Deel

Deel handles international hiring. Employer of record in countries where you have no legal entity, contractor payments across most of the world, compliant local contracts, and payroll in local currencies — the machinery that makes hiring someone abroad a decision rather than a project.

We list it as the answer for distributed teams. Setting up a legal entity to hire one person in another country is months and real money; an employer of record turns that into an onboarding form, at a per-employee premium that is almost always cheaper than the alternative.

Remote is the closest competitor with a similar model and comparable coverage. Oyster targets the same problem with a smaller footprint. Rippling and Papaya Global add EOR to broader HR platforms, which is neater if you want one system. Wise or Payoneer cover contractor payments alone at much lower cost, without the compliance layer — fine for genuine contractors, risky if the relationship actually looks like employment. That distinction is the one that matters: misclassification is the expensive mistake this category exists to prevent.