Our verdict
Lano enables businesses to compliantly hire new employees in over 170 countries. It's platform also integrates with a wide range of other productivity, accounting, HR, and recruitment apps.
Pros
- A wealth of integrations and service options
- Clear and transparent pricing for all services offered
Cons
- Fees could be higher than competitors in some cases
- Does not have the same degree of international coverage as some other EORs
50 Currencies
€550/employee/month, Platform is free for freelancers and contractors
Direct Deposit, SWIFT
Lano is a Global Employer Of Record (EOR) established in 2018 in Berlin, Germany. They are a “global first” team, spread out over 22 countries and comprising 35 different nationalities.
Lano supports employees and freelancers in every country allowed by EU law and provides a robust online platform with many customizable features. Its innovative payments system reduces costs for transfers in many currencies, and it offers a wide range of services from payroll consolidation to full EOR services and outsourced payroll. Lano’s offerings are impressive, but is it the best choice for you and your business?
Overview
Over 2000 companies have used Lano’s services with impressive results. The Lano website boasts of clients entering 4 new markets in under 6 months, saving €100,000 per year, and saving 80 hours of HR admin time per new employee. The service is used by companies hiring globally for their distributed teams, and as a tool for expansion into new markets.
Lano helps companies expand their presence by supporting contracted freelancers, full-time EOR employees, and payroll processing for in-house employees. Companies can test new international markets and prepare for expansion through freelancers, then expand their services and scope with full-time EOR employees based in the country, finally if they decide to incorporate their own legal entity in the new market, Lano can be used to process payrolls in the local currency.
Key Features
1. EOR
Global EORs help companies tap international labor, consumer, and B2B markets by enabling international hiring without local entity establishment. Most services offer a streamlined payroll and HR management solution as well, via an online platform. When an employee is hired through an EOR, they legally work for the EOR and are contracted to the client business. The EOR is responsible for all liabilities and maintaining compliance with local regulations, all costs are paid by the client business plus a fee to the EOR for its services. In this way a company can hire employees in any area the EOR operates.
Like most Global EORs, Lano works with a network of local partners who provide legal expertise and knowledge on the ground. These contracted EORs act as the legal employer in their territories, while Lano is contracted with the international clients that direct those employees’ work.
Lano EOR services cover over 170 countries, some of the widest coverage on the market. In fact, Lano EOR services (and payroll processing) are available in all countries and regions not prohibited by US and EU law.
2. Payroll
Lano works with payroll providers in over 50 countries and offers different payroll processing options to match the needs of its clients. Payroll consolidation is available via the Lano platform, priced per employee per month. This feature is available for any employee (either EOR or in-house) or contractor, in any country. All invoices are consolidated and can be paid together or individually. This allows multinational companies to bring all of their payroll processing, benefits administration, and other payments into one system. Consolidating these services can bring significant time and money savings, and a reduction in the potential for human error.
For companies that wish to outsource all payroll administration, this service is available as well, at a per-employee-per-month charge with an additional setup fee. This full-service solution will be helpful to small companies that do not wish to grow their internal HR departments.
Payments are enabled through the Lano Wallet, this feature allows for some other unique functions in addition to payroll processing. Multinational companies with subsidiaries in different countries can use the Lano Wallet to transfer funds between entities, reducing bank fees and currency exchange fees. The wallet can be connected to a bank account and must be topped up. Funds can then be used to settle invoices and will be automatically converted to supported local currencies.
Local payments (payments in the national currency of the recipient) do not incur any fees. International payments (i.e. US dollar payments to an employee based in Hungary) come with a small fee. Contractors and employees whose currencies are not supported will have their payments processed via SWIFT bank transfers.
3. HR
Lano’s network of local partners provides a wealth of accessible local expertise on tax law, payroll regulations, labor markets, and employment law.
The platform integrates with man HR Information Systems (HRIS) so that HR data for the entire team can be synced without double data entry.
The system can be used to contract, onboard, and pay freelancers based anywhere, and with any currency. Fast and free contractor payments can be made when using one of 50 select currencies. Freelancers are provided full support with access to the platform, free compliant contract templates, invoice templates, and access to the Lano Wallet.
As businesses expand, contractors often get converted to full-time employees. Lano can easily onboard contractors as EOR employees at any time to avoid misclassification.
How do you find the perfect remote candidate? Lano's take
4. Compliance
All Lano clients sign a Master Service Agreement, which serves as the basis for the working relationship. Clients then provide information on employees they wish to onboard. Employees are then contacted by one of Lano’s local partners, who provide locally compliant contracts and file the necessary forms. Employees are signed up for any benefits packages required by local law, and supplemental benefits that have been offered. Once the new hire had been fully onboarded to the satisfaction of local regulations, they are available on the platform. New employees can be onboarded compliantly in less than two weeks, and often in less than one week.
Lano complies with the GDPR data protection protocols required by the EU. This ensures that the personal data of employees and clients is kept private and controlled by the creators. All data transfers use SSL encryption and information is stored on an encrypted private cloud server.
