EOR vs Setting Up an Entity in India

Dimension	EOR (Versatile / India-native)	Your own Indian Pvt Ltd
Time to first hire	5 business days	6-12 months (entity setup + bank + GST + PF + ESIC registration)
Setup cost	$0	$8,000-$15,000 (incorporation, GST, registrations, legal fees)
Recurring overhead (no hires)	$0 (you only pay when you have hires)	$2,500-$3,500/month (CA, CS, RoC, office address, statutory filings, audit)
Per-employee cost	$99-$399 PEPM	$0 marginal (statutory + salary only)
Compliance burden	Zero · sits with us	Director liability sits with you. Half-yearly EPFO + ESIC inspections at your office.
Hiring + recruitment	Same MSA (one vendor)	Separate recruitment agency + IRA + benefits broker + insurance + devices
Exit / scale-down	30-day termination notice. No exit fee.	Wind-down: 6-18 months. Strike-off filing, final audit, asset disposal.
Bank account / FX	Your books stay in USD. One invoice per month.	Indian current account in INR. FX reconciliation every payroll cycle.
IP assignment	Versatile MSA assigns IP to your US/UK parent	Subsidiary owns IP by default. Transfer pricing + parent licensing required.
Equity / ESOPs	Issued from US/UK parent directly. We handle RBI + LRS reporting.	Indian subsidiary can issue local ESOPs OR receive parent equity via separate path.

One vendor for the whole India operation.

EOR is the contract layer. The other seven things that make India hiring work are also on our books. One MSA, one invoice, one accountable entity.

Legal employment

Offer letter, PF UAN, ESIC IP all under Foo Falcon's PAN. Your hire is on our books, not a partner's.

Recruitment

Sourcing, screening, interviews. $99/position, $1,199/mo dedicated recruiter, or contingent on placement.

Employee insurance

Group health (₹5L floater, family), accident, term life. Day-1 coverage, no waiting period, no separate vendor.

Devices & equipment

Laptop, monitor, peripherals. Locally procured, delivered before Day 1. Pass-through cost, no markup.

Onboarding

Welcome call, document collection, policy walkthrough, first-paycheck schedule. Five-day SLA. Three-day fastest.

Payroll & statutory

Monthly run, PF + ESIC + PT + TDS, Form 16, gratuity. Eight statutory items on every payslip.

Compliance & audits

EPFO + ESIC inspections, Section 7A inquiries, audit-ready records. Inspectors come to us, not you.

Offboarding

Notice, F&F, gratuity, asset recovery, experience letter, UAN continuity. Clean exit, every time.

What we hold ourselves to.

Four operational benchmarks, refreshed monthly. These are not aspirations. They are the floor.

100% On-time payroll, every cycle, every employee

Zero Notices issued by any statutory authority since founding

<4hr Reply time from your named compliance lead, IST business hours

One Consolidated USD invoice per employee per month

Real teams, real numbers.

Three engagements that show how this works in practice. Different ICPs, different scales, same EOR mechanics.

ePublishing.

Migrated mid-cycle. Zero disruption.

How ePublishing switched EOR providers inside one payroll cycle. UAN continuity, gratuity vesting kept intact, engineers never noticed the swap.

Read the full case →

LinkedIn.

India design hires. Zero audit surprises.

LINKEDIN · DESIGN GCC · AUG 2025

How a global tech leader scaled an India design team through Versatile, with compliance handling that held up to internal audit.

Read the full case →

Swiggy.

Scaled past thirty hires. One USD invoice.

SWIGGY · FOOD-TECH · MAR 2024

How Swiggy consolidated their India design and engineering hiring under one EOR. 33 invoices in 26 months, single consolidated USD invoice.

Read the full case →

Built by India payroll specialists.

Foo Falcon Pvt Ltd. Running India payroll since June 2022. Four years on the books. The team behind the numbers below is the same team you email.

3.8 yrs Incorporated 28 Jun 2022 · RoC-Bangalore · Active status

14 US and UK clients on the entity · April 2026

47 Employees drawing salary from us this month

100% Client retention · 36 months · zero churn

The team you are actually emailing.

