Best Employer of Record (EOR) Services in 2024

When a company hires an employee, it is legally bound to shoulder all their employment tasks, liabilities, costs and tax compliances. The process is tedious if you want to expand in a country like India with diverse laws and regulations in each state. 

However, India is projected to become the third-largest economy in the world by 2027 as per a Morgan Stanley report. If you want to tap into the Indian market for its high-quality tech talent, partnering with an employer of record is a wise choice. 

In this article, we will learn about different EOR service providers and how to find the best employer of record for your company's requirements. 

What is an Employer of Record Provider?

A global employer of record service helps companies employ talent in foreign countries without them forming their legal entity. The best employer of record takes responsibility for HR functions on behalf of your company. You can hire, onboard, pay and manage your employees over an integrated platform.

They simplify day-to-day operations through services like making contracts, processing payroll, handling compensation, filing taxes, background verification, offering localised benefits and more. 

Rapid, one of the best employer of record providers in India, can make your business expansion a smooth process with its deep local expertise. It enables one to concentrate on growing your business presence while everything else is compliantly taken care of. 

Do You Need a PEO or EOR?

A foreign company expanding business in India must know the key differences between a professional employer organisation (PEO) and an EOR to make the right choice.

• A PEO helps with co-employment. You need to set up your own legal entity in a foreign country, and then you can seek PEO assistance for hiring international talent.
• An EOR acts as a legal employer on your behalf and handles all responsibilities of administrative and HR functions in onboarding employees. It is convenient for expanding in newer territories without spending time and money to set up your legal entities.

Advantages of Using EOR in India

When considering using EOR services, note the several advantages it offers: 

• Time-saving: Setting up your entity in India can take several months. With the best employer of record service, you can begin hiring and onboarding employees within a few days. This is because of the EOR’s expertise in local laws and other logistics with hiring such as background checks, paperwork, employee benefits etc.
• Cost-effective: Saves the cost of setting up a new entity and acquiring local licences 
• Payroll management: From handling taxes and providing benefits to generating payslips, it streamlines the payroll processes over a few clicks. 
• Local expertise: The best employer of record provider has in-depth knowledge of varying local laws and regulations. 
• Handles HR functions: EORs helps in managing most administrative and HR functions in the employee onboarding process. Helps in tailor-made contracts, background verification, employee benefits, taxation and expense management. 
• Flexibility in operations: Some of the best employers of record companies like Rapid give complete control and agility in implementing your organisational culture and policies. 

The Best Employer of Record in India

To help you make the right choice, we bring you a comparison among some of the best employer of record providers in India, with respect to their features, cost structure and pros and cons. 

1. Rapid

A trusted EOR platform, Rapid is one of the best employer of record services in India known for its deep local expertise that can help businesses scale up their operations at a fraction of the costs involved. 

Companies can concentrate on their core business functions as Rapid experts take care of HR, payroll, employee liabilities and compliance management. 

Unlike other employer of record companies, Rapid assists you in choosing your own office space and purchasing IT equipment for your full-time employees.

Features

1. Digital onboarding: Has a seamless online document collection process that generates legally compliant contracts designed for India 

2. Employee screening:  Has partnered with a trusted service SpringVerify to offer three-tiers of background checks and verification of every employee during hiring as per business requirements 

3. Comprehensive benefits: Offers three tiers of best-in-class  health insurance benefits in partnership with Plum to meet the needs of employees 

4. Equipment purchase: Allows you to  lease or rent a workspace for your full-time employees and purchase IT assets through its service marketplace

5. Flexibility in organisational culture: Allows complete control over deciding your organisational culture in terms of your salary structure, holiday calendar, leave policy and benefits for your employees 

6. Pass-through taxation: Enjoy significant savings of 18% on all non-salary payments, including office rentals and IT equipment, as Rapid carries pass-through taxation giving the complete benefits of GST to your organisation

Price structure

Employee: Starting from $299 per month per employee
Contractor: Starting from $49 per month per employee

Startups can avail themselves of special pricing:

Employee: Starting from $199 per employee per month
Contractor: Starting from $39 per employee per month

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2. Rippling

A comprehensive EOR platform, Rippling offers HR, IT and payroll management services across global companies. Its unified platform can automate most of your functions saving time on hiring employees. The platform claims to onboard employees and contractors within 90 seconds.

Features

1. Global payroll and hiring: Enables the hiring, payment and management of teams and contractors through a single system with different tools 

2. Customised workflow: Helps you customise and build your own processes across multiple systems within HR, IT or finance with its one-of-a-kind workflow

3. Workforce Analytics: Utilises employee data to create HR reports and track app activities

4. Flexible policies:  Lets you create custom PTO policies with a ‘Supergroups’ list and automatically apply them to defined members of a group based on factors like tenure, designation, department or location 

Price structure

Starting from $8 per month per user 

3. Deel

Deel is a HR platform built for managing a remote team easily, from culture and onboarding, to local payroll and compliance. It streamlines the hiring process of international employees, full-time employees or contractors with one integrated platform. 

