Remote People and Deel both sell employer of record (EOR) services, which let you hire a full-time employee in a country where you have no legal entity. The provider becomes the legal employer, runs local payroll and benefits, and you direct the work. Beyond that shared core, the two companies have built quite different businesses.
Deel is a large global HR platform. Its pages cite 40,000+ customers and a product range that runs from EOR and contractor payments to HR software and a US PEO. Remote People, the company formerly called Horizons, is smaller (it cites 3,000+ companies) and pairs its EOR with a recruitment agency, so it can find the candidate as well as employ them.
This comparison sets out what each vendor publishes about coverage, pricing, onboarding and support, and where the gaps are that you'll need to close in a sales call.
How we wrote this: we describe both vendors from their own public product and pricing pages, checked in November 2026. We have not run hands-on trials, and nothing here is a test result. Prices are the vendors' "starting at" list prices; your quote will depend on country, salary, headcount and contract length. For our full write-ups, see our Remote People review and Deel review, and for the wider market, our list of the top employer of record software.
Remote People vs Deel at a glance
| Remote People | Deel | |
|---|---|---|
| EOR price (from) | $499 per employee per month (EOR Global); $199 (EOR Select, selected countries and salary ranges) | $599 per employee per month |
| EOR countries | 150+ | 130+ (owned entities); 150+ for hiring and contracting overall |
| Contractor of record (from) | $199 per contractor per month | $325 per contractor per month |
| Contractor management (from) | $29 (listed as per payout on the pricing table, per month in its FAQ) | $49 per contractor per month |
| Global payroll, your own entities (from) | $25 per employee per month | No price published |
| US PEO (from) | $99 per employee per month | $125 per employee per month |
| Recruitment | In-house: 20% of annual salary, or 2% per month for 12 months with EOR | Talent sourcing tool from $14 per worker per month |
| HR software | Command Center, included at no extra fee | Deel HR, from $5 per employee per month (Core) |
| Stated EOR onboarding | 48 hours from signed paperwork | "As little as one day" |
| Stated support | 24/5, named account manager | 24/7 |
| Stated customers | 3,000+ companies | 40,000+ customers |
Sources: Remote People pricing, Remote People EOR, Remote People home page, Deel pricing, Deel EOR, Deel HR. All figures are the vendors' own claims, checked November 2026.
First, a naming note
Remote People (remotepeople.com) is not the same company as Remote (remote.com), even though the names are close. Remote People's home page says it is "not affiliated with or related to" Remote Europe Holding B.V. The company traded as Horizons until early 2026; we covered the change in Horizons rebrands as Remote People. If you're actually weighing Deel against remote.com, read our Deel vs Remote comparison instead.
When you search for reviews or case studies, include "Horizons" as well. Much of the older material about this company uses the previous name.
Why the EOR choice matters
An EOR carries real legal weight. It issues the employment contract, withholds and pays tax and social contributions, administers statutory benefits and handles termination under local law. If it gets those wrong, your employee is the one who notices first.
The cheaper alternative, hiring people abroad as independent contractors, works for genuinely independent work but carries classification risk. The US Internal Revenue Service's employee or independent contractor guidance looks at behavioral control, financial control and the type of relationship, and warns that if you classify an employee as a contractor with no reasonable basis, "you may be held liable for employment taxes for that worker". Other countries apply their own tests, often stricter ones.
The need isn't shrinking. Pew Research Center found that 32% of US workers with teleworkable jobs worked from home all the time as of October 2024. Once a role is fully remote, the best candidate can live anywhere. If you're still working out which model fits, our employer of record guide and EOR vs PEO comparison cover the basics.
Employer of record compared
Country coverage
Remote People's EOR page says you can "hire across 150+ countries without setting up a local entity", and its home page adds that coverage "varies by service and location" and is confirmed before an engagement. The page doesn't say how many of those countries run through entities Remote People owns and how many through local partners. It does say it has "200+ Legal and HR specialists in every market, on our own payroll".
Deel's EOR page is more specific on ownership. It says Deel owns "entities and payroll engine in 130+ countries", while quoting 150+ countries for its wider hiring and contracting coverage. That suggests some countries are served through partners or through contractor-only arrangements.
For most buyers, the headline count matters less than the answer for your specific countries. Ask both vendors, in writing, whether each country on your list runs through an owned entity or a partner, who issues payslips, and who your employee calls with a payroll problem.
Onboarding speed
Remote People says a hire can be "onboarded in 48 hours" from signed paperwork, and adds an important caveat: "mandatory registrations, visa processing, and notice requirements can extend the timeline in some jurisdictions." Deel's EOR FAQ says new employees can be onboarded "in as little as one day".
