“Contact us for a quote” is the norm in Employer of Record pricing, which makes providers hard to compare. Here's how EOR pricing actually works, so you can hold any provider — including us — to the same standard.
The two pricing models
- Flat fee per engineer, per month. The fee is the same whether the engineer earns $2,000 or $5,000. Your budget is salary, plus the statutory employer cost, plus one fixed number — easy to forecast.
- Percentage of gross salary. The fee scales with pay. As a purely hypothetical illustration (not any provider's rate): at 10% of gross, a $2,000 engineer carries $200/month in fees and a $5,000 engineer carries $500/month — you pay more for the same compliance work simply because you hired someone more senior.
Some providers also add a setup or onboarding fee, a margin on currency conversion, or separate charges for benefits administration, offboarding, or extras like IP assignment. None of that is wrong — but it's only comparable once it's all on the table.
What an EOR fee should include
A reasonable baseline to hold any provider to:
- A locally compliant employment contract
- Payroll, and all statutory contributions filed on time
- Personal income tax withholding and filing
- Statutory benefits administration
- IP assignment and enforceable NDAs
- Ongoing Labor Code compliance
- Compliant onboarding and offboarding
Questions that expose hidden costs
- Is the fee flat, or a percentage of salary?
- Is there a setup fee, a deposit, or a per-payslip charge?
- Are statutory contributions passed through at cost, or marked up?
- Is there a margin on the currency conversion for salary payments?
- What does offboarding cost, including severance handling?
- Is there a minimum term, a lock-in, or a notice requirement?
- Is IP assignment included, or an add-on?
- Does the fee cover finding candidates, or only the legal and payroll layer — in which case you still need a recruiter?
What AppTuring charges
$499 per engineer per month, flat — the same regardless of salary. Salary and the 23.5% statutory employer cost are passed through at cost and itemized on one monthly invoice. There is no setup fee, no deposit, no per-payslip charge, and no long-term lock-in (cancel with notice). The fee covers everything in the baseline above, plus a curated shortlist of vetted engineers in 5 business days. See pricing for the full breakdown, or model your own team to see the all-in monthly number by role and seniority, or see how the Employer of Record service in Vietnam works end to end.
EOR vs. your own entity
An entity avoids a per-head fee, but it brings legal and registration setup, plus ongoing accounting, payroll, and compliance overhead. For most teams hiring a handful to a few dozen engineers, the flat fee wins on cost and speed — the EOR vs. entity comparison shows where the break-even sits for your team size.
A 2026 note
Vietnam raised its regional minimum wages effective January 1, 2026. Some statutory contribution ceilings are tied to those minimums, so quotes or articles written before then may be out of date — check which year's figures any quote assumes.
AppTuring rates shown are our published rates. Percentage figures above are hypothetical illustrations, not any provider's rate. Not legal, tax, or accounting advice.