Rippling vs Remote
In today’s interconnected business landscape, managing a workforce that spans multiple countries has become increasingly common. However, this global approach brings its own set of challenges, particularly in areas such as HR management, payroll processing, benefits administration, and compliance with diverse local regulations.
Enter the world of Employer of Record (EOR) services – innovative solutions designed to alleviate the complexities of international employment. These platforms serve as a bridge between your company and your global talent, handling the intricacies of cross-border employment so you can focus on what matters most: growing your business.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into a comparison of two industry-leading EOR providers: Rippling and Remote. Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge needed to make an informed decision that aligns with your organization’s unique needs and objectives.
What You’ll Discover:
- In-Depth Feature Analysis: A thorough breakdown of the features and usability of both platforms.
- Pricing Comparison: A detailed look at the costs associated with each service to assist with effective budgeting.
- Pros and Cons: Unbiased assessments of the strengths and limitations of Rippling and Remote.
By the conclusion of this analysis, you’ll be well-equipped to choose the EOR service that best aligns with your company’s global expansion strategy, ensuring smooth operations and compliance across borders.
Let’s dive in and uncover which of these powerhouse platforms – Rippling or Remote – is the ideal fit for your international team.
Rippling vs Remote Overview
Feature | Rippling | Remote | Explanation |
User Reviews | G2: 4.8/5 Trustpilot: 4.4/5 | G2: 4.6/5 Trustpilot: 4.7/5 | Both Remote and Rippling have received excellent customer reviews. |
Pricing | $500-600/ employee per month; unknown contractor price | $599/employee per month; $29/contractor per month | Remote posts its starting fees online but Rippling doesn’t. Its EOR price is known, but its contractor rate is not. |
User-friendliness | Very good | Excellent | Both platforms have excellent reviews for ease of use. Rippling is reported to be quite difficult to implement. |
Customer Support | 24/7 live chat and phone support | 24/5 live chat support | Rippling has live chat support all the time, while Remote has live support just 24/5. |
Integrations | Excellent | Very good | Rippling can integrate with over 600 HR, accounting, and financial apps. Remote offers an API and 17 integrations. Both integrate with Zapier which enables 5000+ tools. |
Data security | Excellent | Excellent | Remote is GDPR and SOC2 compliant and ISO 27001 certified. Rippling is GDPR and SOC2 compliant and both CSA STAR Level 2 and ISO 27001 certified. |
International hiring (EOR) | Very good | Excellent | Remote supports hiring employees in 180+ countries and contractors in 200. Rippling helps hire employees in 29 countries and contractors in 185. |
Recruitment | Not offered | Good | Remote has a job board to connect employers with employees and contractors. Rippling doesn’t offer recruitment services but has features for managing applications and recruiting. |
Benefits administration | Excellent | Very good | Both platforms help employers give their workers add-on benefits like health insurance and pensions. Rippling’s benefits for the US are extensive. |
Payroll | Very good | Very good | Both providers offer comprehensive global payroll services and somewhat limited payment methods. |
Comparison of Rippling vs Remote
Rippling and Remote are two platforms that started out doing very different things but now overlap quite a lot.
Rippling
Rippling began as a human resources information system (HRIS), a platform for managing all aspects of HR in one central digital location.
Services offered by Rippling
- HR Management: A full suite of tools for managing employee data and information.
- Global Payroll & Benefit Administration: Functionality to manage payroll and benefits for global teams.
- Professional Employment Organization (PEO): Allows businesses to manage payroll, benefits, compliance, and HR while ensuring tasks are handled seamlessly.
- Employer of Record (EOR): Available in 29 countries
- Contractor Management: Introduced after the platform’s initial HRIS rollout to support contractor needs.
Remote
Started out as a platform to help organizations hire employees and contractors around the world.
Now, in over 180 countries, Remote has developed its platform to include the features it would need to be a viable standalone HRIS. So, these providers essentially developed in opposite directions.
Services offered by Remote
- Employer of Record (EOR): Expand your global team using a single EOR platform.
