Pillar 1 · Employer of Record → Hiring US employees
Best EOR for hiring US employees (2026): PEO is the US product, EOR is everyone else
Pricing from vendor pages captured 2026-09-07. If you only remember one thing: a US hire on Deel is listed at $125 PEO, not $599 EOR. Mixing those SKUs is how a “cheapest EOR” roundup lies to you.
The query is “best EOR for hiring US employees.” The honest answer starts by splitting the buyer, because the SKU changes.
- You already have a US entity (Delaware C-corp, Wyoming LLC, or any state employer registration) and you want someone on US payroll without standing up HR, benefits and multi-state tax in-house. That product is a PEO — co-employment in the United States.
- You do not have a US entity and you want a US person on real payroll anyway. Then you are buying US employment through someone else’s stack, and the constraint is often a US bank account or a formation step, not the monthly platform fee. See US incorporation before you shortlist EOR logos.
EOR — Deel $599, Remote $699, Oyster USD 699 — is the product for hiring in a country where you do not have an entity. It is the right comparison for a Berlin or Manila hire. It is the wrong sticker for Austin.
How to read the numbers
Deel, Remote, Rippling, Oyster and Multiplier figures are from our 2026-09-07 snapshot run of each vendor’s pricing URL (all HTTP 200 except we are not using Rippling’s extracted “42% / 50%” — that page is a quote form, not a rate card). Deel PEO promo terms are from the same Deel pricing capture. Remote’s US-bank constraint is from remote.com/pricing FAQ text in that snapshot. State add-ons are not on those pages; we flag them as unpublished rather than inventing ACA premiums.
The US hire table
| Provider | US hire SKU | List price (2026-09-07) | Published constraint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deel | US PEO | $125 / employee / month | All 50 states, benefits included on the pricing page. 3 months free on PEO: order form 2026-07-15 to 2026-12-31, min 2-year term, clawback if you exit early |
| Remote | PEO | From $99 / employee / month | Billed in USD. Requires a US bank account. “Hire and manage employees across the U.S.” — no 50-state sentence on the pricing page |
| Rippling | Quote (PEO / payroll / Global) | Not on the public pricing page | Quote form only. Right answer if you already run US HR/IT/payroll on Rippling; not a list-price pick |
| Oyster | EOR (US listed in hire-in list) | USD 699 / employee / month | Same EOR sticker as non-US hires. Refundable EOR deposit. Annual seats at a reduced fee exist; the discount is not printed as a dollar figure |
| Multiplier | EOR | From $459 / employee / month annual, $499 monthly (Core). Growth $519 annual / $559 monthly | FAQ: ~11% of countries have adjusted pricing. No separate US PEO line on the 2026-09-07 capture |
For comparison, the non-US EOR stickers on the same day: Deel $599, Remote $699, Oyster USD 699. That $474–$600 gap versus Deel PEO is not a negotiation. It is two products.
Two buyers, two answers
Buyer A — Delaware C-corp, first US hire is in Texas, next might be California. You already have the entity. You want payroll, benefits and multi-state tax without a People team. On published list prices, Remote PEO from $99 undercuts Deel PEO at $125 by $26 a month, $312 a year, before benefits. Deel’s page says benefits are included in the PEO line and names healthcare, dental, vision, mental health, fertility and 401(k). Remote’s PEO line says access to high-quality, large-group benefits — not a premium. We will not net those packages against each other from marketing copy. Ask both for a Texas quote with the same medical tier, then add California’s SDI and leave rules if that hire is next.
Rippling wins this buyer only if the company is already on Rippling for US HR, devices or spend. There is no public number to put in the table. Paying a sales cycle to discover you have rebuilt payroll you already own is the failure mode.
Buyer B — UK Ltd or Singapore Pte, hiring a US customer-success lead, no US entity, no US bank. Remote PEO’s published US-bank requirement is the gate, not the $99. Deel PEO at $125 does not print that gate on the pricing page we captured; it still may appear in onboarding. If neither PEO will take you without a US account, you are on the incorporation path — Atlas / Firstbase, EIN, then a bank — which we cost on the incorporation pillar and the Mercury-from-abroad page. Putting that person on global EOR at $599–$699 to skip the bank is possible with some vendors and expensive relative to forming the entity if you plan to hire a second American.
