If you're hiring internationally and dealing with the nightmare of entity setup, payroll compliance, and employment law across 47 different countries, Oyster HR is trying to make your life less miserable. And based on what I'm seeing, they're actually doing a decent job at it.

Which is refreshing, because most EOR (Employer of Record) platforms are varying degrees of painful.

What Oyster Actually Does

Oyster is an EOR platform that lets you hire employees in 180+ countries without setting up legal entities. They handle payroll, benefits, compliance, and all the legal headaches of international employment.

You want to hire a developer in Portugal or a designer in Brazil? Oyster becomes the legal employer on paper, handles all local requirements, and you manage the employee like they're part of your team. It's the "hire anywhere" model that actually works.

The Good Stuff

The platform is clean and actually usable, which immediately puts it ahead of half the HR tech out there. User reviews on G2 consistently praise the interface and ease of onboarding.

Their compliance game is solid. They've got local legal experts in each country they operate in, and they stay on top of changing employment laws. For companies that don't have international HR expertise, that peace of mind is worth the fees alone.

Contractor-to-employee conversion is smooth, which matters because half of global hiring starts as contractor relationships. And their customer support is responsive - Capterra reviews mention support reps who actually know what they're talking about.

The Not-So-Good Stuff

Pricing is opaque as hell. You have to talk to sales to get real numbers, and reports indicate they charge per employee per month with rates varying by country. Expect somewhere in the $500-700/employee/month range for most countries, higher for complex markets.

They're also pushy about full-time employees over contractors. Which makes sense for their business model (more revenue from FTE arrangements), but sometimes you actually need contractor flexibility.

Some country coverage is better than others. Popular markets like UK, Canada, EU? Smooth. More obscure markets? You might be their guinea pig while they figure out local quirks.

Compared to Competitors

Oyster sits in the middle of the EOR market - more affordable and user-friendly than Globalization Partners, more established than Deel or Remote. They're not the cheapest option, but they're also not the most expensive.

If you're doing high-volume international hiring (50+ employees), the enterprise platforms might make more sense. If you're hiring 5-20 people globally, Oyster's sweet spot.

The Verdict

For companies serious about global hiring without the entity setup nightmare, Oyster is a solid choice. The platform works, compliance is handled, and you're not dealing with a clunky enterprise system from 2005.

Just understand you're paying a premium for that simplicity. If you've got the resources to set up entities and manage payroll yourself, that'll be cheaper long-term. But if you want to move fast and stay compliant, Oyster's worth the investment.

Rating: 4/5 - Does what it promises, costs what you'd expect, doesn't make you want to scream at your computer.

Check detailed reviews on G2 and Capterra to see how they handle your specific countries and use cases.