4. Platform
The Lano Wallet and payroll system can synchronize with many popular accounting apps, opening the possibility for workflow automation, and data based insights.
Lano offers an impressive number of integrations for their platform, and has the tools available for users and third parties to develop more integrations and apps in the Lano ecosystem. Some of the integrations include project management through Jira, electronic signatures through Adobe or DocuSign, enhanced security with Auth0, Coup for business spending management, automatic invoice importing through Datev, Google Drive, Microsoft Outlook, and Salesforce, among others. In addition, there are a number of specialized apps available from Lano and third-party developers providing features for virtual team building, job evaluations, employee visa and work permit management, visual team collaboration, mental health support, and more.
Most Global EORs do not offer recruitment services, leaving employers on their own in finding new talent. Lano offers a unique solution by partnering with recruitment agencies to offer their services as apps on the Lano platform. Lano offers integrations with 42Matches for tech recruitment, NGS Global for executives and leadership advisory services, and Fledge for strategic talent acquisition consulting. It also offers general and location-based recruiting services through Catenon, Tanlentroo, 99 Hunters, Blueclip, GoGloby, and Kandidate.
There is a Lano API for clients to develop custom integrations with their own proprietary software, however, at the time of writing it was still in closed beta testing.
Customer and Employee Reviews
Pricing
Payroll Consolidation
- €250 ($269.39) Setup fee per provider
- €2.50 ($2.69) per employee per month
Payroll Outsourcing
- €1000 ($1077.55) setup fee per payroll provider
- €300 ($355.59) per month for 1-5 employees
- €30 ($32.33) per employee per month for more than 5 employees
Contractor Management
- €20 ($21.55) per contractor per month
EOR Services
- €550 ($592.65) per employee per month
Platform for freelancers and contractors
- Free
Pros and Cons
Pros
Benefits of choosing Lano as your EOR include:
- Free invoicing platform — self-employed business owners can streamline their invoicing process for free by using the Lano platform as a freelancer.
- Integrations — the large ecosystem of apps and integrations allows the system to integrate with existing systems as well as other helpful services, such as the supported recruitment apps.
- A la carte payroll consolidation and outsourcing provides features for client companies that are not in need of an EOR solution
- Pricing transparency — a full pricing breakdown is available on Lano’s pricing page.
Cons
Potential downsides include:
- Though 55 currencies are supported, this could limit businesses that need to pay employees and contractors in other local currencies.
- Payroll Outsourcing setup fees must be paid for each national jurisdiction covered, which could drive up costs for companies with employees in many different countries.
- The flat fee for EOR services may be higher for employees in some countries than the pricing offered by other services.
Unique Selling Point
The potential for integration and expansion through the Lano app ecosystem is impressive. By integrating with project management, CRM, accounting, recruiting, and collaboration software, Lano can create even greater efficiency and time savings. Companies with proprietary software and their own IT departments will be able to create custom API integrations as well.
RemotePad Score for Lano
4.3/5 Our expert score for Lano
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, Lano received the following score:
| Employer of Record features | 20/25 |
| Payroll features | 8/10 |
| HR features | 8/10 |
| Compliance features | 9/10 |
| Platform features | 10/10 |
| Pricing | 18/20 |
| User reviews | 13/15 |
Lano Competitors and Alternatives
Velocity Global vs Lano
Top provider for:
US coverage (all 50 states)
Monthly fee per employee
Custom Pricing
Remote vs Lano
Top provider for:
Direct EOR solutions
Monthly fee per employee
From $599+
Deel vs Lano
Top provider for:
Compliance
Monthly fee per employee
From $599+
Lano — our take
If you are already using, or are planning to use, a suite of different software services to manage your remote teams, you will appreciate the possibilities presented by the integrations and add-ons available for the platform. The recruitment partnerships could be especially helpful to companies building their remote teams.
Many established companies will appreciate the payroll consolidation features that allow all employees to be paid simultaneously, whether EOR, in-house, or contractors. The cost of setting up payroll for many different countries could get high, however, especially for clients who need full payroll outsourcing. These costs may be reduced ameliorated by the reduction in transfer fees from using the Lano Wallet, but each employer will have to determine for themselves whether this makes financial sense.
If you are seeking to expand into a particular national market (especially in Europe) may get the most benefit from Lano; the tools offered will help them find the right freelancers and employees to start market expansion, and payroll consolidation will ease payroll administration both for existing employees and new ones. EOR services can help with initial expansion, and payroll outsourcing can help reduce strain on internal resources.
FAQ
The Lano wallet is a digital wallet that enables multi-currency payments. Once connected to a bank account, the wallet can be topped-up and used to simplify global transfers and payments to employees and contractors.
Lano has had two funding rounds so far. A pre-seed round in April 2019 was worth $850,000. A venture round in Feb 2022 raised €15M.
Lano's headquarters are in Berlin, Germany, but it has entities and team members based throughout the world.
