Best Employer of Record · small businessBest EOR for small business: two in Canada

Month one, counted in dollars that leave the account

A company paying its first people abroad out of operating cash cares about the transfer it makes before the first payslip. The table above therefore adds four things for the two hires: the gross salaries ($4,583 a month each), Ontario’s statutory employer charges ($449 each), the published fee for two people, and any deposit a pricing page puts a number on. Before any fee the pair costs $10,065 a month; the fee then adds $398 at RemoFirst and $1,398 at Oyster.

Deposits are where the pricing pages part ways. Playroll gives a formula, one month’s salary per employee, refundable. Multiplier’s EOR terms, in force since 1 June 2026, require a refundable security deposit per employee whose size Multiplier sets, and Oyster’s pricing FAQ requires one without an amount; both are flagged in the deposit column, not priced. Remote states none; Borderless AI’s support centre sets a refundable deposit of 1.5 months of the employee’s fully loaded cost by ACH, 3 months by wire, due before the start date. The remaining pages are silent, which is a question for the quote, not a zero.

Ontario’s ledger at $55,000

At the European Central Bank reference rate of 30 October 2026 the salary is about CAD 76,829, and every Canadian line on the Canada page is read against that figure. The Canada Pension Plan takes 5.95% of earnings between CAD 3,500 and CAD 74,600. Because this salary passes the upper figure, the second additional contribution (CPP2, 4% up to CAD 85,000) also applies, on the slice above it: $5 a month per person. Employment Insurance stops at CAD 68,900 of earnings. WSIB Class L adds 0.18%.

The Ontario Employer Health Tax is charged at its top rate of 1.95%. The Ministry of Finance restricts the CAD 1,000,000 exemption to eligible employers whose group payroll is under CAD 5,000,000, which an EOR payroll exceeds. Together these come to +9.8% of salary. The 4% minimum vacation pay is taken as paid time off inside a salaried employee’s pay and is not added on top. Quebec runs its own plans and is not modelled.

When the deposit outweighs the fee

On the all-in monthly figure, Playroll and Pebl sit level at $10,863 for the pair, because both print $399. The deposit changes the order: about $9,167 tied up at signature moves Playroll to the end of the cash-to-start column. The deposit is refundable, so what it costs is the use of that money while Playroll holds it, not the money itself. Playroll also prints CAD 549 a month on its EOR pricing page (read 2 October 2026), the figure to ask for if your invoices will be in Canadian dollars.

Choosing between an EOR and a PEO, or an EOR and a company of your own, is a separate decision with its own threshold: see EOR vs PEO and EOR vs own entity. If the two people are contractors today, the contractors-to-employees ranking prices the switch.