Oyster Review (2026)Two Costs Have No Figure

Pricing (2026)

✓ Pricing re-verified 9 Oct 2026

Employer of Record USD 699 per employee per month, with annual discounts available; Global Contractors free for 30 days, then USD 29 per contractor per month; People Partner Services USD 300 per hour, project-based. Creating an account is free, there is no minimum team size, and Oyster states there are no setup or onboarding fees. Two costs still carry no figure anywhere: Oyster requires a refundable deposit for EOR team members, and charges a currency-conversion fee when you pay in a currency other than the contract currency (it accepts USD, EUR, GBP and CAD).

Oyster Shell, listed as an add-on to Global Contractors with no published price, carries aggregate misclassification protection up to USD $500,000. Plans change — always verify the live price on their site.

Category context: HR & People. Across the 13 tools in this category that we researched with a public US-dollar price, the median entry price is $14 a month (lowest paid plan as listed, per seat where the vendor prices per seat). Oyster’s entry price of $699 a month sits above that median. Compare pricing conditions in the Software Cost Atlas →

Correction after re-checking: One line in our earlier text no longer holds. We wrote that the refundable EOR deposit and the currency-conversion fee sit in the FAQ rather than on the price card; on 14 August 2026 both are stated on the pricing page itself. Neither has a number attached, so the substance stands — $699 is a floor, not a total — but Oyster is no longer burying them. The startup offer of up to $1,200 off EOR subscription fees is on the pricing page itself on 29 August 2026, and two other discount routes sit beside it: Oyster for Impact for non-profits and B Corps, and Oyster for Refugees, which the page says carries no or discounted costs. None of the three states a rate you can calculate with, so treat all of them as an opening to ask rather than a price. (re-verified 2026-08-29)

What the pricing page doesn’t say

The catch

Oyster holds a refundable deposit per EOR employee: working capital out of your account before anyone is paid. It also takes an FX fee whenever the payment currency differs from the contract currency, which for a genuinely global team is most of the time. Neither has a figure attached anywhere we could find. So the honest position is that $699 is the floor, and the real per-employee cost depends on a deposit and a spread you have to ask for.

The contractor product is a different shape and much cheaper at $29, so decide which one you actually need. Misclassifying a contractor as an employee is expensive; misclassifying the other way is what the $699 exists to prevent.

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What Oyster does

Employer of record and global contractor management for hiring where you have no legal entity. Two costs sit in the FAQ rather than on the price card: a refundable deposit per EOR employee, and an FX fee when payment and contract currency differ.

What buyers report about Oyster

Hands-on: not tested by usDocumented by the vendor: 3 features, read 2026-10-09Reported by buyers: G2, Capterra, EOR comparison sites and GetApp, read August 2026 (the GetApp listing states it was last updated July 2026, over 91 verified reviews)

Themes from the buyer-review sites listed at the foot of this page, read in August 2026 (the GetApp listing states it was last updated July 2026, over 91 verified reviews). We have not run Oyster ourselves, so this is other buyers' experience rather than ours. We summarise it here because the complaints are usually the part a vendor page leaves out.

When the paid plan is worth it

There are two products here at wildly different prices, and picking the wrong one is the expensive mistake. Employer of Record is USD 699 per employee per month with annual discounts available. Global Contractors is free for 30 days and then USD 29 per contractor per month — twenty-four times cheaper. People Partner Services are USD 300 an hour, project-based. That gap is not a discount to chase, it is a legal distinction.

Misclassifying an employee as a contractor is what the $699 exists to prevent, and the exposure from getting it wrong dwarfs the difference. Decide the classification first on the facts of the working relationship, then read the price. Oyster Shell, with aggregate misclassification protection up to USD $500,000, sits on the pricing page as an add-on to Global Contractors with no published price (re-read 9 October 2026); ask for it before you weigh that number against the risk you are carrying.

Two costs decide your actual per-employee bill and neither has a figure anywhere we could find. Oyster requires a refundable deposit for EOR team members. That is working capital out of your account before anyone is paid, and on a team of ten it is a meaningful sum sitting somewhere else. And there is a currency-conversion fee whenever you pay in a currency other than the contract currency — which for a genuinely global team is most of the time.

Oyster accepts USD, EUR, GBP and CAD. So $699 is the floor, and the honest position is that the real cost depends on a deposit and a spread you have to ask for. Ask for both in writing, as a percentage and as a multiple-of-salary figure. For a company hiring its first person abroad, that removes the usual barrier to finding out what this costs.

