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Launched on June 28th, 2022
Hey everyone! I’m Head of Ops at Product Hunt, and I frequently get asked about the best Payroll, PEO, EOR, and HRIS solutions for distributed teams.
I’m active in multiple ops communities (LinkedIn, Slack, Circle), and discussions on this topic come up repeatedly but
These conversations often get lost in the shuffle, leading to repeated threads.
Many insights are locked behind paywalls or exclusive memberships.
So, I’m starting this open thread in our Product Hunt forums to centralize this discussion and make it accessible to all!
How the Market Has Changed
Years ago, managing payroll and HR across different systems was a nightmare. Basic tasks like maintaining org charts and onboarding across multiple platforms was a time suck with so much room for error.
Over the past five years, several factors—remote work, global hiring, and a growing demand for skilled talent esp in the tech sector—have finally brought the HR/People tech stack, ripe for innovation, to the forefront.
Payroll and compliance are no longer the only focus; modern solutions now at a minimum, automatically include org charts, HR data management, tax reporting, and compliance, along with extras like device management, workflow automation, and performance tracking. Along with these features though, there’s been a long overdue need to be able to hire and manage a global workforce in ONE platform.
PEO and EOR services have always existed - but they used to exist as specialized separate companies. Sure, large enterprise companies with deep pockets could hire trained HR staff or work with these specialized companies whenever a need came up. But it’s no longer a one off need.
Everyone is now competing for global talent. Unless a company reaches a tipping point where the costs for PEO/EOR is more than the salary they’d pay to have a team to handle the complexities of setting up and maintaining entities in all the countries you want to hire the best talent from, your next best option is finding PEO/EOR partners to work with - and who best to partner with than the people already handling payroll and benefits for you!
The Race to PEO + EOR under one Roof
There was a point several years ago when I was super frustrated managing our US and International employees on separate platforms. No good integrations for a central HRIS existed either so we just had lots of spreadsheets!I kept sharing with my account managers that Sequoia (our U.S. PEO at the time) should expand into EOR and encouraged Deel (our EOR solution) to add PEO services.
I hoped one of them would listen to me and we’d be able to finally get everyone onto one platform. At some point, I gave up. I didn’t think it would happen…
Well, folks, fast forward and that day has now come and long passed. To be relevant in this space today, you need to be able to manage both US and international employees and contractors, all under one roof.
Even Gusto (who I used back when it first was hot on the scene), has finally gotten into the game and partnered with Remote in 2023 to offer EOR through their Gusto Global offering. I think they missed the boat as many of those seeking the sleek Gusto UI at the time (like me!) ended up getting on the Deel bandwagon instead.
Cost for EOR services range from $500-$1000/month range per employee is no joke! It is an extremely lucrative business for those who do it right.
There is so much healthy competition in this space now - while the big guys duke it out - it’s putting pressure on everyone else in the space to innovate. I’m excited to see where we’ll be in 5 years!
Choosing the Right Partner
With so many players in the market, switching providers based solely on price or basic features isn’t worth the hassle. Here’s what matters most to me when evaluating a partner (did I miss any? Please let me know in this thread!)
EOR coverage - If you need EOR services, make sure they cover at a minimum the countries you already have employees in or want to employ in. Not all EORs are equal. Compare platform fees, payroll processing times, etc.
Strong US benefits - Everyone knows the US healthcare system is terrible and I want my employees healthcare taken care of when they and their families need it - no bare minimum plans for us! I also look to make sure all our other benefit partners are reputable (e.g. retirement).
Custom reporting and dashboards that I can manipulate on the fly - this last bit is important - with a lot of massaging, I can create custom reporting and dashboards in Rippling, but it’s a slog to make edits without needing to get into the complex underbelly of the data structure. Hence why I went back to Charthop… (more on that later)
Responsive customer service - I’m not talking about just good customer service, but it needs to be timely. I don’t think 24 hours turnaround time feels unreasonable in our day and age. Deel still surprises me on almost every interaction, with responses often in minutes.
