Most companies pick their EOR provider in about a week. Then they live with that choice for a year or more.
The ones who end up regretting it regret the same three things, every time. A cost nobody showed them. A country their provider turned out to be quietly bad at. A contract that made leaving expensive.
All three are findable before you sign. It takes twelve questions.
Quick refresher if you’re new to this: an Employer of Record is a company that already has a registered entity in the country you’re hiring in. They put your new hire on their payroll, legally, so you don’t have to set up a company there yourself. You still choose that person, manage them, and set their salary.
Send these by email, not on a call. You want answers you can put side by side, and you want them on record. The provider who replies with a short, plain email is already showing you what they’re like when payroll breaks at 2am in Manila.
Twelve questions, four groups: can they actually do it, what does it really cost, what happens when you need help, and what happens when you leave.
The first group is coverage. Do they own their entity in your country, or are they reselling someone who does? Neither answer is wrong, owning the entity usually means faster answers and more control, and partners are how almost every provider covers smaller countries. What matters is whether they tell you which one it is. Good answer: “We own our entity in Brazil, but in Vietnam we work with a partner we’ve used for four years.” Bad answer: the word “global,” three times, no country names.
Still on coverage: whose name is on your employee’s contract, and who do they call when payroll is late? You want a legal company name and an actual human. If the answer is “our platform,” ask again. Platforms don’t fix a missing salary payment. People do. And ask how long onboarding actually takes, by country name. Every provider advertises “a week or two” as an average, and averages hide everything that goes wrong. Real detail means they’ve done it before.
The second group is money. Ask for the total monthly cost per employee, including everything. The advertised fee isn’t the cost. For a normal country and role, $200–$400 per person per month is fair right now. Above $500, you should be able to name what you’re getting for it. Then ask about the exchange rate margin. You pay in dollars or euros, your employee gets paid locally, and somebody converts that money. Under 1% is fine. Above 2%, undisclosed, is a red flag. On a $60,000 salary, 2% is $1,200 a year, per person — often more than the fee they advertised. Finally, ask about the deposit: how much, and when exactly do you get it back. One month is normal, two is negotiable, three shows up in countries where firing someone is expensive. Ask whether they’ll waive it. Funded companies and companies with a payment history often get it dropped. You just have to ask.
The third group is service. Ask who your day-to-day contact is, and what response time they’ll commit to in writing. “In writing” is the whole question. A named person or team, hours instead of days, written into the contract. Then ask them to walk you through exactly what happens, and who pays, if your employee has a legal problem in month seven. That’s the one they can’t have a slide ready for. You’re listening for whether they’ve actually lived through it. A real case story beats a policy document read out loud. And before you sign anything, ask to read the actual employment contract they’d use for this hire. Check the notice period, probation period, and who owns the work your person creates. If a provider won’t show you the contract your employee will sign, that’s your answer.
The fourth group is exit. Nobody asks these on a first call. They’re the ones that cost real money later. Ask what it costs when someone leaves — processing fees, notice periods you pay through, or both. Providers who are cheap to join can be expensive to leave. Ask how they handle the transition when you eventually open your own entity and want to move your people over. Past ten or fifteen people in one country, monthly fees start costing more than running your own entity. Ask now, while they’re still selling to you. “We can discuss that later” means it’s expensive.
The last question is the most useful one. Ask them which countries they’re weak in. Every provider is weak somewhere. The rep who names a real weakness is telling you the truth about the other eleven answers too. The rep who says “we’re strong everywhere” has just answered a much bigger question.
Send all twelve in one email to every provider on your shortlist. Put the answers next to each other in a spreadsheet. The differences get obvious fast, and you end up choosing on facts instead of whoever called back first.
All twelve questions are on a free one-page checklist at our how to choose an employer of record guide. No email required.