Oyster
Payroll Verified May 2026
Hire, pay and stay compliant in 180+ countries without setting up local entities
- Hire full-time employees in 120+ countries compliantly without a local legal entity
- Competitive EOR pricing — typically 25-40% less than legacy providers like Globalization Partners
- Contractor misclassification risk analyzer proactively flags legal risk before it becomes a problem
- Strong self-serve platform — less reliance on account managers for routine transactions
How Oyster scored 54/100
6 weighted criteria, each scored out of 10 and published with its reasoning. Featured placements never move a score.
Deal Strength
3.0 /10The offer here is cashback, not a published discount or coupon — you sign up on Oyster's standard tiers. Nothing about the price itself changes, so treat this as convenient access rather than a saving.
Value for Money
5.0 /10EOR coverage runs $599 per employee per month, which lands right alongside Deel and Remote. You are paying the going market price for global employment, neither a premium nor a bargain.
Capability
8.0 /10Oyster handles EOR and contractor management in 180+ countries and owns its own legal entities in 90+ of them, covering payroll, benefits, compliance, equity integrations and multi-entity setups. Coverage is broad enough that most hiring plans fit without workarounds.
Time to Value
8.0 /10Oyster advertises compliant onboarding in as fast as 48 hours across 180+ countries, so a new hire can be contracted the same week you decide to make the offer.
Trust & Reliability
5.0 /10Owning entities directly means fewer third-party handoffs and fewer compliance surprises, and Oyster is a certified B Corp. It publishes no uptime SLA and there is no settled review consensus to lean on, so pin support terms down in your contract.
Flexibility & Exit
3.0 /10The Contractor plan is billed annually, so you commit for a year up front. Oyster does not spell out cancellation or data-export terms publicly — ask for both in writing before you sign.
About Oyster
Quick answer
Hire, pay and stay compliant in 180+ countries without setting up local entities
Oyster, in 30 seconds
Oyster is an Employer of Record (EOR) and global contractor platform: it lets you hire and pay full-time employees in 180+ countries by using its own legal entities as the employer of record, while you stay the day-to-day manager. We picked it because Oysters direct ownership of entities in around 90 of the most-hired-from countries (rather than reselling third-party EOR providers like some competitors do) translates into faster onboarding, cleaner contracts and fewer surprise compliance bills. For a Series A-to-C scale-up hiring a senior engineer in Argentina or a designer in Portugal, this is the path that does not require a tax lawyer on retainer.
How it works
You pick a country, Oyster generates a locally compliant employment contract reviewed by in-country legal counsel, the employee signs and onboards, and Oyster runs payroll in local currency, withholds local taxes and statutory contributions, manages benefits (private health, pension, equity allocations where allowed) and handles termination if the role ends. From your side it looks like one monthly invoice in your billing currency. The platform supports multi-entity rollouts (some staff in your own US/UK entity, some on Oyster) and gives you a single org chart, time-off calendar and expense workflow across both.
Contractors get a separate flow: standard contractor agreement, milestone or hourly invoicing, payment in 140+ currencies, and 1099/W-8 paperwork generation. Equity is handled through Oysters integration with Carta and Pulley, which is the bit that usually breaks on smaller EOR platforms.
Pricing reality
Three buyer paths. Contractor at $29/contractor/month flat, billed annually, covers contracts, payments and tax forms. Employer of Record (EOR) at $599/employee/month flat covers all employer payroll, benefits, compliance, and termination handling. Scale is bespoke and includes volume discounts for 50+ employees, custom benefits and a dedicated CSM. Set-up fees were eliminated in 2024 — you do not pay an onboarding charge per hire any more, which is a meaningful change versus older quotes you might have seen. Currency conversion and local statutory employer costs (employer-side payroll taxes, mandatory benefits, severance accruals) sit on top of the platform fee and are pre-disclosed per country in the quote. Health insurance via Oyster is opt-in and varies by country.
