RecommendedFeatured
Starts at
Free plan
- Starting price
- USD 29 per contractor/month
- Global Contractors, free for the first 30 days. EOR employment is USD 699 per employee/month, with annual discounts available.
- Free trial / plan
- Oyster states it is free to create an account, explore the platform and access its global HR tools and resources. Fees begin only when you engage contractors, EOR team members or payroll team members.
- Deployment
- Cloud
- Web
- App Advisor rating
- 4.3
- transparency & India fit
What is Oyster HR?
Oyster is a focused global employment company: Employer of Record hiring, global contractor management, and a paid HR advisory service. It is not a general HRIS and it does not sell payroll software for your own entity.
Pricing is published plainly — USD 699 per employee/month for EOR, USD 29 per contractor/month after a 30-day free period for contractors, and USD 300 per hour for People Partner Services.
Oyster is unusual in offering a genuinely free account: you can create an account and explore the platform, with fees only starting when you actually engage a contractor or an EOR employee.
Its India material is unusually well informed — it discusses the four labour codes, the ~50% wage-definition effect on PF and gratuity, ESIC coverage under the revised wage definition and the EPF wage ceiling debate, which is a good sign for an Indian buyer evaluating EOR seriously.
What works well
- +Straightforward published pricing in a category built on opaque quotes, with the currency stated explicitly.
- +Free account tier plus 30 days free on contractors means you can evaluate the platform without a sales process.
- +Hourly HR advisory (USD 300/hour) is a genuinely useful, unbundled option — you can buy India compliance advice without buying EOR seats.
- +Seat-based annual EOR billing where seats are reusable for new hires is a sensible model for companies with churn.
- +India content is specific and current rather than generic, including the labour codes, wage definition changes and EPF ceiling discussion.
What to watch out for
- −USD 699 per employee/month is the highest published EOR headline rate among the vendors compared here.
- −Narrow product: no HRIS, no ATS, no device management, and no payroll product for your own Indian entity.
- −The annual discount exists but the discounted figure is not published, so the real EOR price still requires a conversation.
- −120+ countries for EOR is fewer than several rivals claim, though the practical difference for India is nil.
Best suited for: Companies hiring a small number of employees in India or elsewhere without setting up an entity · Buyers who want to see a price and start without a sales cycle · Teams that need occasional expert HR and compliance advice rather than a full-time in-country HR function · Distributed-first companies that already have an HRIS and want EOR as a specialist layer
AI analysis of Oyster HR
Analysing Oyster HR — pricing, features, reviews and alternatives…
Generated by App Advisor's native engine from this listing's verified data — not a paid placement.
Oyster HR features
Researched from Oyster HR's official product pages · updated September 2026.
Employer of Record
- Compliant employment in 120+ countries through Oyster's local entities and infrastructure
- Local employment contracts and onboarding
- Multi-country payroll for EOR employees
- Employee benefits administration per country
- Offboarding handled compliantly
- Direct+ infrastructure for markets Oyster serves directly
Global contractors
- Instant contracts in 180+ countries
- Contractor payments in 120+ currencies
- Identity verification
- Invoice management
- Automated expenses
Advisory and mobility
- People Partner Services — hourly HR advisory for EOR and own-entity teams
- Visa sponsorship and talent mobility
- Salary insights tool for benchmarking
- Employee cost calculator
Platform
- Developer API
- Integrations directory
- Country availability reference
- Global hiring guides per country
Oyster HR pricing (USD)
SourceEvery edition as published by the vendor · free trial: 30 days free on Global Contractors; a free account tier with no time limit for exploring the platform. Prices exclude GST unless stated. Full Oyster HR pricing breakdown
Employer of Record (EOR)
USD 699
per employee/month, with annual discounts available
- Compliant employment in 120+ countries
- Multi-country payroll, automated expenses
- Onboarding and offboarding, expert support
- Seat-based annual billing is available at reduced rates, where purchased seats can be reused for new hires at no additional cost
Global Contractors
USD 29
per contractor/month
- Free for 30 days
- Instant contracts in 180+ countries
- Contractor payments in 120+ currencies
- Identity verification and invoice management
People Partner Services
USD 300
per hour
- Project-based HR advisory
- Supports both EOR workers and employees on your own entities
- Priced by the hour rather than by seat — unusual and useful for one-off compliance questions
Other pricing options & add-ons
Annual seat-based EOR billing
Oyster offers seat-based annual billing for EOR at reduced rates; purchased seats can be reused for new hires at no additional cost. The discounted figure itself is not published.
