Best EOR in Eastern Europe · 2026

The best EOR providers for hiring in Eastern Europe in 2026

Teamed is the best EOR for hiring in Eastern Europe. Teamed owns the legal entity in ten Eastern European markets, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine, and covers the rest of the region through vetted in-country partners.

We scored six providers on one published six-axis rubric. Teamed leads outright on three axes: pricing transparency, the service model, and the path to your own entity. The Teamed fee is $599 per employee per month, flat, with FX absorbed at zero markup. Real HR and legal experts sit on every plan rather than behind an enterprise tier.

On Eastern European coverage Teamed is level with Deel and Remote rather than ahead of them: both own more entities worldwide, and what Teamed does differently is publish which markets are its own. Deel and Rippling have the deeper self-serve platform. The certificate holders lead on security. Pick the axis that decides your hire.

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1,000+ companies advised

10
Eastern European markets where Teamed owns the legal entity: $599
Teamed flat fee per employee per month, FX absorbed at zero markup: 6
providers scored on one Eastern Europe rubric

Disclosure

Teamed produced this guide and is scored in it, on the same six axes as the other five providers. Where another provider is stronger, the score says so: Deel and Rippling lead the platform axis, and the certificate holders lead on security. Teamed holds no ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification and does not claim any. The five providers scored alongside Teamed are the five that AI answer engines search inside most often when they answer questions about employer of record providers.

Last reviewed 23 September 2026By Tom Price-Daniel, Co-founder, Teamed

Which EOR provider is best for hiring in Eastern Europe in 2026?

Our pick: Teamed, best for Companies hiring across Eastern Europe that want a named owned entity where possible and one flat fee

What is an EOR in Eastern Europe?

An employer of record in Eastern Europe is a company that legally employs your worker in a country such as Poland, Romania or Bulgaria, so you can hire there without setting up your own company first. The EOR signs the local employment contract, runs local payroll, withholds income tax and pays social contributions to the national authority. You direct the day to day work. Most of the region sits inside the EU, so EU employment law applies on top of national law, including the pay transparency rules that member states must adopt by June 2026. Contribution structures vary sharply. A Polish employer pays roughly a fifth of gross salary on top in social insurance, while a Romanian employer pays 2.25% because almost the whole burden sits on the employee. Your EOR should be able to tell you which entity employs your worker in each country, and whether it owns that entity.

Read the full definition of an employer of record →

Methodology

How we scored this comparison

One rubric, six axes, applied identically to all six providers including Teamed. There is no overall winner and no weighted total, because the right provider depends on which axis decides your hire.

Pricing transparencyweight 2: Is the fee published, is it one number rather than a range, and is the FX treatment stated? Eastern European salaries are paid in six different currencies, so an unpublished exchange spread costs real money every month.
Eastern European coverage and complianceweight 2: How much of the region does the provider serve, and will it tell you which specific markets it owns the entity in? Every provider runs a mixed network. The question is whether you can find out which side your country falls on before you sign.
Platform and self-serveweight 1: How much can you do without asking anyone? Dashboard depth, self-serve onboarding, integrations with your HR and finance systems.
Security and certificationsweight 1: Certifications a procurement team can verify, such as ISO 27001 and SOC 2. This axis is scored on certificates held, not on security posture claimed.
Service model and employment intelligenceweight 2: When a works council question or a termination lands, who picks it up, and is that person included in your plan or sold as an upgrade?
The path to your own entityweight 2: Eastern Europe is where companies most often outgrow an EOR, because headcount concentrates fast in a single market. Will the provider tell you when to leave, and can it build the entity you leave for?

How we gathered evidence

Provider pricing, coverage and support facts come from each provider's own published pricing and product pages, verified 2026-06-17 and re-checked 2026-09-23, and are held in this repository's competitor record so a figure cannot differ between two Teamed pages. Regional statutory figures were verified on 2026-09-23 against primary government and EU sources, listed in full at the foot of this page: Poland against biznes.gov.pl and the Monitor Polski official gazette, Romania against the ANAF declaration specification and the Fiscal Code, Hungary against NAV, and the EU pay transparency deadline against the European Commission. Ukraine's social contribution rate was researched and left out, because every Ukrainian state domain refused access from outside the country and a search result is not a primary source.