Both are best-case figures. In practice the timeline is usually set by things neither provider controls: the candidate's notice period with their current employer, background checks and work permits. If a start date is fixed, give the provider the date and ask what has to happen by when.
Contracts and intellectual property
Both vendors address IP directly, which matters for any product or software team:
- Remote People says its contracts assign "IP and invention rights" to the client "from the first clause".
- Deel says "any and all IP passes through to you the customer", and describes its IP clauses as "the strongest intellectual property protection clauses built into our contracts" (a marketing claim, not something you can check without seeing the contract).
Ask each for a sample employment contract for one of your target countries. Local law sometimes limits how far an IP assignment can go, particularly for inventions made outside working hours, so get your own counsel to read it.
Benefits and compliance
Remote People says statutory benefits are administered locally, and that extra health, pension or insurance cover can be added and sourced locally. Deel says each employee receives "all necessary localized benefits" plus optional benefits the employer picks, and promises "best-in-class benefits, self-serve payslips, PTO, and expenses from day one."
On compliance staff, Deel's EOR page claims "200+ legal experts specialized in employment regulations, local statutory benefits, and tax laws by country", and elsewhere on the same page "2,000+ experts" across legal, HR and equity. Remote People claims 200+ legal and HR specialists. These are self-reported headcounts and don't tell you how much expertise sits in any one country.
Remote People's EOR page also includes a caveat worth reading: an EOR "does not automatically remove every corporate tax or permanent establishment risk." That's true of every EOR, Deel included. If you have senior staff signing deals in a country, take tax advice on whether you're creating a taxable presence there.
Security certifications
Remote People's home page and EOR page list ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II, though the EOR body text also describes itself as "ISO 27001 aligned", which isn't the same thing as certified. Deel's global payroll page lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certification and GDPR compliance. Either way, ask for the current audit report and certificate under NDA before you share employee data.
Pricing compared
Both vendors publish starting prices, which isn't a given in this market. Here's what each says, product by product, as of November 2026.
EOR fees
Remote People lists three EOR options on its pricing page:
- EOR Global: from $499 per employee per month, with local contracts, payroll and tax administration, statutory benefits administration, a dedicated account manager and ongoing employment support.
- EOR Select: from $199 per employee per month, for selected countries and qualifying salary ranges. The page says country and salary conditions apply but doesn't list them.
- EOR Switch: custom pricing for companies moving from another EOR, with "up to 12 months of fees returned", free migration in about two weeks and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Deel lists EOR from $599 per employee per month. Its pricing FAQ says the fee covers onboarding, local compliance, payroll, tax filings, benefits administration and ongoing HR and legal support, and that it offers "flexible month-to-month pricing with no long-term commitments required". Its promotional terms, though, tie a promotional credit to a minimum two-year order form, with repayment if you end the contract early. Read your order form closely.
At list price, Remote People's EOR Global plan is $100 per employee per month cheaper than Deel's EOR. For a team of ten EOR employees, that's $1,000 a month or $12,000 a year before any negotiation. If your hires qualify for EOR Select, the gap is wider. Note that older pages about this company, including earlier third-party write-ups, quote different figures, so always work from a current proposal.
In both cases the provider fee sits on top of salary, employer social contributions and benefits. Remote People's pricing FAQ says this explicitly. To estimate the full monthly cost of a hire, try our EOR cost calculator.
Deposits and other charges
Neither vendor publishes deposit amounts for EOR. Remote People's pricing FAQ says its proposal confirms "any security deposit, setup, offboarding, currency-conversion, or other charges", along with payroll funding requirements. Its contractor of record page is more specific: fixed-rate contractor contracts need a one-month security deposit (wages plus the management fee), while pay-as-you-go contracts don't.
Deel's pricing page doesn't mention deposits. Its FAQ says there are "no surprise fees" and that "you can cancel at any time".
Deposits and FX margins can change the real cost more than the headline fee, so ask both vendors for them in writing, per country.
Contractors
For contractor of record, where the provider signs the contractor agreement and takes on more of the misclassification risk:
- Remote People: from $199 per contractor per month. Its page says "Misclassification claims come to us, not you", but its FAQ adds that the service agreement "defines RemotePeople's responsibilities and any agreed protection". No indemnity amounts or caps are published.
- Deel: from $325 per contractor per month.
For plain contractor management (contracts, invoices and payments, with the contractor's status your responsibility):
- Remote People: from $29. The pricing table describes this as per payout, while its FAQ says per contractor per month. Clarify which applies before you sign.
- Deel: from $49 per contractor per month.
If you mostly work with freelancers, our contractor management software roundup and independent contractor guide go further.
