Paying international contractors: contractor management software compared

How to pay international contractors: the three options

Platform fee

$29 to $49per contractor per month

Lowest listed

$2Papaya Global

Contractor of record

$149 to $400per contractor per month

EOR instead

$599per employee per month at Deel or Remote

1. Pay them yourself. A bank wire or a business payments account. Wise Business, for example, is a multi-currency business account used to send international payments. You keep the contract, records and classification risk.
2. Use contractor management software. The platform issues the contract, collects invoices and pays in local currency. The risk that a contractor is really an employee still sits with you.
3. Use a contractor of record or agent of record. The provider contracts with the worker and takes on some or all of the classification risk. More in what a contractor of record covers and EOR vs AOR.

Contractor management software

We have not published scores for this product category yet, so these providers are listed by published starting price, lowest first. Their employer of record scores are on our scored EOR list.

Every published contractor payment price

What it costs for 5, 10 and 25 contractors

Billing rules change the total more than the list price does when contractors are paid irregularly. A contractor who invoices four months a year costs $116 at Remote ($29 x 4), which bills only active months. Multiplier quotes $40 a month on annual billing; if that covers all 12 months, the same contractor costs $480 ($40 x 12), so ask how idle months are billed.

Misclassification risk when contractors work abroad

A contractor in another country is judged by that country’s rules, not by the contract’s label. If a local authority or court decides the person is really an employee, your business can face the costs an employer would have paid, such as social contributions, paid leave and termination rights. Each country uses its own test.

The US IRS test is a useful guide to the questions most tests ask. It weighs behavioral control (do you control how the work is done?), financial control (who sets pay, supplies tools, covers expenses?) and the type of relationship (is it ongoing, with benefits, and core to your business?). California’s ABC test goes further and presumes employee status unless the hiring business proves all three prongs. A full-time worker with one client, set hours and your equipment looks like an employee almost anywhere.

Buyers raise this often. Job seekers in India now write “Contractor or EOR both work” in Hacker News hiring threads, and employers there warn that “you cannot treat a contractor as an employee.” If the role is full time and long term, compare the contractor cost with an EOR. The country rules are on our India, Philippines, Mexico and Brazil pages.

FX and payout fees

• Pebl’s contractor help center (Sep 19, 2025) says it charges a 3% currency conversion fee when a contractor takes pay in a currency other than the contract currency.
• Atlas AOR excludes taxes, FX and third-party fees from its $199 price.
• Gusto lists global contractor payments at $5 per payment to US bank accounts with no monthly per-contractor fee, and says FX rates “may vary.”
• Deel: one contractor on Hacker News (an older, undated comment from about 2023) said they paid almost $100 a month just to make a transfer.

Ask each provider for the exchange rate source, the markup and any withdrawal fee your contractor pays. The contractor’s side of the cost affects whether they accept your rate.

Gusto and US payroll tools for contractors

Gusto’s pricing page lists no contractor-only plan; US contractors are billed at the plan’s per-person rate in months they are paid, on plans from $49 base plus $6 per person. Its international contractor option is the $5-per-payment add-on above. US-only alternatives with contractor pricing: Square Payroll at $6 per contractor paid with no base fee, QuickBooks Contractor Payments at $25 a month including 20 contractors plus $2 each after that, and Wave at $40 base plus $6 per contractor paid. For US 1099 workers, see contractor payroll for US 1099 workers.

When to move a contractor to an EOR

An EOR at $599 (Deel or Remote) costs $550 a month more than Deel’s $49 contractor fee, or $6,600 a year more per person. You get a legal employment contract, statutory benefits and the classification question goes away. You also take on the country’s employer contributions, which you can check in our employer cost index and price with the international employee cost calculator.

Compare providers in the best employer of record services and the fees in EOR pricing.

Common mistakes

• Treating the platform as legal cover. A contract template does not change how the work is done.
• Paying for idle months. Remote and G-P bill only active or invoiced months; Multiplier quotes its contractor price on annual billing, so ask whether idle months are charged.
• Ignoring the contractor’s FX cost. A 3% conversion fee on a $3,000 invoice is $90.
• Keeping a full-time contractor for years. That is the profile most likely to be treated as an employee.