If you’re seeking a payroll solution to streamline your organization and provide support to your team, Remote may be just what you’re looking for. With its handy international payroll features, dependable customer support network and beneficial employer-of-record services, Remote can be a promising option for your payroll requirements. But is it the best choice?
Not all payroll software is created equal, and you deserve a solution that can effectively address your specific payroll needs. So read on, as this article will delve into the top alternatives and competitors to Remote in 2023, providing you with a comprehensive overview of the leading payroll solutions — so you can make an informed decision and select the best fit for your organization.
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Top Remote competitors and alternatives: Comparison table
Check out the table below for a comprehensive comparison of the software providers discussed in this article. We have evaluated whether these solutions have features expected of robust payroll global systems so you can assess how Remote’s competition stacks up.
| Starting price per month | Payroll for international employees | Payroll for international contractors | Employee self-service portal | Built-in time-tracking tools | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remote | $699/employee paid monthly | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Try Remote |
| Oyster Payroll | $599/employee paid monthly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Try Oyster |
| Multiplier | $20/mo. | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Try Multiplier |
| ADP GlobalView | Custom pricing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Try ADP |
| Deel | $49 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Try Deel |
| Rippling | $8/user | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Try Rippling |
| Gusto | $40 fixed rate + $6/employee | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Try Gusto |
| Papaya Global | Plans starting from $3 per month per employee | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Try Papaya |
Top Remote competitors
The payroll providers listed below are strong contenders and offer similar features and capabilities to Remote. The following section will dive further into these payroll platforms, exploring functionalities that may align well with your organization’s payroll management needs.
Oyster: Best for global talent sourcing
Although it’s marketed as an HR solution, Oyster’s model offers many helpful payroll features for teams. Oyster is an international payroll provider and stands out with its exceptional global employment tools, which are designed to streamline international staff onboarding and payroll management.
Oyster goes beyond payroll services by simplifying the process of global talent sourcing through comprehensive employee management for international hiring. Its features enable employers to ensure compliance with hiring and payroll requirements, consolidating onboarding paperwork and communication within a single platform.
Features
- Contractor vs. full-time employee analyzer tool.
- Employee misclassification analyzer.
- Global employment cost calculator.
- Remote work regulations guide.
- Time zone crossover calculator.
Pros
- Payroll services for global teams in 180+ countries through over 120 currencies.
- Customizable perks for team members, with ready-made packages tailored to the respective country (for Employee and Scale plans).
- Verified resources such as international employment templates and checklists.
- Seamless integration with many popular applicant tracking systems (ATS), expense management tools, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and human resources information systems (HRIS).
Cons
- Payroll and EOR features for employee management are only provided through Employee and Scale plans.
- Oyster’s cost per employee per month also varies across different regions, so businesses hiring from certain countries may have higher fees.
Pricing
Oyster HR offers payroll services through three price plans:
- Contractor plan: Starts at $29 per contractor/month.
- Employee plan: Starts at $599 per employee per month when billed monthly, or $499 per employee per month when billed annually.
- Scale plan: Custom pricing, with seat-based annual package.
Multiplier: Best for international compliance
Multiplier is an all-in-one platform that simplifies international payroll management for employers, covering areas such as taxes, social contributions and local insurance policies. It helps organizations maintain compliance with local laws by providing employment contracts, and it offers a reliable and secure solution for onboarding, payment and benefits provisions to global teams.
The platform offers businesses a safer way to generate multilingual compliant contracts and provide internationally recognized local benefits. This way, employers can support their workforce with localized coverage, pensions and social contributions that align with local corporate and tax laws. Employers can even rely on on-site legal and tax experts to create compliant contracts and mitigate risks when onboarding globally.
Features
- Expense management tools.
- Timesheet tracking.
- Leave management capabilities.
- Robust data protection policies.
- Multi-currency payments.
Pros
- Empowers employers to create tailor-made insurance policies, guaranteeing that international workers receive appropriate and personalized benefits.
- Local business entities in over 150 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
- Capabilities for delivering payments to international employees within minutes, disbursed in their respective local currencies.
Cons
- No employee self-service portal.
- No AI-powered analytics in feature offerings.
Pricing
Multiplier offers payroll services through three price plans:
- Hire Employees plan: Starts from $300 per month.