Oyster vs alternatives
| Provider | EOR pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Oyster | $599/employee/month | Direct entities in 90+ countries, scale-up friendly |
| Deel | $599/employee/month | Largest contractor base, slick UX, more upsell |
| Remote | $599/employee/month | Owned entities focus, strong product engineering |
| Velocity Global | From $699/employee/month | Enterprise relocations and immigration support |
| Multiplier | From $400/employee/month | APAC-first hiring at lower fees |
Decision matrix
- Buy if: you are hiring 5+ international employees in countries you do not have entities in, or you want to consolidate contractor and EOR billing in one platform with reliable equity handling.
- Wait if: you only have 1 to 2 international employees in stable countries (UK, Canada, Germany) — local PEOs or direct entity setup may be cheaper at that volume.
- Skip if: your hires are mostly in countries where Oyster uses partner entities rather than its own — you lose the response-time advantage. Confirm entity ownership in the quote.
What's included
- Handles payroll tax & compliance for 180+ countries
- Real-time earnings visibility per employee per country
- Bundled benefits (health, pension, stock options) by region
- No subsidiary setup required; compliant from day one
- SaaSTweaks-verified affiliate deal
- Vendor-direct activation flow
- Editorial pros + cons review
- Tracked savings claim with refresh date
Oyster pricing
Verified May 2026. Vendor's published rates at the time we checked — always confirm at checkout.
| Plan | Price | Term | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| EOR (Employer of Record) | $699/employee/mo | monthly | Compliant employment in 120+ countries; multi-country payroll; onboarding/offboarding; local expert guidance |
| Global Contractors | $29/contractor/mo | monthly | 30-day free trial; instant contracts in 180+ countries; payments in 120+ currencies; misclassification risk analyzer |
| Global Payroll | $29/employee/mo | monthly | For companies with existing entities; automated payroll calculations; local expert support |
| US PEO | $114/employee/mo | monthly | Co-employment across all US states; payroll, benefits, HR compliance outsourcing |
How to claim it
4 steps. The last one is the part most people skip.
- 1
Open Oyster through the link on this page
It carries our referral tag. The price you pay is identical either way, and it never changes the score on this page.
- 2
Pick the plan that matches your usage
This offer applies automatically through the link — there is no code to enter.
- 3
Confirm the discount before you pay
The order summary should show the reduced amount. If it does not, stop and tell us — we re-test listings that stop working.
- 4
Check what happens at renewal
Save 15% on Oyster | Hire compliantly without setting up a business entity and handle all employment functions from a single platform.
Where Oyster wins and loses
What works
- Hire full-time employees in 120+ countries compliantly without a local legal entity
- Competitive EOR pricing — typically 25-40% less than legacy providers like Globalization Partners
- Contractor misclassification risk analyzer proactively flags legal risk before it becomes a problem
- Strong self-serve platform — less reliance on account managers for routine transactions
What doesn't
- EOR at $699/employee/mo is a significant per-head cost for budget-conscious companies
- Coverage is excellent in major markets but more exotic countries may have longer setup times
- Benefits quality and local perks vary significantly by country
- Customer support response times can be slower for complex cross-border situations
The bottom line
A capable global EOR platform with standard pricing and fast onboarding, but the cashback offer lacks a strong verified discount and annual billing reduces flexibility.
A legal entity that employs your hire in their country on your behalf. You manage day-to-day work; Oyster handles contracts, payroll, taxes, benefits and termination compliance.
All three offer EOR at similar headline pricing. Oyster sits between Deels broad reach and Remotes owned-entity-first model — its product is more focused on scale-up workflows and slightly less on enterprise immigration.
Currency conversion (typically 1-2%), local statutory employer costs (vary 10-50% on top of salary depending on country), and optional benefits. All are pre-disclosed per-country in the quote.
Yes. Oyster handles co-ordination of the offboarding from the prior entity and the onboarding to its own, including continuity of benefits where local law allows.
Yes, through Carta and Pulley integrations. Tax treatment of equity varies by country and Oyster surfaces the country-specific implications during the offer.
Oyster runs the termination per local law, including notice periods and severance. Costs are pre-quoted before the termination is initiated.
