Papaya Global Review: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons

With access to employees in 160+ countries, Papaya Global is one of the most comprehensive, flexible global hiring and payroll solutions.

Pros

Cons

+ Transparent pricing that starts at $20 per employee per month
+ Supports hiring and payroll services in more than 160 countries
+ Strong automation tools
+ Includes plan just for contractors
+ Convenient, fast and secure embedded payment system.
+ Affordable, scalable payroll platform.
+ Multiple workforce payroll solutions, including EOR, agent of record and payroll software.
+ Dedicated account managers with Payroll Plus and EOR services.
+ Robust analytics and reports, including predictive analytics, people reports, financial forecasting and comprehensive company insights.
+ User-friendly employee self-service tool.

- 24/7 customer service is chat-based only.
- EOR aggregator model may be too clunky and complicated for some businesses.
- PEO system can be similarly complicated compared to more streamlined EOR competitors.
- Limited HR features, especially compared to other global payroll and HR solutions.
- May be too expensive for some businesses, especially in terms of less transparent management and setup fees.

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In this Papaya Global review, I’m going to share with you my analysis and evaluation of my hands-on experience with Papaya Global. But first, if you’re just beginning your search for the best HR platforms, check out my previous article on the best Payroll software solutions.

Papaya Global is among the most popular HR software out there, but you need to better understand what’s good, and not so good about it. This in-depth Papaya Global review will walk you through the pros and cons, features, and functionality, to help guide you to better understand its capabilities and suitability for your needs.

What Is Papaya Global?

If it is related to HR, Papaya Global does it. The professional employer organization software offers complete payroll solutions, workforce management from onboarding to benefits, end-to-end employer of record (EOR) and global payroll services, contract worker management, benefits, and immigration.

Papaya Global offers payroll, benefits, EOR, contractor management, and IC compliance in 160 countries, making it ideal for companies that manage a global workforce.

The tool offers significant benefits by simplifying complex HR processes and providing a centralized platform for managing diverse employee needs. It addresses key pain points such as navigating international labor laws, handling diverse payroll requirements, and consolidating various HR tasks into one system.

Papaya Global Pricing and Plans

The Papaya Global pricing structure is designed to be competitive, yet it might be higher when compared with similar tools, especially considering its extensive features and global compliance capabilities.

The pricing is structured in tiers, catering to different business sizes and needs.

	Payroll Plus	Contractor Payments & Management	Employer of Record
Starting price:	$25/employee/mo.	$30/contractor/mo.	$599/employee/mo.
Minimum user requirement:	101 employees	No listed minimum	No listed minimum
Availability:	160+ countries	160+ countries	160+ countries
Built-in time and attendance:	Yes	No	No
Customer support:	Dedicated account manager	None listed	Dedicated account manager

Basic Plan: This plan typically starts at around $20/user/month (billed annually). It includes core features like payroll management, essential compliance, and employee self-service options. This plan suits small businesses looking for fundamental payroll and HR management tools.
Professional Plan: Priced at approximately $35/user/month (min 5 seats, billed annually), this tier offers more advanced features, including detailed analytics, enhanced reporting, and comprehensive HR management tools.
Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing upon request. This tier is tailored for larger organizations with complex HR needs. It includes all the features of the Professional plan, plus advanced integrations, dedicated support, and customized solutions.
Add-ons: Additional costs for add-ons vary based on the specific tools and capabilities required.

Potential users must consider the additional add-on costs and the minimum seat requirement when evaluating Papaya Global’s pricing against their budget and HR needs.

Papaya Global Key Features

1. Global payroll

Papaya Global’s payroll platform provides an end-to-end payroll consolidation for your entire workforce whether they are on the payroll or contractors. Papaya Global is a great solution for international companies as it can process payroll to employees in over 160 countries and make payments in their local currencies.

Papaya’s global payroll system works just as well for employees as for employers. Its user-friendly payroll features for employees include easy self-service access to payroll data, paid time off, and pay stubs.

2. Embedded payments in local currencies

With Papaya Global, you can easily pay your employees, contractors, and local authorities (for instance, tax bureaus) from within the software itself. Plus, payments happen near-instantaneously: 95% of all Papaya payments are processed on the same day.

3. HR and Payroll Analytics

Papaya Global’s reporting and analytics tools make it easy for businesses to track their payroll, payment, and HR data so they can quickly reach actionable insights. The solution provides people reports on key datasets like payroll costs and HR workforce analytics so organizations can track patterns, identify trends, and implement concrete solutions.

Plus, payroll reports include data monitoring so organizations can identify important data trends in real time.

4. Onboarding

Papaya Global helps businesses hire and onboard employees in more than 160 countries without entity establishment.

It provides companies with country-specific onboarding workflows, compliance with local labor laws, an intelligent onboarding status tracker, helps facilitate worker transition between global locations, and provides immigration service to support work permit generation.

5. Employee Self-Service Portal

This is a self-service feature for employees, workers, and contractors. The portal is available in multiple languages and accessible both on desktop and mobile.

Through their Papaya Personal accounts, workers can create profiles, manage their time-off reports, and view and access their payslips, payroll statements, and other employment documents.

