RemoFirst vs Oyster HR (2026): EOR Pricing, Coverage and Which Fits
RemoFirst does the core EOR job for $199 a month against Oyster’s $699, and lists more countries. Oyster earns its premium with in-house HR and legal experts, written liability cover and a much bigger integration library, which matters when hires carry real legal risk.
RemoFirst or Oyster HR: which should you choose?
Choose RemoFirst if cost decides it: EOR starts at $199 per employee per month in 185+ countries, with no setup or exit fees and a named account manager. Choose Oyster HR if your hires carry legal risk or your stack needs connectors: it charges $699, includes in-house HR and legal experts, and backs each hire with written liability cover.
Verdict from HR Stacks editors, based on vendor pricing pages and both full reviews.
Choose RemoFirst if
- You are making your first few hires abroad on a tight budget
- You hire in markets Oyster doesn’t list, such as China
- You want one named contact rather than a ticket queue
Choose Oyster HR if
- You expect dismissals or restructures in strict markets like France
- Your HRIS, ATS or accounting tool needs a native connector
- Procurement favours a certified B Corp vendor
- EOR priceRemoFirstFrom $199 vs $699, about $6,000 less per employee a year
- Country reachRemoFirst185+ EOR countries vs 120+
- Support modelRemoFirst4.3 vs 4.0, a named account manager for every customer
- Compliance backingOyster HR4.3 vs 3.8, liability cover up to $1M per employee
- Payroll reliabilityOyster HR4.2 vs 3.6 in our scoring
- IntegrationsOyster HR20+ native connectors and an API vs 4
RemoFirst vs Oyster HR at a glance
Every figure comes from RemoFirst’s and Oyster’s own pricing, product and country pages, checked in October 2026. Where a vendor publishes nothing, the cell says so. Shaded cells mark the provider that leads on that row; rows with no shading are a draw.
| RemoFirst | Oyster HR | |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | The lowest EOR price, with a named account manager on every account | Expert-led EOR, with in-house HR and legal staff on hand |
| EOR price | From $199 per employee/month; may vary by country | $699 per employee/month; annual seats at a quoted discount |
| EOR countries | 185+ | 120+ claimed; 116 on its own country list |
| Who employs your staff | Its own local entities or exclusive partners; split not published | Owned entities and vetted partners; split not published |
| Contractors | Free tier, or $25 per month for Premium payments | $29 per month after 30 days free |
| Setup and exit fees | No setup, onboarding or termination fees | Setup, onboarding and terminations included |
| Deposit | Not published | Refundable deposit required for each EOR hire |
| Minimum term | No annual contracts and no minimums | No minimum headcount; monthly term not published |
| Liability cover | Not published | 12x per employee, up to $1M |
| Support | 24/7 with a named account manager; first month free if a reply is late | Country specialists and in-house experts; 72-hour ticket resolution target |
| Integrations | Workday, BambooHR, ADP Workforce Now, GoCardless | 20+, including HiBob, Greenhouse, Ashby, QuickBooks, Xero and Carta; API and Zapier |
| Security and certifications | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR | SOC 2, GDPR, certified B Corp |
| Discounts | Says it will try to match a lower quote | Startups save up to $1,200; nonprofit and B Corp discounts |
HRS score is our editorial rating from the full RemoFirst review and Oyster HR review.
The core difference: a lean price vs an expert bench
RemoFirst strips employer of record back to the job itself: a compliant contract, payroll, taxes and a person who answers your questions. It keeps the price at $199 by running most countries through exclusive local partners and selling health cover, visas and equipment as add-ons. You get wide reach and a light platform.
Oyster charges $500 more per hire and puts the difference into people and protection. Country questions go to its own HR and legal staff, terminations are handled inside the fee, and each employee comes with built-in liability cover of up to $1M. Around that sit 20+ native integrations and a contractor product with a misclassification analyzer. You pay for fewer surprises, not more countries.
RemoFirst: one rate, wide reach, add-ons on top
Oyster HR: the fee buys experts and cover
How RemoFirst and Oyster HR score
Both land on 4.1 overall, which hides how differently they get there. RemoFirst takes price, coverage and support by clear margins. Oyster takes the four rows about getting employment right once a hire starts: compliance, onboarding, payroll and integrations. Ease of use is a dead heat.
