Deel Review with Tests – What Does It Do?

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In this Deel review, we take you through everything you need to decide if Deel is the right employer of record (EOR) service for you. Despite globalization, hiring abroad remains a hurdle. To employ the best talent, you must comply with international labor laws, and tax regulations and deal with currency exchange rate fluctuations.

EOR services streamline global compliance and multi-currency payments, so you can build a skilled team without the headache. However, finding an EOR that suits your business needs among all the options can be tricky.

We thoroughly tested one of the most popular EOR services on the market, Deel, to give you an honest opinion. We’ll dive into the company history, key features, and pricing and compare it to other EORs to help you make an informed decision.

Deel Pros and Cons

Before we get into the details of our Deel review, here’s a quick overview of its main strengths and weaknesses.

What is Deel?

An EOR is a third-party entity that acts as an employer for contractors and freelancers on behalf of a company. This way, the EOR takes the burden of onboarding, payroll processing, and compliance off your shoulders.

Founded in 2018 by Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang, Deel quickly gained recognition due to its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface.

The company’s rapid growth isn’t surprising, given the trend towards remote work and the global nature of modern businesses. Some of the features Deel offers are contract generation, payment processing, compliance management, and tax calculations, all tailored to the requirements of different jurisdictions.

Deel wasn’t the first EOR service on the market – when it was launched, there were more established solutions it had to compete with. For example, Rippling was launched two years earlier.

But while Rippling offers a broad range of HR and payroll services, Deel stands out with its advanced compliance features and ease of use.

In 2023, Deel was recognized as the Customer Service Department of the Year by the Globee Awards and received a silver medal for customer service by The Stevie Awards.

Not only does Deel provide excellent service, it’s also a great employer. Forbes named Deel as one of America’s Best Startup Employers in 2021. Deel Glassdoor reviews prove the award is well deserved, with the average employee rating being four stars.

Full disclosure – we’ve been using Deel since its inception and never had a problem. Quite the opposite, it has helped us streamline HR and payroll processes so we could focus on what we do best, delivering quality news and reviews to you.

Is Deel Legit?

Deel is a reliable, trustworthy company that’s transparent about its operations. Furthermore, Deel received funding from several reputable investors. These include Spark Capital and Y Combinator, who have also backed established enterprises like Slack, Airbnb, and Oculus VR.

During our research, we came across a few users on forums like Reddit who were concerned about higher-than-average exchange rates.

However, Deel representatives explained that providers determine the forex rates, which depend on a currency’s liquidity. Deel doesn’t profit from the exchange but covers transaction processing expenses.

Another user was troubled by a statement in Deel’s terms of service stating that the platform would not be held liable for any losses arising from unauthorized use of their account.

Again, a representative clarified that as a data controller, Deel is, by law, fully liable for damage caused by insufficient security on its part. However, it isn’t responsible if you give out your credentials, even unknowingly, say, as a result of a phishing attack.

In 2023, US lawmakers urged the Department of Labor to investigate Deel’s hiring practices. They claimed the company classified its workers as independent contractors to avoid paying employee benefits.

However, classifying workers as contractors is legal and makes sense when they have a high degree of autonomy.

Deel Key Features – What’s Included?

Now, let’s see what earned Deel its popularity. Here are the key features the platform offers.

EOR and PEO

Deel offers EOR and Professional Employer Organization (PEO) services for global workforce management. Essentially, Deel legally employs international workers on your behalf.

Deel’s EOR and PEO save you time by automating hiring and onboarding and help comply with international laws. As a result, you can hire the best experts from all over the world and focus on strategic tasks.

HR

Once you’ve found your global talent, Deel handles all things HR-related, such as training, benefits administration, taxation, insurance, and document collection. You can automate all HR processes with over 200 integrations.

For instance, Deel automates background checks, so you get candidate screening results in minutes. Deel’s background check procedures are GDPR-compliant, ensuring you don’t breach applicants’ privacy.

Payroll

With traditional payment methods, you must deal with currency conversion and local tax compliance. Furthermore, international payments vary in speed and cost, making global team management challenging.

Deel handles all aspects of foreign employee payroll processing, reducing administrative overheads and mitigating related risks. For example, Deel helps you avoid extra costs incurred due to exchange rate fluctuations.

By eliminating middlemen like banks and currency exchanges, Deel ensures your employees are always paid on time. The platform offers advance and instant payments, so your employees can access their funds from anywhere and at any time.

Deel also provides standard payroll reports required by local labor laws and HR dashboards to help you make informed decisions. Country-specific headcount, retention, and costs are only some of the metrics you can assess.

