Enter your business details to see what each option would cost you. Prices are live from our database and shown in Australian dollars.
Hiring beyond Australia changes the question you are asking of a payroll platform. Instead of award interpretation and Single Touch Payroll for a local team, you need to employ or pay people in countries where you have no legal entity, stay compliant with their local law, and pay them in their own currency. This guide compares the employer of record (EOR) and global payroll platforms built for that, from the perspective of an Australian business.
One thing to know about the comparison table above: its estimated cost is domestic payroll pricing, the cost of running Australian payroll at your headcount. Employer of Record costs are separate, per overseas employee. Deel and Remote publish theirs, shown in the table's Employer of Record row, in their picks and in the section on what an EOR costs below; Rippling quotes Employer of Record on request, and Employment Hero runs Australian payroll only.
How we chose
We weighted four things: whether the platform can legally employ someone in a country where you have no entity, and how it does so; whether it handles employees, contractors or both; whether its prices are published or quoted; and how well it still serves the Australian staff you employ alongside your global team, on STP Phase 2, super and Modern Awards. Plans and pricing checked October 2026, and every figure on this page is read from our database when the page loads.
EOR, global payroll and contractors, explained
Most businesses hiring abroad use one of three models. An employer of record legally employs a full-time worker for you in a country where you have no entity, handling their local payroll, tax and benefits. Contractor management pays overseas freelancers compliantly, with the right contracts and tax forms, where the relationship genuinely is contracting. Global payroll runs pay for employees you already employ through your own overseas entities. A PEO, or professional employer organisation, is a related co-employment model used mainly in the US and is rarely the relevant choice for an Australian business. Deel and Remote both sell all three of the first models. Rippling runs global payroll through your own entities, with Employer of Record where you have none. The right model depends on whether your people are employees or contractors, and on whether you have local entities.
What an employer of record costs
These are the Employer of Record fees in our database, per employee per month, before the hire's salary and the employer costs of their country:
- Deel: $835/emp/mo, with contractor management listed as Yes ($68/contractor). Our Deel pricing guide covers the rest of its bill.
- Remote: $974/emp/mo, with contractor management listed as Yes ($40/contractor). See our Remote pricing guide.
- Rippling: every Australian price is by quote, so confirm its global payroll and Employer of Record fees with its sales team.
- Employment Hero: runs your Australian payroll rather than employing anyone overseas, so it has no Employer of Record fee to compare.
Payoneer Workforce Management runs payroll inside its Employer of Record, reporting STP Phase 2 as the employing entity (our record: Via EOR), so it is not ranked here as a payroll platform. It publishes its Employer of Record price as a starting figure, from $277/emp/mo, and lists contractor management as Yes (from $26/contractor); our Payoneer Workforce Management pricing guide explains what "from" covers. If your shortlist is down to two platforms, our head-to-heads of Deel vs Remote and Deel vs Rippling compare them row by row for an Australian employer.
Hiring into Australia through an EOR
The same service works in the other direction. An overseas company with no Australian entity can employ someone in Australia through an EOR's Australian entity, and that entity then carries the local obligations: STP Phase 2 reporting to the ATO on every pay run, super paid on time, and the National Employment Standards and any applicable Modern Award under the Fair Work Act. Award coverage is where the platforms differ most. Our record lists Deel's award interpretation as Limited, Remote's as Limited, Rippling's as Yes and Employment Hero's as Yes (100+ awards), so for an award-covered role, ask how the award is applied before you sign. Our guide to payroll software for award interpretation goes further on that question.
If your whole team is in Australia, none of this applies, and a local specialist handles Modern Awards, super and STP Phase 2 with more local depth. Our guide to the best payroll software for small business covers that case, and our Employment Hero pricing guide sets out one of the local options. If most of your overseas people are contractors rather than employees, our guide to payroll software for contractors compares per-contractor pricing. The global platforms here earn their place the moment you employ or pay someone outside Australia, and a common setup is a local tool for Australian staff and one of these for international hires.
The verdict
Choose on the shape of your team, then use the table for the payroll side. Deel fits a business that wants overseas hires and Australian payroll on one platform, with its Employer of Record at $835/emp/mo. Remote fits a business for which compliance and IP control, which Remote ties to owning its entities, matter most, at $974/emp/mo. Rippling fits a team that wants payroll, HR and IT on one record and is comfortable getting a quote. Employment Hero is the Australian half of a split team, at $10/emp/mo (Payroll). Set your headcount in the calculator above to cost the domestic payroll side, and ask each global provider for a full cost of employment for the country you are hiring in.