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Our verdict
Skuad enables businesses to compliantly hire full-time employees and freelancers in over 160 countries without establishing additional legal entities. It is an global Employer Of Record (EOR) and Agent Of Record (AOR) with simple, transparent pricing and a streamline online platform.
Pros
- Competitive pricing
- Comprehensive EOR and payroll solutions
Cons
- Few customized services
- Limited add-ons
How is this calculated?
We calculate the Overall Rating by combining the ratings of several testing categories.
Learn more by reading our testing and review methodology.
100
Employees $199-$599/mo, Contractors $19/mo
Direct deposit
Skuad is a relatively new, but fast-growing Global EOR and payroll platform, based out of Singapore. It aims to offer a simple-to-use system with transparent and affordable pricing, that can enable companies anywhere to expand their teams and their capabilities by painlessly hiring remote workers and freelancers.
Overview
Skuad is a Global Employer of Record (EOR) and an Agent of Record (AOR) for contractors. The entire workforce is paid, onboarded, and tracked through the Skuad platform.
As an EOR, it is able to hire workers in over 160 countries. Though employees are legally employed by Skuad’s local partners in these jurisdictions (who are thus responsible for all local compliance), all work-related decisions including salaries and bonuses are decided by the business owners utilizing the service. The new employee onboarding process is managed by Skuad and can be tracked via the online platform. Salaries are tracked and consolidated onto a single invoice in the business owner’s currency of choice.
As an AOR, Skuad assists in contractor and freelancer management. They perform background checks on contractors, assist in ensuring that contractors are properly classified according to the applicable national regulations, and prepare compliant contracts. Though freelancers are contracted directly with the business (and not a Skuad-managed entity as in the case of full-time employees), Skuad assumes responsibility for maintaining regulatory compliance. Contractor invoices can be viewed in local currencies, and are consolidated monthly into a single invoice, payable simultaneously with full-time employees.
Employees and contractors can be added or removed easily from the Skuad platform; pricing is tabulated per employee and contractor per month.
Key Features
1. EOR
Skuad can legally onboard new employees in over 160 countries through its network of local partners. These local partners act as the Employers of Record and assume all liability for local regulatory compliance. All workplace and management issues are left to the business owner, who pays Skuad through a single consolidated invoice each month.
Impressively, Skuad boasts that new candidates can be hired and onboarded in less than 24 hours. The Skuad network covers most countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Companies wishing to hire outside of their existing network can also contact the Skuad People Ops team for a custom solution.
2. Payroll
The payroll system allows for allowances, bonuses, and stipends. It also automates any tax payments that must be made on these additions. Payments may be made in, or to, any of over 100 supported currencies.
The platform consolidates all contractor invoices and other payments into a single invoice that can also be paid in the employer’s currency of choice. Skuad handles all currency conversion and direct deposits to the bank details provided by contractors. Any currency transfer fees and variables in the exchange rate are borne by the contractors.
3. HR
Once a winning candidate has been chosen, business owners create a custom offer letter through the templates provided on the Skuad platform. Employers fill in all known details, the software will populate and customize the letter, which can then be sent to the new employee. Once they accept the offer, the new hire will be sent a compliant employment agreement to sign. Companies who wish to may also request a Non-Disclosure Agreement to protect their intellectual property and sensitive data. The hire is then sent a Skuad login, which will guide them through the onboarding process.
Skuad also supports contractors in over 160 countries as an Agent of Record (AOR). Contractors may be converted to employees at any time and will be led through onboarding similar to a new employee.
Termination and offboarding are subject to a number of regulations that can vary greatly in different countries. Skuad’s team of People Ops experts is available to assist employers through this process to ensure total compliance. For contractors, the process is faster, as they are privately contracted to the business, not to Skuad; their profile is simply removed from the platform.
Skuad provides global employees with benefits packages relevant to the nationality of each employee. These benefits can include health insurance, dental insurance, pensions, reimbursements, paid time off, bonuses, and allowances.
4. Compliance
As an EOR, Skuad is responsible for local compliance of full-time international workers. As an AOR, they are responsible to guide their clients through compliance issues and ensure that contractors are not misclassified. They also maintain a large database of local regulations for each country of operation, allowing business owners to educate themselves on the challenges and opportunities of hiring in a particular jurisdiction.
Statutory benefits, the minimum benefits required by law, vary in each country. Often these include pay-in to national insurance or retirement accounts. Skuad handles the processing of all statutory benefits required for compliance and can consult with employers on the relative costs of employment in each country. These payments are processed directly in each pay period, Skuad does not add any additional surcharges or fees to the cost of statutory benefits. For eligible employees, employers can then add supplemental benefits in order to provide a more competitive offer.
