mandated pay are included in the quoted total, and which are passed through at cost.
- The deposit or reserve, the amount, when it is returned, and what it can be applied to.
- The exchange rate used, the margin over the mid-market rate, and who pays transfer fees.
- Setup, onboarding, offboarding and termination-assistance charges, stated as numbers or as “none”.
- Which benefits, equipment and visa support are included and which are optional extras.
- The name and registration of the entity that will employ the person, and whether it is the provider’s own entity or a partner.
- The minimum term and the notice you must give to end the service.
The remote staffing vendor due diligence checklist covers the wider provider review, and true cost of hiring remote workers and remote staffing costs show how the fee fits into the full budget.
Limits of this page
This is a snapshot of published starting prices on one date. It excludes negotiated rates, does not rank providers, and the dollar range describes the sample only. Providers update pricing pages without notice, so re-check any figure before relying on it.
Teams deciding between a provider and their own subsidiary can read our comparison of an employer of record and a local entity.
Sources
Provider pricing pages were fetched on 31 October 2026 and read for the figures quoted above. Each reference in the table maps to one page.
- S1: Deel, pricing page: https://www.deel.com/pricing/
- S2: Remote, pricing page: https://remote.com/pricing
- S3: Oyster, pricing page: https://oysterhr.com/pricing
- S4: Papaya Global, pricing page: https://www.papayaglobal.com/pricing/
- S5: Atlas HXM, pricing page: https://www.atlashxm.com/pricing
- S6: RemoFirst, pricing page: https://www.remofirst.com/pricing
- S7: Skuad, pricing page: https://www.skuad.io/pricing
- S8: Playroll, pricing page: https://www.playroll.com/pricing
- S9: RemotePass, pricing page: https://www.remotepass.com/pricing
- S10: Rivermate, pricing page: https://www.rivermate.com/pricing
- S11: Lano, pricing page: https://www.lano.io/pricing
- S12: Globalization Partners (G-P), pricing page, no EOR price in the fetched text: https://www.g-p.com/pricing/
- S13: RemoFirst, guide to hidden EOR costs, cited only as that provider’s claim about other providers: https://www.remofirst.com/post/hidden-eor-costs
- S14: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecec_09092026.htm
References checked on 31 October 2026. Rates, thresholds and provider pricing change; confirm current figures with the provider and your adviser. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.