WhichPayroll EOR Cost Benchmark

WhichPayroll EOR Cost Benchmark

Published EOR fee ranges, FX and pre-funding disclosure, and a transparent first-year total across 17 providers.

Version 1.1 · Last updated: 2026-06-05 · Sample: 17 providers · Next refresh: Sep 2026

WhichPayroll sample of 17 providers, published prices only, with quote-based providers excluded from the range. Methodology →

What Are the Key Findings?

If you’re benchmarking EOR costs for a hiring decision, here is what WhichPayroll found across 17 providers observed in May 2026:

• The published EOR monthly fee range is $199–$699 per employee per month. This range covers 14 providers with publicly stated starting prices.
• The median published EOR monthly fee is $599: six providers publish this figure as their starting price.
• 3 of 17 providers do not publish an EOR monthly fee. These providers require a quote for all pricing. Their actual fees may fall anywhere relative to the published range.
• No setup fee is publicly disclosed by any provider in the sample. WhichPayroll records setup fees as “Not disclosed” where they are not stated on the pricing page. This does not confirm that no setup fee exists.
• No provider publishes its FX spread as a number. We checked provider help-centre documentation directly, and the market band sits at 0.5–3% over mid-market (source: Remote, eorHQ), where a 2% spread on a $100,000 salary is roughly $2,000 a year, larger than the gap between most providers’ headline fees.
• Pre-funding lead time, not a deposit, is the real cash item. Where we could verify it, providers require funds 3 to 7 business days before payday (Deel ~4, Remote ~5, Rippling ~3, Papaya 0 with a pre-funded wallet). The wider market also reports refundable deposits of 1 to 3 months of total cost.
• Billing cadence changes the median. Deel publishes a single $599 and offers no annual-versus-monthly choice. Remote publishes a single $699; the $599 annual rate it used to show is no longer selectable on its pricing page. Where a provider does offer an annual commitment it typically saves 5 to 10%, so the snapshot fee depends on the term you sign.

What Does This Benchmark Measure?

We record only publicly disclosed fees here. This benchmark does not model actual all-in cost, which would require setup, FX, benefits, and minimum-term commitments, most of which are not published.

Use it to establish the floor of the published price range and to spot which providers use quote-based models before you contact sales.

WhichPayroll estimates are provided separately where assumptions are documented. Estimates are never presented as provider disclosures. For modelled cost scenarios, see the EOR Break-Even Modeler.

How Should You Read First-Year Cost Context?

At the median published fee of $599/month, your disclosed annual platform cost is $7,188. At the lowest published fee of $199/month, it is $2,388.

These figures cover the platform fee only. We exclude social contributions, benefits, FX, and undisclosed setup or minimum-term fees, and we model the full picture further down.

WhichPayroll estimates that employer-side social contributions typically add 10–35% of gross salary depending on the country of hire. See the Employer Cost & Burden dataset for country-level on-cost rates you can apply to your specific hiring markets.

What Do These Costs Mean for Buyers?

In our assessment, the published price range overstates the practical pricing gap between providers. If you’re comparing $199/month against $699/month, verify whether the lower-priced provider offers the same entity model, country coverage, and support level.

A provider at $199/month using a partner-model entity, where a local third party holds the employment contract, may carry different compliance exposure than a $599/month provider with its own entity in your target country. The cheaper line item can be the riskier one.

Request all of the following in writing before you sign: monthly EOR fee, setup fee, minimum contract term, FX rate basis, and deposit or pre-funding requirement. None of these are universally disclosed in published form by providers in this sample.

FX and Pre-Funding: Which Costs Does No Provider Price?

The headline fee is the number sales leads with. The two line items that actually move your first-year cash position, the foreign-exchange spread on each cross-currency payout and the date funds must leave your account, are the two that no provider in our sample publishes as a figure.

We read provider help-centre documentation directly for the five platforms where this detail exists. None states an FX spread. What they do disclose is the rate basis and the pre-funding lead time, and those two facts tell you more about your exposure than any quoted fee.

Source: WhichPayroll FX leakage dataset, observed from provider help-centre documentation (2025–2026). FX spread is recorded as “No” because no provider publishes a percentage. Pre-funding lead times are the funding cut-off before payday, not a deposit.

Where rivals are willing to estimate, the spread itself runs 0.5 to 3% over the mid-market rate (source: Remote and eorHQ pricing guidance). On a $100,000 salary that is $500 to $3,000 a year, with a 2% mid-point of $2,000.

That single line is larger than the $400 monthly gap between the cheapest and median provider, and you cannot see it on any pricing page. If you run payroll in three currencies, this is the cost your CFO will ask about after the first quarter.

What Does a Worked First-Year Total Look Like for One German Hire?

The benchmark above records published fees only. To answer the question you actually ask, what will this cost in year one, we have to model the parts providers do not publish. Here is one transparent example, labelled as a WhichPayroll estimate, with every input shown.

Two numbers in that table should reframe how you read the benchmark. The platform fee, the figure every comparison ranks on, is 5.5% of the first-year total, while employer contributions and FX together are 17%.

You would also need a deposit. At 1 to 3 months of total cost (source: RemotePeople, Wisemonk), that is roughly $10,800 to $32,400 of working capital locked up from day one, more than the entire annual platform fee. If you take this to Finance, lead with the total, not the headline.

What Are the Limitations?

• This benchmark covers 17 providers. Published prices are observed from pricing pages and may not include enterprise or volume discounts.
• “Not disclosed” fields mean WhichPayroll could not find the information publicly, not that the fee does not exist.
• Contractor monthly fees are listed where available but are separate from EOR fees and cover different service scope.
• The FX and pre-funding table covers the five providers where help-centre documentation exists. FX spread is shown as “No” for all because none publishes a percentage; we do not estimate a per-provider spread.
• The first-year total is a labelled WhichPayroll estimate built from the inputs shown. It uses the sample median fee and a market FX band, not a quote for any one provider. Your actual total depends on salary, country, and the terms you negotiate.
• Prices are in USD. Some providers publish in other currencies. USD equivalents use approximate conversion at time of observation.

What Does the EOR Cost Benchmark Table Show?

Research conducted using WhichPayroll’s evidence-first methodology. View full methodology →