How to choose an employer of record (EOR)

The short checklist

1. Confirm the country is covered and ask whether the entity there is the EOR's own or a partner's.
2. Get a country quote with salary, each employer contribution, mandatory bonus and the EOR fee on separate lines.
3. Get the deposit amount, how it is calculated and the refund date in writing.
4. Ask for the FX rate source and the markup percentage.
5. Read the term, renewal and early exit clauses on the order form, not the pricing page.
6. Ask how termination works: lead time, who talks to the employee, who pays severance and local legal costs.
7. Check the complaint record for late wages and payroll errors.
8. Decide when you would switch to your own entity.

Owned entities or local partners

When the EOR owns the local entity, it is the employer and answers for mistakes. When it uses a partner, a third company employs your worker, and Oyster reviewers on Trustpilot describe blame passing between the EOR and its partner over final pay and leave. Vendor claims, checked October 16, 2026:

Country counts also conflict across a single vendor's pages: Deel shows 100+, 130+ and 150+, and Oyster 120+, 130+ and 180+. The count that matters is whether your country runs on an owned entity today. See how each provider answers in our EOR rankings.

Fees, deposits and FX

The fee is quoted per employee per month: Multiplier $459 billed annually or $499 monthly, Deel and Remote $599, Oyster $699. Two providers show different prices on their own sites (Remote $599 or $699 in a March 2026 help article; G-P quote only or $599), so get the price on the order form. Every fee and deposit we found is in our EOR pricing table.

• Deposits. Oyster asks for at least one month of the total cost of services and credits it about 60 days after the end date. Playroll asks one month's salary per employee. Multiplier calculates it from employment costs, fees and notice periods and refunds within 60 days. Deel publishes nothing. On a USD 40,000 salary, a one-month salary deposit is about $3,333 per employee.
• FX. No EOR we track publishes a markup percentage. Atlas says it uses the OANDA spot rate with a disclosed markup by currency, Remote's terms allow "a transaction fee or margin," and Multiplier says it adds no markup, which one Trustpilot reviewer (August 5, 2026) disputes.
• Country costs. Employer contributions follow the country, not the EOR: 3.4% in India, 14.88% in the United Kingdom and 21.30% in Germany on our sample salaries. Compare all countries in the employer cost by country index or run your hire through the international employee cost calculator.

Contract terms and termination costs

Most EORs say they charge no offboarding fee. The exit costs sit in the contract and in local law.

• Remote: default terms run 12 months and auto-renew; order forms raise prices on renewal by at least 8% (or US CPI if higher), and early exit owes the Minimum Contract Value shortfall.
• Multiplier: a 30-day lead time to process a termination (60 for bulk), and a penalty of 15% of the final invoice if you contact the employee about termination yourself.
• Oyster: 30 days' notice to end the agreement; transition costs, including severance, are billed to you.
• Pebl: its Employee Term model ties each worker to 12 months.

Local law sets severance. In Mexico, an unjustified dismissal costs 3 months' salary plus back pay under the Federal Labor Law, and one buyer wrote on Hacker News (January 2023, an older report) that the severance had to be funded up front. Check the rules on the country page before you hire; the India, Germany and United Kingdom guides cover notice and severance.

Compliance support and misclassification risk

The EOR's job is local payroll, tax withholding, contributions and statutory benefits done correctly. Ask who registers and files with each agency, how payslips and year-end documents are produced, and how payroll errors are fixed. Deel reviewers on Trustpilot in September and October 2026 describe payroll runs rejected for errors and a missed Japan resident tax deduction; Oyster reviewers describe late or held wages.

If you are deciding between a contractor and an EOR hire, the risk is reclassification: back contributions, penalties and severance if the worker is found to be an employee. A contractor of record does not remove that risk, and AOR vs EOR compares the two models. US rules are in employee misclassification.

Questions to ask an EOR

• Is the entity in our country yours or a partner's, and what is its legal name?
• Does our country cost more than the list price? Multiplier says about 11% of its countries do; Atlas adds a country rate.
• How is the deposit calculated, and on what date is it refunded?
• What FX rate source and markup do you use?
• What is the minimum term, does it auto-renew, and what does early exit cost?
• What notice do you need to terminate, and who pays local legal costs?

Red flags and common mistakes

• Choosing on the headline fee. The deposit, minimum term and renewal clause can cost more than the gap between two fees.
• A price that differs between the pricing page and the contract.
• No answer on entity ownership for your country.
• A minimum term per worker when you are testing a market.
• Staying on an EOR too long. With $30,000 a year of entity overhead, your own entity becomes cheaper at about 5 employees against a $599 EOR; see EOR vs setting up an entity.

On our published scores, Multiplier leads at 91 out of 100, with Remote and Oyster at 83 and Deel at 80. Read the Remote review, Oyster review and Deel review before you sign.