# Deel

> Deel employs staff in countries where the customer has no entity of its own, runs salary, tax and social contributions locally, and keeps contracts, the personnel record and payouts for employees and independent contractors on one platform.

- Vendor: Deel Inc., San Francisco, with country entities, in Germany Deel Germany GmbH, Berlin
- Canonical URL: https://www.convios.com/en/toolbox/deel
- Language version: https://www.convios.com/de/werkzeugkasten/deel
- Area: Operations & finance · Cluster: cross-border employment
- Role: Off-the-shelf product · Origin: Established, AI retrofitted
- As of: 2026-09-28 · Reviewed: 2026-09-28 · Author: Dr. Oliver Gausmann, Convios GmbH
- Toolbox: https://www.convios.com/en/toolbox — Markdown: https://www.convios.com/en/toolbox.md

## Verdict

Efficiency only: Deel replaces setting up an entity with a monthly price per head. The first developer in Lisbon can be employed within a few weeks (estimate), and a competitor can sign the same contract on the same day. For ten people in one country, USD 599 per employee per month comes to roughly USD 72,000 a year (own calculation based on the pricing page). Whether an entity of your own with a payroll bureau comes in below that depends on the costs per country. Two points from the terms to check before signing: for the employment itself, Deel is an independent controller under the GDPR, so the data processing addendum does not apply there. And the AI terms of 1 July 2026 require the customer to indemnify Deel without a liability cap, including for personnel decisions based on AI suggestions.

## Suitability by company size

- Solo: suitable with caveats — For individual independent contractors abroad, contractor management at USD 49 per head per month carries the load, as of 28 September 2026. Employment through the employer of record costs roughly twelve times as much and comes into question when the person must be employed. For the risk of false self-employment, Deel offers contractor of record with an indemnity at USD 325 per head per month.
- Mid-market: suitable — This is what the employer of record is built for: the first one to ten employees in a country, before an entity of your own pays off. Month-to-month according to the pricing page, plus, under the terms of 24 August 2026, a deposit per assignment, invoices due within five days and a monthly accrual for the cost of a later termination where Deel considers it necessary.
- Enterprise: suitable with caveats — Sign-in through Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, OneLogin and PingFederate is documented. According to the help centre, organisation administrators always keep password sign-in, even where the identity provider is meant to enforce it. Liability in the employer of record part is capped at the fees of the preceding twelve months, with exceptions for indemnities and third-party damage. The subprocessor list sits behind an access request.

## Vendor staying power

Funded: Deel Inc. is a Delaware corporation based in San Francisco and the contracting party for the platform. Employees are employed by country entities of the group, in Germany by Deel Germany GmbH, registered since 1 April 2021. Profitability is a vendor statement; audited group accounts are not publicly available, which is why the rating reads funded. Since March 2025, proceedings between Deel and the competitor Rippling have been running in Ireland and the United States; their outcome is open. Deel denies the allegations and filed counterclaims in April 2026.

- Funding: Series E of USD 300 million at a stated valuation of USD 17.3 billion, announced on 20 October 2025, with Ribbit Capital joining as co-lead alongside Andreessen Horowitz and Coatue; the release does not say whether the shares were primary or secondary (source: https://www.deel.com/blog/new-investment-valuation/, as of 2026-09-23)
- Earnings position: according to the company on 20 October 2025, three consecutive years of profitability, its first USD 100 million revenue month in September 2025, more than USD 1 billion in annual recurring revenue, 35,000 customers and 1.5 million workers in over 150 countries (source: https://www.deel.com/blog/new-investment-valuation/, as of 2026-09-23)
- Customers and earnings 2026: according to the company on 1 June 2026, more than 40,000 customers in over 150 countries and EBITDA profitable for over three years (source: https://www.deel.com/blog/deel-files-lawsuit/, as of 2026-09-28)
- German country entity: Deel Germany GmbH, Munich local court (Amtsgericht München) HRB 264857, entered on 1 April 2021 as Blitz 21-101 GmbH, now seated in Berlin, share capital EUR 25,000; annual accounts for 2023 and 2024 published on 22 April 2026 and 8 June 2026 (source: https://www.northdata.com/Deel%20Germany%20GmbH,%20Berlin/Amtsgericht%20M%C3%BCnchen%20HRB%20264857, as of 2026-09-23)
- Acquisitions: acquisition of Sastrify, announced on 5 May 2026; the announcement does not state terms; product and team are folded into Deel IT (source: https://hrtechfeed.com/deel-acquires-sastrify/, as of 2026-09-28)
- Pending proceedings: Rippling has been pursuing proceedings against Deel Inc. before the Irish High Court since 2025 over the alleged acquisition of trade secrets through an employee in Dublin; Deel Inc. accepted jurisdiction; on 20 March 2026 the court set aside the joinder of three Deel executives as defendants; Deel denies the allegations (source: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/03/20/deel-executives-can-be-removed-as-defendants-in-espionage-case-brought-by-rival-rippling/, as of 2026-09-28)