- Pay Freelancers plan: Starts from $40 per month.
- Run Global Payroll plan: Starts from $20 per month.
Multiplier also offers a Provide Employee Insurance plan starting from $20 per month.
ADP GlobalView Payroll: Best for large multinational teams
ADP’s GlobalView Payroll platform simplifies the management of global payroll by helping businesses consolidate their real-time employee data worldwide. This cloud-based global payroll solution centralizes multiple country payrolls onto a single platform and standardizes workflows for efficient international payroll processing. It also adapts to local payroll regulations, ensuring compliant payroll processing.
ADP GlobalView Payroll is best for larger multinational corporations, as it caters to organizations with a minimum of 500 employees within a single country. For enterprises with up to 1,000 employees across at least three countries, ADP offers an enterprise-level global payroll solution. But if your operations extend beyond the 40 countries covered by GlobalView Payroll, businesses can supplement their plan with ADP Celergo.
Features
- Global payroll tools.
- Compliance features.
- Global reporting and analytics capabilities.
- Employee self-service portal.
- Integration with popular third-party HCM solutions.
Pros
- Payroll expertise across over 40 countries.
- Notifications on timely legislative bulletins related to payroll compliance and news.
- When legislation is complex, collaborates closely with businesses to assess how changes will impact payroll operations.
- Mobile app, which is customized to adhere to the specific laws and regulations of each region.
Cons
- Employee benefits administration and many other HR features exclusively accessible through the ADP Workforce Now add-on for an extra fee.
- Payroll services restricted to 40 countries, unless the ADP Celergo add-on is obtained for an additional fee.
Pricing
Pricing for the software is unavailable online, as ADP provides custom quotes based on a company’s payroll needs.
Deel: Best for global workforce management
Deel provides a suite of features designed to simplify the hiring and payment processes for both local employees and international workers. By leveraging Deel’s global infrastructure, employers gain access to a diverse talent pool, allowing them to hire contractors and employees without establishing legal entities. Through Deel’s Employer of Record product, businesses can seamlessly integrate these employees into their workforce.
With Deel, businesses can easily handle tasks such as equity management, working visas and equipment distribution. The platform also facilitates streamlined payment processing through its automated payroll features, and its system enables faster onboarding and provides a comprehensive view of employer costs, headcount and turnover data.
Features
- Global onboarding tools.
- Payroll with 15+ global payment options.
- Time off & expense features.
- Compliance support for terminations.
- Automated contractor invoicing.
- Localized agreements for milestone, hourly or fixed work structures.
Pros
- Employee onboarding capabilities in 100+ countries.
- Customized options for unique payroll and HR management requirements, ensuring compliance with local regulations.
- Visa support to simplify the process of building, onboarding and compensating teams of global workers.
Cons
- EOR services can be costly since user fees are calculated per employee or contractor, so expenses scale with the size of the workforce.
- Advanced features like contractor misclassification protection and government declarations are accessible with only higher-tier plans.
Pricing
Deel’s services are provided through three pricing plans:
- Contractors plan: Starts at $49 per month.
- EOR Employees plan: Starts at $599 per month.
- Global Payroll plan: Custom pricing.
Deel also offers Deel HR, which is a free system that automates the HR admin and reporting processes for workers with a global HR system. And their Immigration plan manages immigration and sponsor visas in 25 countries and is priced at a custom rate.
Rippling: Best intuitive AI
Rippling offers comprehensive payroll software that empowers businesses to effectively manage their global workforces. With its advanced global payroll management technology, organizations can seamlessly hire talent from anywhere, efficiently handle payroll and HR processes and even generate comprehensive employee data reports within a unified system.
Utilizing automation and synchronized data for payroll operations, Rippling enables organizations to develop custom workflows that keep their teams on track. For example, automated notifications keep staff members informed about payroll adjustments, and the platform automatically categorizes and syncs payroll and finance data with general ledgers for fast and easy reconciliation.
Features
- Payment in local currencies.
- Global minimum wage enforcement.
- Overtime and leave enforcement.
- Rippling’s dedicated mobile app.
- Automatic tax filing.
Pros
- Simplifies workforce management throughout the entire employment lifecycle, from seamless onboarding to smooth offboarding.