The platform generates compliant contracts for freelancers in all areas of operation, which are signed by the business owner and the contractor. Unlike EOR employees, freelancers are contracted directly by the business, not by Skuad.
Skuad follows international privacy and data protection standards and is GDPR, CCPA, and SOC 2 compliant.
Platform
The Skuad platform puts all of its services together in one place for simple, easy access. Employers can add new employees or contractors to the system with just a few clicks, track the status of employment contracts, and follow the onboarding status of each individual employee at a glance.
All employee and contractor payments are consolidated into a single monthly bill, which can be paid with a single click. Through the platform, employers can view the monthly salaries and expenses of each individual employee, as well as any bonuses issued. Localized contracts can be viewed at any time. Contractor invoicing is automated by tracking the number of hours worked in real-time. New equipment can also be purchased directly through the platform and shipped to remote workers around the world.
Before hiring, businesses can calculate the total employee cost in different regions, and review local regulations and country-specific contracts. All compliance documents are held in the system as well, with notifications alerting businesses to missing documentation or if full compliance has been reached. Business owners and managers can also do their own research and use the database to learn about compliance and tax laws in every territory, to anticipate which documentation they will need to have prepared as they expand their global teams. If employers face any issues during set-up or as they move along, live chat support is always available.
Pricing
Fees per full time employee range from $199-$599 per month depending on the country of employment. Fees per contractor are advertised as competitive, but not listed directly on the website.
What do customers think of Skuad?
Pros and cons
Pros
Benefits of engaging Skuad as your global Employer of Record include:
- Pricing is both competitive and transparent, a benefit for business owners who need to quickly integrate a low-cost solution. For this reason, Skuad was judged by RemotePad to be the most cost-effective EOR in 2023.
- The platform is simple and easy to use. Clients can be up and running, ready to begin onboarding in a short time.
- Support for full-time employees and contracted freelancers makes the service attractive to small businesses who have just started building their remote workforce.
- International payroll for direct employees allows companies that already have legal entities in some markets but wish to utilize EOR employees or contractors for other markets to consolidate company-wide payroll under a single system.
Cons
Potential downsides of choosing Skuad over other competitors include:
- Limited customization for companies with complex requirements; recruitment, strategic consulting, HR consulting, relocation services, custom check-in systems.
- Lack of some add-on services, such as employee background checks.
The benefits of the Skuad EOR solution — a customer perspective
Unique Selling Point
Skuad is a simple, all-in-one system for onboarding, EOR services, payroll, compliance, and contractor payments. The system is straightforward in what it provides and transparent in its pricing. It will allow any company to easily build a compliant remote international workforce.
RemotePad Score for Skuad
8.8/10 Our expert score for Skuad
Our team came to this score by considering the following components in the following weightings:
| Employer of Record features | 25% |
| Payroll features | 10% |
| HR features | 10% |
| Compliance features | 10% |
| Platform features | 10% |
| Pricing | 20% |
| User reviews | 15% |
For each component, Skuad received the following score:
| Employer of Record features | 18/25 |
| Payroll features | 9/10 |
| HR features | 10/10 |
| Compliance features | 9/10 |
| Platform features | 10/10 |
| Pricing | 20/20 |
| User reviews | 12/15 |
Skuad competitors and alternatives
Horizons vs Skuad
Top provider for:
Global EOR
Read Horizons Review
Monthly fee per employee
From $299
Remote vs Skuad
Top provider for:
Direct EOR solutions
Read Remote Review
Monthly fee per employee
From $599
Deel vs Skuad
Top provider for:
Compliance
Read Deel Review
Monthly fee per employee
From $599
Skuad – our take
If you have chosen your international employees and simply need a compliant way to onboard, manage payroll, file taxes, and consolidate invoices, you will find Skuad a major timesaver. Furthermore, if you routinely sign up new contractors internationally for specific projects you will be able to consolidate invoices, compare costs, and ensure compliant payments without putting extra strain on their internal HR departments.
FAQ
Skuad is headquartered in Singapore. It is privately held, and has raised a total of $19.8 million over three funding rounds.
Skuad supports cryptocurrency for contractor payments. I also supports Payoneer, Coinbase, and Wise.
In a seed round in 2020, Skuad raised $4,000,000. Subsequently in Series A funding in 2022, the company raised $15,000,000. Most recently, in a 2023 Venture Round, Skuad raised $750,000.
As a privately-held company, Skuad has not released these figures, however reports suggest that Skuad had a revenue of $3.9 million in 2022.
