Employer of Record (EOR) Providers In Turkey: Comparing the top 5 companies
- Gegidze • გეგიძე | Marketing
- 3 days ago
- 17 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Table of contents:
Introduction: The hire is ready, you’re not
Let’s be honest.
You didn’t wake up this morning thinking, “Can’t wait to Google Turkish employment law.”
You’ve got a product to ship, a backlog full of bugs, and a developer in Ankara who said yes.
But now? You’re knee-deep in tabs about labor codes, tax filings, and entity registration timelines, and none of them are giving you a straight answer.
No local entity.
No Turkish tax ID.
No clue how employment law works over there.
Just a great candidate, sitting in Istanbul, waiting for a green light you can’t legally give.
Welcome to the hiring brick wall that hits every fast-moving company the moment they go global.
You’re not alone.
Everyone wants to scale across borders until they realize borders come with payroll filings, contract clauses in Turkish, and legal systems that don’t care if you meant well.
That’s why Employer of Record (EOR) services exist.
They handle the contracts, the compliance, the taxes, the filings, everything your startup doesn’t want to build from scratch, just to hire one person.
But here’s where most companies trip:
Not all EORs that say they operate in Turkey actually do.
Some use third-party partners and call it “coverage.”
Some are priced for enterprise clients, not lean teams.
And some just take too long, by the time onboarding finishes, your hire’s already moved on.
This guide cuts through that noise.
We’ve compared the top 5 EOR providers in Turkey, not based on who’s spending the most on ads, but on who can actually:
Hire your person, legally and fast
Keep you compliant under Turkish law
Charge what makes sense (no mystery invoices)
And do it all without adding more meetings to your calendar
If you're ready to scale into Turkey without the drama, this is the page you bookmark.
Because of that hire? They’re still ready.
You just need to catch up.
What an EOR really does in Turkey (and what they don’t)
An Employer of Record in Turkey isn’t your outsourced HR team.
It’s your legal shortcut to hiring someone in Turkey without opening a Turkish company, without learning local labor law, and without triggering problems you’ll only discover during due diligence.
That’s the big-picture value.
But here’s what that actually looks like, on the ground.
What an EOR really does in Turkey:
Becomes the legal employer on your behalf
You manage a remote team. The EOR runs the backend.
They hire the person under their Turkish entity, issue a locally compliant contract, and register them with all the necessary authorities (tax office, social security, pension, etc.).
To the government, your hire works for the EOR.
To you, they’re just another dev/designer/PM in the sprint.
No paperwork. No waiting in line at the trade registry. No tax residency exposure.
Handles payroll, taxes, and mandatory benefits
Turkey’s payroll system isn’t a quick Excel file. You’ve got:
Income tax brackets
Social security contributions
Unemployment insurance
Stamp duty
Pension payments
Monthly filings to SGK (Social Security Institution)
They calculate it, file it, and pay it.
And they do it on time, every time.
Issues with enforceable employment contracts
Spoiler: that English-language PDF you used for your freelancer? Doesn’t hold up in a Turkish court.
An EOR issues:
Bilingual contracts (Turkish + English)
IP assignment clauses that are enforceable
Confidentiality, non-solicitation, and termination terms that actually follow Turkish labor law
Holiday, maternity/paternity leave, and notice periods, all structured to protect you and the employee
It’s not a template. It’s a contract that works where it matters.
Provides local HR support and offboarding protection
Firing someone in Turkey isn’t just a Slack deactivation.
You need:
Documented performance issues
Termination notice or severance
Local compliance with İş Kanunu (Labor Law No. 4857)
Final payroll and benefits payout
Proper deregistration from the tax and social systems
A good EOR handles the entire process with zero mess and zero PR liability.
What an EOR doesn’t do:
Let’s be clear. They’re not your headhunter.
They don’t:
Source candidates, unless you use one who also runs a talent pool (Hi)
Manage performance
Do your job descriptions, interviews, or tech screens
Decide who to fire or promote
Replace your internal HR or People Ops
You still own the team.
