6 Deel Alternatives Worth Checking Out in 2023

Hiring employees in India is a challenge for foreign companies, especially those with a team size of less than 100, because of the complex and expensive web of approvals and compliance requirements.
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By partnering with an employer of record (EOR) service like Rapid that has deep local expertise, you can start hiring and onboarding employees quickly and cost-effectively without worrying about compliance.
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Rapid enables you to reduce onboarding time from 6-9 months to a few minutes and handles payroll and state-specific labour laws compliantly. You can offer curated health benefits to attract the best talent.
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Rapid is the only EOR platform that allows you to set up a physical office in India. Moreover, you get to implement your company culture--salary structure, leave policy, holiday list--to help the team blend with your organisation.
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Many companies partner with Deel to help set up their global teams. Deel is a global EOR that enables companies to hire, onboard, and pay employees through their local partners/subsidiaries in countries they serve.

Deel is a global EOR that enables companies to hire, onboard, and pay employees through their local partners/subsidiaries in countries they serve. 

However, G2 reviews suggest that not everyone finds the service affordable–Deel has several hidden charges apart from the monthly EOR fee such as visa sponsorship fee, visa renewal fee, visa termination fee, and a $5 fee for every payment made. 

In addition, Deel’s customer service is not as efficient in supporting end users or EOR contractors as some customers would like it to be.

So, what are the alternatives to Deel, especially if you’re looking for a cost-effective way to hire employees in India?

Let’s take a look at a comparison of some of Deel’s competitors. 

Top 6 Deel alternatives to watch out for in 2023

Here are the Deel alternatives you can partner with to start doing business in India:

1. Rapid 

A trusted Deel competitor, Rapid enables global companies to set up an Indian team quickly without having to establish a legal presence. Customers can focus on core operations and growth while Rapid takes care of HR, payroll, local benefits, compliance, and employee liabilities. 

As one of the Deel competitors, Rapid ensures companies do not have to restrict hiring to remote employees. They arrange for rented office spaces and IT equipment logistics for a complete in-office employee experience. 

Features

• Digital onboarding: Offers an intuitive platform that enables online document collection and processing and generates compliant contracts for India

• Benefits management: Offers best-in-class benefits with customised solutions like three levels of health insurance 

• Background verification: Offers three tiers of background verification services to enable companies to choose the level of check based on their needs 

• Dedicated customer support: Offers 24/7 email support, works closely with companies to understand their blockers and assist in resolving complex issues, and offers a dedicated team to guide employees through the onboarding process

• Flexibility: Enables companies to build their own organisational culture, including employee policies and salary structure with 100% control

• Passthrough taxation: Ensures 18% savings on all non-salary payments like office rentals and IT equipment by passing complete benefits of GST to companies 

• Service marketplace: Enables companies to engage with various partners such as recruiters, visa processors, personal tax filers, immigration experts, and employee benefits service providers for an end-to-end experience

Pricing

Employee: $299 per month per employee

Contractor: $49 per month per employee

Startup pricing

Employee: $199 per employee per month

Contractor: $39 per employee per month

Pros

• Fair price guarantee, 100% transparent pricing, and no hidden fees
• Cost-effective to set up and maintain ongoing operations
• Offers scalability with privacy controls that comply with global regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and DPR
• Allows complete control of IP and invention rights under any circumstances

Cons

• Currently offers support for India only 

2. Remote 

Remote’s proprietary online software offers international benefits, compliance, and payroll solutions. It owns local legal entities in over 150 countries and has a network of local payroll providers, legal attorneys, accountants, and HR specialists. 

An alternative to Deel, Remote ensures high quality and low risk by not outsourcing its in-country entities to third-party providers. 

Features

• Digital onboarding: Offers a self-serve platform for quick onboarding and management of employers and contractors
• Payroll: Enables one-click generation of invoices and payment to contractors in the local currency
• Remote IP guard: Assures 100% control of intellectual property and innovation rights 
• Benefits management: Allows employers to offer country-specific benefits like health insurance, pension/401(K), and life insurance
• Customer support: Provides a fast turnaround time to resolve customer queries
• Human capital management solutions: Offers time tracking, HR analytics, recruitment management, and so on

Pricing 

Employee: Starts at $599 per month per employee

Contractor: Starts at $29 per contractor per month

Pros

• Offers 24/7 email support
• Offers a dedicated support team to guide new employees through the onboarding process (Enterprise plan)
• Offers discounts to special institutions like charities, nonprofits, refugee organisations, and startups

Cons 

• Hidden charges, especially for the global payroll and HR solutions
• Dedicated customer support team only for Enterprise customers
• Delayed responses from the customer support team to remote employee issues

3. OysterHR

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A North Carolina-based alternative to Deel, Oyster has services for payroll and hiring across 180 countries globally. It looks into each aspect of compliance, HR and legal paperwork, especially for a remote workforce. Its offerings also include IP protection, employee liability insurance, and direction on employee privacy compliance. 

Oyster has a useful chatbot that helps visitors browse the website and connect them to a sales representative when they are ready. 