## Cost of leaving

High: Whoever leaves an employer of record moves employment relationships. Employees are under contract with a Deel entity, and switching means termination there under local employment law, a new contract with your own entity or another provider, notice periods in between and, in the unfavourable case, severance. Under clause 9.2.2 of the terms of 24 August 2026 the customer bears the termination costs, and Deel may negotiate a settlement with the employee at the customer's expense if the customer does not cooperate in time. The deposit comes back sixty days after the final invoice is paid, provided the person has not raised or threatened any claim against Deel. Towards Deel, notice is at least thirty days per assignment, and for employees additionally whatever period local employment law requires.

## Regulation and data

| Point | Finding | Evidence | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data processing agreement | the data processing addendum is public in full text; for employer of record and contractor of record Deel is an independent controller — The addendum of 25 September 2026 becomes part of the contract on first use, with no tier requirement. Appendix 1 splits the roles by service. Deel is processor for Deel HR, payroll, the applicant tracking system and Deel AI. For employer of record, contractor of record, PEO and the account itself Deel is controller, and there only clause 4 applies, with mutual duties between two controllers. Because Deel is the employer there, the instruction rights under clause 5 do not reach the data of the employed people, including health data, which Appendix 1 lists expressly for that service. | partially evidenced | 2026-09-28 |
| Storage location | platform data in Ireland, backups in France, with no tier requirement; the statement sits in the privacy policy — The privacy policy of 6 August 2026 carries the sentence that Deel stores all platform data in Ireland, with backups in France, even though the platform is owned by a US company. The addendum does not name the location. With employer of record, part of the data sits in the country of employment regardless, because salary, tax and social insurance are processed there. | evidenced | 2026-09-23 |
| Subprocessors | a maintained list with name, location, purpose and entity, readable only after an access request in the trust centre — Appendix 4 of the addendum points to the trust centre. There Deel describes the list with name, location, service, responsible entity and affected product; the file only opens after entering an email address and approval, checked on 28 September 2026. Clause 5(o) commits to endeavour thirty days' notice of changes with fifteen days as the minimum, and objections must arrive with reasons within fifteen days. Clause 3.5 treats recruiting partners from Deel Talent as independent processors; like third parties reached through integrations, they do not count as subprocessors, and the customer has to conclude its own contracts with them. | partially evidenced | 2026-09-28 |
| Third-country transfer | EU standard contractual clauses anchored in the addendum, modules one and two, Irish law; an assignment per recipient is not publicly readable — Clause 7 incorporates the 2021 standard contractual clauses for transfers outside the EEA, module one between two controllers and module two towards a processor, governed by Irish law with Irish courts competent; addenda apply for the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The trust centre additionally lists the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The privacy policy words it more broadly: whoever uses the services authorises transfer to the United States and to other places where Deel or its service providers operate. What remains open is which recipient works on which basis; that would be in the subprocessor list, which is not public. | evidenced | 2026-09-28 |
| Training on customer data | training on personal customer data is excluded by contract; Deel may use anonymised and aggregated usage data to improve its own AI; no statement on the model providers used — Clause 4.2 of the AI terms of 1 July 2026 excludes the use of customers' and users' personal data for training. Two openings stand beside it. The same clause allows anonymised and aggregated usage data for improving Deel's own AI systems, and clause 5(b) of the addendum lets Deel, even as processor, process anonymised and aggregated data for analytics and development. Deel may thus improve its own AI systems with anonymised and aggregated usage data, which under the scale means amber. Clause 3.3 states that outputs may be produced with third-party models, without naming them or extending the commitment to them. | partially evidenced | 2026-09-28 |
| Retention and deletion | deletion or return committed at the end of processing, with no stated period; as controller Deel retains data as long as needed for the service or by law — Clause 5(m) of the addendum commits to deletion or return at the end of processing, names no period and allows blocking where law requires retention. Clause 2 lets both sides continue processing after the contract ends for legal duties or other legitimate purposes. For employer of record, Appendix 1 states only the principle: as long as needed for the service or required by law. Among its retention purposes, the privacy policy lists studying customer data as part of Deel's own research. | partially evidenced | 2026-09-28 |
| Certifications | ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27701:2019 for Deel Inc. publicly viewable; ISO/IEC 42001, SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II after an access request — The trust centre on Skypher lists, under compliance, GDPR, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 1, SOC 2, CSA STAR level 1, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, the AI Regulation and ISO 42001. The 27001:2022 certificate (valid until 31 July 2028) and the 27701:2019 certificate (valid until 28 June 2029) can be read without signing in and cover development and operation of the cloud platform. They do not name the employer function of the country entities. The 42001 certificate, the pentest attestation and the SOC reports open only after approval, checked on 28 September 2026. For audit rights, clause 5(l) of the addendum points to a report no older than eighteen months, and Deel may refuse audits by competitors. | evidenced | 2026-09-28 |
| EU AI Act, Article 50 | AI terms referencing Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 and ISO/IEC 42001 in the trust centre; duties from use in recruiting sit with the customer by contract, and a commitment on Article 50 is missing — The AI terms of 1 July 2026 define AI by reference to Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 and point to internal reviews before deployment and to alignment with the NIST framework. The trust centre lists an ISO 42001 certificate plus a bias audit and explainability documentation for CV-to-job matching in the applicant tracking system, both behind an access request. Such matching is among the employment cases in Annex III of the Regulation. Clause 2.6 puts the duty on the customer never to use AI as the sole basis for a hiring decision, clause 5.6 excludes any assurance that AI agents comply with applicable law, and clause 7 requires an indemnity that under clause 7.4 is subject to no liability cap, expressly including personnel decisions. The text says nothing on the transparency duties under Article 50. | partially evidenced | 2026-09-28 |
| Audit logging | audit logs exist in the organisation settings, publicly described only for changes to the payroll calendar; scope, retention and export remain open — The help centre describes an Audit Logs area under organisation settings, and what it documents there is the log of changes to the payroll calendar with time, approver, entity and payroll group. Whether read access to salary data is captured, how long entries remain and whether they can be forwarded into your own security monitoring is not described in the public help as of 23 September 2026. The central logging with retention that the trust centre mentions concerns Deel's own operation. | partially evidenced | 2026-09-28 |