Features

1. Global hiring: Enables hiring and payment of employees easily in countries where Deel has its entities. Provides end-to-end HR management for full-time and independent contractors 

2. User-friendly platform: Provides a smooth user experience with its straightforward and intuitive platform 

3. Automated payroll:  Helps create and collect invoices, calculate taxes, pension and any other fees through its automated payroll process

4. Legal partners: Works with legal partners in countries to keep contracts up-to-date with changing local labour laws

Price structure

Employee: Starting at $599 per month per employee

Contractor: Starting at $49 per month per employee

4. Oyster HR

Oyster is a global employment platform that offers end-to-end employee management for 180+ countries. Based in North Carolina, it helps in managing health benefits, equity, employee leaves, time offs and more. They have a team of legal experts to ensure you meet legal requirements when hiring in India. 

Features

1. All-in-one global employment platform:  Lets you hire, pay and take care of employee benefits anywhere via one integrated system

2. Payroll management: Has a central payroll dashboard to keep tabs of all payouts to employees and contractors in their local currency 

3. Free employment tools: Provides a set of free tools to simplify the global hiring process such as Contractor vs Full-time Employee Analyzer, Templates and Checklists, Time zone Calculator, Misclassification Analyzer etc. 

Price structure

Employee: Starting from $499 per employee per month
Contractor: Starting from $29 per contractor per month

5. Remote

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Remote is a EOR platform that handles payroll, taxes and compliances assuring to grow your global presence with confidence. It breaks down the complexity of payroll in different countries and manages taxes via its easy-to-use platform. Business scaling becomes easy for large companies as the platform serves as the single source of truth for visibility into payroll, compliance, employee benefits and more. 

Features

1. Self-Serve platform: Quick onboarding and management of HR functions of employers and contractors with digital platform 

2. Relocation support: Streamlines relocation of international employees with their visa and immigration support services via local entities in every country

3. Advanced IP protection: Offers robust legal protection for intellectual property via the Remote IP Guard in accordance with local laws

4. Personalised experience for employees: Guarantees a smooth employee onboarding experience for all users along with custom perks for life insurance and healthcare in every country 

Price structure

Employee: Starting from $599 per month per employee
Contractor: Starting from $29 per contractor per month

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6. Multiplier

An all-in-one employee management and payroll solution from Singapore, Multiplier offers different services to manage distributed teams. You can generate regionally compliant contracts and disburse payments in 120+ currencies. 

Features

1. Self-service platform: Offers a single dashboard for employees to access their payslips and offer letters, track expense requests and bonuses

2. Localised benefits: Offers benefits for global employees with an option to customise insurance in a comprehensive package

3. Freelancer management: Swift freelancer onboarding, compliance and invoicing and eliminating any risks of misclassification

4. Multi-country payroll: Handles international payroll in a timely manner in preferred currencies compliant with local tax laws 

Price structure

Full-time employees: Starting from $300 per month

Freelancers:  Starting from $40 per month 

Additional plans: 

Global payroll: Starting from $20 per month

How to Find the Best Employer of Record Partner for You in India

There are several employer of record companies that offer their services in India. But you need to focus on your specific requirements before making a choice. 

Ask the following questions when you are finalising the best employer of record provider in India for your company: 

• Does the EOR company have expert knowledge of Indian labour laws and regulations?
• Does the company have expertise in hiring workers for your target country?
• Does it have an easy-to-use interface for both employers and employees? 
• Do they have provisions for hired employees like workspace and office equipment? 
• Does it offer IP protection and data security? 
• Is the pricing transparent with no additional set-up, tax and termination fees?
• Is the customer service efficient and provides support in your local language? 

The best employer of record has expert knowledge of the country’s business culture, fast responsiveness to queries, accuracy in calculations and all-integrated platform that simplifies the user experience. It should assist you in your business growth as it seamlessly takes care of the HR, payroll and compliance management. 

Why Choose Rapid as Your EOR Partner? 

It can get confusing to finalise your EOR partner, but if you want to scale your business operations within India, trust Rapid. One of the best employers of record providers with deep local knowledge, Rapid can help you onboard high-quality tech talent with total compliance. 

You can begin onboarding a new workforce at a much faster pace. India has diverse laws and regulations but, with Rapid, figuring out the taxes and employee benefits will be a smooth process. 

Transition your workforce smoothly as we partner with recruiters, visa processing, provide office space and IT support and a workspace to provide your employees with complete in-office experience. 

Get the best-in-class benefits at cost-effective rates and the necessary local expertise to scale up your business growth. 

Book a demo with us today!