The monthly EOR fee is the smallest line in most budgets. A checklist of extras, termination costs by country and a worked year-one total from our data. Not tested.
An EOR quote looks simple: one monthly price per employee. In a real budget that fee is often the smallest number. Salary comes first, then the employer taxes the country imposes, then the fee, then a handful of items that vendors price separately or not at all. This guide lists those items, puts numbers on the ones our data supports, and marks the ones nobody publishes. We have not tested any product; prices are from public pages and third-party summaries as of 2026-10-05. For the base fee ladder see EOR pricing explained.
Two kinds of "hidden"
Not everything people call hidden is a vendor trick. Separate them:
| Type |
Example |
Who sets it |
Can you negotiate it? |
| Legal cost of employing someone |
Employer social charges, 13th salary, termination pay |
The country |
No |
| Vendor charge outside the headline fee |
Deposit, benefits administration, visa support, FX spread, equipment |
The provider |
Often |
| Process cost to you |
Time spent on onboarding, approvals, approving expenses |
You |
Partly |
The first row is why a "$199 EOR" can still cost far more than $199 once the hire exists. The second row is where quotes diverge.
The checklist, with what we found
| Item |
What we found (checked 2026-10-05) |
Source |
| Monthly fee |
Deel $599, Remote $699, Oyster $699, G-P from $599, Playroll from $399, RemoFirst from $199 |
Deel, Remote, Oyster, G-P, Playroll, RemoFirst |
| Setup/onboarding fee |
Remote says no platform, onboarding or setup fees for most products; Playroll says none for onboarding or offboarding; RemoFirst says no setup fees |
Vendor pages |
| Refundable deposit |
Oyster requires one for EOR; amount not published |
Oyster |
| Minimum term |
RemoFirst: none stated; G-P: no minimum contract length; Oyster: no minimum team size |
Vendor pages |
| Benefits |
RemoFirst's RemoHealth from $55 per person per month; other vendors not published |
RemoFirst |
| Visa/work permit, equipment |
RemoFirst: priced on request |
RemoFirst |
| FX |
Oyster: conversion fee if you pay in a different currency from the contract currency; others not published |
Oyster |
| Payroll implementation |
Remote Global Payroll $29 per employee, plus implementation and delivery fees |
Remote |
| Exit/offboarding fee |
Playroll says none; others not found |
Playroll |
| Price after year one |
Not found for any vendor |
n/a |
"Not found" means we did not locate a public statement, not that the charge does not exist. The two rows that matter most for a small team, deposit and exit terms, are the ones with the least published detail. Ask for both in writing.
Be careful with "starting at". RemoFirst's page says $199 is a starting price, so your country may cost more. G-P also says "starting at" $599 with volume discounts. Treat these as floors.
Worked example: one developer in Poland, year one
Hypothetical base salary $60,000 in Poland. Employer cost uses the midpoint of our range (19.5-22.1%, midpoint 20.8%): $60,000 x 0.208 = $12,480. Fee scenarios use public monthly prices times 12.
| Line |
Lean quote (RemoFirst) |
Mid (Deel) |
Cautious (Remote + extras) |
| Salary |
$60,000 |
$60,000 |
$60,000 |
| Employer cost (20.8%) |
$12,480 |
$12,480 |
$12,480 |
| EOR fee x 12 |
$199 x 12 = $2,388 |
$599 x 12 = $7,188 |
$699 x 12 = $8,388 |
| Health benefit (RemoHealth, optional) |
$0 |
$0 |
$55 x 12 = $660 |
| FX spread at 1.5% of salary |
$0 |
$0 |
$60,000 x 0.015 = $900 |
| Total |
$74,868 |
$79,668 |
$82,428 |
Check the last column: 60,000 + 12,480 + 8,388 + 660 + 900 = 82,428. The spread from lean to cautious is 82,428 - 74,868 = $7,560, or 10.1% of the lean total. The fee itself explains $6,000 of that; the "extras" are $1,560. The 1.5% FX spread is illustrative: a third-party summary puts one provider's spread at 1-1.5%, and no vendor we read published one. Do not treat it as a rate.
The lesson: on a $60,000 hire the fee choice moves the total by up to $6,000, and extras by a further few hundred to a few thousand. The country moves it more. Mexico at the midpoint of 27-36% (31.5%) adds $18,900 of employer cost against Poland's $12,480, a $6,420 gap.
The big hidden cost is the exit
Termination costs come from the country, and your EOR passes them to you (check the contract wording). On a hypothetical $60,000 salary, $5,000 per month of pay:
| Country |
Rule in our data |
Rough cost at $60,000 |
| Poland |
Notice 1 month for 6 months-3 years' tenure; 3 months at 3+ years; redundancy pay only for employers with 20+ employees |
1 month notice = $60,000 / 12 = $5,000 |
| Brazil |
30 days' notice plus 3 days per year beyond the first, capped at 90 days; FGTS fine of 40% on the balance |
FGTS deposits 8% x 13.33/12 x $60,000 = $5,332 per year, so fine = 0.4 x $5,332 = about $2,133 per year of service |
| Mexico |
3 months' integrated salary plus 20 days per year of service (Deel), plus seniority premium |
3 months = $15,000; 20 days = $60,000 / 365 x 20 = about $3,288 per year, before premium |
| Philippines |
1 month per year of service for authorized causes (or more, whichever higher) |
$5,000 per year of service |
| India |
Notice contractual, 30-90 days common |
1-3 months = $5,000-$15,000 |
These are order-of-magnitude figures, using base salary only; integrated salary, accrued leave and statutory bonuses make real numbers higher in Mexico and Brazil. Several are marked medium confidence in our country files. The point is scale: Mexico's three-month indemnity alone ($15,000) is close to two years of a $699 EOR fee (2 x $8,388 = $16,776). See EOR contract termination and offboarding.
Fees that scale with you
- Raises. A flat fee does not grow with salary. A percentage-of-payroll model would: 10% of $60,000 is $6,000, and 10% of $66,000 after a 10% raise is $6,600. No vendor we researched published a percentage model, but if one is proposed, run the numbers on your real salary.
- Volume. G-P and Atlas mention volume discounts; none is public. Ask where the break is.
- Price changes. We found no vendor stating a price-lock period. Ask for 12 months in writing.
Questions that surface the real total
- Is the quoted fee the one for my country, or a "starting at" price?
- What is the deposit, and when is it returned?
- What do you charge to terminate an employee, and who pays statutory severance?
- Which currency do you invoice in, and at what rate do you convert salary?
- Are benefits, equipment and visa support in the fee or on top?
- What is the notice period for ending the contract with you?
- Can I get the year-one total, signed, for these headcounts?
Bottom line
The monthly fee is rarely the hidden part. Statutory employer costs and exit liabilities are bigger than the fee in every country we checked, and the vendor-side extras (deposit, FX, benefits, visa, equipment) are where published detail is thinnest. Ignore the "18-24% hidden costs" claim; build a year-one total instead, as above. Compare written, country-specific quotes from at least two providers, and treat any figure marked third-party or "starting at" as unconfirmed. Prices change; verify with provider before signing. This is general information, not legal or tax advice, and we have not tested any of these products.