Reduced rate, figure not published
- • All figures are as published on Oyster's pricing page on 18 September 2026. Oyster quotes them as "USD" explicitly on the page.
- • No separate global payroll or enterprise tier price is listed on the pricing page.
- • Oyster's EOR headline of USD 699 is the platform fee. The employee's salary and local employer statutory costs are additional pass-through costs.
- • The free account is genuinely free but it is an exploration tier, not a free EOR — fees start the moment you engage anyone.
- • Oyster publishes in USD only. There is no INR price list and we have not converted.
Buying for a team? App Advisor can get you a volume quote and any partner discount available.
Implementing Oyster HR
SourceWays to implement
- Self-serve account creation at no cost
- Guided onboarding with Oyster for EOR hires
Oyster states you can start employing in as little as 48 hours
- 1Create a free Oyster account and explore the platform
- 2Use the employee cost calculator to model the India cost
- 3Raise the hire; Oyster issues a compliant local employment contract
- 4Employee onboards onto Oyster's India payroll from day one
Need a certified partner in India to set up Oyster HR?Implementation help
Integrations, security & India
Integrations
- Integrations directory published at oysterhr.com/integrations
- Developer API for custom integration
- Partner programme and affiliate ecosystem
For Indian businesses
- Oyster hires in India through the Employer of Record model. Your Indian team members appear on Oyster's India payroll from day one, with no entity of your own required.
- Oyster states that using an EOR in India is a well-established model, with the EOR holding the local registrations — PAN, TAN, EPF, ESI and state-level Shop and Establishment registration. Those registrations are exactly the things an Indian buyer should be verifying, so it is a good sign they are named.
- Oyster does NOT offer payroll for companies that already have their own Indian entity. Its products are EOR, contractor management and hourly HR advisory. If you have an Indian Pvt Ltd and want software to run PF, ESI, PT and TDS on it, Oyster is the wrong vendor.
- Oyster's India guidance is unusually current: it flags the four labour codes commencing 21 November 2025 with a transition period, the move toward basic wages at around 50% of total remuneration (which raises the PF, ESI and gratuity base), possible ESIC coverage expansion around the ₹21,000 threshold, and active discussion about raising the EPF wage ceiling from ₹15,000 (a figure of ₹25,000 and a date of 1 April 2026 are both cited as possibilities, not decisions).
- Practical consequence: if you are budgeting an India EOR hire, model the wage-structure change. A CTC that was compliant under the old basic/allowance split can become materially more expensive once basic is pushed to ~50%.
- Oyster is explicit that Indian labour law varies by state — registration requirements, professional tax rates and even holiday calendars differ between Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Do not treat 'India' as one jurisdiction when comparing quotes.
- Pricing is USD only. Your actual rupee cost moves with FX.
Support, resources & partner network
Support & learning
- Expert support included with EOR (vendor-stated)
- People Partner Services at USD 300 per hour for project-based HR advisory
- Global hiring guides and a glossary published free
- Employee cost calculator and salary insights tool available without a contract
Is Oyster HR the best choice for you?