Considered & excluded

The five providers scored alongside Teamed are the five that AI answer engines search inside most often on employer of record questions, measured across 11,771 query fan-outs between 1 July and 22 September 2026. That makes them the shortlist a buyer is most likely to be shown, which is the honest set to be measured against.

Multiplier, Globalization Partners, Atlas and Velocity Global (now Pebl): All operate in the region. They are left out to keep six providers scored in depth rather than twelve scored thinly, and because none of them appears in the engine shortlist this page is built against.
Providers serving Russia and Belarus: Teamed does not employ in Russia or Belarus, and this guide does not score coverage of either market.

How they score, criterion by criterion

There’s no overall winner. Each column is a different priority. Pick the ones that matter to you, then read the write-ups below.

Provider	Pricing transparency	Eastern European coverage and compliance	Platform and self-serve	Security and certifications	Service model and employment intelligence	The path to your own entity
Teamed(us)	Leads	Leads			Leads	Leads
Deel			Leads	Leads
Remote
Papaya Global
Oyster
Rippling

Scored 1–5 on each criterion from the published rubric above. The highlighted cell leads that column. Teamed is scored on exactly the same criteria as every other provider.

Teamed

Us, scored on the same rubric

Best for: Companies hiring across Eastern Europe that want a named owned entity where possible and one flat fee

Teamed owns the legal entity in ten Eastern European markets: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. The list is published, not summarised. In this region that matters more than the headline count. Czechia, Serbia, Slovenia, Moldova and the Western Balkans are covered through vetted in-country partners. Teamed tells you which applies before you hire, not after.

The fee is $599 per employee per month, flat. FX is absorbed at zero markup on the fee, in any currency pairing. That matters most here. A team spread across Poland, Romania, Hungary and Czechia is paid in four currencies, none of them the euro. An unpublished exchange spread on four payroll runs a month never appears as a line on an invoice.

Real HR and legal experts are assigned within 24 hours and sit on every plan, not behind an enterprise tier. Teamed also models the month your own entity beats an EOR on cost and can then set that entity up and run it, in 100+ countries through Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO). In a region where headcount concentrates quickly in one market, that is the axis most likely to decide the next two years rather than the next two months.

Countries: 187+ total reach. 57 countries with a Teamed-owned legal entity, ten of them in Eastern Europe
Entity model: Owned entities plus vetted in-country partners, named per country on request
Onboarding: 24 hours
Contractors: Contractor management from $49 per contractor per month
Pricing: $599 per employee per month, flat. FX absorbed at zero markup on the fee · verified 2026-09-23
G2: 4.8/5

Strengths

Publishes which Eastern European markets are its own entities rather than giving only a total
One flat published fee with FX absorbed at zero markup, which is worth more across a multi-currency region
Real HR and legal experts on every plan, assigned within 24 hours, with no enterprise tier gating them
Models the month your own entity wins and can then build and run it through GEMO

Watch-outs

Holds no ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification. Teamed operates audited security controls, but a procurement gate that requires a certificate will not be satisfied by that
The self-serve platform is shallower than Deel or Rippling. If you want to run everything from a dashboard without talking to anyone, this is the wrong pick
A refundable deposit equal to one month of salary is required to start an engagement. It is standard for the EOR model rather than a Teamed surcharge, but it is cash out at the start

Source: teamed.global/pricing

Deel

Best for: Companies that want the broadest owned-entity footprint and a deep self-serve platform

Deel owns entities and runs its payroll engine in 130+ countries, against a total reach of 150-plus. That is the largest owned footprint of any provider on this page and it is the strongest single argument for choosing Deel in Eastern Europe. Deel does not publish a per-country owned list, so you should ask which entity employs your worker in your specific market before you sign.

The platform is genuinely deep. Self-serve onboarding, a broad integration catalogue and a mature dashboard mean a team that wants to run its own admin can do so without waiting on anyone. For companies hiring at pace across several Eastern European markets at once, that speed is real.

The published EOR price starts at $599 per employee per month on the Standard plan, and it is a starting rate rather than a flat one. Deel does not publish an FX rate or spread on its pricing page, and the markup is built into the conversion rate rather than shown as a line item. A dedicated support channel and a dedicated onboarding manager sit on the Enterprise tier, so the service you get on Standard is a shared queue.