RemoFirst vs Oyster HR pricing, and what you actually pay
Both publish their core rates, so the gap is easy to see: $500 per employee per month, or $6,000 a year per hire. Older comparisons, including the earlier version of this page, still list an Oyster US PEO plan and a $29 payroll plan. Neither appears on Oyster’s pricing page today.
Treat RemoFirst’s $199 as a floor, since its pricing page says the rate may vary with local requirements. Oyster’s $699 is the monthly list rate, with annual seats offered at a discount you only see in a quote. Market-wide rates are in our EOR provider ranking.
RemoFirst
- Employer of Record185+ countries, payroll, contracts, benefits access, IP protectionFrom $199 /emp/mo
- ContractorsOnboarding, contracts, identity checksFree
- Premium ContractorsPayments in 150+ countries$25 /mo
- RemoHealthMedical, dental and visionFrom $55 /mo
- Visas, equipment, background checksAdd-ons, priced per requestQuote only
Oyster HR
- Employer of Record120+ countries, payroll, onboarding and offboarding specialists$699 /emp/mo
- EOR annual seatsReusable seats, paid upfrontQuote only
- Global Contractors180+ countries, 30 days free$29 /mo
- People Partner ServicesProject-based HR advisory$300 /hour
- Benefits, visas, Oyster ShellAdd-onsQuote only
Costs that don’t appear on either pricing page
Security deposit
RemoFirst: not published.
Oyster: a refundable deposit for every EOR hire; amount not on the pricing page.
Setup and exit fees
Neither charges for setup, onboarding or terminations, by each vendor’s own pricing page.
Contract length
RemoFirst: no annual contracts or minimums.
Oyster: no minimum headcount; the monthly term isn’t stated.
Per-country rates
RemoFirst: may vary by country; it gives a full breakdown before you sign.
Oyster: one published rate.
FX on funding
RemoFirst: invoices in 8 currencies; FX margin not published.
Oyster: a fee when you pay in a currency other than the contract’s; rate not published.
Health cover
RemoFirst: RemoHealth from $55 per person per month.
Oyster: localized benefits packages; prices not published.
Annual seats
Oyster: cheaper per seat, paid upfront; seats can be reused for backfills.
RemoFirst: no annual plan to weigh.
Offers
RemoFirst: tries to match a lower quote; first month free if a reply is late.
Oyster: startups save up to $1,200; nonprofit and B Corp discounts.
12-month EOR cost at three team sizes
| EOR employees | RemoFirst ($199) | Oyster HR ($699) | Gap per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 employees | $11,940 | $41,940 | $30,000 |
| 25 employees | $59,700 | $209,700 | $150,000 |
| 100 employees | $238,800 | $838,800 | $600,000 |
Provider fees only, at each vendor’s published monthly rate. RemoFirst’s rate can be higher in some countries, and Oyster’s annual seats lower its rate, so plug real quotes into the calculator below. Salary, employer taxes, benefits, deposits and add-ons are excluded.
Run your own numbers
Paste in the per-country quotes you receive to compare like for like.
Feature comparison
RemoFirst wins the rows you can price: contractors, visas, health cover and extras such as equipment and background checks. Oyster wins the rows that protect you after a hire goes wrong, plus almost everything about connecting to other systems.
Global employment
185+ countries
Own entities or exclusive partners
Owned entities and vetted partners
Free tier; $25 per month for payments
180+ countries, misclassification analyzer
110+ countries
Payroll and benefits
Payroll in 120+ currencies
RemoHealth from $55, published
Salary Insights in 130+ countries, free
Bonus and equity handling as an add-on
Expenses and time off automated into payroll
Compliance, HR and support
Up to $1M per employee
Oyster Shell, up to $500,000 aggregate
Experts in the fee, plus project advisory at $300 an hour
Named account manager for every customer
Both offered as add-ons
Integrations
20+, including BambooHR, HiBob, TriNet, Greenhouse, Ashby, Workable, QuickBooks, Xero, Carta, Slack
Developer API and an embedded option
Zapier connection
Country coverage: where each one can hire
RemoFirst lists 185+ EOR countries. Oyster advertises 120+, but its own availability list shows EOR in 116 countries, with 69 more open to contractors only, including Kuwait, Jordan and Puerto Rico. For the 24 markets most buyers hire in, the gap is a single country: China.