Ease of use and amazing UI - Ok, yea this seems like a “nice to have” but once you have a taste, it’s hard to see a future where you don’t have it. Especially for small startups like ours, the Ops team is often a generalist or one person team (e.g. yours truly!). I need the platform to be as self-serve as possible. Creating custom fields, reports, dashboards and being able to edit things right in the interface so I don’t have to go in search of where that custom field was stored. Why is this so important? It no longer makes any sense to have to get an HR or IT or data specialist to get your hands on the data you need. Any manager or exec team member should be able to log in and dive into the details and run analytics and be able to answer questions about their team.
Reduce the number of tools we use and include features that better streamline the work for our team. If you can eliminate other tools, workflows I and my team already use, that’s huge win in my book!
Major Players & My Take (skewed towards smaller, growing tech startups)
@Deel (2019 with PEO launched in 2024) – My top pick right now. Initially focused on international hiring (contractors and EOR), they’ve expanded into U.S. PEO services and offer a free HRIS (DeelHR for <200 employees). They have a very highly customer service driven culture and approach - I’m part of a feedback group with monthly facilitated focus groups to learn more about how they can improve Deel. I see them quickly expanding wide (e.g. we really love the PTO app that integrates with Slack) but I’d like to see them dive deeper and improve their current offerings. I’ve been in talks with them about retirement partners that are more reputable. They currently partner with Slavic and per my request, they’ve added @Guideline this year. I’m excited to consolidate our entire team onto Deel by year-end.
@Rippling (2016, PEO in 2020, EOR in 2023) – I really wanted to love Rippling, but I can’t say that’s been my experience at all. And I’m not the only ops leader to say this. Rippling’s been the star in larger growing startups during the scaling phase. They focused on payroll and strong HR database and reporting and automation. They intro’ed PEO in 2020, and just started rolling out EOR in 2023 as we were in the evaluation phase to migrate to them. What I dislike most about Rippling is 1) I feel nickel and dimed for everything 2) although it is powerful, the UI feels too clunky and 90’s-early 2000’s to me. Everytime I want to do something, I feel like I’m taken back ages and have to click through like 10-15 steps just to accomplish one thing, which is why I’ve moved back to Charthop for my central HRIS system. Rippling promised they could do what Charthop does but I haven’t found that to be the case.
@Justworks (2012) – Clean UI and strong customer support, but benefits weren’t as strong as Sequoia, Rippling, or Deel when I last evaluated them. Their EOR offering was still maturing at the time and could be more robust now. That being said, their UI did look clean based on a demo (kind of more like Gusto) and I’ve heard good things about their customer service (probably like my experience with Sequoia with dedicated account managers) but don’t remember their data management or workflows being as powerful as Rippling.
@Gusto (2012 started as payroll, with EOR launching in 2023). I built a startup’s HR from the ground up using Gusto back in the day so am really happy to add them to my mix of partners to consider. I had completely dismissed them for this list, but saw that they recently launched EOR in 2023. I loved Gusto’s UI as it’s clean and pretty self-serve (and hey, their piggy mascot is pretty cute and always brings a smile to my face). Their healthcare offerings were on par with Justworks, but they did also offer fully integrated 401k services with Guideline. They don’t offer PEO so if you need that, I wouldn’t consider Gusto. I used Gusto without PEO and did all the filings and compliance myself but would recommend signing up for their concierge level service which I think they call premium now to get dedicated support.
Sequoia One (2001 with PEO launched in 2014 and EOR launched in 2024). Uff Love and hate relationship with Sequoia. LOVED our support team, but HATEDDDDD with a passion, PRISM. It’s the system that powers many PEOs (I know Trinet also uses Prism but not sure who else). The PX and HRX UIs from Sequoia one were just a pretty face overlaid on top of Prism. Pulling data and running reports was horrific. It literally reminded me of the old DOS days (for those who are old enough to remember that!). I know Sequoia started back in 2001, but as the world is evolving, Sequoia needs to too! Not only is it necessary to improve the UI, but also shifting to support more globally distributed teams. I had started working with Sequoia back in 2021 and kept harping on the fact that they needed to bring in EOR services so we could bring our whole team (international was on Deel) to Sequoia. Well, I never heard anything from them on that topic so I gave up. We left Sequoia in mid 2023… and it looks like Sequoia, like Justworks, partnered with Remote.com in 2024 to launch EOR services to their clients (they never reached out to me to tell me this. I just discovered this by googling on the internet. They rolled out EOR just 6 months too late… I hate to say it, but “I told you so?!?”). All that being said, Sequoia did choose really great partnerships (I learned of Charthop through Sequoia. Read on below to see my love note about Charthop).
