Papaya Global Alternatives and Competitors: 6 EOR Options Compared

RemoFirst was founded in 2021 by Nurasyl Serik and Volodymyr Fedoriv, is headquartered in San Francisco, has raised $39 million and employs between 201 and 500 people. It sells two things: employer of record services for hiring employees abroad without a local entity, and contractor management for paying freelancers compliantly.

Your contract is with RemoFirst. In most countries the legal employer of your hire is an in-country partner that RemoFirst manages; we have confirmed that model in 34 countries and have no owned entities on file. RemoFirst issues the employment contract, runs payroll, files taxes and statutory contributions and administers benefits. You manage the work. For a first hire abroad that replaces the three to six months it takes to set up your own entity.

Beyond EOR and contractors it offers RemoHealth, one health insurance program across countries, RemoTech equipment provisioning, and visa and work-permit support in 85+ countries.

Multiplier is an Employer of Record (EOR) and a global employment platform. Companies use it to hire and manage international team members without establishing local entities.

Sagar Khatri, Amritpal Singh, and Vamsi Krishna founded the company in 2020. It's headquartered in New York, United States, and has secured over $77 million in funding since launch.

How Multiplier works

The core services they offer are:

• Compliance management: Multiplier manages local employment laws and requirements.
• Payroll processing: International payments run through the system.
• Benefits administration: Companies can provide employee benefits without setting up local programs.
• Contractor management: Businesses can manage both full employees and contractors in one place.

Who Multiplier is for

Benefit for clients: You can hire in 171 countries through one platform without setting up local entities.

Remote is an Employer of Record (EOR) service that helps companies hire international employees without creating local entities.

It was founded in 2019 by Job van der Voort and Marcelo Lebre, both former GitLab executives. The company has raised more than $500 million and expanded quickly. They now support hiring in 186+ countries.

The platform manages the full employment cycle through a centralized dashboard (compliant contracts, onboarding, payroll, benefits, taxes, and termination).

A key standout: owned entities

This wholly owned structure gives the company full control over employment tasks and compliance.

What this means for you: Remote is a good fit for businesses that prioritize compliance and risk management when expanding into new markets because the platform keeps employment responsibilities in-house.

Deel is an Employer of Record (EOR) and a global payroll platform. Companies use it to hire, pay, and manage international contractors and full-time employees without setting up local entities.

Alex Bouaziz, Shuo Wang, and Ofer Simon founded the company in 2019. Deel is headquartered in San Francisco and has raised more than $980 million in seven funding rounds.

The platform is now valued at $17.3 billion.

How Deel works

Companies typically use the platform for the following services:

• Employer of Record (EOR): Deel becomes the legal employer in the target country while you manage the day-to-day work
• Contractor management: Allow clients to hire, manage, and pay independent contractors in multiple countries through a single platform.
• Contractor of Record (COR): Deel takes on the liability, manages all HR/admin, and handles the risk for you.
• Global payroll: Clients submit payroll data and approve it in one dashboard, and Deel handles taxes, deductions, and currency conversions automatically.

Onboarding

What this means for you: you can hire in established markets within days. They’re also likely to find better contract standardization, clear compliance guidance, and faster onboarding compared to smaller regional providers.

Hire with Columbus is an Employer of Record (EOR) service that enables companies to hire and pay international employees without establishing local legal entities. Operating as a high-volume discount provider, Columbus has positioned itself on price by buying capacity in bulk.

When you use Hire with Columbus, they technically employ workers through their partner entities in 193 countries. Columbus manages the legal employment paperwork, local tax compliance, payroll processing, and benefits administration, while you handle day-to-day work management. This arrangement saves the 3-6 months and $15,000-$50,000 typically required for foreign entity establishment.

The platform serves two primary functions:

• Full EOR services for companies hiring employees internationally
• Contractor management for businesses working with global freelancers

Hire with Columbus operates through strategic partnerships with established EOR providers, negotiating bulk rates based on aggregate client volumes. That is how the price is lower without the service being thinner, and compliance still runs through the partner in each country.

G-P, short for Globalization Partners, is an employer of record (EOR): it becomes the legal employer of your staff in countries where you have no entity, and runs their contracts, payroll, benefits and local compliance while you direct the work. G-P says it can hire in 180+ countries and pay in 150+ currencies.

The company was founded in 2012 by Nicole Sahin, who returned as CEO in 2023, and it is based in Boston. It sells three products: G-P EOR, G-P Contractor for paying independent contractors, and G-P Gia, an AI tool that answers HR and compliance questions.

How G-P employs people

G-P does not say on its EOR page whether it employs through its own entities or local partners. Its homepage mentions "200+ global partners". If the legal employer matters to you, ask G-P to name the employing entity for each country in writing.

What this means for you: G-P covers the same ground as the other large EOR platforms. The questions to settle before signing are the employing entity in your countries and the price after any volume discount.