## Cost

- Entry: Employer of record USD 599 per employee per month, contractor management USD 49, contractor of record USD 325, applicant tracking USD 14, US PEO USD 125, each per head per month. Month-to-month according to the pricing page, enterprise offers through an order form. All figures as of 28 September 2026. (as of 2026-09-28)
- Where it gets expensive: The list price is the platform fee, and the terms of 24 August 2026 leave the other items with the customer. Under clause 3.1 the customer pays for any change in law that makes the service more expensive for Deel. Under clause 9.2.2 the customer bears termination costs including legal fees and settlements. Under clause 3.3 Deel may raise the deposit per assignment at any time if costs or risks rise, and may hold back its involvement in disputes until paid. For insurance benefits run through Deel, clause 12.7 adds an administrative component of typically five per cent to the price, and Deel may accept commissions from insurers.

## Three routes compared

### Set up an entity of your own and outsource local payroll

The classic route is a subsidiary of your own with a local payroll bureau or tax adviser, in Germany typically on DATEV payroll. With a subsidiary of your own, employment contracts, works agreements and liability sit with your own entity as the employer. The price is a setup time of several months (estimate), ongoing costs for bookkeeping, annual accounts and management, and the effort of closing the entity again if the country does not work out.

### Remote as the nearest alternative

The nearest alternative checked is Remote at USD 699 per employee per month for employer of record and from USD 29 for contractor management, as of 28 September 2026. For employer of record that is USD 100 more per head than Deel. What counts first in the comparison are the countries in which the provider holds its own entities and those in which it brings in partners, and the terms on deposits, termination costs and the liability cap.

