At $599 per employee a month, an employer of record costs $7,188 a person each year. Your own Indian subsidiary swaps that for fixed running costs and Indian tax on a cost-plus margin. With $30,000 a year in quotes, it pays for itself at about six people. Here's how to work out your own number.
To pay a contractor abroad, collect a Form W-8BEN, sign a contract that covers scope and IP, and pay through a low-cost rail like Wise, Airwallex or a contractor platform rather than a bank wire. For work done outside the US, there's no US withholding and no 1099. Here's the full process.
Start with a contractor for a defined project, move to an employer of record when someone works for you full time, and price up an Indian subsidiary once the EOR fees for a growing team pass what running your own company would cost. Here's the math at one, five and fifteen developers.
Use a PEO when you have a US company and want better benefits and HR help for your US employees: from $79 to $125 a month per employee. Use an EOR when you want to employ someone in a country where you have no company: around $599 a month. Here's the full comparison.
Deel and Remote both charge $599 a month per employee and Oyster charges $699. Deel covers the most countries, 130+, and Remote asks most customers for no deposit. For contractors, Remote and Oyster charge $29 and Deel $49. Here's the full comparison.
You can hire someone abroad as a contractor, through a contractor of record, through an employer of record, or by opening your own company there. Here is how to choose without overpaying or taking on risk you did not mean to.
Deel and Remote both charge $599 a month per employer-of-record employee. For contractors, Remote charges $29 and Deel $49. What decides it is where you hire, deposits and penalty cover.