How to actually use Oyster

Ask for the two unpriced numbers before you budget anything. One is the refundable deposit Oyster requires per EOR employee. The other is the currency-conversion fee, charged whenever you pay in a currency other than the contract currency. Neither carries a figure anywhere we could find, and the deposit is working capital leaving your account before anyone is paid. Treat $699 per employee per month as the floor rather than the cost.

Then decide which product you actually need, because they differ by a factor of twenty-four and by law. Employer of Record at $699 exists precisely to prevent misclassification; Global Contractors at $29 assumes the classification is already right. Getting that wrong is expensive in both directions, and it is a legal question rather than a budget one. Take advice on the specific role and country rather than picking the cheaper line.

Check the currency list against your reality: Oyster accepts USD, EUR, GBP and CAD. If your contracts or your people sit outside those, the FX question is not occasional, it is every payment. So run one real contractor payment cycle end to end during the 30 free days before committing to anything larger. If you take the contractor product, note that the pricing page lists Oyster Shell, with aggregate misclassification protection up to $500,000, as an add-on rather than part of the plan, with no published price (re-read 9 October 2026).

Ask what it costs before you count on it, since that is the risk you are carrying.

Distilled from Oyster's own pricing page (oysterhr.com/pricing), read 29 August 2026 — the three product cards with the currency selector set to USD, and the FAQ block below them on the refundable EOR deposit, currency conversion, minimum team size and how annual EOR seat billing works.

Oyster vs Deel, side by side

Each column shows the vendor’s own published entry price, read on the date shown. Entry prices can cover different services or units, so check what each one buys. We do not average them into a score.

Oyster →

What it costs

Employer of Record USD 699 per employee a month; contractors USD 29 each a month after 30 free days

Price read on

9 Oct 2026

The catch

Oyster holds a refundable deposit per EOR employee and takes an FX fee when currencies differ, and neither has a published figure, so $699 is the floor.

Best for

companies hiring their first employees in countries where they have no legal entity, and who would otherwise spend more on local counsel and payroll setup than the monthly fee

Deel →

What it costs

From $14 a month per worker for Find talent (hiring); Contractor, PEO and EOR are priced separately, up to $599

Price read on

9 Oct 2026

The catch

Every price is a ‘starting at’ and every button says ‘book a demo’ — the real bill depends on countries, benefits and add-ons, and only firms up in a sales conversation.

Best for

companies hiring internationally without local entities — contractors paid compliantly in 150+ countries, or full EOR employment where you need someone on the ground fast

The Deel link above is an affiliate link — we may earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you — and the other column is a plain link. Neither changes what this table says.

The natural comparison is Deel or Remote — the standing EOR comparison — ask all three for the deposit amount and the FX spread, because the per-employee headline is the part they agree on.

Visit Oyster →

Frequently asked questions

Employee or contractor — which Oyster product do I need?

The gap is USD 699 against USD 29 a month, so it pays to get this right rather than cheap. Employer of Record at USD 699 per employee per month exists to carry the legal employment relationship in a country where you have no entity; Global Contractors, free for 30 days then USD 29 per contractor per month, does not. Misclassifying an employee as a contractor is the expensive mistake, and Oyster offers Oyster Shell as an add-on to the contractor product, which it says carries aggregate misclassification protection up to USD $500,000; the pricing page gives it no price (re-read 9 October 2026).

What will Oyster cost beyond the $699?

Two things, and neither has a published figure. Oyster requires a refundable deposit per EOR team member — working capital out of your account before anyone is paid — and charges a currency-conversion fee whenever you pay in a currency other than the contract currency; it accepts USD, EUR, GBP and CAD, so for a genuinely global team that fee is the normal case rather than the exception. Ask for both numbers in writing before you sign. There is no setup or onboarding fee and no minimum team size.

Is there any discount to ask for?

The pricing page says annual discounts are available on Employer of Record, and our August 2026 capture of the same page carried a startup offer of up to $1,200 off EOR subscription fees. Both are stated without conditions, which makes them an opening to negotiate rather than a rate you will automatically be given.

Is this a hands-on review of Oyster?

This is a researched assessment, not a hands-on test — where we've used a tool ourselves, we say so explicitly. We name what each tool is good and bad at, and we have no affiliate relationship with Oyster — we earn nothing whether you sign up or not.

Others in this category

Reviewed hr & people tools that share ground with Oyster — comparable in what they do, not drop-in swaps:

DeelRemote PeoplePapaya GlobalMera WorkGCheckall 20 reviews →