Best choice if you are…
- Companies hiring a small number of employees in India or elsewhere without setting up an entity
- Buyers who want to see a price and start without a sales cycle
- Teams that need occasional expert HR and compliance advice rather than a full-time in-country HR function
- Distributed-first companies that already have an HRIS and want EOR as a specialist layer
Look elsewhere if you are…
- Companies that already have an Indian entity and need payroll run on it — Oyster does not sell that
- Buyers wanting an all-in-one HR suite
- High-volume contractor operations where USD 29 per contractor per month adds up faster than rivals' entry tiers
- Cost-driven buyers, given the USD 699 EOR headline
Still comparing? Get an unbiased shortlist and demos arranged for free.
Sources (4) · updated September 2026
Specifications
- Category
- HRMS software
- Vendor
- Oyster
- Headquarters
- Charlotte, United States
- Founded
- 2020
- Pricing model
- Subscription
- Starting price
- ₹2,400/mo
- Deployment
- Cloud
- Platforms
- Web
- Best for
- Small business, SMB, Mid-market
- Made in India
- No
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Oyster HR — frequently asked questions
What is Oyster HR's pricing?+
Employer of Record is USD 699 per employee/month with annual discounts available. Global Contractors is USD 29 per contractor/month, free for the first 30 days. People Partner Services is USD 300 per hour. Creating an Oyster account and exploring the platform is free.
Does Oyster support Indian payroll?+
Only through its Employer of Record. Your Indian employees go onto Oyster's India payroll, and Oyster holds the local registrations — PAN, TAN, EPF, ESI and state Shop and Establishment. Oyster does not sell payroll software for a company that already owns an Indian entity.
Is Oyster available in India?+
Yes. Oyster runs EOR hiring in India and publishes detailed India hiring guidance, including the current labour code changes.
How fast can Oyster hire someone in India?+
Oyster states you can start employing in as little as 48 hours through its EOR, versus the weeks or months of setting up your own Indian entity and completing EPFO, ESIC and state registrations.
Is Oyster free?+
The account is. Oyster states it is free to create an account, explore the platform and use its global HR tools and resources, and Global Contractors is free for 30 days. Fees start when you actually engage a contractor or an EOR employee.
Why is Oyster's EOR more expensive than Deel or Multiplier?+
On published headline rates it is — USD 699 versus $599 for Deel and $459 for Multiplier's annual Core tier. Oyster does offer annual and seat-based discounts that are not published, and its seats are reusable for new hires. Compare landed quotes including add-ons and implementation fees rather than the headline numbers.
What are People Partner Services and when are they worth USD 300 an hour?+
It is project-based HR advisory that supports both EOR workers and employees on your own entity. It is worth it when you have a specific, high-stakes question — restructuring Indian salary bands under the new wage definition, for example — and want expert time without buying a full service tier.
What should I check before signing an India EOR contract with Oyster?+
Confirm the all-in cost including Indian employer statutory contributions, not just the USD 699 platform fee. Confirm how the ~50% basic wage definition is being applied to your offers. Confirm state-specific handling if your team spans multiple states. And confirm the notice, termination and entity-transition terms in writing.
What is Oyster HR?+
Oyster HR is hrms software by Oyster. Global employment platform.
How much does Oyster HR cost?+
Oyster HR starts at about ₹2,400 per month according to the vendor's published pricing. Plans and taxes vary, so confirm on the official site.
Does Oyster HR offer a free trial or free plan?+
Oyster HR typically offers a free trial before you commit to a paid plan.
Is Oyster HR made in India?+
No. Oyster HR is developed by Oyster in Charlotte, United States, though it is used by Indian businesses.
Who is Oyster HR best suited for?+
Oyster HR suits small business, smb, mid-market buyers looking for hrms software.
What are the best alternatives to Oyster HR?+
Popular alternatives in hrms software include greytHR, Zoho People, Kredily. Use App Advisor's compare tool to see them side by side.
How is Oyster HR deployed?+
Oyster HR is available as a cloud (SaaS) product, with web access.
About Oyster
Oyster · Charlotte, United States · Founded 2020 · 1 product in our catalogue
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