They just help you do it legally in a country where labor law doesn’t forgive sloppiness.
Why this matters in Turkey
Because if you do it wrong, the cost isn’t just legal, it’s operational.
Wrong contract? You don’t own your code.
No social payments? You get fined.
No termination process? You might end up in the labor court.
No structure? Your next funding round flags it as a risk.
Remote hiring in Turkey through a proper EOR means you don’t have to learn these lessons the hard way.
You hire.
We legalize it.
Everyone gets paid. No drama.
That’s what an EOR actually does.
Before you pick a provider: 5 questions that actually matter
Some move fast, know local law, and won’t ghost you after onboarding.
Others? They’re basically just UI over a subcontractor you’ve never heard of.
And in a market like Turkey, where labor law is strict, tax filings are non-negotiable, and IP protection isn’t a “maybe,” choosing the right provider is the whole game.
So before you sign a contract or wire that first invoice, ask these five questions.
Because they’ll tell you everything you need to know.
Do they operate directly in Turkey or through a third-party partner?
If your EOR isn’t the actual legal employer in Turkey, someone else is.
That means slower response times, limited control, and legal risk passed like a hot potato.
Direct presence = faster onboarding, clearer contracts, and actual accountability.
Partner-based coverage = delays, diluted liability, and too many middlemen.
If the answer to “Do you have a Turkish legal entity?” isn’t “yes”, walk away.
What does onboarding really take, and how long will it take?
Here’s what should happen:
Candidate signs a local contract
Registered with tax and social authorities
Gets paid legally under Turkish payroll law
Starts working—fast
Some EORs can do that in 7–14 days.
Others take a month (or more), with delays for “internal review” or “compliance feedback.”
Ask:
“How many days, start to finish, to get someone hired and paid legally in Turkey?”
If they can’t give you a number, they don’t do it often enough.
Is pricing flat and transparent or salary-based and fuzzy?
You’re scaling. You need predictable costs.
But some providers take a percentage of the employee’s gross salary (5–15%), which means your costs grow every time you give a raise.
Ask:
“Is your fee a flat monthly rate? Does it change based on salary?”
Clarity = trust.
Complexity = hidden markups.
What happens if something goes wrong?
Hiring is easy. Firing? Not so much.
Especially in Turkey, where severance, notice periods, and documentation requirements are serious business.
Ask your EOR:
“Can you walk us through a termination scenario under Turkish law?”
“Who handles the legal documentation and offboarding steps?”
“What support do you provide during disputes?”
If the answer is vague or filled with legalese, they’re not prepared.
Can they actually protect your IP in Turkey?
This one gets missed until it bites back.
If your developer in Istanbul builds your core product under a weak contract with no IP clause enforceable in Turkey?
You might not legally own what they built.
Ask:
“Do your contracts include locally enforceable IP assignment and confidentiality clauses?”
And ask to see it.
Because your product should belong to you, no matter where your team is based.
Top 5 EOR providers in Turkey: Brutally honest comparison
Let’s skip the sales copy.
You’re here because you need to legally hire someone in Turkey fast, clean, and without setting up a local entity.
And everyone on the internet says they can help.
The problem? Most of them look the same. Until they don’t.
Some offer “coverage” in Turkey but rely on partners you’ll never meet.
Some bury you in onboarding delays.
Some charge like you’re Meta.
And some just disappear the second your contract is signed.
So here it is:
The real breakdown of the top 5 EOR providers in Turkey minus the fluff.
We’ve looked at who actually operates here, who delivers, and who’s just reselling someone else’s infrastructure with a shiny dashboard on top.
Team Up
Local-first, startup-built, no BS.
Let’s not pretend we’re neutral; we’re in this comparison because we actually operate in Turkey, and we built this service to fix everything the others get wrong.
Local Presence: Yes. Our legal entity is registered in Turkey. We don’t outsource compliance to a third party.
Time to Onboard: 7–14 days. From signed offer to fully compliant, tax-registered employee.