- Provides 100% accuracy guarantee, ensuring reliable compensation for employees and contractors.
- Extensive integration capabilities that support popular third-party solutions like Slack, Zoom and Google Workspace.
Cons
- No payroll automation capabilities.
- Requires new users to sign up for a one-year contract.
Pricing
Rippling starts at $8 per user per month, but it provides custom quotes based on your needs — so it’s likely you’ll pay more for your particular service.
Gusto: Best for international contractors
Gusto is a widely recognized payroll provider that offers an extensive range of features for hiring and paying international contractors across multiple countries. The comprehensive, cloud-based payroll software enables businesses to efficiently run unlimited payrolls, process contractor payments in multiple countries, and manage payroll for employees across all 50 U.S. states.
Gusto supports payroll processing for international contractors through integrated time tracking, automated tax filing and streamlined management of factors like health insurance, 401(k)s, workers’ compensation and paid time off. Gusto also provides customizable onboarding checklists and self-onboarding features, allowing for quick and efficient job commencement. And the solution’s multilingual operations and mobile time tracking and geolocation tools ensure effective management of remote international contractors.
Features
- Full-service, single-state payroll processing, including W-2s and 1099s (with full-service multi-state payroll capabilities also provided in higher-tier plans).
- Gusto-brokered health insurance administration.
- Employee financial benefits, including 401(k) retirement plans, workers’ comp and free financial tools.
- Payroll and time-off reporting and insights.
Pros
- Can process international contractor payments across 95 countries, like India, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and Canada.
- Auto-calculations to ensure accuracy of payroll taxes.
- Employee self-service capabilities through the Gusto Wallet app.
- Reports new hires and automatically calculates, files and pays all local, state and federal payroll taxes.
Cons
- No payroll features for businesses seeking to compensate their international employees.
- Has a substantial per-employee fee, making it costly for organizations with larger workforces.
Pricing
Right now, contractor-only businesses can get a discounted base price of $0 per month for six months for the Contractor Only plan. It is otherwise priced at $35 per month plus $6 per month per contractor. And this plan has international contractor payments available as an add-on service.
International contractor payments can also be selected as an add-on service for Gusto’s other payroll solutions:
- Simple plan: Starts at $40 per month plus $6 per month per employee.
- Plus plan: Starts at $80 per month, plus $12 per month per employee.
- Premium plan: Pricing for this plan is available upon request.
Papaya Global: Best for data leveraging
Papaya Global offers a unified system that synchronizes payroll information and features, providing valuable insights from payroll data. The software plans also include AI-based automation tools to streamline payroll and compliance processes, ensuring efficiency and accuracy throughout the organization.
Papaya Global’s software stands out thanks to its reporting and analytics tools that empower organizational leaders to make informed decisions based on payroll and HR data. The solution includes a comprehensive BI analytics suite and generates people reports on key datasets such as payroll costs and HR workforce data. It also offers real-time data monitoring, enabling organizations to identify crucial trends instantly.
These reporting and analytics tools enable leaders to track their organizational payroll and HR data in real time, facilitating faster analysis and actionable insights. Papaya Global’s system even supports data integration with popular HR systems like BambooHR, ensuring seamless data syncing for more precise reporting.
Features
- Automated direct payments in local currency.
- Reporting for payroll, HR, payments, billing and admin data.
- Precision engine to ensure compliance with international regulations and requirements.
- Multi-language support.
- Payments within 72 hours through in-house payments solution.
- Customized approval chains and user permissions.
Pros
- International payroll services across 160+ countries.
- Papaya Personal, a self-service platform available in multiple languages, accessible on both desktop and mobile devices and designed for employees, workers and contractors.
- HRIS system allows for a high level of customization so users can personalize their tools based on their business’s unique HR and organizational requirements.
Cons
- No ownership of EOR subsidiaries or legal entities in the countries it serves.
- Expensive choice compared to alternative software solutions, depending on the price package selected.
Pricing
Papaya Global provides its software through seven plans and products:
- Full-Service Payroll: Starts at $12 per month per employee.
- Payroll Platform License: Starts at $3 per month per employee.
- Data and Insights Platform License: Starts at $150 per month per location.
- Payments-as-a-Service: Starts at $3 per month per employee.
