Oyster Pricing 2026: EOR, Contractors, Payroll and Fees

Oyster's employer of record costs $699 per employee per month in 2026, its Global Contractors product $29 per contractor per month after a free first month, and People Partner Services $300 an hour. Annual EOR seats sell at a negotiated lower rate, and Oyster lists no setup, onboarding or termination fee. Prices read on Oyster's pricing page in October 2026, in USD.

Our read for an HR lead: Oyster is not the cheap option on employees. Deel and Remote both list their EOR at $599, so every Oyster full-timer costs $100 a month more at list price. The gap closes for startups, which can claim up to $1,200 off per hire for the first year, and for larger teams that buy annual seats. On contractors, Oyster matches Remote's entry price and sits $20 a month below Deel.

Toolradar data: Oyster is listed as an alternative to 16 other tools on Toolradar, the software directory we run, second of the 41 tools in its legal and compliance category, as of October 2026. Buyers cross-shop it by name, almost always against Deel and Remote, which is why the comparison below matters more than the sticker. The record is Oyster on Toolradar, next to Deel, Remote and the best EOR services guide.

Product	Oyster price	Who it is for	Billing notes
Employer of Record	$699 per employee/mo	Hiring full-timers where you have no entity	Month to month; annual seats at a negotiated lower rate
Global Contractors	$29 per contractor/mo	Freelancers and contractors in 180+ countries	First month free for new customers
Oyster Shell (add-on)	$49 per contractor/mo	Contractors where misclassification is a worry	On top of the contractor fee
Global Payroll	$290 per entity/mo plus the contractor rate per employee	Paying staff where you own the entity	$500 one-time implementation per entity
People Partner Services	$300 per hour	Project-based HR advice	Works for EOR and your own entities

What the EOR fee covers, and what it does not

The EOR fee is Oyster's charge for legally employing your hire in a country where you have no entity. It includes compliant employment in 120+ countries, payroll in 120+ currencies, expense and time-off tracking, onboarding and offboarding specialists, and support from local experts. Oyster's FAQ says setup, onboarding, access to HR experts and processing terminations are all included in the subscription, and the fee applies only per active team member, with no minimum headcount.

The fee is the smallest line on the invoice. Oyster bills the employee's salary, bonuses and allowances, employer taxes and contributions, benefit premiums and any local service tax such as VAT on top, according to its EOR invoicing article. Each month starts with a pre-funding invoice that estimates payroll, then a settlement invoice corrects it to actual costs. For an engineer earning $90,000 a year, Oyster's yearly EOR fee is under 10% of salary alone before employer taxes, so country choice moves the total far more than the vendor choice does.

Benefits packages and visa sponsorship are add-ons with no public price; Oyster quotes them per hire. If you want the full employment cost for a country before you commit, the same pricing page links an employee cost calculator.

The refundable deposit is a cash-flow cost

Every EOR hire needs a refundable deposit before the employment agreement is signed. Oyster's deposit article puts it at roughly one month of the hire's total cost of services: monthly salary, recurring bonuses and allowances, employer taxes, service taxes and the platform fee. In some cases Oyster can ask for more than one month.

Budget it as tied-up cash, not as a fee. For that $90,000 engineer, the deposit is at least $7,500 of salary plus the monthly platform fee and employer costs, paid before day one. It comes back as a credit note, usually about 60 days after the employee's end date once final invoices are settled, per Oyster's deposit return article. A startup hiring five people at once should expect five deposits in the same month.

Annual EOR seats: cheaper, but non-refundable

Oyster sells an annual, seat-based plan for EOR, described in its EOR annual article. You buy a number of seats for the year at a locked rate below the monthly price, pay the full amount up front on net 30 terms, and fill each seat with a new or existing employee. When someone leaves, a backfill takes the same seat at no extra fee.

The rate is negotiated, not published, so there is no list figure to budget from. Oyster does commit to two things in writing: the per-seat price will not rise by more than 5% at renewal, and semi-annual or quarterly billing is available at a higher per-seat price. The plan is non-refundable, and hires beyond your seat count pay the standard monthly fee, so annual seats suit companies with stable headcount in roles they will backfill, not teams still testing a market.