Pricing: Flat €299/month per employee. No salary-based markup. No surprise fees.
Compliance Depth: Deep. Dual-language contracts, enforceable IP clauses, full labor law compliance.
We’ve seen what bad contracts cause, we don’t do that here.
Support: Real humans. Not chatbots. Not ticket queues. We answer. We solve.
Ideal for: Startups and lean teams that want speed, structure, and no guesswork.
Also, companies that’ve been burned by “global” EORs pretending they know Turkish law.
Remote.com
Enterprise polish, but Turkey is not the priority.
Remote is great if you’re hiring in 15 countries at once. Turkey? It’s on the list, but not on their radar.
Local Presence: No. They work with local partners. You won’t talk to them directly.
Time to onboard: 2–4 weeks, depending on the partner and the role.
Compliance Depth: Decent in major markets. Turkey? Feels templated.
Support: Smooth UI, decent docs, but slow when something’s urgent.
Ideal for: Enterprise teams who need consolidated dashboards more than local nuance.
Deel
Contractor-friendly platform stretching into EOR.
Deel started with freelancers and scaled fast into EOR. Impressive growth, but in Turkey, it’s still surface-level.
Local Presence: No. They rely on local legal partners to employ your team.
Time to Onboard: 2–3 weeks. If your case fits the template.
Compliance Depth: Generic contracts. Ask your lawyer to review the Turkish employment terms, they often don’t go deep enough.
Support: Good for contractors. For EOR in Turkey? Expect back-and-forth delays.
Ideal for: Companies already using Deel for freelancers and want to stay in one system. Just know the limits.
Skuad
Budget-friendly, but light on local substance.
Skuad pitches simplicity and affordability. In basic use cases, it works. But if you need custom clauses, Turkish labor law advice, or speed, you’ll feel the gap.
Local Presence:
No. Local coverage through network partners.
Time to Onboard:
2–4 weeks. Faster if you don’t need contract edits.
Compliance Depth: Adequate for standard hires. No support for edge cases or complexity.
Support: Minimal. They’ll respond eventually.
Ideal for: Bootstrapped teams hiring one or two people and willing to live with “good enough.”
Velocity Global
The heavyweight: built for scale, not for speed.
If you’re hiring across 30 countries, need internal audit trails, and your legal team approves every contract, Velocity makes sense.
But if you just want to hire a mid-level dev in Istanbul? This is overkill.
Local Presence: Legal coverage through a network of law firms. Not direct.
Time to Onboard: 4–6 weeks. If you have a legal team to help move it along.
Compliance Depth: Strong, but inflexible. Slow to adapt or customize.
Support: Thorough but heavy. Expect multi-step review cycles for everything.
Ideal for: Enterprises. Not product teams with a 2-week runway.
Brutally honest comparison table
Provider | Local Entity | Onboarding Speed | Flat Pricing | Legal Depth | Built for Startups |
Team Up | Yes | 7–14 days | €199 | High | Yes |
No | 2–4 weeks | €500–700 | Medium | Sort of | |
Deel | No | 2–3 weeks | €600–800 | Low–Medium | Not really |
Skuad | No | 2–4 weeks | €500–600 | Low | Bare minimum |
Velocity Global | No | 4–6 weeks | €800–1,200 | High | No |
If you’re hiring in Turkey, and you care about speed, cost, and staying on the right side of local law, you don’t need pretty dashboards or 5-layer support systems.
You need one thing:
An EOR that knows what they’re doing in Turkey.
That’s what we built Team Up for.
We’re on the ground. We’re responsive. We’re not pretending.
And we’ll get your team hired, paid, and compliant fast.
EOR vs PEO vs contractor in Turkey: What’s the risk?
This is where a lot of companies try to get clever and end up getting burned.
They think:
“Why bother with an EOR when we can just hire them as a contractor?”
Or,
“Can’t we just use a PEO like we did in Germany?”