Countries: 150-plus countries reach. Owns entities and payroll engine in 130+
Entity model: A mix of owned entities and vetted partners. No per-country owned list published
Onboarding: Self-serve onboarding, timing varies by country
Contractors: Contractor management and contractor of record products available
Pricing: From $599 per employee per month on the Standard plan · verified 2026-07-02
G2: 4.8/5

Strengths

The largest owned-entity footprint on this page at 130+ countries
Deep self-serve platform and a broad integration catalogue
Holds ISO 27001 and SOC 1 and SOC 2, which clears most procurement security gates
G2 rating of 4.8, among the highest in the category

Watch-outs

The published price is a starting rate, not a flat fee, so the number you are quoted may not be the number on the page
No FX rate or spread published. The markup sits inside the conversion rate rather than on the invoice, which is hard to price across a multi-currency region
Dedicated support and a dedicated onboarding manager require the Enterprise tier. On Standard, support is a shared queue

Source: deel.com/pricing

Remote

Best for: Companies that want every EOR country served by the provider it owns, with no third-party handoff

Remote runs full employer of record in 90+ countries and states that it owns and operates all of those entities, with no handoffs to third parties. Its wider 190+ figure spans every product, including contractor management and payroll, so it is not an EOR figure. If your priority is that the company you contract with is the company that employs your worker, Remote makes that case more directly than anyone else here.

The trade-off is reach. 90+ EOR countries is roughly half of Teamed 187+ total, so a company hiring in the Western Balkans or Moldova is more likely to find a gap. Within the larger Eastern European markets the coverage is solid, and the owned-entity claim is the clearest on this page.

Pricing is $599 per employee per month billed annually, or $699 month to month, so the headline number depends on commitment. Remote publishes no FX rate, spread or markup percentage, though it does state that the rate applied per line item appears on the monthly invoice breakdown, which is more disclosure than most. Onboarding is guided by an assigned implementation manager and the EOR plan bundles dedicated in-house expertise rather than gating it behind a tier.

Countries: 90+ countries for full EOR, all stated as owned entities. 190+ across all products
Entity model: States it owns 100% of its EOR entities across its 90+ EOR countries
Onboarding: Guided by an assigned implementation manager
Contractors: Contractor management from $29 per contractor per month
Pricing: $599 per employee per month billed annually, $699 month to month · verified 2026-06-17
G2: 4.6/5 (591)

Strengths

The clearest owned-entity position in the category, with no third-party handoff across its EOR countries
Support is bundled rather than tiered, including dedicated in-house expertise on the EOR plan
Holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2
No mandatory deposit or salary pre-funding for standard EOR, which it markets as a differentiator

Watch-outs

EOR reach of 90+ countries is the narrowest ownership-backed footprint here relative to total regional coverage, so smaller Eastern European markets are likelier to be gaps
The $599 rate requires annual billing. Month to month is $699, so the published headline is conditional
No FX rate or spread published, and the rate may vary over time and per currency

Source: remote.com/pricing

Papaya Global

Best for: Companies whose priority is payments infrastructure and a broad certification set

Papaya leads with payments rather than employment. Its EOR starts from $499 per employee per month, the lowest published entry price on this page, and it reaches 180+ countries in total. The certification set is the broadest here: ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II. For a procurement team working through a security questionnaire, that is a short conversation.

The owned-entity position is narrower than the headline suggests. Papaya Direct, its own fully managed entities, covers 40 countries for EOR, with the remaining markets served through in-country partners. That is a smaller owned base than Deel, Remote or Teamed, and in Eastern Europe it means more of the region is partner-served rather than fewer.

Support is not gated: every plan, including the entry contractor product, lists 24/7 support, and Papaya describes a dedicated account manager routing into employment law and compliance experts. On FX, the pricing page markets competitive rates without publishing a figure, and the FX policy page states the charge is a reference rate plus a processing fee. Wallet pre-funding is required for payments even though no EOR deposit is.

