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Multiplier is an emerging international payroll, human resources and compliance solution that rapidly established itself as a market leader. The platform enables businesses to scale globally and manage international workers, contractors and freelancers without worrying about the complexities of countries’ local payroll and compliance.

Figure A

Multiplier has set up entities in more than 25 countries and provides services in over 120 countries through established partnerships. Legal entities on the ground allow the company to manage and comply with local regulations. Multiplier customers include Uber, PWX and Dynatrace. With a strong focus on international operations, it competes with other global solutions like Rippling, Papaya Global, Gusto, Rippling, ADP and others.

Multiplier pricing

Multiplier offers two simple monthly plans and separate components. The plans can be expensive for small and medium companies compared to their competition.

Pay Freelancers plan

The freelancers plan, which enables companies to onboard and pay freelancers worldwide, starts at $40 per month per user. With this plan, companies get instant contracts, multicurrency and crypto payments, benefits and insurance administration and 24-hour support from Monday to Friday from local payroll, HR and compliance experts.

Hire Employees plan

On the other hand, the plan to hire and onboard full-time international employees starts at $300 per month per employee. This plan includes instant employment contracts, multicountry payroll, multicurrency payments, benefits, insurance administration and 24/5 support from local payroll, HR and legal experts

Additional plans and free trial

Multiplier also offers Run Global Payroll and Provide Employee Insurance plans, both starting at $20 per month per employee. The company doesn’t provide a free trial, but enterprises can access a demo.

Key features of Multiplier

There are several good reasons why Multiplier has become popular in the hybrid work era. Companies looking for global talent, both full-time workers and freelancers, for their international operations can leverage Multiplier’s features to seamlessly operate the tricky world of global payroll, HR and international compliance. Let’s dive into the top features that drive Multiplier’s success.

Global payroll management

Global payroll management features are Multiplier’s top strength. With these features, companies can run accurate payroll safely while meeting local laws for their international workers. Compliance is integrated with the payroll platform.

The company provides multicountry payroll processing for full-time, part-time, contractors and freelancers. It also offers a self-serving platform for workers. Companies can track time and attendance and manage invoices, expenses and pay in over 150 currencies.

Figure B

Medium and large companies leverage multicountry payroll when diversifying into new markets or scaling globally. In contrast, startups and small companies benefit from the cost savings of paying freelancers around the world under the simple centralized payroll management platform.

Also read: The Best Payroll Software of 2023

Multiplier global payroll features also include:

• Multicountry salary calculator.
• Payscale guidebooks.
• One-click payroll to employees and freelancers in 150+ countries.
• Multicurrency payments and transactions at low cost.
• Guaranteed compliance with labor and tax laws through local entities.
• Comprehensive system of record for employers and employees.

Figure C

Also read: The Best PEO Companies of 2023

HR lifecycle features

Multiplier HR technology is robust, and its features are comprehensive. It offers most of the HR lifecycle tech tools professional employee organization solutions offer, but it stands out for going the extra mile regarding global workers.

HR teams can use the platform to hire talent globally without opening an entity. Multiplier will act as the legal employer of international workers. This frees up the HR team’s time to focus on day-to-day tasks rather than the complexities of managing entities abroad. The company also provides tools to streamline work permits, work visas and a wide range of resources and guides for hundreds of countries that customers can access online.

With HR Multiplier features companies can:

• Create multilingual and regionally compliant employment contracts.
• Comply with changing labor laws and country-specific tax policies.
• Leverage support for more than 150 countries and expertise of on-ground legal teams.
• Adhere to local regulatory compliance when onboarding workers.
• Manage all HR tasks in a single platform, from expenses to time-off, benefits and bonuses.
• Set up company culture and policy, time-off and rewards.
• Streamline onboarding experiences.
• Issue laptops and essentials for international workers directly from the platform in just a few clicks, selecting them from a catalog (Figure D).
• Get support for talent acquisition.

Figure D

Also read: The Best Human Resources Payroll Software of 2023

Visibility, analysis and reports

From contracts to leave requests and freelancers’ payments, Multiplier provides visibility, centralizing all the information. Companies can access the cloud platform via web and mobile.

Additionally, Multiplier organizes employees in a structure that can be used to create reports, establish permissions, track performance, time, attendance and schedules and more. Administrators can also customize the platform to better fit their operations and grant access to different features, dashboards, reports and other components.

The analytics tools are designed to provide live-business metrics and track progress while users can access pre-built template reports or create their own.

Benefits and compliance

Companies setting up international operations face endless challenges when it comes to managing benefits and compliance. Multiplier’s main focus is simplifying these tasks for small, medium and large companies to navigate.