- Contractor Management: Manage your contractors and streamline administrative tasks across over 180 countries.
- Remote Talent: Offers Remote job board – a service that helps employers find talent globally.
- Recruitment and Application tracking
Rippling Pricing
| Plan | Price per employee/contractor per month |
|---|---|
| Rippling EOR Services | Starting at $599 per employee per month |
| Rippling HR Platform | $35 per month |
| Rippling User Fees | $8 per person per month |
| Rippling Contractor Pricing | not publicly available; requires a quote |
Remote Pricing
| Plan | Price per employee/contractor per month |
|---|---|
| Remote EOR | Starting at $599 per full-time employee per month |
| Remote Contractor | $29 per contractor per month |
| Remote Payroll | $50 per full-time employee per month |
| Remote HR Management | Free |
| Remote Talent | Starting at $119 per contractor per month |
| Remote Contractor Management Plus | $99 per contractor per month |
Key Differences
Service Expansion
- Rippling: Started as an HRIS platform focused on managing HR, payroll, and benefits for US employees before branching into EOR and contractor services.
- Remote: Began as a global hiring platform and later added HRIS features.
Global Reach
- Rippling: EOR services are currently available in just 29 countries, limiting its global coverage.
- Remote: Operates in over 180 countries, offering EOR services worldwide.
Pricing Transparency
- Rippling: Keeps its pricing private, offering quotes only through consultations.
- Remote: Provides clear, upfront pricing for its services on its website, making it easier for businesses to assess costs.
Rippling and Remote have both grown into comprehensive HR platforms with overlapping features, but each retains its own strengths. Rippling shines with its robust HRIS capabilities and contractor management services, while Remote offers superior global reach and transparency in pricing.
Rippling Pros and Cons
Rippling is an HRIS provider that has expanded its services to include EOR and contractor management. Its specific advantages and disadvantages include:
- Pros
Mobile app
Rippling HR, IT, and Finance, Rippling’s mobile app for iOS and Android devices, lets employees access benefits, request leave, submit expenses, and see payslips.
Scalability
Companies that want to scale can take advantage of the Rippling HRIS to get as big as they want. The platform can easily accommodate thousands of employees.
Data security
Rippling holds ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 certifications, is CSA STAR Level 2 certified, and is compliant with SOC1, SOC2, and SOC3 standards.
Extensive employee administration tools
Although Rippling was originally designed as an HRIS, it is now an effective, standalone HR system. Its extensive features include payroll, tax calculations, paid time off (PTO), time tracking, applicant management, and many other functions.
Benefits packages
Rippling helps employers offer benefits that are compliant with each country in which they work. These benefits include health, vision, dental, and life insurance, as well as pensions for international employees. For US employees managed through the PEO system, they’re even more extensive.
Easy integration
This platform has phenomenal integration possibilities. It can be tied into over 600 HR, finance, and communication apps for easy data transfer and reporting across platforms.
- Cons
Limited support for international hiring
Rippling can help you hire contractors in over 180 countries. However, its EOR services are currently limited to just 29 countries.
Limited implementation support
User reviews state that implementing this system can be very difficult, and they received little support from their account managers to help them do it.
Complexity
Rippling is a very extensive platform. While its user interface is intuitive, it takes a long time to learn to use the platform’s full functionality effectively.
There is no pricing online
If you want to compare costs with other providers, you’ll need to ask Rippling’s sales staff for a quote.
Remote Pros and Cons
As a very different provider, Remote has both unique advantages and disadvantages in the GEP space. These include:
- Pros
Starting contractor price
At just $29/person per month, contractor management can be affordable for small businesses.
Data security
Remote is both ISO 27001 certified compliant and SOC 2 and GDPR.
Mobile app
Remote’s mobile app works on Android and iOS devices. It helps workers view access services like viewing their payslips and making time off requests.
Extensive remote work tools
Though less extensive than Rippling, Remote’s platform can still function as a standalone HR management system. It includes time-tracking, recruitment, invoice and expenses management, and paid time off (PTO) management features, which can be used effectively by smaller employers.