Named compliance lead on every account. Email replies in 4-6 hours from the same India payroll specialists who run your filings · not from a tier-one help desk.

Sagar Chainani

Founder & CEO · Bengaluru

Ex-[prior employer]. Director of the entity since incorporation. DIN 09654072. On every client Slack channel.

LinkedIn -> [email protected]

Riya Khanna

Compliance Lead · Bengaluru

Named on every client account. Drafts EPFO replies, reviews every payslip, signs the statutory filings. The reason zero notices have landed in 36 months.

Vikram Sethi

Senior Payroll Specialist · Bengaluru

Runs payroll on the first of every month. Forty-seven payslips, zero misses in the last twelve cycles. Owns UAN, ESIC, and gratuity continuity.

Four answers before you scroll.

The questions every US founder, People Ops lead, and CFO asks before deciding on an India EOR. Detailed FAQ below; this is the snapshot.

How do I hire engineers in India without setting up an entity?

Sign one MSA with Versatile. We are the Indian Private Limited; your hire signs an offer letter from our entity. You get a USD invoice at $99-$399/seat/month covering everything statutory.

START WITH US →

How fast can I get someone on payroll in India?

5 business days from offer signed for the typical first hire, including PF and UAN registration. Fastest documented onboarding: 3 days. Generic global EORs typically take 2–3 weeks for the same scope.

GET A QUOTE →

EOR vs setting up an entity in India - which is better?

Use an EOR until you are at 20–30 India employees. Below 20, the EOR fee ($99-$399 PEPM) is cheaper than entity overhead (a director, a CA, a CS, an office address, statutory filings). Above 30, a wholly-owned subsidiary becomes economical and we help with the migration.

EOR VS ENTITY, IN DETAIL →

What does India EOR actually cost?

Versatile: $99-$399 per employee, per month. Range driven by headcount and salary band, identical to India-native peers (Wisemonk, Multiplier, Skuad). No setup fee. No exit fee. First month is on us.

Global EORs (Deel, Remote, Rippling, G-P) start at $499-$699/seat for India and add per-statutory line items on top. Where Versatile wins: 6 published Foo Falcon compliance certificates, a named compliance lead, and one vendor for the whole India operation.

SEE THE MATH VS DEEL →

Verify the entity. Three clicks each.

Most India EORs do not publish their CIN, their GSTIN, or their ESI code. We do, plus the Udyam registration, the PAN, the TAN, and the actual government-issued certificates as PDFs. Click any of them to verify the entity is real, current, and active on the official Government of India portals.

Live government registers

Ministry of Corporate Affairs CIN U72900KA2022
PTC163007 Look up on MCA GST Portal · Karnataka 29 GSTIN 29AAFCF1167M
1Z9 Verify on GST portal ESIC · Karnataka SRO ESI Code 5000064314
0000911 Look up on ESIC Ministry of MSME · Govt of India Udyam Registration UDYAM-KR-
03-0383545 Verify on Udyam Income Tax Department TAN BLRF07330B Verify TAN Income Tax Department PAN AAFCF1167M Verify PAN Registered office · Bengaluru Office address No. 7, Sridevi Complex
NAT Street · Basavanagudi Open in Maps EPFO Establishment PF code KN/BNG/
[swap before live] Look up on EPFO Founder · DIN 09654072 Sagar Chainani CEO & Founder
on every Slack View on LinkedIn Professional Indemnity Insurance certificate Available on
request · NDA optional Email for COI

Source documents on file

MCA · 28 Jun 2022

Most "EORs" pass through to a third-party Indian entity you never see. We are the entity. The CIN, GSTIN, ESI code, and Udyam registration above are all on the contract counterparty of every offer letter we issue.

Featured clients on our payroll. In their own words.

1/4 · Showing

"Building a GCC means picking partners who can move at the speed your design org wants to ship. They built our India GCC quietly and properly. No surprise fees. Onboarding SLAs they actually hit."

GE

Design Hiring Manager

Giant Eagle · Global Capability Center

"Switching EOR is supposed to be the worst quarter of the year. Continuity of PF, gratuity vesting, salary cycles, one wrong move and the team panics. Migration finished inside one payroll cycle. Zero disruption. The team did not even notice the swap."