Oyster’s list flags 13 smaller markets, such as Cambodia and Uganda, where EOR may need extra time or a minimum number of hires. RemoFirst’s country guide doesn’t say which countries run through partners. Confirm the employing entity for each country before you sign.
Implementation and support
Getting the first hire live takes days with either. The support models differ more than the speed: RemoFirst gives every customer one named account manager, while Oyster routes hires through country specialists and hard questions to its in-house legal team. Reviewers of both say routine questions move fast and complex cases slow down.
RemoFirst
- Setup
- No setup or onboarding fees; an account manager from the first call.
- First hire
- “In days, not weeks”; reviewers report fast starts in the Philippines and India.
- Support model
- 24/7 per its pricing page, though its EOR page says 24/5. First month free if a reply is late.
- Employee access
- Employees manage time off, expenses and documents in the RemoFirst platform.
Oyster HR
- Setup
- Free account; billing starts once you engage your first hire.
- First hire
- As fast as 48 hours in simple markets, with onboarding specialists; the deposit comes first.
- Support model
- In-house HR and legal experts; a 72-hour ticket resolution target.
- Employee access
- Self-service for expenses, time off and payslips.
Which one to pick for your situation
These are the four situations we see most for this pair. Price settles the first, legal risk the second and the country list the third. The fourth needs a provider that sits between them.
Seed-stage startup making its first hires abroad
All three are routine EOR markets for both providers. At $199 against $699, RemoFirst keeps $18,000 a year in the budget across three hires, with no setup fees, no minimum term and one account manager for a founder doing HR alone.
Mid-market team restructuring staff in France and Germany
Dismissals in these markets go wrong expensively. Oyster handles terminations inside the fee with its own legal team, adds liability cover per employee, and connects natively to all three tools in this stack. RemoFirst connects to none of them.
Engineering team in China, Hong Kong and Pakistan
China isn’t on Oyster’s country list, so you would need a second provider before the plan is done. RemoFirst lists all three markets, and at this headcount saves $54,000 a year on fees.
Scale-up that wants the provider to be the legal employer
Both providers mix their own entities with partners and neither publishes the split. If your legal team wants the provider itself as employer, a provider built on owned entities fits better, and costs less than Oyster.
Where each one falls short
These are the limits that decide this particular matchup. Each product’s full pros and cons are on its review page.
RemoFirst
- Partner quality variesReviewers report uneven service in Germany, France and Brazil, where partners deliver much of the work.
- Payroll errors at scaleMistakes and slow fixes show up more often once teams pass about 30 employees.
- Four integrationsNo native connector for QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite or any ATS, and no published API.
Oyster HR
- Joint-highest EOR list price$699 a month is $100 above Deel and Remote and $500 above RemoFirst.
- Terms left off the pageThe deposit amount, FX fee and annual seat rate only appear in a quote or the help centre.
- Slow escalationsA 72-hour ticket target, and reviewers report slow answers on issues routed through partners.
What users say about RemoFirst and Oyster HR
Oyster’s sample is roughly four times larger, so its themes are steadier. Oyster also invites reviews actively, and many come from employees hired through it rather than the companies paying the fee. RemoFirst’s reviewers are mostly founders and small HR teams.
RemoFirst
Based on 450+ public reviews
Praised for
- Price that holds. What reviewers are quoted is what they pay.
- Account managers. Often praised by name for quick replies.
- Fast onboarding. Especially in the Philippines and India.
Criticised for
- Payroll errors past 30 staff. Fixes can take weeks.
- Partner variability. Germany, France and Brazil come up most.
- Manual reconciliation. Finance teams re-key data each cycle.
Oyster HR
Based on 1,970 public reviews
Praised for
- Simple daily admin. Approvals, invoices and payslips in one place.
- Named contacts. An account contact who knows the team’s countries.
- Help with local rules. Useful guidance on unfamiliar contracts.
Criticised for
- Slow escalations. Mostly on contract or partner issues.
- Payment and document delays. Late transfers and slow checks.
- Rigid reports. Fixed formats and thin payslip detail.
Switching between RemoFirst and Oyster HR
Neither locks you into a long contract on monthly billing, so the work is in the employment move itself. Each person gets a new legal employer and a new contract, so plan one or two payroll cycles of overlap and check how each country treats continuity of service.
RemoFirst to Oyster HR
Moderate effort- Check every employee’s country against Oyster’s EOR list; China, for one, isn’t on it.
