Choosing a route

EOR or your own Philippine entity?

We do both, so we have no reason to push you either way. Here is where each genuinely wins — including the cases where an EOR is the wrong answer.

The short answer

If you only need to employ people, an EOR is almost always faster and cheaper to start. If you need to trade — invoice Philippine customers, hold assets, claim incentives — you need your own entity, and no EOR can substitute for it.

Plenty of clients do both in sequence: start on an EOR, register the entity in parallel, then move staff across.

Side by side

A shaded cell marks the stronger option on that row.

Employer of Record compared with registering a Philippine entity
	Employer of Record	Your own entity
Time until someone can start	Days, once terms are agreed	Two to four months through SEC, BIR and the LGU
Money down before day one	None beyond the first invoice	Paid-in capital, filing fees, professional fees
Per-head running cost	Salary, statutory load, plus a service fee	Salary and statutory load only
Fixed overhead	None — it scales with headcount	Bookkeeping, audit, annual renewals regardless of headcount
Invoicing customers in the Philippines	Not possible — the EOR is not your trading entity	Yes, with BIR-registered official receipts
Holding assets or signing local leases	Not in your name	Yes
Who carries labour-law exposure	The EOR	You
Brand on the employment contract	Ours, not yours	Yours
Statutory filings each month	Handled for you	Your responsibility, in-house or outsourced
Winding down	Serve notice on the service agreement	Formal dissolution — months of filings and clearances
Perception with local candidates	Some candidates prefer a direct employer	A registered local employer reads as more permanent
Room to grow into	Comfortable to roughly 10–15 people	No ceiling

Choose an EOR when

You are hiring fewer than about ten people and want to start now.
You will not invoice Philippine customers or hold local assets.
You want to validate the market before committing capital.
Your timeline is set by a client win or project date, not by paperwork.
You would rather someone else carry the labour-law exposure.
You need people working while your entity registration is in progress.

How our EOR works

Register your own entity when

You will sell to Philippine customers and must issue local receipts.
Headcount is heading past ten to fifteen and will keep climbing.
You need to hold assets, sign leases, or import goods in your own name.
You want your own brand on employment contracts and offer letters.
You are pursuing PEZA or BOI incentives, which require your own entity.
The Philippines is a committed long-term market, not an experiment.

Our company registration service

Not sure which fits?

Tell us the headcount you are planning, whether you will invoice locally, and your timeline. We will tell you which route we would actually recommend — including when that means not using our EOR.

Ask us Estimate the cost first