In addition, Papaya Global’s employee self-service solution lets workers set up automated alerts to keep them on track. Contractors can also submit and review payment requests and tax invoices easily within one central system.

6. Benefits Administration

Papaya Global helps companies offer competitive benefits packages to international employees regardless of the number of employees in the company.

The company can set up health insurance, short-term and long-term disability, vision, dental, and maternity leave while eliminating the need to source local benefits providers in every country, create local accounts, and have a minimum number of employees.

7. Global HR Functionalities

The HR functionalities include PTO tracking, compliance, onboarding/offboarding tools, online storage for workers’ documents, and immigration services if your employees need work permit assistance.

8. Global Payroll and Payments

The Global Payroll and Payments plan includes payroll processing, local tax filing assistance, full benefits management and administration and HR support. This plan allows employers to onboard employees seamlessly at scale, “Go Live” in as little as 30 days, and pay a global workforce in 72 hours with Papaya Global’s in-house payments.

This plan is the perfect plan for companies that are most focused on payroll support.

9. Employer of Record

The Employer of Record plan allows businesses to recruit, hire and maintain a local workforce while keeping compliant with that country’s employment laws. Its features are designed to help international companies hire top talent anywhere in the world, quickly build local teams and test new markets without payroll liability.

This is the plan for companies that have staff all over the world.

10. Contractor Management

The Contractor Management plan was designed to help companies onboard and pay international contractors quickly and compliantly. Top features were designed to manage contractors globally through one platform, ensure classification compliance and eliminate invoice errors.

This is the plan for companies that use contractors for a significant portion of their workforce.

11. Third-party Integrations

The software supports lots of third-party integrations that help streamline data syncing and improve accuracy and security. Specifically, it supports integration connections with various commonly used business software solutions like Netsuite, Oracle, and SAP SuccessFactors.

What About Papaya Global Security?

Papaya Global uses a private network of services protected by a WAF, segregates each component in a different subnet with carefully controlled component access, and continuously monitors its network via AWS tower.

They meet all of the requirements set by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data security and are listed in the CSA’s STAR (Security, Trust, Assurance and Risk) registry.

How Effective is the Papaya Global Customer Service and Support?

Each of Papaya Global’s plans includes a dedicated customer success manager or global payroll expert available to provide support, speaking the local language.

In addition, customers receive access to an in-house expert on global employment, taxes, benefits, and labor laws, and a knowledge base on hiring in 160 countries—at no additional charge.

Papaya Global Alternatives

Best for: Tech-heavy businesses that want global HR, payroll, and Accounting solutions.

Pricing starts from: $15 to $35 per month, depending on the features your business requires.

Best for: Tech-heavy businesses that want global HR, payroll, and Accounting solutions.

Pricing starts from: $49 per month, depending on the features you require.

Best for: Employers looking for global payroll with stock option tracking tools.

Pricing starts from:

$699 per employee for EoR services; Custom-priced for global payroll.

In Summary: Is Papaya Global Right for You or Your Business?

Papaya Global helps business owners who need assistance navigating international payroll, immigration processes for employees and local benefits packages.

If your business has a large international workforce and you are looking for a PEO software to help recruit, hire and pay employees in different counties, Papaya Global could be a good fit for your company.

Papaya Global is a great PEO solution for companies that want to expand their business in other countries and need help recruiting, hiring, training, paying and sustaining an international workforce. It is however not the correct fit for smaller companies that do not have a large budget to spend on payroll software.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What does Papaya Global do?

Papaya Global is an international payroll service that helps employers hire and pay employees and contractors in over 160 countries.

Papaya offers a range of products, including an employer of record service for businesses that lack entities in foreign countries and a global PEO service for companies with foreign entities.

What is a PEO?

PEO stands for professional employer organization. A PEO is a company that provides a variety of services including payroll, employee benefits, compliance assistance, and employee training.

Do international companies use Papaya Global?

Yes, Papaya Global is a PEO software platform designed for companies that have an international workforce. It provides businesses with HR and payroll compliance support in more than 160 countries.

How much does Papaya Global cost?

Papaya Global’s global payroll starting price is $25 per employee for businesses with between 101 and 500 employees. The price per person decreases the bigger your company gets: Payroll costs $20 per employee for businesses with 501 to 1,000 workers and $15 per employee for businesses with 1,000+ workers.

Papaya also offers a global contractor payroll service for $30 per contractor per month. Its EOR service starts at $599 per employee per month.

Are Papaya Global’s payments secure?

Yes, Papaya’s payments are secure. The system is GDPR and SOC-compliant. All data and communication are encrypted. The application itself is hosted by Amazon Web Services.

Is Papaya Global Good for Me?

Yes, Papaya Global is generally considered a good payroll system for paying global employees. Its AI-powered global payroll system helps you tackle payroll tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible while its embedded payment function minimizes the steps you have to take to get your global workforce paid.

However, whether or not Papaya Global is good for your company depends on factors like what features you need in a payroll processing system, what price points you can afford and where you hope to hire internationally.

Scheduling a demo with Papaya and reading reviews of the best international payroll software can help you evaluate Papaya Global for yourself.