- Budget a refundable deposit for each hire before their start date.
- RemoFirst charges no termination fee, so time the move to a payroll cut-off.
- Oyster issues new contracts; connect your HRIS or ATS through its integrations.
Oyster HR to RemoFirst
Moderate effort- If you bought annual seats, plan the move around renewal; seats are paid upfront.
- Get RemoFirst’s rate for each country, since some sit above $199.
- Ask which entity or partner will employ each person; RemoFirst offers free migration help.
- Track each Oyster deposit refund as employments end.
If neither fits: three alternatives
The $500 gap between these two leaves plenty of room in the middle, including providers that employ through their own entities. Our full EOR ranking compares 15 providers on price per employee.
Pebl
Most employees sit on its own entities, at about half Oyster’s rate.
Read RemoFirst vs Pebl →Multiplier
Published prices across 160+ countries for teams that can sign annually.
Read Multiplier vs Oyster HR →Remote
Employs through its own entities, for $100 less than Oyster.
Read the Remote review →Final verdict
RemoFirst for routine hires. Oyster HR for risky ones.
For hires in common markets where nothing unusual is expected, RemoFirst does the same core job for less than a third of the price, in more countries, with a named account manager. Oyster earns its $699 when a dismissal, restructure or misclassification claim could cost more than a year of the premium, or when your HR and finance tools need to talk to your EOR.
Go with RemoFirst when
- Price decides the shortlist
- You hire in markets beyond Oyster’s list
- You want one named contact
Go with Oyster HR when
- You expect terminations in strict markets
- Your HRIS, ATS or accounting tool needs a connector
- You value written liability cover
Get these in writing before you sign
- Per-country EOR rate for every country on your plan, not the “from” price.
- Who employs your staff in each country: the provider’s own entity or a partner.
- Deposit amount per employee and how many days the refund takes.
- FX margin when your billing currency differs from the contract currency.
- Annual seat rate and what happens to empty seats at renewal.
- Liability cover per employee and what it excludes.
- Escalation times for payroll errors, shorter than the standard ticket target.
- Add-on prices for health cover, visas, equipment and background checks.
RemoFirst vs Oyster HR: FAQs
Is RemoFirst cheaper than Oyster HR?
Yes. RemoFirst’s EOR starts at $199 per employee per month and Oyster’s costs $699, a gap of $6,000 per employee a year. RemoFirst says its rate may vary by country, and Oyster discounts annual seats, so compare real quotes for your markets.
Why does Oyster HR cost $500 more?
Oyster includes in-house HR and legal experts, handles terminations inside the fee, adds liability cover of up to $1M per employee, and connects to 20+ HR and finance tools. RemoFirst keeps its price down by running many countries through exclusive local partners and selling extras as add-ons.
Do RemoFirst and Oyster own their entities?
Partly, in both cases. RemoFirst employs through its own local entities or exclusive partners, and Oyster through owned entities and vetted partners. Neither publishes which countries use which, so ask for the employing entity in each country in writing.
How many countries do RemoFirst and Oyster HR cover?
RemoFirst offers EOR in 185+ countries and contractor payments in 150+. Oyster advertises EOR in 120+ countries, and its own country list shows 116, with contractors in 180+. China is the main common market on RemoFirst’s list but not Oyster’s.
Does Oyster HR require a deposit?
Yes. Oyster asks for a refundable deposit for each EOR hire and charges a fee when you pay in a currency other than the contract currency. RemoFirst doesn’t publish deposit terms, so ask both for the amount and refund timing.
Which one has better support?
RemoFirst scores higher in our reviews, 4.3 against 4.0, mainly because every customer gets a named account manager. Oyster’s strength is depth: in-house HR and legal experts for hard cases, with a 72-hour ticket resolution target.
Which is better for contractors?
RemoFirst on price, with a free tier and $25 per month for payments. Oyster on reach and protection, with contractors in 180+ countries for $29 a month after a 30-day trial, a misclassification analyzer and optional Oyster Shell cover.
Can I get a discount on either?
Oyster offers startups up to $1,200 off EOR fees, discounts for nonprofits and B Corps, and lower annual seat rates. RemoFirst says it will try to match a lower quote and gives the first month free if it misses a reply.
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Vendor-sourced pricing
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Same eight parameters
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Public review analysis
We read verified buyer reviews for recurring themes, weighted by sample size.
Dated and rechecked
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