Features

• Local benefits management: Enables employers to offer local health benefits, company equity, and expense reimbursement
• Payroll management: Enables management of bills and payouts from a central dashboard, and payment to contractors in the local currency at no additional cost
• Guided hiring process: Provides country-specific hiring recommendations to build robust and compliant benefits packages
• Compliance management: Enables hiring compliant with GDPR and SOC II and intellectual property protection with confidentiality and IP assignment agreements 
• Total rewards strategy: Helps build a complete package of base salary, equity, and benefits to understand the budget required to meet hiring goals

Pricing 

Employee: Starts at $499 per employee per month 

Contractor: Starts at $29 per contractor per month

Custom pricing for companies that want to scale up rapidly

Pros

• Targeted towards a remote workforce 
• Easy to navigate platform that makes competitive sense

Cons

• Limited integration options so it may not be compatible with every company’s HRIS or other software applications
• Cannot help with co-employing of employees and partially outsourcing HR functions
• May have delays in transfers 

4. Rippling

Rippling offers comprehensive HR, IT and finance management services that includes payroll and hiring across multiple countries globally. It deals with all aspects of compliance, taxes and even contract handling for its clients. 

A popular alternative to Deel, Rippling claims to set up payroll, benefits, computer, corporate card, and third-party applications like Microsoft 365 and Slack for a new hire in 90 seconds.

Features

• Global workforce management: Enables companies to hire, pay, and manage employees worldwide 
• Custom workflows: Allows companies to automate manual HR, finance, and IT processes
• Workforce analytics: Provides a unified platform to create HR and IT reports like PTO and SOC and analyse employee data
• Policy management: Generates custom policies that are then applied to “supergroups,” policy membership lists based on employee attributes
• Access & approval management: Offers a role-based permission system to automatically provide access to specific Rippling services and third-party apps based on department, level, etc.

Pricing 

Starts at $8 dollars per month per user 

Custom pricing provided based on mix of services chosen

Pros 

• User-friendly onboarding process for employees and employers
• Quick customer support via live chat
• Enables companies to automate a variety of HR processes

Cons 

• No free trial
• Offers custom pricing only; no packages

5. Plane (formerly Pilot)

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A popular Deel competitor, Plane offers end-to-end legal, financial and administrative management. It enables US-based companies to hire remote employees and contractors globally.  

More suited to small-scale businesses, Plane offers tax management, compliance with local labour laws, and IP protection through its intuitive platform. 

Features

• Digital onboarding: Offers a guided onboarding flow for employees and adjusts the onboarding experience based on their location, such as asking for bank details in the local format

• Customised contract workflows: Enables generation of localised, up-to-date contracts for employees and contractors and tracks signatures. Also has in-built support for e-signatures

• Centralised HR data and custom reports: Stores employee and contractor data in a central location with multi-level user permissions and generates custom reports like headcount, engineering spend, or start dates for a location

• Global payroll: Offers a unified platform for US employees, international employees, and global contractors and an HRIS to hire and pay employees in over 100 countries 

Pricing 

US employees: (flat rate) $29 per employee per month

International employees: Starts at $299 per employee per month

Contractors: (flat rate) $29 per contractor per month

Pros

• Robust multi-country payroll software
• Easy to set up and administer

Cons

• Does not offer API integrations
• Does not have a free version

6. Multiplier

A Singapore-based Deel competitor, Multiplier has global experience in payroll and hiring. From contracts to compliance, it has a wide net of service offerings. The service is targeted towards startups and small- to medium-sized companies that operate partially or fully through global remote teams. 

Features

• Benefits administration: Provides localised, cost-effective insurance coverage for employees that meets global standards. 
  

• Multi-lingual contract: Enables the generation of multilingual and locally compliant employment contracts 
  

• Expense plus leave management: Offers a central platform to manage expenses and reimbursements, enables leave planning for overseas employees via a holiday calendar, and allows companies to reward international employees with bonuses and other allowances
  

• Payroll management: Allows companies to pay global employees in their local currencies and process multiple salaries every month in a single invoice

Pricing 

Employees: Starts at $300 per month

Freelancers:  Starts at $40 per month 

Running global payroll: Starts at $20 per month

Providing employee insurance: Starts at $20 per month 

Pros

• No hidden charges
• Ability to run payroll and benefits
  

Cons

• Multiple billing cycles each month
• Lacks some expanded HRIS features like employee training
• Does not offer a payroll-only solution to companies that have their own legal entities 

Conclusion 

With so many Deel alternatives, you’re probably wondering how to make a choice. Consider these five questions before you decide which EOR service to partner with:

• Does the EOR service have local knowledge and expertise?
• Are there any hidden charges?
• How efficient is the customer support team for employees and contractors?
• Does the EOR service provide unified workforce solutions?
• Can you plan and manage your budgets accurately when partnering with the EOR service?

If you’re a Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 founder looking for a partner to scale up in India, Rapid can help you hire and onboard the best tech talent in a matter of minutes. 

Cost-effective, agile, and flexible, Rapid allows you to focus on the growth of your company without the hassle of local compliances and regulations. 

Hire with Rapid today!