Onboarding and Offboarding

Employee onboarding is complex: you have to collect personal information, sign a multitude of documents, share company policies, and set up payroll. However, it’s also essential, as the onboarding experience may influence a new hire’s decision to stay with your company.

Deel simplifies the process of bringing new hires on board and managing transitions for departing employees by taking over these tasks.

We liked that the platform provides customizable workflows so that you can customize onboarding and onboarding processes based on roles, departments, or locations.

All you have to do is create contracts and policies and invite the new hire to join Deel. Once they sign and upload all the necessary documents, Deel verifies them and approves the new employee’s profile.

Additionally, Deel manages the new hire’s training. For example, completing training modules or reviewing company policies and procedures.

Employee Benefit Management

Deel ensures your employees get the benefits required by local laws and additional perks you assign. You can manage and customize benefit packages through the platform, including health insurance and retirement plans.

Once you set up the packages, your employees can access their benefits information via a self-service portal. The dashboard displays their eligibility, coverage, and enrollment history.

Legal Support and Compliance

Deel goes beyond contract templates; it provides a comprehensive suite of legal support and compliance features tailored to the nuances of international employment law.

For example, when hiring employees in foreign countries, Deel reviews your existing employment contracts to ensure they align with local laws.

Deel Premium protects you from liability due to contractor misclassification. Here’s how it works: you fill out a questionnaire and Deel provides a recommendation based on the results. If misclassification still occurs, Deel takes on the liability.

Another standout feature is visa management. Hiring abroad can be expensive and take months. Deel sponsors employee visas, including US Green Cards and temporary work visas, to speed up the process.

Workspaces

Deel partnered with WeWork, giving you access to hundreds of coworking spaces worldwide. However, you need to purchase the WeWork All Access pass as an add-on. Deel will handle the rest, like issuing passes to your employees.

WeWork workspaces have private phone booths, printers and scanners, kitchens, and meeting rooms. Open-plan offices also improve communication and make it easier to accommodate new employees.

Integrations

Deel software supports over 200 integrations with business software like Quickbooks, Xero, NetSuite, HiBob, and BambooHR. All data syncs in real-time across your platforms, so you don’t have to enter it manually or wait for updates.

If you need additional integrations, you can build your own with the Deel API. An API (application programming interface) allows different software to communicate and interact.

Deel’s resources provide step-by-step guides for using the API to automate various processes.

Deel Pricing – Is It Affordable?

Deel’s feature set is impressive, but is it worth your money? We reviewed Deel’s pricing plans and compared them with similar software solutions. Additionally, we evaluated Deel’s refund and cancellation policies.

Deel Contractors

Deel’s cheapest plan costs $49/month/contract. The platform handles legal compliance and payments but doesn’t act as the EOR or protect you from liability.

Deel Premium

Deel Premium costs $99/month/contract and provides legal protection against misclassification. The platform provides up to $25,000 in coverage per contract and reimburses all legal defense costs. However, you still have to employ the contractors.

Deel EOR

With Deel’s highest pricing tier, the platform acts as the EOR and protects you from contractor misclassification. Priced at $599/month/contract, it’s considerably more expensive than hiring employees yourself. However, Deel takes over all processes and liability, so you only have to approve invoices once a month.

Add-Ons

While all Deel plans include payment processing, you have to pay extra for advanced payroll features like custom reports and government declarations.

Deel’s HR platform, WeWork access, and immigration assistance are also add-ons.

You can get these add-ons for a fixed monthly fee per contract, but the pricing is case-based. You’ll have to fill out a form and contact Deel’s sales representative to discuss costs.

Is Deel Free?

Deel HR is free for companies with less than 200 employees. There are no set-up fees or monthly costs, which makes it a perfect fit for growing businesses. However, the free plan doesn’t include payroll or liability coverage.

Deel doesn’t have a free trial, but neither do most EORs. The Terms of Service state that you can get a payment plan with a free trial at Deel’s discretion, but if you don’t cancel before it ends, you’ll be charged automatically.

Furthermore, you can get a 30-minute demo on request. This lets you see the platform’s interface and ask Deel’s representative any questions.

Refunds and Cancellation

Unfortunately, Deel doesn’t make refunds easy. You are only eligible for a refund if there was a mistake on Deel’s end, such as unauthorized access to your account or duplicate charges. You also can’t get your money back if you change your mind or decide to go with a different provider.

Cancelling your plan doesn’t initiate a refund either. You have to give Deel a 30-day written notice to cancel your subscription.

Deel vs Competitor Pricing

Compared to other EOR and payroll solutions, Deel stacks up as a premium option. However, the investment pays off because Deel is one of the few EOR platforms with in-country HR teams for EOR employees.