Other notable partners though I haven’t had experience with them: @Oyster™ (2020), @Remote (2019), @Papaya Global (2016)- not familiar with these but now seeing them more often now after Deel made it big. Anyone want to share their experience with them? @ahiggz I think your team might have decided on Oyster?
OG - I’ve used these folks in the past and have had some really terrible experiences so wouldn’t think to use them again. If you just need payroll and want the power of negotiated healthcare at low prices, you could check out @TriNet or ADP to see if they fit your needs.
Can’t migrate now but need an interim solution?
Ok to be upfront, this section is a straight up shoutout to @charthop cc @eonwhite ! (no, this is not a sponsored ad, just major props from a huge fan of Charthop and team ❤️)
If you’re between providers or juggling multiple platforms, Charthop is what you might not have realized you needed all your (ops) career!
When I discovered Charthop, I was with Sequoia One and Deel. I decided to test it out for our org chart, because well, heck, it integrated directly with Sequoia One and I only had to manually add my Deel folks (spoiler alert, just THIS month, Charthop has helped me set up the direct integration with Deel - I’m super happy! 🥹)But then I discovered the magic of Charthop - it was way more than an org chart. It was THE HRIS I’d been dreaming of. And not only was it a beautiful UI, it would also historically keep track of everything so that we could drill in on a person and see their entire history with us (e.g. salary, title, reporting changes etc including former employees). It solved problems I didn’t even realized I had (e.g. I could see the % of their last raise and when it was and I didn’t even have to calculate it myself!). Beyond that, I was in love with how easy it was for me create custom fields, custom reports and dashboards - and the best part was… I could EDIT the data INSIDE the view. No going to dig up the field on the person’s profile I needed to make edits. I hate to call it that, but basically it was a excel/google sheets on steroids because it synced to my employee database. Isn’t this how it SHOULD be?!
When we moved to Sequoia One to Rippling, I had cancelled Charthop, being overpromised that Rippling would replace them. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that Rippling was NOT a suitable replacement. I’ve happily returned to Charthop (and they’ve taken me back in with open arms! ❤️)
So long story short, it’s a must-have if you want data continuity between provider changes. I’ve been in your shoes! I’m tired of losing all my historical data when I move platforms and having to revert back to looking up historical data of my former employees on spreadsheets. With Charthop, you NEVER lose any of that data, no matter what payroll, PEO, EOR provider you use (+ as a plug, their offering has grown significantly,, including compensation reviews process, headcount scenario planning, performance management and planning, task/workflow automations, etc).
What’s next?
I’m really pumped to see what this space looks like 5 years from now. Back in 2021, I was advocating for PEO+EOR. It happened too late for us with Sequoia One, but looking ahead, I foresee the need for more consolidation. There are some really magical products (like Charthop!) out there. @Lattice also stands out in the performance management space. But without tight integration, adoption is challenging. I think that major players who want to stay ahead of the game, these capabilities need to be built into core people platforms and not stand as one-offs.
Next up after that? I’d love someone (ahem @Deel ?! cc @bouazizalex @copernicus) to bring on more operational efficiencies in other areas of the business - maybe they add on a business operations arm that brings CRM, sales, contracts, invoices, payment collection and management, and finance too? I struggle with my people and sales data not being directly linked with our accounting data. Hey, maybe in 5 years, I’ll look back on this post and laugh because it already exists!
Your Turn!
I know this is a hot topic and would love to hear from fellow ops leaders and founders out there!
What are the top HR/People systems in your tech stack?
What are your biggest gripes with current Payroll/PEO/EOR/HRIS providers?
What’s missing from today’s solutions that would make you switch providers instantly?
What would your dream Payroll/PEO/EOR/HRIS platform look like?
Let’s build a lasting valuable resource everyone can access — share your experience and drop your thoughts below!
