Oyster
Employer of record and global payroll to hire, pay and care for talent in 180+ countries without setting up local entities.
By Oyster · 4.0/5 verified-buyer score
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Companies hiring full-time employees in countries where they have no legal entity
- HR and People teams that need compliant contracts, payroll and benefits across 180+ countries
- Finance and professional-services firms that want predictable per-employee pricing
- Businesses converting contractors into compliant full-time employees
Ideal size: 10–500 employees people · Scale-up or mid-market company with cross-border hiring plans
Not for
- Companies that hire only domestically and use a single-country payroll provider
- Organisations that prefer to run their own foreign entities and payroll in-house
- Teams wanting a bare contractor-payment tool with no compliance or HR service layer
- Buyers needing on-premise or self-hosted deployment
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
Onboarding from 48 hours
~2 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$168,000/yr
Starts at $348 · Per active team member per month: Employer of Record USD 699/employee, Global Contractors USD 29/contractor; reduced annual seat-based EOR billing available
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Buyer Score
out of 5 · verified buyers
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
No minimum number of team members; annual EOR seats can be reused when a seat becomes empty
Add-on costs
- Benefits package (quote-based)
- Visa sponsorship (quote-based)
- Salary Insights (quote-based)
- People Partner Services — USD 300 per hour
- Oyster Shell misclassification risk protection
Company & support
Who is behind Oyster, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- Not recorded
- Headquarters
- Not recorded
How you get support
- PhoneNot listed
- EmailNot listed
- Live chatNot listed
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsNot listed
- Dedicated account managerPaid plans
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Not recorded
- Response time
- Not stated
Homepage states EOR customers get one point of contact who knows their business, and that support essentials are built in rather than billed extra.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Oyster sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Oyster
- Gatekeeper
- Zluri
- Hyperproof
- Flagright
- Playroll
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Oyster. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What Oyster ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Oyster is a global employment platform and certified B Corp offering employer of record, contractor management and global payroll in 180+ countries. Compliant onboarding takes as little as 48 hours with no local entity, combining automated contracts, payroll and benefits with in-house HR experts. Pricing is per active team member (EOR USD 699/month, contractors USD 29/month) with no setup or offboarding fees. Integrations cover ATS, HRIS, expense, equity and Slack, and SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance are documented.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to onboard a team member with Oyster?
Oyster states that compliant onboarding can be completed in as little as 48 hours in 180+ countries because no local entity is required. Buyers should treat that as the vendor's best-case figure for a straightforward case; sensitive jurisdictions or benefit selections can take longer.
What does Oyster cost?
Employer of Record is USD 699 per employee per month, Global Contractors is USD 29 per contractor per month after a free 30-day trial, and People Partner Services is USD 300 per hour. Oyster also offers a reduced annual seat-based billing option for EOR and says there are no extra charges for setup, onboarding, talking to HR experts or terminations.
Are there minimum headcount requirements?
No. Oyster states you can engage as many global candidates as you need and that the subscription fee is charged per active team member. Annual EOR seats can be reused for new roles or backfills at no additional cost when a seat becomes empty.
Which systems does Oyster integrate with?
Oyster connects to ATS and HRIS platforms including TeamTailor, Workable, Ashby, Factorial, Lucca, Humaans, ADP Workforce Now and TriNet, plus Concur for expenses and Carta for equity. A Slack app handles approvals, and a Zapier integration reaches 5000+ apps such as MS Teams and Google Sheets. Integrations are free for account holders and a public API supports custom workflows.
Is Oyster secure and compliant?
Oyster publishes a SOC 2 Type II report with Security, Availability and Confidentiality in scope, states that it complies with GDPR, and adheres to the EU-US Data Protection Framework. The platform is hosted on AWS, data is backed up regularly, and two-factor authentication is supported through SSO or Google sign-in.