For example, Rippling starts at $8/month/user; and payroll is available by default. However, Rippling only allows hiring in under 20 countries, and EOR services pricing is custom.

Oyster charges $29/month/contract if you bear the liability or $499/month/contract to act as the EOR. That’s slightly cheaper than Deel, but Oyster lacks some features Deel offers, like custom reporting and advanced automation.

Papaya starts at $30/month/contractor and supports hiring in over 160 countries, which sounds like it’s giving Deel a run for its money. However, Papaya charges $650/month/contract to act as the EOR, $50 more than Deel. Plus, Papaya relies heavily on partners, so you get many points of contact and multiple data handovers. This results in a higher risk of miscommunication and data breach.

Deel Interface and Ease of Use

Deel’s user-friendliness is one of its key competitive advantages. Many HR and payroll solutions are hard to navigate due to the array of features. However, Deel’s intuitive and minimalist interface flattens the learning curve.

You can access your contracts, documents, invoices, and settings from the left sidebar. The Home menu features comprehensive dashboards that allow you to assess your business’s health at a glance.

Of course, you can drill down into sub-menus for detailed information. A lack of clutter helps you find what you’re looking for faster.

We also liked that Deel’s mobile version is no different from the desktop one, and you can access all the features. Even the navigation remains uncharged, so we recommend the app if you frequently work on the go.

Unfortunately, Deel has no mobile app, but you can access the platform via the browser. The website is optimized for small screens, so the app user experience is equally as pleasant.

If you encounter any issues, Deel support is available 24/7 via live chat or email. The website also features a comprehensive knowledge library with guides, tutorials, and answers to common questions.

Deel vs Other EOR Services

We’ve briefly touched on Deel competitor pricing, but choosing the right EOR service ultimately depends on the balance between cost and features. We created this comparison table of the best HR software and EORs to help you find the best solution for your business.

Deel is our best overall EOR service due to its comprehensive payroll, HR, and compliance management features. However, each solution in the table has unique strengths, so we advise reading our review of the best EOR services for more information.

Deel Reviews – What Are People Saying

Our experience with Deel was positive. However, users’ opinions about the platform depend on many variables, including location, business size, and industry. We dug into verified user reviews on TrustPilot and G2 to provide you with other perspectives.

The 4.8 rating on TrustPilot shows we aren’t alone in our impression. Users praise Deel for user-friendliness, helpful customer support, and advanced automation.

Of course, no service is perfect. Some users note that Deel’s commission is too high. Others would like faster customer service.

G2 users share similar observations. Apart from ease of use and excellent support, they highlight that Deel makes compliance a breeze.

Why You Can Trust Our Deel Review

During this time, we evaluated Deel’s performance at different scales and can confidently say it met all our needs. We’ve used every feature, from onboarding automation to compliance consulting, and were impressed by its user-friendliness.

To complement our insights, we evaluated feedback from verified users on reputable platforms like TrustPilot and G2. After all, each business’s needs are different, so diverse perspectives are helpful.

Lastly, we reviewed Deel alternatives like Rippling and Remofirst to help you compare solutions and find the best for your case.

How to Use Deel, Step-by-Step Guide

In our experience, using Deel is straightforward. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to help you get started.

Sign Up

First, sign up for a Deel account on the official website. You can talk to a sales representative beforehand to find the best plan and get answers to your questions. Then, provide basic company information to subscribe to a plan.

Create Contracts

Deel makes it easy to draft and customize contracts with details like payment terms, project scope, and legal requirements. You can create several contracts for each department or role.

Set Up Payments

Next, set up payment methods and establish schedules based on hours worked or project milestones. You can do it via your Deel Wallet. Note that it only holds funds in USD, so other currencies are converted automatically.

Onboard Team Members

Then, invite your team members to join your Deel workspace. Enter their email addresses and assign roles and permissions as needed. Team members will receive email invitations to join Deel and can complete their profiles and documentation once they register. You can also set up custom onboarding procedures for new hires.

Manage HR Processes

Once everything is up and running, you can manage employee benefits, monitor compliance, and automate HR procedures via your dashboard.

Deel Verdict – Is Worth It?

Deel is an excellent all-in-one EOR service with HR, payroll, and compliance management that erases geographical borders and makes remote work a breeze.

However, Deel could potentially have high costs due to its per-contract pricing, so it’s only natural to hesitate before investing in a platform you haven’t tried.

Fortunately, Deel has helpful representatives who can address your concerns and give you a free demo, allowing you to make an informed decision. Furthermore, Deel HR is free for small companies, so you can test it and see if it fits your needs.

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