Contractors: the cheapest product, with a first month free

Global Contractors is Oyster's cheapest product. It covers instant contracts in 180+ countries, payments in 120+ currencies, identity verification, invoice and expense management, and a misclassification analyzer. The monthly fee, shown in the table above, starts after a free trial: new customers get 30 days in which every contractor submitted has the first monthly fee waived, per Oyster's contractor trial article.

Billing follows activity. A monthly invoice arrives on the 1st for contractors engaged the previous month, and a pay-as-you-go contractor only triggers a fee in months they submit an invoice, according to the contractor invoicing article. Terminate contracts you no longer use, because an engaged status keeps generating invoices.

Oyster Shell is the misclassification add-on, at $49 per contractor per month on top of the standard contractor fee, which brings a protected contractor to $78 a month. The Oyster Shell overview says it reimburses certain misclassification costs up to $50,000 per claim and $500,000 in aggregate per customer. Eligibility is strict: you must use Oyster's standard contract unmodified, pass the risk check at low or moderate risk, and engage the contractor outside your headquarters country.

Global Payroll for entities you own

If you already have a legal entity in a country, Oyster can run local payroll instead of employing the person itself. Its global payroll pricing article lists $290 per entity per month plus a per-employee fee equal to the contractor rate, a one-time $500 implementation fee per entity, and an optional payment processing add-on at $2 per employee per month. The fee covers implementation and parallel runs, gross-to-net calculations, approvals, expense and time-off tracking, payslips and payroll specialists.

The per-entity fee punishes small entities. A 5-person entity pays $435 a month in subscription fees, $87 per employee, while a 40-person entity pays $1,450, about $36 per head. Billing currency follows the entity's location: USD for most countries, EUR in eurozone countries, GBP in the UK and CAD in Canada.

People Partner Services at $300 an hour

People Partner Services is project-based HR advice from Oyster's senior staff, priced at $300 an hour on the pricing page. It covers global HR guidance, people strategy and hands-on execution, for EOR employees and for your own entities. It is useful for a one-off restructuring, a country exit or a complex termination, where the hourly rate buys local knowledge your team does not have. Routine questions about EOR employees are already covered by the subscription, so do not budget hours for them.

Discounts: startups, nonprofits and B Corps

Oyster's startup program offers up to $1,200 off per EOR team member for the first 12 months, which is up to $100 a month off the list fee. It is open to companies that have raised pre-seed, seed or Series A funding, and to bootstrapped companies under 50 employees, with no minimum number of hires; you request it at sign-up.

Certified nonprofits and B Corporations can join Oyster for Impact for discounts on Oyster's products, though the page publishes no rate and limits the discount to hires in Oyster's top hiring destinations. Discounts do not stack: a company qualifying for both gets whichever is bigger.

Four team budgets priced line by line

These use Oyster's listed fees only. Salaries, employer taxes, benefits and deposits come on top and vary by country.

Team	Oyster products	Monthly Oyster fees	First-year Oyster fees
5 EOR hires, list price	EOR	$3,495	$41,940
5 EOR hires, startup discount at its maximum	EOR	$2,995	$35,940
10 contractors, all submitted in the trial month	Global Contractors	$290	$3,190
1 owned entity, 20 employees, with payment processing	Global Payroll	$910	$11,420 including the $500 setup

The startup row shows the discount's real effect: at its maximum, Oyster's EOR fee lands at the same $599 a month that Deel and Remote list without one. The contractor row assumes all ten are submitted inside the 30-day trial window, so each has one free month. Add Oyster Shell to those ten contractors and the monthly fees rise to $780.

How Oyster compares with Deel and Remote

Product	Oyster	Deel	Remote
Employer of Record	$699 per employee/mo	$599 per employee/mo	From $599 per employee/mo
Contractors	$29 per contractor/mo	$49 per contractor/mo	From $29 per contractor/mo
Contractor of Record	Not listed	$325 per contractor/mo	From $325 per contractor/mo

Deel prices were read on Deel's pricing page and Remote prices on Remote's pricing page, October 2026.

