41 Hr Hiring & EOR
Group 9 · Back-office · element 41 of 58

Hiring & EOR

Employ anyone, anywhere.

Turns global talent into legal payroll.

Holders this quarterDeel · Rippling · Remote · Gusto · Multiplier

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Vital signs

NecessityOptional
Price band$$ · $30–150/mo
MaturityStable
Editionv2026.Q3
Last verified2026-08-06

Why it's on the table

On the table, Hiring & EOR (Hr) is seat 41 of 58, in the Back-office family. It is a stable element — the category has settled, choosing is cheap, and switching is rare. Pick a holder and move on; this is not where your decision budget should go. It is optional: plenty of companies run without it — until a specific trigger (scale, regulation, cost, or customers) makes it essential for them. It sits in the mid price band — a real line item that should earn its keep visibly.

The verdict — v2026.Q3 · verified 2026-08-06
Deel
Deel, still — $1.4B ARR (Feb 2026), $17.3B valuation, EOR in 130+ countries at a published $599/employee/month, and now an MCP server so your agents can query payroll. It wins despite, not because of, the ugliest scandal in SaaS: a DOJ criminal probe (Jan 2026) into whether it paid a spy inside Rippling. Rippling is the pick when you want HR + IT + payroll + spend as one US-centric system; Remote when you want owned entities and transparent flat pricing from a cleaner counterparty; Gusto when your team is US-only and small; Multiplier when the same EOR job at $459 beats brand. And the honest elems take stands: agents absorb the early roles — most AI-led startups need this element later than they think, and contractor management ($29–49/mo) before EOR ($459–699/mo).

Hiring & EOR: the top 5 — v2026.Q3

Edition v2026.Q3 · ranking, pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.

  1. 1DeelDeel, Inc.

    Contractors $49/mo · EOR $599/employee/mo (130+ countries) · Contractor of Record $325 · US PEO $125 · ATS $14/worker

    Best for The default: hire or contract anyone in 130+ countries this week, on published pricing, with the deepest product surface (EOR, payroll, PEO, immigration, equity, ATS, MCP API).

    The category's scale leader by a wide margin: $1.4B ARR (Feb 2026, 63% YoY), $17.3B valuation after a $300M Series E (Oct 2025, Ribbit/a16z/Coatue), 13 acquisitions through 2025 including Safeguard Global's enterprise payroll, and IPO prep signaled by hiring ex-Intuit CFO Joe Kauffman (Nov 2025). Its developer portal — REST API, webhooks, and an MCP server for AI agents — makes it the most agent-legible EOR, which matters for this table's audience.

    Watch The espionage scandal is real, not tabloid: a confessed paid spy inside Rippling, unsealed bank records (Nov 2025) tying payments to Deel's orbit, and a reported DOJ criminal probe (Jan 2026). Zero customer-facing impact so far, but it is unresolved counterparty risk heading into an IPO. Contractor minimum $49/mo is pricier than Remote/Oyster's $29.

    $1.4B ARR, 63% YoY (Feb 2026); ~15% EBITDA margin [src] · $17.3B valuation after $300M Series E (Oct 16, 2025) [src] · EOR $599/mo · contractors $49/mo, verified on vendor pricing page (Aug 2026) [src]
    Site →Docs →

  2. 2RipplingRippling (People Center, Inc.)

    Quote-based: platform fee + per-product per-user (commonly cited from ~$8/user/mo); EOR/global pricing unpublished

    Best for Mostly-US startups that want payroll, HRIS, benefits, IT (devices/app access), and spend in one graph — with global EOR bolted onto the same system.

    Crossed $1B annualized revenue in March 2026 (78% YoY) on a $16.8B valuation ($450M Series G, May 2025), with 20,000+ customers and 10+ product lines each past $1M ARR. The compound-product bet works: onboarding one employee provisions payroll, laptop, apps, and corporate card in one workflow — nothing else in the category does that. EOR now covers 80 countries with HRIS localized in 100+.

    Watch No published pricing — procurement by sales call, and the total bill grows product by product. Global EOR breadth (80 countries) trails Deel/Remote/Oyster (130–185+). Unprofitable as of last disclosure. It is the aggrieved party in the spy saga, but Deel's countersuit alleges Rippling ran its own customer-impersonation snooping — neither side looks saintly.

    $1.00B annualized revenue (Mar 2026); $850M end-2025, 78% YoY [src] · $450M Series G at $16.8B (May 9, 2025); YC disclosed as a customer [src] · EOR in 80 countries, HRIS localized 100+ countries (2025) [src]
    Site →Docs →

  3. 3RemoteRemote Technology, Inc.