With Multiplier, companies can ensure that all contracts comply with labor law requirements. They can also offer benefits locally, manage statutory leaves and meet termination laws, working hours and salary breakdowns. Another helpful feature of the platform is bilingual contracts.

Offering benefits and insurance helps companies avoid fines and builds up brand reputation, allowing them to stay competitive no matter where they work. Multiplier is GDPR compliant and provides a secure platform focusing on data security. The company utilizes Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its cloud provider, known for high industry security and standards.

With Multiplier benefits and compliance features companies can:

• Get a 360-degree global benefits administration platform that operates in over 150 countries.
• Access localized benefits packages and expert support in different markets.
• Manage benefits and compliance in one platform.
• Select insurance for international teams.
• Customize, compare and choose from global and local benefits and insurance packages.
• Meet compliance and benefits demands for U.S. workers.

Figure E

Customer service

The company offers 24-hour support from Monday to Friday for all its plans. It also provides payroll, compliance, legal and HR support from local teams of experts in different countries.

Multiplier pros

Automation and cost savings: Multiplier can automate your payroll process, saving you time and money. It can also automatically calculate employee pay, deductions and taxes.

Global time tracking: From paid leave, to time off, to attendance, time-tracking features can be complicated when running teams in different countries. With Multiplier, companies can track all employees’ time and sync that information with payroll, HR and reports.

IT essentials: Multiplier allows companies to provide international workers with essentials by simplifying selecting equipment like laptops from a catalog and having it automatically delivered.

International support and resources: The company offers support for every HR, IT, payroll, benefits and compliance aspect in different countries. Additionally, Multiplier provides a library of HR resources that can help you to stay up to date on the latest HR trends.

HR management: Multiplier can manage HR processes, including employee onboarding, benefits administration and performance reviews. Multiplier also offers a library of HR resources that can help you to stay up to date on the latest HR trends.

Compliance and benefits: Multiplier stands out from the competition by offering comprehensive benefits for different countries. Companies can even compare options and select the most suitable for their business. Additionally, the company sets up legal entities and manages everything related to compliance.

Reporting: Multiplier can provide reports for payroll, HR and compliance data, to track progress and identify potential problems.

Multiplier cons

Notable limitations: Multiplier doesn’t offer AI-powered analytics, and it only has legal entities in 25 countries — the rest are provided through partnerships. Plus, advanced HR lifecycle features for attracting and retaining talent and driving career growth aren’t built in, and it doesn’t integrate with popular bookkeeping and other finance apps.

High costs: Multiplier can be fairly expensive for small companies. So, if you don’t need as many features, it’s probably better to go for a cheaper, more streamlined solution.

No free trial: If you were hoping to test Multiplier on your own first, you’re out of luck. Multiplier doesn’t offer a free trial, but you can request a demo to see how it works.

Alternatives to Multiplier

If Multiplier doesn’t seem like a good fit for your company because of budget reasons, complexity, or lack of certain features or integrations, there are several excellent international vendors that offer top-of-the-line payroll, HR and benefits and compliance technology. Let’s look at three of the top alternatives.

Papaya Global: Best for global workforce management

Papaya Global is a good top choice to unify payroll, HR, benefits and compliance. It’s simple to use, provides useful integrations, leverages automation and offers all the top features global payroll vendors offer.

Papaya Global customers include big brands such as Toyota, Microsoft and Canva but the platform is also popular among small companies. With competitive pricing starting at $3 per month per employee, Papaya Global is known for being a powerful cloud-based payroll and payments platform that can help businesses save time and money and stay compliant with labor laws and regulations.

ADP Global Payroll: Best for large international companies

If your company has a solid international presence and complex operations, ADP is an excellent option. Most of the company’s clients are large U.S.-based multinational businesses.

ADP’s cloud-based human capital management (HCM) features offer a suite of payroll, compliance and tax and legal expertise. ADP has been in the business for over 70 years and has over 800,000 clients in 140 countries. According to reviews, ADP can be expensive, with its Essential plan costing $79 per month plus $4 per employee.

Rippling: Best for automation and simplifying global operations

For companies looking to leverage automation with a user-friendly cloud platform that offers all the perks of payroll, HR and finance technologies, Rippling is definitely a vendor to consider.

Rippling is ideal for small companies looking to grow, with a price starting at $8 a month per user. Despite its modern simplicity, Rippling is one of the best PEO global solutions.

How we reviewed Multiplier

To write our review and evaluate Multiplier’s features, competitors and alternatives, we examined sites that compile aggregate data based on verified user reviews. We also reviewed demos on vendor sites, test-drove the software when possible and scoured through the official sites of Multiplier and other vendors to evaluate their software features, customer service, user-friendliness, price and scalability.

Read next: The 8 Best International Payroll Services for 2023