On employees Oyster is the most expensive of the three; on contractors it ties Remote and undercuts Deel by $20. Five EOR hires cost $6,000 a year more on Oyster than on Deel or Remote at list price, and ten contractors cost $2,400 a year less on Oyster than on Deel. A company with mostly contractors and a few full-timers can come out even. For the full rival breakdowns, see Deel pricing, Remote pricing and Deel vs Remote.

Our Oyster review covers whether its support model justifies the premium, and best EOR services ranks the wider field, including cheaper EOR providers. Remote-first teams choosing their core HR system can also read best HRIS for remote teams, and the Deel review covers the cheaper EOR rival in depth. If you are weighing a PEO for US-only hiring instead, how much a PEO costs prices that route, and the HR software pricing index tracks the rest of the HR stack. Teams leaving Deel can start with Deel alternatives.

Fees beside the headline rate

• Currency conversion. Oyster accepts USD, EUR, GBP or CAD by direct debit or wire, and charges a conversion fee only when you pay in a currency different from the contract currency, per its pricing FAQ.
• Deposit per EOR hire. About one month of total cost, refunded roughly 60 days after the employee leaves.
• Benefits and visas. Quoted per hire, not listed.
• Annual seats. Non-refundable once paid; empty seats can be refilled but not cashed out.
• Payroll implementation. $500 per entity, once, before the first run.

How we priced this

Louis Corneloup, founder of Dupple and Toolradar, wrote this breakdown for HRpresso readers. The EOR, contractor and People Partner prices, discounts and FAQ terms come from Oyster's pricing page; deposit, annual seat, contractor trial, invoicing, Oyster Shell and Global Payroll terms come from Oyster's help center articles linked above, all read in October 2026. Deel and Remote prices come from their own pricing pages the same month. The team budgets are our arithmetic from those listed fees; real quotes vary by country and contract. This page reads published prices and does not assess service quality. Confirm country-specific costs with Oyster before you sign.

FAQ

How much does Oyster cost in 2026?

Oyster's employer of record costs $699 per employee per month, Global Contractors $29 per contractor per month after a free first month, and People Partner Services $300 an hour. Global Payroll for your own entities starts at $290 per entity a month plus a per-employee fee. These are the USD list prices on Oyster's pricing page and help center in October 2026.

Does Oyster charge setup or onboarding fees?

No. Oyster's pricing FAQ says setup, onboarding, access to HR experts and terminations are included in the subscription. It does require a refundable deposit of about one month of total employment cost for each EOR hire, and Global Payroll carries a one-time $500 implementation fee per entity.

Is Oyster cheaper than Deel?

Not for employees: Oyster's EOR costs $100 a month more than Deel's $599, a $1,200 yearly difference per hire. For contractors Oyster is cheaper, $20 a month below Deel's $49. Startups that qualify for Oyster's discount of up to $1,200 per hire in year one can close the EOR gap for that first year.

Does Oyster offer annual pricing?

Yes, for employer of record only. Oyster sells annual seats at a negotiated rate below the monthly fee, paid up front and non-refundable, with renewals capped at a 5% price increase. Seats can be refilled with new hires at no extra charge. Contractors cannot use annual seats.

Can I try Oyster for free?

Creating an account and exploring the platform is free, and fees start only when you engage someone. New customers also get a contractor trial: every contractor submitted in the first 30 days has the first monthly fee waived, after which the standard contractor rate applies.

What does Oyster Shell cost?

Oyster Shell costs $49 per contractor per month on top of the contractor fee. It reimburses certain misclassification costs up to $50,000 per claim and $500,000 in aggregate, and only applies to contractors on Oyster's unmodified standard contract who pass its risk check and work outside your headquarters country.

Cite this: HRpresso, "Oyster Pricing 2026: EOR, Contractors, Payroll and Fees", October 2026.

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