    EOR $699/employee/mo (90+ countries) · Global Payroll $29 · Contractors $29 ($99 Plus) · COR from $325 · US PEO from $99

    Best for Teams that want fully owned local entities (no partner-network risk), flat transparent pricing, and the cheapest credible contractor rail from a top-tier provider.

    The quality-over-scale pick: ~$300M ARR (May 2026, Sacra estimate) with payroll up 300%+ YoY and cash-flow positive — and it told TechCrunch (May 27, 2026) it grew revenue 50% per employee without adding headcount, the category's best public proof of AI-run operations. Owned-entity model in 90+ countries means your employment chain has no subcontracted weak link.

    Watch A tenth of Deel's revenue on a valuation ($3B) unmarked since April 2022 — expect a down-round or acquisition narrative before an IPO one. EOR at $699 is $100/mo over Deel; country count trails Deel and Oyster.

    ~$300M ARR (May 2026, Sacra estimate); cash-flow positive [src] · Revenue per employee +50% with flat headcount (TechCrunch, May 27, 2026) [src] · EOR $699 · payroll $29 · contractors $29, verified on vendor pricing page (Aug 2026) [src]
    Site →Docs →

  4. 4GustoGusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.)

    Simple $49/mo + $6/person · Plus $80 + $12 · Premium $180 + $22 · Contractor-only $35 ($0 promo) + $6/person

    Best for US-only startups from first hire to ~100 heads — payroll, benefits, and compliance at SMB prices, now drivable from ChatGPT, Claude, or Slack.

    $975M revenue in 2025 (30% YoY), $9.3B valuation (June 2025 tender), 400,000+ SMB customers — the US payroll incumbent for startups. It is also the category's most aggressive AI mover: the Gus assistant is platform-wide, payroll execution shipped inside ChatGPT/Claude/Slack in March 2026, and the Guideline (Nov 2025) and Mosey (Apr 2026) acquisitions folded 401(k) and state-compliance automation in natively.

    Watch Not an EOR — no path to employing anyone outside the US (international contractor payments exist, but global employment means adding a second vendor). Per-person fees stack: Plus for a 20-person team is $320/mo before benefits.

    $975M FY2025 revenue, 30% YoY; $9.3B valuation (Jun 2025 tender) [src] · Payroll execution via ChatGPT, Claude, and Slack launched Mar 2026; Mosey acquired Apr 2026 [src] · Simple $49+$6/person, verified on vendor pricing page (Aug 2026) [src]
    Site →Docs →

  5. 5MultiplierMultiplier Technologies

    EOR Core $459/employee/mo · Growth $519 (annual; +$40 monthly) · COR $400 · basic contractors $40 · payroll from $20

    Best for Cost-sensitive teams hiring several EOR employees — the same compliance job as Deel/Remote at $140–240/head/month less, in 150+ countries.

    The best-priced credible full-suite EOR: published tiered pricing ($459 Core), 150+ countries, and flat-fee positioning with no FX markups. For a 5-person international team the delta versus Remote is ~$14k/year — real money at seed. Backed since a $60M Series B at $400M (Mar 2022, Tiger Global-era vintage).

    Watch No disclosed financials since 2022 — scale is a fraction of Deel/Remote and the valuation is stale. ~11% of countries carry adjusted pricing and compliance add-ons are extra, so quote the actual country before assuming $459. Do not confuse it with the US accounting roll-up startup also named Multiplier (raised $27.5M, Jun 2025).

    EOR Core $459/mo annual billing, verified on vendor pricing page (Aug 2026) [src] · $60M Series B at $400M valuation (Mar 2022) — no round disclosed since [src]
    Site →Docs →

Hiring & EOR: the top 8 compared

Edition v2026.Q3 · ranking, pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.

Hiring & EOR — the top 8 compared. Edition v2026.Q3, verified 2026-08-06.
ToolEOR $/emp/moContractor $/moEOR countriesUS payroll/PEOPricing public?AI/agent surfaceScale (latest)
Deel$599$49130+Payroll + PEO $125YesDeel AI + API/MCP server$1.4B ARR · $17.3B (2026)
Ripplingquoteplatform per-user80Native + PEONoAI across suite$1B rev · $16.8B (2026)
Remote$699$29 / $9990+PEO from $99YesAI-run ops (internal)~$300M ARR · $3B (2026/2022)
Gustono EOR$6 (US)—Native (core product)YesGus + ChatGPT/Claude payroll$975M rev · $9.3B (2025)
Multiplier$459–519$40150+—Yes—$400M val (2022, stale)
Oyster$699$29180+—Yes—$1.2B val (Sep 2024)
RemoFirstfrom $199free / $25185+—Yes—budget segment leader
G-Pquotequote180+—NoGia compliance AIEverest #1 EOR ranking