Benefits packages
Remote offers add-on packages for pensions, mental health support, and health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance for employees. These packages can be customized to be compliant in any country where Remote facilitates hiring.
- Cons
Support limitations
Remote only offers live chat support 24/5. During weekends, users will have to use email or open support tickets and this can cause response times to be slowed down. At the same time, Remote still receives very good user reviews for client support.
Complex pricing
While Remote posts its basic fees online, it still has other fees that must be taken into account. Add-ons and extra features cost more but are not listed. However, Remote does offer an employee cost calculator to help you figure out the actual cost of hiring an employee in different countries.
Head-to-Head Comparison: Rippling vs Remote Features
These two platforms are very different, even though they provide many of the same services. Now that we’ve seen them independently, it’s time to put them head-to-head and compare them based on some of the specific features they used for. This will give you an idea of which platform is a better choice for your specific needs.
User-friendly platform: Remote Wins
These platforms both have UIs that are easy to learn and get comfortable with. They both also provide a lot of functionality and require more learning to get used to them. However, Rippling is a far more complicated platform and can be confusing to start out with. Unfortunately, users have reported that they don’t get enough support to implement this system. For that reason, we’re giving this category to Remote.
Resources: Rippling Wins
Remote offers up resources and tools like country guides, a misclassification risk tool, and a useful employee cost calculator. While useful, they’re not as extensive as Ripplings’s resources and toolkit. It offers all the same resources as well as tools for analytics, global spending, headcount, and more. It also has educational tools like Rippling University and webinars to help users learn more.
Integration with other software: Rippling Wins
Remote offers 17 out-of-the-box integrations, including Bamboo, HiBob, Gusto, Personio, and Slack. It also has an API for custom integrations and integrates with Zapier, which gives access to over 5,000 other tools. However, Rippling is much farther ahead. It integrates with over 600 software solutions, including Asana, Checkr, GitHub, Slack, Salesforce, and many more big names in finance, HR, and communications.
International hiring (EOR): Remote Wins
Even though Rippling hides its prices, we’ve uncovered a range of $500-600 for EOR services which is about what Remote charges per employee each month. However, Remote hires employees in over 180 countries while Rippling lets you hire in just 29. Remote wins because of its far greater range.
Contractor Solution: Remote Wins
Both platforms help to hire contractors and manage benefits, compliance, invoices, and payments effectively. Remote can support contractors in 200 countries to Rippling’s 185. But what gives Remote the edge is its strong focus on compliance and access to its legal and HR experts in every country it works in.
Employee Benefits: It’s a tie
Both providers let employers add on benefits like pensions and health insurance. While they can both create compliant packages for employees in different countries, both providers can offer a far greater range of benefits for workers in the US. As neither shows its prices, we’re rating them as even.
Payroll Management: Rippling Wins
Remote lets clients choose to be invoiced in one of 12 international currencies and allows Wise payments for contractors. Rippling lets clients get their invoices in over 50 currencies and can also pay contractors in USD or their local currencies. Rippling’s system also receives better reviews for payroll ease.
Our Verdict: Rippling vs Remote
The goal here was never to identify an overall champion between these two service providers. Instead, we wanted to highlight the areas in which each one is a better choice so that you can make the final decision. Looking at these results, you’ll be able to choose the best service provider for the needs of your organization.
When to choose Rippling
Rippling is a great choice for medium and large enterprises that want to manage all of their HR functions through a single, comprehensive platform. It’s also effective as a global payroll provider for companies that want to outsource this function to manage distributed teams with a single solution.
When to choose Remote
Remote is a good choice for small and medium-sized organizations that want to scale up. Its platform is comprehensive enough to work as a standalone. This is also the choice if you want to hire large numbers of employees and/or contractors around the world and manage them easily and compliantly.
Our Solutions
- EOR from $199
- Employee Benefits
- Global Payroll
- International Recruitment
- Contractor Management
- Company Incorporation