Small Business

The Global HR platform for small business

You wear many hats at your company. Put 'payroll processor' back on the rack. Remote’s intuitive platform empowers small businesses with 1-200 employees to run international payroll, file taxes, and maintain compliance no matter where their employees call home.

Spring 2024
Spring 2024
Spring 2024
Spring 2024

Compliantly hire, pay, and manage the world's best talent

Remote handles international onboarding, HR, payroll, taxes, contract generation, compliance, and more so your small business can unlock elite global talent. The benefits of international hiring shouldn’t be kept for companies with thousands of employees.

  • Hire the best global talent with speed and security

  • Banish your HR burden and refocus on your business

  • Manage all employees and contractors in one intuitive platform

A group of people sitting around a table in an office.

A comprehensive global HR hub for growing businesses

Small businesses must scale quickly but responsibly. Opening costly legal entities will freeze your progress. Remote's global employment platform gives you access to a new world of talent without the risk of going global alone. Keep a razor sharp focus while Remote onboards, pays, and manages your team with the assurance of global compliance.

  • Hire and pay international employees and independent contractors with ease

    Avoid the steep and costly learning curve of navigating HR, benefits, tax, and payroll compliance in multiple countries. Remote powers international hiring with all the tools needed to hire quickly, while avoiding the costs and risks of going global alone.

  • Consolidated payroll with or without your own entities

    Don't go through the pain and costs of building and maintaining your own legal entities just to start hiring abroad. Remote eliminates administrative errors and keeps you globally compliant so you can focus your HR efforts on sourcing and retaining great talent regardless of where they call home.

  • Get all your employment data in one comprehensive hub

    Easily onboard, manage, and pay both direct employees and individual contractors with just a few clicks on our self-serve platform. Remote also integrates with top HR software systems like BambooHR, Greenhouse, and Bob streamline your HR processes. You get clean visibility of all employee data in one intuitive platform.

  • Give your employees a superior experience with unmatched support

    Remote is purpose-built to streamline HR processes for administrators and employees. Your team get simple access to all important employment information and Remote's expert global support team is always on-hand for admins, employees, and independent contractors to provide specific localised advice.

Remote handles the complexity of hiring across borders

What do you get when you use Remote to pay and hire your distributed team? You get a partner you can trust and a platform to rely on. That means confidence and compliance at every stage of your HR processes.

  • Offer stock options with expert tax advice

    Foster ownership and morale with your team by offering stock options or equity incentives to international employees. Our global equity expertise keeps you compliant every step of the way, from equity planning to tax withholding and reporting.

  • Rapid onboarding for quick team growth

    Stop spending time responding to employee and contractor queries thanks to our guided onboarding process, intuitive platform (including time off and reimbursement management), and strong self-serve support resources.

  • Manage taxes and compliance across the globe

    Leverage Remote's 100% owned-entity model, giving you a global footprint without the burden, risk, and cost. Stay compliant during every step of the hiring and employment process with built-in security and proactive monitoring that covers right to hire, payroll, taxes, benefits, and more.

  • Competitive, localised benefits to boost employee retention

    Access country-specific benefits packages at highly-negotiated prices so you can offer equitable, best-in-class benefits to your employees for a fraction of the usual cost. That means you can compete locally for talent on a global scale.

World-leading global businesses choose Remote

A man and woman are laughing while standing in an office.

  • Managed relocation, work permits, and visas

    Keep your talent no matter where they go with Remote's in-built relocation expertise. Remote ensures the correct right-to-work permissions are in place to keep employment agreements globally compliant during cross-border moves.

  • Easily convert independent contractors to employees

    Stay ahead of investor scrutiny, avoid misclassification penalties, and retain top talent with Remote's in-built guidance on converting contractors to employees.

  • Ironclad IP protection to maintain ownership

    Protect your startup's IP and invention rights with Remote's rock-solid security provisions. We monitor changes in IP law and update agreements and protections constantly to keep your business protected.

  • Best-in-class service from Remote's global HR experts

    Our team of Remote customer support experts are on-hand right across the world to offer you the help and support you need at any stage of the employment process.

Don’t just take our word for it

See how we help customers simply hire, pay and manage their team

  • “We’re a publicly listed company, so we needed the stability and reliability of a well-known brand to help us scale; with the support, the roadmap, and the ability to support multiple countries — and handle all the compliance wherever we wanted to hire. Remote immediately ticked all those boxes."
  • "Remote is a very strong partner for us. Onboarding is easy and everything is compliant, from their benefits, payroll, contract and other nuances specific to that particular country. The platform is very easy and straightforward for the new joiners, which wasn't the case with our previous provider. It’s a better experience for our global workforce."
  • “Remote has been instrumental in our growth. It would have been impossible to manage such a high volume of hires internally without their support. They provide the whole package, combined with great account management.”

Compare Remote

  • Pricing

  • EOR Capabilities

  • Global Payroll Capabilities

  • Contractor Capabilities

  • Security

  • Integrations

Remote

Rippling

Employees

$599 per employee per month

Starts at $500 per employee per month, up to $600

Contractors

$29 per contractor per month: only pay for the contractors you actually work with

No public pricing

Payroll

$50 per employee per month

No public pricing

Startups

15% discount on Remote service fees for an unlimited number of hires for 12 months with the code RFS15OFF

No startup program

Social Purpose Organisations (nonprofits, charities, social enterprises, benefit corporations)

15% discount on Remote service fees for an unlimited number of hires for 12 months with the code RFG15OFF

