Global payroll software or an employer of record? The deciding question is whether you own a local entity. Cost math, public prices and decision rules.
"Global payroll" and "employer of record" both end in a payslip, so buyers treat them as substitutes. They are not. The difference is who the legal employer is, and that decides your liability, your setup time and your cost curve. This guide gives the rule, the prices we could verify, and a worked comparison.
The one-line distinction
- EOR: the provider employs the person through its local entity. You direct the work; they carry the employment contract, payroll filings and statutory compliance.
- Global payroll: you employ the person through your own entity. The provider runs the payroll calculations, payslips and filings across countries, but you remain the legal employer.
In many countries direct employment needs a local entity: Brazil (Ltda/CNPJ), Poland (sp. z o.o. or branch), Germany (GmbH or registered branch), the UK (an HMRC employer registration that in practice requires UK presence), India, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mexico and Colombia, per our country files. Global payroll presupposes you have crossed that line. Remote's own description of its product says as much: "Global Payroll $29 per employee/month for companies with existing foreign entities" (Remote pricing).
Side by side
| Question |
EOR |
Global payroll |
| Legal employer |
Provider's entity |
Your entity |
| Local entity needed |
No |
Yes |
| Time to first hire |
Days to about two weeks (provider claims) |
After the entity exists: UK 2-6 weeks, Poland 1-3 months, Brazil 4-6 months (estimates / Deel claim) |
| Who carries employment liability |
Shared, contract-dependent |
You |
| Typical public fee |
$199-$699 per employee per month |
$29 (Remote), reportedly $2.07 (Playroll, third-party) |
| Best at |
1-3 hires per country, speed |
Many employees where you already have an entity |
Entity timelines come from our country files and are estimates unless attributed; EOR timelines are vendor claims. Verify with provider.
What the providers publish
| Provider |
Payroll product / price |
Notes |
| Remote |
Global Payroll $29 per employee/month |
Implementation and recurring delivery fees may apply; so $29 is not the all-in cost |
| Playroll |
Global Payroll Manager $2.07 per employee/month |
Third-party search snippet only, unconfirmed |
| Papaya Global |
Not published |
Positioned on multi-country payroll and workforce payments, 160+ countries claim; sales-led, third-party EOR range $599-$770 |
| Rippling |
Not published |
Third-party: $200 for global payroll alongside $1,000 EOR (conflicting; not vendor-confirmed) |
| Deel |
Payroll price not seen |
Public EOR, contractor and PEO prices only |
| Gusto |
US payroll |
No EOR or international employee payroll found |
Sources: Remote, Deel, Papaya Global via PartnerStack listing, Playroll, Rivermate on Rippling. Anything marked third-party needs checking with the vendor.
When global payroll is the answer
Global payroll fits when all three hold:
- You already have a legal entity in each country you want to run payroll in.
- You employ enough people there to justify the entity's fixed costs.
- You want one system to run payslips, filings and remittances across those entities.
If you do not have an entity and you hire one person, global payroll is not an option; you will need the entity first. The cost of that entity, rather than the payroll fee, is the dominant number.
Worked comparison: Poland, 3 hires versus 5 hires
Assume an entity in Poland costs $30,000 a year all-in (accountant, registered office, legal, amortised setup). That figure is an illustrative placeholder, not a quote. Compare it with an EOR at Deel's $599 and Remote's payroll at $29. Salaries and Polish employer contributions are identical either way, so they cancel out; we compare only the differences.
| Item |
3 hires |
5 hires |
| EOR at $599: $599 x 12 x hires |
$21,564 |
$35,940 |
| Entity: $30,000 fixed |
$30,000 |
$30,000 |
| Payroll at $29: $29 x 12 x hires |
$1,044 |
$1,740 |
| Entity + payroll total |
$31,044 |
$31,740 |
| Cheaper route |
EOR by $9,480 |
Entity by $4,200 |
Break-even headcount ignoring payroll fees: $30,000 / $7,188 = 4.17. Including payroll: each added hire saves $7,188 - $348 = $6,840 a year, so $30,000 / $6,840 = 4.39, which rounds to 5 hires. Implementation and delivery fees on the payroll side are extra and unquoted, which pushes break-even up. Real quotes should replace $30,000. Polish employer cost is 19.5% to 22.1% of gross either way (Boundless).
Other things the table ignores: your entity creates tax, filing and director obligations; an EOR transfers the employment obligations but not the commercial decisions. Dismissal risk, for instance, follows the legal employer. Read EOR termination and offboarding.
When EOR is the answer
- No entity, and fewer than about four to five hires in the country.
- A hire needs to start within weeks, not months.
- You are testing a market and might leave in a year.
- The country is complex or high-liability (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Germany, Spain), and you want a provider to carry filings. Note that EOR does not remove all risk; you still direct the work.
Hybrid patterns
Many companies run both: entities in two or three core countries on global payroll, and EOR for one-off hires elsewhere. A hybrid keeps fee dollars low where headcount is high and avoids new entities where it is not. The tools: Remote lists both EOR ($699) and Global Payroll ($29), while Deel lists EOR and contractors but no payroll price we could see. Verify with provider that data and reports flow between the two products if you want one view.
Questions to ask a payroll provider
- Which countries are run on your own infrastructure versus partners?
- What implementation fee applies per country, and what recurring delivery fee?
- Who files statutory returns and who is liable for errors?
- How are payments funded: from our bank account, or prefunded?
- What happens to our data if we leave?
If the vendor will not answer in writing, treat the price as incomplete.
Country notes that change the answer
Entity timelines differ sharply, and that changes how long you need an EOR as a bridge. Per our country files, a UK Ltd with PAYE and pension setup is roughly 2-6 weeks (an unverified estimate), a German GmbH with payroll registrations roughly 1-3 months, and Brazil's CNPJ registration about 4-6 months (Deel claim). In Brazil the bridge is long: with Deel's $599 fee, six months is $599 x 6 = $3,594 per head, a modest price against the labour-law load an EOR carries during that period. In the UK, where an entity can be live in weeks, the bridge is short and many teams skip the EOR if they plan to stay.
Payroll complexity also varies. Brazil's employer cost range is 47-70% of base because of the 13th salary, vacation bonus, FGTS and, at the upper end, dismissal-fine provisions and benefits; Germany's social insurance applies up to contribution ceilings; the UK runs real-time reporting to HMRC every payday. If you run your own payroll through a global provider, confirm it handles those local items, not just the net pay calculation. Verify with provider.
Bottom line
If you have no entity, you are choosing among an EOR, a contractor and an entity; global payroll only starts once the entity exists. With an illustrative $30,000 annual entity cost, the entity-plus-payroll route overtakes a $599 EOR at about five hires in one country; use real quotes before acting, and remember payroll implementation fees are extra. Global payroll prices vary and several are unpublished, so verify with provider. This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm employer registration, filing duties and liability allocation with a qualified local adviser before choosing.