An Employer of Record (EOR) charges a margin on top of the French social contributions you would pay anyway. For a stable hire, running direct French payroll instead can save thousands per year. Enter your figures to see the difference.
EOR fees vary by provider; €400–€600 per employee per month (or 8–15% of salary) is a common range. The French social contributions are the same either way — the EOR fee is the extra cost.
Direct payroll replaces the EOR margin with a modest payroll management fee — so your real saving is close to the EOR premium shown above. For a precise quote, get in touch.
Whichever route you choose, the French social contributions are identical — they are set by law, not by your provider. The real difference is the overhead on top. An Employer of Record becomes the legal employer of your staff and charges a margin for that service: convenient, but costly every single month.
With direct French payroll, you employ your people yourself (through a French entity or as a registered foreign employer) and a payroll specialist handles the monthly payslips and the DSN filing. You pay a management fee instead of a per-employee margin — usually a fraction of the EOR cost.
An EOR is a sensible way to test the market quickly or cover a short-term hire. But once a role is stable, the premium rarely justifies itself. That is exactly the point where switching to direct payroll pays off.
An EOR charges a fee on top of the French social contributions you would pay anyway — typically a flat monthly fee (often €400–€600+ per employee) or a percentage of salary. The contributions are identical to direct payroll; the EOR fee is the extra cost.
For a stable, longer-term hire, usually yes. With direct payroll you pay the French contributions plus a modest payroll management fee instead of the EOR's per-employee margin, which saves several thousand euros per employee per year in most cases.
An EOR is useful for a quick, short-term test of the French market, or for a single hire you expect to end soon, because it avoids any registration. Once the hire is stable, switching to direct payroll removes the ongoing premium.
I set up compliant French payroll and run it monthly — payslips, social charges, DSN — in English, without the per-employee margin.
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