How to choose your hiring & eor

If your team is US-only and under ~100 people
Gusto Simple at $49+$6/person — don't pay EOR-platform prices for a payroll problem; add an EOR vendor only at the first foreign hire.
If you're making your first international hire and want it done this week with zero procurement
Deel — published $599/mo, 130+ countries, and the scale (25k+ customers, $1.4B ARR) that means your edge case has been handled before.
If you want one system where a new hire gets payroll, benefits, laptop, app access, and a corporate card in a single workflow
Rippling — accept quote-based pricing and an 80-country EOR ceiling as the cost of the compound product.
If the Deel–Rippling spy saga makes you want a boring counterparty, or you care that your employer-of-record owns its own entities
Remote ($699, owned entities in 90+ countries, cash-flow positive) or Oyster ($699, 180+ countries, the only B Corp EOR).
If you're pre-revenue and every $100/month matters — or you're not sure the role is permanent
Start with contractor management ($25–49/mo at RemoFirst/Remote/Deel) and convert to EOR later; if you need EOR now, Multiplier $459 or RemoFirst $199 do the legal job at half the price.

Hiring & EOR: the whole field

17 more tools tracked in this category, including 5 dead, renamed, or sunsetting — a reference that hides the graveyard isn't one. Verified 2026-08-06.

Hiring & EOR — every tool we track, including 5 dead, renamed, or sunsetting. Edition v2026.Q3, verified 2026-08-06.
ToolMakerWhat it isEntryStatus
OysterOyster HREOR $699/mo in 180+ countries, contractors $29; only B Corp-certified EOR; $59M Series D at $1.2B (Sep 2024) — the near-miss for the top 5$29 contractor / $699 EORactive
G-P (Globalization Partners)G-PThe EOR pioneer; 180+ countries, quote-only pricing, Gia agentic compliance AI; claims Everest Group #1 EOR every yearquoteactive
RemoFirstRemoFirstBudget EOR from $199/mo in 185+ countries, contractors free/$25 — explicitly markets against the $599–699 incumbents$199 EORactive
JustworksJustworksUS PEO at $79–124/employee/mo + payroll $50 base + $8; added EOR at $599 — the co-employment route for richer US benefits$8/employee payrollactive
PlanePlane (ex-Pilot)API-first payroll: US employees $19, contractors $39 (240+ countries), EOR $499, free HRIS; ships a Slack 'Plane Agent' and MCP/CLI — the most agent-native small player$19/US employeeactive
Papaya GlobalPapaya GlobalEnterprise payroll-payments in 160+ countries; $3.7B valuation (Sep 2021, unmarked since); repositioned as a payments company in 2023quoteactive
PeblPebl (ex-Velocity Global)Velocity Global rebranded to Pebl (velocityglobal.com now redirects); EOR in 185+ countries with 'Alfie' AI assistant; quote-only flat-rate pricingquoterenamed
Payoneer WFM (ex-Skuad)PayoneerSkuad acquired by Payoneer (Aug 2024), now 'Payoneer Workforce Management'; EOR from $199, contractors from $19 in 160+ countries$199 EORacquired
Atlas HXMAtlasDirect-EOR (owns all entities) in 160+ countries, from $599/mo; visa sponsorship in 75+ countries$599 EORactive
OmnipresentOmnipresentUK-born EOR in 150 countries; quote-only, book-a-call sales motion — squeezed between transparent-price rivalsquoteactive
HorizonsHorizons → Remote Peoplejoinhorizons.com now redirects to remotepeople.com (EOR from $199/mo, 150+ countries) as of Aug 2026 — apparent rebrand/absorption; connection not press-confirmed$199 EORrenamed
TriNetTriNet (NYSE: TNET)Public US PEO incumbent for SMBs — richer benefits, heavier contracts; the pre-Deel generation's answerquoteactive
Gusto Global (w/ Remote)Gusto + RemoteGusto's international hiring runs on a Remote partnership (2023) — the seam to watch if you outgrow US-only Gustobundledactive
MercorMercorAI-vetted expert-talent marketplace: $2B annualized gross revenue (Jun 2026), $10B valuation (Oct 2025) — the hiring side of this element exploding via AI-lab demand, not an EORmarketplace (% take)active
CercliCercli (YC)'Rippling for MENA' — $12M Series A (Oct 2025); regional EOR/payroll clones are the category's growth edgequoteactive
Safeguard Global (payroll division)→ DeelEnterprise payroll division acquired by Deel (Mar 2025) — the consolidation bellwether: legacy global payroll folding into the new EOR giants—acquired
PantherPantherEarly remote-employment startup (YC-adjacent, 2021 hype cohort); wound down mid-2020s — reported shutdown, no primary obituary found—dead

Hiring & EOR: the category in numbers

Edition v2026.Q3 · ranking, pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.

