Deel vs Factorial

Deel is a global HR and payroll platform founded in San Francisco in 2019 by Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang. It lets companies hire contractors and full-time employees in more than 150 countries, either through Deel's own employer of record (EOR) entities, where Deel legally employs the worker on your behalf, or through payroll for entities you already own.

The product is modular. Contractor management handles localized contracts, invoices and payouts in many currencies; EOR covers employment contracts, benefits, taxes and statutory filings; Global Payroll consolidates payroll for your own entities; and Deel HR is an HRIS with org charts, time off and documents. Add-ons cover immigration and visa support, equipment provisioning, IT management and engagement tools. Contractor, EOR, payroll and HR modules are each priced per worker per month.

Deel suits remote-first startups and scale-ups hiring across many countries, including Turkey, where it can employ staff without a local company. EOR is expensive per employee, so companies often open their own entity once headcount in one country grows. Support quality varies by country, and the breadth of modules adds complexity. Remote.com and Oyster are direct EOR rivals, Rippling is stronger when US payroll and IT are central, and Gusto is simpler for US-only teams.

Factorial is an HR platform from Barcelona that bundles the employee database, time off, time tracking, payroll preparation, performance reviews, recruiting and expenses in one system. It was founded in 2016 by Jordi Romero, Pau Ramon and Bernat Farrero, started with a free HR tier and became a unicorn in 2022. In June 2026 it raised a $150M Series D at a $2.5B valuation led by General Catalyst and says it serves over 16,000 companies.

Every account starts with Factorial Core: employee directory, onboarding and offboarding, document management with legal e-signature, payslip distribution and fillable PDFs. Modules are added on top: Time Off, Time Tracking, Shift Management, Performance, Recruitment, Engagement, Training, Expenses with Factorial Cards, Project Management, Procurement, and an IT suite with device management and SaaS management. An AI layer called Factorial One answers questions and runs tasks against company data and policies. Pricing is quoted per user and module, starting at $8 per user per month.

It fits companies of roughly 20 to 1,000 employees that want one system for HR admin, time and expenses. Personio is the closest European rival with stronger payroll in Germany, BambooHR is simpler and more US-focused, and Rippling goes deeper into payroll, IT and global employment.

Buying tip: because pricing is quote-based, list the exact modules you need before the demo; time tracking, shift planning and expenses add up quickly. Check that payroll in your country is processed natively rather than only prepared for an external provider.