No social purpose organisation program

Hiring Refugee Talent

Free for any full-time refugee talent hired

No refugee talent program

Owned entities

100% fully owned entities

Country Explorer

Limited country availability

Localised benefits package and administration

Ironclad IP and invention rights protection

Equity incentive planning support

Employee mobile app

Transparent service metrics

None

Number of countries supported

80+

Not public

Government / Labour authority declarations

Tax authority declarations

Reporting

Payroll support

Global payments

Exchange fees

Mid-market rate plus 1%

Unknown

Locally compliant contracts

Tax document management

Localised guidance for hiring contractors in each country

Contractor payment methods

Wire transfer, Wise, Payoneer

Unknown

Contractor payment card

Contractor health benefits

SafetyWing, Allianz Global

GDPR Compliant

SOC 2 Compliant

ISO 27001 Certified

Customizable API

Greenhouse

BambooHR

HiBob

Personio

Coming soon

See our detailed comparison of Rippling vs Remote

* Competitive data on this page was collected as of June 24th, 2021 and is subject to change or update. Remote does not make any representations as to the completeness or accuracy of the information on this page.

Detailed comparison

Questions to ask before outsourcing small business HR services

Small business payroll software allows businesses without the resources of corporate giants to run payroll for team members in multiple locations. While many businesses may operate entirely locally, the rise of remote work now allows companies of all sizes to work with team members in multiple locations, including other countries. Whether a small business needs to run payroll for just a few team members or for an entire team distributed across international borders, payroll software needs to be able to adapt to that company’s needs.

Payroll software for a small business might include just the basics, like making payments to team members on time and in the correct amounts. For international teams, payroll software also ensures team members are paid in the correct currencies and, when applicable, through approved banks. More robust payroll software platforms like Remote include additional services, like benefits administration and globally compliant employee stock option plans.

In most cases, small businesses cannot run their own payroll in-house for global teams. To pay team members in other countries legally, small businesses have three options: open an entity in each country where employees live, work with an employer of record, or hire workers as contractors.

While some businesses choose to hire all workers as contractors, doing so can create tricky problems related to compliance. Misclassifying international contractors is a serious issue that could cost a small business thousands of dollars, not to mention time spent arguing in distant courts. Hiring international contractors can be a great move, but only when dealing with legitimate contractors and when using an international contractor management platform.

Small businesses sometimes choose to open one or two entities in countries where they have lots of employees and a strong foundation for business. However, few small businesses choose to open entities everywhere they hire, as doing so can be costly and take months to complete.

An employer of record is the fastest and easiest way for small businesses to run payroll for global teams. An EOR allows a small business to hire employees legally in other countries. A global employment platform like Remote manages global payroll and taxes, administers benefits to meet local employment obligations, and handles all issues of compliance.

Small businesses outsource HR services because doing so is usually more cost effective than bringing every HR function in house. The resources required to run payroll; manage benefits; withhold taxes; make required payroll deductions; run employee stock option plans; and stay compliant with evolving regulations is simply too much for a small business to handle. Even most enterprise organisations outsource their HR services to providers who specialise in these areas.

For small businesses hiring internationally, the challenges of HR management only increase. Remote’s guide to international payroll processing outlines several of the challenges small businesses face while providing helpful tips on how to navigate these obstacles.

Outsourcing payroll saves small businesses money while ensuring they provide a great experience for their employees. Even in large organisations, issues with payroll and benefits management are common with in-house tools.

In a small businesses, every employee plays a critical role in the company’s success, so mismanagement of payroll can quickly lead to a rocky employee-employer relationship. 

Outsourcing payroll allows small businesses to save time on administrative processes while eliminating or greatly reducing payroll errors. Employees require on-time, accurate, and consistent payroll as a basic condition of any working relationship.

For a small business with limited resources, meeting the standard of 100% error-free payroll with an in-house tool or solution is difficult. With an outsourced payroll solution, however, even the smallest operations can enjoy world-class reliability in payroll.

Startups operate with different expectations and with different challenges than small businesses. Periods of growth for startups can be sudden and unpredictable, with quick pivots and changes. Small businesses experience periods of growth as well, but for more established businesses, these changes tend to be less chaotic.

Both startups and small businesses need reliability and flexibility in their chosen payroll services. Small businesses often do not have the same investor backing as startups, which means their costs typically must be made up through the sales of their products and services, as opposed to cash from investors. Because of this, small businesses must be especially cautious to avoid payroll vendors with hidden fees or other unpredictable expenses.

It’s important for small businesses to ask the right questions about payroll at the start of any new relationship with a payroll services provider.

Small business payroll service costs can vary depending on where employees live, what the total company payroll costs are, and which benefits the business chooses to offer. In general, however, small businesses do not need to pay high prices for simple payroll services, especially for local teams.

Small businesses with remote teams across multiple countries do spend more on payroll, but those payroll costs also cover things like benefits administration, foreign tax withholding, and compliance with local employment regulations.

When the difference is getting the right person for an open role or continuing to search for a local hire, onboarding an employee in another country can lead to significant cost savings over time. For more information on costs for small business payroll in multiple countries, see Remote’s pricing page.

While employers of record, or EORs, used to be services reserved for larger enterprises with lots of money, that is no longer the case. The rise in remote work has lowered EOR prices across the board, allowing small businesses to access international talent without paying high fees or salary percentages.

Any small business looking to use an EOR to onboard international talent should ask the following questions of any potential EOR services provider:

  • Is this an owned-entity EOR in every country, or does this EOR outsource its services to third parties in certain countries?

  • What kind of protections does the EOR provide for intellectual property and invention rights?

  • How securely does the EOR handle your employees’ sensitive personal information?

  • If you offer an employee stock purchase plan, can the EOR manage that plan for you, including tax withholding?

  • Do you need multiple platforms for contractors and employees?

  • Are there any hidden fees that change from one country to another?

  • Does the EOR have special discounts for startups or social purpose organisations?