In practice? Welcome to Turkish labor law where misclassification isn’t a slap on the wrist. It’s back taxes, legal claims, severance payouts, and, yes, possible IP ownership disputes.
Here’s what each model really looks like in Turkey and why EOR is usually the one that keeps you out of hot water.
Employer of Record (EOR): The clean, legal structure
Best for: Hiring full-time talent in Turkey without opening a local entity.
What it does:
The EOR becomes the legal employer under Turkish law
Your team member gets a full employment contract
Payroll, taxes, benefits, and social security are handled for you
You stay compliant, without doing any paperwork
IP and confidentiality clauses are enforceable locally
Terminations follow the rules (because in Turkey, they have to)
You manage the team
We manage the law
Everyone gets paid
It’s fast, it’s legal, it scales with you and you don’t need a Turkish tax lawyer to figure it out.
PEO (Professional Employer Organization): Shared liability, more complexity
Best for: Companies that already have a legal entity in Turkey.
PEO gets confused with EOR a lot, but they’re not the same.
Here’s the catch:
PEOs require you to be a registered legal entity in Turkey. If you’re not, it’s a no-go.
Even if you are, you’re entering into co-employment, which means:
You share responsibility for achieving payroll compliance
You still have to manage tax reporting and labor filings
You’re on the hook if something goes wrong
You’ll need internal HR to keep the whole thing running smoothly
If you’ve got 50+ employees and a full legal department, maybe.
If you’re just trying to hire a dev in Istanbul and keep your CFO sane? Not worth the headache.
Direct Contractor: Fast now, expensive later
Best for: Short-term projects with minimal risk.
Not for: Anyone you rely on daily, give company tools to, or expect to stick around.
Let’s be clear. If someone’s:
Working full-time
Using your systems
Reporting to your manager
On Slack with your team every day
Then, under Turkish labor law, they’re not a contractor.
They’re an employee. And pretending otherwise? That’s misclassification.
Here’s what you risk:
Back taxes (including social security and unemployment insurance)
Fines for failing to register the employment relationship
IP disputes (because the work might legally belong to them, not you)
Unpaid benefit claims (yes, they can sue after the fact)
And good luck explaining that to your investors during due diligence.
Real Talk: What the government actually cares about
Not your contract. Not your intentions.
They care about control.
Who gives the tasks? Who sets the hours? Who provides the tools?
If it’s you, and it probably is, then you’re the employer.
And if you're not handling it legally, you're exposed.
What does it really cost to use an EOR in Turkey?
Hiring in Turkey through an EOR should give you structure, not sticker shock.
So let’s skip the vague pricing promises and get into what you’re actually paying, start to finish.
The cost stack (what you’re really paying for)
When you use an Employer of Record in Turkey, your total monthly cost comes from three parts:
Gross monthly salary
EOR service fee
Add-ons (laptop, insurance, coworking, etc. optional but real)
Average gross monthly salaries in Turkey (2025)
Role | Avg. Gross Salary (EUR/month) |
Mid-Level Developer | €1,800 – €2,500 |
Senior Backend Engineer | €2,800 – €3,800 |
DevOps Engineer | €3,200 – €4,200 |
QA Specialist | €1,600 – €2,200 |
UI/UX Designer | €1,800 – €2,500 |
Product Manager | €2,500 – €3,500 |
Customer Support (EN) | €1,200 – €1,800 |
EOR service fee: What it covers and why it matters
Team Up charges a flat €299/month per employee in Turkey. That’s it.
No percentages. No hidden “compliance” charges halfway through onboarding.
Here’s what that covers:
Local employment contract (in Turkish and English)
Payroll and tax filings with the Turkish Revenue Administration
Social security, pension, and unemployment insurance
Legal compliance with the Turkish Labor Code
Terminations, leave management, HR recordkeeping
Local support and documentation, all handled
Optional add-ons (if you want to keep things smooth)
Laptop procurement: Tailored pricing for equipment buying
Health insurance: €50–€100/month
Coworking access (Istanbul, Ankara, etc.): €100–€200/month
Remote work stipend: ~€50–€100/month depending on setup
We handle these, integrate them into payroll, and document it all so your Ops team doesn’t chase invoices.
