Payroll · pricing
Oyster pricing
Oyster publishes 2 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 30 August 2026, Oyster pricing is $29/month across 2 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- $29/month
- Model
- Subscription
- Tiers
- 2
- Free tier
- Not on record
Oyster plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global Contractors | $29/month | 5 | Entry tier |
| Employer of Record (EOR) | $699/month | 5 | +$670/month, 5 more features |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Global Contractors
$29/monthThe entry tier. It covers instant contracts in 180+ countries, contractor payments in 120+ currencies, identity verification, invoice and expense management, misclassification analyzer.
Employer of Record (EOR)
$699/monthOver Global Contractors, this tier adds:
- Compliant employment in 120+ countries
- Multi-country payroll in 120+ currencies
- Automated expenses, time-off, and reports
- Onboarding and offboarding specialists
- End-to-end support by local experts
What the product covers
The full Oyster feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Global Employment
- Payroll
- Benefits
- Compliance
- Contractor Management
- Time Off
- Expenses
Integrations
- BambooHR
- Greenhouse
- Lever
- QuickBooks
- NetSuite
- Slack
Platform
- Web support
- Ios support
- Android support
People bring Oyster in for hiring employees abroad without setting up a local legal entity, onboarding and paying international contractors, getting country specific employment compliance advice for distributed teams. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Oyster are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Payroll
Too few payroll tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oyster (this page) | $29/month | subscription | - | |
| Rain Instant Pay | On request | quote | - | vs Oyster |
| Clair | On request | quote | - | vs Oyster |
| Openwage | On request | Per-transfer fee, paid by the employee | - | vs Oyster |
| Refyne | On request | quote | - | vs Oyster |
| Hastee | On request | quote | - | vs Oyster |
| Wagestream | On request | quote | - | vs Oyster |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Oyster badges page.
Before you pay for Oyster
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 2 tiers between $29/month and $699/month, with the jump itemised above. With no free tier on record, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to compare Oyster against the tools that do have one before committing.
Oyster runs on web, ios, android, and is published by Oyster HR Inc of Charlotte, North Carolina. The full record is on the Oyster review, and the rest of the category is under best payroll tools.
Oyster pricing questions
- How much does Oyster cost?
- Oyster publishes 2 tiers, from $29/month for Global Contractors up to $699/month for Employer of Record (EOR). The cheapest paid tier is $29/month.
- Does Oyster have a free plan?
- Not on the record we hold: Oyster is listed as subscription. Whether a free trial is offered is not something this record captures, so check the vendor's site.
- What is the difference between Global Contractors and Employer of Record (EOR) on Oyster?
- Employer of Record (EOR) costs $699/month against $29/month, and adds compliant employment in 120+ countries, multi-country payroll in 120+ currencies, automated expenses, time-off, and reports, onboarding and offboarding specialists.
- Is the Employer of Record (EOR) plan on Oyster worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is compliant employment in 120+ countries, multi-country payroll in 120+ currencies, automated expenses, time-off, and reports, onboarding and offboarding specialists. It costs $699/month against $29/month for Global Contractors. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- Which payroll tools can I use without paying?
- 1 of the 8 payroll tools listed alongside Oyster have a free tier: Payactiv.
- What am I actually paying for with Oyster?
- The record lists 16 features across 3 areas: other, integrations, platform. In practice it is brought in for hiring employees abroad without setting up a local legal entity, onboarding and paying international contractors, getting country specific employment compliance advice for distributed teams.
- Does Oyster charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Oyster prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Oyster against before paying?
- The closest payroll tools in this directory are Rain Instant Pay, Clair, Openwage, Refyne. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Oyster covering price, platforms and features.