Countries: 180+ countries total. 40 countries with owned Papaya Direct entities for EOR
Entity model: Hybrid. 40 owned EOR countries, in-country partners elsewhere
Onboarding: Dedicated account manager, timing varies by country
Contractors: Contractor and agent of record products across 180 countries
Pricing: From $499 per employee per month · verified 2026-06-17
G2: 4.5/5

Strengths

The lowest published EOR entry price on this page at $499 per employee per month
The broadest certification set here: ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II
Support is not gated behind a tier. Every plan lists 24/7 support
Payments infrastructure is the product, so multi-country payout mechanics are a genuine strength

Watch-outs

Only 40 countries are served by Papaya owned entities, so more of Eastern Europe is partner-served than with Deel, Remote or Teamed
The price is a starting rate, and no FX rate or spread is published. The charge is a reference rate plus an unpublished processing fee
Wallet pre-funding is required for payments, which is cash out even though no EOR deposit is charged

Source: papayaglobal.com/pricing

Oyster

Best for: Companies that want one flat published price and support that is not sold in tiers

Oyster publishes a single EOR price of $699 per employee per month with annual discounts available, and sells EOR as one offering rather than a ladder of tiers. Support is the same for every EOR customer: a dedicated hiring success manager for onboarding, then access to specialist support. Oyster states plainly that it does not charge extra for setup, onboarding or talking to HR experts, which is a clearer service promise than most of the field.

Coverage is where the page has to be careful. Oyster supports 120+ countries for EOR and 180+ across all products, and it discloses that it runs a hybrid model of owned and partner entities. What it does not disclose is the split or the count, so there is no way to tell from public information which Eastern European markets are its own. Ask per country.

On FX, Oyster is unusually specific about when a fee applies: it charges for currency conversion only if you pay in a currency different from the one being converted, and it lists USD, EUR, GBP and CAD as accepted billing currencies. It does not publish the rate or spread. It requires a refundable deposit to initiate an EOR engagement, which it states openly.

Countries: 120+ countries supported for EOR. 180+ across all products
Entity model: Hybrid, disclosed as owned or partnered. No split or count published
Onboarding: Dedicated hiring success manager
Contractors: Global contractor product available
Pricing: $699 per employee per month, annual discounts available · verified 2026-06-17
G2: 4.4/5

Strengths

One flat published price with no support tiers, so the service you see is the service you get
States explicitly that setup, onboarding and access to HR experts carry no extra charge
The clearest conditional-FX disclosure here: a fee applies only on a currency mismatch
Holds SOC 2 Type II, with the most recent report on its public security dashboard

Watch-outs

At $699 per employee per month the published price is the highest on this page
Discloses a hybrid entity model but publishes no owned-versus-partner split, so Eastern European coverage cannot be assessed from public information
Requires a refundable deposit to initiate an EOR engagement

Source: oysterhr.com/pricing

Rippling

Best for: Companies that want EOR inside one system alongside HR, IT and finance

Rippling sells a single system where employment, device management, app provisioning and spend sit together. If you already run Rippling for HR and IT, adding EOR keeps one record of an employee across all of it, and that integration depth is a real advantage no standalone EOR can match.

Its EOR reach is the narrowest here. Rippling states its EOR is offered in 80 countries, against 185 countries for contractor payments. For Eastern Europe specifically that is the weakest position on this page: a company hiring across the Baltics, the Balkans and Ukraine is materially more likely to find a market Rippling cannot employ in. Rippling is explicit that its EOR is a hybrid of wholly-owned subsidiaries and partners and does not publish the split.

The published EOR price starts at $499 per employee per month. Rippling publishes no FX rate, spread or conversion mechanism on any primary pricing or product page, and publishes no deposit or pre-funding requirement either, so both are unknowns rather than confirmed absences. Support is live and human, with published rolling 90-day response metrics, though a dedicated implementation specialist is framed in the enterprise context.

Countries: 80 countries for EOR. 185 countries for contractor payments
Entity model: Hybrid of wholly-owned subsidiaries and partners. No split published
Onboarding: Self-serve, with enterprise implementation support available
Contractors: Contractor payments in 185 countries
Pricing: From $499 per employee per month · verified 2026-06-17
G2: 4.8/5

Strengths

The deepest system integration here: employment, IT, device and spend management in one record
The lowest published EOR starting price alongside Papaya, at $499 per employee per month
Publishes rolling 90-day support response metrics, which almost nobody else does
Holds SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II

Watch-outs

EOR in only 80 countries, the narrowest footprint on this page and the weakest fit for a multi-market Eastern European hiring plan
No FX rate, spread or conversion mechanism published anywhere on its primary pages
No published position on deposits or pre-funding, so it is an open question rather than a confirmed no

Source: rippling.com/pricing

Why the shortlist matters

Behind every line item is a real person, in a real place.