Sample total monthly cost scenarios
Role | Salary | Team Up Fee | Add-ons (Est.) | Total Monthly |
Mid-Level Dev | €2,200 | €299 | €100 | €2,599 |
Senior Backend Eng. | €3,500 | €299 | €150 | €3,949 |
QA Specialist | €1,800 | €299 | €80 | €2,179 |
Why flat pricing wins
Here’s the thing: percentage-based EOR models penalize you for paying your people well.
Every raise = your EOR fee goes up.
With Team Up, it’s always €299/month, whether they’re earning €2K or €5K.
You scale your team without scaling your overhead.
Hiring in Turkey? Here’s what the talent pool looks like
Turkey isn’t an “emerging” talent market. It’s already here quietly delivering work for global startups, agencies, SaaS companies, and scaleups that care more about outcomes than job titles.
If you’ve never hired here before, you’re probably wondering:
Who’s actually available?
Can they work remotely?
Do they speak English?
And is this going to feel like onboarding someone in Berlin, or babysitting?
Good questions. Let’s answer them honestly.
What roles are strong in Turkey right now?
Engineering
Frontend Devs: React, Vue, Angular—strong fundamentals, product-focused
Backend Devs: Node.js, .NET, Java, Python
Full-Stack Engineers: Especially in startup-ready environments
Mobile Developers: Flutter, React Native, iOS/Android
DevOps & Infra: AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform
QA Automation: Selenium, Cypress, TestRail
Product & Design
Product Managers who’ve shipped B2B SaaS and know what an MVP actually is
UI/UX Designers with clean portfolios, Figma fluency, and usability mindset
Business Analysts with experience gathering remote requirements and building real documentation
Growth & Ops
Content Writers & Copywriters (English fluency is high in this space)
Performance Marketers (Meta Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn)
Customer Support Agents (multilingual, timezone-aligned, strong in tools like Zendesk, Intercom)
This isn’t theoretical. These are real hires we’ve placed through our EOR service in Turkey, people who onboard fast, communicate clearly, and stay.
How’s the English?
Better than you think.
Especially among devs, marketers, and product folks under 40, who grew up on Stack Overflow, Reddit, and GitHub threads in English.
Yes, you’ll still run into regional quirks, and not everyone’s writing poetry in Slack, but:
Daily standups
Code reviews
Docs and comments
Email chains
Async Notion updates
All of that? Covered.
Can they work remotely?
Absolutely.
Turkey has had a strong remote work culture since long before it became a LinkedIn hashtag.
Reliable internet in all major cities (Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa)
Familiar with remote tools: GitHub, Jira, Notion, ClickUp, Slack
Many have worked with U.S. and EU-based teams before
Zero fear of async. In fact, they prefer it.
What’s the hiring environment like?
Here’s where Turkey gets interesting:
Less churn than Western Europe
Fewer talent wars than in the U.S.
More loyalty if the contract is clean and the work is meaningful
Salaries are sustainable, not artificially inflated by VC-fueled hypergrowth
People here want good work, fair pay, and stability.
If you give them that and a legal structure through an EOR, they stick around.
And the red flags?
Let’s keep it real.
Always vet for real-world experience. Degrees are common, but what matters is what they’ve shipped.
Time zones are great for the EU. U.S. teams get 4–6 hours of overlap max. That works, but don’t expect midnight availability.
Contractor setups without benefits or clarity = churn risk. Turkish talent values stability. Offer structure, or lose them to someone who does.
How we set up remote hires in Turkey
Let’s be real, hiring someone in Turkey isn’t the hard part.
Setting them up to actually work like a full team member? That’s where most companies drop the ball.
If your onboarding plan ends at “sign contract,” get ready for delays, confusion, and a few awkward “Do I get paid this month?” emails.
But you don’t need to figure it out alone.