Payroll and US PEO
- Global payroll for entities you own: Remote People lists from $25 per employee per month, with volume discounts from 50 employees. Deel's global payroll page claims coverage in 150+ countries and a managed option with a dedicated payroll manager, but publishes no price.
- US payroll: Remote People lists from $29 per employee per month across all 50 states.
- US PEO: Remote People from $99 per employee per month; Deel from $125.
Where they really differ: recruiting vs software
The clearest split is in what each company sells around the EOR.
Remote People: recruitment first
Remote People runs its own recruitment agency alongside the EOR. Its pricing page lists:
- Global recruitment: 20% of annual salary, paid on the candidate's first day, in 150+ countries.
- Executive search: 25% of annual salary.
- Recruit + EOR: 2% of annual salary per month for 12 months (24% in total), combined with EOR employment.
Its EOR page mentions a six-month replacement guarantee on recruitment, subject to agreed terms, and the home page claims shortlists in five days. It also lists visa and immigration support in 80+ countries, priced per case, plus company incorporation and EOR-to-entity transfers on custom quotes.
That makes it a fit for a company entering a new country without a local network. One provider can find the person, employ them, sponsor a visa if needed and later help you set up your own entity.
Deel: a wider software suite
Deel leans on software. Deel HR starts at $5 per employee per month for the Core plan (employee records, org chart, time off, workflows, people analytics). Advanced adds review cycles, goals, learning and surveys, and Elite adds headcount forecasting and pay administration. Prices for the upper tiers aren't listed. Deel's pricing page also offers a talent-sourcing product from $14 per worker per month, and its payroll page lists integrations with systems such as Workday, SAP, Oracle, Okta and BambooHR.
If you want one vendor to hold employee records, run performance reviews and pay people in many countries, Deel is built for that. Remote People offers its Command Center tool at no extra fee, but its pages position it as an employment operations tool, not a full HRIS.
Support and scale
Deel claims 24/7 support "across continents in your language and time zone", 40,000+ customers and more than $20 billion of payroll processed. Remote People offers support 24/5 through a named account manager backed by HR and legal specialists, claims 3,000+ client companies and says it has had "zero missed payrolls since 2018".
Scale cuts both ways. A large provider has more country experience and more engineering behind its software. A smaller one may give you more continuity with the same account manager. Neither customer count tells you how well your countries are run, so ask each for a reference customer of similar size hiring in the same markets.
Which should you choose?
Choose Remote People if:
- You need help finding candidates as well as employing them, especially in a market where you have no recruiting network.
- You want a lower EOR list price, or your hires may qualify for EOR Select.
- You need contractor of record, visa support or entity set-up from the same provider.
- You value a named account manager over round-the-clock support.
Choose Deel if:
- You want HR software, performance reviews and payroll on the same platform as your EOR.
- You need 24/7 support across many time zones.
- You want month-to-month EOR terms and a provider that states which countries run through its own entities.
- You already run a large or fast-growing global team and want a vendor with a long list of integrations.
Consider neither if your quotes come back well above list or neither covers your countries well. Our Deel alternatives guide and the top employer of record software list cover other providers. Our Oyster vs Horizons and Multiplier vs Horizons comparisons look at Remote People under its old name.
Whichever you lean towards, send both vendors the same scenario: the same countries, salaries, start dates and contract length. Ask for the provider fee, employer costs, any deposit, FX handling, termination costs and the entity-or-partner answer for each country. Two side-by-side quotes will tell you more than either website.
Frequently asked questions
Is Remote People cheaper than Deel?
At list price, yes. Remote People's EOR starts at $499 per employee per month (or $199 under EOR Select for qualifying countries and salaries) against Deel's $599. Its contractor of record ($199 vs $325) and US PEO ($99 vs $125) list prices are also lower. Prices checked November 2026.
Is Remote People the same company as Remote?
No. Remote People, formerly Horizons, operates at remotepeople.com. Its home page states it is not affiliated with Remote Europe Holding B.V., the company behind remote.com.
Which covers more countries?
Remote People says it offers EOR in 150+ countries but doesn't say how many use its own entities. Deel says it owns entities in 130+ countries and quotes 150+ for hiring and contracting overall. Confirm coverage for your specific countries.
Does either charge a deposit?
Neither publishes EOR deposit amounts. Remote People says its proposal confirms any deposit, and its contractor of record page asks for a one-month deposit on fixed-rate contracts. Deel's pricing page doesn't mention deposits, so ask.
Can Remote People recruit as well as employ?
Yes. It lists global recruitment at 20% of annual salary, executive search at 25%, and a Recruit + EOR option at 2% of annual salary per month for 12 months.