Who owns the code a developer writes under an EOR?

Ownership depends on the employee's country law and the contract wording, not on the EOR. In Poland, economic rights to software created by an employee within their duties vest in the employer by default (Copyright Act art. 74(3)), but the EOR is the legal employer, so you need the contract to pass rights on to you. Ask the provider how it handles this and have local counsel review.

Can I enforce a non-compete on an overseas developer?

It varies sharply. In India, post-employment restraints are generally void under Section 27 of the Contract Act. In Poland and Germany they require paid compensation (at least 25% and 50% of pay respectively). Do not assume a US-style clause carries over.

Can an EOR employee get stock options?

Usually the options are a direct grant from your company, while the EOR remains employer and typically handles tax withholding when equity becomes taxable. Tax treatment and securities rules are country-specific, and in some countries, such as India, a foreign company granting options without a local presence raises open questions. Take advice before promising equity.

Does the EOR provider see our source code?

It should not need to. The EOR holds employment and payroll data; code access, devices and repos remain under your control. Decide your own access and device rules, and ask providers for their security attestations rather than assuming them.

Best EOR for Hiring Developers Abroad: IP, Equity, Non-Competes…

Hiring engineers through an employer of record: what to check on IP assignment, equity, post-employment non-competes and data security, with country picks from our data.

Verify before relying on this: the legal points below (non-competes, IP assignment, data-transfer rules) are summarised from secondary sources, not the statutes themselves. Have local counsel confirm them for your country and contract.

Developers are the most common first overseas hire, and they raise questions a sales assistant or support agent does not: who owns what they write, whether they can leave and join a competitor, whether you can give them equity, and what happens to your data. An EOR solves employment and payroll. It does not automatically solve these four. This guide lists what we can verify from public sources, what depends on the country, and where to ask before you sign. For which countries suit engineering teams on cost and time zone, see hire developers abroad: best countries. We have not tested any provider.

What an EOR does and does not cover

Question	EOR role	Your role
Employment contract, payroll, statutory contributions	Provides and runs them	Review the terms
IP assignment	Legal employer; contract wording varies	Make sure rights reach your company
Non-compete and confidentiality	Includes what the local law allows	Decide what you need; accept local limits
Equity	Usually handles tax withholding on payroll	Grants the equity; checks local rules
Code and system access	Not involved	Device, repo and access policy

Price is secondary here: EOR list prices run from $199 (RemoFirst, starting at) to $699 (Remote, Oyster), with Deel and G-P at $599 and Playroll from $399 (checked 2026-10-05). For a $60,000 engineer, the gap between the cheapest and dearest fee is ($699 - $199) x 12 = $6,000, small next to an IP dispute. See EOR pricing explained.

IP assignment

The principle is the same everywhere: the person who writes code is the first owner unless the law or a contract says otherwise. What differs is the default for employees and what a contractor needs to sign.

Poland. Under Article 74(3) of the Copyright Act, the economic rights to a computer program created by an employee in the course of their duties vest in the employer unless the contract says otherwise, and no acceptance step is needed for software. Moral rights stay with the author (Rippling on IP ownership in Poland). For a B2B contractor the opposite applies: without an express written transfer you may get only a non-exclusive licence (Legalmondo).
Elsewhere. We did not verify the default for Romania, India, Mexico, Colombia or Brazil. Verify with provider and local counsel.

Under an EOR the legal employer is the provider's local entity. The code's rights therefore vest in that entity first, and the contract must pass them to you. Ask for:

A clause assigning all work product to your company (or a licence you can sub-license), signed by the employee.
The same for pre-existing code the developer brings in, with a schedule of exclusions.
A moral-rights waiver or consent where the country recognises moral rights.
Written confirmation of how the EOR's entity passes rights to you.

Non-competes

Post-employment non-competes are where US habits fail first.

Country	What the sources say	Source
Poland	A post-employment non-compete with an employee requires compensation of at least 25% of pay before the end of employment. If compensation is missing or below the minimum, the minimum applies rather than the clause being void. For contractors there is no express statutory basis to claim compensation	DWF
Germany	Written form required; compensation of at least 50% of last contractual benefits; maximum two years; legitimate business interest	Visaguard Berlin
India	Restraints during employment can be valid; post-employment restraints are generally void under Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act	IPleaders
Romania, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil	Not verified from a retrieved source	Local counsel

Costs worked on a hypothetical $60,000 salary:

Country	Compensation	Per year of restriction
Poland	At least 25%	$60,000 x 0.25 = $15,000
Germany	At least 50%	$60,000 x 0.50 = $30,000
India	Generally unenforceable after employment	$0 (and no protection)

Germany's cap of two years would make the maximum minimum payout $60,000 (2 x $30,000). The Polish duration is not verified here. For most startups paying to restrain an engineer is unrealistic. The usual substitutes are strong confidentiality and IP terms, short notice-period handovers and good offboarding. The EOR will draft only what local law supports.