The fee, the FX and the support model are not abstractions. They decide whether the person you hired in Barcelona or Rome is paid right, on time, by someone who knows their employment law. That is what the ranking is really measuring.

What each stakeholder evaluates

Criterion	Legal	Finance	People Ops	Security
Which entity actually employs our worker	Ask for the employing entity by name and country before signing. Every provider here runs a mixed network, and only some will tell you which side your market falls on.	A partner entity is not more expensive with a flat fee, but it can add a layer when you want to novate the employment to your own company later.	The employee signs a local contract either way. What changes is who answers when something goes wrong in that country.	A partner entity means a second data processor. Ask for the sub-processor list and check it names the local employer.
Paying people across six currencies	Confirm the billing currency in the contract, not just on the invoice.	Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine are outside the euro. An unpublished exchange spread on several payroll runs a month compounds quietly. Ask for the rate, in writing.	Employees are paid in local currency regardless. This is your cost question, not theirs.	Not a security question, but payment routing may add a processor. Check the same sub-processor list.
EU pay transparency, live from June 2026	Every EU state in the region must have the directive in national law by 7 June 2026. Salary history questions are out and a pay range must be given before employment.	Employers with 100 or more employees must report gender pay gaps. Scope this before headcount crosses the line, not after.	Job adverts and interview scripts need rewriting across the region. Ask your provider whether it checks adverts or only contracts.	Pay-gap reporting means processing pay data by gender. Confirm the lawful basis and the retention period.
When headcount in one market outgrows an EOR	Your own entity changes who carries the employer obligations. Plan the novation before it becomes urgent.	Ask the provider to model the month your own entity becomes cheaper. A provider that earns only while you stay on EOR has no reason to raise it first.	A move to your own entity is a contract change for every employee in that country. It needs a communications plan.	A new entity means new systems and new access. Fold it into your onboarding controls rather than treating it as a finance project.

Decision checklist

Hiring in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Ukraine or the Baltics? Teamed owns the entity in all ten of those markets, and publishes the list. Ask any provider to do the same.
If your procurement gate requires an ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certificate, choose Deel, Remote or Papaya Global. Teamed operates audited security controls but holds no certification, and no amount of process will satisfy a certificate requirement.
If you want to run everything from a dashboard without talking to anyone, Deel or Rippling have the deeper self-serve platform.
If you are already running Rippling for HR and IT, check its EOR country list first. At 80 countries it is the narrowest here, and a single unserved market can undo the integration advantage.
If your team will be paid across several non-euro currencies, ask every provider for its FX rate in writing. Only Teamed publishes a zero-markup position on the fee, and only Oyster states clearly when a conversion fee applies at all.
If you expect more than a handful of people in one country within two years, ask now what happens when you outgrow the EOR. Teamed models the crossover and can build the entity. Most providers will not raise it.
If you need someone employed in Russia or Belarus, none of this applies. Teamed does not employ in either market.

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Honest take

When another provider is the better choice

Your security questionnaire requires an ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certificate as a gate rather than a preference. Deel, Remote and Papaya Global hold them. Teamed does not, and says so.
You want the largest owned-entity footprint available and are willing to accept a starting rate rather than a flat fee. Deel owns entities in 130+ countries, more than twice Teamed count.
You want every EOR country served by an entity the provider owns, with no third-party handoff at all. Remote makes that claim across its 90+ EOR countries more directly than anyone here.
Your buying decision is really a platform decision, and the EOR is a feature of the system you already run. Rippling is the stronger answer, provided your countries are inside its 80.
Price is the deciding factor and you want the lowest published entry point. Papaya Global and Rippling both start at $499 per employee per month.

Teamed is a boutique EOR. That is a genuine trade-off, not a euphemism: less platform, fewer certificates, more expertise per customer. If the first two matter more to you than the third, buy the platform.