EP

Technical Lead

ePublishing · Migrated Jun 2025

"We needed someone who knew that a Climate Connect hire is also a notice from EPFO if it is structured wrong. USD invoicing, fast onboarding, and someone who actually knows the difference between PF compliance and PF theatre."

MM

Michael Montmoril

Climate Connect Digital · India Lead

"Our India design GCC was supposed to take a quarter to spin up. Versatile got the first three designers on payroll inside two weeks, with audit-ready statutory filings from Day 1. The compliance handling held up to internal audit, which is the hardest part."

LI

Design Hiring Manager

LinkedIn · India Design GCC · Aug 2025

Same India operation. Different angle.

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A short letter. Founder to founder.

Dear founder,

If you are hiring your first engineer in India, the part nobody warns you about is not the talent. It is the eight statutory filings, the New Labour Code rebase, and the EPFO inspection notice that arrives in month three.

Versatile exists so a US founder can hire in India the way they hire in California. Sign a contract on Monday. Have a payslip on the first. Get a USD invoice that an auditor can read. Our compliance team owns every step.

If that is the kind of partner you want, our team email is on every contract: [email protected]. Write to us before you sign. We reply in 4-6 hours.

- The Versatile team

VIndia · 2024

To:
You, the next founder
hiring engineer number one
in India.

Email the team →

Questions we hear most.

What is the actual breakeven point?

~25-30 India hires. Below 25, EOR is structurally cheaper. Above 30, your own entity becomes cheaper if you have the operational capacity to absorb director liability, statutory inspections, and the India CA/CS overhead. Most founders stay on EOR until 40-50 hires for operational simplicity, then migrate.

How long does Indian entity setup take?

6-12 months end-to-end. Incorporation: 4-6 weeks. GST registration: 4-8 weeks. PF registration: 6-10 weeks. ESIC registration: 4-6 weeks. Bank account: 4-8 weeks (sometimes more). Shops & Establishments license: city-dependent. Then payroll software + India CA + CS engagement.

What's the founder time cost?

~120 hours of founder time for entity setup (DocuSigns, board resolutions, MoA/AoA drafting, bank visits, GST filings). Plus ongoing 4-6 hours/month for board governance, statutory compliance reviews, and audit prep. EOR removes 100% of that.

Does Versatile help with EOR-to-entity migration?

Yes, the MSA includes a migration clause. We hand off UAN, ESIC IPs, gratuity vesting records, and employee files to your new entity at $0 migration fee. We've completed four EOR-to-entity migrations to date with zero employee disruption.

What about Permanent Establishment risk?

With EOR, there is no PE risk for your US/UK parent · your hires are legally employed by Foo Falcon, not your parent. With your own subsidiary, PE is established by design (that's the point). For most founders, EOR is the PE-safe option until the math says otherwise.

EOR vs setting up an entity.

India EOR tailored to your home country.

Cost calculator: 5 India hires at $40K USD avg salary

Versatile EOR · 5 hires · 12 months

Your own Indian Pvt Ltd · 5 hires · 12 months

Cost calculator: 30 India hires at $40K USD avg salary

Versatile EOR · 30 hires · 12 months

Your own Indian Pvt Ltd · 30 hires · 12 months

If you're migrating from EOR to your own entity

Legal employment

Recruitment

Employee insurance

Devices & equipment

Onboarding

Payroll & statutory

Compliance & audits

Offboarding

Real teams, real numbers.

Migrated mid-cycle. Zero disruption.

India design hires. Zero audit surprises.

Scaled past thirty hires. One USD invoice.

Sagar Chainani

Riya Khanna

Vikram Sethi

Certificate of Incorporation

GST Registration Certificate

ESI Registration Certificate

Udyam Registration Certificate

MCA Master Data

Same India operation. Different angle.

Best India EOR for startups 2026

How to hire in India without an entity

Retention-first EOR for India

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Wisemonk vs Versatile Club

Deel alternatives for India

A short letter. Founder to founder.

Questions we hear most.

Hire in India. Without the panic.