Worked platform-fee only, one US employee, twelve months, no benefits, no deposit, no promo:
- Remote PEO at $99: $1,188 — if you have the US bank.
- Deel PEO at $125: $1,500. The three-month-free offer is not $0; it is a two-year order form with clawback. We are not applying it to this line.
- Deel EOR at $599: $7,188.
- Remote EOR at $699: $8,388.
- Oyster EOR at 699: $8,388, plus the refundable deposit Oyster’s FAQ says it collects.
- Multiplier Core annual at $459: $5,508 — only if the US is in the standard-price set, not the ~11% adjusted set. Confirm the country.
None of those lines is the employer cost of the human. Employer payroll tax, workers’ comp and health insurance dwarf $99 versus $125. The platform fee is how you choose the vendor after you have accepted that you are employing someone in the United States.
State of hire moves the bill more than the logo
Our EOR pillar already says this and it still holds: California adds SDI and unusual leave; Washington adds paid family leave; Texas has no state income tax and different workers’ comp exposure. None of the 2026-09-07 pricing pages publish those add-ons as a dollar. Treat “all 50 states” as a licensing claim, then ask which legal entity will actually employ the person in that state. A gap in one state ends the comparison regardless of the $125 line.
Remote Equity, from $39 a month, is scoped on the pricing page to direct employees, EOR employees and contractors of Delaware C-corps. A UK Ltd hiring a US seller who needs options is not on that product. Deel’s equity copy on the EOR pillar is broader and still not a substitute for counsel. If equity is why you are hiring in the US, the parent entity is the first decision — Firstbase vs Atlas — not the PEO logo.
What we would actually pick
Not advice. Where the published pages point.
- US entity, US bank, one or two US hires, you are not already on Rippling. Price Remote PEO at from $99 and Deel PEO at $125 with the same benefits quote. Take the cheaper fully loaded number. Remote’s owned-entity story matters more for non-US EOR than for this SKU.
- Already on Rippling for US payroll. Stay. Adding a second US PEO next to it is how you pay twice for onboarding.
- No US entity, no US bank. Do not start at $599 EOR to avoid a bank. Read the incorporation pillar, then ask Deel whether PEO onboards without a US account. If the answer is no, the $500 formation fee is the cheaper of the two mistakes.
- The US hire is really a contractor. That is a different page: EOR vs Contractor of Record. Misclassifying a US W-2 role as a 1099 to dodge PEO is not a fee optimisation.
Oyster and Multiplier remain in the global EOR shortlist. They are not the US-PEO shortlist on today’s public pages. Papaya Global and Globalization Partners are in this market and pay us nothing; we have not captured their 2026-09-07 US PEO cards, so they are not in the table. If one of them wins your RFP on a written quote, that quote beats this page.
Frequently asked
Is EOR or PEO right for a US hire?
PEO if you have (or will have) a US entity. EOR rates are the non-US SKU. Deel prints both on one page: $125 PEO, $599 EOR.
Can a non-US company use Remote PEO?
The pricing page requires a US bank account and USD billing. That is the documented blocker. Deel PEO does not print the same sentence on the capture we have.
Is Remote $99 cheaper than Deel $125?
On the platform line, yes, $312 a year. Benefits, workers’ comp and the bank requirement can erase that. Get both quotes on the same state and plan.
Does Rippling have a public US price?
Not on 2026-09-07. Quote only.
Should we use global EOR for one US salesperson?
Only after PEO and formation are actually closed. $599–$699 a month is $7k–$8k a year of platform fee to postpone a bank account. Two US hires and the entity usually wins on arithmetic even before you count equity.
Related
- EOR pillar — five-provider table and country-pair worked examples.
- Deel vs Remote 2026 — the $599 vs $699 EOR comparison, including the US-bank PEO note.
- EOR vs Contractor of Record — if the US person is not actually an employee.
- US incorporation — the step Buyer B is actually in.
Not legal, tax or employment advice. Deel, Remote, Rippling, Oyster and Multiplier prices from 2026-09-07 snapshot captures of each vendor’s public pricing URL. Deel PEO promo terms from the same Deel page. Remote US-bank constraint from the Remote pricing FAQ in that snapshot. Papaya Global and Globalization Partners are not in the table because we did not capture their pages today. Vendor prices change; a signed order form beats this article. Some links are affiliate links; Papaya and Globalization Partners links, if we add them later, would not be.