  • EOR market: $6.24B (2026) → $10.33B by 2031, 10.55% CAGR (Mordor Intelligence) [src]
  • Deel $1.4B ARR (Feb 2026) at $17.3B valuation (Oct 2025); IPO prep — ex-Intuit CFO hired Nov 2025 [src]
  • Rippling crossed $1B annualized revenue Mar 2026 (78% YoY) at $16.8B (May 2025 Series G) [src]
  • The spy saga went criminal: DOJ opened a probe into Deel over the Rippling espionage allegations (WSJ, Jan 23, 2026); confessed spy affidavit (Apr 2025), unsealed bank records (Nov 2025), Deel countersuit ongoing [src]
  • Consolidation wave: Deel made 13 acquisitions through 2025 (incl. Safeguard payroll); Skuad→Payoneer (2024); Guideline (Nov 2025) and Mosey (Apr 2026)→Gusto; Velocity Global rebranded to Pebl [src]
  • Payroll is becoming agent-addressable: Gusto payroll execution inside ChatGPT/Claude/Slack (Mar 2026), Deel ships an MCP server, G-P sells Gia 'agentic AI' compliance, Remote grew revenue/employee 50% with flat headcount (May 2026) [src]

Hiring & EOR: method & sources

Ranking criteria: verified scale, published pricing, EOR country coverage, product depth, and agent-legibility (APIs/MCP); no affiliate consideration. Conflicts resolved: Deel's $1.4B ARR and Remote's ~$300M ARR are Sacra estimates (single analyst source) — kept because both track Deel's own historical disclosures; Deel customer count differs by source (25k+ per Sacra vs '40,000+ companies' on developer.deel.com) — we cite the vendor figure with the discrepancy noted here. Rippling's pricing page blocks fetchers and publishes no rates; its entry is honestly marked quote-based ('from ~$8/user/mo' is widely cited but unverifiable on-vendor). Lawsuit state as of Aug 6, 2026: civil suits live in both directions (Rippling's espionage suit; Deel's countersuit; an Aug 2025 ruling dismissed some Rippling claims per Deel's own blog — partisan source), plus the reported DOJ criminal probe (WSJ via TechCrunch, Jan 2026); no settlement or charges found through Aug 2026. The TechCrunch June 2025 'Multiplier' raising $27.5M is a different company (accounting roll-ups) — not the EOR. Horizons→Remote People redirect observed directly but not press-confirmed; Panther's shutdown is community-reported only. Adjacent elements: cap-table/equity → Eq; incorporation → In; corporate cards/spend → Sp; bookkeeping → Ac; contractor payout rails overlap Pa. Hiring-marketplace momentum (Mercor at $2B run-rate) sits in this element's hiring half but is a talent marketplace, not employment infrastructure. Ranking criteria: verified commercial traction, independent satisfaction surveys, agent benchmarks, and founder-fit (price floor, lock-in, surfaces). Editorial, never paid — the charter. Machine-readable twin: hr.json.

All sources (25)
  1. https://www.deel.com/pricing/
  2. https://sacra.com/c/deel/
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deel_(company)
  4. https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/23/the-rippling-deel-corporate-spying-scandal-may-have-taken-another-wild-turn/
  5. https://sacra.com/c/rippling/
  6. https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/09/rippling-raises-450m-at-a-16-8b-valuation-reveals-yc-is-a-customer/
  7. https://www.rippling.com/blog/new-banking-records-prove-deel-paid-thief-who-stole-trade-secrets-from-rippling
  8. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/justice-department-opens-criminal-probe-into-silicon-valley-spy-allegations-9afe1eec
  9. https://remote.com/pricing
  10. https://sacra.com/c/remote/
  11. https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/payroll-startup-remote-says-it-grew-revenue-50-per-employee-without-adding-headcount/
  12. https://gusto.com/product/pricing
  13. https://sacra.com/c/gusto/
  14. https://www.oysterhr.com/pricing
  15. https://www.usemultiplier.com/pricing
  16. https://www.justworks.com/pricing
  17. https://www.remofirst.com/pricing
  18. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/employer-of-record-eor-market
  19. https://hellopebl.com/
  20. https://www.skuad.io/
  21. https://plane.com/
  22. https://www.globalization-partners.com/
  23. https://www.atlashxm.com/
  24. https://sacra.com/c/mercor/
  25. https://developer.deel.com/

Our take

You'll need this later than you think — agents absorb the early roles. When you do, it's a solved problem.

Combines with

52FxFractional Executives$$$ 43EqEquity$

This is element 41 of 58. The table is versioned quarterly — when a tool loses its seat, the changelog records the succession.

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