Here’s exactly how we make it work.
We handle the legal stuff so you don’t have to
You don’t need a local entity. You don’t need to memorize Turkish labor law.
We’ve already got the infrastructure.
We’ll:
Hire your team member under our Turkish legal entity
Draft and sign a contract in both Turkish and English
Register them with the tax office and SGK
Handle payroll, tax deductions, and benefits—start to finish
You stay in charge of the team.
We make it legally bulletproof.
Your hire starts ready, not waiting
By Day 1, your new employee won’t be guessing.
They’ll already have:
A signed, compliant contract
A laptop (yours or sourced by us, delivered, set up, and ready)
Local tax and social security registration
A payroll system that runs on time, every month
Optional extras: health insurance, coworking, home office budget
You focus on onboarding them into your culture.
We’ll handle the rest.
We make sure they can actually do the work
Fast internet?
Quiet desk?
Modern workspace in Istanbul or Izmir?
Coworking access?
Private health insurance? Optional, but ready.
If you want to offer stipends, we’ll add them to payroll and handle all the receipts.
If you need a custom setup, we’ll make it happen.
No duct tape. No half-measures. Just clean execution.
We’re here for your hire and for you
They’ll have questions. We answer them.
What are their public holidays? We’ll tell them.
How does paid time off work in Turkey? We’ve got it covered.
Need to update salary, role, or benefits? Just say the word.
You won’t be chasing paperwork or Googling Turkish HR policies.
We’ve got local experts handling it, so your team doesn’t fall through the cracks.
You focus on building. We keep it tight.
Imagine this: your new hire joins the Slack channel, introduces themselves, and just… gets to work.
Payroll? Already set.
Equipment? In their hands.
Legal compliance? Locked.
Onboarding hiccups? None.
That’s what this setup gives you, not just a hire, but momentum.
Bottom line: Who’s best for your hiring model?
You’ve made it this far, which means you’re not here to window shop.
You’re hiring in Turkey, or seriously about to, and you want a provider that won’t leave you buried in red tape, legal risk, or 4-week onboarding cycles.
Here’s how to decide who actually fits your model.
If you’re a startup that needs to move fast, stay lean, and keep control...
→ Go with Team Up.
You get:
Local entity in Turkey
Real compliance (contracts, taxes, benefits, payroll—done right)
Flat pricing at €299/month
Onboarding in 7–14 days
Actual people you can talk to
No BS, no bloat, no “talk to sales” walls
We’re built for companies like yours. We get you hiring now, not next quarter.
If you're already using Deel or Remote across 10+ countries…
→ You might stick with them.
But don’t expect speed or local support if Turkey isn’t their focus market.
And ask your lawyer to read those contracts carefully.
If you’re a giant multinational with legal and procurement teams...
→ Velocity Global might be your move.
They’ve got the structure. But unless you love documentation, calls, and waiting? Don’t expect agility.
If your top priority is low cost, and you're okay with limited support...
→ Skuad gets the job done.
Just know the trade-offs: basic contracts, minimal local presence, and longer onboarding times.
Our take?
Hiring 1–20 people in Turkey? Team Up. Every time.
Need clear contracts, fast onboarding, and local HR support? Team Up.
Want to avoid misclassification, tax risk, and ownership disputes? Team Up.
Trying to scale without setting up a Turkish entity or hiring a local legal team? Yeah. Still us.
Final word
Your team deserves better than duct-taped hiring.
You deserve structure without the overhead.
And your future investors? They’ll care whether your Turkish dev is actually employed, not just "contracting" in Slack.
We’re here to help you do it right.
Flat fee. Fast onboarding. Full compliance.
Book a call →
Frequently asked questions
What is an employer of record in Turkey?
An employer of record (EOR) in Turkey is a third-party company that legally employs talent on your behalf. You manage the day-to-day work—they handle payroll, taxes, contracts, compliance, and local labor regulations. It’s the easiest way to hire employees in Turkey without setting up a local entity.