### Build the administration around contractors yourself

Employment abroad requires an entity in the country. What can be built is the administration of independent contractors: contracts through DocuSign or PandaDoc, invoice intake and approval through Candis, payouts through Qonto or Stripe, chained with n8n and stored in Sanity or a Neon database. Classification is the weak point of a self-build. Whether a person counts as self-employed in a given country is decided by authorities under local law; in contractor of record, Deel takes on this risk through an indemnity. Add the maintenance once whoever built the chain has left. As an assumption for the calculation: ten to fifteen person-days for a dependable chain, at a day rate of EUR 1,200 that is EUR 12,000 to 18,000, then one day a month for upkeep, roughly EUR 14,400 a year (estimate), excluding the cost of a status review per country.

Recommendation by size:

- Solo: Run independent contractors through contractor management and only move to employer of record when employment is genuinely needed.
- Mid-market: Buy it for the first heads per country, and from around eight to ten employees in one country (estimate) run the numbers for an entity of your own. Before signing, read the deposit, termination cost and AI indemnity clauses.
- Enterprise: Use it for peripheral countries and request the subprocessor list, the audit reports and a statement on logging in writing. For employees working in Germany, plan for the eighteen-month maximum period of temporary agency work (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung).

## Context

- Implements method: [Regulatory Density Test](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/regulatory-density-test) — Deel runs employment law, social insurance and tax in over 150 countries (vendor statement). German temporary agency work with its 18-month cap allows the test to be run on one country.
- Implements method: [Guarantees as Risk Reversal (4 Types)](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/guarantees-risk-reversal) — Contractor of record includes an indemnity: under clause 7.3 Deel takes on the consequences of a wrong classification as self-employed. It costs USD 325 per head, contractor management USD 49.
- Implements method: [Value Metric Pricing](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/value-metric-pricing) — The price follows the number of heads and is tiered by service type, from USD 14 to USD 599 a month.
- Implements method: [Data Monetization: Improve, Wrap, Sell](https://www.convios.com/en/methods/data-monetization-improve-wrap-sell) — Clause 5(b) of the addendum and clause 4.2 of the AI terms allow anonymised and aggregated customer data to be used for development and AI. That matches the improve tier.
- Alternative: [Personio](https://www.convios.com/en/toolbox/personio)
- Alternative: [DATEV](https://www.convios.com/en/toolbox/datev)
- Displaces: Setting up a subsidiary for the first employees in a country, Payroll bureaus and tax advisers per country for tiny headcounts, Freelance agreements with staff abroad without a status review, Manual international transfers to contractors, Spreadsheets tracking contracts and invoices abroad

