Remote vs Oyster vs 4dev.com

Choose Remote when each EOR hire should sit on an entity Remote says it owns, or when you want a Contractor of Record with a listed $325 per contractor monthly price. Its EOR starts at $599 on annual contracts and reaches 90+ countries. Choose Oyster for a plainer EOR across 120+ countries, a month of free contractor use and nine named integrations; the EOR costs $699 and the contractor tool $29. For contractors alone, 4dev.com acts as the contracting party for each contractor, charging 3% or less per payout.

Begin with who you are adding. People employed abroad through no entity of yours go through an Employer of Record. Remote and Oyster each sell one, so for that group they compete head to head.

Contractors are a separate decision. Contractor management covers contracts, invoices and payouts, while the classification call stays with you; Remote and Oyster both list it at $29. A Contractor of Record turns the vendor into the contracting party. Remote and 4dev.com sell that; Oyster's pricing page lists nothing of the kind. When the only goal is getting money to the person, a payout tool may do.

What separates the pair is how much each one asks you to take on trust. Remote publishes more: six products with prices, a count of its owned entities, and a stated FX rule. Oyster publishes less but charges less in places. Its EOR is $699 against Remote's from $599, yet its contractor tool matches Remote's at $29 and starts with a free 30-day period.

Entities are the sharpest split. Remote's EOR page says "100+ Entities owned and operated by Remote" across 90+ countries. Oyster says "No entities required" for the customer, but does not say whether the entity that employs your hire is its own or a partner's. If your lawyer asks whose name goes on the payslip, only Remote answers that on its website.

Reach is counted differently. Remote's own country index lists 166 countries without splitting products; its pages cite 90+ for EOR and 190+ for contractor payments. Oyster's index lists 156 countries, with 120+ for EOR and 180+ for contractors. Oyster covers more EOR countries, Remote more contractor countries, and neither headline number tells you whether your specific country is open.

Standalone payroll is a clear gap. Remote sells payroll at $29 per employee for companies with their own entities. Oyster launched a standalone payroll in roughly 20 countries in October 2024 and has not published a current count. Security claims differ in strength. Remote names SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and GDPR, while Oyster writes "GDPR and SOC2 compliant" about its own practices and cites liability insurance above $8,000,000. Ask Oyster for the audit report rather than the badge.

Remote's $599 and Oyster's $699 are both list prices for a single employee, and each vendor may ask for cash outside them: Remote says a refundable reserve may be required, and Oyster asks for a refundable EOR deposit with no amount stated. Remote quotes its $599 for annual contracts, and Oyster also offers cheaper annual seats. Ask both for the first-month total on the same team.

With contractor management, the agreement runs from you to the contractor, and deciding whether the work is genuinely independent is your call. Remote's $29 tier and Oyster's Global Contractors work this way. Oyster's contractor page generates country-specific contracts or accepts your own, and does not name a contracting party.

Under a Contractor of Record, two contracts replace one: vendor with contractor, and you with vendor. Remote's COR page calls the company "the contractor's legal counterparty" and, in its own phrase, "not their employer". It prices that from $325 including background checks (some setups can instead pay 15% of the invoice, per the same page) and advertises uncapped indemnity limited to incidents during the active engagement. A COR reduces the risk of reclassification but does not remove it, and the indemnity sits under Remote's terms of service, so read those before trusting the marketing page. Oyster lists no COR product; it does sell an add-on, Oyster Shell, with aggregate protection up to $500,000 and no listed price.

Think of 4dev.com as the answer for the contractor share of your team, not the employee share. Like Remote's COR, it is the contracting party for each contractor. Its price is public: "Service fee: 3% or less per payout", no subscription, and contractors pay nothing.

Price a team of ten, each billing $3,000 monthly. At 3% that is $900 at most with 4dev.com. Remote's COR at $325 a head totals $3,250, and the flat price only becomes the cheaper one at a monthly payout above $10,833 per contractor ($325 divided by 0.03). Oyster lists no COR, so there is nothing to put next to it. The $29 tiers at Remote and Oyster add up to $290 for those ten people, yet classification stays your job there, so they are not comparable with a COR.

Remote's contractor payouts arrive in local currency, stablecoin or a digital wallet, and Oyster names no payout method. 4dev.com sends money by IBAN/SWIFT bank transfer, card or USDT, to 150+ countries, with 1–3 days given as its own estimate. Every engagement produces a contract carrying IP assignment, invoices and closing paperwork, each exportable with one click; an API with a Sandbox sits alongside. Its Trustpilot rating is 4.1, based on 56 reviews.

On the employee side, coverage matters before cost. Remote works in 90+ countries on its own entities, puts average employee onboarding at 3 days and also offers a US PEO at $99 per employee. Oyster spans 120+ countries and claims onboarding in as little as 48 hours, with a dedicated onboarding manager per country; no US PEO appears on its pricing page.

Benefits differ in form. Remote describes "competitive, flexible and localized" benefits and Oyster offers pre-created packages, though Oyster's benefits, visa and salary-data add-ons carry no list price. Oyster also includes equity grant management in its EOR platform. If you run your own entities, Remote's $29 payroll is the only published standalone payroll price of the two. For wider shortlists see global payroll software and the EOR providers index.

Support. Remote's EOR page promises chat with experts plus in-house payroll, benefits, legal and HR teams; the support channels are chat and email, with a 24/7 chatbot and live agents Monday to Friday. Oyster describes "human, expert-led support", a Help Center and country onboarding managers, lists response within 24 hours, and bills extra HR time at $300 an hour. At 4dev.com, a person answers contractor questions by email or via the Help Center, during working hours.

Onboarding. Remote puts employee onboarding at 3 days on average and runs contractor contracts, documents and KYC in one flow. At Oyster, a contractor proves identity with a government ID and signs the agreement within minutes, the vendor says. 4dev.com contractors register by invitation or by themselves, then pass KYC. Every figure here is a vendor claim and none is an SLA.

Integrations. Oyster's EOR page names nine: Xero, Slack, Carta, HiBob, Personio, Ashby, BambooHR, Greenhouse and QuickBooks. Remote's EOR page names Workday, Personio, BambooHR, Carta and Pulley, plus an API, webhooks and SDKs, and publishes no integration count.

Review sites disagree on the order. Of 91 Capterra reviewers, Oyster earns a 4.6; Remote gets 4.3 across 102. Oyster's G2 page carries 4.4 over 1,624 reviews, and its Trustpilot page 3.8 over 272. Remote's G2 page shows 4.5 from 5,450 reviews and its Trustpilot page 4.6 from 3,542. Remote's reviewers, mostly people employed or paid through it, like the clean portal and quick chat support, and complain about slow escalation on complex cases and pricing that feels high for small teams. Most Oyster reviewers are employees engaged through it; they like the intuitive portal and fast onboarding, and complain about email-only support. Its Trustpilot reviews from the last year also report delayed salary payments.

Moving between Remote and Oyster is a new start on a new vendor, whichever way you go. Before leaving, export signed contracts, invoices, payout history by contractor and year, and the tax forms already issued. Oyster generates tax forms for contractors automatically, so ask what it can import from Remote's records.

EOR employees cannot be carried across. The outgoing entity terminates and the incoming one hires again, which puts notice periods, accrued leave, benefits and any new probation on your checklist. Moving from Remote to Oyster needs each country on Oyster's 120+ list; moving the other way needs each on Remote's 90+. Settle the cash side too: Remote's reserve is refunded or credited, and Oyster's EOR deposit is refundable, but neither amount is public. Remote quotes its EOR price for annual contracts and Oyster offers annual discounts, so confirm term and notice in the order form.