Frequently asked questions

Which Eastern European countries does Teamed own the entity in?
Teamed owns the legal entity in ten Eastern European markets: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. The rest of the region, including Czechia, Serbia, Slovenia, Moldova and the Western Balkans, is covered through vetted in-country partners. Teamed will confirm which applies to your country before you hire.
How much does an employer pay in social contributions in Poland?
A Polish employer pays social insurance on top of gross salary, not out of it: 9.76% pension, 6.50% disability, 2.45% to the Labour Fund and Solidarity Fund, 0.10% to the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund, plus accident insurance of between 0.67% and 3.33% depending on industry. At the common 1.67% accident rate that is 20.48% on top of gross. Source: biznes.gov.pl, verified 23 September 2026.
Why is Romania so much cheaper for the employer?
Because Romania puts almost the whole social contribution burden on the employee rather than the employer. The employee pays 25% pension and 10% health out of gross pay. The employer pays a work insurance contribution of 2.25% and, in normal working conditions, 0% pension. This makes Romanian employer-side cost look unusually low, but total cost of employment is not low: it is distributed differently, and it shows up in the gross salary you have to offer. Source: ANAF declaration specification for January 2026 onwards and the Romanian Fiscal Code, verified 23 September 2026.
Does the salary cap on Polish social contributions change each year?
Yes, and 2026 is a change year. Polish pension and disability contributions stop once an employee earns more than 282,600 zloty in the calendar year, up from 260,190 zloty in 2025. Above the ceiling, neither side pays pension or disability contributions for the rest of the year, though health and accident contributions continue. Source: Monitor Polski 2025 poz. 1206, verified 23 September 2026.
What does the EU pay transparency directive mean for hiring in Eastern Europe?
Every EU member state, which includes Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia and the Baltics, must have the directive in national law by 7 June 2026. It bans asking candidates for their salary history, requires a pay range to be given before employment, and requires employers with at least 100 employees to report gender pay gaps. Check the position in each specific country: transposition is happening now and national laws differ. Source: European Commission, verified 23 September 2026.
Do Polish workers under 26 really pay no income tax?
Up to a limit, yes. Polish workers under the age of 26 pay no personal income tax on employment and qualifying contract income up to 85,528 zloty in a tax year. It does not remove social insurance contributions and it does not cover self-employment income. It matters in this region because Eastern European hiring often skews towards younger technical staff, and it changes take-home pay without changing your employer cost. Source: Krajowa Administracja Skarbowa, verified 23 September 2026.
Is an EOR cheaper than opening a company in Eastern Europe?
It depends on headcount in that one country, and there is no universal answer. Below the crossover point an EOR usually wins on speed, cost and risk. Above it, your own entity wins. Eastern Europe is where companies hit that point fastest, because headcount tends to concentrate in a single market. Ask your provider to model the month it flips for your numbers rather than trusting a rule of thumb.
Can any of these providers employ someone in Russia or Belarus?
Teamed does not employ in Russia or Belarus and this guide does not score coverage of either market. If you need either, ask each provider directly and check the current sanctions position with your own counsel before you commit to anything.

Common questions

We are opening a development team in Poland and Romania. Should we use one EOR for both or a local provider in each country?
One provider for both, in almost every case. Two local providers means two contracts, two invoices, two escalation paths and two sets of statutory interpretation, and nobody with a view across the whole team. The thing worth checking before you pick the one provider is whether it owns the entity in both markets or subcontracts one of them, because that determines who answers when something goes wrong. Teamed owns the entity in both Poland and Romania.
How do we compare the real cost of hiring in Poland against Romania when the contribution structures are so different?
Compare total cost of employment, never the employer contribution rate. Poland loads roughly 20.48% on top of gross salary. Romania loads 2.25% on top, because 35% comes out of the employee side instead. That makes Romania look far cheaper on an employer-rate comparison and the gap mostly disappears once you account for the gross salary each market actually requires to land the same take-home pay. Ask for a modelled total in both countries, at a real salary, before you decide where to put the team.
Our EOR will not tell us which local company actually employs our staff. Is that normal?
It is common and it is worth pushing on. Every employer of record runs a mixed network of entities it owns and local entities it contracts, so the question is not whether partners are involved but which applies to your country. A provider that will not answer per country is making it harder for you to assess who carries the obligation and who your data goes to. Ask for the employing entity by name, in writing, before you sign.

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