## Evidence

- Data processing addendum of 25 September 2026: contracting party Deel Inc., Delaware, San Francisco; incorporation on first use; talent partners as independent processors and not subprocessors (3.5); roles per service in Appendix 1 with Deel as controller for employer of record, contractor of record and PEO; processing of anonymised data for development (5b); breach notice within 48 hours (5g); audit report no older than 18 months, refusal of audits by competitors (5l); deletion or return with no period (5m); subprocessors with 30 and 15 days' notice (5o to 5q); standard contractual clauses under Irish law (7) — https://www.deel.com/legal/data-processing-addendum/ (as of 2026-09-28)
- Terms for employer of record, contractor of record and payroll of 24 August 2026: payment within five days (3.1), pass-through of costs from changes in law (II 3.1), deposit per assignment with conditional refund within 60 days and unilateral increase (II 3.3), accrual for termination costs (II 3.4), indemnity for misclassification under contractor of record (II 7.3), liability cap of twelve months' fees (II 8.1), at least 30 days' notice per assignment, for employees additionally as local law requires and termination costs with the customer (II 9.2), administrative component of typically five per cent on insurance benefits (12.7) — https://www.deel.com/legal/eor-cor-gp/ (as of 2026-09-28)
- AI terms of 1 July 2026: definition of AI by reference to Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, customer duty of human involvement in hiring (2.6), internal reviews before deployment (2.8), third-party models (3.3), no training on personal data with use of anonymised and aggregated usage data (4.2), no assurance that AI agents comply with law (5.6), indemnity by the customer including for personnel decisions (7.1) without a liability cap (7.4) — https://www.deel.com/legal/ai-terms-of-service/ (as of 2026-09-23)
- Privacy policy of 6 August 2026: all platform data stored in Ireland with backups in France, consent to transfers to the United States, retention by necessity including Deel's own research with customer data, no training on personal data — https://www.deel.com/legal/privacy-policy/ (as of 2026-09-23)
- Trust centre: GDPR, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 1, SOC 2, CSA STAR level 1, EU-US Data Privacy Framework, AI Regulation and ISO 42001 as compliance entries; readable without signing in, the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate (no. 1125919, 31 July 2025 to 31 July 2028) and the ISO/IEC 27701:2019 certificate (no. 1127985, 28 June 2026 to 28 June 2029) for Deel Inc., scope development and operation of the cloud platform; ISO 42001, SOC reports, pentest attestation, the applicant tracking bias audit and the subprocessor list after an access request — https://trust.deel.com/ (as of 2026-09-28)
- Pricing page, as of 28 September 2026: employer of record USD 599, contractor USD 49, contractor of record USD 325, applicant tracking USD 14, US PEO USD 125 per head per month, month-to-month — https://www.deel.com/pricing/ (as of 2026-09-28)
- Single sign-on help article: Okta, Azure, OneLogin, Google and PingFederate, enforcement by roles and groups, organisation administrators always keep password sign-in — https://help.letsdeel.com/hc/en-gb/articles/20955980375313-How-to-Configure-Single-Sign-On (as of 2026-09-23)
- Payroll calendar help article: audit logs in the organisation settings with the log of calendar changes — https://help.letsdeel.com/hc/en-gb/articles/34654118966801-Understanding-the-Deel-Global-Payroll-Calendar (as of 2026-09-23)
- Blog post of 20 October 2025: Series E of USD 300 million at a USD 17.3 billion valuation, vendor statements on profitability, annual revenue, customers and workers — https://www.deel.com/blog/new-investment-valuation/ (as of 2026-09-23)
- Register data of Deel Germany GmbH: Amtsgericht München HRB 264857, entered on 1 April 2021 as Blitz 21-101 GmbH, seated in Berlin, share capital EUR 25,000, purpose including employer of record services and temporary agency work, 2023 and 2024 annual accounts published — https://www.northdata.com/Deel%20Germany%20GmbH,%20Berlin/Amtsgericht%20M%C3%BCnchen%20HRB%20264857 (as of 2026-09-23)
- Article on the licence under the German Temporary Employment Act (AÜG), dated 31 January 2025: an indefinite licence held by Deel Germany GmbH according to the vendor, and a maximum period of 18 months with a three-month break — https://www.deel.com/blog/aug-license-germany-hiring/ (as of 2026-09-23)
- Commentary of 5 November 2025 on the technical directives of the Federal Employment Agency: since 1 October 2025 no licence requirement for purely remote work from elsewhere in the EU or EEA without any deployment in Germany, while any deployment in Germany still requires a licence — https://kpmg-law.de/employer-of-record-nun-doch-nicht-erlaubnispflichtig-sinneswandel-bei-der-ba/ (as of 2026-09-23)
- Acquisition of Cologne-based Sastrify by Deel, announcement by the advising law firm of May 2026 — https://www.orrick.com/en/News/2026/05/Deel-Acquires-Sastrify (as of 2026-09-28)
- Report of 5 May 2026: Deel acquires Sastrify, product and team are folded into Deel IT, no statement on terms — https://hrtechfeed.com/deel-acquires-sastrify/ (as of 2026-09-28)
- Report of 20 March 2026 on Rippling's case against Deel before the Irish High Court: proceedings since 2025, Deel Inc. accepted jurisdiction, the joinder of three Deel executives as defendants set aside — https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/03/20/deel-executives-can-be-removed-as-defendants-in-espionage-case-brought-by-rival-rippling/ (as of 2026-09-28)
- Deel's statement, last updated 1 June 2026: Rippling's suit in California of 17 March 2025, denial of the allegations, suit in Delaware of 25 April 2025, counterclaims of April 2026; according to the company, more than 40,000 customers in over 150 countries and EBITDA profitable for over three years — https://www.deel.com/blog/deel-files-lawsuit/ (as of 2026-09-28)
- Remote pricing page, as of 28 September 2026: employer of record USD 699 per employee per month, contractor management USD 29, with an add-on tier at USD 99, contractor of record from USD 325 — https://remote.com/pricing (as of 2026-09-28)