TL;DR: Use Shor. We handle everything below on autopilot, with minimal lift from your team, at some of the lowest published prices in the market: $299-449/month per employee, $19/month per contractor, flat disclosed 2% FX.
Deel is the biggest name in global hiring, and for plenty of companies it's a fine choice. But if you're here, something isn't fitting: the $599/month per employee price tag, the $49/month per contractor fee, quote-only answers to simple questions, or support that feels built for enterprises rather than a twelve-person startup.
Full disclosure up front: we build Shor, and it's first on this list. We've kept every entry honest, including where a competitor is genuinely the better pick, because you'll figure that out anyway.
All pricing below is from each provider's published pricing pages or cited independent guides, as of August 2026.
The short version
| Provider | EOR (per employee/mo) | Contractors (per contractor/mo) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shor | $299-449 | $19 | Seed to Series B startups, contractor-heavy teams |
| Remote | $699 | $29 | Owned-entity coverage, EU hiring |
| Oyster | $699 | $29 | Onboarding experience, HR polish |
| Rippling | Quote-based | Quote-based | Teams that want HR + IT + payroll in one suite |
| Multiplier | From $400 | From $40 | Mid-market, APAC coverage |
| Remofirst | From $199 | From $25 | Pure lowest sticker price |
| Papaya Global | Quote-based | Quote-based | Enterprise payroll operations |
1. Shor
Shor is international payroll built for founders: hire and pay employees and contractors in 150+ countries, set up in minutes, with a founder in your Slack instead of a ticket queue.
- Pricing: $299-449/month per EOR employee depending on country, $19/month per contractor, and running payroll on your own entity from $50-60/month per employee. No setup fees, no minimums, no annual lock-in.
- Leaving: month-to-month with 30-day cancellation, no initial term, and no early termination or offboarding fee. If we aren't working out, you go. What remains is statutory: ending an EOR employee's employment follows local labor law, so notice and severance depend on the country and often on length of service.
- The FX difference: a flat, disclosed 2% margin on every conversion, shown on every receipt. Most providers price FX as a variable rate you discover after the fact.
- Strengths: price transparency, contractor-first workflows, same-day payment rails to India, the Philippines, Nigeria, and 12+ LATAM corridors, founder-level support.
- Honest limits: we're a startup. If you need 100-country EOR coverage today, in-house visa sponsorship, or enterprise procurement processes, the bigger platforms below are further along.
See full pricing, including every statutory cost per country.
2. Remote
Remote's calling card is owned legal entities in most of its markets rather than third-party partners, which means fewer intermediaries in sensitive situations like terminations and IP assignment.
- Pricing: $699/month per EOR employee, $29/month per contractor, with a $99 contractor tier that adds indemnity protection.
- Strengths: entity ownership, strong European coverage, published (if premium) pricing, no security deposits.
- Watch for: the highest sticker price of the majors, and FX priced as a "Remote FX rate" that isn't a published number.
3. Oyster
Oyster leans into the HR experience: polished onboarding flows, good employee-facing UX, and strong documentation.
- Pricing: $699/month per EOR employee published, $29/month per contractor, with discounts reported for annual commitments and multi-hire deals.
- Strengths: onboarding polish, HR tooling, transparent public pricing pages.
- Watch for: similar total cost profile to Remote once FX and add-ons are counted.
4. Rippling
Rippling is a different animal: a workforce platform where global payroll is one module among HR, IT, device management, and finance tools.
- Pricing: quote-based; you'll need a sales conversation to get numbers.
- Strengths: if you want one system for laptops, app provisioning, US payroll, and international hiring, nobody bundles more.
- Watch for: platform pricing is modular, so the all-in number depends on how many modules you adopt, and you can't see it without talking to sales.
5. Multiplier
Multiplier competes on price against the big three with particular depth in Asia-Pacific.
- Pricing: from $400/month per EOR employee, from $40/month per contractor, with volume discounts reported at scale.
- Strengths: meaningful savings vs. Deel/Remote/Oyster, APAC coverage.
- Watch for: thinner support and fewer self-serve resources than the bigger platforms; independent guides note FX margins vary by corridor.
6. Remofirst
Remofirst is the budget option, and honestly, at pure sticker price it undercuts everyone on this list, including us.
- Pricing: from $199/month per EOR employee, from $25/month per contractor.
- Strengths: the lowest published EOR base fee in the market.
- Watch for: coverage relies heavily on local partners, support is lighter, and the low base fee makes it especially important to ask how FX conversion is priced. If your team is contractor-heavy, compare the contractor fees and FX math, not just the EOR line.
7. Papaya Global
Papaya is built for enterprise payroll operations: consolidating payroll data and payments across many countries and vendors.
- Pricing: quote-based, with independent guides reporting EOR from roughly $599/month.
- Strengths: payroll data infrastructure, payments licensing, enterprise reporting.
- Watch for: it's aimed at companies far larger than a typical startup; the product shines at hundreds of employees, not five.
How to actually choose
Three questions cut through most of the noise:
- What's your employee-to-contractor mix? Contractor-heavy teams should weight the per-contractor fee and FX margin far more than the EOR fee. At 10 contractors, the gap between $19 and $49 per month is $3,600/year before FX.
- Will anyone state the FX margin as a number? Salaries cross borders every month, so an undisclosed spread compounds quietly. Whoever you pick, get the FX answer in writing.
- Who picks up when something breaks? Payroll failures are payday emergencies. Ask each vendor who specifically answers, and how fast, when a payment goes sideways.
All third-party pricing and features referenced are from each provider's published pages or the cited sources as of August 2026 and may change; confirm details with each provider. All trademarks belong to their respective owners, and no provider mentioned here is affiliated with or endorses Shor.
FAQ
What is the cheapest Deel alternative? By published base fee, Remofirst (EOR from $199/month). For contractor-heavy startups, Shor's $19/month per contractor with a flat disclosed 2% FX margin is typically the lowest all-in cost. Always compare the full stack: base fee, contractor fee, FX margin, and deposits.
Why do companies switch away from Deel? The most common reasons cited in independent reviews are cost (the $599 EOR and $49 contractor fees), quote-based answers on total costs like deposits and FX, and support responsiveness at smaller account sizes.
Is switching EOR providers hard? It's a real project but a well-worn path: the new provider re-papers employment agreements and contractor contracts, and transitions typically align to a payroll cycle boundary. Contractor migrations are usually days; EOR employee migrations take a few weeks per country.
Does Shor really publish all its pricing? Yes. $299-449/month per EOR employee by country, $19/month per contractor, own-entity payroll from $50-60/month, flat 2% FX margin, no setup fees. Where a country requires a deposit, the amount is quoted up front. The pricing calculator on our homepage shows every statutory line item per country.