- Employer of Record: Starts at $650 per month per employee.
- Contractor Management: starting from $2 per month per contractor.
- Global Expertise Services: Starts at $190 per month per employee.
Customers can also contact the company sales team or go online to get a customized price quote based on their business needs.
Is Remote worth it?
There’s a lot of competition out there, but Remote does have its own stand-out features that may make it worth the purchase for your organization. Serving as an employer of record, Remote enables businesses to streamline global payroll for their distributed teams.
If your organization seeks to engage international workers, Remote can support hiring and help manage payments for contractors. And Remote’s software encompasses a range of other functionalities designed to effectively manage payroll compliance operations, taxes and benefits processes for distributed workforces.
Remote also provides distinctive features that set it apart, such as personalized employment contracts and specific safeguards for employers’ intellectual property and invention rights. Users can take advantage of Remote’s employee misclassification risk tool, which ensures the proper provision of employment rights and benefits to international workers. Additionally, the Employee cost calculator provided by Remote allows users to accurately determine the total cost of paying international workers, including government-mandated social contributions.
By integrating with applicant tracking systems, payroll software and ATS software systems, Remote can further enhance the functionality of its services. It supports integrations with popular applications like Greenhouse and BambooHR, and with Remote API, it allows organizations to create custom integrations.
Remote pros and cons
Remote offers numerous benefits for integrating it into your business processes, but it may not align with all of your organizational needs. The following table outlines the advantages and disadvantages of the Remote solution to help you assess its suitability and make an informed decision on whether this payroll software product meets your specific standards.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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Remote pricing
Remote’s services are provided through the following pricing plans:
- The Employer of Record plan: Starts at $599 per month per employee charged annually or $699 per month per employee charged monthly.
- The Contractor Management plan: Starts at $29 per month per contractor per month.
- Remote Enterprise plan: Custom quote.
Do you need an alternative to Remote?
While Remote is a robust solution with many helpful features and benefits, there are instances where you might need to consider alternatives to this software. One potential reason is if your business has unique or specific requirements that are not adequately addressed by Remote. For example, if accurate time tracking and management of employee hours are crucial for payroll calculations or project management, a software solution with rich time tracking features may be more suitable. In this case, one of the other solutions provided within this list may be more appropriate.
Ultimately, businesses should evaluate their specific needs and requirements to determine whether an alternative software solution would better align with their HR and payroll management goals or provide necessary functionalities that Remote may not fully cater to. To make a choice between Remote and a competing solution, you can begin by evaluating the options mentioned above through our payroll services comparison tool. This will assist you in identifying the specific payroll and HR features you require in your ideal software system.
Methodology
This is a technical review using compiled literature researched from relevant databases. The information provided within this article is gathered from vendor websites or based on an aggregate of user feedback to ensure a high-quality review.
1
QuickBooks
QuickBooks from Intuit is a small business accounting software that allows companies to manage business anywhere, anytime. It presents organizations with a clear view of their profits without manual work and provides smart and user-friendly tools for the business.
2
Paycor
Payroll can be a time-consuming, administrative task for HR teams. Paycor’s solution is an easy-to-use yet powerful tool that gives you time back in your day. Quickly and easily pay employees from wherever you are and never worry about tax compliance again. Key features like general ledger integration, earned wage access, AutoRun, employee self-service and detailed reporting simplify the process and help ensure you pay employees accurately and on time.
3
Justworks
Justworks Payroll is a lightweight solution that simplifies Payroll and HR operations so you can focus on what matters most – running your business. Our user-friendly navigation, paired with reliable support, helps you monitor and maintain compliance, onboard and manage your teams, and navigate the complex world of payroll with confidence.
Designed for today’s needs and tomorrow’s ambitions, our adaptable solutions will elevate your operations & provide the tools for your business to thrive.
4
OnPay
Payroll and HR that move you in the right direction. We give you everything you need to navigate payroll, HR, and benefits — so you can keep running your business smoothly.
Get your first month free, or join a demo to see everything we can do!
5
Paychex
Paychex is a cloud-based payroll management system offering payroll, HR, and benefits management systems for small to large businesses. Paychex covers payroll and taxes, employee 401(k) retirement services, benefits, insurance, HR, accounting, finance and Professional Employer Organization (PEO).
