True cost · HR, payroll, and hiring software
Oyster true cost: the 36-month total
Oyster costs $10,440 over 36 months on Global Contractors at 10 contractors, billed annually, before 5 cost lines that sit outside the plan price.
What Oyster costs over 36 months
Every figure below is Oyster's own published rate, annualised and multiplied out over 36 months at 10 contractors. Where Oyster publishes no rate, the row says so instead of guessing.
The same plan at four team sizes
Oyster charges per contractor, so the 36-month figure scales linearly with headcount. These are Global Contractors totals, on annual billing, with no fees added.
Renewal sensitivity: three scenarios, not a forecast
Nobody knows what Oyster charges in 2029. The table below is arithmetic on a rate you choose, not a prediction: it compounds the year-one total forward at 0%, 5% and 10% so you can see how much of the 36-month figure is exposed to a renewal you have not negotiated yet.
Scenario arithmetic on Oyster's own published year-one figure. Uplift rates are illustrative inputs, not observed or predicted rates.
What sits outside the Oyster list price
5 lines, sorted by when in the contract lifecycle they land. Lines marked as derived are arithmetic on Oyster's own tier table rather than vendor prose.
Each line, what triggers it, and how to avoid it
Tax, FX and payment processing
Stated on the pricing page: Currency conversion fees apply if paying in a different currency
What triggers it. This lands on the invoice, not the price page. Oyster quotes $290 a month for 10 contractors net of it, so the number you approve in a business case and the number finance pays reconcile only after tax and card handling are added.
How to avoid it. Ask for a tax-inclusive quote in your own currency. Cross-border billing on a three-year term is where FX drift quietly eats a discount you negotiated once.
Vendor-specific term
Stated on the pricing page: Refundable EOR deposit required upfront
What triggers it. Vendor-specific mechanics, disclosed on Oyster's own pricing material, which is why it appears here rather than surfacing later inside a contract.
How to avoid it. Add it to the evaluation checklist as an open question rather than assuming it is immaterial. On a $10,440 commitment, few of these are.
Paid add-on or module
Stated on the pricing page: People Partner Services billed at $300/hour
What triggers it. Triggered by needing the capability, and then charged every cycle afterwards. Add-ons attach to the Global Contractors subscription permanently, so this is a recurring line the $10,440 figure does not contain.
How to avoid it. Bundle the add-ons into the initial negotiation. They are discounted far more readily at first signature than when added in year two as a mid-term upsell.
Feature gated to a higher tier
Derived from the published tiers: Moving from Global Contractors to EOR costs a further $241,200 over 36 months at 10 contractors, which is 24.1x the entry total.
What triggers it. Triggered by needing one feature, not by growing. This is the mechanism that moves teams off Global Contractors: a single requirement that only exists further up the ladder, at a rate that applies to every unit you buy.
How to avoid it. Ask whether the capability can be bought as an add-on to Global Contractors. Vendors frequently unbundle when the alternative is losing the deal.
Seat expansion
Derived from the published tiers: Five more contractors on Global Contractors add $5,220 across 36 months, on top of the $10,440 above.
What triggers it. Triggered by hiring. Every figure above is priced at 10 contractors; this line is what each unit past that costs, and it compounds for the remainder of the term rather than the remainder of the month.
How to avoid it. Price your year-three headcount now, not today's. Negotiating the $10,440 commitment at the size you expect to be is how you avoid buying seats twice.
How that compares across hr, payroll, and hiring software
The median hr, payroll, and hiring software tool we track charges $75 a month at its cheapest paid tier. Re-expressed on the same basis as the figure above, 10 contractors for 36 months, that median works out at $27,000.
Oyster lands $16,560 below that figure, 61.3%, measured across 34 tracked tools. A gap either way is a question, not a verdict: cheaper often means fewer included seats or a thinner support tier, and the fee lines below are where that difference usually reappears.
What changes at enterprise scale
Everything above prices the self-serve ladder. Enterprise sits off that ladder, which means the $10,440 figure is a floor for a large deployment rather than an estimate of one.
Annual EOR commitments unlock discounts; Oyster Shell adds $500K liability coverage as an optional add-on.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Oyster cost over three years?
$10,440 on Global Contractors at 10 contractors, billed annually, which is $290 a month held flat for 36 months. That figure covers the subscription only.
Does paying Oyster annually save money?
Oyster publishes the same effective rate either way on Global Contractors, so there is no prepay discount to capture. Keep the monthly option unless the vendor offers something for the commitment.
What does Oyster charge for outside the plan price?
5 lines: tax, fx and payment processing, vendor-specific term, paid add-on or module, feature gated to a higher tier and 1 more. Each one is broken down above with what triggers it and how to avoid it.
Could Oyster cost more at renewal?
Possibly, and nothing on this page predicts it. If the rate held flat the three-year total would be $10,440; at a hypothetical 10% a year it would be $11,518.80. Cap the uplift in the contract and the question stops mattering.
What does Oyster cost for a team of 25?
$26,100 over 36 months on Global Contractors, billed annually. Oyster charges per contractor, so that scales directly with headcount.
Price Oyster on your own numbers
This page holds the term axis. The pricing breakdown holds the seat axis: every tier, the per-seat calculator, and the same fee list against the monthly figure.
Sources and method
- List rates and fee disclosures: Oyster official pricing page, verified 17 May 2026.
- 36-month totals: the published annual-equivalent rate multiplied by 36, at 10 contractors. No inflation, no discount, no fee estimates included.
- Renewal rows: scenario arithmetic on rates stated in the table. They are inputs, not observations.
- Category median: the cheapest paid monthly tier of every tool we track in the same category, re-expressed over 36 months.