Equity

According to Remote's equity guide, the EOR is the legal employer for salary and payroll while the equity is a direct grant from your company; the EOR usually handles tax withholding through payroll when equity becomes taxable. The same source notes that tax-incentivised schemes generally cannot be exported to other jurisdictions, and that in some countries (it mentions Australia and India) EOR employees lose reliefs or a foreign grant without a local presence raises open issues.

What to do:

Ask the EOR in writing whether it will withhold on your equity events and report them, and whether it charges for it.
Ask counsel in the employee's country whether the grant needs a local filing.
Use clear vesting and termination terms, because an EOR employee's employment ends with the EOR's contract, which may not match your plan's definition of service.

Data security

Three layers, and only one belongs to the EOR.

Personal data about the employee. The EOR holds payroll and HR data. When an EU employee's data goes to a US company, the data-export rules apply; recognised mechanisms include Standard Contractual Clauses and, for certified recipients, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Jackson Lewis). Ask the EOR for its data processing agreement and the mechanism it uses.
Your code and systems. Not part of the EOR service. Manage with your own device policy, SSO, repository permissions and offboarding checklist. When the employee leaves, you revoke access the same day; the EOR's notice period does not delay that.
Provider assurance. We did not verify any provider's security certifications. Ask for current SOC 2 or ISO 27001 reports, rather than relying on website badges.

Country picks for engineering teams

Picks use our country files. Salary benchmarks are not in the data, so these are about structure, not pay. Employer cost and time zone from our country files; the legal notes come from the sections above.

Country	Employer cost on base	Time zone vs US Eastern	Why it suits developers	Watch for
Romania	2.25%	7 hours ahead	Lowest employer cost in our set; large English-speaking developer community	Non-compete and IP defaults not verified; minimum 20 working days' notice
Poland	19.5-22.1%	6 hours ahead	Mature tech sector; default employer ownership of employee-written software; paid non-compete available	B2B contractor practice common but reclassification risk; 25% minimum non-compete pay
India	5-10%	9.5-10.5 hours ahead	Largest engineering pool; low on-costs	Post-employment non-compete generally void; equity grant questions; large time-zone gap
Mexico	27-36%	Mostly 0-1 hour behind Eastern	Overlap with US hours	Higher on-costs; termination 3 months' indemnity plus 20 days per year (Deel)
Colombia	38-52%	0-1 hour ahead	Overlap with US hours	High on-costs and high contractor risk
Germany	21-25%	6 hours ahead	Strong IP and employment framework	Non-compete costs at least 50%; strict contractor rules

Worked example for one engineer at $60,000: Poland costs $60,000 x 0.208 = $12,480 on top (midpoint), Romania $60,000 x 0.0225 = $1,350, Mexico $60,000 x 0.315 = $18,900, and India at the 7.5% midpoint $4,500. Add the fee: at Deel's $599, $7,188 a year. Romania is then $60,000 + $1,350 + $7,188 = $68,538; Poland is $60,000 + $12,480 + $7,188 = $79,668. The $11,130 gap ($79,668 - $68,538) is purely the employer charges (12,480 - 1,350). Romania's on-costs are low partly because employee-side contributions are withheld from gross, which affects what salary a candidate accepts.

How to choose a provider for engineers

We have no basis to rank providers' legal drafting. Ask each:

Will you provide the IP assignment and confidentiality clause in the employment contract for my country? Show a sample.
Which non-compete options exist in this country and what do they cost?
How do you handle equity withholding and reporting?
Provide your DPA, security attestations and sub-processor list.
Entity model for my country: owned entity or in-country partner? (Deel is hybrid per its own pages; vendor statement.)

Bottom line

For developers, the EOR fee is the easy part. Poland and Romania are practical picks on structure (employer ownership of software by default in Poland, 2.25% on-costs in Romania), India is attractive on cost but weak on enforceable non-competes, and Latin America gives time-zone overlap at higher on-costs. The legal points above come from secondary sources and vary by contract; confirm each with a local lawyer and the provider before you sign. Prices change; verify with provider. This is general information, not legal or tax advice, and we have not tested any of these products.

Best EOR for Hiring Developers Abroad: IP, Equity, Non-Competes, Security